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Platner doesn’t want to wave the green flag with China, he prefers the white flag
The radical running to become Maine’s next Democratic senator has a plan for energy security. It’s called "surrender to China."
Graham Platner — the progressive oyster farmer and Marine veteran who had a literal Nazi tattoo, is endorsed by Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Polls say he is poised to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins and he recently explained his approach to America's most dangerous geopolitical rival.
"Our position towards China should be one of cooperation instead of one of opposition," he said, calling a hawkish posture toward Beijing "absurd."
His rationale? We must join forces to address climate change. If we just work together with China on clean energy, the logic goes, we can make fossil fuels obsolete and usher in an era of peace, prosperity, and renewable power.
SENATE HOPEFUL SAYS US SHOULD BE 'FAR MORE COOPERATIVE' WITH CHINA TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE
It's a farcical argument for an abundance of reasons. First, China is the worst polluter in the world and doesn’t care one iota about climate change. Second, energy wars of the future will focus on the components for clean energy technology, not on fossil fuels. And third, the answer to climate change is more American energy production and innovation, not less.
Let’s take these in turn.
Wanting to ally with China on climate policy is equivalent to working with Iran on nuclear policy or relying on the Amish to develop AI. It literally doesn’t make sense.
China presents itself as a global clean energy leader while quietly running the dirtiest major economy on earth. China still generates the majority of its electricity from coal and emits more greenhouse gases than the entire developed world combined. Its factories operate under environmental standards that would be flatly illegal in the United States, and Chinese-dominated supply chains across Southeast Asia follow the same playbook.
China may produce more solar panels than any other country, but it does so by being willing to poison its workers, its water and its neighbors to undercut everyone else on price.
That being said, I’m sure China would be happy to make would-be-Sen. Platner a poster child for its greenwashing. Communist countries are always looking for another Walter Duranty. (Duranty, a New York Times reporter, infamously won a Pulitzer Prize for stories covering up how the Soviet Union murdered millions of Ukrainians in what is called the Holodomor.)
FROM MOJAVE TO BEIJING: HOW AMERICA QUIETLY CONCEDED THE RARE EARTH RACE
As for future energy wars, environmental radicals seem to envision gathering around the solar battery-powered, zero emissions, electric campfire, singing "Kumbaya" with the commies once there is no need to worry about oil. The progressive darling Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., recently riffed on this point, arguing that the energy crisis would be avoided if we just "invest[ed] in solar and wind and geothermal and battery storage and electric vehicles."
It all sounds idyllic … that is, until one remembers that China holds the keys to the global supply of wind farms, rooftop solar panels, electric vehicles and other energy innovations with its stranglehold on critical minerals.
Critical minerals that make clean energy possible. But according to the International Energy Agency, for 19 out of 20 important strategic minerals, China is the leading refiner, with an average market share of 70%. China controls 80% or more of the global battery supply chain's midstream and downstream segments, with near-monopoly shares of 95% or above in some categories. Lithium, cobalt, graphite, rare earth elements — the building blocks of the very clean tech Khanna praises — pass through Chinese refineries on their way to the rest of the world.
WHY US MUST ASSERT INDUSTRIAL DOMINANCE IN LIGHT OF CHINA-EUROPE TIES
All the more reason to work closely with China, right? Wrong. China has already started weaponizing that dominance. In 2025, Beijing imposed sweeping export controls on lithium-ion battery supply chains covering battery cells, cathode materials, and production equipment. Earlier this year, Chinese export controls on rare earth elements cut U.S. yttrium imports by approximately 95%, driving prices to roughly 69 times their pre-control levels.
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All of this is no excuse for the United States to give up on clean energy. The oil and gas crisis at the Strait of Hormuz only emphasizes our need to diversify our energy resources. Rather, it’s a sign that we need to beat China at their own game, ramping up domestic critical mineral and clean energy production, just as the Trump administration has already been doing, and legislation like the DOMINANCE Act seeks to support.
Which brings us to our last point. The environment does best not when we work more with monopolistic, high-polluting China, but when America does more. The American shale revolution — which environmentalists still rail against — cut U.S. emissions to a 25-year low during Trump’s first term. AI-driven data centers are poised to spark the largest private clean energy buildout in American history, all driven by market forces. And U.S. manufacturing is nearly four times more emissions efficient than China’s.
Growth, innovation and smart environmental regulations to curb the worst abuses have done more to cut carbon emissions than any international agreement or Chinese production facility. We don’t need China to tackle climate change. We need an America First environmentalism.
Graham Platner doesn’t want to be a China hawk, and that’s his right. But when a wannabe senator thinks the path to peace is cooperating with an adversarial country that pollutes with abandon and controls the clean energy supply, that’s worse than stupid. It’s dangerous.
Are Trump and Xi making a genuine breakthrough or is China stringing us along … again?
President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week was historic. Was it the pivotal moment that ends Cold War 2.0?
