President Donald Trump hinted at plans to rename the Department of Defense to its original moniker, the Department of War, according to Just the News. The later change, which Trump said has softened the agency's mission, occurred in 1949 in an amendment to the 1947 National Security Act.
The aim of changing the name was to create an umbrella term for the agency that would incorporate all branches of the military under one agency. Trump's plan to restore the original name is something he and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have been teasing.
In March, Hegseth asked for feedback from his base as to what the department should be called, while Trump quipped that Hegseth was the "Secretary of War" during remarks in June. After bandying about the change, it, the president said that he expects the name change to come as soon as "next week or so."
The announcement was made during a news conference with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Monday. Trump was asked about whether it requires an act of Congress, and he replied that he was sure it would pass if he needed approval, making it seem like an inevitability. "I'm sure Congress will go along if we need that. I don't think we even need that. But, if we need that, I'm sure Congress will go along," Trump said.
"You know, we call it the Department of Defense, but between us, I think we're going to change the name. You want to know the truth? I think we're going to have some information on that, maybe soon," Trump told reporters.
"But I think because, you know, Department of Defense, we won World War I, World War II. It was called the Department of War. And to me that's really what it is," the president continued. "Defense is a part of that. But I have a feeling we're going to be changing," Trump said.
The president said that the change is "going to be made over the next week or so" to the name. "I'm talking to the people. Everybody likes that. We had an unbelievable history of victory when it was the Department of War. Then we changed it to Department of Defense," Trump said.
Trump thinks it makes the U.S. sound weak, which is one of the reasons he believes the change is necessary. "The other is, defense is too defensive. And we want to be defensive, but we want to be offensive too, if we have to be. So it just sounded to me like a better name," Trump said.
Trump's businesses all bear his famous name, especially his buildings, which often feature it in big gold letters for the world to see, so he understands the importance a name carries. To that end, the president issued an executive order, "Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness," on January 20, 2025.
"It is in the national interest to promote the extraordinary heritage of our Nation and ensure future generations of American citizens celebrate the legacy of our American heroes. The naming of our national treasures, including breathtaking natural wonders and historic works of art, should honor the contributions of visionary and patriotic Americans in our Nation’s rich past," Trump's order said on the first day of his presidency.
One of those was restoring the name of Mount McKinley, which "honors President McKinley for giving his life for our great Nation and dutifully recognizes his historic legacy of protecting America’s interests and generating enormous wealth for all Americans." The area was previously renamed to Denali to reflect the indigenous peoples who live there.
The most infamous renaming came when Trump suggested the Gulf of Mexico would be renamed the Gulf of America. "The Gulf will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping America’s future and the global economy, and in recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people, I am directing that it officially be renamed the Gulf of America," the executive order said.
Trump is conscious of the power that comes with a name, and he's taking that philosophy to benefit America and its legacy. The American military should strike fear into its enemies, and Trump is right to use the name to project strength and American greatness, which is something Democrats will no doubt hate.
President Donald Trump's latest Truth Social rant involves "fake news" purveyed by NBC and ABC, along with Trump's blessing if the Federal Communications Commission decides to revoke their licenses for the obvious bias (which would be unlikely).
"Why is it that ABC and NBC FAKE NEWS, two of the absolute worst and most biased networks anywhere in the World, aren’t paying Millions of Dollars a year in LICENSE FEES. They should lose their Licenses for their unfair coverage of Republicans and/or Conservatives, but at a minimum, they should pay up BIG for having the privilege of using the most valuable airwaves anywhere at anytime!!! Crooked “journalism” should not be rewarded, it should be terminated!!!" Trump posted late Sunday night.
The New York Post pointed out that the two major networks are not themselves licensed by the FCC. They instead provide content for local affiliates, which are licensed.
Trump's lack of knowledge about how TV works aside, he is showing a huge amount of either bravery or arrogance by going after what most people think of as free speech and freedom of the press. Most presidents and other politicians won't go further than complaining about bias because the majority of Americans still think of the media as protected by the Constitution, even if it has been biased against conservatives for decades, and provably so.
In truth, there is probably some of both bravery and arrogance in Trump's insinuation that two of the main three television networks should lose their ability to broadcast.
