In Southern California, local officials are now handing out air purifiers to residents choking on the stench of raw sewage — yes, including human waste — flowing across the border from Mexico.
Roughly 25 million gallons of untreated sewage from America’s southern neighbor reportedly spill into the Pacific Ocean each day, and in parts of San Diego County, the cross-border torrent has turned what should be crisp seaside air into the unmistakable funk of a porta-potty.
By Wednesday morning, the mess had grown loud enough to reach the White House, as President Donald Trump weighed in on Truth Social.
“Mexico must take care of its water and sewage problem, IMMEDIATELY. It is a true Threat to the People of Texas, California, and the United States of America!” Trump warned, attaching a local news segment as evidence of the unfolding mess.
In California, the mouth of the Tijuana River, which flows through Mexico, empties into the Pacific just north of the border near Imperial Beach.
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The San Diego County Air Pollution Control District spent the week handing out hundreds of air purifiers and replacement filters to residents in the South Bay, a cluster of communities pressed against the Mexico border. <a href="https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/cross-border-contamination/san-diego-county-distributes-air-purifiers-to-south-bay-residents-impacted-by-cross-border-sewage-pollution/509-b9ac548e-a218-45d7-817f-4b2d81eb57e8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CBS 8 News</a> reported that people living there &#8220;continue to grapple with foul odors and polluted air stemming from cross-border sewage flow.&#8221;
Last week, the situation worsened after a break in a Mexican sewer line <a href="https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/new-sewage-line-break-sends-120-000-gallons-of-raw-waste-to-south-bay-communities">reportedly</a> sent 120,000 gallons of sewage into the South Bay. The ongoing pollution has already dragged down home values, closed some beaches, and affected Navy SEAL training.
Leon Benham, who has lived in the area for more than 60 years, <a href="https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/new-sewage-line-break-sends-120-000-gallons-of-raw-waste-to-south-bay-communities">told</a> KGTV that raw sewage has contaminated his backyard. He is the founder of Citizens for Coast Conservancy, which has reportedly spent years advocating for solutions.
&#8220;When the offshore flow comes in, we can smell the stink, you know, we can smell it,&#8221; he said.
Residents largely viewed the air purifiers as a temporary band-aid, not a fix. Baron Parlow, the founder of Stop the Poop, told CBS 8 that local officials simply handing out filters wasn’t anywhere close to enough.
&#8220;Where [are] all the tough sanctions on the source Mexico?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;Where&#8217;s all the pressure to get Mexico to stop the poo?&#8221;
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin reacted to President Trump&#8217;s demand on social media.
&#8220;The Trump Admin has been taking important action to PERMANENTLY END the flow of disgusting raw sewage from Mexico into the United States,&#8221; he posted on X on Wednesday. &#8220;We are working very closely with our Mexican counterparts to ensure San Diego area beaches can reopen, foul odors cease, and the Tijuana River Valley gets cleaned up as quickly as humanly possible. This will also be great for our Navy SEALs who train in the area.&#8221;
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

untreated sewage spills into the ocean at Dockweiler State Beach

Trump Demands Mexico Stop Flow Of Raw Sewage Into The U.S.

California

Mexico

San Diego

Texas

Trump Administration

United States

Foreign visitors could soon be required to reveal their social media history before entering the United States, according to a proposal from the Trump administration revealed on Wednesday.
The <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/10/2025-22461/agency-information-collection-activities-revision-arrival-and-departure-record-form-i-94-and">proposal</a> from U.S. Customs and Border Protection would require tourists entering the United States on the Visa Waiver Program to provide the last five years of their social media activity to the U.S. government. Border Patrol said the requirement would be in step with President Donald Trump&#8217;s executive order on &#8220;Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.&#8221;
People from dozens of countries qualify for the Visa Waiver Program, which allows foreigners to enter the United States for tourism or business for up to 90 days without obtaining a visa. The program includes many European countries, such as Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. It also includes Australia, Israel, and Qatar. The current system only makes foreign visitors pay $40 and provide an email address, home address, phone number, and emergency contact information.
The Trump administration&#8217;s proposal would also require foreigners to provide information from what it refers to as &#8220;high value data fields,&#8221; such as phone numbers they have used over the past five years and email addresses they have used over the past 10 years. Foreign visitors would also be required to reveal the names of close family members and the phone numbers of family members used in the last five years.
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The Border Patrol proposal is open to public comment for 60 days. The Trump administration&#8217;s move to increase oversight on people coming into the United States comes as the country prepares for the 2026 World Cup, which could bring over one million international visitors to the United States. Some <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/12/10/esta-social-media-united-states/">immigration lawyers</a> and people in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/travel/social-media-tourists-visa-border-patrol.html">travel industry</a> have pushed back on the Trump administration&#8217;s new requirements for foreign visitors.
The State Department under Trump has pushed for more vetting of foreigners&#8217; social media accounts. In April, Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to investigate the social media feeds of student visa applicants. Rubio has especially targeted foreign students suspected of supporting terrorist organizations such as Hamas.
&#8220;Coming to the United States on a visa is a privilege, not a right,&#8221; Rubio <a href="https://x.com/SecRubio/status/1899892869332173133?lang=en">said</a> in March. &#8220;The Trump Administration is determined to deny or revoke your visa if you&#8217;re here to support terrorists.&#8221;
Rubio also recently told U.S. diplomats to “maintain extra vigilance” when vetting H-1B visa applicants, and the United States will require H-1B applicants to make their social media accounts public by December 15, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/12/06/trump-censorship-h1b-visas/">reported</a>.

