ICE Sure Picked a Convenient Spot for Its Latest Raid

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement conducted a raid right outside of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s rally on Thursday at the Japanese American National Museum in Downtown Los Angeles.

Newsom held an event to announce his own redistricting efforts in California, a direct response to the Trump administration and the Texas GOP gerrymandering their House map to favor Republicans in the 2026 midterms.

“BORDER PATROL HAS SHOWED UP AT OUR BIG BEAUTIFUL PRESS CONFERENCE! WE WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED!” Newsom’s press team posted, purposely mocking Trump’s social media syntax as they have been for days now. The post also included a video showing mostly masked Border Patrol agents milling about in full tactical gear.

Newsom also acknowledged the raid during his speech.

“Right outside, at this exact moment, are dozens of dozens of ICE agents,” Newsom said, the crowd booing in response. “Donald Trump … you think it’s coincidental?”

“No!” the crowd fired back.

“We know what Donald Trump knows: He’s going to lose the midterms. He knows, de facto, his presidency ends in seventeen months, when Speaker [Hakeem] Jeffries is back in the House,” Newsom continued. “He’s a failed president. Who else sends ICE at the same time we’re having a conversation like this? Someone who’s weak. Someone who’s broken. Someone whose weakness is masquerading as strength. The most unpopular president in modern history.”

Newson is right—ICE at his event was no coincidence. Trump and the governor have traded barbs for years now, and it only looks to be ratcheting up even further now.

As the Trump administration keeps the Epstein files tight to its chest (the documents reportedly contain numerous redacted mentions of Trump), media appearances by victims of the notorious late pedophile have hampered the president’s hopes of redirecting the public eye anywhere but on his former friend Jeffrey Epstein.

A vexed Trump, Rolling Stone reports, has privately taken to calling some survivors of Epstein’s abuse “Democrats,” suggesting they may be trying to sully his reputation for political purposes.

Citing two sources familiar with the president’s private remarks, Rolling Stone reported Thursday that Trump has, behind closed doors, repeatedly taken issue with such media appearances, claiming that some of the victims “are just trying to make him look bad, or implying that he did something wrong during his time as one of Epstein’s friends and party companions.”

The president has reportedly claimed that some speaking out are “clearly of a ‘Democrat’ political affiliation,” even floating the idea that some could be in cahoots with “prominent liberal attorneys or groups.”

The magazine did not name specific people about whom the president has reportedly complained. However, several of Epstein’s accusers, named and anonymous, as well as victims’ relatives, have vocally criticized the administration’s bungling of the Epstein case as of late.

This has, per CNN, posed “a growing political threat to Trump,” whose approach to the scandal has reflected a concern for “ending a political problem” over “alleviating any further agony” for those affected by Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell (whom Trump conspicuously hasn’t ruled out pardoning, raising concerns that he may corruptly grant her clemency in exchange for clearing his name of Epstein-related wrongdoing).

Trump’s White House vehemently denied Rolling Stone’s story, with a spokesperson insisting that “none of [it] is true.”

The reported remarks, however, would be consistent with the president’s tendency to try positing conspiracies in order to remove political thorns from his side—as seen at the outset of the scandal, when Trump’s knee-jerk reaction was to dismiss the Epstein issue, once a MAGA cause célèbre, as a Democratic hoax.

California has its own plan to combat the Trump administration’s national redistricting efforts.

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the Election Rigging Response Act Thursday, a Democratic gerrymandering plan intended to offset efforts to strip liberal areas around the country of their electoral votes.

“We’ve got to meet fire with fire,” Newsom said. “We cannot stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district.”

California will invite residents to vote on whether or not to pursue redistricting in their own state, in reaction to Donald Trump’s heavy hand in Texas politics. The vote will take place on November 4.

Last month, the president demanded that Texas Republicans create five more House seats by redrawing its congressional map, eliminating a handful of blue districts. The move elicited shock and contempt from two of the country’s most populous regions—California and New York—both of which threatened to draw their own new maps should Texas comply. If they do, the two states will give a significant edge to Democrats.

Trump issued similar demands of five other states, claiming that there were nationwide opportunities for redistricting efforts to help the GOP ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Those states include Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Florida.

“This is a serious moment, America. Wake up to what is going on,” Newsom said. “These are sober times.”

Newsom pointed to an aggressive rise in ICE raids, censorship at the Smithsonian, federal kowtowing to Russia, voter intimidation, and infringements on civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, and more as evidence that Trump was “putting America in reverse.”

“It’s about power,” Newsom said. “And we are about to give power back to the people.”

Mayor Eric Adams’s campaign has chosen to lean fully into his reputation for unseriousness and folly.

On Thursday, the mayor’s social media team posted a video of Adams appearing at various events across the city with the audio from the children’s movie The Boss Baby, following a popular TikTok and Instagram Reels trend.

“Every night, at dinner, I’ll be there. Every birthday party, I’ll be there. Every Christmas, I’ll be there,” the audio plays as clips of Adams at festivals and press conferences roll.

“I’m an on-the-ground mayor,” the post’s caption reads. “I’ll be there every step of the way as we make this a safer and more affordable city for all.”

Absurd posts like these—and that Trump pardon—are the only things keeping Adams from fading into relative obscurity. From multiple smoothie-making videos to poorly edited montages, to corny pop music–based skits, the Adams campaign is posting its way through it.

Trumpworld has long theorized about a shadowy deep state pulling the strings in Washington. During a 2023 Fox News appearance, Pam Bondi said deep-state actors had been “hiding in the shadows” throughout Trump’s first term. In his second, they’d “have a spotlight on them.”

Now, as U.S. attorney general, Bondi is purportedly living up to that promise. On Thursday, she produced a rare specific example of supposed deep-state evildoing: A man threw a Subway sandwich at a federal agent stationed in D.C. for Trump’s takeover.

According to court records and video footage of the incident, the man, Sean Charles Dunn, who happened to work for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, approached a group of officers in front of a D.C. Subway sandwich shop at around 11 p.m.

Dunn reportedly called the heavily armed officers “fucking fascists,” yelling, “I don’t want you in my city!” before hurling a wrapped-up sandwich at the chest of a Customs and Border Protection agent, who—clad in tactical gear—was clearly unharmed. Dunn ran off but was apprehended, later saying, “I did it. I threw a sandwich.”

Clips of the incident went viral on social media, with users finding humor and many opportunities for puns in the episode. (A sampling: “Our gyro,” “Assault with a deli weapon,” “The suspect was acting provolone.”)

Pam Bondi, however, thinks the incident is no laughing matter. In fact, by her lights, Dunn’s sandwich throwing is the deep state manifest. In a post announcing Dunn’s firing, Bondi claimed, quite grandiosely, that “this is an example of the Deep State we have been up against for seven months as we work to refocus DOJ.”

Bondi continued, “You will NOT work in this administration while disrespecting our government and law enforcement”—a statement rendered laughable by the fact that, as NPR reported last week, a J6er who called for police officers to be killed during the Capitol riot enjoys a senior role at the department.

Jared Wise, now a DOJ adviser, spent his January 6, 2021, calling officers “Nazi[s]” and “Gestapo,” and shouting, “Yeah, fuck them! Yeah, kill ’em!” He is “a valued member of the Justice Department,” said a spokesperson, “and we appreciate his contributions to our team.”