Trump kicks off week meeting with Netanyahu, closes it visiting Texas flood sites
The hallmark of President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump’s week included touching down in Kerrville, Texas, Friday after massive floods in the region took the lives of more than 120 people. Both the president and the first lady met with local officials and first responders who are addressing the fallout and devastation of flash floods that struck the Central Texas community, after the Guadalupe River surged more than 22 feet in just a matter of hours. “I’ve never seen anything like this. This is a bad one,” Trump said during a roundtable Friday with the local officials and responders. In addition to the lives lost in the flood, officials report that more than 160 people are missing and unaccounted for in Kerr County, Texas. TRUMP, FIRST LADY MOURN YOUNG LIVES LOST IN TEXAS FLOODS “So all across the country, Americans’ hearts are shattered,” Trump said. “We’re filled with grief and devastation. It’s the loss of life, and unfortunately, they’re still looking.” “My administration’s doing everything in its power to help Texas,” he said. Those who died in the flooding were at least 27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp founded nearly 100 years ago for girls. “They were there because they loved God,” Trump said at the roundtable. “And as we grieve this unthinkable tragedy, we take comfort in the knowledge that God has welcomed those little beautiful girls into his comforting arms in heaven.” Here’s what also happened this week: Trump held a Cabinet meeting Tuesday where he discussed plans to visit the Texas flood sites. “I’ll be going down on Friday with the first lady, and we will be taking a trip,” Trump said. “And we don’t want to get in anyone’s way, because, you know, it’s what happens. The president goes, and everyone’s around focused. I don’t want anyone to focus on us, but it’s possible they could have.” TRUMP SHIFTS TONE ON PUTIN Trump also addressed SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s new pitch for a third political party, following the signing of Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” on the Fourth of July. Musk opposed the measure due to concerns it would increase the deficit and raise the debt ceiling. But Trump said he isn’t worried about any challenges from Musk’s new “America Party.” “I think it’ll help us. It’ll probably help. Third parties have always been good for me,” Trump said at the Cabinet meeting. Trump also shared details of a recent call he had with Russian President Vladimir Putin, claiming he’s becoming frustrated with Putin as the war between Russia and Ukraine rages on. “We get a lot of bulls— thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said. “He’s very nice to us all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.” Trump also met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday and Tuesday — marking the third time Netanyahu has visited Washington during Trump’s second term. The visit comes as Trump is seeking to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Trump signaled one might be on the horizon soon. HAMAS ‘SERIOUS’ ABOUT REACHING CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT BUT INSISTS ON LONG-STANDING DEMANDS “I will tell you we’re getting very close to a deal,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “I don’t know if it’s secret or not secret, but doesn’t matter to me — secrets fine if it gets us to where we want to be, we want to have a ceasefire.” “We want to have peace,” he said. “We want to get the hostages back. And I think we’re close to doing it.”
Could Butler happen again? Former Secret Service agents weigh in on political violence in 2025
While the 2024 assassination attempt against President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, has resulted in a host of changes to bolster the Secret Service’s security practices, the agency has its work cut out for it in an era of unprecedented threats against the president, according to former Secret Service agents. Trump faces a plethora of threats, ranging from violent extremists backed by proxy groups, to domestic actors inspired to incite violence amid heightened political rhetoric, according to experts. “No U.S. president has been under so much threat of violence,” Bill Gage, who served as a Secret Service special agent during Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s administrations, told Fox News Digital Wednesday. “The threat on President Trump is the greatest that any president has ever faced.” ONE YEAR AFTER TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, BUTLER WIDOW DEMANDS ACCOUNTABILITY FROM SECRET SERVICE Twenty-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on Trump from a rooftop during the rally — with one of the eight bullets shot grazing Trump’s ear. In addition to injuring two people, the gunman also shot and killed Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old firefighter, father and husband attending the rally. Months later, another man was apprehended and charged with attempting to assassinate Trump at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Both incidents are under investigation. Political rhetoric from the left that paints Trump as a threat to democracy is dangerous and could provide fodder for political radicals to believe assassinating the president is the way to save the country — potentially leading to a similar assassination attempt seen in Pennsylvania, Gage said. Other factors contributing to the heightened threat levels include policies related to immigration or funding cuts from the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that are unpopular with the left, as well as hostile proxy groups who are backed by actors like Iran who oppose Trump, Gage said. “That increases the threat level on Trump,” Gage said. “There’s probably dozens and dozens of threats every day, just sort of insider threats, or threats within our own borders that the Secret Service has to run down.” Specifically, Gage pointed to comments from leaders like Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who delivered an address to the nation in June where he claimed “democracy is under assault,” following the Trump administration’s decision to