"This Was Never The Plan": Mountaineer Nirmal 'Nims' Purja On Why He Chose PoK Peak

08/01/26 5:54 PM

"Broad Peak, I ask for nothing but safe passage up and back down. I take zero mountains for granted," he wrote.

'Deadly mistakes': Trump border czar gets pummeled on-air for shrugging ICE answers

07/26/26 5:11 PM

A high-ranking official in President Donald Trump's administration was subjected to ridicule and scorn Sunday after he struggled to answer basic questions.CNN anchor Dana Bash asked White House Border Czar Tom Homan about Immigration Control and Enforcement officers in Texas and Maine who fatally shot unarmed fathers this month. "Do you know specifically what happened to the officers involved in the Texas and Maine shootings?" Bash asked. "Are they on administrative leave?""I don't know, specifically," he said. "The policy would be to put them on administrative leave."Bash pressed, "But as border czar, you don't know for sure if they have been?"Homan shrugged and said, "No."Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, was killed during a traffic stop in Texas on July 7 — FBI claims that he had drugs in his car were later disproved.Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero, 25, was fatally shot in Maine on July 13 by an ICE agent identified in reports as David Brouillette, an Army veteran whose two ex-wives have accused him of abuse.Bash quizzed Homan on this point. "One of the ICE officers connected to the fatal shooting in Maine was accused of abuse by two ex-wives…Should someone with those issues be an ICE agent?" asked Bash.Homan replied, "No, if those are facts, I don't think he should have ever cleared vetting."Homan's admissions of ignorance stunned onlookers who expected greater detail from an official who oversees Trump's mass deportation initiative."If Tom Homan doesn't know he should be fired on the spot," replied X user Craig Carl. "This is a blatant lie or gross incompetence.""ICE has vetting?" political commentator Mike Bates quipped. "Who knew!""Feckless lying stupid sack of s---," fumed Lizzie Cochrane.Even Bash joined in on the bashing, as video shows, when Homan declared, "I wouldn't say that mistakes were made.""We've seen with our own eyes that mistakes were made," she said. "Deadly mistakes were made. At least 5 of them."

'Dementia talking again': Trump's fumbling Fox News interview sparks ridicule

07/28/26 5:27 PM

Critics were mocking President Donald Trump on Tuesday after he dodged questions on Fox News over who exactly he was negotiating with in Iran and boasted about his tariff policy.Iran’s foreign ministry has pushed back on Trump's claims about the discussions. And during an interview on Tuesday, "Fox & Friends" host Brian Kilmeade pressed Trump during a phone interview for specifics."We hear that you’re talking right now with leaders on Iran,” Kilmeade said. "But Iran has come out publicly and said ‘we’re not talking to the U.S.—'"Trump interrupted the conservative outlet's anchor."Well, they just came out and said ‘we are talking’ a little while ago," Trump said."So could you tell me who you’re talking to, Mr. President?" Kilmeade asked.But Trump didn't give a direct answer — and the internet noticed. The conversation then shifted into talk about late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), tariffs and the economy."Trump's dementia talking again. The old jerk has quite an imagination," Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, wrote on X."THE IRANIAN LEADER I'M TALKING TO LIVES IN CANADA YOU WOULDN'T KNOW HIM," S.V. Dáte, White House correspondent at HuffPost, wrote on X."Trump: 'I stopped 8 wars, I would say 5 of them because of tariffs,'" X account Republicans Against Trump, which has more than 1 million followers, wrote."That is exactly the reason why they are hurting the economy, as well as reciprical [sic] tariffs on US companies," Meidas Touch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski wrote on X."This is a test for Fox News viewers: After all these lies, are you still willing to believe him?" Conservative anti-Trump attorney George Conway wrote on Bluesky.Trump's dementia talking again. The old jerk has quite an imagination. https://t.co/8eBRpSgbrG— Dean Baker (@DeanBaker13) July 28, 2026

