Tag Archives: Pete Hegseth

Guardian: Pentagon has blocked Ukraine from striking deep inside Russia – report

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Wall Street Journal says move is part of Trump administration’s effort to get Putin into peace talks

US defense officials have blocked Ukraine from using US-supplied long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia since late spring as part of a Trump administration effort to get Vladimir Putin to engage in peace talks , according to a report on Saturday.

Worked really well, didn’t it, King Donald, you f*ck*ng Surrender Monkey. Your chum Putin continued doing what he was doing and just blitzed the sh*t out of Ukraine, including destroying an American factory.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Pentagon has blocked Ukraine from using US-made Army Tactical Missile Systems, or Atacms.

Two US officials told the outlet that on at least one occasion, Ukraine had sought to use Atacms against a target but was denied under a “review mechanism” developed by Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for policy, that governs how US long-range weapons or those provided by European allies that rely on American intelligence and components can be used.

The review process also applies to Britain’s Storm Shadow cruise missile because it depends on US targeting data, according to two US officials and a British official, the Journal said.

The review system reportedly gives US defense secretary Pete Hegseth approval over the use of the Atacms, which have a range of nearly 190 miles (305km). Ukraine was previously given authority by the Biden administration to use the missile system against targets inside Russia in November after North Korean troops entered the war.

Before the inauguration in January, Trump told Time magazine that the decision to allow Ukraine to use US weapons systems to attack targets inside Russia had been a mistake.

“I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. Why are we doing that? We’re just escalating this war and making it worse. That should not have been allowed to be done,” he said.

It is unclear whether the US defense department’s review process amounts to a formal policy change. But it comes alongside increasing control of munitions to Ukraine as US stocks are themselves depleted.

In a statement to the Journal, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump “has been very clear that the war in Ukraine needs to end. There has been no change in military posture in Russia-Ukraine at this time.”

But last week, amid efforts to broker talks between the Russian president and Voldomyr Zelenskyy, Trump said that Ukraine couldn’t defeat Russia unless it could “play offense” in the war.

“It is very hard, if not impossible, to win a war without attacking an invader’s country,” Trump wrote on Thursday. “It’s like a great team in sports that has a fantastic defense, but is not allowed to play offense. There is no chance of winning.”

Last month, the US agreed to supply Ukraine with new weapons systems but only if European nations paid for them. While Trump has said that the US is “not looking” to provide longer-range weapons that could reach Moscow, US officials told the Journal that the administration has approved the sale of 3,350 Extended Range Attack Munition air-launched missiles, or Erams, which have a range of 280 miles (400km).

Not surprising that Ukraine is developing its own long range drone (code name “Flamingo”) with a range of 3,000 km. to reduce their reliance on the buffoon Trump.

Pentagon has blocked Ukraine from striking deep inside Russia – report
Wall Street Journal says move is part of Trump administration’s effort to get Putin into peace talks

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/23/pentagon-ukraine-russia-missiles

The Grio: Trump calls D.C. neighborhoods ‘slums’ as critics say comments show bias against Black residents

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D.C. residents and leaders warn that President Donald Trump’s “crime emergency” in the nation’s capital signals an authoritarian tough-on-crime approach to public safety that will be replicated in other cities.

Residents of Washington, D.C., are continuing to push back against the narratives about their city as military troops and federal officers swarm the streets as part of the Trump administration’s declared 30-day crime emergency.

“It’s offensive, it’s dangerous, and it’s discriminatory to look at the part of the city, that is majority Black and has been so historically, and define them as slums and crime ridden when we’re communities and every neighborhood is different,” said Gregory Jackson, a longtime public safety advocate who lives in Ward 8.

Despite local police data showing a 30-year low crime rate throughout D.C., Trump announced a federal crackdown in the city on Aug. 11, describing the state of crime in the nation’s capital as a “situation of complete and total lawlessness.” He told reporters that day, “We’re getting rid of the slums.”

When asked on Tuesday to clarify whether Trump is referring to homeless encampments or residential buildings as “slums,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president was referring to “the most dangerous communities, neighborhoods and streets in this city where, unfortunately, violence has ravaged these communities and taken the lives of…far too many law-abiding D.C. residents.”