Social media

Trump Admin Proposal Would Require Foreigners To Reveal Social Media History To Visit U.S.

Customs and Border Protection (CPB)

Donald Trump

Foreigner

Tourism

U.S.

Visas

A Biden-era health official who identifies as transgender is outraged that the current Department of Health and Human Services has changed his nameplate to showcase his birth name, Richard Levine, instead of his trans-identifying name, Rachel Levine.
On Tuesday, HHS took to X to unapologetically confirm the change, which apparently took place during the Democrat-backed government shutdown.
The portrait plaque is displayed in the HHS offices.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Can confirm! <a href="https://t.co/PdErnBJVqh">https://t.co/PdErnBJVqh</a> <a href="https://t.co/yuZGMfK6xw">pic.twitter.com/yuZGMfK6xw</a>
— HHS (@HHSGov) <a href="https://twitter.com/HHSGov/status/1998419995479663032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
Levine was upset about the change, calling it &#8220;petty&#8221; and an act of &#8220;bigotry.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m not going to comment on this type of petty action,&#8221; Levine told NPR.
However, he did respond through a spokesperson. &#8220;During the federal shutdown, the current leadership of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health changed Admiral Levine&#8217;s photo to remove her current legal name and use a prior name,&#8221; Adrian Shanker said, calling the change &#8220;bigotry against her.&#8221;
The current HHS argued that the change better reflects their mission to express &#8220;gold standard science&#8221; at all times.
&#8220;Our priority is ensuring that the information presented internally and externally by HHS reflects gold standard science,&#8221; HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hhs-changes-transgender-biden-officials-nameplate-back-birth-name-during-shutdown">said</a>. &#8220;We remain committed to reversing harmful policies enacted by Levine and ensuring that biological reality guides our approach to public health.&#8221;
During his tenure, Levine <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-secretary-levine-dubs-self-agencys-first-female-four-star-officer-in-bizarre-video-highlighting-diversity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> the title of the “first female four-star officer” in a video boasting about “diversity” at HHS. He was also widely criticized for his support of so-called transgender “care” for minors, which opponents highlight is often irreversible and damaging to children.
Additionally, Levine seemed to advocate for the censorship of opposing views on the issue.
“There is substantial misinformation about gender-affirming care for transgender and gender-diverse individuals,” Levine <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/dec/26/dr-rachel-levine-slammed-after-calling-big-tech-cl/">said</a> back in May 2022 during a presentation before the Federation of State Medical Boards in New Orleans.
“We need to get our voices in the public eye, and we know how effective our medical community can be talking to communities, whether it’s at town halls, schools, conversations with others, and we need to use our clinicians’ voice to collectively advocate for our tech companies to create a healthier, cleaner information environment,” Levine added.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/top-biden-official-pushed-big-tech-to-censor-misinformation-on-trans-care-for-minors-video-shows?author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Top+Biden+Official+Pushed+Big+Tech+To+Censor+‘Misinformation’+On+Trans+‘Care’+For+Minors%2C+Video+Shows">Top Biden Official Pushed Big Tech To Censor ‘Misinformation’ On Trans ‘Care’ For Minors, Video Shows</a>