He followed up the first post by saying, "Despite a very high popularity and, according to many, among the greatest 8 months in Presidential History, ABC & NBC FAKE NEWS, two of the worst and most biased networks in history, give me 97% BAD STORIES. IF THAT IS THE CASE, THEY ARE SIMPLY AN ARM OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND SHOULD, ACCORDING TO MANY, HAVE THEIR LICENSES REVOKED BY THE FCC. I would be totally in favor of that because they are so biased and untruthful, an actual threat to our Democracy!!!"
Trump is not wrong that NBC and ABC are basically extensions of the Democrat party propaganda apparatus, but that doesn't mean that a government entity should stop them from operating.
This is why Trump gets a reputation for being "fascist." It's not true, but when he says things like this it is not a far leap for those who already don't like him.
Let's just restrict the press to those who will report favorably about him, because that will totally be fair to everyone. Right?
Trump has to know that he has prospered politically just as much because of the negative press about him as he has from the positive things people have said.
Each criminal indictment against him made him more popular because people saw him as the underdog fighting the establishment, the big bad Democrats picking on him.
In a very real sense, Trump would probably lose at least some of his support if the media suddenly started praising him all the time.
That being said, it must be stressful and annoying to get attacked every day just for doing what you think is best to help the country.
Since taking office, President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration and deportation agenda has faced continued resistance and obstruction from liberal judges across the country.
Now, in what the Trump administration views as a baffling act of blatant lawfare, a magistrate judge decided to release accused MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia from federal custody, as Breitbart reports.
The subject of much legal back-and-forth in recent months, Abrego Garcia is facing a slew of criminal allegations that include not just entering and remaining in the U.S. illegally, but also the solicitation of child pornography, involvement in the murder of a rival gang member’s relative, as well as arms, drug, and human trafficking.
Earlier this year, Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador, a move that spurred legal challenges and outrage from Democrat lawmakers, and his case led to additional wrangling over Trump’s attempt to use the Aliens Enemies Act to facilitate removals from the country.
Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes’ decision to free Abrego Garcia from federal detention last week is, according to her critics, just the latest example of her liberal activism from the bench and in her life outside the courtroom.
Holmes’ background includes time spent as president of the Nashville Bar Association and as a leading voice in the “National Association of Women Judges,” a group known for its strong leftward leanings.
She also served as the Judge’s Chair for the 2018 Legal Aid Society’s Campaign for Equal Justice, an organization that has been outspoken on behalf of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and which has provided legal services to illegal aliens, pointing to a significant conflict of interest.
As Fox News reports, after Abrego Garcia was released from custody, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials informed his attorneys that he may be poised for deportation to Uganda after he reportedly declined to accept a plea agreement that would have sent him to Costa Rica.
ICE is said to have informed Abrego Garcia’s team that he could be deported in “no less than 72 hours” and that he was required to report for a check-in at the agency’s Baltimore office on Monday.
The agency specified Uganda as Abrego Garcia’s next potential destination due to the fact that the African country had just reached an agreement with the United States government to accept third-party deportations under certain conditions.
Whether the administration will act on the threat and send the controversial migrant to the far-flung country remains unclear, however.
The Department of Homeland Security’s response to Abrego Garcia’s release was unsurprisingly one of frustration,
Secretary Kristi Noem took to X to lament the fact that someone she deemed a “monster” was freed by “activist liberal judges.”
Indicating the administration’s resolve to remove Abrego Garcia once and for all, Noem stated, “We will not stop fighting till this Salvadoran man faces justice and is OUT of our country.”
A federal judge has ruled that Alina Habba, who was a former attorney for President Donald Trump, was not authorised to serve as acting United States Attorney for New Jersey, Just the News reported. Habba's term expired last month, and the Senate has yet to confirm her, but she remained in place through a series of moves which the judge said may have been improperly applied.
Interim appointments are limited to 120 days, but the Trump administration attempted to keep Habba in place through a series of moves that included firing the person in place to take over her position. U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann said in his 77-page decision Thursday that these tactics were "not lawful," but suspended his ruling pending appeal.
“Faced with the question of whether Ms. Habba is lawfully performing the functions and duties of the office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, I conclude that she is not," Brann said. The case was brought by two New Jersey drug-trafficking suspects whose prosecution began before Habba took over, which is why Brann denied a request to dismiss the case based solely on the validity of Habba's appointment.
