MIKEY SMITH: I was there for JD Vance's air base speech - he did the most Donald Trump thing ever
RAF Fairford is honestly the closest you can come to being in America without getting on a plane.
At least until they finally get round to building Universal Studios in Bedford.
The cafe takes dollars. Many of the transports around the base are left hand drive.
And oh yeah, the troops are American.
So JD Vance took an afternoon out from partying with Thomas Skinner and breakfasting with Nigel Farage to say hi to US military personnel stationed here in the UK. And I went along too.
Understandably, given the security concerns at both a military base and a Vice Presidential visit, we arrived several hours ahead of Vance's speech.
So there was plenty of time to look up the massive plane he was to speak in front of - a U-2 spy plane, of the type currently flying surveillance missions over Russia.
And plenty of time to enjoy the soundtrack of the day - a lengthy playlist taking in the Village People's Macho Man, Elton's Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting and ABBA's Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man after Midnight).
In fact the playlist was so camp macho that one wonders if it was put together by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth himself.
Before the VP's arrival, a senior officer took to the stage to remind those present that serving personnel are not allowed to express political opinions while in uniform.
A perfectly sensible idea - and to their credit, one stuck to scrupulously by every single person any of us spoke to.
But she needn't have worried. There was very little politics to come from JD.
Unlike his boss, Vance turned up for the speech precisely on schedule.
And again, unlike the Donald, his remarks were brief and largely uncontroversial.
Aside from that one line where he said peace in Ukraine would be possible because the "bad guys" are afraid of the American military...but wasn't super clear about which side he considered to be the bad guys.
And then I saw it. The most Donald Trump thing I've ever seen someone who wasn't Donald Trump do - and I've seen Lee Greenwood sing God Bless the USA live at a military parade.
While Vance was happily - and generously - chatting and shaking hands with the men and women who lined up for a meet and greet, two or three senior officers showed up with giant boxes.
And in those boxes were hundreds and hundreds of McDonalds burgers.
If I'm not mistaken, Quarterpounders with Cheese.
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There were so many free cheeseburgers being handed out by the VP and his guys that they could have fed every man woman and child in the room for at least a couple of days.
The logistics of the seemingly unending stream of griddled beef alone boggled the mind.
Presumably they were a bit cold given the nearest McDonalds is a fair old drive away - and there were more sandwiches on offer than a normal sized branch.
But the troops seemed grateful.
And so ended another weird day in JD Vance's increasingly weird trip to the UK. Presumably tomorrow he'll spend the day playing golf with the remaining Chuckle brother, or get a personal guided tour of Madame Tussauds.
At this point, little would surprise me.
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The Independent
a few seconds ago
- The Independent
CNN's resident MAGA defender keeps getting his past Jan. 6 condemnation thrown back in his face
In January 2021, CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings was unwavering in his criticism of Donald Trump following the Capitol riots, saying that the president 'caused this insurrection with his lies and conspiracy theories' and 'every Republican must condemn it.' Now that Jennings is the network's resident MAGA defender and Trump has federally taken over Washington while deploying the National Guard into the city because of a so-called 'crime emergency,' the longtime GOP strategist is now getting his past anti-Trump criticism of January 6 thrown back in his face. And, quite frankly, he is not thrilled about it. Hours after the president held his Monday press conference announcing that he was seizing control of the D.C. police department and mobilizing the military to patrol the city's streets to 'rescue' the nation's capital from 'crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse,' Jennings appeared on CNN NewsNight to discuss Trump's widely criticized move. Spurred into action by images of former DOGE staffer Edward 'Big Balls' Coristine bloodied following an attempted carjacking and Fox News reports about crime in D.C., Trump has called his move 'Liberation Day in D.C.' while giving the green light to law enforcement to 'do whatever the hell they want.' Critics, meanwhile, have noted that despite the president's rhetoric about 'out-of-control' crime, violent crime has rapidly declined in the city over the past two years and is at a 30-year low. During the Monday night CNN panel discussion, Jennings was unsurprisingly applauding the president's decision as being tough on crime while showing support for law enforcement, prompting fellow panelist Tara Setmayer to take issue with the idea that Trump 'backs the blue' by referencing Jennings' prior condemnation of January 6. 'You look at what Donald Trump did and what MAGA has done to the police officers who defended our Capitol on January 6th,' Setmayer, a former GOP strategist and Never-Trump conservative, declared. 'You want to talk about spitting in the face? Donald Trump spit in the face of every single one of those officers who took that oath to protect and serve on January 6th when he pardoned those insurrectionist bastards and who wanted to take down our Capitol and stop the free and fair, peaceful transfer of power.' One of the president's first acts after his second inauguration was to issue a blanket pardon to roughly 1,600 rioters who were charged with crimes during the attack on the Capitol, including many who were jailed for violently attacking police officers. 