'So fake, corny': JD Vance makes controversial gesture during Ohio speech as he doubles down on Trump's antics
JD Vance
made a controversial gesture during a Republican Party dinner in Lima, Ohio, raising his middle finger while delivering remarks about political culture in Washington, D.C. Vance had some antics of his own to match President Donald Trump's expletive-filled rant against Israel and Iran earlier in the day.
The speech was referencing the political culture in Washington, DC. In reference to left-wing protestors, he said "the all pink-haired people threw up the sign" before doing it himself.
JD Vance shows his middle finger
"Trust me in Washington D.C. they have this thing, I think it means we're number one in Washington D.C. but all the pink haired people throw up this sign, and that means we're number one right? I chose to take that as that symbol in Washington," Vance said while holding up his middle finger.
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He lowered his finger and then added: 'I choose to take that as that symbol in Washington.'
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The gesture drew some laughter from the audience. But, some critics were quick to mock the vice-president's so-called gag joked about him trying to outdo President Donald Trump, who'd earlier dropped an F-bomb while ranting about Israel and Iran breaking a ceasefire.
— Acyn (@Acyn)
"I guess when daddy drops the f bomb you gotta act like you're really cool too…," one user commented. "Vance built his brand on fake populism and ended up crying about hair dye and hand gestures. From Hillbilly Elegy to high school energy," another user quipped. "This dude is so fake and corny it's actually scary," wrote another.
In his Tuesday night comments, Vance reiterated Trump's claims that the strikes destroyed Iran's nuclear facilities. He said, 'Not only did we destroy the Iranian nuclear program, we did it with zero American casualties.' He also criticized the Supreme Leader of Iran.
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Trump on Israel-Iran conflict
This comes just hours after the commander-in-chief accused both Iran and Israel of violating the ceasefire, whom he announced on Truth Social. He raged about the nations' actions in a profanity-laden rant on live TV.
Speaking to reporters ahead of his departure for the NATO summit in The Hague, Trump expressed his dissatisfaction with both nations, stating he's 'not happy' with either—but emphasized that he's 'really unhappy' with Israel. He warned that any Israeli airstrikes on Iran would constitute a 'major violation,' urging Israel to 'bring your pilots home, now.'
Trump also claimed that Iran's nuclear capabilities have been eliminated and asserted that Tehran will never be able to rebuild its nuclear program." Trump then ranted on live TV that Israel and Iran "don't know what the f***' they're doing," before storming off to his helicopter.
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Trump's raging remarks came after the tentative truce between Israel and Iran faltered early Tuesday when Israel accused Iran of launching missiles into its airspace after the ceasefire was supposed to take effect and vowed to retaliate. Taking to his own social media site Truth Social, Trump wrote: "ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES."
Many expressed apprehensions that the war might widen after the US joined the attacks by dropping bunker-buster bombs over the weekend and Israel expanded the kinds of targets it was hitting. But after Tehran launched a limited retaliatory strike on a US military base in Qatar on Monday, Trump announced the ceasefire.
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He wrote on Truth Social: "Israel & Iran came to me, almost simultaneously, and said, 'PEACE!' I knew the time was NOW. The World, and the Middle East, are the real WINNERS! Both Nations will see tremendous LOVE, PEACE, AND PROSPERITY in their futures. They have so much to gain, and yet, so much to lose if they stray from the road of RIGHTEOUSNESS & TRUTH. The future for Israel & Iran is UNLIMITED, & filled with great PROMISE. GOD BLESS YOU BOTH!"
Both sides accepted the agreement, but it is now unclear if it will hold. After accusing Iran of violating the ceasefire, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed Israel's military to resume 'the intense operations to attack Tehran and to destroy targets of the regime and terror infrastructure.'
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First Post
27 minutes ago
- First Post
This Week in Explainers: Is Trump embracing Pakistan at the cost of India?
