Vice President JD Vance is a busy man.
For the better part of a week now, almost every major American news channel has had a near-permanent box tucked away in its lower right-hand corner, teasing a forthcoming appearance from the architect of the Trump administration’s Memorandum of Understanding with Iran.
This media blitz has had a Twilight Zone-like feel. The signing of Vance’s accord with the Islamic Republic coincided with the release of &#8220;Communion,&#8221; the VP’s narrative about his journey into the Catholic Church.
For those counting at home, that’s two items to sell: a book about his faith and a high-stakes international agreement with the rogue, theocratic regime whose hands are coated in American blood.
It goes without saying that the wannabe heir to President Donald Trump’s political movement – who opposed Operation Epic Fury at its outset and now must extol its virtues while also celebrating its conclusion – finds himself in an exceedingly difficult, and indeed pivotal, position.
Still, the president saw fit to say it.
“If it works out, I’m going to take the credit. If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming JD!” declared Trump at his G7 conference presser on Wednesday. “You better be careful, JD!”
Half-joke, half-warning — one wonders if Vance cracked a smile or a knuckle.
With about a year until the 2028 election cycle kicks off in earnest, his performance could prove to be either the shot in the arm his prospective presidential campaign needs or the shot in the head that stops it in its tracks. The results so far have been mixed at best.
First, the good. JD Vance is at his best in enemy territory. Remember, the &#8220;Hillbilly Elegy&#8221; author was widely regarded as a disastrous vice-presidential nominee right up until the moment he killed Governor Tim Walz with a devastating combination of kindness and Yale Law School-honed polish during the pair’s lone debate in October 2024.
Vance was similarly impressive during his appearance on Tuesday’s edition of &#8220;The View,&#8221; where he amiably handled a barrage of questions from not one, not two, not three, but six antagonistic women. With the tone of a particularly patient parent, Vance muddled his way through unfriendly questions about Epstein, race, inflation, immigration policy, and his faith. He quickly disarmed his interlocutors with a joke about their differences. He presented his transformation from Hitler-crying Chicken Little to right-hand man on the not-insignificant subject of Donald J. Trump as an act of humility. He aptly made the case that decency demands the enforcement, not the neglect, of immigration law. Joy Behar came away from the experience so thoroughly charmed that she later revealed she had urged him to run for president during a commercial break.
”I don’t think that he’s a bad guy,” mused Behar, who even went so far as to admit he had a “good vibe.”
It’s no surprise that the interview in which he wasn’t asked about his signature achievement to date was the one he performed best in. Nor should it shock that, when he wants to, he excels at speaking the language of America’s progressive elite class. After all, he cut his teeth playing the “Good Republican,” writing fawning New York Times op-eds about “Barack Obama and Me.”
Despite his humble beginnings and meteoric rise through the rough-and-tumble MAGA political ecosphere, Vance is still the accomplished Yale grad with an intuitive understanding of what appeals to and revolts the average white-collar Democrat; in no small part because he once did — and perhaps still does — share many of their sensibilities.
Where he’s faltered, though, is on the news of the day.
Vance spent an awkward conversation with Megyn Kelly walking the aforementioned tightrope of making the irreconcilable cases that both Epic Fury was a success and that signing the Memorandum of Understanding in its current dismal form was imperative. Ultimately, his own views — which are shared by the increasingly crankish Kelly — came through.
In rebutting the deal’s critics, Vance failed to so much as erect strawmen, opting instead to beat up on loose hay.
“Fundamentally, if you look at what they’re proposing, they’re proposing an endless conflict. They want this to go on until every bomb has been dropped or until every Iranian,” he declared, before begging Kelly to push back on these apparent lunatics “from inside the tent.”
This is how the vice president rewards the supporters of his boss’s most consequential decision of his six years in office? With vile, lazy smears directed at them in an effort to placate a figure who has lobbed the same smears at his own administration?
This is not a man with the requisite judgment to win a fight for the Republican Party’s nomination, much less be trusted with the keys to the White House.
His unpreparedness for the bright lights was even more manifest during a sit-down with CBS’s Norah O’Donnell, who asked him prior to the deal’s formal release, “Why not allow the world to see whatever this deal is you signed with Iran?”
“Yeah, so there are some frankly diplomatic protocols that I don&#8217;t fully understand. The Qataris and the Pakistanis, who have been helpful in mediating this agreement with the Iranians, they&#8217;ve asked us not to release the full text for a little while,” replied Vance. “We&#8217;re actually trying to push them to get it out today because we want to tell the American people what&#8217;s in this deal. It&#8217;s fundamentally a good deal for the American people, but it’s also very simple, and I’ve also seen some misrepresentations about it.”
His claim not to “understand” the “diplomatic protocols” at play was both suspect and of grave concern. The point person for the entire enterprise was unable to wrap his head around the reason for concealing the contents of the agreement from his constituents? It almost came as a relief when the deal leaked and it became clear that he had lied: the administration had been delaying because it knew the reaction to the establishment of a $300 billion war chest for the mullahs, the failure to secure the Strait of Hormuz over the long-term, and the unenforceable demand that Israel lay down its arms in the fight against Hezbollah would be justly apoplectic.
Perhaps the vice president merely misspoke when he characterized the accurate representations of his deal as “misrepresentations.”
Worst of all, though, was an assertion Vance made during a Monday evening conversation with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“The coolest thing about the progress we’ve made over the last few weeks is that you see people within the Iranian system — senior leadership, even IRGC officials — say, ‘You know what? We may have some animosity, we may have some mistrust. But we recognize the way that we’ve done business with the United States for 47 years is a mistake. Let’s try something else,’” he marveled.
Isn’t it neat what nice things notorious liars will say when their opponent has removed the boot from their neck and extended a $300 billion bag among numerous other concessions?
A contempt for the Democrats’ doe-eyed naivete about the nature of America’s enemies has long been among the right’s unifying organizing principles. Vance would replace it with the rebranded Obama-ism to which he has always subscribed.
In &#8220;Communion,&#8221; Vance frets that his critics will always view his Road to Damascus moment vis-à-vis Trump as “a politically cynical maneuver to gain political power.” By embarking on a mendacious press tour spotlighting the continuities between the Never Trump Vance of yesteryear and the MAGA enforcer of today, he has rendered that fear a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In June 2026, JD Vance won the battle over Trump administration policy, but lost the war for the soul of his party. It makes for a striking parallel to the shooting war America has just forfeited at his behest.
***
Isaac Schorr is a staff writer at Mediaite and a 2023–2024 Robert Novak Journalism Fellow at the Fund for American Studies.