Following the judge's decision, Habba called out the "rogue judges" who have thwarted the Trump agenda and her appointment, the New York Post reported. "I am the pick of the president. I am the pick of Pam Bondi, our attorney general, and I will serve this country like I have for the last several years, in any capacity," Habba told Fox News's Sean Hannity on Thursday.
Trump managed to keep Habba in her position without confirmation by using an unorthodox approach. Once the interim term is up and the seat is vacant, the first assistant is supposed to take the place of the U.S. attorney, who, in this case, was First Assistant US Attorney in New Jersey, Desiree Leigh Grace.
However, Bondi fired Grace, and Trump withdrew Habba from consideration and made her the first assistant as a roundabout way of allowing Habba to ease into the position of acting U.S. Attorney of New Jersey once again. Last month, a panel of federal judges who were mostly appointed by Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden could have allowed Habba's appointment but declined.
Brann was appointed by Obama, and this fact plays into Habba's assertion that this is another case of judges becoming "activists" against the administration. "It’s disturbing, what we’re seeing," Habba told host Sean Hannity.
"And Pam Bondi called it like it is. The attorney general said it today. We will not fall to rogue judges," Habba pledged.
"We will not fall to people trying to be political when they should just be doing their job: respecting the president. And you can’t get rid of the president," Habba added. The Trump administration has faced opposition from judges on many issues, but Habba is clearly up to the challenge, considering her experience as Trump's attorney.
Before rising to the district attorney's office, Habba was one of the attorneys who defended Trump in his New York civil fraud case. Although he initially lost and was forced to pay a $500 million verdict in that case, the judgment was tossed out in an appeal on Friday, Fox News reported.
Habba celebrated the verdict in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Friday. "Surreal moment watching this win from my office today in Newark, NJ," Habba wrote.
"I will always fight for the truth and justice to be served. It has taken years to get here and the fight continues to Save America. GOD BLESS PRESIDENT TRUMP AND THE USA."
Surreal moment watching this win from my office today in Newark, NJ. I will always fight for the truth and justice to be served. It has taken years to get here and the fight continues to Save America. GOD BLESS PRESIDENT TRUMP AND THE USA. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Pm28J6LdFu
— Alina Habba (@AlinaHabba) August 22, 2025
Trump has fought against his opponents in politics and in courtrooms, and it seems they are not giving up when it comes to issues like Habba's appointment. However, Trump is winning these fights in the end, and surely the issue over Habba's rightful appointment is not something the president will abandon, especially since she has been loyal to him through it all.
The Oversight Project government watchdog group says correspondence between then-President Joe Biden's staff and veteran Department of Justice officials indicated potential problems with his use of the autopen to sign pardons, Fox News reported. President Donald Trump's administration is scrutinizing thousands of pardons signed in the final days of Biden's presidency as some wonder if they're now null and void.
Besides the use of the autopen, Biden's pardons were unconventional in how they were structured in granting clemency to categories of criminals. In one of the emails now under review, then-Assistant Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer raised concerns among other staff members about how 2,500 pardons signed by Biden were characterized.
"[T]he White House has described those who received commutations as people convicted of non-violent drug offenses," Weinsheimer said in a January 18 email. "I think you should stop saying that because it is untrue or at least misleading," he added. Some pardons were indeed granted to criminals who should have remained behind bars.
"As you know, even with the exceedingly limited review we were permitted to do of the individuals we believed you might be considering for commutation action, we initially identified 19 that were highly problematic," Weinsheimer continued in his email. Those included Ferrone Cliaborne and Terrence Richardson, who were "sentenced to life imprisonment for drug trafficking offenses during which a police officer was killed." The DOJ had "voluminous" documentation from law enforcment and the victims' families about why they should have been let free.
Kyle Brosnan, vice president at the Oversight Project, noted that the emails between Biden staffers and the Justice Department show that it was worried about "vague" language in the blanket pardons that seemed to be "illegally delegated" to his aides. There was also the problem of exactly which criminals would be pardoned if they were convicted of multiple offenses and which warrants would apply.
"Later in the email, he was like, ‘Look, I read the statement you put out in the president's name, saying you've released a bunch of non-violent drug offenders," Brosnan recounted of Weinsheimer's email. "You've got murderers on your list today. So I'm trying to figure out what the president wants here for this funky warrant.'"