On Friday, President Donald Trump told reporters that D.C. was a “hellhole” before his federal crackdown, declaring “now it’s safe.” The president said of out-of-town visitors: “They’re not going to go home in a body bag. They’re not going home in a coffin.”

Jackson, who served as deputy director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention under President Joe Biden, said painting a broad brush of the city is “extremely harmful” to Black communities in D.C.

“It’s disrespectful to the families that are there, to the working professionals. On my street, there are young families, there are folks in the military, I served in the White House–we are made up of very diverse family folks and community-centric folks,” he told theGrio.

Courtney Snowden, a sixth-generation Washingtonian and former D.C. deputy mayor, said D.C. neighborhoods are comprised of “amazing” residents who are “committed to the success of the city.”

“[They’re] doing what people do in neighborhoods all across the country. They get up and they go to work every day, they contribute and pay their taxes, and they’re raising families,” Snowden told theGrio. “So to have the president of the United States and his cabinet members talking about American citizens and District residents and the communities in which they live in that way is appalling.”

On Wednesday, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s anti-DEI agenda, said the surge of law enforcement and the National Guard is for the “safety” of the city’s majority Black residents.

Critics who spoke to theGrio said they don’t believe the Trump administration’s stated concerns about crime, and caring about the safety of its residents are “genuine.”

Jamal Holtz, president of the D.C. Young Democrats, noted D.C. “isn’t even among the top 10 most dangerous in the nation.” In fact, three of the top ten cities are in Ohio, which sent additional National Guard troops to D.C. in a show of political support for Trump’s D.C. crackdown.

“This isn’t about a need for public safety. Autocrats have used false pretenses and narratives to take over local matters and take over local law enforcement as a first step towards a broader power grab,” Holtz told theGrio.

“If he’s willing to overturn democracy in D.C. over the false narrative of a crime emergency here in the District of Columbia, I think it should scare all Americans that this will likely happen to communities across the nation,” said Markus Batchelor, political director at People For the American Way and D.C. native.

Critics of the Trump White House say that rather than working with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and local officials to continue the progress already made in making D.C. streets safer, they’ve turned to a tough-on-crime approach to public safety that has proven ineffective without other community intervention programs and investments.

Several mayors of inner cities have touted Biden-era investments and support in community violence intervention strategies as part of the success of reducing crime. However, the Trump administration slashed those funds and programs. The Department of Homeland Security also slashed a $20 million security grant for D.C. earlier this month. Additionally, a bill that would restore a $1 billion deficit in D.C.’s budget, which includes public safety funding, remains stalled in the Republican-controlled Congress.

“Does Washington, D.C., like every other major city in America, have this problem with crime? Absolutely. Are some of those issues exacerbated by, quite frankly, politicians like Trump, who are disinvesting in the inner city, public education, housing, and good-paying jobs? Yes,” said Batchelor.

Jackson, the former White House official, said of Trump’s D.C. crackdown, “A lot of this is a reaction rather than looking at the real strategy that we know can save lives and prevent violence, and really doubling down and supporting a city that does need support.” He said the city “does have work to do,” emphasized it “does not need military forces patrolling communities that don’t even have a grocery store.”

On Friday, Trump announced he will ask Congress for $2 billion to “rebuild” the District of Columbia, including updating roads and light poles. “This place will be beautified within a period of months,” said Trump, who did not indicate whether any of that funding would cover public safety.

Leaders say they’re also concerned about the physical and psychological impact of having troops, federal officers, and military tanks all across city streets.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered that the National Guard to be armed, escalating their presence in D.C.

“It reinforces a stereotype that Black and brown folks are seen as a threat first and a human second,” said Jackson, who recalled being treated like a suspect when he was shot by a stray bullet in 2013.

“Now you could just be walking home from school and be interrogated. Some folks are sitting on their porch and have officers running up on them,” he told theGrio. “It really just reinforces that Black folks in this country, especially in the eyes of the Trump administration, are seen more as a threat and a suspect than Americans or neighbors.”