Vice President JD Vance Speaks In Allentown, Pennsylvania

JD Vance’s Performance Review Has Him Walking A Fine Line

Communion

DW Opinion

Hillbilly Elegy

Iran Nuclear Deal

JD Vance

MAGA

The View

Trump Administration

Vice President

Comedian and HBO host Bill Maher pushed back immediately on claims from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) that CBS News was leaning hard toward President Donald Trump.
Murphy claimed during a Friday evening appearance with Maher that when CBS News axed longtime &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; anchor Scott Pelley, it was just further proof that the Trump administration was pushing to implement a &#8220;censorship state&#8221; and take full control of the media.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Bill Maher repeatedly swats down Democrat senator’s claim that Trump is hijacking 60 Minutes to “tell his story.”
No matter which direction Chris Murphy turned, Maher kept getting in his way.
MURPHY: “You’re watching a censorship state&#8230; Trump is using regulatory powers to… <a href="https://t.co/rS2ucGIroh">pic.twitter.com/rS2ucGIroh</a>
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) <a href="https://x.com/VigilantFox/status/2063108891471130724?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 6, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;You’re watching a censorship state,&#8221; Murphy asserted, adding, &#8220;Trump is using regulatory powers to punish people who oppose him.&#8221;
&#8220;That’s a big charge that you just made, that &#8217;60 Minutes&#8217; itself and CBS itself is now completely MAGA,&#8221; Maher pushed back. &#8220;I don’t see it that way.&#8221;
Murphy backpedaled slightly, saying, &#8220;It’s not completely MAGA.&#8221;
&#8220;Well, it’s kind of what you said,&#8221; Maher pointed out.
&#8220;But he is clearly intent on installing people who will tell his story and will keep his critics off the air,&#8221; Murphy claimed.
&#8220;But let me ask you this question. I watch &#8217;60 Minutes&#8217; every week. I have since I was a kid,&#8221; Maher continued to press, arguing that the media was making a story out of nothing. &#8220;If I didn’t hear all the buzz in the media … would I ever notice that it was any different? I don’t think I would.&#8221;
&#8220;Part of what the allegation is, is that they are killing stories that would be embarrassing for the president,&#8221; Murphy insisted, adding, &#8220;So it’s hard to know what you’re missing in a censorship environment.&#8221;
Maher noted that he was still seeing stories that weren&#8217;t exactly flattering to Trump, suggesting that if the goal was to censor unfavorable stories, the network had thus far not been terribly successful in doing so.
&#8220;I’ve seen ones that are not very favorable to the president,&#8221; he said, repeating, &#8220;I don’t know if I would have noticed anything different if I hadn’t been reading about it &#8230; Companies change hands all the time … ‘Oh my God. 60 Minutes has a new cast!’ So does &#8216;Saturday Night Live.'&#8221;
Over laughter from the audience, Maher added, &#8220;I’m not going to [fret] until I see a smoking gun.&#8221;

Bill Maher

Bill Maher Unravels Top Dem’s Claim That CBS Has Gone Full MAGA

Bill Maher Unravels Top Dem's Claim That CBS Has Gone Full MAGA

CBS News

Chris Murphy

Donald Trump

Media

Politics

Rapper Nicki Minaj is finally discussing what led her to reveal herself as a proud Trump supporter, a stance she claims to have held long before publicly backing the president.
The 43-year-old recording artist went into detail about her journey to MAGA town during an <a href="https://time.com/article/2026/05/14/nicki-minaj-trump/">interview</a> with Time published Wednesday.
“I felt that way already about him, just that I didn’t dare act like that publicly,” Minaj told the outlet, saying she feared backlash both from the Left-leaning music industry and from fans. “It’s been ingrained in everyone’s brain in the music business that we are supposed to be a Democratic family. I just knew they would not like me supporting Trump.”
The “Super Bass” singer said she wasn’t happy with former president Barack Obama because of comments he made about black men being uncomfortable with a female president while campaigning for Kamala Harris in 2024.
&#8220;I just saw so many videos of black men saying that they didn’t like the way they felt about that speech that Obama gave,” she added. “They felt like they weren’t being listened to.”
Minaj mentioned that Obama’s association with rapper Jay-Z didn’t help matters, for her and for her peers. &#8220;I think Jay-Z ended up costing Obama a lot, whether he knows it or not,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Lots of rappers don’t like Jay-Z and were afraid to say it.”
The singer said a series of “swatting” attacks in 2022 and 2023 also steered her away from Democrats and further into the Trump camp. Swatting refers to individuals calling in fake emergencies and sending law enforcement to someone’s location.
Minaj said she reached out to California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom for help, but he never got back to her.
“He just completely ignored me, with all the money I spent in taxes,&#8221; she told Time.
Then in 2025, Minaj was swatted again, and Florida Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna put her in touch with federal law enforcement and a private security team.
“I was shocked,” she said of Luna&#8217;s response. &#8220;I&#8217;d never seen anyone in politics treat me that way.&#8221;
It was also a turning point, Minaj said, adding, &#8220;That&#8217;s what made me say that I don&#8217;t care to keep this a secret anymore.&#8221; 
Despite massive backlash after calling herself “the president’s number one fan” and making several appearances at White House events in support of his administration, Minaj told the outlet she’s “never felt happier.&#8221;
&#8220;I’ve never felt better. When you can be yourself, you’re happier,” she concluded.