Donald Trump proudly announced this week that he had signed a deal to jointly develop 'massive oil reserves' with Pakistan. This move came as the US president announced a 25 per cent tariff on India along with an added penalty for trading with Russia. We discuss this and more in our weekly wrap of the news read more It's been a hectic, hectic past seven days. Donald Trump unleashed a new tsunami of tariffs on several of America's trading partners, including India whom he even referred to as a 'dead economy'. This week, also saw a further change in Trump's stance in connection to Pakistan. He has signed a new trade deal with India's neighbour, which includes developing 'massive oil reserves' in Pakistan. It's a far cry from calling it one that has 'given us nothing but lies and deceit' as Trump did back in 2018 during his first term at the White House. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Speaking of a tsunami, a powerful 8.8 earthquake in Russia's far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, also triggered concern as well as tsunami waves across several countries, including America's Hawaii and Japan. In the week gone by, New York has also garnered headlines — albeit for the wrong reasons. The city's controversial mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani faced fury for his lavish wedding celebrations in Uganda. The city was also shocked when a gunman barged into a midtown Manhattan office, killing four people – including a New York Police Department officer – before turning the gun on himself. Now, as we wind down from the busy happenings from the week, we discuss these big stories from across the world and much more. 1. Since Trump returned to power in January, he has spoken of tariffs and used them as a pressure tactic to get countries negotiate trade deals with the US. And with just hours before the August 1 deadline on trade deals, the US president announced a new set of tariffs for countries across the world, with the levies ranging from as low as 10 per cent to as high as 41 per cent. Among those on the list was India — with a 25 per cent tariff imposed. Notably, this makes India among the worst hit in Asia. Neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh fared much better; Trump levied a 19 per cent tariff on Islamabad whereas Dhaka saw a 20 per cent tariff. Here's more about this in our report. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 2. On the topic of trade and tariffs, this week also saw Trump announcing a new deal with Pakistan in which Washington and Islamabad would jointly 'develop massive oil reserves' in the Asian nation. Many note that this is a clear indicator that the US president is further embracing Pakistan, at the cost of India. After all, this new move comes amid the 25 per cent tariff on India as well as after Trump invited Pakistan army chief Asim Munir to the White House for a lunch in June. But the question that many are asking is does Pakistan have the oil that it claims? What does data show on Pakistan's oil reserves? Where are these sites that it claims to develop along with Trump? A woman watches the sea during an evacuation of the coast following a tsunami warning issued by local authorities after an earthquake struck the Kamchatka Peninsula in the far east of Russia, triggering warnings and evacuations across the South Pacific, in Dichato near Concepcion, Chile. Reuters 3. On Wednesday, one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded struck Russia's remote Kamchatka Peninsula, sending tsunami waves hurtling across the Pacific Ocean and putting nations from Japan to the United States to Chile on high alert with millions urged to evacuate. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The waves hit Russia and Japan first and then the US states of Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. The tsunami waves led many to believe that New Baba Vanga's prediction of Japan's destruction would come true. However, less than 24 hours after the quake first struck, most tsunami alerts around the world had already been lifted. But how much damage did the quake and tsunami waves cause? Our explainer has the answers for you. 4. In this week gone by, another Indian was attacked in Ireland by a gang of teenagers. This time, Santosh Yadav, an Indian-origin techie was assaulted by the teens in Dublin, leaving him with a fractured cheek bone. The shocking incident comes just a week after another gang attacked an Indian-origin man in Dublin in the evening, leaving him bloodied and without any pants by the side of the road. It was a woman, who finally helped him get the aid he required. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Interestingly, the same time the 40-year-old was beaten in Dublin, an Indian student was being assaulted in Australia's Adelaide following a parking lot dispute. These incidents in quick succession have got many asking — are Indians being targeted abroad? A police officer stands next to the glass window with a bullet hole near the scene of a deadly mass shooting in Manhattan, New York City. Reuters 5. Half of 2025 is over but somethings just don't change. For instance, gun violence in America and the latest instance emerged on Tuesday (July 29) when a gunman stormed into a high-rise office building in Midtown Manhattan, home to heavyweight firms like Blackstone, the National Football League, and KPMG, and opened fire, killing four people before turning the gun on himself. The gunman was later identified as Shane Devon Tamura, a 27-year-old from Las Vegas, acted alone, armed with an around $500 assault rifle. But who was he? We have the full story here. Hidaya, a 31-year-old Palestinian mother, carries her sick 18-month-old son Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, who is displaying signs of malnutrition, inside their tent at the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City. This image has become symbolic of a famine in Gaza. AFP 6. They say a picture speaks a thousand words. However, a viral photo from Gaza, which has become a symbol of the hunger crisis that emanates from the ongoing Israel war, has now come under a cloud of suspicion. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD A pro-Israeli journalist has questioned the image, slamming it to be propaganda carried out by some Western media. But what's the full story behind the image? Is there more to it than meets the eye? 7. On the topic of war, we turn our focus to the Russia-Ukraine war. This week, data has emerged that HIV rates among enlisted personnel skyrocketed since the outbreak of the Ukraine war. The number of HIV cases in the military has shot up since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, including a fivefold increase by autumn that year. By the end of 2023, there were 20 times more HIV diagnoses among Russian soldiers compared with before the war. But what's the cause for the soaring numbers? What's to blame for the rise in HIV cases among Russian soldiers? Read our full essay for the answers. That's all from us this week. Bookmark this page, if you liked what you read and seek more such reports. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Happy reading!
