A professional protester known for harassing worshippers at Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s church in Washington, D.C., has emerged as a key figure in the disruption of Sunday’s service at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.
William Kelly, a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DSWQf_PDVsE/?hl=en">self-described</a> combat veteran, was <a href="https://x.com/Rightanglenews/status/2013003075389124755?s=20">captured on video</a> storming into the sanctuary with a mob of other activists associated with Black Lives Matter and the Racial Justice Network. The demonstrators <a href="https://x.com/DennyBurk/status/2013060811669885235?s=20">chanted</a> “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” and screamed at congregants, labeling them &#8220;fake Christians&#8221; because one of the church’s pastors also serves as an ICE field director. Jonathan Parnell, lead pastor of the Southern Baptist church, called the protestors “shameful” and eventually chose to end the service after some of the children started crying. 
Kevin Ezell, head of the Southern Baptists’ mission board, said <a href="https://x.com/kevezell/status/2013000560388067721?s=20">on X</a> that he had spoken to Cities Church staff members who reported that “the kids in the worship service were terrified.” In a later post he added, “These intimidating tactics are not only illegal but cowardly. No cause justifies traumatizing families as they worship and desecrate a sacred space.”
Many on social media, including Deputy Undersecretary of War Justin Overbaugh, immediately <a href="https://x.com/JustinOverbaugh/status/2013011311584522411?s=20">identified</a> Kelly as the same man regularly posted outside Hegseth’s church in Washington. Joe Rigney, a founding pastor of Cities Church in St. Paul who also helped plant Christ Church in D.C., said Kelly and his fellow protestors have regularly disrupted their D.C. worship services for the past six months.
“They&#8217;ll play music or yell and scream and use bullhorns and loud sound amplification to try to prevent us from singing psalms and hearing the Word preached,” he told The Daily Wire. One member was transported to the hospital after a protester screaming into a bullhorn shattered his eardrum. Rigney said Kelly&#8217;s tactics have also included screaming obscenities at minors as families are entering the sanctuary, forcing a need for police escorts. &#8220;They&#8217;ve sought to disrupt Christian worship gatherings now in multiple places.&#8221; 
Kelly and his fellow activists are allegedly protesting an ICE agent fatally shooting Renee Good during a raid in Minneapolis earlier this month. But Rigney, who pastored Cities Church and lived in Minneapolis for seven years before he joined Christ Church, notes that he has no connection to Kelly’s ostensible reasons for harassing his new congregation, which Kelly has targeted for being “Christian nationalist.” Rigney believes the cause isn’t important to Kelly or his compatriots, who he accuses of being part of a network of paid activists who wait for an opportune opening to wreak havoc.
“I think Minneapolis, because of the George Floyd riots, the Black Lives Matter organizations were already sort of there but had just kind of been latent and inactive,” Rigney said. “And now there&#8217;s a new thing that has kind of triggered them … So I think that the same groups that were agitating about that then have found a kind of a new cause of the moment to allow them to protest.”
Rigney says he hopes the Trump administration will prosecute everyone involved in disrupting these church services to “send a message that that&#8217;s unacceptable.” And the Department of Justice has already announced that it is investigating the protest for violations of federal civil rights laws and the FACE Act, which protects religious worshippers from intimidation or obstruction based on ideological differences. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon called the protest “UnAmerican and outrageous.”
Local Minneapolis law enforcement does not look likely to act. The police department monitored the service but made no immediate arrests as demonstrators left the building after the service had been stopped. Police officials said they were working to balance respect for both free speech and the right of congregations to worship without disruption.
Asked how he responds to charges from Kelly and the other protestors that it is not Christian to support ICE’s work, Rigney, who published a<a href="https://a.co/d/hJFPLGd"> 2025 book</a> on the misuse of empathy, said he doubts they have much understanding of Christianity.
“I think that kind of rhetoric is an attempt to steer,” he said. “Particularly coming from people who likely aren&#8217;t Christians or at least aren&#8217;t Bible-believing Christians … It is an attempt to steer and sabotage Christians so that they won&#8217;t resist the lawlessness that the left is seeking to impose.”
Rigney believes the Christian response to such attacks is greater boldness. “In the book of Acts, you saw precisely this kind of lawlessness,” he said. “You had mobs, you had shouting false accusations. You had government officials encouraging it in the way that the Democrats are doing right now. And in that day, Christians gathered together, and they prayed for boldness.&#8221;
“That&#8217;s what Christians ought to meet this with.”