At one point, a Department of Justice official told White House staff to stop with the line about nonviolent offenders "because it was untrue or at least misleading." Meanwhile, Biden admitted that the way he went about the pardons was irregular, as he recalled in July during an interview, which Brosnan cited.
"Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people, he and aides confirmed. Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence," Brosnan said of Biden's admission.
It was only people like retired Gen. Mark Milley whom aides discussed by name, while the rest were up to White House staffers based on Biden's given criteria. "Biden did not pardon individual people, but laid out categories of types of people to release and left it to the staff to figure out who meets that criteria," Brosnan said, noting that even those lists were signed off on with an autopen.
From what Brosnan and others have uncovered about the process for pardons, it's clear that Biden wasn't picking out individuals to grant clemency to as it is. However, another revelation this week gives more fuel to the fire for those who believe Biden may not have been part of the decision-making process.
Questions about his mental fitness plagued Biden's entire presidency, and now it seems that keeping Biden isolated was part of the plan to hide that fact, if what former White House spokesman Ian Sams has to say is true. Sams, who sat down for an interview with House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, said that he only spoke personally with Biden twice in his two years on the job, the New York Post reported.
“This was a huge interview today, and I think it contradicts everything that the former Biden people are saying with respect to the president’s mental fitness," Comer said. Another White House staffer corroborated Sams's assertion, noting that he mainly got his "marching orders" from communications chief Anita Dunn.
Comer believes this could point to a broader issue. "It raises serious concerns and serious questions about who was calling shots at the White House. If the White House spokesperson was being shielded from the president of the United States, who was operating the Oval Office?" Comer said.
It's likely all of these pardons will stand despite the use of the autopen and the irregularities in how they were meted out. However, it vindicates those who were sounding the alarm about Biden's mental state while in office and hints at a possible conspiracy theory coming true if Biden wasn't the one making the decisions.
Twice-failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton could be in jeopardy of losing her license to practice law after an ethics complaint was filed against her in Arkansas, Fox News reported. The organization Democracy Restored is going after the former Secretary of State because of her role in perpetuating the Russiagate scandal against President Donald Trump.
The complaint published on Wednesday asks the Arkansas Bar Association to make a "formal review of the conduct of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Esq., a licensed attorney in the State of Arkansas, in connection with her actions during the 2016 presidential campaign." The filing cites the Arkansas Rules of Professional Conduct and asserts she violated the rules against "Dishonesty" and "Prejudice to the Administration of Justice."
This comes after the Senate Judiciary Committee released recently declassified documents from the Durham report outlining her role in the fake scandal cooked up against Trump during his first run for president. A since-debunked dossier that turned out to be linked to the Clinton campaign suggested that Trump was colluding with the Kremlin to win the 2016 presidential election.
The Trump administration continues to dig into the origins of this scheme that seems to have Clinton's fingerprints all over it. On Tuesday, the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard removed security clearances from 37 intelligence officials involved in the scheme against Trump, including former and current intelligence agents.
The government watchdog group is seeking to revoke Clinton's law license following what it believes to be blatant misconduct on her part. "Within this release, there is an annex, which suggests that Clinton approved a plan created by one of her advisors to release false information with the purpose ‘to smear’ her political opponent during a presidential campaign and distract from the news surrounding her own legal accusations," the filing said.
"This revelation demands an already overdue inquiry into Clinton’s fitness as a member of the Arkansas Bar," the complaint added. What began as Clinton's "opposition research" from April 2016 was "unverified" and "unvetted" but still treated as serious allegations by the intelligence community.
The complaint maintains that the purpose of this false information was "to injure her political opponent" and that Clinton "personally signed off on an effort to amplify this bad intelligence to the media and federal law enforcement." Democracy Restored believes that this is reason enough to initiate action against Clinton.
"If there is one political scandal synonymous with the 2016 election, it is Operation Crossfire Hurricane," one of the organization's directors told Fox News in a statement. "Former Secretary Clinton's utilization of a bunk dossier by a foreign ex-spy to harm a political opponent violates basic ethical norms as well as the Arkansas bar's own rules of conduct for attorneys," the representative added.
