President Trump brokers several monumental deals in Asia, the U.S. ramps up its military presence in the Caribbean, and we get an expert opinion on the state of the Trump economy.
It’s Monday, October 27, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. Today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251027-member-exclusive">the video version can be seen on The Daily Wire</a>:
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">Trump Strikes Trade Deals In Asia</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-991431" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Trumps-Trade-Tour-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Trumps-Trade-Tour-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Trumps-Trade-Tour-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Trumps-Trade-Tour-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Trumps-Trade-Tour-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Trumps-Trade-Tour.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: President Trump landed in Asia on Sunday to kick off a whirlwind diplomatic tour aimed at securing new trade deals and peace treaties.
Trump arrived in Malaysia, the first stop on his tour of South Asia, which will also include visits to Japan and South Korea.
The main goal of the trip is to lock down more trade deals and open up access to Asian markets. Within hours of his arrival in Malaysia, the president announced new trade agreements with Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia. Each country will eliminate the vast majority of existing tariffs on U.S. imports, and the latter two will allow for unprecedented American investments in rare earth mineral production.
While this trip was focused on trade, the president also signed a ceasefire deal between Cambodia and Thailand, two longtime foes who were on the brink of war this summer after fighting broke out over a border dispute. Under this new agreement, the two sides will pull back military forces from the border and exchange POWs.
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“I love doing it. I shouldn’t say it’s a hobby, because it’s so much more serious than a hobby — but it’s something that I’m good at and it’s something I love to do,” <a href="https://x.com/clashreport/status/1982325118300004784">said</a> Trump.
Meeting Xi: This trip will be defined by Trump’s sit-down with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The two will meet face-to-face on Thursday for the first time since 2019. Ahead of that high-stakes showdown, Trump expressed optimism regarding a “comprehensive deal” that could end the tit-for-tat trade war that’s lasted all year and resulted in unprecedented tariff rates exceeding 100%.
Ahead of that sit-down, officials from both sides have been meeting virtually non-stop this week to hammer out the framework for a potential deal. Beijing says a “basic consensus” has been reached and that the two sides “engaged in candid, in-depth, and constructive exchanges.”
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Trump’s Moves Against Drug Trade In South America</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-991433" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Carriers-To-The-Caribbean-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Carriers-To-The-Caribbean-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Carriers-To-The-Caribbean-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Carriers-To-The-Caribbean-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Carriers-To-The-Caribbean-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Carriers-To-The-Caribbean.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: President Trump ordered the most advanced U.S. aircraft carrier group to the Caribbean last week as he floated the possibility of strikes against drug cartels on land. And the Trump administration placed sanctions on the president of Colombia as tensions continue to rise with the erstwhile U.S. ally.
Venezuela: President Trump moved the USS Gerald R Ford carrier group to join the forces already stationed in the Caribbean. The Ford carrier group is the largest in the U.S. military, so this is an aggressive signal from the president that he isn’t satisfied with a few drug boats blown up here and there.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham appeared on CBS’ &#8220;Face The Nation&#8221; on Sunday and said he had spoken to President Trump about potential land strikes in South America.
“I think that’s a real possibility,” <a href="https://x.com/FaceTheNation/status/1982479665525613037">said</a> Graham. “I think President Trump has made a decision that Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, is an indicted drug trafficker, that it’s time for him to go, that Venezuela and Colombia have been safe havens for narco-terrorists for too long.”
Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro said last week that there are 5,000 Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles stationed around the country to defend the airspace. He also said that “millions of men and women with rifles would march across the country” if the United States were to attack on Venezuelan soil.
Colombia: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his family on Friday. Bessent said in a statement that Petro “has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity.”
Colombian officials have pushed back, pointing to continued interdiction of cocaine &#8212; but the country’s coca fields have grown continuously since Petro took power in 2022. Trump’s moves against Colombia have received support from Republicans representing sizable communities of Colombian Americans.
“Colombia is once again the number one producer of coke in the world. Colombians don&#8217;t deserve that,” <a href="https://x.com/RepMariaSalazar/status/1982503947744243931">said</a> Florida Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar. “President Trump has a responsibility to stop drugs coming into this country.”
<h2 style="text-align: center;">E.J. Antoni On Inflation and Trump’s Trade Deals</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-991435" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Growth-Without-Gimmicks-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Growth-Without-Gimmicks-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Growth-Without-Gimmicks-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Growth-Without-Gimmicks-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Growth-Without-Gimmicks-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Growth-Without-Gimmicks.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: The latest economic report shows inflation slightly cooler than experts predicted at 0.3% rather than the predicted 0.4%. The White House is touting the numbers as yet more proof that Trump’s economic plan is working.
Morning Wire spoke with economist E.J. Antoni of the Heritage Foundation. (The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.)
Morning Wire: First, big picture – we&#8217;re nine months into Trump&#8217;s second term. How is the economy doing?
Antoni: I&#8217;d say the best way to describe it is that it&#8217;s in the midst of a transition, right? For basically the last two years of the Biden administration, you had a labor market that was being propped up in a lot of ways by government hiring. That&#8217;s gone away. In fact, it&#8217;s been replaced with government firings. And the result of that is a drag on the overall jobs numbers, right? In the same way, when you look at something like the way we measure the economy through gross domestic product or GDP, you had government purchases which were accounting for a very large percentage of that. That&#8217;s all gone away. In fact, it&#8217;s been replaced by a reduction in those government purchases, which is a drag on the headline number. What I&#8217;m trying to get at here is, as the government re-privatizes, as the Treasury Secretary says, you will see what looks like sluggish growth – which I think we&#8217;re in right now – but in reality is actually a returning to health. It&#8217;s almost like the chemotherapy that makes you feel really lousy, but gets rid of your cancer.
Morning Wire: The inflation numbers were a little bit cooler than projected. How do you feel about the state of inflation right now?
Antoni: Pretty good, especially since the number one driver of inflation in that CPI report for the month of September was gasoline prices going up so much, except that increase has completely reversed in the first three weeks of October. Now, prices are actually slightly lower than they were in most markets. We should expect the next CPI report – if we can even get it, it&#8217;s unclear because the government shut down – but if we could get it, we would expect even cooler CPI numbers.
Morning Wire: Treasury data show the tariff collection has really surged in recent months. What is the net effect of Trump&#8217;s tariff plan thus far in the economy? Are they working as advertised?
Antoni: Well, I guess it depends on how we want to say as advertised, right? … But here are the facts. They&#8217;re bringing in way more revenue than anticipated to the Treasury. We can certainly have a debate over who is paying for those tariffs. But, the fact is they&#8217;re bringing in billions of dollars in revenue, in fact, hundreds of billions of dollars when you annualize it. That&#8217;s one of the reasons why September had the biggest surplus ever for the month of September in terms of the Treasury monthly statement. It was because not only have we seen a reduction in overall government spending, but an increase in revenues, overall revenues of course, because the economy&#8217;s growing, but also specifically from customs duties, which are from the increase in tariffs.
Morning Wire: Is the reshoring effect — like Stellantis moving some production to the U.S. — is that a real trend or just a few isolated incidents?
Antoni: It’s certainly a real trend, but it is being blunted to a certain extent right now. You are seeing help to the manufacturing sector, and that some of it is being re-shored. But you&#8217;re also seeing, at least in the short term, some pain inflicted on manufacturing because, again, some of the things being tariffed are actually inputs. You&#8217;re making it more expensive, let&#8217;s say, for a car manufacturer to buy steel from abroad for the time being. Now, once that steel gets re-shored back to the United States and you can buy it domestically, then it&#8217;s a moot point, right? But at least for the time being, you&#8217;re having competing effects there where one is helping, the other is hurting.
Morning Wire: Final question, we&#8217;re about to wrap up the year with a couple months left here. What do you project to happen big-picture with the economy over the next few months?
Antoni: I think we&#8217;re going to continue to see some of these very positive trends with economic growth where, although the public sector, the government is shrinking, we&#8217;re going to continue to see growth in the productive private sector. And in particular, one of the reasons why I&#8217;m so optimistic here is that the growth we have seen thus far this year, which I think will continue, has been driven by increases in earnings, not simply increases in debt. … Their money is going further because earnings growth is outpacing inflation. That&#8217;s a very positive development.