Screen Shot 2022-03-22 at 12.47.56 PM

Trans-Identifying Biden Official Outraged Trump HHS Changed His Nameplate

Biden Administration

Department of Health and Human Services

Politics

Rachel Levine

Social Issues

Transgender

Chicago could lose federal funding after a 26-year-old woman was set on fire on the city’s train system in what the Trump administration described as a “preventable attack.”
Federal Transit Administration Administrator Marc Molinaro sent <a href="https://www.transit.dot.gov/sites/fta.dot.gov/files/2025-12/The-Honorable-Brandon-Johnson-FTA-Special-Directive-Letter-to-Chicago-12-08-2025.pdf">letters</a> on Monday to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Democratic Governor JB Pritzker, directing them to immediately enhance safety on public transportation. Molinaro said that officials had failed to take the necessary steps to keep the public safe.
“Creating a safe, reliable transit system is the responsibility of leaders at every level. CTA, the City of Chicago, and the State of Illinois have failed to meet this obligation,” Molinaro wrote. “If CTA does not promptly increase its law enforcement presence, FTA will act, including by withholding federal funds.”
The letter comes after Bethany MaGee <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/woman-set-on-fire-by-convict-with-72-priors-on-chicago-train">was doused</a> in gasoline and set ablaze in an unprovoked attack on a Chicago train last month. Lawrence Reed, the man charged in the attack, had previously been arrested more than 70 times and had 15 criminal convictions.
The letter said that officials needed to “implement immediate, measurable, corrective actions to reduce assaults on transit workers and passengers and to address unsafe conditions contributing to elevated violent crime rates.”
“The horrific attack on Bethany MaGee onboard a CTA train has shaken not only Chicago but also every community that depends on public transportation. As FTA Administrator, I call on you as an elected leader and on Chicago transit officials to take decisive action on safety issues that lead to such tragedies.”
“I will not accept the brutal assault of an innocent 26-year-old woman as an inevitable cost of providing public transportation,” Molinaro added. “The attack on Ms. MaGee was preventable. Transit leaders and elected officials who fail to enforce basic laws and permit disorder to erode the integrity of their systems are making deliberate choices that endanger riders.”
According to Molinaro, violent crime on Chicago’s public transportation system is four times the national average, and assaults on passengers have surged 150% in the last five years.
Molinaro directed Chicago officials to update the city’s public transportation agency safety plans and adopt appropriate measures to address violent crime. Pritzker and other Democratic officials have long downplayed crime rates in the Windy City, claiming high crime is part of being a big city.

Illinois Gov. Pritzker Discusses Trump’s Authorization Of National Guard Troops In Chicago

Trump Admin Issues Ultimatum To Chicago After Latest ‘Preventable’ Train Attack

Brandon Johnson

Chicago

Crime

JB Pritzker

The Justice Department will no longer pursue civil rights lawsuits based on “disparate impact theory,” the Trump administration announced Tuesday.
The move comes after 50 years of government policy that encouraged lawsuits against “race neutral” policies without showing evidence of actual racial discrimination, the department <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-rule-restores-equal-protection-all-civil-rights-enforcement">said</a>. Disparate impact theory is a framework that often assumes discrimination when there are different outcomes for different groups of people, even if there is no explicit discriminatory practice in place.
“For decades, the Justice Department has used disparate-impact liability to undermine the constitutional principle that all Americans must be treated equally under the law,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi. “No longer. This Department of Justice is eliminating its regulations that for far too long required recipients of federal funding to make decisions based on race.”
The Justice Department issued a rule removing disparate impact from consideration under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VI prevents entities that discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion, and national origin from receiving federal money or support.
“The prior ‘disparate impact’ regulations encouraged people to file lawsuits challenging racially neutral policies, without evidence of intentional discrimination,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Our rejection of this theory will restore true equality under the law by requiring proof of actual discrimination, rather than enforcing race- or sex-based quotas or assumptions.”
The change comes after President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-takes-sledgehammer-to-dei-in-latest-round-of-executive-orders-targeting-education">signed</a> an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/restoring-equality-of-opportunity-and-meritocracy/">executive order</a> in April that directed the federal government to stop using disparate impact theory in government policy and regulations. The order defined disparate impact theory as the “presumption” that “unlawful discrimination exists where there are any differences in outcomes in certain circumstances among different races, sexes, or similar groups, even if there is no facially discriminatory policy or practice or discriminatory intent involved, and even if everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed.”
Trump said that this theory undermines America’s values of meritocracy and a colorblind society while also violating the Constitution.
“It is the policy of the United States to eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in all contexts to the maximum degree possible to avoid violating the Constitution, Federal civil rights laws, and basic American ideals,” Trump wrote.
Last year, President Joe Biden’s Justice Department was <a href="https://www.justice.gov/crt/case-document/notice-injunction-louisiana-v-epa-wd-la">blocked</a> from enforcing disparate impact claims against Louisiana.