Trump and Minaj

Nicki Minaj Reveals The Reason She Finally Came Out As MAGA

Celebrities

Entertainment

Nicki Minaj

An Indian scammer is bragging about making money by conning “super dumb” conservative men with AI-generated social media accounts.
The 22-year-old med school student, identified in an <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/ai-generated-maga-girls/">interview</a> with Wired by the pseudonym “Sam,” said he created a fictional character named &#8220;Emily Hart&#8221; to help pay for school. The sexy blonde AI-generated persona was active on Facebook, Instagram, and the OnlyFans competitor site Fanvue, which allows AI-generated content (OnlyFans does not).
Sam said he used Google&#8217;s Gemini chatbot to help identify a target audience, claiming it suggested the “MAGA/conservative niche” could be particularly lucrative because “the conservative audience (especially older men in the US) often has higher disposable income and is more loyal.”
He then tailored the account&#8217;s content accordingly. Photos depicted “Emily” as a nurse taking part in activities like “ice fishing, drinking Coors Light, and shooting off a few rounds at the rifle range,” Wired reported.
One caption on the account said, “If you want a reason to unfollow: Christ is king, abortion is murder, and all illegals must be deported,” while another said, “POV: You were assigned intelligent at birth, but you identify as liberal.”
Sam told Wired he didn’t expect much from the account, but it kept growing in popularity. “Every Reel I posted was getting 3 million views, 5 million views, 10 million views. The algorithm loved it,” he said. 
Sam also claimed that an “AI hot girl Nazi influencer” would “blow up” and “break all the records.” Meta commented in the article, saying Nazi content was flagged and removed from the platform. 
“I was basically doing nothing,“ the con artist said of Emily’s Fanvue account featuring nude photos generated with AI. “And it was just flooded with money.” 
Both the Facebook and Instagram accounts associated with &#8220;Emily Hart&#8221; have been taken down. Sam told Wired he has no regrets about what he did. 
“I don’t feel like I was scamming people,” he said, adding that the fans probably would have followed along even if they knew Emily wasn’t real because they might “like the sentiment of it.”

AI woman

Don’t Fall For This Hot MAGA Influencer

Artificial Intelligence

Facebook

influencer

Instagram

scams

Social Media

WASHINGTON—War Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday laid down the law for members of President Donald Trump&#8217;s base who want more clarity on the war in Iran.
“I don’t understand why the base … wouldn’t have faith in his ability to execute on this,” Hegseth told Daily Wire White House Correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan, pointing to President Trump’s record of pursuing “peace through strength” and “America First outcomes.”
In a Pentagon press briefing, Olohan asked Hegseth if he had a message &#8220;to Americans who love the president and strongly believe in him but are very worried about this notion of boots on the ground?”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This morning I asked Secretary Pete Hegseth what his message is to Americans who love the president and support him, but are very anxious about this notion of &#8220;boots on the ground&#8221;: <a href="https://t.co/yvWJctIUt7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/yvWJctIUt7</a>
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/2039001865505968287?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">March 31, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Hegseth made it clear that while the president was keeping every option on the table, he would not aid the Iranian enemy forces by making known publicly what the next move would be.
“We’re not going to foreclose any option. You can’t fight and win a war if you tell your adversary what you are willing to do or what you are not willing to do, to include boots on the ground.”
While he nodded to the possibility of diplomacy (&#8220;maybe negotiations work, or maybe there’s a different approach”), Hegseth&#8217;s answer reinforced that escalation remains a live option. He also sought to reassure skeptics indirectly, arguing that Trump has “internalized the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan” and would not repeat past mistakes, even while keeping all military tools available.
While support for the war itself remains strong, as does <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnn-pollster-admits-it-reports-of-magas-death-have-been-grossly-exaggerated" target="_blank" rel="noopener">support among MAGA</a> for Trump, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-voters-oppose-action-iran-give-u-s-military-positive-marks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">polling</a> shows broad backing among Trump voters for strikes targeting Iran’s military infrastructure; support <a href="https://apnorc.org/projects/most-say-the-united-states-recent-military-actions-against-iran-have-gone-too-far/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">drops off sharply</a> when it comes to sending ground troops. Recent surveys show a majority of Republicans, and an even larger share of the broader electorate, oppose deploying U.S. troops, with roughly half of Republicans and nearly three-quarters of all voters against “boots on the ground.”
That divide has already begun to show up publicly, with cracks emerging inside the MAGA movement over the direction of the war and fears that it could become another prolonged Middle East conflict. Loud voices have increasingly warned against <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/19/pete-hegseth-iran-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mission creep</a>, invoking Iraq and Afghanistan as cautionary examples of conflicts that began with limited objectives but expanded over time.
Hegseth, while engaging at length, offered little in the way of direct reassurance. Instead, he leaned into strategic ambiguity and the need to keep adversaries guessing.
“Our adversary right now thinks there are 15 different ways we could come at them with boots on the ground,” he said. “And guess what? There are.”

Pete Hegseth And Dan Caine Hold Pentagon Press Briefing On Operation Epic Fury

Hegseth Gets Real With MAGA Voters Worried About Iran War

Iran

Pete Hegseth

Republican

Voters

The “C” from the popular 90s girl band TLC stands accused of being a secret MAGA member, a charge she’s vehemently refuted despite evidence to support it.
Rozonda &#8220;Chilli&#8221; Thomas posted a lengthy video addressing the claims and blaming her Trump campaign contributions on a simple error. The singer also had an excuse for sharing a video about former First Lady Michelle Obama secretly being a man, saying she didn’t understand how technology worked.
Thomas drew the ire of her left-leaning fans after it was discovered that the girl band member had contributed more than $1,000 to Republican fundraisers leading up to the 2024 election. 
The Independent <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/tlc-chilli-trump-donations-b2947668.html">called out</a> three separate donations recorded by the Federal Election Commission: $210.60 to WinRed, $340.60 to the Trump National Committee JFC, and $486.54 to Never Surrender Inc. 
&#8220;I am not MAGA and do not support any of the many policies that are causing great harm to the American people. I made a mistake too many make: I did not read the fine print,” she wrote in the caption of her video statement response. 
“I thought I was supporting causes against human trafficking and for veterans. Two things I care deeply about, as my dad is a veteran, and everyone knows I love children. I have learned a valuable lesson and ask for grace as I navigate this.&#8221;
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/DWdCKyqlsDo/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14">
<div style="padding: 16px;">
&nbsp;
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div>
<div style="padding-top: 8px;">
<div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;">
<div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 8px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: auto;">
<div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"></div>
</div>
&nbsp;
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DWdCKyqlsDo/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Chilli (@therealchilli)</a>
</div>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
Thomas asserted proof of her allegiance to Democrats by noting that she donated to both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. 
The TLC member also deleted the video, questioning if Michelle Obama was really a woman from her page, saying in the video update that it had been shared accidentally. 
&#8220;Let me say this first: I have the utmost respect and admiration for Michelle Obama, and I would never say or do anything that is disrespectful to her or to any woman,&#8221; Thomas said in her video. &#8220;I would never do that. I had no clue that this repost had happened until I started getting phone calls and text messages from everybody, and I immediately went to my page to see what was going on.&#8221;
She continued, &#8220;I&#8217;m not very computer-savvy, so I&#8217;m looking for this repost button, and I see that all of these buttons are very, very close to each other, and clearly I was scrolling and my thumb hit the repost button. Again, I had no clue that something like this happened until I got all the calls.&#8221;
&#8220;I would never do anything that&#8217;s harmful or hateful to anybody,&#8221; Thomas said. &#8220;I&#8217;m not wired like that.&#8221;
A rep for Thomas confirmed that 17 political donations in all were made as recurring payments.
The rep reiterated Thomas’ statement, saying, &#8220;It is unfortunate that her intentions are being misinterpreted. Chilli has been clear in her personal statement. She does not align with MAGA ideology, nor does she support any policies rooted in harm or division. Her life and career have reflected the opposite — a commitment to uplifting women, leading with empathy, and using her voice for positive impact.&#8221;