'Do not disrespect Bad Bunny': White House's mass deportation celebration slammed

07/31/26 5:01 PM

The White House used a Bad Bunny song to promote its deportations and harsh immigration agenda — and Tik Tok was not happy about it, TMZ reported on Friday.A TikTok posted Thursday shows ICE agents handcuffing and hauling off detainees to Bad Bunny's "LA MuDANZA," according to TMZ.In the video, the White House took the original lyrics "un aplauso pa mami y papi porque en verdad rompieron," meaning "a round of applause for mom and dad, because they really crushed it" — and changed them.The video instead had: "A round of applause for Donald J. Trump because he really crushed it." The post was captioned "We're making America great again."Bad Bunny hasn't commented on the White House move yet, according to TMZ.The Puerto Rican rapper Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio has been a critic of the Trump administration and its policies. The international star performed at the Super Bowl halftime show in February, sending a message of pride to the Latino and immigrant community.Tik Tok commenters were outraged. Nearly 3,000 people responded to the video, the top comments were mostly condemnations."Do not disrespect Bad Bunny like that," wrote one. Said another, "This is just disgusting." @whitehouse We’re making America great again ♬ original sound - The White House

'Inside the house': Morning Joe says Trump's worst press is leaking from his own team

07/27/26 11:59 AM

President Donald Trump’s complaints about coverage of his second term from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last Friday were dismantled on Monday morning.On MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” co-host Joe Scarborough laid reports about the White House chaos at the feet of Trump, who insisted on Friday that those reports are all “fake news.”“The Iran war, it keeps grinding on and on and on, a war of choice, and as it grinds on, Americans' approval of it collapses by the day,” he stated. “So Friday night, at an event that should have never been held, the president tells a room of reporters not to believe, quote, ‘fake news’ about how that war is going.”“Well, that fake news actually comes from calls inside the house, from the administration, from people who know it was a mistake to go in and there's no good way to get out. So you be the judge of that,“ he added.“But you don't have to judge higher costs, affordability, the president mocking affordability, like with your grocery bill, food prices are now rising at their sharpest pace in 50 years,” he elaborated. “You can read that in the Associated Press. You can read that in a variety of news reports this weekend — but you don't have to. All you have to do is look at your bill. Food at home costs up 33 percent since 2019, against just 6.4 percent growth in the seven years before that. And ground beef is now $6.82 a pound, up 79 percent. Gas prices? They just keep spiraling up, the price of oil spiraling up and war, it drives up fuel and fertilizer prices, and those prices drive up food.”“And it is food that's eating more of your paycheck than at any time since Gerald Ford was president of the United States,” he continued. “So against this backdrop, how did the president spend that same Friday night, not reassuring Americans on the war, not reassuring Americans on the cost of beef or on the cost of gas? No, he spent an hour on the physical appearance of the press corps confronting him, even telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on camera that she's attractive but never smiles and seemed to compare her to a trans influencer.” - YouTube youtu.be

'Irresponsible as hell': Outrage as Trump doubts bombshell intel on hostile attack

