Raw Story: ‘Nuts!’ Ex-GOP lawmaker tees off after Trump calls himself a ‘war hero’

A former member of Congress unloaded on CNN on Tuesday evening after the president referred to himself as a “war hero” during a radio interview.

During an interview with conservative radio host Mark Levin, President Donald Trump described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “war hero” for his actions in GazaTrump added that he should also be known as a war hero because he approved of the bombing mission that destroyed Iran’s nuclear facility.

“Nobody cares, but I am too,” Trump said, referring to himself as a hero. “I sent those planes.”

Adam Kinzinger, a former Air National Guard officer, discussed Trump’s comments on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”

“This is nuts!” Kinzinger, who represented Illinois in Congress as a Republican for more than a decade, shouted. “This is nuts, and his people are going to find a way to justify this.”

“Listen, when they were putting out something honoring the Army’s 250th anniversary, they put out a picture of Donald Trump in his military academy uniform,” he continued. “Which has nothing to do with the military except that they drill you.”

“This is nuts. He’s not a war hero,” Kinzinger said. “You can like what he’s done. That’s fine. I hope he gets a resolution in Ukraine, but to put himself on the same level as people who have actually gone out and served this country, not claimed bone spurs, is an offense to anybody who’s served.”

Watch the entire clip by clicking here.

https://www.rawstory.com/adam-kinzinger-2673902589

Raw Story: ‘Nuts!’ Ex-GOP lawmaker tees off after Trump calls himself a ‘war hero’

A former member of Congress unloaded on CNN on Tuesday evening after the president referred to himself as a “war hero” during a radio interview.

During an interview with conservative radio host Mark Levin, President Donald Trump described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “war hero” for his actions in GazaTrump added that he should also be known as a war hero because he approved of the bombing mission that destroyed Iran’s nuclear facility.

“Nobody cares, but I am too,” Trump said, referring to himself as a hero. “I sent those planes.”

Adam Kinzinger, a former Air National Guard officer, discussed Trump’s comments on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”

“This is nuts!” Kinzinger, who represented Illinois in Congress as a Republican for more than a decade, shouted. “This is nuts, and his people are going to find a way to justify this.”

“Listen, when they were putting out something honoring the Army’s 250th anniversary, they put out a picture of Donald Trump in his military academy uniform,” he continued. “Which has nothing to do with the military except that they drill you.”

“This is nuts. He’s not a war hero,” Kinzinger said. “You can like what he’s done. That’s fine. I hope he gets a resolution in Ukraine, but to put himself on the same level as people who have actually gone out and served this country, not claimed bone spurs, is an offense to anybody who’s served.”

Watch the entire clip by clicking here.

https://www.rawstory.com/adam-kinzinger-2673902589

Raw Story: Aides left ‘helpless’ as they tried to stop ‘incoherent’ Trump rant to Putin: biographer

Donald Trump displayed a breathtaking lack of understanding about the Cold War during his recent summit with Vladimir Putin — and left his own advisors “basically helpless” as he waved away their attempts to interject.

That’s according to the president’s biographer, who spoke to the Daily Beast on Wednesday.

On the podcast “Inside Trump’s Head,” Michael Wolff said that Trump’s version of Cold War history was so mangled that “it would appear that the U.S. and USSR are on the same side.”

Friday’s chaotic meeting in Alaska began with Trump launching into what Wolff described as “a combination of flattery” mixed with “things that he’s just pulled out of somewhere…observations, it’s both inconsequential and incoherent.”

When Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff attempted to redirect the conversation with an actual agenda, Trump simply “talked over them,” leaving the meeting rudderless after 20 minutes with “nothing clear about what anyone is doing there except that Putin is totally impassive.”

Putin eventually delivered what Wolff characterized as a “history lesson,” explaining “why [Russia] should conquer Ukraine.” Not to be outdone, Trump launched into his own historical dissertation on the Cold War that bore little resemblance to reality, Wolff said.

He said that Trump’s version of the long-running international crisis with the Soviets “didn’t seem much like a war at all.”

Trump aides’ attempts to stop him proved futile. “They sit there occasionally trying to interject, but you can’t really interject because Trump just talks all the time,” Wolff said.