dispatch thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines to respond to the immigration riots in the Golden State and place them under federal command, rather than state command. “Right now there is someone out there reading Newsom’s quotes, someone who wishes President Trump harm,” Gage said in an email in June to Fox News Digital. “It is up to the USSS to stop them. Hopefully those wishing the President harm will not slip through the cracks.” A spokesperson for Newsom did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. Trump isn’t the only subject that’s a potential target for politically motivated violence. Attacks against federal immigration officials are on the rise and a gunman opened fire against Border Patrol agents Monday at an annex in McAllen, Texas. Authorities have yet to identify a motive. However, lawmakers have not minced their words on Trump’s immigration agenda. In June, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., accused ICE of acting “like a terrorist force” — comments she has since defended. Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., who oversees the House Homeland Security committee’s subcommittee on border security and enforcement, said in a Wednesday statement to Fox News Digital that “radical anti-law enforcement rhetoric” has prompted the surge in violence against federal immigration officials. TRUMP CHIEF OF STAFF SUSIE WILES RECOUNTS BUTLER ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, THOUGHT PRESIDENT WAS DEAD AT FIRST Meanwhile, threats continue to change, creating additional challenges for security forces like the Secret Service as they adapt. Although the Secret Service is taking action to enhance its security measures, the agency still faces “considerable vulnerabilities given the rising complexity and sophistication of the threats it faces,” Tim Miller, who served as a Secret Service agent during Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton’s administrations, said in an email Wednesday to Fox News Digital. “The FBI has consistently warned about homegrown violent extremists, which remains a major concern,” Miller said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP While Miller characterized Butler as a “wake-up” call for the Secret Service and said the incident is sharpening the agency’s ability to handle threats, there is still a lot of work that must be done, he said. “The Secret Service is also still playing catch-up when it comes to adopting critical technology — especially in the areas of secure communications, drone surveillance, and real-time intelligence tools,” Miller said. “These are not luxuries; they are vital to modern protective operations.” A bipartisan House task force that investigated the attack found that the attempted assassination was “preventable,” and determined various mistakes were not an isolated incident. At the top of the list of mistakes, the report identified that the Secret Service did not secure a “high-risk area” next to the rally, the American Glass Research (AGR) grounds and building complex. Failure to secure this area “eventually allowed Crooks to evade law enforcement, climb on and traverse the roof of the AGR complex, and open fire.” Other faults the task force found included handing over advance planning roles to inexperienced Secret Service personnel, along with various technology and communication breakdowns. “Moreover, relevant threat information known by members of the intelligence community was not escalated to key personnel working the rally,” the House task force said in its report. As a result, the agency has spearheaded a series of reforms. JOURNALIST WHO REFUSED TO DUCK DURING TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT REFLECTS ON BUTLER RALLY IN NEW BOOK According to former Secret Service acting director Ronald Rowe, immediate changes to the agency following Butler, Pennsylvania, included expanding the use of drones for surveillance purposes, and also incorporating greater counter-drone technology to mitigate kinetic attacks from other drones. The agency also overhauled its
Critical security lapses by Secret Service exposed in new report on Trump assassination attempt
A new report from the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) outlines the U.S. Secret Service’s security failures during the first attempted assassination of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., one year ago. The report, ordered by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, reveals that the Secret Service received classified intelligence regarding a threat to Trump’s life 10 days before the rally, but failed to share the information with other key agencies. It also identified a series of procedural and planning mistakes, including “misallocation of resources, lack of training and pervasive communication failures” that led to the near assassination. “One year ago, a series of bad decisions and bureaucratic handicaps led to one of the most shocking moments in political history,” Grassley said. “The Secret Service’s failure on July 13 was the culmination of years of mismanagement and came after the Biden administration denied requests for enhanced security to protect President Trump. Americans should be grateful that President Trump survived that day and was ultimately reelected to restore common sense to our country. Trump, whose campaign had requested enhanced security but was denied by the Biden administration, was grazed in the right ear while addressing the crowd. Secret Service agents swarmed him, but he famously rose to his feet as he was being hustled to safety, raised his fist in the air and exhorted horrified onlookers to “Fight, fight, fight.” One man in the crowd, Cory Comperatore, was killed protecting his family, while two others were injured. A 20-year-old local man, Thomas Crooks, was shot dead by counter snipers as he crouched on the roof of a nearby building. “There were mistakes made, and that shouldn’t have happened,” Trump told his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, on Fox News. ‘ABSOLUTE BARE MINIMUM’: CALLS FOR MORE ACTION AFTER SECRET SERVICE AGENTS SUSPENDED FOR SECURITY FAILURE The GAO is the U.S. government’s primary auditor. Its nearly year-long probe is the longest review of the attempted assassination