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Morning Brief: Trump’s Asia Blitz & Military Build-Up In The Caribbean

Cambodia

China

Colombia

Donald Trump

Inflation

Lindsey Graham

Morning Wire

Tariffs

Thailand

Venezuela

Xi Jinping

President Donald Trump may order land strikes on Venezuela and other parts of South America in pursuit of drug cartels without congressional authority, according to South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Graham appeared on CBS’ “Face The Nation” on Sunday and defended Trump’s suggestion last week that land strikes may be the next step after the U.S. military blew up 10 drug boats and submarines in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.
“I think that&#8217;s a real possibility,” said Graham on the potential for U.S. strikes on land in South America. “I think President Trump has made a decision that Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, is an indicted drug trafficker, that it&#8217;s time for him to go, that Venezuela and Colombia have been safe havens for narco-terrorists for too long.”
“I support that idea, but I think he has all the authority he needs,” Graham added after noting that Trump is expected to brief Congress on possible military operations in and around South America when he returns from a trip to Asia later this week.
The South Carolina senator cited operations ordered by former presidents George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. The missions, which took place in Panama and Grenada, are precedents that should set the legal foundation for any land strikes against drug cartels ordered unilaterally by Trump.
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“When President Bush 41 took Ortega out in Panama, Reagan went into Grenada to deal with the Cuban influence from Grenada in our backyard – [Trump] has all the authority in the world,” said Graham. “This is not murder. This is protecting America from being poisoned by narco-terrorists coming from Venezuela and Colombia.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
U.S. land strikes on Venezuela are “a real possibility,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says, telling <a href="https://twitter.com/margbrennan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@margbrennan</a> President Trump plans to brief Congress about potentially expanding the U.S. military operations “from the sea to the land.”
“I support that idea. But I think he has… <a href="https://t.co/q7iBG7D0H7">pic.twitter.com/q7iBG7D0H7</a>
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1982479665525613037?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2025</a></blockquote>
Graham’s comments come days after the administration announced the U.S.S. Gerald Ford aircraft carrier group would move to the Caribbean. The Ford is the newest and most technologically advanced carrier in the U.S. fleet, signaling the seriousness with which the White House is approaching its fight against drug cartels and terror networks that are flooding the United States with dangerous and illicit drugs.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the Ford’s latest assignment in a <a href="https://x.com/SeanParnellASW/status/1981759934539985132">post</a> on X.
The aircraft carrier group “will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” said Parnell in a statement.