"The Arkansas bar needs to take a serious look at former Secretary Clinton's involvement in this scandal and take appropriate action." Though no criminal complaint has been filed against Clinton, Democracy Restored asserts that there is evidence she was involved in "a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer's honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer in other respects."
Even if Clinton was responsible for the investigation, as the organization is charging, it's clear that she would not have been able to do anything about it without the involvement of the intelligence community. Last month, Gabbard found that outgoing President Barack Obama and his intelligence officials created the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment "that they knew was false, promoting the contrived narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help President Trump win, as though it were true," Gabbard said.
"The documents we released shows how they did it: manufacturing findings from shoddy sources, suppressing evidence that disproved their false claims, disobeying IC tradecraft standards, and withholding the truth from the American people. In doing so, they conspired to subvert the will of the American people and worked with their partners in the media to promote this lie to undermine the legitimacy of President Trump," Gabbard charged.
"This kicked off what would essentially be a years-long coup against President Trump, which included federal investigations, two impeachments, FBI raids on his home, arrests of senior officials, smears and harassment of President Trump and his family, and more. The American people deserve the truth, accountability, and justice," the DNI chief charged.
"The integrity, and therefore the future of our democratic republic demands it," Gabbard added. She would later strip the involved intelligence officials of their clearances, but it's difficult to imagine that such an egregious abuse of power was contained to just a few dozen people.
If Clinton was behind the Russia collusion hoax that nearly derailed Trump's first presidential term, she should be worried about losing more than just her license to practice law. Nevertheless, it is a good place to start as the dominoes fall in this outrageous scandal.
Department of Homeland Security officials said Monday that California Gov. Gavin Newsom is to blame after an illegal immigrant allegedly caused a crash in his semi-truck on a Florida highway that killed three Americans, Breitbart reported. Because of Newsom's sanctuary state policies, illegal immigrant Harjinder Singh was able to obtain a commercial driver's license and operate the truck that allegedly caused the fatal accident.
Singh, an Indian national, has been charged with three counts of vehicular homicide for the crash that happened on a St. Lucie County, Florida, highway earlier this year after he made an illegal U-turn that caused a passenger vehicle to plow into his semi-trailer. Footage from the accident shared to X, formerly Twitter, appears to show Singh indifferent to the twisted wreckage he's accused of causing.
"This driver facing justice is not enough. All the politicians who allowed him to get a license and stay here must be charged as accessories to this crime," the End Wokeness account captioned the footage.
This driver facing justice is not enough.
All the politicians who allowed him to get a license and stay here must be charged as accessories to this crime.
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 17, 2025
Singh should not have been in the U.S. in the first place, and he definitely shouldn't have had the opportunity to get a Commercial Driver’s License. This was only possible due to Newsom's 2022 expansion of a 2013 law that has helped more than a million illegal immigrants obtain driver's licenses in the state in the last decade.
"Three innocent people were killed in Florida because Gavin Newsom’s California Department of Motor Vehicles issued an illegal alien a Commercial Driver’s License — this state of governance is asinine. How many more innocent people must die before Gavin Newsom stops playing games with the safety of the American public?" DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.
"We pray for the victims and their families. Secretary Noem and DHS are working around the clock to protect the public and get these criminal illegal aliens out of America," McLaughlin added. Newsom's office tried to claim that it was the Trump administration's fault because Singh was issued a work permit when he entered the U.S. in 2018 during the president's first term.
McLaughlin vehemently disagreed with that assertion. "Harjinder Singh is in the United States illegally, and his work authorization was rejected under the Trump Administration on September 14, 2020," McLaughlin responded to Newsom's post on X.
"It was later approved under the Biden Administration June 9, 2021. The state of California issues Commercial Driver’s Licenses. There is no national [commercial driver’s license]," McLaughlin added. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has Singh in custody while the case is adjudicated.
While Newsom's office tries to downplay the role the governor's laws played in the situation, the truth about Singh is even worse than initially reported. According to the New York Post, Singh had obtained a commercial license from California and Washington state despite not being able to understand English.
The Department of Transportation recently revealed that Singh couldn't pass a basic fluency test after the April 12 crash, with him correctly answering only two of 12 questions the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration gave him. Moreover, the driver could only correctly identify one out of four highway signs shown to him in the test.
