Tag Archives: Liam Archacki

Daily Beast: Pete Hegseth Chaos at Pentagon Triggered ‘Rare Intervention’

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The defense secretary’s flip-flopping on a key promotion led a top general to step in.

Chaos in the Pentagon over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s indecision and flip-flopping prompted a “rare intervention” from President Donald Trump’s favorite general.

The latest debacle in Hegseth’s tenure as defense secretary was his decision to torpedo the promotion of Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims after previously signing off on it, insiders told The New York Times.

Sims is a 34-year Army veteran who led troops during five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and has been awarded numerous medals, including a Distinguished Service Medal.

“He’s the type of person you would want your kids serving under—extremely dedicated, selfless, and loyal,” Brynt Parmeter, who was until June the Pentagon’s chief talent management officer, told the Times.

His promotion to a four-star general seemed all but certain, insiders said, until this spring, when Hegseth alleged without evidence that Sims had leaked information to news outlets.

Sims was cleared of the allegation, and Hegseth for a time agreed to promote him. But Hegseth eventually reneged, this time arguing that Sims was too close to Gen. Mark Milley.

Milley is a former Trump Joint Chiefs chairman whom the president now loathes—Trump has suggested that Milley deserves execution, while Milley has called Trump a “total fascist.”

Hegseth’s refusal to promote Sims prompted what the Times called a “rare intervention” from Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan “Razin” Caine, of whom Trump is a big fan. Caine challenged the defense secretary’s decision, urging him to reconsider, the insiders said.

While Hegseth agreed to meet with Sims one more time, it didn’t matter. Hegseth stood firm, and now Sims is expected to retire in the coming months. Nineteen out of the last 21 generals of Sims’ rank were promoted, according to the Times.

Asked for comment on the situation, the Pentagon sent the Daily Beast a statement from chief spokesman Sean Parnell thanking Sims for “his decades of service in the United States Army.”

Hegseth’s tenure as defense secretary has been marked by chaos within the Pentagon.

Over the past several months, reports have emerged about infighting among Hegseth’s top aides, his paranoia about leaks, and a struggle to hire and retain staff.

Nevertheless, Trump has continued to stand behind Hegseth, as a White House spokeswoman told the Times that the defense secretary still has the president’s “full confidence.”

Memo & reminder to future presidents:

Don’t put an inept washed-out O-3 in charge of the Pentagon. If he can’t get past the O-3 pay grade, he’s not Defense Secretary material.

Hegseth’s Frantic Clash with Chair of Joint Chiefs Revealed
The defense secretary’s flip-flopping on a key promotion led a top general to step in.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pete-hegseth-chaos-at-pentagon-triggered-rare-intervention

Daily Beast: AOC Calls Trump ‘Rapist’ in Brutal Epstein Files Crisis Dig

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In 2023, Trump was found civilly liable of sexual abuse against writer E. Jean Carroll by a Manhattan jury, which awarded her $5 million…. During Trump’s appeal of the Carroll case, however, a judge clarified that the jury still found Trump to have raped Carroll as the word is used colloquially.

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Donald Trump a “rapist” while jabbing him for the MAGA crisis over his handling of the files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“Wow who would have thought that electing a rapist would have complicated the release of the Epstein Files?” the New York congresswoman wrote on X Friday.

Trump and his administration have faced a loud and very public outcry, particularly from inside the MAGAsphere, after announcing that there was neither a client list in the Epstein files nor any evidence that Epstein was murdered, shutting down two popular conspiracy theories.

In another post Friday, Ocasio-Cortez shared a WIRED story reporting that what the Justice Department called the “full raw” surveillance footage from Epstein’s prison cell block the night he died was likely modified.

The DOJ’s release of the footage was intended to dispel theories that the footage contained revelations about Epstein’s death, which was officially ruled a suicide.

At the Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Trump shut down a reporter’s question about the Epstein files.

“Are you still talking about Jeffery Epstein?” Trump asked. “This guy’s been talked about for years.”

“We have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things, and are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable,” the president continued.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung sounded off on Ocasio-Cortez in a statement to the Daily Beast.

“AOC likes to play pretend like she’s from the block, but in reality she’s just a sad, miserable blockhead who is trying to overcompensate for her lack of self-confidence that has followed her for her entire life,” he said. “Instead, she should get some serious help for her obvious and severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted her pea-sized brain.”