Justice Department Holds Press Conference On Complaint Filed Under FACE Act

Justice Department Ends Policy That Promoted Dubious Racial Discrimination Suits

Civil Rights

Department of Justice

Executive

Harmeet Dhillon

Pam Bondi

Racial Discrimination

Records related to the sex-trafficking case against Jeffrey Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell will be released after a federal judge granted a request from the Justice Department on Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer said that grand jury transcripts and materials from the investigation into Maxwell could be unsealed following the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act last month, The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5640270-judge-grants-release-maxwell-records/">reported</a>.
“The Act unambiguously applies to the discovery in this case,” Engelmayer ruled. With Engelmayer’s decision, hundreds more documents related to the investigation into Epstein and Maxwell’s sex trafficking crimes could soon be available to Americans.
The Justice Department asked two federal judges in New York to unseal the grand jury transcripts in November as the Trump administration seeks to release more information and move past the Epstein case, an issue that has plagued the administration throughout President Donald Trump’s second term. The Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed by Trump on November 19, requires the Justice Department to make Epstein-related documents public by December 19.
Engelmayer said he remains concerned about the identities of victims being released and criticized the Justice Department for moving to unseal the grand jury documents in July “without giving notice to Maxwell’s and Epstein’s victims,” NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/new-york-judge-orders-release-ghislaine-maxwell-related-grand-jury-rec-rcna248191">reported</a>.
Engelmayer’s order comes days after another federal judge ruled that grand jury documents related to the 2005 and 2007 investigations into Epstein should also be made public. U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith said that the bill calling for the release of the Epstein files signed by Trump last month prevails over the standard rules safeguarding the secrecy of grand jury documents.
Maxwell, who preyed on young girls and brought them to Epstein’s multiple estates and infamous island, was convicted of five federal counts related to sex trafficking. She is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Earlier this year, Maxwell agreed to sit down with the Justice Department and answer questions on Epstein and his connections to wealthy and powerful people, including Trump. During her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ghislaine-maxwell-gave-doj-info-on-100-people-linked-to-epstein-her-lawyer-says">interview</a> with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Maxwell said that she “never saw any man doing something inappropriate with a woman of any age.” When asked about Trump, she said he was “always very cordial and very kind to me” and was “a gentleman in all respects.”
Maxwell also said she disagreed with the Justice Department’s conclusion that Epstein died by suicide in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019.
“I do not believe he died by suicide,” Maxwell said, but added that she had no idea who could have been behind his death.
Maxwell is <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/10/ghislaine-maxwell-seek-commutation-document-00644139">reportedly</a> planning to ask the Trump administration to review an application for commutation. After her interview with the Justice Department, Maxwell was transferred to a minimum-security women’s prison.

