Trump Disrespects Troops’ Families to Hype Himself Up

Per the families’ requests, media access was reportedly restricted during a dignified transfer of six killed service members at Dover Air Force Base Wednesday. But that didn’t stop the White House from turning the ceremony into content for the internet.

The White House shared several photographs across social media, touting Donald Trump’s attendance at the proceedings with all the esteem an American flag and prayer-hands emoji can provide. “Their courage will never be forgotten,” read another post, with a second American flag emoji.

On TikTok, the White House posted a slideshow of photographs with a piano rendition of “Amazing Grace” playing over top. “The service and sacrifice of the six American heroes will never be forgotten,” the caption read, sounding copy-pasted from ChatGPT.

The images included one of Trump saluting a travel case draped with an American flag. The White House also uploaded a batch of 12 photographs to its Flickr account that showed Trump standing beside House Speaker Mike Johnson and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The ceremony was held to honor six service members who served aboard a KC-135 refueling aircraft that crashed last week in Iraq, while supporting operations in Iran. The U.S. death toll of Operation Epic Fury has risen to 13 service members.

This was the second dignified transfer Trump has attended since launching his war in Iran. But this is the third transfer ceremony of the war so far: Trump skipped the second after he received immense backlash for wearing his own merchandise during the first proceeding.

This time, he left his gaudy $55, gold-embroidered “USA” baseball cap at home. The White House also previously used a photograph from a dignified transfer earlier this month to illustrate a fundraising email that offered to sell “private national security briefings.”

The White House’s flagrant flouting of the families’ plea for privacy demonstrates that it hasn’t learned anything. Trump is continuing to use dignified transfers for his own political purposes. If not for ads, then for propaganda.

Iran has not gotten anywhere close to developing nuclear weapons over the last year, according to ex-counterterrorism director Joe Kent.

Kent blindsided the Trump administration earlier this week when he suddenly resigned from his post as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, citing the war with Iran—and his assessment that Iran “posed no imminent threat” to the U.S.—as the primary cause for his departure.

In a sit-down interview Wednesday night with Tucker Carlson, Kent explained that Iran’s nuclear program was basically defunct.

“Was Iran on the verge of getting a nuclear weapon?” asked Carlson.

“No, they weren’t three weeks ago when this started, and they weren’t in June, either,” Kent said. “I mean, the Iranians have had a religious ruling—a fatwa—against actually developing a nuclear weapon since 2004. That’s been in place since 2004. That’s available in the public sphere.

“But then also, we had no intelligence to indicate that that fatwa was being disobeyed or it was on the cusp of being lifted,” he noted.

Kent’s resignation sparked a maelstrom across Washington, where top Republicans and Trump officials spent the better part of Tuesday disparaging Kent and his work, branding the Trump appointee as a “crazed egomaniac.” The size and scope of the MAGA reaction was a message to other Trump officials, warning them of the fallout if they publicly criticize the war.

The repercussions continued into Thursday, when Representative Elise Stefanik referred to Kent’s letter as “inappropriate” and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard told Congress that Kent’s decision to blame Israel for the ongoing war was concerning.

In the same interview with Carlson, Kent claimed that U.S. officials had entered a “complacent mode” when dealing with Israel and its shared intelligence, warning that that intelligence could be shared to influence the U.S. administration just as much as it is shared to inform the administration.

“We trust a lot of what they have to say, not keeping in the back of our mind that they have their own agenda and we have our own agenda at the end of the day,” Kent said, noting that the U.S. and Israel’s missions are frequently aligned, though he did not believe this was the case with regard to the Iran.

“I don’t believe our objective has been clearly defined,” Kent said, citing America’s and Israel’s varied approaches to forced regime change in Iran.

Kent also offered some conspiratorial views on Charlie Kirk’s assassination, suggesting that Israel could have been involved in the political operative’s death since Kirk was a vocal opponent of U.S. involvement in Iran.

It’s worth noting that Kent is a known extremist with neo-Nazi ties. He has had to disavow a past interview with Nazi sympathizer Greyson Arnold and interactions with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. Even his resignation letter included “ugly antisemitic tropes” and “really nasty rhetoric,” Emily Horne, a former National Security Council official under Joe Biden, told The New Republic earlier this week.

So far, 13 U.S. soldiers have been killed in the conflict, as have more than 20 Iranian officials, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. More than 1,400 Iranian civilians have been killed, including dozens of children at a girls’ school in the country’s south. Some 3.2 million people have been displaced, as the U.S.-Israeli strikes have damaged more than 42,000 civilian sites—such as homes, hospitals, and schools—across Iran, according to Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani.

The Trump administration is requesting more than $200 billion to fund the war with Iran, and Democrats are outraged.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday night that the Department of Defense had asked the White House for the hefty sum. Reactions were swift and negative. On X, Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego pointed out the Iraq War of the early 2000s was less expensive.

“At the height of combat the Iraq War cost around $140 Billion per year,” Gallego posted. “If the Pentagon is asking for $200 billion they are asking for a long war. The answer is a simple no.”

Senator Chris Van Hollen was more blunt.

“This should be an absolute nonstarter,” Van Hollen wrote. “The best way to end this war, protect our troops, save civilian lives, and rein in a lawless administration is to cut off funding. I’m a hell no.”

The request would come on top of President Trump’s request to Congress in January, before the war, to boost the defense budget from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, a record high.* And the first six days of the Iran war cost taxpayers more than $11.3 billion. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth defended the additional $200 billion to reporters Thursday, saying that it “takes money to kill bad guys.”

“So we’re going back to Congress and our folks there to ensure that we’re properly funded for what’s been done, for what we may have to do in the future, ensure that our ammunition—everything’s refilled, and not just refilled, but above and beyond,” Hegseth said.

