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Republicans are reportedly “scared shitless” by what President Trump might say during his primetime address on election security on Thursday night. While he hasn’t said what specifically he’ll discuss, he’s promised that it will be “really big news.”“The people I talk to are scared shitless.... It’s not scared shitless about the text of what he’s going to say, it’s, what does he add to the text?” an anonymous former Trump staffer told Politico on Thursday. “From the White House, they would prefer to be talking about economic conditions improving.... And any second of the day that’s not spent talking about that right now I’m sure frustrates many in the administration.”Economic conditions are not improving, especially given the rekindled aggression in the Strait of Hormuz—making this election speech all the more troublesome for the GOP.“If you’re asking me, when moms and dads lie down to sleep at night and can’t, what are they mostly worried about? I would say cost of living,” Louisiana Senator John Kennedy said. “That’s what I believe, but he’s the president and he was elected by the people, and he can talk about whatever he wants.”Others on the right feel more bullish about Trump’s coming announcement. “The election integrity revelations coming on Thursday and thereafter will be the exact tonic the MAGA grassroots base need to fire them up — to remind them of what they are really fighting for in these crucial November elections,” former Trump adviser Steve Bannon proclaimed.Trump is expected to use his speech to highlight the declassification of intel documents that allegedly reveal foreign interference in the 2020 election. What else Trump will say is anyone’s guess, but one thing is certain: He’ll have his party members on the edges of their seats.

Vice President JD Vance is frustrating the Secret Service with his personal and family travel. MS NOW reports that last week, agents complained about a request to fly Vance’s son to a golf lesson across town on a helicopter. The trip to Joint Base Andrews, which has a secure, world-class golf center, would have involved a military helicopter crew on Marine Two, the helicopter that carries the vice president,  but was canceled at the last minute due to severe thunderstorms and high winds in and around Washington, D.C. It’s not the first time that Secret Service agents have been frustrated with last-minute travel demands from Vance and his family. Some of that has to do with Vance having young children, as the first vice president with such a family since Al Gore in the 1990s. Vance and his family, with three children aged nine, six, and four, have used the helicopter at the last minute to look at houses to rent or buy in Middleburg, Virginia. Vance’s wife, Usha, is expecting a fourth child later this month. Previous vice presidents and senior administration officials traditionally told the Secret Service of travel plans days in advance, especially regarding their families. But one unnamed agent told MS NOW that the Vances “change everything.” “They don’t stick to their schedules, and that costs shit tons of taxpayer money,” the agent said. Last minute, quickly arranged trips require agents to hastily change their schedules, often canceling planned days off and altering other plans for what agents call “off the record,” or OTR, movements. They have to rush to their new location and come up with new security plans on the fly, and repeatedly putting the Secret Service through this is bad for morale, agents told MS NOW. “The detail is tired of them not giving notice on things and making everything an OTR,” an unnamed source told MS NOW. “He [Vance] thinks he can still move around like a U.S. senator.”The use of a military helicopter for a child’s schedule is unprecedented, with agents usually using SUVs to ferry children around, current and former Secret Service supervisors told MS NOW. Using the helicopter for the golf lesson would have required approval from the White House Military Office, which reports to President Trump. The helicopter costs $16,000 to $24,600 in taxpayer funds for every hour of use, according to estimates from the 2022 Department of Defense budget.“That is RIDICULOUS,” an anonymous source said in a message to MS NOW. “Pence and Harris never pulled anything like that.”Agents have made coins and badges mocking Vance’s last-minute travel demands, incorporating the vice president’s secret service name, Bobcat. The coins and stickers have a picture of a Bobcat’s head with the words “Bobcat OTR Survivors Club.” The logo includes the motto, “Advance. OTR. Repeat.”In a statement, the vice president’s office told MS NOW that “The Vances are grateful to the men and women of the U.S. Secret Service who serve our country with distinction. While protecting a Vice President with a large policy portfolio and a young and growing family presents a unique challenge, agents of the Secret Service do so with excellence every day.”

Jake Johnson Common Dreams Iranian officials reportedly warned US Vice President JD Vance late last month that two officials leading the Trump administration’s diplomatic efforts in the Middle East—special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner—were trying to profit from their proximity to critical negotiations rather than working to secure a lasting peace agreement. According to Drop Site, […]

The Trump administration has introduced a new interpretation of the Endangered Species Act, a bedrock of successful U.S. wildlife conservation for more than 50 years, dramatically weakening its power to protect natural habitats and opening vulnerable lands to real estate development, oil drilling and other extractive industries. A coalition of conservation groups is suing the Trump administration over the rule change. They are represented by the environmental law group Earthjustice and senior attorney Ben Levitan, who calls this latest Trump administration attack on the environment “a total repudiation of the premise that endangered species need places to have shelter, to have food, to raise their young.”

Has the United States launched a forever war on Iran? As the Trump administration renews its attacks on Iran, killing at least 35 civilians over the course of five days, political analyst Ali Vaez warns that the U.S. is inciting potentially never-ending “cycles of violence” with its manipulations of the diplomatic process. The U.S.’s unilateral renunciation of the “memorandum of understanding” as a “pretext for another round of war” has further eroded trust between the countries, says Vaez. “There is really no military solution,” he concludes. “The best solution is for both sides to agree to return to the MOU and to respect its terms.”

Joshua Scheer Vice President JD Vance has made one of the most striking public acknowledgments yet of tensions between Washington and Israel over the future of the Iran conflict, claiming that members of the Israeli government are actively working to keep the United States engaged in an open-ended military campaign. In an interview with podcaster […]

After ICE agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas, last week, they quickly arrested three witnesses: the other men that the 52-year-old father of three was driving to work. The three men, including Salgado Araujo’s younger brother Victor, are now being detained by ICE and threatened with deportation. “There is a Trump militia roaming our streets, our towns, our cities, killing people regardless of immigration status with absolutely no accountability. … They are either not getting training or getting training to shoot directly at people, to murder people, in the streets,” says Congressmember Pramila Jayapal, explaining that the three incarcerated witnesses must be protected from deportation for at least as long as they can provide information for the investigations on Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s killing. Victor Salgado Araujo “wants to be accessible as a witness, and it’s really hard for him to do that when he’s [being detained] 45 minutes away from Houston,” says his attorney Ruby Powers. “Being able to be in the United States freely, to be able to give that testimony is what we’re asking for.”

As we continue our conversation with Congressmember Pramila Jayapal, we turn to recent developments involving the United States military. On Wednesday, Jayapal was one of over half of all House Democrats to vote in favor eliminating over $3 billion in military aid to Israel. Although the proposed amendment was ultimately shot down, the final tally with over 100 members voting yes is still a “sea change” in U.S. political support for Israel, says Jayapal. Following Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, “it is the horror of what has unfolded that has finally allowed us to confront the fact that we should not be using taxpayer dollars to send to Israel to perpetrate this kind of violence.” Jayapal also responds to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new order mandating testosterone testing and offering testosterone replacement therapy for servicemembers aged 30 and over. “Providing testosterone is actually gender affirming care,” Jayapal remarks. Last year, Hegseth ordered a halt to all gender-affirming medical procedures for military servicemembers and banned openly trans people from service. These actions are “intrusive behavior,” says Jayapal, “where the government is getting involved in prescribing what medication you do or don’t take, without your consent.”