Ghislaine Maxwell

Ghislaine Maxwell Records To Be Released After Judge Grants DOJ Request

Jeffrey Epstein

President Donald Trump denied on Monday that he ever supported releasing video of the second strike on a suspected drug boat as controversy continues to swirl around the U.S. military&#8217;s actions in the Caribbean in early September.
Trump said last Wednesday that &#8220;whatever&#8221; Secretary Pete Hegseth&#8217;s War Department had, &#8220;we&#8217;d certainly release, no problem.&#8221; On Monday, however, the president told reporters at the White House that he never agreed to make the full video of the second strike public.
&#8220;Mr. President, you said you would have &#8216;no problem&#8217; with releasing the full video of that strike on September 2 off the coast of Venezuela,&#8221; one reporter stated.
&#8220;I didn&#8217;t say that,&#8221; the president <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-boat-strike-video-walks-back-hegseth/">replied</a>. &#8220;You said that, I didn&#8217;t say that.&#8221;
Trump added, &#8220;Whatever Pete Hegseth wants to do is okay with me.&#8221;
Hegseth has come under fire from Democrats and some Republicans after the &#8220;double-tap&#8221; strike on a boat that the Trump administration said was trafficking illicit drugs to the United States. The administration released a 29-second unclassified video showing the first strike on September 2, but the full video of the follow-up strike has been shown to only a select few lawmakers.
Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are scheduled to meet with top intelligence committee lawmakers on Tuesday behind closed doors. The Trump officials will likely be asked more questions about the &#8220;double-tap&#8221; strike during the meeting.
Trump <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/09/donald-trump-full-interview-transcript-00681693">told</a> POLITICO in a wide-ranging interview released on Tuesday that he watched the footage of the second strike and continues to give Hegseth his full confidence.
&#8220;He&#8217;s doing a great job,&#8221; Trump said, adding that he doesn&#8217;t care if Hegseth testifies under oath about the strike.
The president said that the footage was &#8220;not pretty,&#8221; but added, &#8220;It looked like they were trying to turn back over the boat, but I don’t get involved in that.&#8221;
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tom-cotton-has-no-problem-with-releasing-video-of-drug-boat-double-tap">said</a> on Sunday that he watched the footage of the second strike, adding that he would not have &#8220;any problem&#8221; with releasing the footage to the public.
&#8220;It’s not gruesome. I didn’t find it distressing or disturbing. It looks like any number of dozens of strikes we’ve seen on Jeeps and pickup trucks in the Middle East over the years,&#8221; Cotton said. He added that he would understand if the War Department had concerns about releasing the footage, since it could reveal too much to drug cartels about how the U.S. military is conducting the strikes.
Democrats who saw the footage are calling on the administration to release the video. Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, said the footage of the second strike was &#8220;deeply disturbing.&#8221;
“There were two survivors on an overturned boat. When they were finally taken out, they weren’t trying to flip the boat over. The boat was clearly incapacitated,&#8221; Smith <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/07/second-strike-democratic-lawmakers-demand-transparency-00679899?_bhlid=01d8baf7452cb3bc38c5bae3f2719ade9b962fbd">said</a>. &#8220;A tiny portion of it remained capsized, the bow of the boat. They had no communications device. Certainly they were unarmed.”
“Any claim that the drugs had somehow survived that attack is hard to really square with what we saw,&#8221; he added. &#8220;So it was deeply disturbing. It did not appear that these two survivors were in any position to continue the fight.”
When asked if the War Department would release the additional footage, Hegseth <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hegseth-wont-commit-to-releasing-video-second-strike-alleged-drug-boat/">said</a> over the weekend that the administration is currently &#8220;reviewing the process,&#8221; and did not commit to releasing the full video.
&#8220;Whatever we were to decide to release, we&#8217;d have to be very responsible about reviewing that right now,&#8221; Hegseth added.
After Trump ramped up border security upon returning to office, he moved his attention to preventing drugs from reaching American shores. The strikes on the suspected &#8220;narcoterrorists,&#8221; which began in September, have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-takes-out-more-suspected-narco-terrorists-as-hegseth-defends-against-war-crime-accusations?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=8&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=U.S.+Takes+Out+More+Suspected+%E2%80%98Narco-Terrorists%E2%80%99+As+Hegseth+Defends+Against+%E2%80%98War+Crime%E2%80%99+Accusations">taken out</a> 23 boats and 87 suspected drug runners.

Trump Changes Tune On Releasing Video Of Second Strike On Suspected Drug Boat

Pete Hegseth

U.S. Military

Acting United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba resigned from her position on Monday after the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that she could not legally stay in the role.
Habba was serving in the role in an interim capacity for 120 days from March until July, then continued to serve in the role as legal battles continued about whether she could continue serving beyond that point without going through the Senate confirmation process.
“As a result of the Third Circuit&#8217;s ruling, and to protect the stability and integrity of the office which I love, I have decided to step down in my role as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. But do not mistake compliance for surrender,” Habba said in a statement.
“This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me. My fight will now stretch across the country. As we wait for further review of the courts ruling, I will continue to serve the Department of Justice as the Senior Advisor to the Attorney General for U.S. Attorneys,” she continued, quipping that “you can take the girl out of New Jersey, but you cannot take New Jersey out of the girl.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi also slammed the court’s decision as “flawed,” and said she was “saddened” to get Habba’s resignation.
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The attorney general said she believed the decision will eventually “be reversed” and that the Trump-backed lawyer would come back to the role if that does happen.
“The court&#8217;s ruling has made it untenable for her to effectively run her office, with politicized judges pausing trials designed to bring violent criminals to justice,” Bondi stated.
“These judges should not be able to countermand the president&#8217;s choice of attorneys entrusted with carrying out the executive branch&#8217;s core responsibility of prosecuting crime,” she continued.
Last week, New Jersey Democratic Sens. Andy Kim and Cory Booker agreed with the court&#8217;s decision that Habba’s arrangement was against the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.
“This decision vindicates concerns we have long raised about the extraordinary and unlawful steps taken by the Trump Administration to keep Habba in office without Senate confirmation,” the senators wrote in a joint statement.
“The Court’s ruling underscores a simple but fundamental principle: U.S. Attorneys must be independent and installed consistent with the rule of law, not because of their political loyalty or through political maneuvering,” the December 1 statement continued. “The Trump Administration’s attempt to bypass clear legal requirements to install a loyalist undermined the legitimacy of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey and cast a shadow over the cases she oversaw.”