Riots

Career Activist Who Disrupted Minneapolis Worship Service Also Targeted Hegseth’s DC Church

Churches

Minneapolis

Pete Hegseth

Protest

WASHINGTON—The Department of War will modernize Stars &amp; Stripes, The Daily Wire has learned, refocusing the military news outlet so it better serves &#8220;a new generation of service members.&#8221;
The independent news outlet authorized by the Department of War is meant to provide news for the military community. The publication has been in continuous circulation since World War II and covers the military, veterans affairs, and world events.
Until now, it has republished content from the Associated Press and Reuters. This will no longer be the case, War Department officials explained to The Daily Wire. They plan to bring the publication &#8220;into the 21st century&#8221; and modernize its operations, refocusing content &#8220;away from woke distractions that siphon morale.&#8221;
“The Department of War is returning Stars &amp; Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters,&#8221; Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told The Daily Wire. &#8220;We are bringing Stars &amp; Stripes into the 21st century. We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that siphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1028217" style="width: 910px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pentagon-refocuses-stars-stripes-on-reporting-for-our-warfighters/us-news-texas-hegseth-3-ft" rel="attachment wp-att-1028217"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1028217" class="wp-image-1028217 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2255455251-900x576.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2255455251-900x576.jpg 900w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2255455251-300x192.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2255455251-768x491.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2255455251.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /></a>Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (Amanda McCoy/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)</div>
Parnell said the publication will be &#8220;custom-tailored&#8221; to the War Department&#8217;s soldiers, focused on &#8220;warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY.&#8221;
&#8220;No more repurposed D.C. gossip columns,&#8221; he added, &#8220;no more Associated Press reprints.&#8221;
&#8220;Stars &amp; Stripes has a proud legacy of reporting news that’s important to our service members,&#8221; Parnell said. &#8220;The Department of War is committed to ensuring the outlet continues to reflect that proud legacy.”
It is a move condoned by the White House, which applauded the move as an example of how President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration is modernizing institutions across the country.
“The Department of War, under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, is continuing to revitalize, restore, and modernize,&#8221; White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Stars and Stripes is just the latest example of a broader effort to adapt long-standing institutions to how today’s service members live, work, and consume information.&#8221;
Currently, Stars &amp; Stripes has civilian staff who aggregate wire reports and write original stories. Going forward, the War Department officials shared, the publication&#8217;s content will be written by active-duty service members.
Fifty percent of the website&#8217;s content will be composed of War Department-generated materials, including digital or print materials made by War Department writers and images captured by combat cameras.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Rocket Lab, Long Beach, rocket production

Pentagon Refocuses ‘Stars & Stripes’ On ‘Reporting For Our Warfighters’

Department of War

Pentagon

War Secretary Pete Hegseth fired back — rhetorically speaking — at Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) over a lawsuit filed Monday, saying that the Arizona Democrat was only &#8220;worried and cranky&#8221; because he was facing consequences for his own actions.
&#8220;&#8216;Captain&#8217; Kelly knows exactly what he did, and that he will be held to account. Thats why he’s so worried and cranky,&#8221; Hegseth posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
“Captain” Kelly knows exactly what he did, and that he will be held to account.
Thats why he’s so worried and cranky. <a href="https://t.co/SSU9jccrx6">https://t.co/SSU9jccrx6</a>
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeteHegseth/status/2011151451381498107?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Hegseth’s comment comes one day after Kelly announced his lawsuit — in which he also named Navy Secretary John Phelan, the Department of the Navy, and the Department of War as co-defendants — claiming that Hegseth had stepped outside his Constitutional authority in censuring him and launching a review of his behavior.
“Pete Hegseth is coming after what I earned through my twenty-five years of military service, in violation of my rights as an American, as a retired veteran, and as a United States Senator whose job is to hold him—and this or any administration—accountable,” Kelly claimed. “His unconstitutional crusade against me sends a chilling message to every retired member of the military: if you speak out and say something that the President or Secretary of Defense doesn’t like, you will be censured, threatened with demotion, or even prosecuted.”
Hegseth, one week earlier, announced the censure and a full review of Kelly’s conduct over the Arizona senator’s role in creating a video that encouraged active duty service members to question the legality of their orders in real time.
Referring to Kelly and the other Democratic lawmakers involved as “The Seditious Six,” Hegseth noted that the retired Navy captain was the only one who was still subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and announced a review of his conduct that could ultimately result in a reduction in rank and pay, or even see Kelly recalled to active duty to face a Court Martial.