The president has often lashed out at AOC, who is one of his harshest critics in the House. Last month, he called her “stupid AOC” and the “dumbest member of Congress.”

In 2023, Trump was found civilly liable of sexual abuse against writer E. Jean Carroll by a Manhattan jury, which awarded her $5 million.

Under New York’s penal code, the legal definition of rape only encompasses nonconsensual penile penetration, which was not what happened in Carroll’s case.

Trump earned a $15 million payout from a defamation lawsuit he settled with ABC News in 2024 after anchor George Stephanopoulos said on air that Trump was found liable for “rape.”

During Trump’s appeal of the Carroll case, however, a judge clarified that the jury still found Trump to have raped Carroll as the word is used colloquially.

“The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape,’” Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote in July 2023.

It isn’t the first time Ocasio-Cortez has called Trump a “rapist.” She said during a rally in April of this year, “If Donald Trump wants to find the rapists and criminals in this country, he needs to look in a mirror.”

Trump’s relationship to Epstein has long faced scrutiny.

Although Trump was photographed alongside Epstein long before becoming president, he has denied that he flew on Epstein’s jet or visited his private island.

In 2024, the Daily Beast exclusively published audio tapes recorded in 2017 in which Epstein called himself Trump’s “closest friend.”

Epstein was awaiting trial on charges of sex-trafficking minors when he died by suicide at New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center on Aug. 10, 2019.

AOC Calls Trump ‘Rapist’ in Brutal Epstein Files Crisis Dig
Trump is facing a MAGA civil war over his handling of the files on the notorious sex offender.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/aoc-calls-trump-rapist-in-brutal-epstein-files-crisis-dig

Daily Beast: Texas Officials Slam Trump’s National Weather Service for Botched Forecast

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The government weather forecaster has been hit with huge cuts by the president’s administration.

Officials in Texas are casting blame on the National Weather Service (NWS) for failing to forecast catastrophic flooding that has killed 24 people.

NWS was among the government agencies targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency in its effort to gut the federal bureaucracy, losing approximately 600 staffers.

After the cuts, the agency—which was already understaffed—began to prepare to offer “degraded” forecasting services, facing “severe shortages” of meteorologists, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times in April.

“The original forecast that we received Wednesday from the National Weather Service predicted 3-6 inches of rain in the Concho Valley and 4-8 inches in the Hill Country,” said Texas Emergency Management Chief W. Nim Kidd at a press conference Friday. “The amount of rain that fell at this specific location was never in any of those forecasts.”

Current tally is 27+ dead, 24+ still missing!

Thank you, Trump, Musk, and DOGE for a job well botched!

Texas Officials Slam Trump Weather Service for Bad Forecast
The government weather forecaster has been hit with huge cuts by the president’s administration.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-officials-slam-donald-trumps-national-weather-service-for-bad-forecast

Daily Beast: MAGA Madman Told ‘Prepper’ Wife to Flee During Killing Spree

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An unsealed FBI agent’s affidavit reveals what Vance Boelter texted his wife soon after allegedly committing a pair of brazen shootings.

Hours after allegedly killing a Minnesota state representative and her husband, Vance Boelter sent a text to his wife telling her to flee.

In a newly unsealed affidavit obtained by The New York Times, FBI agent Terry Getsch described the message the suspect sent to Jenny Boelter, 51.

“The text stated something to the effect of they should prepare for war, they needed to get out of the house, and people with guns may be showing up to the house,” he wrote.

Boelter, 57, and his wife were “preppers,” Getsch said. The term refers to people who prepare for a cataclysmic event they believe is imminent, often stockpiling food and equipment.

As it turned out, Boelter himself was the “cataclysmic event”! 😀

MAGA Madman Told ‘Prepper’ Wife to Flee During Killing Spree
An unsealed FBI agent’s affidavit reveals what Vance Boelter texted his wife soon after allegedly committing a pair of brazen shootings.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-madman-vance-boelter-told-prepper-wife-to-flee-during-killing-spree

Daily Beast: Trump Admin Deports 2-Year-Old Girl Who Is American Citizen

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Manu’s parents were undocumented, but she was born in the United States.

A 2-year-old American girl has been left stateless after the Trump administration deported her alongside her family.