There were few details announced during the event, but on Sunday the White House released its fact sheet on commitments Beijing made.
There is always a renewal of optimism when American and communist Chinese leaders meet. There are, however, two particular reasons suggesting caution at this moment.
First, Washington is back to talking to China, which has traditionally used discussions to persuade American presidents to delay taking action. And while Americans delayed, China has continued unacceptable conduct.
CHILL COMING FROM TRUMP’S SUMMIT WITH XI IS PROOF OF A NEW COLD WAR WITH CHINA
Take fentanyl, which has caused "the deadliest drug epidemic in history." Trump returning to Washington on Air Force One confirmed he raised the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Xi has made four promises to American presidents on the topic: to President Barack Obama in 2016, to Trump in 2018, to President Joe Biden in 2023, and to Trump again in 2025. The Chinese leader has violated all his pledges.
Trump, to his credit, imposed an additional 20% fentanyl tariff on Chinese goods last year. But as Sara Carter, his drug czar, said in March, China has continued sales of precursors for the deadly synthetic opioid.
TRUMP SAYS CHINA WILL WORK WITH HIM TO STOP FENTANYL TRAFFICKING
The time for talking about this particular topic, therefore, should be over, but Washington has just allowed Xi to buy even more time.
Second, Xi displayed an aggressive attitude during the summit. On Thursday, he publicly mentioned the Thucydides Trap, a reference to a declining hegemon dangerously challenging a rising power. The insult to Trump — and America itself — was striking.
"Xi’s urging that China and the U.S. overcome the Thucydides Trap and create a new paradigm of major-country relations signals his expectation that the West will accept the inevitability of being overtaken by China and therefore not challenge it anywhere on earth," Charles Burton of the Sinopsis think tank told me after the summit.
BEHIND SUMMIT SMILES, XI GIVES BLUNT WARNING TO TRUMP OF 'CLASHES' AND 'CONFLICTS'
Even worse, the Chinese leader on the summit’s first day talked about the "new era," Xi’s phrase for the period in which the U.S. has been pushed to the sidelines and China dominates the world. "Change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years," Xi in March 2023 told Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow after their 40th in-person meeting. "And we are driving this change together."
To make the meaning of "new era" unmistakable, the Chinese foreign ministry announced, on the 16th, that Putin will be visiting Beijing, starting May 19.
As Burton noted, "Xi views himself as thd modern heir of China’s lineage of great emperors, so the concept of fair and reciprocal relations with any foreign country is simply absent from his worldview."
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Xi has long been pushing the imperial-era notion that China is the world’s only sovereign state. Chinese emperors believed they not only had the Mandate of Heaven to rule tianxia — "All Under Heaven" — but also that Heaven compelled them to do so.
Xi has often used tianxia language. "The Chinese have always held that the world is united and all under heaven are one family," he declared in his 2017 New Year’s Message.
Moreover, Chinese officials have continually propagated tianxia themes. As Foreign Minister Wang Yi wrote in Study Times, the influential Central Party School newspaper, "Xi Jinping thought on diplomacy" — a "thought" in Party-speak is an important body of ideology — "has made innovations on and transcended the traditional Western theories of international relations for the past 300 years."
Wang, with his time reference, was pointing to the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, two treaties that established the current international order of competing sovereign states. Wang’s use of "transcended," consequently, hints that Xi wants a world without sovereign states, in other words, a unified world ruled by the Chinese.
How can any nation cooperate with a China that believes others have no sovereignty?
Charles Payne, the Fox Business anchor, intriguingly suggested to Fox anchor Jesse Watters that the Trump-Xi summit is an echo of an earlier dialogue: "This has a chance to become a Reagan-Gorbachev No. 2."
COULD TRUMP'S MEETING WITH PUTIN BE THE NEXT REAGAN-GORBACHEV MOMENT?
Payne’s historical analogy is far closer to the mark than Xi’s.
China at the moment is not rising, as Xi, with his Thucydides Trap and "new era" references, implied. China’s economy is deteriorating, the property market is plunging, the Communist Party is racked by purges, the military is in disarray and many people are either angry or have opted out of society. Most fundamentally, the country’s demography is collapsing: China will almost surely lose more than half its population by the turn of the century.
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Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who also prevailed over a failing state, is widely hailed as a hero because he recognized that the USSR could not be saved. In China’s ruling circles, however, he is vilified.
"Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate? Why did the Soviet Communist Party collapse?" Xi Jinping asked in a secret speech to Guangdong province cadres in December 2012, one month after being named general secretary of China’s ruling organization. "An important reason was that their ideals and convictions wavered."
"Finally, all it took was one quiet word from Gorbachev to declare the dissolution of the Soviet Communist Party, and a great party was gone," Xi declared in Guangdong. "In the end, nobody was a real man, nobody came out to resist."
President Ronald Reagan, in his dialogue with Gorbachev, was able to stabilize relations so that the Soviet Union could dissolve without catastrophe. Xi, unfortunately, is far more determined than the Soviet leader, so Trump’s challenge to manage a faltering China will be greater.