to date. Key findings include: Fox News confirmed ahead of the one-year anniversary of Trump’s first attempted assassination that six Secret Service agents were suspended without pay after 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at Trump during a rally in western Pennsylvania last summer. SECRET SERVICE CHANGES THE AGENCY HAS MADE POST-TRUMP BUTLER ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT Supervisors and line-level agents were given suspensions ranging from 10 to 42 days without pay in February, the Secret Service confirmed to Fox News. And the news comes as Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., approved a subpoena to the FBI and Justice Department for more information on the Butler assassination attempt. Johnson, who chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, was a co-author of the bipartisan Senate Homeland Security Committee report on the assassination attempt last year. On the House side, the assassination attempt task force released its final report on Dec. 5, 2024, highlighting the “significant failures in the planning, execution, and leadership of the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners.” The report concluded the shooting was “preventable,” identifying poor advance planning, lack of coordination with local law enforcement and poor Secret Service coordination by the U.S. Secret Service. It proposed 37 “actionable recommendations related both to the security failures on July 13 and to overarching structural changes” the Secret Service should adapt to increase safety measures moving forward. Both Senate and House reports followed congressional testimonies, including from acting FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe, who acknowledged the agency’s “failure” in Butler. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned from the agency less than a week after the attempted assassination of Trump amid mounting pressure, taking “full responsibility for the security lapse.” One day after Butler, the FBI announced its federal investigation into the shooting, calling it an assassination attempt and a potential act of domestic terrorism. Fox News’ Alexis McAdams and Alex Miller contributed to this report.
Mamdani’s father sits on council of anti-Israel group tied to terror, legitimizes role of suicide bombers
FIRST ON FOX: Mahmood Mamdani, the father of socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, sits on the advisory council of an anti-Israel organization that supports boycotts and sanctions of Israel, routinely accuses the Israeli government of committing “genocide”, and has expressed sympathy for suicide bombers. The Gaza Tribunal, founded in London in 2024, says its primary goal is “to awaken civil society to its responsibility and opportunity to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” according to its website. Also on its website, Mahmood Mamdani is listed as a member of the group’s “advisory policy council” and is mentioned as having attended the group’s official launch in London last year. Richard Falk, the president of the tribunal, outlined the group’s support of BDS in an online post saying, “the aim of the Tribunal is or [sic] legitimize and encourage civil society solidarity initiatives around the world such as BDS.” UNEARTHED MAMDANI COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WRITINGS PROMOTE ANTI-ISRAEL BOYCOTT, RAIL AGAINST ‘WHITE PRIVILEGE’ BDS is described as “an international campaign to delegitimize the State of Israel as the expression of the Jewish people’s right to national self-determination by isolating the country economically through consumer boycotts, business and government withdrawal of investment, and legal sanctions,” according to Influence Watch. Zohran Mamdani has also promoted BDS as recently as May, when he declined to say whether Israel has a right to exist and said his support of BDS “is consistent with my core of my politics, which is non-violence.” Mahmood Mamdani, the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University, has also faced criticism on social media in recent days over a resurfaced book excerpt where he expressed sympathy for the way suicide bombers are viewed. “Suicide bombing needs to be understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism,” the elder Mamdani wrote in his 2004 book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror. “We need to recognize the suicide bomber, first and foremost, as a category of soldier.” The Gaza Tribunal’s founder and members have deep ties to anti-Israel movements, with at least one being deported from the United States due to terror ties. Falk has a long history of espousing anti-Israel views and was repeatedly accused of using his “Special Rapporteur” United Nations position to “spread unsubstantiated allegations against Israel,” according to Canary Mission, a watchdog organization that works to expose antisemitism. In 2011 and 2014, Falk accused Israel of being a “colonialist” nation and claimed it was pushing “ethnic-cleansing goals.” He would go on to echo these views as recently as February of this year during an interview. Falk faced backlash in 2007 for comparing Israel’s government to the Nazis by accusing them of ushering in a “Palestinian Holocaust” and rhetorically asking, “Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not.” The comparison led to backlash and former Israeli U.N. Ambassador Itzhak Levanon opposing his 2008 UN nomination. MAMDANI LANDS ENDORSEMENT OF A TOP CUOMO BACKER IN NYC MAYORAL PRIMARY The Princeton University professor emeritus also demanded a boycott of corporations in 2012 that do business with Israel, saying they “should be boycotted until they bring their operations into line with international human rights and humanitarian law and standards.” However, a spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) fired back, warning the UN that Falk “has repeatedly abused his position as special rapporteur to unleash unrestrained hatred and disdain for Israel” and that the “United Nations should not be complicit in this wholly unjustified effort to single out Israel.” In a statement to Fox News Digital, Falk said that he advocates for “nonviolent solidarity initiatives with the Palestinian struggle for their basic rights, including