USS Gerald R. Ford

Lindsey Graham Says Trump ‘Has All The Authority He Needs’ To Strike Venezuela

Global Politics

Nicolas Maduro

United States

World

The FBI unveils a massive, mafia-tied gambling scheme involving big names in the NBA, the United States strikes another drug boat bringing “poison to our shores,” and sparks fly at the final debate for New York City mayor — but will it sway the race?
It’s Friday, October 24, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="NBA Scandal Unveiled &amp; Another Drug Boat Dusted" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kAUUH2tmqTM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
If you would rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">NBA Gambling Ring</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-990669" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Basketball-Betting-Bust-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Basketball-Betting-Bust-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Basketball-Betting-Bust-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Basketball-Betting-Bust-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Basketball-Betting-Bust-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Basketball-Betting-Bust.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: A sprawling NBA gambling scandal was announced on Thursday, resulting in dozens of arrests, including former and current NBA players, coaches, and members of the Italian mafia.
The alleged scheme involved more than 30 people arrested, including Miami Heat point guard Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, a former player in the Hall of Fame. 
Charges from the investigation included wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery, and illegal gambling. 
“The FBI led a coordinative take down across 11 states to arrest over 30 individuals today responsible for this case, which is very much ongoing,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a press conference. “We also entered and executed a system of justice against Laca Nora to include the Bonanno Gambino Genevese and Luccese crime families.”
First indictment: The case involves two separate indictments. The first relates to an insider betting scheme. Defendants charged in this scheme allegedly received non-public information, such as when players would be sitting out for injuries or planned absences, and used that to profit from gambling bets. 
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“One example occurred on March 23, 2023, in Charlotte, Terry Rozier, an NBA player now with the Miami Heat, but at the time playing for the Hornets, allegedly let others close to him know that he planned to leave the game early with a supposed injury,” said NYC Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. “Using that information, members of the group placed more than $200,000 in wagers on his under statistics.&#8221;
Rozier exited the game after just nine minutes. The bets paid out tens of thousands of dollars in profit.
Second indictment: The second indictment relates to mafia-backed fixed poker games, where more than $7 million was cheated. This included new technology, such as an X-ray table that could read cards face down. Current or former NBA players like Billups were used to draw people into rigged games.
“The defendants in this case orchestrated a scheme to use wireless cheating technology to run rigged poker games across the United States,” said U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella. “What the victims, the fish, didn&#8217;t know is that everybody else at the poker game, from the dealer to the players, including the face cards, were in on the scam. Once the game was underway, the defendants fleece the victims out of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per game.”
The poker games played in the New York area were backed by at least four of the five mafia families there.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Drug Boat Strikes And Russia Sanctions</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-990667" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Drug-Boat-Dusted-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Drug-Boat-Dusted-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Drug-Boat-Dusted-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Drug-Boat-Dusted-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Drug-Boat-Dusted-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Drug-Boat-Dusted.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The U.S. military carried out its ninth strike against what it said was a drug boat from a known terrorist entity heading toward the United States. Meanwhile, President Trump has imposed new sanctions on Russia for the first time since he returned to the Oval Office.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday that the military carried out its eighth and ninth strikes against drug boats. These strikes took place in the Pacific Ocean, a first. Up until now, the strikes have been targeted in the Caribbean, which is a known smuggling corridor for narcotraffickers in Venezuela and Colombia.
Latin American resistance: The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, called to potentially “get rid” of Trump over his campaign of pressure. Trump has accused Petro of playing a role in the drug trade and has pulled U.S. funding to Colombia.
On Thursday, Trump responded to the Colombian president’s threats, saying that the Latin American leader is a “thug and bad guy” who should “watch it.”
For now, the strikes will continue, Hegseth says.
Sanctions on Russia: The Treasury Department has now announced new sanctions on Russia for the first time in Trump’s second term. The sanctions target Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as dozens of their subsidiaries.
The sanctions came alongside additional penalties from the European Union, as well as more from the U.K., announced last week. President Trump’s new pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin was a welcome move in Washington and in Europe.
“You have to compel Russia to engage in the peace process,” <a href="https://x.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1981329802754769164">said</a> House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). “They&#8217;ve shown they cannot be trusted. There&#8217;s a big appetite in Congress to have sanctions like this, and I think it&#8217;s a very important step.”
More important than the sanctions themselves is the message they convey. In its announcement of the sanctions package, the Treasury also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-sanctioning-russian-energy-heres-what-to-know" target="_blank" rel="noopener">threatened</a> secondary sanctions against any entity that does business with Rosneft and Lukoil.
Trump on San Francisco: Trump has reversed course on sending National Guard troops to San Francisco. He said in a Truth Social <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115424560133045127">post</a> on Thursday that “friends of mine who live in the area called last night to ask me not to go forward with the surge in that the Mayor, Daniel Lurie, was making substantial progress.” He said he spoke to Lurie, a moderate Democrat who took office in January, and decided to give him a chance to turn the city around – which means Trump could change his mind in the future if he doesn’t like what he sees in San Francisco.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Mamdani Cracks In Second NYC Debate</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-990665" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Mamdani-Melts-Onstage-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Mamdani-Melts-Onstage-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Mamdani-Melts-Onstage-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Mamdani-Melts-Onstage-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Mamdani-Melts-Onstage-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Mamdani-Melts-Onstage.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The frontrunner in New York’s mayoral race, Zohran Mamdani, faced a barrage of criticism in the final televised debate on Wednesday, raising questions about whether his performance managed to shake his lead or reinforce doubts about his readiness for the job.
The atmosphere of the race was definitely charged—not just because of the policies on the table, but also because of the direct, unrelenting pressure former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo put on Mamdani.
Polls show that while Mamdani is far and away the favorite to win, some also show he would be in a dead heat with Cuomo if Republican Curtis Sliwa were to drop out of the race.
Many media outlets and analysts said Mamdani looked uncomfortable and hesitant. He also appeared severely rushed. Some of his responses felt like watching a video at double speed.
However, some left-leaning outlets, such as Politico, said Mamdani won. The New York Times said Cuomo hurt him, but probably not enough. But the viral clips from the debate have received brutal responses, painting Mamdani as an unprepared left-wing extremist.
The debate: One of the most damaging moments circulating on social media came when Cuomo directly confronted Mamdani on his inexperience. 
“You have never had a job. You&#8217;ve never accomplished anything. There&#8217;s no reason to believe you have any merit or qualification for eight and a half million lives. You don&#8217;t know how to run a government, you don&#8217;t know how to handle an emergency, and you&#8217;ve literally never proposed a bill on anything that you&#8217;re not talking about,” Cuomo <a href="https://x.com/EYakoby/status/1981146015714726293">ripped</a> into Mamdani.
“In your campaign, you had the worst attendance record in the assembly, and you gave yourselves the highest raise in the United States of America. You went from $110,000 to $140,000, and then you never showed up for work, and you missed 80% of the votes. Shame on you,” he continued.
Cuomo also pinned Mamdani down on the rent freeze policy, labeling it as political blather.
“Zohran is a great actor. He missed his calling. Freeze rent sounds great, yeah, it affects about 25% of the number of housing units in the city of New York. It&#8217;s not a new idea. Bill de Blasio did it. It turned out to be a debacle,” Cuomo <a href="https://x.com/nypost/status/1981152739963945271">said</a>.
Often, Mamdani didn’t help himself. For example, when he suggested that when 911 receives a call, dispatchers should decide whether it’s appropriate to send police, or maybe send mental healthcare providers instead.
“Yet what we have in our city is asking those same police officers who are being asked to respond to shootings, respond to murders, to also respond to these calls. I trust the dispatchers who would be receiving these calls to make the determination as to whether there was any indication of violence. If there is no indication of a threat of violence, then we would set the mental health experts and providers to respond to those same incidents,” <a href="https://x.com/EYakoby/status/1981149365818585538">said</a> Mamdani.
How bad was it?: Polling data is still being analyzed, so it’s really too early to tell. But it’s interesting to note that there are reports that Chinese-owned TikTok appears to be pulling out all the stops for Mamdani now, maybe trying to head off any leaks of support.
The New York Post reported that TikTok’s algorithm has been boosting pro-Mamdani content while suppressing pro-Cuomo clips.