Iran is gambling that Trump will cave. It hasn’t gone well for them so far
As reports emerge of a possible new phase of confrontation between the United States and the Islamic Republic, one reality is becoming increasingly clear: the ruling system in Tehran still does not fully believe President Donald Trump is prepared to go beyond pressure and fundamentally alter the balance of power.
History does not remember those who merely manage crises. It remembers those who confront — and dismantle — the ideologies that produce them. The 20th century proved this decisively: Nazism, fascism and communism once appeared immovable, yet each ultimately collapsed under sustained and determined pressure.
The Islamic Republic of Iran belongs in that same category. It is not a state that evolves toward moderation. It is an ideological system that sustains itself through repression, deception and expansion.
The roots of this challenge trace back to 1979’s revolt, when a profound failure of judgment in Washington reshaped the Middle East. The removal of the late Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi — America’s most reliable regional ally during the Cold War — created a vacuum that was filled not by democratic forces, but by a radical clerical mafia whose nature was neither fully understood nor seriously examined. Critical warnings were dismissed. The ideological foundations of Khomeinism were underestimated. Even its core texts were never meaningfully studied by those responsible for shaping policy.
FROM HOSTAGE CRISIS TO ASSASSINATION PLOTS: IRAN’S NEAR HALF-CENTURY WAR ON AMERICANS
What followed was not transition, but collapse — chaos hardening into theocratic power, and a system built on absolutism, coercion, violence and perpetual ideological expansion.
For decades, successive U.S. administrations attempted to manage this reality — through engagement, negotiation or strategic patience. The outcome was consistent: the steady expansion of a destabilizing force across the region. From Iraq to Lebanon, from Syria to Yemen, the Islamic Republic constructed a transnational terrorist network of militias and proxies, forming what is now widely recognized as the "Shia Crescent." The war on terror, launched in 2001 at immense cost, failed to confront its central engine of instability.
Then came Donald Trump — and he broke the pattern. He did not reinterpret the system; he confronted it. In doing so, he changed the balance of power.
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Unlike his predecessors, he refused to treat the Islamic Republic as a state actor capable of reform through diplomacy. He recognized it for what it is: the epicenter of a transnational ideological project rooted in coercion, expansion, and permanent conflict. And he acted accordingly.
The elimination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani was not simply a tactical strike. It was a strategic rupture in the modern Middle East. Soleimani was the architect of Iran’s regional Islamic terrorist network — the connective force linking proxy structures from Baghdad to Beirut. Removing him disrupted not only operations, but the regime’s sense of reach and impunity.
For the first time in years, the system — effectively a Shia Islamic caliphate centered in Tehran — was pushed onto the defensive.
TRUMP SQUEEZES IRAN WITH MAXIMUM PRESSURE — WHY IT HASN’T FORCED A BREAKTHROUGH
Trump followed this with another unprecedented decision: designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization. It exposed the regime’s core institution as what it has long been in practice — a transnational instrument of ideological warfare, not a conventional military force.
Clarity puts pressure on your adversary. Ambiguity lets it breathe. The impact was felt far beyond Washington.
For millions of Iranians — nearly 90 million people living under repression — this was not abstract policy. It was one of the rare moments when American strategy aligned with Iranian reality. For many, Trump came to represent the possibility of breaking the grip of a regime that has held the country hostage for decades.
That distinction is not semantic. It is strategic. Yet the story remains unfinished. But pressure is not resolution. At critical moments, signals of negotiation, pauses in escalation and incomplete follow-through introduced ambiguity into an otherwise clear framework. Time was given back to a system that survives on time. And the Islamic Republic has always been adaptive.
Leadership change does not alter the structure. Its ideological foundation — hostility toward the United States and Israel, reliance on proxy warfare and internal repression — remains unchanged. The eventual succession of Ali Khamenei will unfold within an institutional framework designed for continuity. Whether authority passes to his son Mojtaba Khamenei or another insider, the machinery of control will endure.
This is why partial measures fail. Remove a figure, and another emerges. Strike a facility, and it is rebuilt. Sign an agreement, and it is reinterpreted. The system absorbs impact unless something deeper breaks.
Inside Iran, the regime faces mounting internal pressure. Economic collapse and systemic corruption have become structural realities. Environmental stress is no less severe. Public anger is cumulative. The anti-regime uprisings did not disappear — they were suppressed savagely. That is not stability or legitimacy. It is compression: a machinery of repression and propaganda.
Externally, the pattern is equally consistent. Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen — the map reflects design, not coincidence. Influence expands where institutions weaken. Control extends where states fragment. This is not opportunism. It is doctrine. This is not a normal geopolitical competitor. It is a system engineered for confrontation — and sustained by it.