BDS.” “I believe that Israel’s occupation policies in Gaza and the West Bank have persecuted Palestinians on their own homeland,” Falk added. “Also, I believe that this pattern of displacing the native population is illustrative of settler colonial political projects that depend for their success on an apartheid-like domination and exploitation of the native population. If such a regime encounters prolonged resistance it almost inevitably relies on genocidal tactics to subdue the civilian population, either by marginalization, ethnic cleansing, or massive killing, all of which have been occurring in Gaza during the 20 months since October 7.” Falk added that Jewish voters in New York City “should not worry” about Mamood Mamdani’s ties to the tribunal or about Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy for mayor. “Both father and son are respectful of international law, the UN, human rights of all peoples, and the pacific settlement of political disputes,” Falk said. Falk is not the only member of the tribunal with anti-Israel ties. A press release of the group’s launch mentioned that Dr. Hatem Bazian, the chairman of American Muslims for Palestine and the co-founder of Students for Justice in Palestine, was also present at the launch. Bazian has been a controversial anti-Israel figure for decades due to his inflammatory rhetoric about Israel and Jews, including during a 2014 convention speech, where he called on attendees to “get to work” on calling for BDS on college campuses and doing sit-ins in Congressional offices. In 2015, Bazian raised alarm bells when he called for an “intifada in this country that changes fundamentally the political dynamics in here,” which is widely interpreted as calling for violence against Jews. He would go on to say, “They’re gonna say some Palestinian being too radical – well, you haven’t seen radicalism yet.” He has also faced backlash for antisemitic posts on social media, which drew backlash from several student groups, including one that mocked Hassidic Jews, with one saying “Mom, look! I is chosen! I can now kill, rape, smuggle organs and steal the land of Palestinians ‘Yay’ #Ashke-Nazi.” Another social media post insinuated Jews control UC Berkeley, which is a classic antisemitic trope about their “power.” Sami Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor who admitted to conspiring to
From ‘safety’ to ‘fascist state’: Senators share opinions on ICE agents wearing masks
Sens. Alex Padilla and Cory Booker, two of the leading Capitol Hill critics of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, introduced legislation this week that would require immigration enforcement officers to clearly identify themselves without masks, leaving senators divided. Republicans on Capitol Hill dismissed the Democrats’ bill, telling Fox News Digital that immigration agents should be allowed to wear masks to conceal their identities and protect their personal safety. “I do think they should be allowed to wear masks, because not only have the ICE agents been threatened, but their families and their children are being threatened. When you have those kinds of threats to your family, just because you’re doing your job and enforcing the law, you ought to be able to protect your identity,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers typically wear face coverings during illegal immigration raids and arrests to protect their identity. BORDER PATROL UNION CHIEF BLASTS ANTI-MASKING PROPOSAL: ‘TONE DEAF POLITICS’ Padilla, who was handcuffed for disrupting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference last month, and Booker, a consistent critic of Trump, proposed the Visible Identification Standards for Immigration-Based Law Enforcement (VISIBLE) Act of 2025. TRUMP SEETHES THAT DEMS FLOATING BILL REQUIRING THE UNMASKING OF ICE, CBP AGENTS MUST ‘HATE’ AMERICA Federal immigration law enforcement officers have been targeted since Trump signed his “big, beautiful bill” – which includes legislation for robust immigration reform – into law last Friday. There have been at least two ambushes in Texas, and protesters clashed with federal officers at the Portland, Oregon, ICE facility. Anti-ICE rhetoric intensified in June, when federal officials descended on Los Angeles to conduct raids to deport illegal immigrants, which was met by protests that devolved into riots last month. “When there are other people calling for violent attacks on ICE agents, why wouldn’t the ICE agent wear a mask? And it’s not just the ICE agents. It’s his family. You can follow them home, attack his family,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said when asked about the new legislation. “Let’s not be naive,” he added. “This is an attempt to intimidate the ICE agent. It’s about nothing more than that.” But Democrats have a different take. “That’s what you see in a fascist state,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., told Fox News Digital about masked agents. “We are not a fascist state. We are ‘We the People’ and we need to make sure that people are accountable.” Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said, “They should be clearly identified. What’s their agency? Who are they?” Booker and Padilla’s bill would also require all federal agents to clearly display their agency name or initials and their name or badge number. “No masks and clear identification of an ICE agent, I think, promotes safety,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., added. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, agreed. “Law enforcement should identify themselves,” she said. Trump weighed in on the new legislation this week, telling Fox News’ Peter Doocy that Booker and Padilla wouldn’t be proposing this bill “if they didn’t hate our country.” “These officers are doing a tremendous job,” he continued. “They’re great patriots.” But Booker fired back on X, writing, “We love America, and love keeping Americans safe. Which is why we introduced the Visible Act that requires ICE agents to wear identifiable badges and conduct their duties unmasked. It’s a fact that policies centered around transparency and accountability are effective in making communities, and law enforcement safer all around.” Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.