He added that this worked “to Putin’s advantage” since Trump showed no interest in crucial details about territory or trade-offs.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung dismissed Wolff with the comment he usually gives the Beast, calling Wolff “a lying sack of s–t” with “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-putin-2673905305

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


“DOD Is Only Hiring Trump Loyalists”


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

Mirror US: CNN halts for breaking news alert and it’s not good for Donald Trump

Breaking news interrupted CNN’s regular programming to update viewers on Donald Trump’s meeting with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the pressure Trump is under

Following a historic gathering at the White House, where President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with seven European leaders in an unprecedented show of solidarity, Trump suffered a significant setback.

CNN broke into regular broadcasting with urgent news, revealing that the US President is under enormous pressure as major hurdles emerge in his bid to bring the Ukraine war to an end. Reporter Kimberly Dozier observed, “The fact that he feels he’s got to check in with Putin right away and… we get news that Putin is saying, ‘By the way, no NATO troops on the ground in Ukraine. That is unacceptable,’ still feels like Trump needs Putin’s approval.”

This development followed reports that Trump had stepped out of discussions with European leaders to place a call to the Russian president. This came just days after a lip reader revealed the chilling 3-word promise (“I’ll help you.”) that Trump whispered into Putin’s ear at their Alaska summit.

The demonstration of backing for Zelenskyy included French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, reports the Express.

After the phone conversation, the Kremlin dismissed speculation about a potential meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, even as Trump continued pushing for the two leaders to hold a summit aimed at resolving the Ukraine conflict. The US leader confessed that the conflict was “a tough one” to resolve, stating, “We’re going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks. It’s possible that he doesn’t want to make a deal.”

On Monday, Putin expressed to Trump that he was “open” to direct talks with Ukraine. However, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov diluted this already vague commitment the following day, suggesting that a meeting would need to be prepared “gradually… starting with the expert level and thereafter going through all the required steps.”

Meanwhile, Dmitry Polyanskiy, a Russian deputy representative to the UN, told the BBC that “Nobody [had] rejected” the chance for direct talks, but it shouldn’t just be a “but it shouldn’t be a meeting for the sake of a meeting.”

Kimberly, speaking on CNN, added, “It’s got to be very disturbing to Zelensky sitting there, but of course Zelensky was a good actor he’s playing it cool, he’s not biting on any of the questions he got.

“Hopefully, what’s going to happen is they’re going to go into this meeting with European officials and the Europeans are saying ‘We need to put these troops on the ground inside Ukraine and it’s not Vladimir Putin’s business.”

On Wednesday, representatives from 30 different countries will gather at the Pentagon for meetings aimed at finalizing what each nation is willing to commit to Ukraine’s national security.

This includes Tony Radakin, the chief of the defense staff and leader of the British armed forces. He is anticipated to inform his American counterparts that the UK is ready to deploy troops to defend Ukraine’s skies and seas, but not to the frontline with Russia.

On Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a virtual call to brief over 30 other world leaders on the discussions that took place at the White House on Monday.

Following this, Downing Street announced: “The prime minister outlined that coalition of the willing planning teams would meet with their US counterparts in the coming days to further strengthen plans to deliver robust security guarantees and prepare for the deployment of a reassurance force if the hostilities ended.”

It comes after an expert warned Trump is displaying “classic signs” of a horror disease that “will get worse..”

https://www.themirror.com/entertainment/tv/cnn-breaking-news-donald-trump-1341186

Rolling Stone: Trump Absurdly Blames Obama for ‘Giving’ Ukrainian Land to Russia

Trump met with Ukraine’s president and European leaders on Monday, but his mind is fixed on Vladimir Putin

President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders on Monday in a follow up to last week’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. While the back-to-back, high-stakes meetings between the warring leaders and their regional partners are aimed at finally bringing in an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine, Trump can’t seem to stop undermining the delicate negotiations by publicly parroting Kremlin talking points. 

In a Tuesday morning interview with Fox News, Trump falsely claimed that Putin and Russia had “gotten” Crimea “from Obama,” describing Russia’s annexation of the territory as a “real estate deal.” Crimea, a peninsula in the north of the Black Sea, was invaded and occupied by Russia in 2014. 

“The war started over NATO and Crimea and they wanted Crimea back,” Trump said. “That was given — not a shot fired —- by President Obama in perhaps the worst real estate deal I’ve ever seen.” 