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Morning Brief: FBI Uncovers An NBA-Tied Gambling Ring & Trump Takes Out Another Drug Boat

Andrew Cuomo

Drug Cartels

kash patel

Media

New York City

Politics

Russia

San Francisco

Zohran Mamdani

President Donald Trump hit back at the Colombian president Wednesday after the Latin American leader called to &#8220;get rid&#8221; of him.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro told Univision Monday that it may be necessary to “get rid of” Trump as the United States escalates counternarcotics operations in the region.
“Humanity has a first offramp, it is to choose to change Trump in various ways,” Petro told Univision’s Daniel Coronell.
“The easiest way may be through Trump himself. If not, get rid of Trump,” he said while snapping his fingers.
But Trump wasn&#8217;t having any of Petro&#8217;s threats.
&#8220;He&#8217;s a thug and bad guy. He&#8217;s a guy that is making a lot of drugs,&#8221; Trump said in response to The Daily Wire&#8217;s White House Correspondent, Mary Margaret Olohan.
&#8220;He better watch it or we&#8217;ll take very serious action against him and his country,&#8221; he added.
Trump also said he&#8217;d pulled &#8220;all payments&#8221; from the U.S. to Colombia as part of an ongoing campaign to pressure Petro to combat drug trafficking in the region.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MaryMargOlohan</a>: The president of Colombia recently said that if you won&#8217;t change, maybe you need to be gotten rid of. Do you view that as a threat? <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>: &#8220;He&#8217;s a thug and bad guy&#8230;He better watch it or we&#8217;ll take very serious action against him and his country.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/of3eYWGHhW">pic.twitter.com/of3eYWGHhW</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1981113714146496651?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
&nbsp;
Trump earlier called Petro an “illegal drug dealer” with “a fresh mouth toward America.”
Wes Tabor, who led the Drug Enforcement Administration’s office in Caracas in 2012, recently told The Daily Wire that Petro has slowly pulled away from the U.S., while embracing the socialist regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.
“His background is steeped in these freedom fighting, kind[s] of guerrilla warfare … socialism, Marxism, and things like that. And we have seen in the last year more aggressively coming out of Colombia, they are saying, ‘listen, we are going to side with Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela,” said Tabor.
“When we look historically, the relationship has been really good,” he added.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-takes-out-another-boat-in-caribbean-killing-four-suspected-narco-terrorists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of War</a>  has taken out seven drug cartel vessels in the Caribbean in recent weeks, killing more than two dozen suspected narco traffickers.
Petro claimed the U.S. killed a fisherman rather than narcoterrorists in one of the strikes, prompting Trump to threaten to hit Colombia with new tariffs.
“U.S. government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” Petro wrote on social media at the time, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/world/americas/trump-colombia-petro-aid.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to The New York Times.

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‘He’s A Thug’: Trump Responds To Colombian President’s Calls To ‘Get Rid’ Of Him

The Colombian president said it may be necessary to &#8220;get rid of&#8221; President Donald Trump as the United States escalates counternarcotics operations in the region.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro made the comment in an interview with Univision on Monday regarding the best possible outcome of negotiations with the Trump administration.
“Humanity has a first offramp, it is to choose to change Trump in various ways,” Petro told Univision’s Daniel Coronell.
“The easiest way may be through Trump himself. If not, get rid of Trump,” he said while snapping his fingers.
Trump has escalated a pressure campaign in recent weeks against Colombia over drug trafficking in the region, labeling Petro as an “illegal drug dealer” with “a fresh mouth toward America.”
Wes Tabor, who led the Drug Enforcement Administration’s office in Caracas in 2012, told The Daily Wire that Petro has slowly pulled away from having ties with the United States, while moving closer to the socialist regime of Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro.
&#8220;His background is steeped in these freedom fighting, kind[s] of guerrilla warfare &#8230; socialism, Marxism, and things like that. And we have seen in the last year more aggressively coming out of Colombia, they are saying, &#8216;listen, we are going to side with Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela,&#8221; said Tabor.
&#8220;When we look historically, the relationship has been really good,&#8221; he added.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-takes-out-another-boat-in-caribbean-killing-four-suspected-narco-terrorists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump</a> administration has taken out several drug cartel vessels in the Caribbean in recent weeks, killing more than two dozen suspected narco traffickers.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
JUST IN: Colombia&#8217;s President Petro wraps his Univision interview by saying that if <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> won&#8217;t change, the solution is to &#8220;get rid of Trump&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/JzRYHGPIzX">pic.twitter.com/JzRYHGPIzX</a>
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) <a href="https://twitter.com/BonillaJL/status/1980440840465182847?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
Trump recently pledged to cut aid to Colombia and impose new tariffs after Petro accused the United States of striking a fisherman rather than narcoterrorists.
“U.S. government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” Petro wrote on social media at the time, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/world/americas/trump-colombia-petro-aid.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to The New York Times.
Last week, Trump <a href="https://x.com/OrlvndoA/status/1978557056878514557" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confirmed</a> a plan to carry out covert CIA operations in Venezuela against Maduro, stating that he authorized enhanced action over the Latin American country&#8217;s role in criminal migrants crossing the Southern border and the trafficking of lethal drugs killing Americans.

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Colombian President Pushes To ‘Get Rid Of Trump’ Amid U.S. Counternarcotics Campaign In Caribbean