This budget request is not going to sail through Congress, especially if the administration deploys ground troops. Since most Democrats in the Senate oppose the additional funding, Republicans would have to use the budget reconciliation process to pass it. We’ll see if any vulnerable Republicans balk.

* This story has been updated with the correct defense budget request.

Multiple House Democrats walked out of a closed-door briefing Wednesday with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, calling it a “fake hearing” and accusing her of a “cover-up.”

The briefing was regarding Bondi’s and the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files, and comes just days after Bondi was subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee to testify over her “possible mismanagement.”

“It’s outrageous, it’s infuriating and it continues this White House cover-up of the Epstein files,” Democratic Representative Robert Garcia said. “We’re not going to take that anymore.”

Democrats noted that Bondi was not under oath, gave no opening statement, and did not commit to honoring her subpoena. Representative Yassamin Ansari called it “insane bullshit” and said she’d “fucking had it.”

House Oversight Chair James Comer called the Democratic response a “premeditated” stunt. And one exchange between Representative Summer Lee and Comer became particularly tense, according to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.

Here’s what happened with Rep. Summer Lee and Chairman James Comer behind closed doors during the briefing with Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche, I’m told:

Lee: “Mr. Chairman, there are no cameras here. You don’t have to perform. We were told this was a briefing.”

Comer: “It’s a briefing!”

Lee: “But she hasn’t offered any information.... This is a hearing. This is a hearing without the cameras. This is a hearing without C-SPAN. And it’s a hearing without the public. So, what I’m asking is ...”

Comer: “You want me to scoot some chairs around and make a circle. Would that make it feel more like a briefing?”

Lee: “I would like C-SPAN. I would like you to bring the transcribers. I would like you to go through with the decorum and with the rules ...”

Comer: “Are you trying to find information, or trying to embarrass the attorney general?”

Lee: “Absolutely not. I think the attorney general is a woman who is completely able to defend herself, and I’m not attacking her. I’m questioning you. You run this place. What I’m asking you is ... will you commit to going as far as ...”

Comer: “I’ve already issued the subpoena ...”

Lee: “And this is not the deposition ...”

Comer: “You’ve wasted three minutes of everyone’s time just kind of, bitching ...”

Lee: “Really? Wow! Bitching?”

Comer later responded on X.

“FACT CHECK: True. I said Democrats were bitching and wasting everyone’s time because Democrats were bitching and wasting everyone’s time,” he wrote.

“Fact check: You said a woman was ‘bitching’ because you’re too basic to answer simple questions without throwing a temper tantrum,” Lee responded. “And you’re too weak to keep Bondi from disrespecting YOU and your [subpoena]. Twice a failure.”

Americans everywhere want Bondi and the people in power to go under oath, on camera, and answer a few questions as to why there are so many delays and discrepancies within the files in what is supposed to be the most “transparent” administration ever.

Donald Trump disavowed Israel’s air strikes against Iran’s South Pars gas field, claiming that the U.S. “knew nothing” about the attack.

The president tried to wash his hands of Israel’s late-night assault, which marked a major escalation in the Iran war. Moments later, however, Trump promised that he, too, would “massively blow up” Iran’s gas field if Tehran did not stop attacking Qatar.

“Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars Gas Field in Iran,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social late Wednesday. “A relatively small section of the whole has been hit. The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen.”

Trump further claimed that Iran was not aware that Israel was behind the attack, and instead retaliated against Qatar’s energy infrastructure.

The South Pars gas field is one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world. It is located offshore in the Persian Gulf and is shared between Iran and Qatar. The field contains an estimated 1,800 trillion cubic feet of usable gas and supplies countries all over the world. For context, the enormous reserve is estimated to contain enough gas to meet global demand for 13 years.

Israel’s ambush will only serve to add more pressure on the global gas supply. Energy prices soared last week after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through the Middle East that funnels approximately one-fifth of all crude oil shipments. The price of Brent crude, a global oil benchmark, surged from a pre-attack low of $106 per barrel to as much as $118 per barrel by Thursday morning.

U.S. diplomats don’t see how Trump could have been left in the dark on Israel’s sudden bombardment. Dan Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel posted on X late Wednesday that there was “zero, I mean zero, chance” that Israel would have struck the energy target without giving U.S. Central Command “full visibility.”

Later that evening, reports emerged that both Israeli and American officials had confirmed that the U.S. knew in advance about the attack, but that Trump changed his tune once Iran struck Qatar, according to Axios.

“NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar—In which instance the United States of America, with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before,” Trump continued in his post. “I do not want to authorize this level of violence and destruction because of the long term implications that it will have on the future of Iran, but if Qatar’s LNG is again attacked, I will not hesitate to do so.”

Trump told reporters Tuesday that he would withdraw from the war “in the very near future,” but that he wasn’t ready to leave yet. Leaving may not be a feasible option anytime soon, however. The president’s allies noticed a shift in regional power earlier this week, warning that while the early days of the war may have indicated an immediate victory, prolonged U.S. involvement in the conflict has dramatically increased the likelihood of boots on the ground. The changing tide has fueled concern that Trump could draw the country into yet another open-ended Middle East conflict.

Israel’s latest attack has left key Trump officials at a loss for words. At a press conference early Thursday morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth couldn’t seem to muster up an explanation for why the U.S. was continuing to fight this unpopular war alongside such a volatile ally.

“Why are we helping Israel prosecute this war if they are pursuing their own objectives?” asked a reporter from the far-right outlet The Gateway Pundit.

“We hold the cards, we have objectives, those objectives are clear,” Hegseth said. “We have allies pursuing objectives as well. The truth speaks for itself.… POTUS has made it clear, very clear.”