Alina Habba

Alina Habba Steps Down From Role After Heated Legal Battle: ‘Politicized Judges’

New Jersey

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) called the Inspector General report on the “so-called scandal” surrounding War Secretary Pete Hegseth&#8217;s use of a Signal chat a “nothingburger” on Sunday.
On ABC’s “This Week,” host George Stephanopoulos asked Schmitt about the Signal issue, quoting the Inspector General report.
“Here&#8217;s a quote from the Department of Defense Inspector General report on that release of sensitive information over the Signal app. According to the inspector general, ‘the Secretary sent information identifying the quantity and strike times of manned U.S. aircraft over hostile territory over an unapproved, unsecure network approximately two to four hours before the execution of those strikes. The Secretary&#8217;s actions created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots.’ Isn&#8217;t that a concern?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“I reviewed the IG report, and it&#8217;s a nothingburger. The fact is, there was allegations that this was confidential or classified information. &#8230; It wasn&#8217;t. There was no operational integrity problems,” Schmitt said, going on to note that both operations Rough Rider and Midnight Hammer were “executed flawlessly.”
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“There&#8217;s no confidential or classified information that was disclosed,” the senator added before pivoting to highlight the legitimate scandal from the Biden administration in which former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin underwent an undisclosed medical procedure without notifying the president.
“Literally, we had a Secretary of Defense that wasn&#8217;t on duty, and nobody knew about it. Like, that&#8217;s a real problem. This was a nothingburger, and that&#8217;s what the IG report that I read last week in the SCIF indicated.”
Stephanopoulos pressed further, but Schmitt reiterated that no classified information was disclosed, and that Signal was “approved by the U.S. government for communications” before the &#8220;so-called scandal started.&#8221;
“But I think the bigger issue was, you know, in the previous administration, you had real operational risk, you had a department, you had a Secretary of Defense that was incapacitated in a surgery, and nobody knew about it for days. That&#8217;s a problem,” Schmitt concluded.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Sen. Eric Schmitt tells George Stephanopoulos that he reviewed the IG&#8217;s report on the alleged release of sensitive information on the Signal messaging app: &#8220;There&#8217;s no confidential or classified information that was disclosed &#8230; This was a nothing burger.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/ZNfL4aWoP6">pic.twitter.com/ZNfL4aWoP6</a>
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1997693761074143538?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The 2024 Republican National Convention

‘A Nothingburger’: Republican Senator Blasts Dem Hypocrisy Over ‘So-Called’ Signal Scandal

Republican Senator Blasts Dem Hypocrisy Over 'So-Called' Signal Scandal, Calling It 'A Nothingburger