What do you expect from an unrepentant racist who was sued several times for refusing to rent his New York City apartments to blacks?

Trump calls D.C. neighborhoods “slums” as critics say comments show bias against Black residents
D.C. residents warn Trump’s “crime emergency” signals a tough-on-crime approach to public safety to be replicated in other cities.

https://thegrio.com/2025/08/22/trump-calls-d-c-neighborhoods-slums-as-critics-say-comments-show-bias-against-black-residents

‘We’re Looking For The Right Man’: Pete Hegseth Plans To Infiltrate The Military With MAGA, Reveals The DOD Is Only Hiring Trump Loyalists

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“DOD Is Only Hiring Trump Loyalists”

‘We’re Looking For The Right Man’: Pete Hegseth Plans To Infiltrate The Military With MAGA, Reveals The DOD Is Only Hiring Trump Loyalists
During a recent hearing held by the Senate Armed Services Committee several weeks ago, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remarked that people in the administration all “serve at the pleasure of the president.” Accordingly, there are vacancies in the Department of Defense (DOD) because they are looking for the “right” person to fill these positions.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/we-re-looking-for-the-right-man-pete-hegseth-plans-to-infiltrate-the-military-with-maga-reveals-the-dod-is-only-hiring-trump-loyalists/vi-AA1KWyRP

Independent: Pete Hegseth is requiring so much security it’s taking officers off of criminal investigations

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Members of U.S. Army’s law enforcement arm complain they are being taken out of the field to watch defense secretary’s family and homes

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s security requirements are so extensive that it is placing a strain on the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, according to a report.

The Washington Post reports that the CID, which is responsible for protecting top Pentagon officials as well as serving as the Army’s law enforcment arm, has been forced to draft agents who would otherwise be investigating criminal offenses concerning members of the Armed Forces to help watch over Hegseth’s family and their properties in D.C., Minnesota and Tennessee.

“I’ve never seen this many security teams for one guy,” one official told the newspaper. “Nobody has.”

The CID reportedly maintains around 1,500 agents in total, around 150 of whom are typically assigned to VIP security details.

But since Hegseth took office in January, the number shifted over into personal protection roles has risen to between 400 and 500, according to two differing estimates the paper received.

One CID official quoted by the Post expressed their frustration with the situation by saying agents were being prevented from “doing what we are supposed to be doing” in order to “sit on luggage” or “sit in the cars on the driveway.”

Others complained of having to shepherd the secretary’s children to school or patrol the perimeter of his properties.

“It is literally taking away from [CID’s] law enforcement mission,” they said. “You are taking hundreds of people out of the field to provide this level of protection.”

One of the reasons for the heightened security surrounding the secretary is the fact that he received a bomb threat at his Tennessee home late last year shortly after he was nominated to his post by President Donald Trump, which came a matter of months after two attempts were made on Trump’s own life during the campaign, the first of which saw the Secret Service heavily criticized.

Another is the complexity of Hegseth’s blended family, which includes one child from his marriage to Jennifer Hegseth as well as three from her previous marriage and another three from his.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell reacted angrily to the Post’s reporting and told The Independent: “In the wake of two assassinations attempts against President Trump, ICE agents facing a 1,000 percent increase in assaults, and repeated threats of retaliation from Iran for striking their nuclear capabilities, it’s astonishing that The Washington Post is criticizing a high-ranking cabinet official for receiving appropriate security protection, especially after doxxing the DHS Secretary last week.

“Any action pertaining to the security of Secretary Hegseth and his family has been in response to the threat environment and at the full recommendation the Army Criminal Investigation Division. When left-wing blogs like The Washington Post continue to dox cabinet secretaries’ security protocols and movements, it puts lives at risk.”

A senior CID official told The Independent: “While the department prioritizes the safety and security of assigned high-risk personnel, CID operates within existing resource constraints and proactively adjusts its efforts to address emerging threats and maintains a robust security posture in both the investigative and protective realms.”