President Trump Holds Cabinet Meeting At The White House

Pete Hegseth Hits Back At ‘Captain’ Mark Kelly: He ‘Knows Exactly What He Did’

Pete Hegseth Hits Back At 'Captain' Mark Kelly: He 'Knows Exactly What He Did'

Donald Trump

Mark Kelly

Military

U.S.

Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) announced on Monday that he&#8217;d filed a lawsuit jointly naming War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Navy Secretary John Phelan, the Department of the Navy, and the War Department as defendants.
In the lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Kelly claimed that Hegseth had overstepped his constitutional boundaries by ordering a Uniform Code of Military Justice review following his participation in the &#8220;Seditious Six&#8221; video.
&#8220;Pete Hegseth is coming after what I earned through my twenty-five years of military service, in violation of my rights as an American, as a retired veteran, and as a United States Senator whose job is to hold him—and this or any administration—accountable,&#8221; Kelly claimed. &#8220;His unconstitutional crusade against me sends a chilling message to every retired member of the military: if you speak out and say something that the President or Secretary of Defense doesn’t like, you will be censured, threatened with demotion, or even prosecuted.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Pete Hegseth is coming after what I earned through my twenty-five years of military service, in violation of my rights as an American, as a retired veteran, and as a United States Senator whose job is to hold him—and this or any administration—accountable. His unconstitutional…
— Senator Mark Kelly (@SenMarkKelly) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenMarkKelly/status/2010787235549876286?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 12, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Kelly spent the rest of the lengthy post reminding his audience that &#8220;military rank is earned, not given&#8221; and listing his personal accomplishments — particularly those that showcased his willingness to risk his life for those he served.
&#8220;I gave everything I had to this country and I earned my rank of Captain, United States Navy,&#8221; Kelly said, adding, &#8220;Now, Pete Hegseth wants our longest-serving military veterans to live with the constant threat that they could be deprived of their rank and pay years or even decades after they leave the military just because he or another Secretary of Defense doesn’t like what they’ve said. That’s not the way things work in the United States of America, and I won’t stand for it.&#8221;
Kelly went on to recall his oath to defend the Constitution and claimed that his lawsuit was simply the next phase of that mission: &#8220;Our freedom of speech, the separation of powers, and due process are not just words on a page.&#8221;
&#8220;So today, I filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of Defense because there are few things as important as standing up for the rights of the very Americans who fought to defend our freedoms,&#8221; he said.
Hegseth moved to officially censure Kelly in early January, launching a review of Kelly based on his role in creating a video that encouraged active duty service members to question the legality of their orders in real time.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline. As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he…
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecWar/status/2008189258528665898?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Captain Kelly’s status as a sitting United States Senator does not exempt him from accountability, and further violations could result in further action,&#8221; Hegseth said at the time. &#8220;These actions are based on Captain Kelly&#8217;s public statements from June through December 2025 in which he characterized lawful military operations as illegal and counseled members of the Armed Forces to refuse lawful orders. This conduct was seditious in nature and violated Articles 133 and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to which Captain Kelly remains subject as a retired officer receiving pay.&#8221;

Mark Kelly Files Lawsuit Against War Secretary Over Code Of Conduct Review

Mark Kelly Files Lawsuit Against War Secretary Over UCMJ Review

Justice

narcoterrorists

U.S. Navy

Nicolas Maduro Transported To Court Hearing

Venezuela Has Been Dealt With. Somali Scammers Should Be Next.