ABC News

Lloyd Austin

Signal

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz says President Donald Trump is directing him to steer the group back to its original mission: peace.
In an interview with the Daily Wire editor-in-chief Brent Scher, Waltz laid out how his new role at the United Nations advances President Trump’s unapologetic America First approach to international diplomacy in a body that he claims has been ineffective.
“You&#8217;re supposed to be stopping wars, ending wars, preventing wars,” Waltz said. “That was the establishment of the UN and its purpose after World War II to prevent any other future world wars. And yet here we are 80 years later and we have more conflicts around the globe than ever.”
While critics have advocated that the United States abandon the UN, Waltz said the organization can be salvaged if it implements the reforms at the top of his agenda. According to Waltz, the UN is a mechanism to get other countries to start “pulling their weight” to establish peace. As an example, he cited the efforts to combat the gangs in Haiti, shifting from a primarily United States-led effort to include other countries such as Kenya.
“Sharing the burden and having a mechanism where everyone can come in and do that is also important,” he said. “We&#8217;ve just got to get it back focused on those peacekeeping and peace enforcement missions that they did so well in the past and that they strayed from in recent decades.”
Waltz also stressed that certain UN agencies and programs need to be defunded when they do not align with American interests.
“We walked away from WHO, the World Health Organization. UNRWA, the UN agency in Gaza that&#8217;s been completely infiltrated by Hamas. We walked out of it and defunded that too. The so-called human rights councils that cater to countries like North Korea and Venezuela and Iran. We&#8217;ve walked away from that,” he said. “It&#8217;s really about focusing our effort on the parts that align with an America First agenda and defunding and walking away from the rest of it — the nonsense.”
Waltz added that there are also far too many UN agencies focused on climate change.
“At most you need one, if not none, but you definitely don&#8217;t need seven. So that&#8217;s the kind of reform agenda that we&#8217;re driving here. We&#8217;re defunding all kinds of these agencies again, led by the president with an America First agenda,” Waltz said.
Among the agencies he believes are essential, he cited telecommunications, global shipping, and civil aviation.
“When I land, when flying internationally, I want everybody speaking English,” he said. “Landing the planes the same way, the mechanics train the same way. We want them aligned with our standards, not China or Russia&#8217;s standards.”
Overall, Waltz emphasized the UN’s importance as a platform for countries to discuss diplomacy.
“We should have one place in the world where everybody can talk, where everyone can come together and at least try to hammer things out with using diplomacy, either to end wars or prevent wars,” he said. “ I want that American-led and in the United States, not in places like Beijing or Moscow. But I&#8217;m 100% on board. We&#8217;ve got to clean house.”
Of the successes so far under the Trump administration, Waltz says the UN agreed to cut over 2,600 bureaucratic positions, a 15% overall budget cut, and 25% of its peacekeepers around the world.
“So we’re cutting, we&#8217;re DOGE-ing, we&#8217;re going to get them back to basics in line with the president&#8217;s vision.”
“They need to get back to basics, stop with all of the other nonsense, trying to do everything for everybody all over the world. Stop with the focus on climate, stop with the focus on gender and all of these other social issues, regardless of how you feel about them, and let&#8217;s get back to peace,” Waltz said.
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Waltz said a major focus is ensuring that the United Nations does more to stop the persecution of Christians around the world.
“Well, it actually started with President Trump, who put a spotlight on the persecution of Christians around the world, but according to most NGOs, 80% of Christians that are killed and persecuted actually happens in Nigeria,” he said.
Waltz praised rapper Nicki Minaj for advocating to stop the persecution of Christians in Nigeria alongside him in the UN last month.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Thrilled to be Honorary Ambassador to the Barbz! <a href="https://twitter.com/NICKIMINAJ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@NICKIMINAJ</a> <a href="https://t.co/Sq9OHYhaZu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/Sq9OHYhaZu</a>
— Ambassador Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaelgwaltz/status/1990948047023374560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">November 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
“Someone like her, with her quarter billion followers across all of our platforms. It&#8217;s an unlikely pairing. I didn&#8217;t see that one coming, but where we can work together to not just put a spotlight and educate people but to make sure there&#8217;s real action.”
Waltz acknowledged that representing the United States at the UN can be challenging, given the presence of adversarial countries, including an incident in which the Cuban ambassador <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eU72MjsdYR4?time_continue=92&amp;embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&amp;source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">disrupted</a> one of his speeches and accused him of lying.
“There are times where I think the tribes in the Middle East, Afghanistan are easier than here,” Waltz said. “I&#8217;m a Green Beret by background. I&#8217;ve served all over the world. It isn&#8217;t easy. My wife sometimes says I&#8217;m a masochist, but look, this is the world stage right here in New York.”