“Crimea is the apple of Ukraine, it is so beautiful. And Obama gave it away. … He demanded they let it go, Russia took it like candy from a baby. It was really Obama’s, that was pure and simple Obama’s fault, what a terrible thing,” Trump added. 

In the same interview, Trump declared that it was “insulting” that Ukraine — which has now been invaded by Russia twice in little more than a decade — had sought to join NATO. “They asked for it and shouldn’t have asked for it. It was insulting,” Trump said. “They could have asked for other things — the other thing they wanted to get Crimea back.” 

Trump later insinuated that it was actually Ukraine that had instigated the current war against Russia, telling Fox and Friends that “you don’t take on a nation that is 10 times your size and military experts.” It was, of course, Russia that invaded Ukraine in February 2022, kicking off the war that has now raged for over three years. 

Trump rolled out the literal red carpet to receive Putin in Alaska on Friday, even granting the Russian authoritarian a ride in the presidential limousine — an  unprecedented honor rarely granted to foreign dignitaries, much less internationally wanted war criminals.  

Judging by Trump’s statements following the summit, Putin spent much of their private discussions stroking the president’s ego. On Friday, Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Putin had reassured him that it was actually widespread mail-in voter fraud that had cost him the 2020 election.  

“Vladimir Putin said something — one of the most interesting things — he said, ‘your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting,’” Trump recounted. “He said … ‘it’s impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections.” Days later, Trump announced that he would seek to eliminate mail-in voting at a national level, despite lacking the constitutional authority to make any such change to state voting laws.  

According to a Monday report from Axios, Trump was so eager to talk to Putin again that he interrupted his meeting with European leaders to speak to the Russian president. According to subsequent reporting from The New York Times, the call lasted around 40 minutes.

Trump apparently left his European counterparts to talk among themselves for the better part of an hour, telling Fox News that it “would be disrespectful to president Putin,” to make the call in their presence. 

“It was 1:00 in the morning in Russia,” Trump said. “But he picked it up very happily.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-parrots-russian-talking-points-zelensky-meeting-1235411130

Daily Express: Fox News abruptly ends Donald Trump’s call in after he rants about ‘loving couple’

Donald Trump called into Fox and Friends to discuss his summit with Vladimir Putin and his ongoing strategy in the Russo-Ukraine war, but he couldn’t resist talking about one host’s relationship

Fox News, known for its support of Donald Trump and happily accepting calls from the president during broadcasts, had to make a swift about-face during an episode of Fox and Friends after he repeatedly brought up Aisnley Earhardt’s off-screen relationship with Sean Hannity.

The president dialed into the Tuesday, August 19 episode of the show to discuss his ongoing strategy to try and bring an end to the Russo-Ukrainian war, after his summit with Vladimir Putin failed to deliver an immediate ceasefire, although he hailed the “great progress” that was made.

However, despite Earhardt being open about her unique relationship arrangement with fellow Fox News host Hannity, she and her co-hosts were left scrambling as Trump made her relationship a major focus of his call-in to the show. It comes after a lip exposed the 3-word promise that Trump whispered into Putin’s ear before their Alaska summit.

Covering a range of topics, from the war to his takeover of the Washington, D. C. police force last week, the president veered off on one of his infamous tangents, shifting the topic to focus solely on Earhardt and Hannity’s romance, reports the Irish Star.

And despite the hosts’ numerous attempts to steer him back on track, he continued to discuss it.

“A guy named Sean Hannity, he might take a very lovely young lady that he knows very, very well, to dinner in Washington, and they don’t have to–and she’s sitting right next to you by the way-I don’t want to get her in trouble, so I better explain exactly, we don’t want any secrets here, but that’s the greatest relationship,” he said as Lawrence Jones tried to interrupt.

Nevertheless, Trump persisted with his line of thinking despite Jones’ efforts to divert him from discussing Earhardt.

“Hey, this could be the most important thing I’ve said, but those two are great. Ainsley and Sean, great people, and when they go out to dinner, I don’t want to see them get mugged,” he continued.

“Now they can go out, they can hold hands, and then they can both walk down the street. They’re both superstars.”

He then strangely pondered about their respective salaries at the network before Jones managed to steer the conversation back to the conflict in Ukraine.