Chilli

TLC Member, Secret MAGA? Chilli Responds After Trump Donations Exposed

Music

Vice President JD Vance clapped back at popular podcast host Joe Rogan on Friday after Rogan blasted President Donald Trump&#8217;s &#8220;Make America Great Again&#8221; slogan and movement.
During an episode of the &#8220;Joe Rogan Experience&#8221; that dropped earlier this week, Rogan said the &#8220;Make America Great Again&#8221; phrase &#8220;sucks,&#8221; adding that MAGA has become &#8220;a movement of a bunch of dorks.&#8221;
&#8220;First of all, America is great,&#8221; Rogan said during an interview with comedian Dave Smith. &#8220;Make America greater? I&#8217;m down. But &#8216;Make America Great Again&#8217; and then it becomes a movement of a bunch of f*cking dorks? Because a lot of them are dorks. A lot of them are these really weird, f*cking uninteresting, unintelligent people that have got something that they cling to.&#8221;
Rogan added that &#8220;there’s a lot of people that are just real genuine patriots and they’re all lumped into this one group and you got to accept the dorks, too? F*ck that!&#8221;
Vance, who has been friendly with Rogan and appeared on Rogan&#8217;s podcast in October 2024, responded to the comedian&#8217;s comments during an interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson on Friday.
&#8220;I think we have many, many fewer dorks than the far-Left,&#8221; Vance said. &#8220;But everybody&#8217;s got some dorks. We love our dorks. We love our cool kids. We love anybody who wants to save our country.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Vice President JD Vance PUNCHES BACK at Joe Rogan for Calling MAGA ‘Dorks’
“Far fewer dorks than the far-left. But we love our dorks. We love our cool kids. We just want to save the country”
Vance Also HIT BACK at Joe Rogan for Claiming Obama And Hillary Were ‘Better At… <a href="https://t.co/s8ViWvjnrt">pic.twitter.com/s8ViWvjnrt</a>
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/2037599563864059907?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script>
Both Rogan and Smith backed Trump and Vance in the 2024 election, but they have become increasingly critical of the president over his handling of foreign policy and the Epstein files. Smith, a regular guest on Rogan&#8217;s show, aligns with many of the anti-Israel views spouted by commentators and politicians on the far-Left. Both Rogan and Smith suggested that Trump has betrayed his base over the Iran war, but polling consistently shows that Trump&#8217;s supporters back his actions in Iran.
In another episode of his podcast this week, Rogan brought up MAGA and quipped that Democrats like former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton used to be &#8220;more MAGA than MAGA” on border security.
“Her take on the border was like hardcore,” Rogan said. “If you’ve been convicted of a crime, get out. If you stay here, pay a stiff penalty, and you have to get in line, and you have to learn English! And everyone cheers. Like, that is a hardcore right-wing 2026 perspective.”
He then said that Obama &#8220;deported more people than Trump did.&#8221;
Vance also responded to Rogan&#8217;s comments on Democrats&#8217; past support for border security and said Rogan was &#8220;wrong&#8221; for suggesting that Obama was better at deporting illegal immigrants than Trump.
&#8220;I&#8217;m going to text Joe because that is definitely wrong,&#8221; Vance told Johnson. &#8220;Here&#8217;s why this is wrong: when you look at the deportation numbers that go back to the Obama administration, they would count somebody who showed up at the border and they turned away as a deportation. Now, we have almost no one showing up at the border because the border is secure.&#8221;