His cooperation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, alongside engagement with key Persian Gulf actors such as Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's crown prince and de facto ruler, and UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, pointed toward a reconfiguration of the Middle East. That would be one that prioritizes stability, economic development and strategic cooperation over ideological conflict. But frameworks do not change realities on their own. Outcomes do.
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Four decades of policy have exposed the limits of half-measures. Containment delays. Negotiation without leverage extends. Pressure without conclusion stabilizes nothing. The system in Tehran does not need victory. It needs survival.
Transition, however, carries risk. Collapse would not be orderly. Networks would fragment. Some would disappear. Others would adapt. Power vacuums are never empty; they are invitations to conflict.
The role of international actors — particularly coordination between the CIA and regional allies — would be critical in managing such a transition. At the same time, a credible national alternative — such as Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi — could provide continuity at a moment when fragmentation is most likely.
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A stable, sovereign Iran — integrated into the international system — would fundamentally alter the balance of power in the Middle East. It would reduce proxy conflicts, strengthen economic ties and contribute to long-term regional stability. By contrast, the continuation of the current regime guarantees ongoing instability, conflict and strategic tension — a system that reproduces crisis as a method of survival.
If Trump completes what he started — transitioning from mere pressure to decisive structural change — his legacy will be cemented alongside those who dismantled the defining threats of their era. If not, the opportunity may pass once again. The regime of Shia mullahs will endure, and the cost of that endurance will not be abstract. It will be measured in instability, in conflict, and in the persistence of a regime that has already shaped the Middle East for nearly half a century.
For many Iranians, Trump has become a symbol of resistance to a regime they have long sought to see end. For now, Iran stands at a crossroads. And so does history. But crossroads do not determine outcomes. Decisions do.
IRAN REGIME ESCALATES REPRESSION TOWARD 'NORTH KOREA-STYLE MODEL OF ISOLATION AND CONTROL'
To hide the scale of its abuses, the Shia clerical regime imposed near-total internet blackouts and sweeping censorship to suppress dissent. Trump repeatedly drew attention to the suffering inside Iran and to the scale of the repression. Meanwhile, millions inside the country remain cut off, silenced and isolated. When the internet flickers back, even briefly, it feels like a fragile signal from a society still struggling to be heard. The question is whether hope can still endure.
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Trump also understands that the Iranian people should not be left alone against figures such as Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i, the head of the judiciary, and IRGC commander Ahmad Vahidi, whose machinery of repression and propaganda continues to operate against the population until the very end of the regime. That is precisely why Trump’s name carries weight in the Iranian public imagination — whether one supports him or not, this reality cannot be ignored.
The leadership in Tehran still appears convinced that Washington ultimately fears escalation more than the regime fears collapse. That assumption may become the most dangerous miscalculation in the modern Middle East.
If the Islamic Republic continues testing American resolve, the next confrontation may no longer resemble calibrated deterrence. It may become the moment that determines whether Trump’s Iran doctrine was merely pressure — or the beginning of historic change.
History will not remember pressure alone. It will remember whether it led to change.
Platner's deleted Reddit sparks outrage again as he appears to mock wounded soldier: 'Didn't deserve to live'
Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s deleted Reddit account has continued to cause headaches for his campaign in recent months, and a recently resurfaced post appearing to mock a U.S. soldier almost killed in combat is stirring up more controversy.
"This video never gets old," the Reddit account "P-Hustle" — which Platner has acknowledged he owned — posted in June 2019, in reference to a viral video from the helmet cam of Pfc. Ted Daniels taken during a clash with Taliban fighters in 2012 that ended in Daniels being shot four times. He earned a Purple Heart for his injuries.
"Dumb motherf****** didn't deserve to live. At least his stupidity and fat ass wheezing are available for all future infantrymen to witness and hold in contempt. Poor marksmanship on the Taliban's part is the only reason this mouthbreather made it home, he managed to make every possible shit decision possible when it comes to small unit combat."
The post was deleted but can be found on the Maine Monitor’s database of Platner’s deleted Reddit history.
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Daniels said in later interviews that he purposely moved into the open to draw fire away from other men in his unit, and while he expressed embarrassment and said "tactically" it was "not a sound thing to do," ultimately, "I put my a-- on the line for other guys."
Platner, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, is garnering criticism over the deleted post from a variety of sources ranging from the internet, to the National Republican Senate Committee, to a former Marine who spoke to Fox News Digital.
"We don't make jokes about our brothers and sisters dying, that's not something we do, that's not normal," Adam Schwarze, a former Navy SEAL and Marine veteran running for U.S. Senate as a Republican in Minnesota, said about Platner mocking a fellow soldier on social media in an open forum.
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Schwarze acknowledged that Marines can sometimes have a "dark" sense of humor and give each other a hard time about tactics when speaking privately, but said that Platner’s post was something different.
"We don't post about our brothers getting wounded in action."
Schwarze also took issue with posts from Platner’s account related to law enforcement, including that "all police are bastards", given that so many members of law enforcement are former active duty military.