“The secretary of defense never requested additional protection for his former spouses,” the official added, refuting one of the claims made by the Post. “Similarly, the secretary has never affected CID’s recommended security posture.”

Hegseth’s reign as the nation’s top defense official has been tumultuous so far, with U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin’s departure on Monday only the latest in an ongoing shake-up that has seen the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief of naval operations, the commandant of the Coast Guard, and the vice chief of staff of the Air Force all changed in recent months.

The secretary has also struggled to replace his own chief of staff, spokesman and senior aides after they left and found himself caught up in the “Signalgate” scandal, which erupted in March when Trump’s short-lived national security adviser Mike Waltz accidentally added Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to a group chat in which top secret information about an upcoming bombing raid on Houthi rebels in Yemen was discussed.

In addition, Hegseth, a former Fox News weekend host, has been caught up in a number of culture war issues, from the renaming of the U.S.S. Harvey Milk to questions arising from his decision to post a video on X in which a Christian nationalist pastor expressed his support for depriving women of the vote.

Hegseth security requirements ‘forcing officers off criminal investigations’
Members of U.S. Army’s law enforcement arm complain they are being taken out of the field to watch defense secretary’s family and homes

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/pete-hegseth-security-detail-protection-cid-b2811007.html

MSNBC:Maddow Blog | Why the Pentagon needed to clarify Pete Hegseth’s position on women’s voting rights

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The good news is, the defense secretary’s spokesperson said he supports a woman’s right to vote. The bad news is they had to clarify in the first place.

Under normal circumstances, no one would think to ask the Pentagon whether the current secretary of defense supports women’s voting rights, but there’s little about our current political landscape that’s “normal.” Hence, The Hill reported:

The Trump administration on Thursday sought to clarify Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s support for women’s voting rights following controversy spurred by his repost of a video tied to a pastor who said the opposite. ‘Of course, the secretary thinks that women should have the right to vote. That’s a stupid question,’ Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told reporters during Thursday’s briefing.

I can appreciate why the DOD’s right-wing spokesperson — someone who, as Politico reported earlier this year, “has touted antisemitic views, white supremacist conspiracy theories and Kremlin-like statements on social media” — would be eager to dismiss the line of inquiry. But it really wasn’t that stupid a question.

In fact, it was just two weeks ago when Hegseth used his social media account to amplify a video about a Christian nationalist church that included various pastors saying women should no longer be allowed to vote. The Associated Press reported:

In the post, Hegseth commented on an almost seven-minute-long report by CNN examining Doug Wilson, cofounder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, or CREC. The report featured a pastor from Wilson’s church advocating the repeal of women’s right to vote from the Constitution, and another pastor saying that in his ideal world, people would vote as households. It also featured a female congregant saying that she submits to her husband.

Hegseth didn’t explicitly endorse the idea of repealing voting rights for American women, but he also didn’t make any effort to distance himself from the rhetoric used in the video he shared with his online followers. On the contrary, he promoted the video, alongside his own written message that read, “All of Christ for All of Life.”

When this sparked a controversy, the former Fox News host could’ve made it clear that he disagreed with the comments, or that he supports leaving the 19th Amendment intact. Instead, Hegseth said nothing.

What’s more, the secretary’s office didn’t make much of an effort, either. When asked about the video he promoted, a Pentagon spokesperson told the AP that Hegseth is “a proud member of a church” that is affiliated with CREC and he “very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings.”

All of this, of course, came on the heels of Hegseth’s efforts to purge several women from leadership posts within the U.S. armed forces.

Hopefully, what the Pentagon spokesperson said was accurate, and the secretary doesn’t actually support rolling back women’s voting rights, despite the content of the video he amplified online. But to see this question as somehow out of bounds given the broader context is difficult to take seriously.