Marco Rubio

Matt Walsh

Nicolas Maduro

Opinion

Somalia

U.S. Military

Venezuela

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is making it crystal clear: wearing a suit in the halls of Congress doesn’t give you a free pass to spark a mutiny.
Hegseth announced a major escalation in the Department of War’s investigation into Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), directing a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hegseth-moves-censure-sen-mark-kelly-review-his-retirement-rank-pay-over-seditious-video">formal censure letter</a> to be placed in the retired Navy captain’s permanent file. More importantly for Kelly’s pocketbook, Hegseth has ordered a 45-day review of the senator’s retirement rank and pay. The move follows &#8220;reckless and seditious&#8221; statements by Kelly that the administration says were intended to undermine military discipline.
&#8220;Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline,&#8221; Hegseth stated. He reminded the Arizona Democrat that, as a retired officer still drawing a pension, he remains firmly under the thumb of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).
The controversy stems from a video released in November titled &#8220;Don’t Give Up the Ship,&#8221; in which Kelly and a cohort of left-wing Democrats who are veterans urged service members to &#8220;refuse unlawful orders.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community.
The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.
Don’t give up the ship. <a href="https://t.co/N8lW0EpQ7r">pic.twitter.com/N8lW0EpQ7r</a>
&mdash; Sen. Elissa Slotkin (@SenatorSlotkin) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorSlotkin/status/1990774492356902948?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The Department of War points out that Kelly failed to cite a single actual &#8220;illegal&#8221; order, adding that Kelly used his military credentials to baselessly sow seeds of insubordination against the Trump administration’s efforts to secure the border and target suspected narco-terrorists.
Kelly, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sen-mark-kelly-attacks-trump-and-hegseth-in-heated-rant-says-he-wont-back-down">appearing</a> at a town hall in Tucson in early December, remained defiant — and personal. He mocked President Donald Trump as &#8220;asleep at the wheel&#8221; and dismissed Hegseth as a &#8220;joke,&#8221; boasting that he won’t &#8220;back down.&#8221; Kelly’s wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ), reportedly &#8220;laughed and laughed&#8221; at the prospect of a UCMJ prosecution.
But Hegseth isn&#8217;t laughing. Federal law prohibits any action intended to interfere with the loyalty or morale of the armed forces, carrying a potential ten-year prison sentence. While Kelly claims he is &#8220;standing up for the Constitution,&#8221; the administration argues he is hiding behind a shield of &#8220;legal gymnastics&#8221; to encourage mutiny. Kelly has 30 days to respond before the Navy decides just how much his &#8220;seditious&#8221; rhetoric will cost him.

MixCollage-05-Jan-2026-01-23-PM-3852

Hegseth Moves To Strip Mark Kelly Of Rank And Pay Over ‘Seditious’ Military Video