This means Singh was in violation of the law that mandates drivers with a CDL be "sufficiently" fluent in English to understand road signs, and yet he somehow obtained the license in both states. "This crash was a preventable tragedy directly caused by reckless decisions and compounded by despicable failures," said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in a statement about the incident.
Singh's attempted U-turn that caused the crash happened in a cut-through designated with a sign as an "Official Use Only" passage for emergency vehicles and was thus illegal. "Non-enforcement and radical immigration policies have turned the trucking industry into a lawless frontier, resulting in unqualified foreign drivers improperly acquiring licenses to operate 40-ton vehicles," Duffy added.
Newsom absolutely created this dangerous situation with his policies, but there were failures all along the way that made this kind of tragedy all but inevitable. Illegal immigrants should not be issued driver's licenses to operate massive vehicles that have the power to crush a passenger car, but it's clear Democrats like Newsom have as little regard for innocent life as Singh apparently does.
President Donald Trump will double the number of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., this week after boasting significant success in his plan to clean up crime in the nation's capital, The Hill reported. The governors of Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, and West Virginia have committed additional troops to the effort.
After issuing an executive order declaring a "crime emergency," the president sent hundreds of National Guard troops to assist the local Washington, D.C., police. Trump also authorized federal agents from the FBI, Secret Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help with the task.
The move was touted by the military publication Stars and Stripes, which shared a video to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday showing the operation. "WEEK 1: National Guard in DC. All 800 troops are now patrolling the streets of Washington, D.C., with additional service members from other states expected to arrive in the capital soon," the caption read.
WEEK 1: National Guard in DC
All 800 troops are now patrolling the streets of Washington, D.C., with additional troops from other states expected to arrive in the capital soon.
Watch this video for details ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/kQfKLdFODr
— Stars and Stripes (@starsandstripes) August 18, 2025
There will soon be an additional 200 troops from Mississippi, 150 from Ohio, 200 from South Carolina, and 300 to 400 from West Virginia, following pledges from their respective leaders. "Crime is out of control there, and it’s clear something must be done to combat it," Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves explained in a statement on Monday about his move to commit his soldiers.
This comes just after Trump announced earlier this month that he would "take care of our cherished Capital, and we will make it, truly, GREAT AGAIN!" the president said on his Truth Social, the New York Post reported. "Before the tents, squalor, filth, and crime, it was the most beautiful Capital in the world. It will soon be that again," Trump wrote.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said Trump's crackdown was "quickly making our nation’s capital safer" with the beefed-up law enforcement. "In less than ten days, over 300 dangerous criminals have already been arrested and taken off the streets of Washington, D.C.," Rogers noted.
"President Trump is delivering on his campaign promise to clean up this city and restore American Greatness to our cherished capital," Rogers added. This weekend alone yielded 68 arrests, many for violent crimes, including an assault against a police officer, just on Saturday night.
The additional law enforcement also took 15 illegal firearms off the streets and dismantled three homeless encampments without incident. However, some are not so enamored with Trump's use of the military and federal law enforcement and his commitment to allowing them to be armed.
Opponents of this move cite the fact that the crime rate has fallen and assert that this move is unnecessary, including Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, who claims Trump is wrong about the city's crime status. "We don’t have any authority over the D.C. Guard or any other guards, but I think it makes the point that this is not about D.C. crime," Bowser claimed.
“The focus should be on violent crime. Nobody is against focusing on driving down any level of violence. And so if this is really about immigration enforcement, the administration should make that plain," the Democratic mayor further remarked.
Republican Vermont Gov. Phil Scott has also "politely declined" to send his Vermont National Guard service members to the nation's capital. "While public safety is a legitimate concern in cities across the country and certainly in the nation’s capital, in the absence of an immediate emergency or disaster that local and regional first responders are unable to handle, the governor just does not support utilizing the guard for this purpose, and does not view the enforcement of domestic law as a proper use of the National Guard," Jason Gibbs, Scott’s chief of staff, said Friday.
Gibbs said Scott did not rule out sending some troops should a more immediate emergency break out. "But in this case, because it is being hyperpoliticized, the governor doesn’t feel like — and I believe the vast majority of Vermonters don’t feel like — it would be an acceptable and appropriate use of the National Guard," Gibbs added.