07/31/26 7:07 PM

President Donald Trump's remarks questioning whether Iran had hacked water systems in Minnesota sparked anger online Friday.Trump pushed back on the U.S. and state officials' reports about Iran hacking in Minnesota and several other states during a cabinet meeting at Camp David in Thurmont, Maryland."We heard in Minnesota there was a cyberattack and they blame it on Iran. I don't think so. I blame it on Minnesota because they're grossly incompetent."Nearly three dozen water plants were attacked in the state this week, according to reports. But Trump blamed Gov. Tim Walz instead, despite evidence from U.S. intelligence officials saying it was likely to have been Iranian hackers, MS NOW reported."Iran's got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota," Trump said.Political experts and commentators pushed back on Trump's claims, suggesting that there could be more to the cyberattacks."Remember a few months ago when it was reported that Iran was psychologically profiling Trump to decode his behavior? One has to wonder if Iran targeted Minnesota specifically because they knew Trump would let them get away with it because of his deranged hatred of Minnesota," wrote behavioral scientist Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D, who has more than 377,000 followers on X."Let's be clear: Trump sees Minnesota as much as Iran (or maybe even more so) as constituting an enemy country," Greg Sargent, staff writer at The New Republic, wrote on X."At Helsinki, Trump undermined America’s intelligence community. At Camp David, he just did it again," Jessica Tarlov, Democratic strategist and co-host of Fox News show "The Five," wrote on X."Sure, sure, let’s just downplay an attack by a hostile foreign actor. Iran has some of the most persistent — and effective — hackers on the planet. This is irresponsible as hell from Trump," X political commentary account Angry Staffer, which has more than 565,000 followers, wrote."His own FBI assessed it was Iran. They also said they attacked multiple states," Sawyer Hackett, political strategist and content creator, wrote on X."The President of the United States is siding with Iran over Minnesota!" Political commentator Covie, who has more than 182,000 followers, wrote on X."Just like he did with Putin in the past, he takes the side of an enemy over his own country," anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project posted on X.Remember a few months ago when it was reported that Iran was psychologically profiling Trump to decode his behavior? One has to wonder if Iran targeted Minnesota specifically because they knew Trump would let them get away with it because of his deranged hatred of Minnesota. https://t.co/ECkw97aSQh— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) July 31, 2026

'Momentous' under-the-radar story revealed by ex-GOP insider that threatens to rock Trump

07/31/26 11:29 PM

A former Republican strategist on Friday argued that a major development in President Donald Trump's Iran war has gone under the radar and will change the outcome of elections in November.In an interview on his podcast, The Warning, Steve Schmidt discussed the disastrous fallout over the war in a conversation with Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. The two talked about how Americans will rebuke Trump and his administration in the midterms this fall and how the latest incident has changed the shape of the conflict."There is a momentous event that occurred this week that I think is underreported and commented on, which is that a Ukrainian drone struck an Iranian ship in the Caspian Sea, combining these two theaters of war," Schmidt said. "What should the American people know about this moment in time and the danger we're facing?""The American people should know that Donald Trump and his foreign policy are absolute failures," Beshear said. "He got us into a war of choice that has only made the country that we went to war with more powerful. Iran is more powerful today based on their control of the Strait of Hormuz than they were before this war started."Beshear criticized Trump for starting a war without a realistic goal that could be achieved. And in the process, putting Americans at risk as the national deficit and debt rise."This is not just bungling international. It is really damaging at home," Beshear added. "And he doesn't have a way out of it. And part of it is look at who he sent to negotiate. We have amazing people in the Foreign Service that spend decades understanding every nuance of every word that an Iranian negotiator would say at the table to put us in the best position to get a peace deal that prevents a nuclear weapon. But we don't send them." He called Trump out for sending developer and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff with his son-in-law Jared Kushner, along with JD Vance, "a vice president who is way out of his league just being vice president, much less trying to negotiate and failing to negotiate any lasting peace.""It is bananas that foreign policy would be conducted this way and that the Senate and the House haven't stopped it and are allowing a president to just go to war and make decisions on his gut," Beshear added. "When we know our munitions are low, when we know our sailors have been on some of the longest deployments ever. It is the worst that you could ever potentially run a foreign conflict."

'People are scared': MAGA senator lashes out at Trump over 'hair trigger' tensions