‘Comrade Chris’ – Republicans aim to anchor Mamdani to Democrats across the country
GILSUM, N.H. – Republicans aren’t wasting an opportunity to make democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani a cudgel to bash Democrats across the country. Mamdani’s stunning mayoral primary victory in the nation’s most populous city rocked the political world, adding fuel to an already volatile election season. Republicans have been relentless in trying to anchor Mamdani to Democrats across the country who are running in competitive races in elections this year and in next year’s midterms. That’s the case in New Hampshire, in the high-profile 2026 race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. Republican candidate and former Sen. Scott Brown went up this week with a digital ad that edits a picture of Rep. Chris Pappas, the Democratic candidate in the race, alongside photos of Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive rock star who backed Mamdani. TRUMP ARGUES NYC FACES DIRE CONSEQUENCES IF ‘COMMUNIST’ MAMDANI BECOMES MAYOR The caption on the ad reads “Comrade Chris.” Pappas, speaking with Fox News Friday on the campaign trail as he toured W.S. Badger, a natural and organic skincare and sunscreen company in this southwestern New Hampshire town, said, “Republicans have spent tens of millions of dollars running attack ads against me through the years trying to paint me as someone that I’m not.” “People know me. They know the work that I’ve been doing. They know that I’m one of the most bipartisan members of the House of Representatives because I believe in solving problems and getting things done,” Pappas said. “I’m a New Hampshire Democrat. I’m proud of my track record in Congress.” THE PLOT TO STOP MAMDANI: DEMOCRATS SCRAMBLE TO PREVENT FAR-LEFT TAKEOVER IN NYC Pappas was joined on the campaign trail by longtime Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who spent plenty of time in New Hampshire ahead of her third-place finish in the state’s 2020 Democratic presidential primary. “It’s about New Hampshire. They’re going to do this in all these races across the country. They try to attach people. People have never even met some of these people. And they keep doing it,” Klobuchar told Fox News when asked about the Republican ad anchoring Mamdani to Pappas. “To me this is about what’s going on for the people of this state.” The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) was one of the first out of the gate to capitalize on Mamdani’s leftward lurch, firing off an email release minutes after his victory that claimed, “the new face of the Democrat Party just dropped, and it’s straight out of a socialist nightmare.” Aiming to tie House Democrats to Mamdani, NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella argued that “every vulnerable House Democrat will own him, and every Democrat running in a primary will fear him.” The National Republican Senatorial Campaign (NRSC) also quickly got into the game, tying Pappas and Abdul El-Sayed – one of the contenders for the Democratic Senate nomination in battleground Michigan – to Mamdani. No surprise – the Republican attacks have even come from President Donald Trump, who, since Mamdani’s victory two weeks ago, has repeatedly claimed that the 33-year-old Ugandan-born state assemblyman from the New York City borough of Queens is a “communist.” Mamdani, who convincingly topped former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates to capture the Democratic mayoral nomination and take a big step toward becoming the city’s first Muslim mayor, is giving Republicans plenty of ammunition. He’s proposed eliminating fares to ride New York City’s vast bus system, making CUNY (City University of New York) “tuition-free,” freezing rents on municipal housing, offering “free childcare” for children up to age 5, and setting up government-run grocery stores. RESURFACED MAMDANI PHOTO SPARKS SOCIAL MEDIA FIRESTORM Also fueling the Republican attacks are recent news items that have gone viral. They include a 2020 photo Mamdani posted online that shows him flipping off a statue of Christopher Columbus, stories about comments Mamdani made last December, when he said as mayor he would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his recent comments in a cable news interview that “I have many critiques of capitalism.” “The Democratic Party’s trying to convince people that the tail is not wagging the dog, and they don’t answer to the more extreme elements of their party,” veteran Republican strategist Colin Reed told Fox News. “Now, that entire effort is undercut by a socialist winning handily in a bellwether election to determine who’s going to run America’s largest city.” “It’s a messaging nightmare that’s going to unfold in real time from now until the midterms,” said Reed, who is a top political advisor to Brown. MAMDANI LANDS ENDORSEMENT OF TOP CUOMO BACKER Veteran political scientist Wayne Lesperance told Fox News that “the primary challenge for Democrats regarding Mamdani’s candidacy is not his policy approach. The challenge is his party identification as a democratic socialist.” “If there’s any doubt about the negative implications of adding the word socialist to Mamdani’s party affiliation, one need only peruse the national coverage whose focus has been on his party and the absence of party leadership to rush to his defense or offer endorsements,” Lesperance, the president of New England College, said. But Democrats question the effectiveness of the GOP push. They argue that there’s a world of difference between heavily blue New York City, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a roughly six-to-one margin, and some key battleground states and swing districts across the country. Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee told reporters the day after Mamdani’s victory that “I love New York, but it’s a very liberal place and I don’t know that you can necessarily apply that to the rest of the country.” Pappas campaign communications adviser Collin Gately pointed to the ad from the Brown campaign and said, “Granite Staters trust Chris and will see through these attacks.” And veteran Democratic strategist Joe Caiazzo cautioned, “I wouldn’t read too much into this.” Caiazzo, a veteran of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, argued that “Republicans are making too much out of this.”