Why the Pentagon needed to clarify Pete Hegseth’s position on women’s voting rights
The good news is, the defense secretary’s spokesperson said he supports a woman’s right to vote. The bad news is they had to clarify in the first place.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/pentagon-needed-clarify-pete-hegseths-position-womens-voting-rights-rcna225686

Slingshot News: ‘Attempting A Right-Wing Cultural Revolution’: Rep. Adam Smith Calls Out Racist Pete Hegseth For ‘Whitewashing’ History

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‘Attempting A Right-Wing Cultural Revolution’: Rep. Adam Smith Calls Out Racist Pete Hegseth For ‘Whitewashing’ History
During his virtual town hall several days ago, Congressman Adam Smith (D-WA) lambasted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for “whitewashing” history by trying to remove historical artifacts referencing people of color and DEI while revering the Confederates.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/attempting-a-right-wing-cultural-revolution-rep-adam-smith-calls-out-racist-pete-hegseth-for-whitewashing-history/vi-AA1KLjNs

Idaho Statesman: Idaho Christian nationalists embrace the immoral if they have power | Opinion

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Women should not be allowed to vote, according to the cult to which Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth belongs:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently shared on X an interview with Moscow Pastor Doug Wilson, a key figure in the Christian nationalist movement who argues that women should be subordinate to men – even to the point that they should not be allowed to vote.

The movement has been emboldened by the re-election of President Donald Trump, and the CNN report Hegseth shared details the ongoing effort among Wilson and his allies to gain political power.

And the episode contains another important lesson: That the essential part of Christian nationalism is right-wing nationalism, while Christianity is a secondary, accidental feature.

The point is to gain power for a reactionary kind of political and cultural view – hence the movement’s constant insistence on the submission of women to men; the sympathy for the Old South, even to the point of defending slavery; constant attacks on gay and transgender people; occasionally downplaying the Holocaust and so on – and Christianity is a pretty cloak to wrap that foul project in.

This explains their consistent embrace of individuals who relentlessly exhibit personal debauchery – so long as they have political power – people like Hegseth and Trump.

To recite the obvious: Trump has been found liable for sexually abusing a woman, has bragged about his ability to sexually assault women at will, faced complaints about leering at teenage contestants in the locker rooms of beauty pageants, has cheated (often ostentatiously) on all three of his wives and faces numerous other credible allegations of sexual misconduct.

Hegseth, Trump’s moral clone, has faced credible allegations of sexual assault and admitted cheating on the mother of his children with five different women. His former sister-in-law has alleged he abused his next wife. His drunken escapades have become notorious.

“I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego,” wrote one of his critics. “You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”

When the idea is that only families, led by a husband, can vote, Hegseth dons the demeanor of a pious Christian and declares, “All of Christ for All of Life.” But the moment his marriage requires him to be faithful, his Bible hits the floor just before his pants.

We are all poor sinners, it’s true. But doesn’t it seem strange that the Kingdom of God would be brought forth by the most degenerate among us? Maybe it’s worth thinking about false prophets and the idea that “you will know them by their fruit.”

The Christian nationalist movement’s embrace of people like this can be understood in much the same way as the massive hoard of pornography found on the outwardly pious Osama bin Laden’s hard drives after his death: It shows that terrorism was his primary commitment, and his religion was a situationally dispensable secondary matter.

In the CNN segment, Wilson argued that working for a theocratic takeover of Idaho government is nothing but tending “our little corner of the vineyard.” Asked if Muslims in Idaho should have to live by Christian law, Wilson responded: “If I went to Saudi Arabia, I would fully expect to live under their God’s rules.”

But Idaho is not Wilson’s little corner of the vinyard.

What the Christian nationalist movement proposes is not a return to Idaho’s older and better days. It is the imposition of a new and fundamentally alien order. The equality of women, even if never perfectly realized, has been deeply threaded through Idaho’s history and tradition from the very beginning.

Unlike in many eastern states, the right of women to vote was not a late development in Idaho’s history. Only six years after Idaho’s 1890 founding, the right of women to vote was enshrined in the state Constitution – with the overwhelming approval of the then-all-male electorate – making ours the fourth state to protect universal suffrage.

That is our heritage.

Two years later, in 1898, Permeal J. French became Idaho’s first female constitutional officer when she was elected state superintendent. After that, Idaho has always had at least one woman in statewide office or Congress, except for a brief period between 2013 and 2014 between the resignation of State Controller Donna Jones and the election of Superintendent Sherri Ybarra.