07/26/26 6:31 PM

A MAGA Senator took to the airwaves to call out President Donald Trump for hypocrisy. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) admitted on "Face the Nation" Sunday that he was not "comfortable" with Trump's newly announced and already problem-laden nuclear deal."We're bombing a country to keep'm from getting a nuclear weapon," said Kennedy. "But we're signing a deal with another country...that the world perceives as possibly, someday leading to a nuclear weapon."The countries, of course, are Iran — which Trump ostensibly started to dismantle their nuclear program — and Saudia Arabia, the nation Trump wants to allow to enrich uranium.The U.S. struck the deal Wednesday but hit a snag over the Saudi government's relationship with Israel. Less than 24 hours after announcing the deal, Trump added a condition that the Saudis normalize those relations. Experts warn the deal could trigger a cascade of nuclear ambitions across the Middle East, The Wall Street Journal has reported, and critics note the Saudis gave Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner's private equity firm $2 billion."Face the Nation" host Margaret Brennan noted Sunday that any deal would have to be approved by Congress, which prompted Kennedy to list off his concerns. "The world's on a hair trigger," Kennedy said. "The world looks at what's going on in Ukraine, the Middle East, the world looks at America's relationship now with Europe."He added, "People are scared." The Louisiana lawmaker is hardly the first U.S. senator to vent frustration with Trump this week. White House demands that Majority Leader Sen. John Thune (R-SD) do more to pass the SAVE America Act — a non-citizen voting ban critics describe as redundant and dystopian — have infuriated GOP members of the Senate. "Instead of pointing the finger at Republicans," Thune said, "they might think about going after the people who are stopping it on the floor, which is the Democrats."Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) added, "I have 1000 percent confidence in Thune, and anybody in the White House who thinks he's not a good leader isn't qualified for their job.""This idea that he can just command members of the Republican conference to get in line is just a fantasy," responded Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). “It’s creating a circular firing squad for Republicans.”Kennedy himself added, “John can’t put a gun to people’s heads."

'Seriously?' Ex-Russia ambassador laughs off Trump's plan for Putin

07/28/26 2:37 PM

President Donald Trump’s proposal to ask Vladimir Putin to come clean on Russian involvement in Iran drew a smirk and an incredulous reaction from the former US Ambassador to Russia.Appearing on MS NOW with host Stephanie Ruhle to discuss Trump’s meeting with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday, the “Money Power Politics” host Michael McFaul asked why Trump continues to turn to Putin for news and advice. Referring to reports that Russia may be giving backdoor help to Iran after Trump attacked the Middle Eastern country, McFaul remarked, “Well, first, Russia and Iran are allies; they coordinate, they sell weapons together. There's — I can't imagine that there's not intelligence sharing. I don't have privy to secret information anymore. That's first.” “Number two: What is he saying?” he asked rhetorically. “ We'll find out. How come he doesn't know? You know, maybe we should be increasing our intelligence community and strengthening it, rather than gutting it in some kind of purge that's going on now.”“And then third, ‘I'm going to ask Putin’ — seriously?” he exclaimed. “Putin's never going to tell him the truth on that. And the very notion that he sets it up, that that's how he's going to find out whether it's truth or not, it's just shocking to me that he continues to say things like that.”“And I think it's embarrassing for him,” he pointed out. “I think it's such a weak look that he says things like that. I don't understand why his team doesn't explain to him: Mr. President, you look weak when you make statements like that.” - YouTube youtu.be