There is no excuse for the nation's capital to be crime-ridden and filled with homeless encampments as it has been for years. The president lives there, and Congress conducts its business in the city, which means it should be the most secure locale in the nation rather than another dystopian nightmare run by Democrats.
On Friday evening, after an hours-long court battle, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an order to the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) requiring all law enforcement personnel to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, even though some of the District of Columbia's own laws require the opposite.
The Trump administration's federalization of D.C. includes ending its status as a sanctuary city in which the police do everything they can to protect illegal immigrants rather than turn them into ICE when warranted.
Bondi's latest directive rescinds an earlier one in which she attempted to replace MPD Chief Pamela Smith with the current DEA head Troy Cole.
Instead, Cole will be her "designee" to oversee MPD's compliance with the new order.
The decision to back off from replacing Smith came after District Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee, said she wanted MPD and the Trump administration to come to a compromise.
If they didn't, Reyes was prepared to issue an order blocking Smith's replacement.
“The way I read the statute, the president can ask, the mayor must provide, but the president can’t control,” Reyes said.
Seems like D.C. has been put on notice that once the president asked, through Bondi, for police to cooperate with ICE rather than work against it, that's exactly what they have to do.
Law enforcement in D.C., along with many of its Democratic officials, has fiercely resisted the federal takeover of its district, particularly the capital of Washington, D.C. where the federal government is headquartered.
Even so, the Trump administration is touting its successes since the takeover, including more than 100 arrests with almost one-third of those being illegal immigrants who will now face deportation.
The administration is also emptying the homeless encampments around the city, giving the people living in them a chance to get housing and other help.
It seems like the straw that broke the camel's back was the brutal attack of DOGE staffer Will Coristine by a group of teenagers as he tried to protect his girlfriend.
Following that incident, Trump ramped up his calls for federalization and decided to mobilize the National Guard to help re-establish law and order.
Of course, this has only given Democrats another chance to call him a dictator and a threat to democracy, but they had at least the last 60 years to do it themselves and didn't.
The Trump administration on Saturday took a decisive move regarding visas that has, unsurprisingly, spurred heated controversy on the left.
As Fox News reports, the State Department revealed that it was suspending the issuance of visitor visas from individuals hailing from Gaza until a full review of the process can be completed, a proclamation that has Democrats crying foul.
The abrupt change emerged in a post on the State Department’s X account, sparking a flood of online commentary and critique.
“All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days,” the post explained.
The move was not accompanied by additional immediate indications of what sparked the crackdown, either from the State Department itself or from its leader, Marco Rubio.
However, critics of the administration have suggested that the decision was prompted by complaints lodged by conservative commentator Laura Loomer about the entry of Palestinians under the special visas, as NBC News reports.
In the wake of the State Department’s decision, Loomer praised the result on X, saying, “This is fantastic news. Thank you @SecRubio for your prompt response to this invasion of our country by NGOS that have been accused of being pro-HAMAS,” adding, “There are doctors in other countries. The US is not the world’s hospital!”
Support for Rubio’s decision will assuredly be found among Republican lawmakers who expressed alarm about Loomer’s initial reporting.
When made aware of the arrival of Gazans under the specialized visas, Rep. Chip Roy (TX) vowed to investigate the situation, while Rep. Randy Fine (FL) declared the situation a “national security risk.”
On the other side of the issue were groups such as The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which said that the exclusion of Gazans from visa availability was indicative of Trump administration “intentional cruelty.”
According to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, the move will result in the denial of access to critical care needed by sick and wounded Gazan children.
The organization stated, “This policy will have a devastating and irreversible impact on our ability to bring injured and critically ill children from Gaza to the United States for lifesaving medical treatment -- a mission that has defined our work for more than 30 years.”
That outrage aside, the United States is not alone in exercising new caution when it comes to bringing Gazans into the country, with France having suspended evacuations from the war-torn area earlier in August after a Palestinian student it had admitted on a visa shared an image of Adolf Hitler advocating for the murder of Jews, as Fox News noted.
At the time, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot declared that the student at issue needed to “leave the country” and that she had “no place” in France, expressing sentiments surely shared by Americans wary of importing anti-Semitism into the country under the guise of humanitarian aid that can arguably, as Loomer contends, be provided elsewhere.