One year after Trump rally shooting, witnesses say investigations leave more questions than answers
One year after an assassin’s near-miss attempt on President Donald Trump, many who witnessed the shooting firsthand say they remain deeply dissatisfied with official investigations, which they believe have failed to provide meaningful answers. “I’m highly dissatisfied with the lack of preparation,” said Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., who was seated in the front row at the rally. “The failures were almost unbelievable,” he told Fox News Digital, echoing a widespread view that the breach was the result of avoidable missteps by law enforcement. Despite probes by multiple federal agencies and a formal congressional investigation, both local residents and lawmakers say they’re still left wondering what went wrong. “The task force was bipartisan. And frankly, I don’t think to this day they’ve gotten all the answers,” Meuser said. ONE YEAR AFTER TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, BUTLER WIDOW DEMANDS ACCOUNTABILITY FROM SECRET SERVICE Shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks was killed by law enforcement at the scene. Since then, the Secret Service has undergone a series of high-profile shakeups. A congressional select committee found in its report a “lack of planning and coordination between the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners,” adding that the agency had been alerted to Crooks’ suspicious movements for over 10 minutes before he fired a shot. But for those who were there, major questions remain: What was Crooks’ motive? Why weren’t agents stationed on a nearby pitched roof? Why was Crooks’ presence on top of the AGR building not acted on sooner? How was he able to fire eight rounds before being neutralized by a Secret Service countersniper? In the absence of concrete answers, some attendees have drawn their own speculative conclusions. “There were certain stock transactions that transpired right beforehand,” one rally-goer said. “CNN never airs Trump’s rallies. Why did they air this one?” another asked. (CNN has said it aired the Butler rally in anticipation of Trump announcing his vice presidential pick.) WHO WAS THOMAS CROOKS? ONE YEAR LATER, MOTIVE AND MISSED WARNINGS HAUNT TRUMP RALLY SHOOTING “I don’t think it was [Crooks],” another witness claimed. “Nobody that went to school with him believes he could have engineered that kind of event.” Zach Scherer, a Butler local who has worked on all three of Trump’s presidential campaigns, voiced ongoing skepticism. “We don’t know anything about this kid from Bethel Park,” he said. “The Comperatore family needs answers. The rest of the community does too. It affected every single person who was here.” Corey Comperatore, a local firefighter, was killed during the shooting. “Investigations that were already done are very inconclusive,” said Erin Autenreith, a GOP activist and rally attendee from Glenshaw, Pennsylvania. “There’s just so much technology now – these videos have such high resolution they can actually see the bullets.” “The American people, they don’t trust the investigations,” she added. “Nobody believes it. So I don’t think it’s good.” Jim Hulings, chairman of the Butler County GOP, criticized Pennsylvania officials for what he called apathy toward the case. He singled out both the Republican district attorney and state attorney general. SECRET SERVICE CHANGES THE AGENCY HAS MADE POST-TRUMP BUTLER ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT “Murder was never investigated,” Hulings said. “We asked for the district attorney to call for a grand jury. He wouldn’t do it. We gave him a letter and 8,000 signatures on a petition. He still wouldn’t do it.” “The AG doesn’t really care either,” Hulings added. “We got Dave Sunday elected, and he went persona non grata.” Some argue the investigation should be elevated to the federal level, given its national implications. But longtime rally-goers agreed on one thing: a scant security presence was noticeable from the start of the day in Butler last year. “All the other rallies I’d been to, there was Secret Service everywhere, so I just assumed they were going to be there. And they weren’t,” said Lucie Roth. “There was no counter sniper teams visible. There was no drones. There was no helicopters,” said Hulings. “Very few police.” A number of factors have been blamed: technical issues with drones, high temperatures prompting Secret Service to seek refuge in the air conditioning, a force that was spread thin by long hours and unexpected overtime. A Senate report found that key resource requests were denied, and some were not even made: Secret Service did not request a surveillance team to help patrol the rally of 15,000 attendees, while an event for first lady Jill Biden had one assigned for her event of 400 individuals roughly an hour away. Until a fuller picture emerges, those who lived through that harrowing day say they won’t stop pushing for accountability – not just for Trump, but for Comperatore and a shaken community still seeking closure.