"I think it's very dangerous to say, ‘Hey, this is how veterans think and talk’ because that's just not true. I served 21 years, nine deployments, I don't know one combat veteran who makes comments like cops are bastards."
Schwarze said he believes Platner has "mental issues."
"I feel bad for him. I think he should get some help. He deserves help from his time down range, from his PTSD and his mental health issues, but he certainly shouldn't be running for the United States Senate."
NRSC Regional Press Secretary Samantha Cantrell added, "Anyone who makes fun of the American soldiers who gave their lives for freedom and cheers on terrorists has no place serving in the United States Senate."
"That's what Platner thinks about his fellow Americans at war," journalist Magdi Jacobs, who first published the deleted entry on social media, wrote on X. "If they're not good at killing or broader tactics, he has contempt for them. He displays no empathy. The opposite, in fact."
Fox News Digital reached out to the Platner campaign for comment.
Platner, a first-time candidate who is backed by progressive champions Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, has previously responded to questions about his social posts by saying he was joking.
"You should read the comments in context. It's very clear I'm joking," he previously told Fox News Digital when asked about other comments. "It's called s---posting. It's when you argue with people on the internet and try to bother them. So, yeah, no, it's very obviously not true."
Other posts Platner has been questioned about, including in a recent interview with The New York Times, include a 2013 post, which Platner later deleted, that people concerned about rape should not "get so f---ed up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to."
Platner has also faced scrutiny for more recent Reddit posts, including one from five years ago in which he described himself as a "communist" and "socialist." Additionally, Platner’s posts have contained alleged homophobic slurs and praise for military tactics used by Hamas.
Platner became the Democrats' presumptive nominee after his rival for the nomination, two-term Gov. Janet Mills, ended her campaign last month after trailing Platner in polling and fundraising.
Platner will attempt to defeat five-term incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins this fall in a closely watched race that could have a significant impact on the balance of power in the U.S. Senate.
Army trains for modern battlefield with Texas exercise focused on speed, technology
FORT HOOD, Texas — The Army is embracing state-of-the-art technology to adapt to the evolving demands of the modern battlefield.
‘Operation Hood Strike’ brought units from the Army's active duty, reserves and National Guard to Fort Hood, Texas for a rigorous, hands-on stress test. Canadian troops joined the training too.
"We're a total Army. We're a total engineer regiment. And we will fight with them in wartime. So we have to train with them here in peacetime," Col. Justin Pritchard, 36th Engineer Brigade Commander, said.
Troops were thrown into a realistic combat scenario. Their mission was to cross Lake Belton and close in on enemy territory.
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Engineers built a seven float raft consisting of two ramps and five bays. Capt. Bruce Burgener, 43rd Multi-Role Bridge Company Commander, said it's the standard ramp and bay configuration to move M1 Abrams tanks.
"Anything less than that won't move them," Burgener said. "Our goal is to get as much throughput as possible for friendly forces."
Burgener said his company has received "a lot of new troops," and that the training gives his higher-ranked troops the opportunity to work with the newer ones. He broke this training into three phases: ‘crawl, walk, run.’
"At this stage, we're about at the walk stage for our company," Burgener said. "So we're slowly working towards getting to a run stage where we'd be able to work a lot more efficiently with our new soldiers."
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Once all the equipment and personnel are in place, the assault across the water begins. The Texas National Guard swooped in with Chinook helicopters to provide recon and dropped sections of a bridge into the water.
Lt. Col. Travis Shahan, 961st Engineer Battalion Commander, said air assets are crucial to dropping large payloads in hard-to-reach areas.
"Sometimes, when you build a bridge, there's a little bit of difficulty getting all the equipment you need to the water," Shahan said.
Troops crossing the bridge already know what the enemy territory looks like because it's been mapped out at the tactical command center. The map allows every soldier, from the highest rank down to line infantry, to know how they fit into the mission.
"If you're working in an office, it's pretty easy to plan this stuff. But when you're out here and the aircraft are flying here overhead at midnight... It's much harder when you're when you're out here trying to execute," Maj. Salem Maud, the Battalion Executive Officer, said.
'Operation Hood Strike’ happens every year at Fort Hood, but each year is different since the modern battlefield is constantly changing. While Col. Adam Rasmussen, 420th Engineer Brigade Commander, said the Army is trying to get soldiers out of harms way, he said war is "still a very much a human endeavor."
"We want soldiers who can innovate, and there's no better person to innovate how to get a human out of the breach than a human who has been through the pain of a breach," Rasmussen said. "That human knows how important it is to get an automated system or an unmanned or an AI system into the breach instead of a human."
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In 2025, the Army set a goal to recruit 60,500 active duty troops, according to the Army Recruiting Command. They cracked their goal by 103.47% and recruited 62,050 soldiers.
The Recruiting Command reported the Army Reserves aimed to recruit 14,320 troops in 2025. The Reserves fell short, only meeting 86.76% of their goal with 12,426 recruits.