Cocaine

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President Donald Trump locks in a critical deal with Australia as he presses on several foreign policy fronts, the administration ramps up the Caribbean war on drugs, and a Christian couple loses their foster care license over gender theory.
It’s Tuesday, October 21, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">White House Roundup</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-988769" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Trumps-Balancing-Act-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Trumps-Balancing-Act-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Trumps-Balancing-Act-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Trumps-Balancing-Act-768x433.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Trumps-Balancing-Act-1536x865.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Trumps-Balancing-Act-2048x1153.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The weekend protesters may have cleared out, but it’s shaping up to be another wild week in Washington – with a major presidential focus on foreign policy. 
Ukraine: President Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday. While it wasn’t their most contentious meeting, Trump seems less bullish on Ukraine since his recent conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump suggested that he’s not ready yet to provide Ukraine with the Tomahawk missiles they’ve requested.
Australia: On a more positive note, Trump had a productive meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday.
The two leaders signed a critical minerals and rare earths deal. Under the agreement, the United States and Australian governments will invest more than $3 billion in critical mineral projects over the next six months, “with recoverable resources in the projects estimated to be worth $53 billion,” according to the White House.
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The deal also includes a lot of burden sharing and making new defense investments that will strengthen the alliance between the United States and Australia.
On the home front: The president recently decided to weigh in on upcoming elections. Trump made a late-breaking endorsement of Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears for Virginia governor.
The endorsement of Earle-Sears comes when the race is tightening because of a scandal lower down on the ballot with the Democratic candidate for state attorney general, Jay Jones.
In New Jersey’s gubernatorial race, Trump has endorsed Republican Jack Ciattarelli.
The New Jersey race is also tightening up significantly. Ciattarelli came close to winning in 2021. Trump endorsed him in May because Ciattarelli was in a primary battle then.
Shutdown showdown: The shutdown shows no sign of ending soon. Rumors on Capitol Hill suggest rank-and-file Democrats want to negotiate an “off-ramp” with Republicans, but no one has said what that looks like. The posture of the situation is best described as a waiting period to see what Democrats will do.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Trump&#8217;s War On Narco-Terrorists</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-988771" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Crackdown-In-The-Caribbean-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Crackdown-In-The-Caribbean-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Crackdown-In-The-Caribbean-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Crackdown-In-The-Caribbean-768x433.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Crackdown-In-The-Caribbean-1536x865.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Crackdown-In-The-Caribbean-2048x1153.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The Trump administration is massively escalating its counternarcotics campaign in the Caribbean against suspected drug traffickers. 
Venezuela: The Trump administration saw the destruction that occurred to the United States under the Biden presidency when it came to opening up our borders. According to Trump, that pulled countries like Venezuela to send in prisoners, gangbangers, and narcotraffickers, and the president says he wants that to end for good.
Trump is pressuring the Maduro regime by carrying out dramatic kinetic strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and sending the message that there is a new sheriff in town.
Former DEA Attache for Venezuela Wes Tabor told The Daily Wire that the pressure is so extreme that he doesn’t see Maduro staying in power much longer.
“There&#8217;s an internal pressure that&#8217;s boiling between Nicolas Maduro and between the Estado Alliance, who is basically the head of the military and also in the Senate. And he has a lot of power with the military, whereas Maduro is the figurehead. He&#8217;s the president. Those two are battling it out right now in the country,” said Tabor.
“I&#8217;ve heard rumors from my sources in Venezuela,” he continued. “They&#8217;re saying, you know, there have been a few times that Nicolas Maduro was thinking about bugging out.”
Colombia: Trump wants Colombia to be wary of becoming the next Venezuela — signaling that the United States could take a stricter stance against Bogotá and its leadership if the government refuses to cooperate with his administration. The Colombian president is slowly chipping away at the longstanding relationship with a United States that has cracked down on cocaine production.
&nbsp;
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Anti-Christian Foster Care Case</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-988773" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Mass.-Fostering-Prejudice-300x168.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="168" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Mass.-Fostering-Prejudice-300x168.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Mass.-Fostering-Prejudice-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Mass.-Fostering-Prejudice-768x431.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Mass.-Fostering-Prejudice-1536x862.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Mass.-Fostering-Prejudice-2048x1150.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The state of Massachusetts has revoked the license of foster parents Lydia and Heath Marvin, both Christians, after the couple refused to sign a “gender-affirming” policy. The couple is now taking legal action, claiming religious discrimination.
The Marvins: The Marvins have been fostering children since 2020, primarily infants and toddlers with medical needs or special challenges – the kind of children few homes are equipped to handle. Their record shows they accepted cases others turned down.
In April, the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) revoked their fostering license. The stated reason: the Marvins declined to sign the state’s revised LGBTQ Non-Discrimination Policy — specifically a section requiring foster parents to affirm a child’s gender identity and sexual orientation.
The Marvins argue that signing would conflict with their sincerely held Christian convictions. They’ve initiated legal action, claiming religious discrimination and violation of their First Amendment rights.
The DCF: DCF officials insist their duty is to protect children. In their view, that means placing kids only in homes that will affirm their gender identity and sexual orientation.
Step back: Critics such as journalist and child-welfare expert Naomi Schaefer Riley say the state has lost sight of the bigger mission.
“A lot of these states have just really lost sight of the goal there — which should be providing as many options for safe, loving homes as possible to these kids,” Riley told The Daily Wire.
Riley, who has written extensively on family policy, says this case fits a growing national pattern where religious foster families feel pressured to abandon their beliefs or stop fostering altogether. That’s a serious problem because, according to a <a href="https://cafo.org/faith-foster-care-and-the-surprising-path-to-flourishing/#:~:text=This%20week%2C%20the%20Institute%20for,11%25)">study</a> released just last month, Christians are more than three times more likely to foster a child compared to those with no religious affiliation. They’re also more likely to adopt out of the foster care system.
It’s a trend: In Massachusetts, another couple — Mike and Kitty Burke — were rejected as foster parents last year after expressing Catholic beliefs about marriage and gender that didn’t align with the state’s policy.
And in Oregon, a woman named Jessica Bates was denied a foster license for refusing to commit to gender-affirming practices. Her case is now before a federal appeals court.
Riley says many more conflicts never make the headlines.
“Once they make clear they’re looking for parents who fit a certain mold, people of faith either violate their own principles to comply, or they just don’t sign up at all because they know the agency is going to be hostile to their religious practice,” she said.
Hope for the Marvins: One major court precedent is the 2021 Supreme Court decision Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. In that case, the court ruled that the city violated the Free Exercise Clause when it stopped contracting with Catholic Social Services because the agency wouldn’t certify same-sex couples.
The court said that because Philadelphia’s rules allowed for exceptions, the city couldn’t deny a religious exemption.
Legal analysts say the Marvin case could hinge on similar reasoning — whether Massachusetts’ policy is truly “neutral and generally applicable,” or if it targets religious beliefs.
The Marvins’ lawsuit, filed with help from Alliance Defending Freedom, is still in early stages.