Congress

Politics

Daniel DiMartino is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, one of the best think tanks in the country. But what qualifies him to write this piece is not his Ivy League economics degree, but rather the fact that he grew up in Venezuela, where he had a front-row seat to the brutal consequences of socialism.
DiMartino is just one of the millions of Venezuelans that fled Nicolas Maduro&#8217;s regime and were jubilant this weekend after the world learned that the United States had removed Maduro from power. I mean, just <a href="https://x.com/DanielDiMartino/status/2007460524137562395/video/1">listen to the joy in his voice</a> as he reacted to the news early Saturday morning. After hearing that, we knew we needed him to explain that joy to our audience at The Daily Wire.
For DiMartino, the joy is not about getting revenge on Maduro. it&#8217;s about hope for the future of Venezuela. We hope you enjoy. —Brent Scher
***
Venezuelans throughout the world are celebrating after this weekend’s perfectly executed U.S. military operation which captured narco-terrorist tyrant Nicolas Maduro. The morning I woke up to the news of Maduro’s capture was one that I had been dreaming of for my entire life as a Venezuelan who suffered under his regime.
This move by President Trump and his team provides justice, advances America’s and Venezuela’s interests, and could unleash prosperity like we have never seen before in the Western Hemisphere.
Venezuela has been ruled by Maduro’s socialist regime since I was born in 1999. The regime pillaged what was once the richest nation in Latin America. Millions of Europeans in the 1940s and 1950s sought opportunity in places like Caracas in the aftermath of World War II. Millions of Colombians crossed the border to Venezuela for safety from narco-terrorist Marxist guerrillas from the 1970s until the 1990s. Lebanese and Syrian Christians escaped to Venezuela in the 1960s after the Assad family’s takeover. And Americans routinely traveled to Venezuela for tourism and investment opportunities.
After more than two decades of a socialist regime that started out democratically and gradually took absolute power and rigged elections to remain in charge, Venezuela is starving. The country that once drew immigrants and exported oil bled millions of refugees and imports its own gasoline. The Maduro regime, once it ran out of oil, gold, and companies both foreign and domestic to steal, turned to drug trafficking to profit and fund their repression system.
Venezuela, if governed well with a free market economy, has the potential to be wealthier than nations like the United Arab Emirates or Kuwait. It has more oil and it is better positioned, both culturally and geographically.
That should explain why Venezuelans abroad are celebrating openly on social media and in the streets, with mass gatherings spotted all over the United States, but especially in the heart of the Venezuelan diaspora of Miami. Celebrations were held in Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Spain, and Chile, among other countries. The nine million strong Venezuelan diaspora forced into exile by socialism is celebrating this way because we know who Maduro is. We know what his regime did to our families, our economy, and our future. And we know that this moment, however fragile, represents something we were told we would never see: freedom and justice.
What Venezuelans feel today is not bloodlust or vengeance. It is relief. It is gratitude. And above all, it is hope. Gratitude toward the United States, a country that did not throw in the towel when diplomacy, sanctions, and international pressure all failed. Gratitude toward an America willing to defend its own interests while also standing on the right side of history. Gratitude to President Trump for following through on his promise, to Secretary of State Marco Rubio for standing for his values when it mattered, and to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and all the U.S. servicemen involved who executed an operation perfectly.
The Trump administration understands something many foreign-policy “experts” refuse to admit: Maduro never would have left power voluntarily. He only understands force. He could have chosen the easy life with all the stolen wealth in Moscow, but instead he opted for a New York City jail. Such is life.
But this victory does not mean the danger is over.
As Secretary Rubio acknowledged in multiple interviews, Maduro’s capture, while historic, does not instantly dismantle a criminal system that has entrenched itself in every institution of the Venezuelan state. His regime was never a one-man dictatorship; it is a narco-state network that includes generals, intelligence officials, judges, governors, and foreign terrorist allies. Tren de Aragua, Cuban spies, and Iranian operatives did not disappear overnight. The Venezuelan people inside Venezuela are happy, but scared of the regime.
The next phase matters just as much as the operation itself. A successful transition in Venezuela must be orderly but also relatively fast. The oligarchs in power: Delcy Rodriguez, the nominal vice president, her brother Jorge Rodriguez, Diosdado Cabello, and Vladimir Padrino Lopez, all participate in drug trafficking, terrorism, and are under sanctions and U.S. Department of Justice indictment.
The remaining Maduro cronies in power have the chance to do the right thing. One sign of a good faith transition in the coming weeks will be the release of hundreds of political prisoners, among them my friend Maria Oropeza, a young woman whose “crime” was observing election fraud and leading the opposition in her state. The other sign would be the puppet Supreme Court declaring an “absolute absence” of the president, which would trigger elections according to the socialist constitution. Such elections would allow the most popular leader in the country, Maria Corina Machado, to run, and she would win them by a landslide.
Only with a government led by Machado and not Maduro stooges can the United States guarantee that private oil companies will fork over the billions in investment required to revitalize the oil, electric, and water infrastructure. Exxon, Conoco Phillips, Shell, and BP won’t invest in a country whose government may take their property as soon as Trump leaves office, which is exactly what will happen if a transition isn’t finished by the time the Trump administration ends.
Economically, the upside of success in Venezuela is extraordinary. A post-Maduro Venezuela could become the greatest growth story in the Western Hemisphere’s history. With secure property rights, a privatized oil sector, and a free-market framework, Venezuela could once again attract global investment. Returning to pre-socialism oil production would mean three million barrels of oil per day in additional global output, lowering energy prices for everyday Americans.
A free and prosperous Venezuela would welcome millions of its people back home, stabilizing an entire region overwhelmed by mass migration. It would also weaken criminal networks like Tren de Aragua, reducing the flow of drugs and gang violence into the United States, saving American lives.
This is why President Trump’s decision was not just moral, it was strategic.
Critics predicted catastrophe, imperialism, and endless war. They have been wrong about Venezuela for 25 years, and about Trump for his entire political career. They were wrong when they excused Chávez. Wrong when they normalized Maduro. Wrong when they claimed sanctions alone would work. And wrong now, as they once again ignore the voices of actual Venezuelans in favor of “international law.”
I pray that history will remember this weekend as the moment the world’s longest-running socialist experiment collapsed under the weight of its crimes. For Venezuelans, it is the first real chance to rebuild a country that once welcomed the world, and can do so again.
Justice is here. Freedom is within reach. For the first time in my life, Venezuela’s future feels brighter than its past. I wish that so many people, including my immigrant grandparents, were alive to see this.
Thank you President Trump.
***
Daniel DiMartino is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