"The way we recruit and retain is that we get them out here doing very challenging but rewarding training. They may not enjoy it 100% that minute, but by the end of the day, they think they have just done the coolest thing in the world," Rasmussen said.
"They signed up to do just this," Pritchard said. "Anytime we can get out and do what they signed up for the Army to do… That just encourages you, like, this is why I served. This is why I want to stay in the army and continue serving the nation."
The units involved in ‘Operation Hood Strike’ are not preparing for a specific deployment. Rasmussen said the training is still critical to bring the newer soldiers up to speed.
"Every hour these soldiers are on the battlefield, they become more lethal," Rasmussen said.
The art of perfection: How Trump survives even his worst blunders through sheer repetition
Donald Trump is a master of revisionist history.
He can argue that TikTok is a national security threat and then that it’s crucially important to society.
Reminds me of when he famously said I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose support and I thought he’s probably right – now, at least, among the MAGA diehards.
And he does it through the sheer power of repetition.
TRUMP PULLS BACK CURTAIN ON WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM'S FORTRESS-LIKE DEFENSES ABOVE AND DEEP BELOW
How many times have you heard that the Jan. 6 rioters, who he summoned to the Capitol, are great patriots? Despite the fact that they attacked and injured police officers, invaded members’ offices and were calling for Mike Pence’s hanging?
When that happened, even many Republicans thought Trump was finished. Big-name members of the GOP, along with the Democrats, denounced him in harsh terms.
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But Trump gave the same answer again and again. Flipping his usual law-and-order stance, he argued it wasn’t really a riot. It wasn’t that big a deal. After hearing him say that hundreds of times, some people thought, well, there must be something to it. He wouldn’t just be making it up. For all his unscripted digressions, Trump has an uncanny ability to stay on message.
He’s like the boisterous guy in the Home Depot parking lot, using a megaphone to shout at anyone within earshot.
But hey, this is a guy who’s still arguing about the 2016 election – which he won. Trump still says the 2020 election was stolen from him – though that’s never been substantiated in court, and he was the one making calls to try to flip votes.
The latest uproar is about Trump settling his IRS lawsuit by creating a $1.7 billion fund that would be used for the benefit of the Jan. 6 protestors, even those convicted of serious crimes.
During his out-of-office years, Trump battled four criminal investigations, which everyone now agrees actually helped him by looking like political persecution. And that obviously fed his unquenchable desire for retribution.
During the first impeachment, the president, according to a transcript, asked Volodymyr Zelenskyy to announce an investigation of Joe Biden and his son Hunter. This was after Trump personally ordered a freeze on nearly $400 million in congressionally approved aid to Ukraine.
"I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that’s really unfair," a transcript has Trump saying. "A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved…
"There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that, so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution, so if you can look into it... It sounds horrible to me."
TRUMP WARNS IRAN'S 'CLOCK IS TICKING': MOVE 'FAST' OR 'THERE WON'T BE ANYTHING LEFT'
Problem? Nah. The president kept calling it a "perfect phone call." Got that?
The Senate did not convict on the House impeachment charges.
Which brings us to the war in Iran.
The president has gone back and forth in his rhetoric so many times it’s downright dizzying. Trump said "a whole civilization will die tonight." Then he kept extending the deadline. He said Tehran’s response was "garbage" and didn’t bother to read it.
The resumed bombing campaign was set for yesterday – but Trump agreed to a brief pause at the urging of the heads of three Middle East countries.
In terms of message discipline, Trump has said perhaps hundreds of times that the war is over, that he can get out anytime, that our military crushed Iran’s defenses, wiping out its navy and air force, and that’s all true.
Bursting with sarcasm, the president said on Truth Social that the "entire Military walks out of Tehran, weapons dropped and hands held high, each shouting ‘I surrender, I surrender’ while wildly waving the representative White Flag, and if their entire remaining Leadership signs all necessary ‘Documents of Surrender,’ and admit their defeat to the great power and force of the magnificent U.S.A." that the press would still write Iran achieved a ‘Masterful and Brilliant Victory.’"
I don’t doubt that some of the negative coverage is driven by anti-Trump hostility in the media, but I have to defend the press to some degree here. No journalist or commentator would dispute the breadth of America’s military victory, though it could be mentioned more frequently. But with dueling blockades and the Strait of Hormuz still unopened, that is the story right now. There’s no way to avoid focusing on that, since the ceasefire hangs in the balance, with no apparent progress on getting the mullahs to give up on developing nuclear weapons.
Trump was so determined to hammer that home that he got into this exchange before leaving for China.
A reporter asked whether the president was motivated to make a deal with Iran because of "Americans’ financial situations."
"Not even a little bit," Trump said — and then it happened.
TRUMP MEETS NETANYAHU, SAYS HE WANTS IRAN DEAL BUT REMINDS TEHRAN OF ‘MIDNIGHT HAMMER’ OPERATION
"The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran — they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing — we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all."