United Nations Security Council Meets To Consider Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan

Mike Waltz Says The Trump Administration Has A Plan To Save The United Nations

Mike Waltz

United Nations

Grand jury documents related to investigations into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will be made public after a federal judge in Florida ordered their release on Friday.
U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith granted a request from the Justice Department for the documents to be released months after another federal judge in Florida said she did not have the legal authority to make the grand jury information public. Smith <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.693993/gov.uscourts.flsd.693993.8.0.pdf">ruled</a> that the bill calling for the release of the Epstein files signed by Trump last month prevails over the normal rules safeguarding the secrecy of grand jury documents.
In July, U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg said that she could not grant the Justice Department&#8217;s request because &#8220;the Court’s hands are tied,&#8221; a point that the federal government conceded at the time. Rosenberg added that the Justice Department did not provide sufficient arguments for unsealing records protected by rules that “emphasize a presumption of secrecy” and protect participants from disclosing information given to a grand jury.
In Smith&#8217;s order on Friday, the judge did not set a date for the release of the documents, which stem from investigations into Epstein from 2005 and 2007 that were conducted in West Palm Beach, Florida, NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/judge-orders-jeffrey-epstein-related-grand-jury-transcripts-florida-re-rcna247624">reported</a>. The Justice Department first moved to unseal the grand jury documents after controversy erupted over the Trump administration&#8217;s July 6 memo, which concluded that there was no “credible evidence” to prove that Epstein kept a client list.
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The release of the Epstein grand jury documents could reveal more information to the public about the financier&#8217;s crimes and connections. The Epstein controversy has plagued the Trump administration for much of the president&#8217;s second term. Congress finally passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act last month, and Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-signs-bill-to-release-epstein-files">signed</a> the bill into law, giving the Justice Department 30 days to release the evidence and records it has compiled on Epstein.
The president signed off on the release of more Epstein files after months of pushing back against calls for their release and calling the focus on the Epstein files a &#8220;hoax&#8221; pushed by the legacy media and the Democratic Party. Democrats and Republicans <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dems-drop-new-epstein-emails-in-which-he-claims-trump-knew-about-the-girls">released</a> additional pages of documents from Epstein&#8217;s estate last month, some of which included emails from Epstein discussing Trump.
Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein&#8217;s crimes, and Epstein&#8217;s victims have not made any allegations against the former president. Epstein was also close to powerful Democrats. Last month, Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-unleashes-doj-to-investigate-epsteins-democrat-friends">directed</a> the Justice Department to investigate Epstein&#8217;s ties to Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Treasury Secretary and Harvard President Larry Summers.

Patrick McMullan Archives

Judge Orders Epstein Grand Jury Docs To Be Made Public, Approving DOJ Request

When America developed the atomic bomb that would eventually bring an end to World War II, a secret city in Tennessee was vital for the uranium enrichment that powered the Manhattan Project. Now, that once-secret city is the hub of a new arms race, and The Daily Wire got an exclusive, inside look.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/manhattan-project-2">Manhattan Project 2.0</a> follows Daily Wire senior reporter Cabot Phillips as he heads to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which has been reborn as the front line of a global competition against China that the United States cannot afford to lose. Inside the halls of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, President Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright delivers an unmistakable warning: If America throttles its own energy supply and innovation, China will seize the lead in artificial intelligence.
&#8220;AI has been around for a long time, but it&#8217;s hitting critical mass now. In the next few years, AI is going to change our world, not just economically, but in science and also in national defense,&#8221; Wright says. &#8220;China is working aggressively in AI. If they get a meaningful lead on us on AI, it will be a different world in the future.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/manhattan-project-2">WATCH: Manhattan Project 2.0 On DailyWire+</a>
To understand what’s at stake, Phillips was given rare access to Frontier, the world&#8217;s leading supercomputer driving a modern scientific sprint toward the future. Here, America’s top researchers, led by OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, use AI to accelerate nuclear fusion breakthroughs, model entire reactor cores before they’re built, design next-generation aircraft engines, and rebuild America’s manufacturing edge atom by atom. Frontier isn’t just running calculations, it is collapsing years of research into days, giving the United States a chance to outpace China’s rapidly expanding digital warfare capabilities.
But the story doesn’t end with the future. Phillips was escorted into the X-10 Graphite Reactor, a sealed historic site where workers once loaded uranium into a massive graphite cube without knowing they were launching the nuclear age. Standing before the original channels and concrete shielding, he learns how that dangerous experiment birthed nuclear engineering itself and paved the way for the Navy’s first nuclear submarines — proof that breakthroughs at Oak Ridge have shifted global power before.
The Manhattan Project 2.0 reveals a nation at another historic crossroads, where nuclear energy, supercomputing, and artificial intelligence converge into a single generational test. It asks whether America will once again accept the risk and responsibility of leading the world into a new age of power, or watch China define that future instead.

Manhattan Project 2.0

Manhattan Project 2.0: Inside The Once-Secret City Now Powering America’s AI Fight Against China

Artificial Intelligence

China

Chris Wright

Daily Wire

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