Trump/Vance/Rogan

JD Vance Responds After Joe Rogan Hurls Insults At Trump’s Movement

Joe Rogan

WASHINGTON—The mood at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast was reverent, polished, and familiar: suits and ties, rosaries tucked into jacket pockets, speeches invoking faith and public life. But just beneath the surface, a different conversation was unfolding.
As bleary-eyed folks chatted at tables before the early-morning event, a growing divide within the conservative Catholic movement came into focus, one shaped by generational change, foreign policy, and competing visions of what the faith demands in public life.
“When I post apologetics on Instagram, I get one of two camps,” Jessica Newell, a Gen Z pro-life operative, told The Daily Wire. “One group who’s skeptical of Israel and brings it to that or the other that is very curious.” Newell described what many younger Catholics at the event see as a widening divide.
“There’s the Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens side of the conservative Catholics and the Matt Walsh, Michael Knowles side,” she said. “And it boils down to transient politics versus eternal values and value judgments.”
At the Prayer Breakfast, the divisions were not visible from the podium. The language there remained unified around faith, life, service, and country.
Daily Wire host Michael Knowles, who delivered the keynote address, took the event as an historic fulfillment. Speaking ahead of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Knowles traced the arc of Catholicism in America from marginalization to prominence.
He noted that early American Catholics faced legal discrimination in several states and hostility from movements like the Know-Nothing Party, yet argued that the American system ultimately proved uniquely suited for the faith to take root and flourish. “Here we find ourselves, a quarter millennium later, a people and a place so improbably and perfectly suited for each other that not only can a Catholic become president, but an American can even be the pope,” Knowles said.
Highlighting the increasing presence of Catholics in public life, he pointed to the growing number of Catholic figures in Congress, the judiciary, and the executive branch. “If you count vice presidents and first ladies, we have now had baptized Catholics in the White House for 17 consecutive years,” he added.
In a letter delivered to attendees, Pope Leo XIV offered his “cordial greetings and good wishes,” emphasizing the longstanding Christian tradition of praying for one’s nation. Citing St. Paul, the Holy Father&#8217;s message underscored the power of intercession, reminding attendees that prayer for political leaders is both a biblical mandate and a continuing responsibility. “You have gathered for fellowship as well as to pray for the United States,” the message read, adding that such prayer, “united to that of Christ,” remains “powerful and effective.”
A message from President Donald Trump, read by White House Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley, struck a similarly affirming tone. The president reiterated his administration’s commitment to religious liberty, writing in a letter to the attendees at the event, “My administration remains firmly committed to defending the right of every Catholic to worship God freely and without fear,” while also marking the celebration of the feast of St. Joseph.
Other speakers reinforced the centrality of faith in both personal and national life. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) reflected on surviving the 2017 congressional baseball shooting, describing how prayer sustained him in the face of possible death. “Prayer is such a powerful thing because it’s a direct conversation with God, and God is listening,” he said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) defended the role of religion in the public square, pushing back on modern interpretations of “separation of church and state.” Referencing Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists, Johnson argued the founders intended to protect religious practice from government interference, not to exclude faith from public life altogether. “A free society and a healthy republic depend upon religious and moral virtue,” he said.
Other moments throughout the event pointed to the global and cultural reach of the Catholic community. Claire Lai, daughter of imprisoned Hong Kong publisher and free speech advocate Jimmy Lai, appealed for continued American support for her father’s release. Actor Jonathan Roumie spoke about portraying Christ in &#8220;The Chosen&#8221; as a deeply spiritual responsibility. And the founders of the Hallow app were honored for their work in expanding digital evangelization.
Taken together, the official program projected unity: a vision of Catholicism as deeply embedded in the American experiment, increasingly influential, and sustained by prayer.
But on the ground, among the next generation of activists, the fault lines are already clear. As the debate sharpens and the coalition pulls apart and collides, the question facing conservative Catholics is no longer whether a divide exists, but what will come of it.
Surveys from <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/04/02/younger-americans-stand-out-in-their-views-of-the-israel-hamas-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pew Research Center</a> show younger conservatives diverging from older Republicans on foreign policy, particularly on questions of intervention and international alliances. Nowhere is that divide more visible than on Israel.
“We definitely see a lot more people willing to be anti-Israel because the pro-life movement is a bit edgier, more anti-establishment,” said Kristin Dorsey, another Gen Z pro-life advocate.
That shift comes in the wake of frustration following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women&#8217;s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade. While the ruling was a major victory for pro-life activists, many younger organizers say Republican politicians failed to seize the moment.
Coverage from <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/15/abortion-opponents-revamp-their-midterms-plans-as-rift-with-trump-widens-00729224" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Politico</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/27/politics/trump-asks-court-pause-lawsuit-abortion-pill-access#:~:text=Pro%2Dlife%20Americans%20are%20growing%20increasingly,general%20counsel%20for%20AUL%2C%20said." target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a> has documented similar frustrations among pro-life leaders, who argue the movement has received little in the way of sustained legislative follow-through.
At the same time, Catholic teaching itself does not mandate political support for any nation-state, including Israel. The Catechism of the Catholic Church emphasizes just war principles, the preservation of human dignity, and prudence in foreign policy. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has consistently called for <a href="https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/middle-east/archbishop-coakley-calls-for-restraint-diplomacy-and-peace-as-hostilities-escalate-in-middle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">peace and restraint in Middle East conflicts</a>.
That tension has increasingly spilled into conservative politics. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was <a href="https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/ted-cruz-catholic-church-evangelical-christians/2026/03/16/id/1249691/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently criticized</a> for what was described as an attack on Catholics for not embracing Christian Zionism — which, as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-ted-cruz-is-wrong-about-christian-zionism?author=Matt+Fradd&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Why+Ted+Cruz+Is+Wrong+About+Christian+Zionism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matt Fradd recently explained</a>, is contrary to Catholic doctrine. Younger attendees at the breakfast expressed skepticism about the country&#8217;s latest foreign entanglement.
“I think it was misguided. I think we lost a lot of steam,” one Zoomer attendee said of U.S. involvement in Iran, declining to give his name but identifying himself as a convert to Catholicism. Reporting from <a href="https://apnews.com/article/iran-maga-media-trump-carlson-megyn-kelly-cb283ae306f172cea02f25ddc44dd56f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Associated Press</a> has noted similar debates within conservative circles following escalations involving Iran and Israel.
“I feel like we’re at an inflection point,” said Jack, another Gen Z attendee. “Young men are tired of being put last &#8230; and we’re willing to speak out about it, loudly if we have to.”
Despite sharp disagreements on foreign policy and political strategy, there was one issue where attendees showed notable alignment: immigration. “Look, this is a Christian nation,” said Gregory, a millennial convert. “We are going to be just and merciful, but we’re going to enforce our laws.”
While some differed on the scale and method of deportations, none of the attendees interviewed rejected strong border enforcement outright. That consensus exists in tension with broader Church teaching, which emphasizes the dignity of migrants while also recognizing the right of nations to enforce their laws — a balance highlighted in a November 2025 statement from the <a href="https://www.usccb.org/news/2025/us-bishops-issue-special-message-immigration-plenary-assembly-baltimore" target="_blank" rel="noopener">United States Conference of Catholic Bishops</a>.
For older Catholics, the rising intensity among younger activists is both encouraging and concerning. “They’re going to learn that what they want isn’t as simple as they say it is,” said Pat, a longtime pro-life advocate. “Having principles and being loud is really good — that’s what youth is for. But sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.” Pat also dismissed the centrality of Israel in the debate: “I think they obsess over Israel. I think it’s a non-issue. They’re an allied nation like any other.”
Even among clergy, there is recognition that something is shifting. “The youth and the converts are the future,” one priest said, requesting anonymity. “They’re on fire. I think it’d be wise for the clergy to realize that and try to guide them and help them,” he added.
“They’re the ones who are going to be getting the big political wins when it comes to abortion, same-sex marriage, and everything else going into the future.”