'And so how dare people sit here and say that he backs the blue? He abdicated that, because you know what? He did not protect or defend the Constitution and he violated his oath of office,' she continued. 'You know, who said that? You did after January 6th. And that's exactly what he continues to do right now with the way he is throwing around our military, our police, talking about moving us to other states. This is something people should be very concerned about.' Indeed, shortly after a MAGA mob stormed the Capitol on January 6 in an effort to stop the certification of Joe Biden's electoral victory, Jennings wrote a scathing opinion piece for CNN chastising the president and any Republican who didn't rebuke Trump's actions. 'I'm ashamed and embarrassed for our country, and for any Republican who fails to condemn this shameful behavior,' Jennings stated at the time. In an on-air appearance the night of the riot, Jennings also suggested that Trump had become such a threat to the country that he may need to abdicate his office immediately. On Monday night, however, Jennings was seemingly stunned into silence and merely held his hand to his chin after Setmayer aired her receipts, prompting anchor Anny Phillip to move on to another guest. Several minutes later, though, Phillip circled back to the right-wing pundit to see if he wanted to finally jump back in. 'I want to give Scott a moment because he has not said a single thing,' the CNN host said. Saying that 'what happened to the cops that day was a disgrace,' Jennings then pivoted to defending Trump's federal takeover of Washington and deployment of the National Guard, adding that 'the only city' that Trump really has control of is Washington. 'If he controls D.C., why didn't he do it on January 6th?' Setmayer shot back. 'Why didn't he do it on January 6th when he sat there and let them take over the Capitol? He had the opportunity, but he didn't.' Two days later, another longtime political strategist would once again confront Jennings on his harsh criticism of the president's behavior on January 6 as it related to Trump now invoking the D.C. Home Rule Act. This time around, however, Jennings didn't sit in silence and instead lashed out with personal attacks. 'I think in Washington, D.C., you're gonna have to have substantial reductions in violence, substantial reductions in murder, substantial reductions in carjackings, and people are generally gonna feel like they can walk around and not be under threat all the time,' he said, boasting about the number of arrests that have occurred since the takeover. Julie Roginsky, a Democratic operative and former Fox News pundit, snarked that she was 'old enough' to remember when Jennings was 'appalled as the rest of us were on January 6th,' leading the former Mitch McConnell adviser to cut her off. 'Because January 6th happened, should we not enforce the law today?' Jennings sneered, resulting in a heated back-and-forth in which the GOP commentator accused Roginsky of engaging in a 'silly argument.' At one point, Phillip jumped in to ask Jennings to allow Roginsky to finish her point, only for the conservative pundit to grouse that he's 'not gonna allow it' if Roginsky kept taking 'potshots' at him. 'Scott, I know you're thirsty for that seat, but let me finish,' Roginsky snapped back, referencing reports that Jennings is considering a Senate run in Kentucky to replace the retiring McConnell. 'What are you thirsty for? Some kind of relevance out here? I mean, I don't even know what you do for a living,' he fumed in response. An undeterred Roginsky, though, continued on with her point following the broadside from Jennings. 'Can I just finish what I was about to say, which is that on January 6th, [Trump] could have deployed the National Guard. He chose not to. 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'Not sure why every liberal pundit on CNN, confronted by Jennings, doesn't just read out every night his own words from Jan 6th back to him,' Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan, who recently got into a heated exchange with a NewsNation anchor after invoking January 6, tweeted. 'Jennings called it an insurrection by domestic terrorists caused by Donald Trump. Remind him. Every. Single. Night.'
Glasgow Times
a few seconds ago
- Glasgow Times
Vance plays golf on Trump's Turnberry course during holiday in Scotland
Mr Vance landed at Prestwick Airport in South Ayrshire on Wednesday evening before travelling to the luxury Carnell Estate near Kilmarnock. On Thursday morning he was at the Trump Turnberry resort on the Ayrshire coast and spent time playing on the golf course. JD Vance took in a round at Trump Turnberry (Andy Buchanan/PA) It comes after the US president's own visit to Scotland last month, when he split his stay between Turnberry and his golf resort in Aberdeenshire. Mr Vance was greeted by dozens of pro-Palestine protesters when he arrived at the Carnell Estate on Wednesday. The demonstrators waved Palestine flags and shouted pro-Palestine chants. Airspace restrictions are in place around the estate until Sunday. Police were on the course while the US vice-president played (Andy Buchanan/PA) Mr Vance will reportedly spend five days in Scotland – the same amount of time his boss Mr Trump did during his trip to the country last month. Police Scotland previously said they have plans in place for a 'significant police operation' during Mr Vance's time in Scotland. Mr Vance had been holidaying in the Cotswolds but travelled to Foreign Secretary David Lammy's Chevening House retreat in Kent on Friday and joined him for some carp fishing. On Wednesday, Mr Vance described the UK-US relationship as 'a beautiful alliance' during a speech at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.
Glasgow Times
a few seconds ago
- Glasgow Times
Melania Trump threatens to sue Hunter Biden over ‘salacious' Epstein comments
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