Russia Sounds off on Trump’s Threat to Retake the Panama Canal

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Russia’s foreign ministry has called on President Donald Trump to reaffirm the current international agreement surrounding the Panama Canal and to leave it in control of the nation of Panama.

Alexander Shchetinin, the director of Russia’s foreign ministry’s Latin American department, told Russian news outlet TASS that he expects Trump “will respect the current international legal regime” of the canal as laid out in two 1977 treaties between the U.S. and Panama.

The agreement relinquished American control over the canal by the year 2000 and guaranteed its neutrality.

Trump has railed against Panama since his sweeping election win in November, accusing the Central American country of letting China dominate the critical maritime trade route and leaving U.S. ships getting “ripped off” in the process. . .

“We expect that during the expected discussions between the leadership of Panama and President Trump on issues of control over the Panama Canal, which certainly falls within the sphere of their bilateral relations, the parties will respect the current international legal regime of this key waterway,” Shchetinin said. (Read more from “Russia Sounds off on Trump’s Threat to Retake the Panama Canal” HERE)

Dismantling the Deep State Begins on Day One of Trump 2.0

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As President Donald Trump was preparing to start his second term, corporate media outlets were breathlessly reporting that the Trump transition team had asked “more than a dozen career diplomats to step down.” Scores were said to be “stepping down,” resulting in “an exodus of decorated veterans of the Foreign Service,” the Washington Post reported. . .

The gnashing of teeth from the Pravda press over Trump making good on his pledge to dismantle the deep state was as expected as the president’s swift action. The reporting also was — not surprisingly — not entirely correct.

Reuters, according to sources, reported that among the diplomats asked to take a hike was John Bass, “the agency’s No. 3 official … who was acting undersecretary for political affairs overseeing policy from Asia to Europe and the Middle East.” His imminent departure was first reported by the Washington Post. The State Department updated the diplomat’s bio, noting “John Bass’s term ended on January 20, 2025.”

Reuters and others reported, via their sources, that Lisa Kenna, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service who had served as executive secretariat under Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Trump’s first presidential term, would take over Bass’ duties. In fact, the president announced Monday that he had named Kenna acting Secretary of State until the confirmation of his nominee, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. Kenna’s tenure was but a few hours. Early Monday evening, the Senate unanimously confirmed Rubio as Secretary of State, the first of Trump’s nominees to make it through the confirmation process.

Trump’s rapid moves to “clean out the deep state” should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. He campaigned on it. He has nominated a cabinet team dedicated to deep state disinfecting. On Monday, the new administration made clear that “the State Department will have an America-First foreign policy.” (Read more from “Dismantling the Deep State Begins on Day One of Trump 2.0” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Schools Aren’t Off-Limits For ICE Raids, Trump DHS Says

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The Trump administration on Tuesday said that schools were no longer off-limits for immigration enforcement agents, withdrawing a Biden administration guideline on “sensitive” areas.

“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman said in a Tuesday statement.

“This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens—including murderers and rapists—who have illegally come into our country,” the statement continued. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”

School systems immediately pledged to make ICE’s job as hard as possible, and an Obama-linked progressive group urged them to do so because the more illegal immigrants a school has, the more taxpayer money it gets.

The Century Foundation, a progressive nonprofit that school systems lean on for policy advice, said that principals should meet federal law enforcement at the door and tell them that “district protocols” prohibited them from entering before the principal called the district’s lawyer. Then, the principal should call the child’s parents. Denver, whose enrollment has risen thanks to immigrant children after several years of declining enrollment, was one of several districts that said they would follow a similar procedure. (Read more from “Schools Aren’t Off-Limits For ICE Raids, Trump DHS Says” HERE)

A Trump Executive Order Could End The Government-Censorship Complex

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President Donald Trump ordered an end to “federal censorship” on his first day in office — potentially closing the door on the government-censorship complex.

“Under the guise of combatting ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation,’ the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens,” the order reads. “Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.”

Trump signed the order, Restoring Freedom Of Speech And Ending Federal Censorship, Monday night in front of a crowd at Capital One Arena. This was one of his first actions after returning to office.

“The previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve,” the order reads. . .