US State Department begins layoffs in Trump’s shake-up of diplomatic corps
Mass layoff came days after the Supreme Court cleared the way for US president to gut entire government positions. More than 1,350 US State Department employees have been fired in a major diplomatic shake-up ordered by President Donald Trump, in a move critics predict would curb the United States’ influence around the world. Friday’s mass layoff, which affect 1,107 civil service and 246 foreign service officers based in the United States, come at a time when Washington is grappling with multiple crises on the world stage: Russia’s war in Ukraine, the almost two-year-long Gaza conflict, and the Middle East on edge due to high tension between Israel and Iran. Diplomats and other staff clapped out departing colleagues in emotional scenes at the Washington headquarters of the department, which runs US foreign policy and the global network of embassies. Some were crying as they walked out with boxes of belongings. “It’s just heartbreaking to stand outside these doors right now and see people coming out in tears, because all they wanted to do was serve this country,” said US Senator Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat who worked as a civilian adviser for the State Department in Afghanistan during the administration of former President Barack Obama. The layoffs at the department came three days after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to begin carrying out its plan to gut entire government positions. The conservative-dominated top court lifted a temporary block imposed by a lower court on Trump’s plans to lay off potentially tens of thousands of employees. The 79-year-old Republican says he wants to dismantle what he calls the “deep state”. Since taking office in January, he has worked quickly to install fierce personal loyalists and to fire swaths of veteran government workers. Advertisement Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the foreign policy department is too cumbersome and requires thinning out of some 15 percent. “It’s not a consequence of trying to get rid of people. But if you close the bureau, you don’t need those positions,” Rubio told reporters on the sidelines of his ASEAN meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “Understand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people.” The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) – the union representing State Department employees – condemned the “catastrophic blow to our national interests”. “We oppose this decision in the strongest terms.” The State Department employed more than 80,000 people worldwide last year, according to a fact sheet, with about 17,700 in domestic roles. The US Agency for International Development (USAID), long the primary vehicle to provide US humanitarian assistance around the world, has already been mostly dismantled. According to The Washington Post, State Department employees were informed of their firings by email. Foreign Service officers will lose their jobs 120 days after receiving the notice and will be immediately placed on administrative leave, while civil service employees will be separated after 60 days, the newspaper said. Ned Price, who served as State Department spokesman under former Democratic President Joe Biden, condemned what he called haphazard firings. “For all the talk about ‘merit-based,’ they’re firing officers based on where they happen to be assigned on this arbitrary day,” Price said on X. “It’s the laziest, most inefficient, and most damaging way to lean the workforce.” Adblock test (Why?)
US sanctions Cuban president, ‘regime-controlled’ luxury hotels
State Department head Rubio said he had sanctioned several senior officials and their ‘cronies’ for their ‘brutality toward the Cuban people’. The US State Department has imposed sanctions on senior Cuban officials, including President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced as he marked the fourth anniversary of a brutal crackdown on historic antigovernment protests. In a post on X, Rubio said the State Department would be “restricting visas for Cuban regime figureheads”, including President Diaz-Canel, Defence Minister Alvaro Lopez Miera, Interior Minister Lazaro Alberto Alvarez Casas, and their “cronies” for their “role in the Cuban regime’s brutality toward the Cuban people”. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, also announced that the State Department has added the Torre K hotel to its restricted list of entities in order to “prevent US dollars from funding the Cuban regime’s repression”. The Cuban government has promoted the luxury high-rise Torre K in central Havana as a symbol of modernisation. But the government has faced criticism for its large investment in luxury hotels amid a severe economic crisis in the nominally socialist one-party state. “While the Cuban people suffer shortages of food, water, medicine, and electricity, the regime lavishes money on its insiders,” Rubio said. Ten other “regime-linked properties” were also added to the State Department’s List of Prohibited Accommodations, it said in a statement. The statement said the sanctions were being enacted in “solidarity with the Cuban people and the island’s political prisoners”, citing the Cuban government’s brutal crackdown on the July 2021 demonstrations – the largest since the Cuban revolution in the 1950s. Advertisement The police crackdown resulted in one death and dozens of wounded protesters. “Four years ago, thousands of Cubans peacefully took to the streets to demand a future free from tyranny. The Cuban regime responded with violence and repression, unjustly detaining thousands, including over 700 who are still imprisoned and subjected to torture or abuse,” the State Department said. Rubio also accused Cuba of torturing pro-democracy activist Jose Daniel Ferrer, whose bail was revoked as he was taken into custody alongside fellow dissident Felix Navarro in April. “The United States demands immediate proof of life and the release of all political prisoners,” Rubio said. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez slammed the latest measures as part of a “ruthless economic war” being waged by the administration of US President Donald Trump. “The USA is capable of imposing migratory sanctions against revolutionary leaders and maintaining a prolonged and ruthless economic war against Cuba, but it lacks the ability to break the will of these people or their leaders,” he said on X. In January, then-US President Joe Biden had removed Cuba from the blacklist of countries sponsoring terrorism. But Trump returned the country to the blacklist immediately after returning to the White House as he resumed his “maximum pressure” campaign against Cuba that typified his foreign policy during his first term. Adblock test (Why?)