That was such a rare linguistic blunder by Trump – he repeated the offending sound bite rather than framing the question in more favorable terms, as he usually does.
Democrats, the press and other detractors denounced the comments, with television and online sites replaying his words again and again.
"That’s a perfect statement. I’d make it again," Trump told Fox’s Bret Baier.
Perfect. There’s that word again. None of this "I regret that my words were misinterpreted" or any loser talk like that. It was sheer perfection.
Despite his involvement with two foreign wars and sinking polls at home, Trump doesn’t let go of past obsessions.
As the New York Times reports, Trump’s aides have been holding secret talks with Greenland and demanding a much larger U.S. role on the island. Greenland’s leaders are worried about the tactics.
Greenland again? Really?
Donald Trump makes news about everything. We have all been living in Trumpworld for a decade. He’ll generate a dozen controversies between now and Memorial Day. And that’s a perfect prediction.
Georgia Republicans head to runoff in secretary of state race defined by 2020 election claims
Vernon Jones and Tim Fleming are heading to a runoff after neither claimed at least 50% of the vote in Georgia’s Republican primary for secretary of state on Tuesday.
The Republican field included Jones, Fleming, Gabriel Sterling, Kelvin King and Ted Metz, while Democrats Cam Ashling, Dana Barrett, Adrian Consonery Jr. and Penny Brown Reynolds competed for their party’s nomination for Georgia’s top election officer.
The race underscored how disputes stemming from the 2020 presidential election, including claims from President Donald Trump that the contest was stolen, continue to shape debates over voting laws and election security years later.
2026 MIDTERMS: PRIMARIES, KEY RACES AND ELECTION RESULTS
The winner of the runoff on June 16 will advance to the general election in November, where control of the office overseeing voter registration, election certification and ballot administration is expected to remain a closely watched issue in one of the nation’s most competitive battleground states.
Sterling, Georgia’s former chief operating officer in the secretary of state’s office, entered the race with statewide name recognition after publicly defending Georgia’s handling of the 2020 election.
Jones, a former Democratic state lawmaker turned Trump ally, campaigned as a staunch supporter of the president and emerged as a fierce critic of the state’s election system.
King is a general contractor who previously ran for U.S. Senate and is married to State Election Board member and conservative commentator Janelle King.
Fleming previously worked in the secretary of state’s office when current Republican Gov. Brian Kemp held the position. The former chairman of the Georgia Republican Party pitched himself as a conservative focused on tightening election procedures.
Metz, the Libertarian Party’s 2022 gubernatorial nominee, also joined the GOP primary field.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who drew national attention after rejecting efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results, is running for governor.
This is a developing story. Check back for the latest election results and updates.
DHS blasts California sanctuary policies after jail releases illegal immigrant accused in hit-and-run
Federal immigration officials blasted California’s sanctuary policies Tuesday after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested an illegal immigrant accused of critically injuring a 4-year-old boy in a hit-and-run crash.
Aman Kumar, an Indian national living in the U.S. illegally, was arrested by ICE on May 13 after previously being released from local custody.
According to the Fresno Sheriff’s Department, Kumar was initially arrested last month after allegedly being involved in a hit-and-run crash. He was charged with felony hit-and-run causing death or injury.
Police said Kumar was driving a vehicle that struck a 4-year-old boy in Fresno, California, KSEE reported.
The child had been playing on a swing set in a nearby backyard before leaving through a gate and entering the roadway, authorities said.
Investigators said several vehicles stopped after seeing the child in the street, but Kumar allegedly drove around the stopped traffic using the bike lane before hitting the boy.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the child was hospitalized in critical but stable condition and is expected to survive.
TRUMP ADMIN URGES NEWSOM TO HONOR ICE DETAINERS FOR MORE THAN 33K CRIMINAL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
DHS criticized California’s sanctuary policies after Kumar was later released from jail.
"This monster who almost killed a 4-year-old boy has been charged with a felony hit-and-run," DHS acting assistant secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement.
"Sanctuary politicians in California released this criminal illegal alien from jail back onto the streets," she continued. "Thanks to the brave men and women of ICE law enforcement, this criminal illegal alien was arrested outside a criminal court."
NEWSOM'S SANCTUARY POLICIES UNDER FIRE AFTER DRUNK ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT KILLS ELDERLY MAN
According to DHS, Kumar illegally entered the United States in 2023 and was later released under the Biden administration.
The department also pointed to a letter ICE Director Todd Lyons sent in February to California Attorney General Rob Bonta urging the state to honor ICE detainers involving more than 33,000 undocumented immigrants in custody across California.
"DHS is calling on Governor Gavin Newsom and his fellow California sanctuary politicians to stop putting American lives at risk by releasing criminals into our communities to commit more crimes and hurt more innocent people," Bis said.
DHS said California’s failure to honor ICE detainers has resulted in the release of 4,561 undocumented immigrants with criminal charges or convictions since Jan. 20.