The federal government has a censorship hub — the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). CISA worked with “Zuckbucks” groups in 2020 and targeted election speech it deemed “mis-, dis-, and malinformation.” (Read more from “A Trump Executive Order Could End The Government-Censorship Complex” HERE)

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Trump, Vance Roll Their Eyes As Left-Wing Pastor Lectures Them On Trans People, Illegal Aliens (VIDEO)

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President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance visibly rolled their eyes as the Episcopal bishop of Washington, Mariann Budde, lectured them on being kind to transgender people and immigrants at Tuesday’s National Prayer Service.

Budde requested that the newly sworn-in president and vice president “have mercy” on gay, lesbian and transgender people as well as illegal immigrants who are allegedly “scared” by the new administration. The new leaders did not appear amused by her lecture, with Vance repeatedly shooting looks to his wife, Second Lady Usha Vance.

“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on the people in our country who are scared now,” Budde said. “There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives. And the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants, who work the night shifts in hospitals. They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors, they are faithful members of churches and our mosques, synagogues and temples.”

Trump and Vance attended the National Prayer Service along with Usha, First Lady Melania Trump and their families at the Washington National Cathedral. The interfaith service was held to “offer prayers of thanksgiving for our democracy” at the beginning of the new administration, according to a statement from the National Cathedral. (Read more from “Trump, Vance Roll Their Eyes As Left-Wing Pastor Lectures Them On Trans People, Illegal Aliens (VIDEO)” HERE)

One Of DC’s Biggest Neocons Just Got Toppled — What Really Happened?

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When Republican Ohio Rep. Mike Turner was unceremoniously ousted as Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) just ahead of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, reports claimed that Trump had ordered Speaker Mike Johnson to orchestrate the shakeup. However, sources close to the decision-making process explained to the Daily Caller the real reasons behind Johnson giving Turner the boot.

In early January, Tablet Magazine published a piece that said Turner was boasting that he would be “taking over Trump’s IC [Intelligence Community]” by trying to get his staff director, Adam Howard, hired as the National Security Council’s senior director for intelligence. Tablet reported that Howard “is meant to be [Turner’s] instrument” in the position. Turner and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz both disputed the idea that Turner was influencing staffing decisions at the NSC.

“No one’s making personnel decisions outside of President Trump and his transition team. I mean, that’s it,” Waltz said in an exclusive interview with the Caller.

Regardless of its veracity, sources familiar with Turner’s ousting told the Caller that the report is still among a range of factors that influenced Turner’s removal from the top post on the Intelligence committee. However, these sources explained, Turner would have likely still have been pushed out even if the Tablet report had never dropped.

With Johnson being reelected speaker of the new Congress, he has the opportunity to choose his own chairs for select committees, like HPSCI, without input from the steering committee. One of the biggest factors for Turner’s dismissal was the view of most of the Republican conference that Turner is “in bed with the intelligence community,” the Caller’s sources explained. Turner was considered to be more aligned with former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and, although Johnson and Turner got along personally, Johnson was looking for change. (Read more from “One Of DC’s Biggest Neocons Just Got Toppled — What Really Happened?” HERE)

Why the Latest Pete Hegseth Character Assassination Attempt Lasted About Two Seconds

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Pete Hegseth’s nomination to be the next secretary of defense would be a partisan vote, advancing to the Senate on a 14-13 vote from the Armed Services Committee. The Democrats failed to derail one of President Trump’s top picks, but that doesn’t mean there will be Hail Mary attempts to stop Hegseth. We have another character assassination attempt at the zero hour, where the ex-wife of Hegseth’s brother alleges a bunch of nonsense that’s so laughable it’s not worthy of being mentioned. Read the NBC News article, but notice how they bury the most important part of the story [emphasis mine]:

Senators received an affidavit Tuesday from the former sister-in-law of defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth in which she says his behavior caused his second wife to fear for her safety. The receipt of the affidavit comes after Senate Armed Services Committee staffers were in contact with Hegseth’s former sister-in-law for several days.

The former sister-in-law, Danielle Hegseth, submitted the affidavit in response to a Jan. 18 letter from Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., seeking “a statement attesting to your personal knowledge about Mr. Hegseth’s fitness to occupy this important position.”