Worker dies following immigration raids on California cannabis farms
A farmworker has died from injuries he sustained in immigration raids on two California cannabis farms, as United States authorities confirmed they arrested 200 workers after a tense standoff with protesters. The United Farm Workers advocacy group confirmed the death of Jaime Alanis, who was injured after a 30-foot (nine-metre) fall during one of the raids, in a post on X on Friday. “We tragically can confirm that a farm worker has died of injuries they sustained as a result of yesterday’s immigration enforcement action,” it said. Federal immigration authorities confirmed on Friday that they had arrested about 200 immigrants suspected of being in the US illegally in raids on Thursday at two cannabis farms in Carpinteria and Camarillo, Southern California. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that they also found at least 10 immigrant children during the raids who were rescued from “potential exploitation, forced labour, and human trafficking”. The statement said four US citizens had been arrested for their role in violent confrontations between agents and protesters. Authorities are also offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of another person suspected of firing a gun at the federal agents. “During the operation, more than 500 rioters attempted to disrupt operations. Four US citizens are being criminally processed for assaulting or resisting officers. The rioters damaged vehicles, and one violent agitator fired a gun at law enforcement officers,” the statement said. Advertisement One of the raids saw immigration agents clad in military-style helmets and uniforms storm Glass House Farms – a licensed cannabis grower which also grows tomatoes and cucumbers – in Camarillo on Thursday. Agents faced off with the demonstrators outside the farm, as crowds of people gathered to seek information about their relatives and to oppose the raids. Andrew Dowd, a spokesperson for the Ventura County Fire Department, said at least 12 people were injured as a result of the raid and protest. Jaime Alanis inside Ventura County Medical Center after he was injured during an immigration raid on July 10, 2025, in Camarillo, California [AP Photo] During the raid, Alanis, who had reportedly worked at Glass House Farms picking tomatoes for 10 years, called his family in Mexico to say he was hiding from authorities. “The next thing we heard was that he was in the hospital with broken hands, ribs and a broken neck,” said Juan Duran, Alanis’s brother-in-law, according to The Associated Press news agency. In a statement, Glass House said immigration agents held valid warrants, and it is helping provide detained workers with legal representation. “Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” the statement said. United Farm Workers said in a statement that some US citizens who worked at the firm are not yet accounted for. The raid is the latest to take place as part of the Trump administration’s controversial all-out campaign cracking down on immigration in the US. Since returning to the White House, Trump has unleashed groups of immigration agents to round up undocumented migrants and sent accused gang members to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador without due process. But in the wake of Thursday’s raids, Federal Judge Maame E Frimpong ordered a temporary halt to the Trump administration’s indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in seven California counties, including Los Angeles. The Friday ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by immigrant advocacy groups in the US District Court last week, accusing the Trump administration of systematically targeting brown-skinned people during immigration raids in Southern California. The filing asked the judge to block the administration from using what they called unconstitutional tactics. In her ruling, which remains in place for 10 days, Judge Frimpong agreed that “roving patrols” of immigration agents without reasonable suspicion violated the Fourth Amendment, protecting individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures, and the Fifth Amendment, ensuring due process of law. Advertisement Frimpong directed agents to stop racially profiling people and ordered the federal government to ensure detainees have access to legal counsel. Al Jazeera correspondent in Washington, DC, Shihab Rattansi, said the case gets to the “heart of whether we can have these marauding sort of gangs of ICE agents without any identification” sweeping people up. “[The plaintiffs argue there is] no probable cause to suspect they’re breaking any kind of immigration laws. And we know a lot of people who are citizens are being swept up too,” Rattansi said. Adblock test (Why?)