'Terrified' immigrants face excruciating choice as Trump admin turns up the heat

07/30/26 10:10 PM

With Ohio’s Haitian refugees losing their protected status Monday, Springfield’s large population has begun being terminated from their jobs, a pastor who works with the community said on Tuesday.Without legal status, their work permits become invalid. They also face being forced to return to a nation that the International Rescue Committee says is “in the grip of an overwhelming humanitarian crisis.”Right now, gangs control Haiti. Kidnapping, murder, and rape are rampant. And the pastor, Carl Ruby, said one Springfield 12-year-old faces having to return to a place where he saw animals feeding on murdered corpses when he was just five.‘Thousands of people are now going to die violent deaths,’ says attorney for Ohio Haitian community“They’re just terrified for their physical safety,” Ruby said during a virtual press conference. “Many of them have already been traumatized… Some of them have been in prison. Some of them have been tortured. Some have been beaten. Some had been raped. Nearly all of them have seen friends or family members killed.”And some of those families — those who have had children since coming to the United States — face an excruciating choice: whether to take their children with them into the violent chaos that is Haiti or leave them behind in a relatively peaceful, prosperous place where their children’s citizenship gives them the right to stay.More than 330,000 Haitians have received temporary-protected status since an earthquake devastated the impoverished Caribbean country in 2010. Once in the United States, their status has been renewed as conditions in Haiti continued to deteriorate.Early last year, Ohio’s then-Attorney General Dave Yost and 27 other Republican state AGs wrote a letter to the Trump administration stressing the word “temporary” in temporary protected status.They claimed without evidence that it was safe for some with protected status to return to those home countries and urged a review.Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in November announced that she was terminating protected status for Haitians who had qualified, including about 45,000 in Ohio and roughly 15,000 in Springfield.Lawyers for the Haitians sued, arguing that Noem had failed to follow the 1990 law creating temporary protected status. It requires that the government conduct a mandatory review of conditions in a group’s home country to certify that it’s safe to return before forcing them to go.Lower courts blocked the termination.But in June, in a 6-3 ruling the U.S. Supreme Court reversed them, ruling that the TPS law itself barred most court challenges to the way its provisions were or were not applied.Attempt to halt imminent deportations of Haitians and Syrians blocked in US SenateThe court didn’t bar constitutional challenges, however, and SCOTUS Blog on Tuesday reported that some of those are in the works.But for Haitians in Ohio, that might seem a thin reed on which to lean. They and many others are bracing for a mass-deportation such as those conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in other regions. Ruby, the Springfield pastor, said no such operation has happened yet.“It could happen as soon as this week,” he said. “What we’re hearing from other reporting is that they’re planning on deporting them directly back to Haiti. There have been cases in the community where they have been picked up one day. Sent to a detention center the next day. And on the third or the fourth day they’re back in Haiti. It’s obviously not safe for them to go there.”The pastor added that jobs and support services are almost nonexistent when deportees get to Haiti.In addition to terror over what might happen in Haiti are worries about what’s next for Springfield.Ruby said that he and his colleagues have been working for the past 18 months to build “a very large coalition of faith leaders not only here in Springfield, but across the state of Ohio and across the nation who will stand with us if we have anything like what took place in Minneapolis.”He was referring to a mass-enforcement operation last winter in which masked ICE officers shot and killed two protestors, both of them citizens. Analysis of videos taken at the scene showed that neither protester posed the threat that Trump administration officials claimed after the shootings.Ruby stressed that he and other faith leaders want any protests of ICE enforcement actions to be peaceful, and that protesters have to be ready for the possible consequences of civil disobedience, such as going to jail.Gov. Mike DeWine has criticized some of his Republican colleagues for falsely demonizing Springfield’s Haitian immigrants.On Tuesday, his spokesman reiterated a statement DeWine issued last month when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling that effectively revoked their protected status.“Today’s decision is a legal decision,” DeWine said. “As I have stated in the past, the policy to remove these individuals from this country is a mistake.”DeWine later added, “The situation in Haiti could hardly be much worse. The violent gangs run most of the country. The government barely functions. And, the economy is in shambles.”Lynn Tramonte, founder of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, questioned whether DeWine would instruct the Ohio Highway Patrol not to assist ICE in enforcement operations.In the past, the Highway Patrol has worked with U.S. Border Patrol to apprehend undocumented immigrants, the American Immigration Council reports.Dan Tierney, DeWine’s press secretary, didn’t answer directly when asked if the Highway Patrol would assist ICE with enforcement operations in Springfield.Tramonte said DeWine could do more to help Haitians who suddenly find themselves without status.“The governor might claim he is powerless to do anything in the face of federal agents invading our state to take our people, but here are two things he can do,” Tramonte said in a text message.“He can instruct the Highway Patrol not to assist ICE in the enforcement of civil immigration laws. That’s not their job and they shouldn’t have to get involved. He can also underscore the same point for local police who often seem to think they should be on the hunt for immigrants instead of focusing on crime.”