[…]

Danielle describes in the affidavit allegations of volatile and threatening conduct by Hegseth that made his second wife, Samantha Hegseth, fear for her safety. Among the allegations are that Samantha hid in a closet once from Hegseth, that she developed escape plans for use “if she felt she needed to get away from Hegseth” that would be activated with a code word and that she did once put the escape plans into action.

At least 15 senators — including multiple Republicans — had reviewed the affidavit as of 2:30 p.m. ET, according to a Senate staffer.

Two days before Congress received the affidavit, NBC News asked Hegseth’s second wife, Samantha Hegseth, to comment on details of some of the allegations in the affidavit.

(Read more from “Why the Latest Pete Hegseth Character Assassination Attempt Lasted About Two Seconds” HERE)

John Bolton Stripped of Secret Service Detail After Being Stripped of Security Clearance

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Former National Security Adviser John Bolton was stripped of his Secret Service detail on the same day that President Donald Trump stripped him of his security clearance, according to several reports.

CNN reported that Bolton had confirmed that “within hours” of Trump taking office, the president terminated the Secret Service detail that had been assigned to Bolton.

Several sources also informed CBS News that the decision to terminate Bolton’s Secret Service detail had been made “in the past 24 hours.”

In a statement on X, Bolton expressed that he was “disappointed but not surprised that President Trump” had terminated his Secret Service detail. Bolton added that despite his “criticisms” of former President Joe Biden’s national security policies, Biden “made the decision to extend” Bolton’s Secret Service detail protection.

“I am disappointed but not surprised that President Trump has decided to terminate the protection previously provided by the United States Secret Service,” Bolton wrote. “Notwithstanding my criticisms of President Biden’s national-security policies, he nonetheless made the decision to extend that protection to me in 2021.”

(Read more from “John Bolton Stripped of Secret Service Detail After Being Stripped of Security Clearance” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Report: India to Take Back 18,000 Indian Migrants Living in U.S. Illegally

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Indian officials are preparing to repatriate roughly 18,000 Indian migrants who have been living in the United States illegally, according to a recent report.

“People familiar with the matter” informed Bloomberg that the Indian government is prepared to work with President Donald Trump and his administration to “identify and take back all its citizens” who have been in the U.S. illegally.

“As part of India-US cooperation on migration and mobility, both sides are engaged in a process to deter illegal migration,” Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, told Bloomberg. “This is being done to create more avenues for legal migration from India to the US.”

The majority of the Indians who have been living in the U.S. illegally are reportedly “youth from western India.”

While the actual number “could be much higher,” Bloomberg said the U.S. has identified roughly 18,000 Indian migrants who have been living in the country illegally. The Indian government is reportedly preparing to “verify and start the process of deportation.” (Read more from “Report: India to Take Back 18,000 Indian Migrants Living in U.S. Illegally” HERE)

‘Scariest Thing I’ve Ever Seen’: Mike Johnson Drops Truth Bomb About Who’s Running This Country

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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Friday recounted a meeting with President Biden from early last year when the president appeared to forget he signed an executive order pausing the export of liquified natural gas (LNG).

Johnson publicly recalled the story for the first time to Bari Weiss during an episode of her podcast “Honestly” for The Free Press after saying that through his “personal observation” in dealing with Biden, the president “has not been in charge for some time.” Johnson’s story was first reported by the Wall Street Journal in June, though the newspaper’s reporting relied on anonymous sources at the time.

When Weiss asked Johnson to elaborate on his observations, the speaker began his tale of how Biden’s staff kept brushing off his attempts to schedule a meeting with the president in January 2024 amid “big national concerns” that Johnson said he “was losing sleep over.” . . .

“I show up and I realize it’s actually an ambush ’cause it’s not just me and the president,” Johnson said. “It’s also Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem, you know, The CIA Director.”

Johnson said the group began to “hot box” him on Ukraine funding when Biden asked if he could have the room with him, a request that Johnson said left the president’s staff visibly concerned. (Read more from “‘Scariest Thing I’ve Ever Seen’: Mike Johnson Drops Truth Bomb About Who’s Running This Country” HERE)