That is our history.

The point isn’t for America or Idaho to be Saudi Arabia with a different religion. The point is for America and for Idaho to be free.

If Wilson doesn’t like that, maybe he should find another vineyard. Maybe the aforementioned Saudi Arabia, where it’s illegal to be gay, where women can’t vote, where institutions quite like slavery persist, where most of what Wilson and his cohort want for Idaho is already accomplished.

Sure, there may theological differences, but what’s a minor philosophical disagreement between friends, especially when they agree about pretty much everything else?

Idaho Christian nationalists embrace the immoral if they have power | Opinion
The moment Hegseth’s marriage requires him to be faithful, his Bible hits the floor just before his pants. | Opinion

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/idaho-christian-nationalists-embrace-the-immoral-if-they-have-power-opinion/ar-AA1KAseo

CNN: A Trump-favored MAGA network praised an increase in women soldiers. Its images were fake

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Wednesday evening on the MAGA cable channel OAN, as Defense Department spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson gushed to host Matt Gaetz about an alleged year-over-year increase in female military recruits, four images of women soldiers in combat fatigues were displayed on-screen.

All four images were AI fakes.

The images appear to have been generated using Elon Musk’s Grok, as small watermarks in the bottom corners seem to indicate.

“These numbers are fantastic,” Wilson told Gaetz as the AI images scrolled on-screen. “Under the previous administration, we had about 16,000 female recruits last year; now we’ve got upwards of 24,000,” she continued. “It is a testament to Secretary Hegseth and President Trump’s leadership.” (The Pentagon has not officially released detailed data on female recruitment, but it told Fox News those same figures.)

A DOD spokesperson said the images were not provided by them, so CNN asked OAN whether its staff generated the photos and if the network has any policy regarding AI-generated content. The far-right network did not respond.

OAN, short for One America News, launched in 2013, and during Trump’s first administration, it quickly morphed into a conspiracy-heavy, MAGA-boosting outlet.

The little-watched cable channel has become best-known for promoting Trump’s 2020 election lies, and it has settled multiple defamation lawsuits resulting from those on-air claims. Last year, the network settled a lawsuit from voting technology company Smartmatic alleging the channel boosted the election lies in order to “increase viewership and revenue.”

The network also settled a defamation suit from a Dominion Voting Systems executive, but it still faces a separate defamation lawsuit from the company.

OAN’s viewership and revenue have dwindled since DirecTV dropped it in 2022. However, earlier this year, it received a PR boost when Kari Lake, Trump’s pick to run a hollowed-out Voice of America, claimed that OAN will provide “newsfeed services” to VOA and other US-funded international broadcasters.

MAGA = one big lie after another

Trump-favored MAGA network uses AI-generated images of women soldiers while touting military recruitment jump | CNN Business
The images of female soldiers appear to have been generated using Elon Musk’s Grok.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/15/media/oan-gaetz-ai-images-women-military-kingsley-wilson

CNN: US military deploying over 4,000 additional troops to waters around Latin America as part of Trump’s counter-cartel mission

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The US military is deploying more than 4,000 Marines and sailors to the waters around Latin America and the Caribbean as part of a ramped-up effort to combat drug cartels, two US defense officials told CNN — a dramatic show of force that will give the president a broad range of military options should he want to target drug cartels.

The deployment of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit to US Southern Command, which has not been previously reported, is part of a broader repositioning of military assets to the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility that has been underway over the last three weeks, one of the officials said.

A nuclear-powered attack submarine, additional P8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, several destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser are also being allocated to US Southern Command as part of the mission, the officials said.

A third person familiar with the matter said the additional assets are “aimed at addressing threats to US national security from specially designated narco-terrorist organizations in the region.”

On Friday, the US Navy announced the deployment of the USS Iwo Jima, the 22nd MEU, and the two other ships in the Amphibious Ready Group — the USS Fort Lauderdale and the USS San Antonio — but did not say where they were going.