Emanuelly Borges Santos, known to her family as Manu, was born in a Florida hospital in 2022. She has an American passport and a Social Security card. Nevertheless, Manu and her parents, who are both undocumented, were packed onto a plane with 94 others and shipped to Brazil in February, according to a report from The Washington Post.

When they arrived, Brazilian officials were shocked to find the American toddler among the deportees.

“We’d never seen another case like this,” federal police officer Alexsandra Oliveira Medeiros Reis told the Post.

Manu is currently living in Brazil on a tourist visa as the government tries to resolve the bureaucratic predicament of the girl’s citizenship. In the meantime, she’s living with no right to healthcare or schooling in Brazil. Her visa is set to expire within weeks.

Trump Admin Deports 2-Year-Old Girl Who Is American Citizen
Manu’s parents were undocumented, but she was born in the United States.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-admin-deports-2-year-old-girl-who-is-american-citizen

Daily Beast: John Roberts Personally Delivers DOGE Win for Trump

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Chief Justice John Roberts has personally shielded the Department of Government Efficiency from having to hand over reams of internal data.

Acting as an individual, Roberts temporarily blocked two orders from a lower court that instructed DOGE to turn over thousands of pages of documents and have its administrator, Amy Gleason, sit for a deposition.

The emergency stay only required Robert’s approval, not the entire Supreme Court’s, as he is the justice who handles these requests when they arise out of the Washington, D.C., courts.

The stay is temporary, likely only to last a few days. It allows the court time to decide whether it wants to consider the case on its merits and make a ruling.

The question at stake in the case is whether DOGE has to fulfill public information requests under the Freedom of Information Act. The case hinges on whether the group, which has been led by Elon Musk, is a government agency.

The Trump administration has argued that DOGE is merely an advisory group to President Donald Trump and therefore does not have to hand over its data.

So for now, at least, there will be no sunshine.

John Roberts Personally Delivers DOGE Win for Trump
The chief justice intervened on the agency’s behalf.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/chief-justice-roberts-personally-delivers-doge-data-win-for-trump

Daily Beast: Elon Musk’s SpaceX Hits Jackpot Under New Trump Budget Plan

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President Donald Trump‘s new budget proposal would give SpaceX, Elon Musk‘s rocket company, a huge payday—despite making steep cuts to many areas of government spending.

Trump said in the proposal, sent to Congress Friday, that he wants to make “a down-payment on the development and deployment of a Golden Dome for America, a next-generation missile defense shield” that SpaceX will help build, The New York Times reported.

That project alone could generate billions in federal contracts for the company, the Times observed.

The spending plan also makes Musk’s ambitions to reach Mars a top priority for the government, arguing that “U.S. space dominance” will “strengthen U.S. national security and strategic advantage.”

The corruption continues unabated.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX Hits Jackpot Under New Trump Budget Plan
President Donald Trump‘s new budget proposal would give SpaceX, Elon Musk‘s rocket company, a huge payday—despite making steep cuts to many areas of government spending. Trump said in the proposal, sent to Congress Friday, that he wants to make “a down-payment on the development and deployment of a Golden Dome for America, a next-generation missile defense shield” that SpaceX will help build, The New York Times reported. That project alone could…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/elon-musk-s-spacex-hits-jackpot-under-new-trump-budget-plan/ar-AA1E4jKP

Daily Beast: DOGE Goons Physically Drag Social Security Worker From Desk

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The high-ranking civil servant had opposed a plan to push out migrants by falsely listing them as dead.

A senior executive at the Social Security Administration was physically dragged from his office this week after clashing with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), according to The Washington Post.

Greg Pearre, a career civil servant who led an IT team working on the agency’s data systems, was removed over his opposition to a DOGE plan to cut off immigrants from key financial services, three people told the Post.

The scheme cooked up by Elon Musk’s DOGE squad falsely lists thousands of migrants as dead in a Social Security database known as the “death master file.”

Being entered into the death database cuts a person off from crucial financial services, like the ability to receive government benefits and access a bank account or credit card. The goal was to push migrants who were granted a temporary legal status under former President Joe Biden to “self deport.”

DOGE Goons Physically Drag Social Security Worker from Desk
The high-ranking civil servant had opposed a plan to push out migrants by falsely listing them as dead.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/doge-goons-physically-drag-social-security-worker-from-desk