The department said those individuals were accused of crimes including homicide, assault, burglary, drug offenses, weapons offenses and sexual offenses.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Newsom’s office for comment.
Squad-endorsed socialist wins heated primary to represent America’s birthplace
Philadelphia’s Chris Rabb, a far-left state lawmaker backed by the "Squad," won the crowded and at-times-heated Democratic primary contest for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District.
The district — rated the most Democratic in the nation — includes much of Center City, all of North Philadelphia and West Philadelphia, and is one of the few Black-majority districts in the country, with Tuesday night’s results essentially foreshadowing November’s likely outcome.
Rabb, whose district includes Mount Airy and West Oak Lane, celebrated endorsements from progressive figures, including members of the "Squad."
SOROS-BACKED PHILADELPHIA DA SURVIVES PRIMARY CHALLENGE, BUT POTENTIAL GOP WRINKLE AHEAD
State Sen. Sharif Street is the son of former popular yet controversial Mayor John Street, and is endorsed by several officials including his father’s predecessor Ed Rendell.
He is a former chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and appeared to characterize himself as the true Philadelphian in the race.
"People who are from, live and can vote in Philadelphia have supported me," Street told the Penn Capital-Star. "People who are from outside the city, they’re cozying up to my opponents."
Besides Rendell, Street had the endorsement of the state party, Mayor Cherelle Parker and other noted Philadelphians.
Street, who is Muslim, made news when he spoke out against a virulent anti-Israel protest in the city earlier this year, telling Fox News Digital at the time he "forcefully condemn[s] the antisemitic rally that took place today in Rittenhouse Square."
Rep. Gregorio Casar, D-Texas, was one of several lawmakers to endorse Rabb, saying in a joint statement with Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., that Rabb is a "social justice activist [and] an educator who helped unionize 1,500 adjunct professors and a legislator who has taken on Republicans and the billionaire class to create a democracy that works for everyone rather than just the wealthy few."
PHILLY'S FIREFIGHTERS UNION BACKS BOB CASEY'S RIVAL IN SENATE RACE
Rabb, 56, said in a statement that he also welcomed the endorsement of the left-wing Working Families Party and the Justice Democrats — a group that has supported "Squad" members and other federal candidates of similar ideology.
"Our coalition is people-powered, and our allies are united in our fight to demand a prosperous future for the multiracial working class families and communities who are the heart of Philly and represent our city’s incredible strength and potential," he said.
Rabb’s political history includes working with the first elected Black Democrat in the Senate, Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois, in the 1990s. Two Black Republicans had been elected previously in the 1880s from Mississippi.
Rabb was endorsed by Philadelphia City Council Minority Leader Kendra Brooks and Minority Whip Nicolas O’Rourke, both of the WFP. Republicans have just one member on council — longtime Northeast Philadelphia representative Brian O’Neill, whose presence is considered the "third party."
Dr. Ala Stanford was recently a Biden administration HHS appointee — as she led the agency’s "Region III" covering Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, West Virginia, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
The pediatric surgeon made news during her tenure for setting up a major 24-hour COVID-19 vaccine site at Temple University’s Liacouras Center at 15th Street and Montgomery Avenue and reportedly making house calls to offer testing.
With no clear Republican challenger, Tuesday night’s winner is expected to sail to victory in November in what is considered the nation’s most Democratic Congressional District.
Former top Oregon GOP official secures nomination for governor as Republicans target blue-state pickup
Former state House Minority Leader Christine Drazan won Oregon’s Republican primary for governor on Tuesday, emerging from a crowded field of candidates seeking the chance to flip the governor’s mansion in a state Democrats have controlled for nearly four decades.
The Republican field included former Portland Trail Blazers player and businessman Chris Dudley, state Rep. Ed Diehl and Marion County Commissioner Danielle Bethell.
2026 MIDTERMS: PRIMARIES, KEY RACES AND ELECTION RESULTS
Drazan entered the race as one of the best-known Republicans in the state following her close 2022 loss to Kotek.
Diehl focused his campaign on lowering taxes and reducing state spending, while Bethell emphasized homelessness, public safety and government accountability.
FORMER TRAIL BLAZERS CENTER CHRIS DUDLEY MAKES SECOND RUN FOR GOVERNOR OF OREGON
Dudley, a 16-year NBA veteran, campaigned as a political outsider with backing from prominent Oregon business figures, including Nike co-founder Phil Knight.
Republicans in the race focused heavily on homelessness, public safety, drug policy and the high cost of living, arguing Democratic leadership in Salem and Portland has failed to adequately address those issues.
The GOP has not won an Oregon governor’s race since 1982, but the Republican Party believes voter frustration over crime, homelessness and affordability could make the race more competitive this midterm cycle.
Drazan will now face incumbent Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek in November.
Kotek has faced criticism over homelessness, including rising unsheltered populations and struggles to expand housing capacity, as well as education and transportation funding, though she drew little opposition in her bid for a second term.