US-VENEZUELA-CONFLICT-MADURO

Why Venezuelans Are Dancing In The Streets

The U.S. military said Tuesday that it killed or captured nearly 25 ISIS operatives during a nine-day counterterrorism operation in Syria following an attack earlier this month that left two American troops dead.
U.S. Central Command said seven terrorists were killed and more than a dozen more were captured during 11 missions in Syria from December 20-29. Those missions were launched a day after the United States and Jordan <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hegseth-launches-strikes-of-vengeance-in-syria-after-american-troops-killed-by-isis?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=13&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Hegseth+Launches+Strikes+Of+%E2%80%98Vengeance%E2%80%99+In+Syria+After+American+Troops+Killed+By+ISIS">conducted</a> strikes on more than 70 ISIS targets in Syria. 
“We will not relent,” said Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of Central Command. “We are steadfast in commitment to working with regional partners to root out the ISIS threat posed to U.S. and regional security.”
In addition to taking out the ISIS operatives, American and partner forces destroyed four ISIS weapons caches, Central Command said. The strikes conducted on December 19 by fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites in central Syria. 
“Continuing to hunt down terrorist operatives, eliminate ISIS networks, and work with partners to prevent an ISIS resurgence makes America, the region, and the world safer,” said Cooper.
The strikes were launched in retaliation for an ISIS attack on December 13 that killed 29-year-old Sgt. Nate Howard and 25-year-old Sgt. Edgar Torres-Tovar. An American interpreter named Ayad Mansoor Sakat was also killed in the attack. Both Howard and Torres were members of the Iowa National Guard. 
“As we said directly following the savage attack, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you,” War Secretary Pete Hegseth said, announcing the strikes. 
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According to Central Command, ISIS inspired at least 11 plots or attacks in the United States in 2025. Over the course of the year, American and partner forces have killed more than 20 terrorists and detained more than 300 in Syria.
On Monday, the Justice Department unsealed records showing that a 21-year-old man named John Michael Garza had been charged in Texas for providing bomb components and money to individuals he believed were affiliated with ISIS. Garza allegedly told law enforcement he believed in ISIS ideology and made several cryptocurrency payments he believed were going to fund weapons for the terrorist group.