MRN_251021_V1

Morning Brief: Trump Foreign Policy Blitz, War On Narco-Terrorists, & Foster Care’s Faith Problem

Australia

Foster Care

Government Shutdown

Ukraine

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Sunday that the U.S. military took out a drug-smuggling boat he said was connected to a Colombian terrorist group. 
According to Hegseth, the Department of War on Friday conducted a lethal kinetic strike targeting a vessel linked to the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a designated foreign terrorist organization. The ELN, also known as the National Liberation Army, is an insurgent group that clashes with the Colombian government. 
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics,” Hegseth said. “There were three male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike—which was conducted in international waters. All three terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
On October 17th, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a Designated Terrorist Organization, that was operating in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility.
The… <a href="https://t.co/1v7oR879LC">pic.twitter.com/1v7oR879LC</a>
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecWar/status/1979930208472912048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security and poison our people. The United States military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are—they will be hunted, and killed, just like Al Qaeda,” Hegseth added. 
Earlier this month, Hegseth set up a new counter-narcotics task force meant to target drug cartels operating in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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The ELN is one of the “one of the most powerful insurgent groups in Colombia,” <a href="https://www.dni.gov/nctc/terrorist_groups/eln.html">according</a> to the National Counterterrorism Center, which is staffed with personnel from various federal intelligence agencies. With around 2,500 fighters, the group aims to control portions of Colombia where drugs are produced through armed assaults, assassinations, extortion operations, and hostage-takings. 
The strike comes as President Donald Trump has been placing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-puts-colombian-president-on-notice-over-drug-production-close-up-these-killing-fields?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Trump+Puts+Colombian+President+On+Notice+Over+Drug+Production%3A+‘Close+Up+These+Killing+Fields’">increased pressure</a> on Colombian authorities to crack down on drug trafficking. Trump announced over the weekend that he would be cutting off foreign aid to the South American country. 
“They don&#8217;t have a fight against drugs. They make drugs. They refine drugs. They make cocaine. They have cocaine factories. They have no fight against drugs. And I&#8217;m stopping all payments to Colombia because they don&#8217;t have anything to do with their fight against drugs,” Trump said Sunday night. “They are a drug manufacturing machine, Colombia, and we&#8217;re not going to be part of it.”

President Trump Holds Cabinet Meeting At The White House

U.S. Takes Out Narco-Terror Boat As Trump Yanks Aid To Colombia

Department of War

Pete Hegseth

Terrorism

President Donald Trump put Colombian President Gustavo Petro on notice in an early Sunday morning announcement, calling on him to rein in drug production in his country and threatening to do it for him if he chose not do so on his own.
Trump lashed out at Petro via his Truth Social platform, saying that he planned to put a stop to all payments and subsidies that the United States gave to Colombia would be stopped if Petro — &#8220;a low-rated and unpopular leader&#8221; — didn&#8217;t comply with his wishes.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://t.co/RkULBLNrzI">pic.twitter.com/RkULBLNrzI</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1979892335690629356?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;President Gustavo Petro, of Colombia, is an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Colombia,&#8221; Trump posted. &#8220;It has become the biggest business in Colombia, by far, and Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long term rip off of America. AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE TO COLOMBIA.&#8221;
&#8220;The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc,&#8221; he added. &#8220;Petro, a low rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely. Thank you for your attention to this matter!&#8221;
Just one day prior, Trump posted about another strike on narco-terrorists in a submarine headed toward the United States, saying that the two terrorists who&#8217;d survived the attack were being returned to their home countries — Ecuador and Colombia.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://t.co/3oRyqbFY0X">pic.twitter.com/3oRyqbFY0X</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1979621169629155743?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route. U.S. Intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics. There were four known narcoterrorists on board the vessel. Two of the terrorists were killed,&#8221; he posted. &#8220;At least 25,000 Americans would die if I allowed this submarine to come ashore. The two surviving terrorists are being returned to their Countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and prosecution. No U.S. Forces were harmed in this strike. Under my watch, the United States of America will not tolerate narcoterrorists trafficking illegal drugs, by land or by sea. Thank you for your attention to this matter!&#8221;

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Meets With Donald Trump At The White House

Trump Puts Colombian President On Notice Over Drug Production: ‘Close Up These Killing Fields’

Trump Puts Colombian President On Notice Over Drug Production: 'Close Up These Killing Fields'

Drugs

A 16-year-old illegal immigrant from Colombia who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/illegal-immigrant-teen-gets-off-easy-after-killing-colorado-woman-in-high-speed-crash" target="_blank" rel="noopener">received</a> probation and community service after killing 24-year-old Kaitlyn Weaver in a high-speed crash in Aurora, Colorado, was nabbed by federal immigration agents last week.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed on Thursday that the illegal immigrant teen was arrested &#8220;along with his family who are also illegal aliens.&#8221; Last July, the Colombian teenager plowed into Weaver&#8217;s vehicle while driving around 90 mph in a residential area, according to authorities. Weaver, who was driving home from work and talking over speaker phone with her boyfriend at the time of the crash, was &#8220;effectively killed instantly,&#8221; her father, John Weaver, said.
ICE&#8217;s Denver field office blasted the Arapahoe District Attorney’s Office for letting the illegal immigrant off the hook.
&#8220;For the @DA18th justice is no jail time and probation for this criminal alien who killed a young woman while driving more than 90mph. For ICE, justice is arrest and removal,&#8221; ICE Denver wrote on X. &#8220;A 16-year-old citizen of Colombia, with a conviction for reckless driving resulting in death was arrested by ICE Denver officers last week and will remain in ICE custody pending an immigration hearing.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
was arrested by ICE Denver officers last week and will remain in ICE custody pending an immigration hearing. <a href="https://t.co/zdhjgyFYfb">pic.twitter.com/zdhjgyFYfb</a>
&mdash; ICE Denver (@ERODenver) <a href="https://twitter.com/ERODenver/status/1928186233856909713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Along with residing in the United States illegally, the teen was also illegally driving his mother&#8217;s uninsured vehicle, which his mother said he took without permission. The juvenile also had other minors in his vehicle when he crashed into Weaver.
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John Weaver said that the district attorney&#8217;s office initially promised to pursue the maximum sentence for the teenager, which would have been two years in a correctional facility. Under new Democratic District Attorney Amy Padden, however, the illegal immigrant was offered two years of probation if he pleaded guilty. Arapahoe County Assistant District Attorney Ryan Brackley said the plea deal was handled by an experienced prosecutor and was not influenced by the new district attorney. The deal was upheld by a judge after hearing from the Weaver family, Brackley added.
Weaver <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/colorado-prosecutor-offers-unlicensed-undocumented-teen-probation-deadly-crash/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">worked</a> at a drug rehab center in Aurora and was always looking for ways to care for other people, according to her father. Before taking the job at the drug rehab center, Weaver volunteered for a suicide hotline.
&#8220;She was really trying to make a difference in their lives every day,&#8221; her father said.