Vice President JD Vance Speaks At The National Catholic Prayer Breakfast

‘Transient Politics Versus Eternal Values’: Inside The Catholic Civil War

Catholicism

Israel

U.S.

MAGA is breaking. Trump is losing. The sky is falling.
Our craven mainstream media are frothing at the mouth at the notion that MAGA could be fracturing. All of their juiciest, most lurid fantasies are coming true.
But as it turns out, MAGA is doing just fine — we&#8217;re just shedding some excess baggage here.
A brand new <a href="https://yougov.com/en-us/articles/54342-americans-suddenly-more-likely-to-see-economy-getting-worse-march-13-16-2026-economist-yougov-poll">Economist/YouGov poll</a>, taken March 13-16, asked what President Trump&#8217;s approval rating was on the American attack on Iran. Among MAGA: Voters, 87% supported; 6% disapproved. How about sending ground troops to Iran if necessary? 35% of MAGA said sure; 36% said no: a dead even split. How about on whether to end the war quickly or to stay until the objectives are achieved in Iran? Only 30% of MAGA supporters said that we should end the war as quickly as possible. 58% said that we should keep fighting until all American objectives have been achieved.
No, President Trump is not losing MAGA.
And yet, according to those who have had their brains rotted out by X along with our usual duds in the mainstream media, the base is totally fractured. And they know this because they have found some new heroes, heretic MAGA, who are targeting the administration for destruction. 
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2390-sub"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
And this brings us to Joe Kent.
Joe Kent is a former failed congressional candidate from Washington state who was elevated to the position of director of the National Center for Counter Terrorism — which you really had never heard of — by President Trump. Kent, a former Green Beret who served in the CIA, was serving under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Kent has a long political history. In 2020, he voted for Bernie Sanders. But then, in 2022, while running for Congress, Kent ran into a bit of trouble because of his associations with white supremacists. According to Nick Fuentes, Kent sought his support, but then was forced to disavow him when that support became public.
Kent has been, for a very long time, conspiratorially minded in the extreme. He suggested that the Secret Service might have been in on the assassination attempt on President Trump in July 2024, among other bizarre theories. He&#8217;s also been strangely supportive of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin&#8217;s aggression against Ukraine.
Before that, though, Kent had some bizarrely heterodox views. In 2020, after President Trump knocked off Iranian terror master Qasem Soleimani, Kent <a href="https://x.com/joekent16jan19/status/1214778671564611584">explained</a>, “We remain in striking distance by choice for no clear benefit. We should crush their ballistic and nuclear capes and get out of Iraq with sanctions to follow.”
Interesting, because that&#8217;s kind of what President Trump has been doing.
Way back when Kent was actually nominated to serve in the federal government, MSNBC was highly critical, <a href="https://www.ms.now/transcript/transcript-rachel-maddow-show-8-9-22-n1298426">saying</a>, “That man you heard speaking is a Trump-endorsed Republican who believes the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and he hired a member of the Proud Boys as a campaign consultant. He once told a white nationalist youth group, ‘I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s anything wrong with there being a white people special interest group.’”
Then yesterday, Kent released a bizarre and paranoid letter announcing his resignation from the National Center for Counter-Terrorism. In the letter, Kent <a href="https://x.com/joekent16jan19">announced</a> that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
You know who he&#8217;s talking about, don&#8217;t you? You know, (nudge, nudge.)
He then stated that Trump had been duped by “high ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media who deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran.”
And then, just in case he wasn&#8217;t done blaming the Israelis, he blamed the Iraq war on the Israelis, too. And even then he wasn&#8217;t done, <a href="https://x.com/MelanieLatest/status/2033916987324137737">declaring</a> that his wife, who was killed by ISIS in Syria in 2019, was murdered “in a war manufactured by Israel.”
So to get this straight, according to Joe Kent, who was a Trump appointee in charge of the National Center for Counter Terrorism, President Trump is a dupe of the Israelis and unspecified media members, who knows? The Iraq war was the fault of the Israelis, even though it was opposed at the time by the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon. And also the Israelis are at fault for his wife being murdered by ISIS in Syria somehow.
This is, to put it mildly, nutty.
President Trump himself dismissed the notion he&#8217;s been manipulated by the nefarious “Juden” <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-meets-with-taoiseach-of-ireland/675656">yesterday</a>, saying, “I was against Iran long before I ever thought about Israel being against Iran. I was, if you look back many years ago, I talked about Iran was a big threat to this country, to this world of ours.”
Kent’s take is unsurprising, to be honest. His wife works for far-left propagandist Max Blumenthal, who&#8217;s worked for a wide variety of foreign propaganda outlets.
All of this calls into question why Kent was selected for his job in the first place. Obviously, Kent and his Ron Paul-esque foreign policy preferences have some allies in the administration. According to Fox News, Kent was “a known leaker,” and he was cut out of the president&#8217;s intelligence briefings months ago.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/karoline-leavitt-speaks-to-reporters-about-war-in-iran/675767">this morning</a>:
<blockquote>It&#8217;s been a while since the president has seen him here at the White House. It&#8217;s been a while since he&#8217;s been involved in the process of the presidential daily briefs and he&#8217;s been actually present for the president&#8217;s intelligence briefings. This was an individual who was not involved in any of the discussions pre-operation and throughout this operation, I think the president views it as deeply unfortunate that this individual, who the president gave the privilege of working for the administration, put out this resignation on government letterhead with many falsehoods throughout, essentially accusing the president of being manipulated by foreign governments. That&#8217;s laughable, and it&#8217;s insulting.</blockquote>
Kent’s resignation letter basically calls Trump a dullard working at the behest of the Zionists. That was enough to earn Kent the royal treatment from our usual friends. He is slated to appear on all the leaders of the anti-Trump Grievance Party podcasts: Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and all the rest. MSNOW has discovered newfound love for Joe Kent with some strange new respect. CNN is suddenly incredibly happy with Joe Kent, a guy that CNN hated until five seconds ago.
President Trump responded to Joe Kent&#8217;s resignation with a proper level of dismissiveness, saying <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-meets-with-taoiseach-of-ireland/675656">yesterday</a>, “I read his statement. I always thought he&#8217;s a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security. I didn&#8217;t know him well, but I thought he seemed like a pretty nice guy. But when I read the statement, I realized that it&#8217;s a good thing that he&#8217;s out because he said that Iran was not a threat? Iran was a threat. Every country realized what a threat Iran was. The question is whether or not they wanted to do something about it.”
And then, for good measure, the president decided to dunk on Kent, showing his rather inconsistent feelings about the Middle East. He reposted a 2020 tweet from Kent that stated, “We should not sit and wait for the next attack, wipe Iran&#8217;s ballistic capability out and get our troops out of Iraq — they are only targets now. No US WIA/KIA is a tribute to the professionalism of our military and Intel professionals not Iranian restraint.”
So back in 2020 Kent was hawkish on Iran.
Leavitt released <a href="https://x.com/PressSec/status/2033932810709315865">a statement</a> detailing all the false allegations in Kent&#8217;s resignation letter.
She stated:
<blockquote>There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that &#8220;Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.&#8221; This is the same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over. As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first. This evidence was compiled from many sources and factors. President Trump would never make the decision to deploy military assets against a foreign adversary in a vacuum. Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
The Iranian regime is evil. It proudly killed Americans, waged war against our country, and openly threatened us all the way up to the launch of Operation Epic Fury. Iran was aggressively expanding their short-range ballistic missiles to combine with their naval assets to give themselves immunity – meaning they would have a degree of capabilities that would give them immunity to hold us and the rest of the world hostage.</blockquote>
The best comment came from Senator John Fetterman, who remains hilariously awesome. He told the Huffington Post, “I don’t really care. I know your readership loves that, and the New York Times love it. And then he&#8217;s going to be the national hero, you know, just like you made, MTG. That that was your mascot for a while. But now her crazy ass is now all about Tucker Carlson. … so, I don&#8217;t really care what he&#8217;s chosen to do, and I wish the best for him in his next life.”
Make no mistake: Trump is still very much in control of MAGA.
And when he wins the war, that control will solidify even further, as it should.