Yet, it proved to be only a brief reprieve. As the phone call concluded, the President once more referenced their romance, clearly making Earhardt feel uneasy.

“And Aisnley, I hope I didn’t get you in trouble with Sean,” he said, which earned her a reply in which she thanked him for the support.

“I’ll say it, you know, I like this, it’s a great couple, we love ’em,” he said again, as Earhardt let out an awkward chuckle, before the call was officially cut off. The incident was swiftly picked up on social media, with numerous users commenting and drawing comparisons to various awkward everyday situations.

“Like an embarrassing great grandparent at dinner-only it’s 8 am,” one user posted on X (formerly Twitter), while another remarked “The lesson…DON’T INVITE YOUR CRAZY UNCLE TO LUNCH,” and a third commented “it’s like when your dog won’t stop trying to hump your company and you have to put them on the back porch.”

Additional observers suggested the digression indicated he was either experiencing mental decline or focusing too heavily on trivial matters rather than his presidential duties-with some joking that he was attempting to divert attention from the failed Putin meeting.

“Dementia Don let it slip. Trump is clearly going through cognitive decline,” one individual stated.

“Why is he always paying attention to things that don’t matter…” one questioned, while another remarked “like all alpha macho men, Trump just loves him some celebrity gossip.

“His summit with Putin and meeting with Zelenskyy went so poorly he retreated to his safe space over at Faux Spews, then proceeded to show how nuts he is and even they couldn’t cover for it,” another user quipped.

Nevertheless, some noted that the President hadn’t actually revealed any confidential information, since the romance has been public knowledge, with the couple announcing their engagement in December.

“They’re engaged? I’m not sure he ‘outed’ them. Lol,” one social media user commented, while another chimed in with “I thought everybody knew,” and a third added “it’s gross and everything but didn’t everyone already know those two were fooling around? They haven’t exactly been keeping it a secret.”

It comes after Earhardt posted a candid photo as she shared an ultra-rare personal update.

https://www.the-express.com/entertainment/tv/180857/fox-news-donald-trump-cut-off

Independent: War-torn Ukraine’s Zelensky reacts as Trump calls DC ‘the most unsafe place anywhere’

The president of war-torn Ukraine looked shocked when Donald Trump described Washington DC as “the most unsafe place anywhere” during a meeting at the White House.

Volodymyr Zelensky was in the Oval Office for talks about bringing an end to Russia’s brutal invasion of his country which has seen civilians bombed on a near-daily basis.

During questions from the press, President Trump began discussing his federal takeover of the capital which he described as “the most unsafe place anywhere” before his unprecedented deployment of the National Guard.

Zelensky looked surprised and shocked by Trump’s words as the Commander-in-Chief began telling a story about a friend whose golfer son now felt “safe” to go out for dinner.

Trump went on to claim restaurants are now booming thanks to his actions. Statistics show restaurants have suffered as much as a 30% drop since troops were deployed.

https://www.the-independent.com/tv/news/zelensky-trump-ukraine-washington-dc-unsafe-video-b2810466.html

Daily Beast: Gabbard’s Revenge Purge Immediately Runs Into a Major Problem

The Director of National Intelligence stripped more officials of their security clearances after Trump targeted his rivals.

Tulsi Gabbard may have broken the law by publicly identifying dozens of current and former officials while revoking their security clearances, according to a national security lawyer.

Gabbard revealed that 37 people have been targeted in the clearance purge ordered by President Trump, accusing them without evidence of “politicizing and manipulating intelligence, leaking classified intelligence without authorization, and/or committing intentional egregious violations of tradecraft standards.”

Gabbard made the announcement—which comes after Trump stripped the security clearance of his political opponents—by posting a memo from her office on X. The list of 37 individuals targeted includes intelligence officials who concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, as well as those accused by far-right activist Laura Loomer of lacking loyalty to Trump, according to Axios.

Mark Zaid, an attorney who represents intelligence officers and who is suing the Trump administration to have his own stripped security clearance restored, suggested Gabbard may have landed herself in legal trouble by making the memo public.

“Can you say ‘Privacy Act violation’? I certainly can,” Zaid wrote in a post on X. “Further proof of weaponization and politicization. The vast majority of these individuals are not household names & are dedicated public servants who have worked across multiple presidential administrations.”