One of the officials emphasized that the military buildup is for now mostly a show of force, aimed more at sending a message than indicative of any intention to conduct precision targeting of cartels. But it also gives US military commanders — and the president — a broad range of options should Trump order military action. The ARG/MEU, for example, also features an aviation combat element.

The deployment of the Marine Expeditionary Unit, however, has raised concerns among some defense officials who worry that the Marines are not trained to conduct drug interdictions and counter drug-trafficking. If that is part of their mission set, they will have to lean heavily on the Coast Guard, officials said.

MEUs have been instrumental in the past in supporting large-scale evacuation operations; a MEU was stationed for months in the eastern Mediterranean, for example, amid tensions between Israel, Hamas and Iran.

A Marine official told CNN that the MEU “stands ready to execute lawful orders and support the combatant commanders in the needs that are requested of them.”

The US military deployed destroyers to the areas around the US-Mexico border in March to support US Northern Command’s border security mission and reinforce the US’ presence in the western hemisphere. The additional assets being moved now, however, will fall under US Southern Command, and are set to support SOUTHCOM for at least the next several months, one of the officials said.

CNN previously reported that a memo signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this year stated that the US military’s “foremost priority” is to defend the homeland, and instructed the Pentagon to “seal our borders, repel forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities, and deport illegal aliens in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.”

The same memo also formally asked Pentagon officials for “credible military options” to ensure unfettered American access to the Panama Canal, CNN reported at the time.

So when do we invade Mexico, our future 52nd state (after Canada)?

US military deploying over 4,000 additional troops to waters around Latin America as part of Trump’s counter-cartel mission | CNN Politics
The US military is deploying more than 4,000 Marines and sailors to the waters around Latin America and the Caribbean as part of a ramped-up effort to combat drug cartels, two US defense officials told CNN — a dramatic show of force that will give the president a broad range of military options should he want to target drug cartels.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/15/politics/us-military-deploying-caribbean-latin-america-cartel-mission

Daily Beast: ICE Accidentally Adds Wrong Person to Sensitive Group Chat

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The reported blunder echoes the Trump administration’s infamous Signalgate fiasco.

ICE has joined the Trump cabinet in the group chat disaster club.

Law enforcement officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies accidentally added a stranger to their group chat, exposing highly sensitive information about a manhunt, according to a 404 Media report published Thursday.

The blunder echoes the infamous Signal chat fiasco, in which a journalist was inadvertently included in a text chain where top members of the Trump administration discussed impending air strikes in Yemen.

The ICE messages, which discuss an active search for a convicted attempted murderer slated for deportation, were sent via MMS, or Multimedia Messaging Service, and were not end-to-end encrypted like messages on Signal or WhatsApp.

Officials reportedly texted an ICE “Field Operations Worksheet” on Wednesday that revealed detailed information about the person being sought—including their Social Security number—and DMV and license plate reader data, 404 Media reported.

The outlet labeled the incident a “significant data breach and operational security failure for ICE.”

404 Media reported that the group chat had six members, verifying one as an ICE official and identifying another as likely from the U.S. Marshals Service.

The Daily Beast has reached out to ICE and the U.S. Marshals Service for comment.

The person mistakenly added to the group chat is not a law enforcement official and had no connection to the manhunt, according to 404 Media. They told the outlet they were added weeks ago and assumed the messages were spam—until they received the ICE worksheet and license plate numbers.

404 Media, which said it obtained and verified screenshots from the group chat, has withheld the person’s identity to protect them from retaliation.

In Wednesday’s messages, the law enforcement officials discussed the search for their target and their next moves.

“Going to need to roll out at 1000,” one member texts the chat, called “Mass Text.”

“Copy. We can break it down at 10,” another replies.

The unintended recipient told 404 Media that the messages stopped coming shortly thereafter.

In what became known as “Signalgate,” Trump cabinet members, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, discussed classified attack plans for airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen on a Signal chat.

ICE Accidentally Adds Wrong Person to Sensitive Group Chat
The reported blunder echoes the Trump administration’s infamous Signalgate fiasco.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-accidentally-adds-wrong-person-to-sensitive-group-chat-about-manhunt