US-POLITICS-SHOOTING-KIRK

Media Hopes MAGA Is Fracturing. Not Even Close.

Ben Shapiro

Federal Government

Joe Kent

Middle East

Republicans

Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) admitted during a Wednesday interview that Vice President JD Vance &#8220;scares&#8221; him as the potential heir apparent to helm the Make America Great Again movement going into the 2028 presidential election.
Newsom voiced his concerns to former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on MS NOW, calling Secretary of State Marco Rubio &#8220;a complete fraud&#8221; and telling her that Vance, in particular, worried him &#8220;almost more than&#8221; President Donald Trump.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Marco Rubio is a complete fraud. But no one tops JD Vance. Talk about a guy who put a mask on his face and grew into it. Pathetic. <a href="https://t.co/fNbTEYJY4z">pic.twitter.com/fNbTEYJY4z</a>
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) <a href="https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/2026863309660492132?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;There are some people waiting in the wings in the MAGA world who would love to be the chosen ones of the Trump orbit,&#8221; Psaki began, adding, &#8220;JD Vance is one of them. Marco Rubio is one of them. Do you think they can carry on the MAGA flame here?&#8221;
&#8220;No. But Vance, for whatever reason, scares me,&#8221; Newsom volunteered.
&#8220;Why?&#8221; Psaki pressed.
&#8220;Almost more than Trump. I don’t know. I just — I mean, talk about a guy who put a mask on and his face grew into it,&#8221; Newsom said, complaining that Vance and Rubio — as well as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — had been &#8220;effective&#8221; critics of Trump before coming around to his way of thinking.
&#8220;What frauds, what phonies. But JD is a unique fraud and phony. And he’s a little more dangerous. And — and the folks around him, these are not folks that believe — I mean, listen to some of its biggest funders, the way they talk. There’s a nihilism to the way they talk about the world,&#8221; Newsom continued, adding, &#8220;I know these guys. I literally know them, not figuratively know them. Some of them are in the book, knew them back when.&#8221;
&#8220;So, again, I don’t want to be overly hyperbolic about this,&#8221; Newsom said, just as he pivoted to be more hyperbolic: &#8220;So [Trump&#8217;s] going to try to run this out until right after the end, until he can pick and choose who goes behind him. Or, God forbid, we don’t take back the House of Representatives, he may be on that ballot.&#8221;
Psaki agreed, &#8220;He&#8217;ll try.&#8221;
&#8220;I just wouldn’t put it past him,&#8221; said Newsom.
Trump has repeatedly said that he will not seek a third term in the White House, and has demurred when asked who he might want to see replace him. Touting the skills of both Vance and Rubio, Trump has only said that either would be a good choice.

Governor Newsom And San Francisco Mayor Lurie Announce New Funding For Homelessness And Mental Health Ffforts In The City

Gavin Newsom Reveals The MAGA Successor Who Would Scare Him ‘Almost More Than Trump’