Zaid—who previously represented a whistleblower who accused Trump of attempting to extort Ukraine for dirt on former President Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election—told Axios that a person’s security clearance “is maintained in a protected Privacy Act System of records.”

He added the government “cannot simply release that information without written consent from the individual or the existence of a Routine Use, which I do not believe exists for this purpose.”

Those who lost clearances reportedly include officials who signed a letter supporting Trump’s first impeachment trial, when he was accused of threatening to withhold military aid to Ukraine unless President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings ahead of the 2020 election.

Others were targeted online by Loomer, an extremist and conspiracy theorist who has taken credit for multiple people being removed from the Trump administration, citing reasons such as their prior service in the Obama or Biden administrations.

“Thank you, Tulsi! MORE SCALPS,” Loomer posted while sharing Gabbard’s memo.

In response to Zaid’s remarks, White House Spokesman Davis Ingle told the Daily Beast: “President Trump promised to end the weaponization of government against American citizens which is why Director Gabbard rightfully directed the revocation of 37 security clearances from current and former intelligence officials who abused their positions of public trust.”

The Trump administration has stripped numerous national security officials and political opponents of their clearances as part of the president’s campaign of retribution.

Those affected include Trump’s 2024 election rival, former Vice President Kamala Harris. New York Attorney General Letitia James—who prosecuted Trump for filing fraudulent financial filings for years—was also targeted, as was former president Joe Biden and his entire family.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/tulsi-gabbards-revenge-purge-immediately-runs-into-a-major-problem

Daily Beast: Trump, 79, Tells Smithsonian to Stop Saying ‘How Bad Slavery Was’

The president is annoyed that America’s history museums say “nothing about the future.”

President Donald Trump says the war on woke is not dead yet.

POTUS posted a bizarre screed on Tuesday about museums in Washington, claiming the Smithsonian Institution is “OUT OF CONTROL” and is fixated on the shortcomings of yesteryear, like documenting the horrors of slavery.

“The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE,’” he wrote on Truth Social. “Everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been—Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”

Trump, 79, has vowed to rid museums of the “woke” he claims infests them. In doing so, he has pushed the more vital issues of today—like brokering a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, or releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files, a pair of campaign promises—to the back burner.

“I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities, where tremendous progress has been made,” Trump said. “This Country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE. We have the ‘HOTTEST’ Country in the World, and we want people to talk about it, including in our Museums.”

It is unclear if Trump intends to bully museums into displaying current matters—like how the U.S. is supposedly the “hottest” country in the world—instead of exhibiting, preserving, and interpreting objects of historical or scientific significance.

Trump did not elaborate on how he intends for museums to display “the future.”

The president’s complaints did not go unnoticed by lawmakers. California congresswoman and Congressional Black Caucus Whip Sydney Kamlager-Dove retweeted Trump’s message with her own, which stated: “Slavery WAS bad, Donald. It’s absurd that this even needs to be said.”

“We don’t whitewash history,” she continued, “we learn from it.” Before adding: “You keep trying to rewrite the past—@TheBlackCaucus won’t let you get away with it.”

Slavery WAS bad, Donald. It’s absurd that this even needs to be said.

We don’t whitewash history; we learn from it.

You keep trying to rewrite the past— @TheBlackCaucus won’t let you get away with it. https://t.co/CoVc7LqY5b— Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (@RepKamlagerDove) August 19, 2025

The president’s threat to unleash lawyers on American museums is akin to how he went after U.S. universities, like Harvard, which refused to bend to his demands and axe programs he deems problematic, like diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Harvard, as a result of its defiance, has been cut off from federal funding. Trump will likely try to do the same to D.C.’s popular Smithsonian museums if changes are not made—though it is unclear what, exactly, the president is upset about.

Trump announced last week that the Smithsonian Institution, which is funded by the federal government, was being put under review to make sure its exhibitions are in line with MAGA’s view of American history.

The White House’s pressure on the Smithsonian is already being felt. It ordered the institution to erase references to Trump’s first-term impeachments in the exhibit “A Glorious Burden” last month.

The National Museum of American History briefly removed Trump from its impeachment exhibit, but told USA Today it did so to improve its appearance, not because the administration ordered it to. The paper reports that references to the impeachments have since been returned to the exhibit.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-79-tells-smithsonian-to-stop-saying-how-bad-slavery-was