MixCollage-30-Dec-2025-09-52-AM-9646

U.S. Forces Kill Or Capture Nearly Two Dozen ISIS Terrorists After Americans Killed

Central Command

ISIS

Syria

Terrorism

The U.S. military destroyed another suspected drug-smuggling vessel in the Eastern Pacific on Monday, continuing a crackdown on transnational crime at sea.
U.S. Southern Command said the strike was authorized by War Secretary Pete Hegseth and targeted a boat operated by a U.S.-designated terrorist organization in international waters.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. Two male narco-terrorists were killed. No U.S. military forces were harmed,” Southern Command posted on X, sharing a video of the strike. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
On Dec. 29, at the direction of <a href="https://twitter.com/SecWar?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecWar</a> Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known… <a href="https://t.co/69ywxXk30N">pic.twitter.com/69ywxXk30N</a>
— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/Southcom/status/2005776276100207032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The strike was part of Joint Task Force Southern Spear, a counter-narcotics operation to disrupt drug trafficking in the Western Hemisphere. The initiative has so far taken out thirty boats carrying at least 106 suspected narco-terrorists. 
Southern Command’s announcement came as President Donald Trump said American forces had taken out a drug facility at a Venezuelan port allegedly used to load narcotics onto smuggling vessels.
“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Trump said Monday.  “We hit all the boats, and now we hit the area… it’s the implementation area. That’s where they implement, and that is no longer around.&#8221;
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The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/us/politics/cia-drone-strike-venezuela.html">reported</a> that the CIA conducted the strike and that the port was operated by Tren de Aragua, a violent gang that has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the Trump administration. No one was killed.  
Last week, the Trump administration began deploying a large number of special operations aircraft, troops, and military equipment to the southern Caribbean as part of its pressure campaign against Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
“He can do whatever he wants. We have a massive armada formed, the biggest we’ve ever had – by far the biggest we’ve ever had in South America. He could do whatever he wants. It’s alright. Whatever he wants to do, if he wants to do something. If he plays tough, it’ll be the last time he’s ever able to play tough,” Trump said last week.

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U.S. Military Takes Out Another Terror-Linked Drug Boat In Eastern Pacific

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A heavily-redacted Epstein document dump revives questions about his associates, including former President Bill Clinton; the United States wallops ISIS targets in Syria while the Venezuelan oil blockade continues; and Turning Point USA&#8217;s AmericaFest wraps up with fireworks.
It’s Monday, December 22, 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 the video version can be seen on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251222-member-exclusive?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+Show+Episodes+Carousel">The Daily Wire</a>:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/epstein-files-firestorm-u-s-retaliation-strikes-isis/id1576594336?i=1000742295192" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Epstein Files Released</h2>
The Justice Department has begun publishing thousands of pages of material tied to its investigations of Jeffrey Epstein. But the rollout has sparked immediate controversy with claims of heavy redactions and missing files. Because of the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed last month, the DOJ released an initial batch of over 13,000 files. These include investigative materials, grand jury transcripts from cases adjudicated in the early 2000s, police reports, flight logs, handwritten phone messages, and dozens of photographs. Though some of the material is new, none of it is blockbuster news. There are still hundreds of thousands of records under review that will be released on a rolling basis in the coming weeks, however.
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">U.S. Hits ISIS</h2>
President Trump has followed through on his promise to avenge three Americans killed in Syria last week, carrying out dozens of strikes against ISIS in Syria. On Friday, the U.S. military, with some help from Jordan, hit 70+ ISIS targets across Syria. An early report from a Syria monitoring group said that at least five ISIS terrorists were killed. Most of the destruction was of ISIS infrastructure, including munitions, supplies, and hideouts. War Secretary Pete Hegseth tamped down fears that this could lead to a wider conflict. Hegseth <a href="https://x.com/SecWar/status/2002140737060692098">said</a>, “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people.”
<h2 style="text-align: center;">TPUSA’s AmFest Wraps Up</h2>
Turning Point USA’s big annual conference, AmericaFest, had more eyes than ever on it this year as organizers set out to honor its founder Charlie Kirk and give the stage to the most influential voices in the conservative movement. The event wrapped with some surprises–the major one coming on Sunday when Ericka Kirk walked rapper Nicki Minaj out on the main stage to talk about her respect for President Trump. The event was also full of fiery speeches that generated many headlines across the media. But while the media and the internet were full of controversy, the feeling on the floor of the conference felt communal and high-energy, according to Daily Wire reporters at the event.