ICE Denver

ICE Nabs Illegal Immigrant Teen Who Received No Jail Time After Killing Colorado Woman

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Colorado

Death

illegal immigrant

Illegal Immigration

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

The Colombian government has noted a drastic increase in the number of Venezuelan migrants that appear to be returning to their country of origin and a drop in the number of migrants attempting to reach the United States, changes that the Latin American government attributes to President Donald Trump’s border security measures.
Colombia <a href="https://www.local10.com/espanol/2025/03/11/colombia-registra-aumento-en-migracion-de-retorno-de-venezolanos-y-pide-requisitos-para-su-entrada/">recorded</a> 9,353 Venezuelan migrants who entered the country from Panama between January and February, marking a drastic increase from the previous year, when only 4,031 Venezuelans entered the country from Panama. The change is an indication that an increasing number of migrants have abandoned their attempts to enter the United States.
The report from the Colombian government attributes the increase to the new immigration policies of the Trump administration. &#8220;The majority of migrants indicate they come from Mexico, where they had been waiting for an appointment with U.S. authorities for one to three months,” the report states, adding that “with the change in U.S. immigration policies, they made the decision to return.”
The Colombian government also noted a drastic decrease in the number of migrants attempting to cross through the treacherous Darien Gap, a stretch of jungle connecting South America to Central America. Colombia recorded a striking 61 percent drop in migratory flow through the area, which has historically been a key route that would-be migrants use to enter Central America on their way to the border of the United States.
The plummeting number of migrants coming from Venezuela and attempting to enter the United States comes less than three months after President Donald Trump took office and rolled out a slate of immigration policies aimed at securing the southern border and disincentivizing illegal immigration into the United States.
The administration shut down Biden’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) One app, which allowed migrants to remotely schedule parole appointments, expediting the flow of more than a million migrants into the interior of the United States. The administration refashioned the app this week, naming it the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-transforms-bidens-cbp-one-app-leave-now-and-self-deport">CBP Home</a> app. The platform now allows illegal aliens to declare their intent to depart the United States.
The Trump administration has also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ice-arrests-11000-illegal-aliens-in-first-18-days-of-trump-administration">deported</a> 11,000 illegal aliens in the first 18 days of his second term. The deportation effort is being bolstered by various different agencies within the executive branch, with the Department of Defense working to prepare the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to house <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/united-states-begins-flying-illegal-aliens-to-guantanamo-bay">tens of thousands</a> of criminal illegal alien detainees.
Vice President JD Vance <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vance-does-victory-lap-at-border-all-it-took-was-a-new-president">celebrated</a> the steep decline in illegal border crossing attempts at a recent visit to the southern border, where he touted a 98 percent drop in crossings and said &#8220;we didn’t need fancy legislation, we just needed a new President of the United States.”

Darien Gap

Latin American Country Sees Drop In Migration To U.S., Attributes Decline To Trump Border Policies

Border

Immigration

The time of a weak America is over. 
Over the weekend, President Trump was golfing when he decided it was time to teach the government of Colombia what would happen if they mess with him.
Colombia had announced that they were not going to accept planes filled with deportees, as the Trump administration had moved very quickly when it came into office to start arresting and deporting people who are criminal illegal immigrants.
That included many Colombian deportees. The president of Colombia stated — while President Trump was in the middle of a round of golf — that he would not accept any of those deportees. 
Trump took a quick break in his golf game and issued <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113896070273857964" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this statement</a>:
<blockquote>I was just informed that two repatriation flights from the United States, with a large number of Illegal Criminals, were not allowed to land in Colombia. This order was given by Colombia’s Socialist President Gustavo Petro, who is already very unpopular amongst his people. Petro’s denial of these flights has jeopardized the National Security and Public Safety of the United States, so I have directed my Administration to immediately take the following urgent and decisive retaliatory measures: 
-Emergency 25% tariffs on all goods coming into the United States. In one week, the 25% tariffs will be raised to 50%.
-A Travel Ban and immediate Visa Revocations on the Colombian Government Officials, and all Allies and Supporters.
-Visa Sanctions on all Party Members, Family Members, and Supporters of the Colombian Government.
-Enhanced Customs and Border Protection Inspections of all Colombian Nationals and Cargo on national security grounds.
-IEEPA Treasury, Banking and Financial Sanctions to be fully imposed. 
  