Gavin Newsom Admits He's Scared Of JD Vance

Gavin Newsom

Jen Psaki

Regular CNN analyst Bakari Sellers veered into Nazi territory when he referred to President Donald Trump as a &#8220;cancer&#8221; and suggested that the president&#8217;s voters were vermin or even demons who needed to be completely eradicated from the United States.
Sellers, during a recent panel discussion hosted by ousted CNN anchor Don Lemon, claimed that the nation was well on its way to requiring an &#8220;exorcism&#8221; or even a &#8220;fumigation&#8221; to remove the MAGA movement in its entirety.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Bakari Sellers tells Don Lemon: The country needs a “fumigation” of MAGA.
Is this acceptable rhetoric from your panelists, <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNN</a>? <a href="https://t.co/yYu4ubBetx">pic.twitter.com/yYu4ubBetx</a>
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/2020151901086457886?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;You know, Joe Biden was somewhat of a bridge, he was supposed to be a bridge,&#8221; Sellers began, suggesting that former President Joe Biden&#8217;s election had been a means to an end — the tolerable middle ground that would allow the country to break away from Trump&#8217;s first administration and pave the way toward a real Democratic movement.
&#8220;A palate cleanser, or somebody who morally and ethically was antithetical to who Donald Trump was,&#8221; Sellers continued. &#8220;You know, Uncle Joe was the nice guy, an older white guy comes in and you want to eat ice cream with him, right?&#8221;
But then Sellers went on to say that President Trump&#8217;s decisive victory in 2024 had proved that using Biden as a &#8220;palate cleanser&#8221; had not been enough to put an end to the Trump&#8217;s support and clear the way for Democrats moving forward. He made no move to recognize that Biden may have failed to move the needle because he was not an effective leader, nor did he raise the possibility that Trump had coasted to reelection in 2024 because former Vice President Kamala Harris had not been a strong candidate.
Instead, Sellers responded to that assessment by arguing in favor of taking more drastic measures to &#8220;cleanse&#8221; the nation&#8217;s palate of its taste for Trump, comparing the president&#8217;s supporters to vermin that required &#8220;fumigation&#8221; and even demons in desperate need of an &#8220;exorcism.&#8221;
&#8220;I think what that episode in our country&#8217;s history showed us is that we really need some fumigation, right? We need a — a — exorcism, for lack of a better term,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We need a more aggressive approach to go in and surgically remove the cancer that is the Donald Trump and MAGA movement.&#8221;

Claflin University Spring 2023 Commencement Convocation

CNN Regular Says Trump Is A Cancer, MAGA Is A Demon In Need Of ‘Exorcism’

CNN Regular Says Trump Is A Cancer, MAGA Is A Demon In Need Of 'Exorcism'

Bakari Sellers

Cancer

Don Lemon

Over the weekend, X (formerly Twitter) rolled out a major transparency feature called “About This Account,” which publicly displays an account’s home location, join date, username-change history, and all hell broke loose.
The purpose, according to the company, was to give users enough context to identify inauthentic behavior, spot foreign influence, and distinguish real users from coordinated bot activity. Verified government accounts with grey checkmarks are exempt &#8220;to prevent acts of terrorism against government leaders,&#8221; an X official <a href="https://x.com/nikitabier/status/1992370352677360022">said</a>.
The location data could be influenced by travel, temporary locations, or the use of virtual private networks (VPNs), X <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cd6xyjj0gnjt?post=asset%3A2243f0c6-f8ac-4d58-a13f-6acc6e6faf3f#post">said</a> over the weekend.
Within hours of the feature’s release, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/23/rightwing-influencers-outside-us-x-twitter-tool" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the social media platform told users</a> that many of the most prominent “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) accounts were not American at all but were operating from Russia, Nigeria, India, Thailand, Pakistan, and other foreign hubs.
Nikita Bier, X&#8217;s head of product, <a href="https://x.com/nikitabier/status/1992820294864732411">said</a> a Monday update to the feature would make it &#8220;nearly 99.99%&#8221; accurate.
“Cyber-enabled influence operations function on common principles that can be understood through an identification-imitation-amplification framework,” <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-foreign-governments-sway-voters-with-online-manipulation/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Scientific American</a> explains. “First, ‘outsiders’ (malicious actors) identify target audiences and divisive issues through social media microtargeting. Following this, the ‘outsiders’ may pose as members of the target audience by assuming false identities, through imitation which increases their credibility.”
“’Fake MAGA’ accounts co-opt MAGA and ‘America First’ branding to attract the same target audiences, yet our research has traced this activity to coordinated bot farms,” the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) <a href="https://networkcontagion.us/reports/6-18-25-false-flags-and-fake-maga-how-foreign-and-inauthentic-networks-use-fake-speech-to-destabilize-the-right-from-within/">reported</a>. “These operations emerge swiftly, often within 48 hours of  high-profile crises, and consistently use scripted tactics. Though these accounts often appear to  echo or profess MAGA values at surface level, they frequently disseminate narratives aligned  with adversarial foreign propaganda.”
Right now, DailyWire+ annual memberships are fifty percent off during our Black Friday sale. Join now at <a href="http://dailywire.com/blackfriday" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dailywire.com/blackfriday</a>.
This pattern extended beyond U.S. politics. The same location-reveal feature <a href="https://www.israelhayom.com/2025/11/23/x-location-tracking-exposes-fake-gaza-accounts-pakistan/">exposed</a> global inauthentic networks: accounts posing as Gazan journalists, raising funds for supposed war victims, or engaging in anti-Israel activism, but actually operating from Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, or the United States. Israeli social media researchers noted large anti-Israel or “Gaza journalist” accounts tweeting from Pakistan and Bangladesh while pretending to be Western or Middle Eastern civilians. These findings demonstrated that X’s new tool was surfacing cross-issue bot networks, many of which appeared to serve overlapping geopolitical aims.
According to NCRI, these networks activate rapidly after crises—mass shootings, terror attacks, political scandals, or even natural disasters—injecting false-flag narratives, conspiracy claims, and divisive misinformation within minutes. One activation window produced 650,000 posts pushing false-flag claims with nearly four million interactions, fueled by Kremlin propaganda nodes, bot farms, and domestic influencers unknowingly amplifying messages seeded by foreign intelligence services. The same networks later pivoted to attack Donald Trump directly, accusing him of corruption or immoral behavior after a public rift between Trump and Elon Musk, revealing that the objective was not to support MAGA but to use its symbols to destabilize the movement.
This strategy fits a broader pattern outlined by analysts studying cyber-enabled influence operations, which follow a cycle of identification, imitation, and amplification. Foreign actors identify divisive issues, impersonate members of the target community, and amplify polarizing messages at scale—often through AI-generated personas, as shown by the Russian AI-driven bot farm <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-leads-efforts-among-federal-international-and-private-sector-partners">targeted</a> by the DOJ in 2024.
X’s new location transparency has made many of these impostors and bot farms visible for the first time, confirming what researchers have long warned: that numerous loud online voices claiming to represent MAGA or broader American conservatism were foreign-run operations aimed at fracturing U.S. political coalitions, sowing distrust, and undermining national unity.

Menu