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Morning Brief: Epstein Files Released, U.S. Hits ISIS In Syria, And AmFest Comes To A Close

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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Thursday that the United States had conducted strikes against ISIS targets in Syria in response to an attack last weekend that left two American troops dead. 
Hegseth said that the strikes were not about starting a new war, but enacting “vengeance” for an ISIS attack targeting American forces last Saturday. 
“Earlier today, U.S. forces commenced OPERATION HAWKEYE STRIKE in Syria to eliminate ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites in direct response to the attack on U.S. forces that occurred on December 13th in Palmyra, Syria,” Hegseth posted on X. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people.”
“As we said directly following the savage attack, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you,” he added. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.”
Citing an American official, the New York Times said that the strikes targeted dozens of ISIS sites throughout central Syria. The operation is set to be a “a massive attack,” the official said. 
A later post from U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) showed video of multiple strikes carried out in Syria.
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Tonight, U.S. and Jordanian forces struck 70+ ISIS targets in Syria with 100+ precision munitions. Peace through strength. <a href="https://t.co/XWWvfqBBFT">pic.twitter.com/XWWvfqBBFT</a>
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) <a href="https://twitter.com/CENTCOM/status/2002197399935103333?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The attacks last week killed two troops identified as 29-year-old Nate Howard and 25-year-old Edgar Torres. An American interpreter named Ayad Mansoor Sakat was also killed in the attack. Both Howard and Torres were members of the Iowa National Guard. 
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump and Hegseth attended a dignified transfer of the soldier’s remains at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
After the attacks last weekend, Trump said that the United States would retaliate. 
“I can tell you in Syria there will be a lot of damage done to the people that did it, that they got the person, the individual person, but there’ll be big damage done,” Trump said on Sunday.

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Hegseth Launches Strikes Of ‘Vengeance’ In Syria After American Troops Killed By ISIS

Whoopi Goldberg claimed on Thursday that President Donald Trump&#8217;s plan to give monetary bonuses to members of the military was effectively a bribe to ensure that they&#8217;d obey the president&#8217;s orders even if they were not necessarily lawful.
Goldberg, during Thursday&#8217;s broadcast of ABC&#8217;s &#8220;The View,&#8221; first questioned whether or not troops would actually ever see that money — and then immediately insinuated that if they did see it, it would be solely because Trump was using it to buy their loyalty.
WATCH:
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Whoopi doubts Trump is going to pay the troops his announced $1,776 bonus, but then claims it&#8217;s a bribe for them to back his plots: 
&#8220;What he&#8217;s doing is, he&#8217;s thinking, &#8216;if I make sure that the soldiers have what they need they&#8217;ll back me and what I want, see?&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/DBmKx6IfEN">pic.twitter.com/DBmKx6IfEN</a>
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickFondacaro/status/2001698071189614604?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin began by saying she&#8217;d actually like to give Trump credit for offering bonuses — &#8220;warrior dividends&#8221; — to troops, but Goldberg quickly interrupted.
&#8220;Let&#8217;s see if they get the — I want to see them get it first,&#8221; Goldberg said.
Griffin went on to say that she&#8217;d prefer to see &#8220;smart policies&#8221; rather than &#8220;handouts,&#8221; and argued that it was unfair for money to only go to members of the military — particularly if the money was, as Trump said, coming from tariff revenue — that all Americans were hurting and in need of assistance.
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Goldberg then pivoted to suggest that the reason Trump was singling out members of the armed forces had nothing to do with the notion that they&#8217;d earned it in service to the country, but rather because she believed they&#8217;d be more likely to do anything Trump wanted if he greased the wheels with a Christmas bonus.
&#8220;What he&#8217;s doing is, he&#8217;s thinking, &#8216;If I make sure that the soldiers have what they need, they&#8217;ll back me in what I want, see?'&#8221; she said.

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