These measures are just the beginning. We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the Criminals they forced into the United States!</blockquote>
Within roughly 10 minutes of President Trump putting out a statement that he would be increasing the tariffs on Colombian products to 25% this week, followed by 50% next week, the government of Colombia totally caved.
The White House Press Secretary <a href="https://x.com/PressSec/status/1883716584843391025" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a>:
<blockquote>The Government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump&#8217;s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay. Based on this agreement, the fully drafted IEEPA tariffs and sanctions will be held in reserve, and not signed, unless Colombia fails to honor this agreement. The visa sanctions issued by the State Department and enhanced inspections from Customs and Border Protection will remain in effect until the first planeload of Colombian deportees is successfully returned. Today&#8217;s events make clear to the world that America is respected again. President Trump will continue to fiercely protect our nation’s sovereignty, and he expects all other nations of the world to fully cooperate in accepting the deportation of their citizens illegally present in the United States. </blockquote>
This was the ultimate FAFO.
Gustavo Petro, the leader of Colombia, a socialist who is a big fan of Nicolás Maduro and an even bigger fan of Hugo Chávez, is wildly unpopular in his own country. He had sought to cast Trump’s threat as an affront to his country&#8217;s freedom, saying, “You don&#8217;t like our freedom? Fine. I do not shake hands with white slaveholders. … You will never dominate us.”
There&#8217;s only one problem. They got dominated.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2125-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
Petro put out a long, rambling statement which demonstrated how psychotic the far Left is when they are both in power and out of power.
He made a <a href="https://x.com/petrogustavo/status/1883624818811236502" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> on X after he had lost, which has been <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/colombia-president-petro-responds-trump-tariffs-full-statement-2021072" target="_blank" rel="noopener">translated</a> to English. It is worth considering his statement in full:
<blockquote>Trump, I don&#8217;t really like travelling to the US. It&#8217;s a bit boring, but I confess that there are some commendable things. I like going to the Black neighborhoods of Washington, where I saw a fight in the US capital between Blacks and Latinos with barricades, which seemed like nonsense to me, because they should join together.
I confess that I like Walt Whitman and Paul Simon and Noam Chomsky and Miller.
I confess that Sacco and Vanzetti, who have my blood, are memorable in the history of the USA and I follow them.
(Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted anarchist murderers who were put to death during the Woodrow Wilson administration.)
They were murdered by labor leaders in the electric chair, by the fascists who are within the USA as well as within my country.
I don&#8217;t like your oil, Trump. It&#8217;s going to wipe out the human species because of greed. Maybe one day, with a glass of whiskey that I accept, despite my gastritis, we can talk frankly about this, but it&#8217;s difficult because you consider me part of an inferior race and I&#8217;m not, nor is any Colombian.
So, if you know someone who is stubborn, that&#8217;s me, period. You can try to carry out a coup with your economic strength and your arrogance, like they did with Allende. But I will die true to my principles, I resisted torture and I resist you. I don&#8217;t want slavers next in Colombia, we already had many and we freed ourselves. What I want next in Colombia are lovers of freedom. If you can&#8217;t join me, I&#8217;ll go elsewhere. Colombia is the heart of the world, and you didn&#8217;t understand that, this is the land of the yellow butterflies, of the beauty of Remedios, but also of the colonels like Aureliano Buendía, of which I am one, perhaps the last.
You will kill me, but I will survive in my people, which lives, before yours, in the Americas. We are peoples of the winds, the mountains, the Caribbean Sea and of freedom.
You don&#8217;t like our freedom, okay. I don&#8217;t shake hands with White slavers. I shake hands with the White libertarian heirs of Lincoln and the Black and White farm boys of the USA, at whose graves I cried and prayed on a battlefield, which I reached after walking the mountains of Italian Tuscany and after being saved from Covid.
They are the United States, and before them I kneel, before no one else. 
Overthrow me, Mr. President, and the Americas and humanity will respond.
Colombia now stops looking north, it looks at the world. Our blood comes from the blood of the Caliphate of Cordoba, the civilization of that time, of the Roman Latins of the Mediterranean, the civilization of that time, who founded the republic, democracy in Athens; our blood comes from the Black resistance fighters turned into slaves by you. Colombia is the first free territory of America, before Washington, [before] of all America, and I take refuge in its African songs.
My land is made up of goldsmiths who worked in the time of the Egyptian pharaohs and of the first artists in the world in Chiribiquete.
You will never rule us. You&#8217;re opposed to the warrior who rode our lands, shouting freedom, whose name is (Simon) Bolívar.
Our people are somewhat fearful, somewhat timid, they are naive and kind, loving, but they will know how to win the Panama Canal, which you took from us with violence. Two hundred heroes from all of Latin America lie in Bocas del Toro, today&#8217;s Panama, formerly Colombia, which you murdered.
I raise a flag and as (Jorge Eliecer) Gaitán said, even if it remains alone, it will continue to be raised with the Latin American dignity that is the dignity of America, which your great-grandfather did not know, and mine did, Mr. President, an immigrant in the USA.
Your blockade does not scare me, because Colombia, besides being the country of beauty, is the heart of the world. I know that you love beauty as I do, do not disrespect it and it will give its sweetness to you.
FROM TODAY ON, COLOMBIA IS OPEN TO THE ENTIRE WORLD, WITH OPEN ARMS, WE ARE BUILDERS OF FREEDOM, LIFE AND HUMANITY. 
I am informed that you impose a 50% tariff on the fruits of our human labor to enter the United States, and I do the same.
Let our people plant corn that was discovered in Colombia and feed the world.</blockquote>
What the hell is he saying? Let&#8217;s be clear about this. He lost, and now he&#8217;s mad that he lost. But this is what happens when you screw around with the greatest economic powerhouse in the history of the world and happen to be a much smaller country with a much less robust economy.
Marco Rubio, our secretary of state, put out an excellent statement in which he <a href="https://x.com/SecRubio/status/1883615012217839902" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declared</a>, “President Trump has made it clear that under his administration, America will no longer be lied to nor taken advantage of. It is the responsibility of each nation to take back their citizens who are illegally present in the United States in a serious and expeditious manner. Colombian President Petro had authorized flights and provided all needed authorizations and then canceled his authorization when the planes were in the air. As demonstrated by today’s actions, we are unwavering in our commitment to end illegal immigration and bolster America’s border security.”
Then Trump, as the Troll Master he is, put out <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113896394915126793" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a post</a> on Truth Social that was utterly hilarious. It is a picture of Trump looking like Al Capone, with a Borsalino hat, a pinstriped suit, and a red tie. And in the background is a sign reading FAFO with a drawn happy face.
In his inaugural address last week, Trump pledged, “We are no longer going to be weak. We are going to be strong.”
If Colombia had said no under Joe Biden, the State Department would have done an investigation which would have led to several recommendations. Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, would have suggested that they weren&#8217;t sensitive enough, saying something like, “After reviewing these particular recommendations, we&#8217;re going back to the drawing board.” Several weeks later, they would have come back with a series of recommendations, at which point there would have been a commission to do a study on what should be done. And the end result would have been a deportation of possibly one-quarter of the illegal immigrants, along with billions of dollars sent to Colombia. 
We could have had that.
But, thank God, we got the “brutal, rude, nasty, arrogant” President Trump doing the thing that actually works, which is this: You screw with us and you get the sharp end of the stick.
It&#8217;s not all that tough.
Now, that doesn&#8217;t mean there aren&#8217;t thorny international issues. China is a massive, thorny international issue, but Colombia proclaiming they&#8217;re not going to accept plane loads of illegal immigrants back into their country is not a thorny international issue. This is one that President Trump could solve while tweeting from the golf course. 
Because guess what? There&#8217;s something President Trump has always understood: When you are the United States of America, the most powerful force in the history of the world, you don&#8217;t need to play around with losers.
Gustavo Petro is a loser, a representative of a failed ideology, and he doesn&#8217;t have any power behind him. There is no reason for the United States to mess around with him.
FAFO. That is the message.
And that message is being broadcast loud and clear by the entire administration. Top to bottom, they are making clear that when it comes to illegal immigration, the buck stops with them.
We are done being weak.

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