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First Post
27 minutes ago
- First Post
Democracies snubbed, dictators courted: Inside Trump's embrace of Pakistan
US President Donald Trump looks on as a member of the media raises their hand, at the White House in Washington, DC, US, August 1, 2025. File Image/Reuters On July 31, 2025, Lara Loomer launched a broadside against billionaire Tom Barrack, President Donald Trump's ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria. Loomer, whose outside vetting of Trump appointees has led to waves of firings across his national security bureaucracy, pulled no punches. 'His [Barrack's] appointment to high-level diplomatic posts is alarming, given that his primary expertise lies in leveraging political connections for financial gain,' she wrote. His actions have enabled Islamists to thrive, even at the expense of US national security. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'Barrack has a history of opaque financial dealings and what many view as political influence peddling,' she continued. 'His real estate empire, intertwined with Gulf investments, has long raised concerns about conflicts of interest and whether he is truly serving America or if he is flashing his political access.' She included in her tweet a copy of Barrack's 2018 indictment for acting as an unregistered foreign agent on behalf of Middle East interests. Barrack is the rule rather than the exception in Trump's inner circle. Many of the most influential people in the Trump administration have pre-service financial entanglements with Qatar. The US magazine Newsweek reported that, in addition to Trump himself, five major Trump administration officials have financial ties to Qatar: Chief-of-Staff Susie Wiles, FBI Director Kash Patel; Attorney General Pam Bondi; Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff; and Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin. Democrats remain up-in-arms over Trump's acceptance of a $400 million jet from Qatar, alleging it amounts to a bribe; given Republican concern that a desire to influence motivates the $20 billion in assistance that Qatar provides American universities, it is hard to deny that Qatari money is not altruistic. For almost a quarter century, successive American presidents have cultivated relations with India. The development of US-India ties has coincided with perhaps the most contentious period in US foreign policy since the debate between isolationists and internationalists in the 1930s. Israel, Russia, NATO, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and China each became political footballs. India, however, stood out as a rare example of bipartisanship. Every US president from George W Bush to Joe Biden worked to cultivate US-India ties. That commitment to a US-India partnership included Trump, at least in his first term. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In his second term, Trump has staked out an opposite position. He approached Pakistani terrorism and its Indian victims with moral equivalency and even dined with Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir, mastermind of the Pahalgam massacre, at the White House. Just as intelligence operatives recruit and compromise targets with either blackmail, bribes, or buffeting ego, so too did Islamabad handle Trump, telling him how much he deserved a Nobel Prize and entrancing Trump with notions of gas deals. The numbers do not lie. On July 31, 2025, Trump slapped 25 per cent sanctions on India, greater than Pakistan (19 per cent), Bangladesh (20 per cent), Sri Lanka (20 per cent), and Afghanistan (15 per cent). Trump treats India with disdain, belittling its economy and privileging countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka that are Chinese satrapies and Bangladesh and Afghanistan that are hubs for Islamist terror. Each of those countries to which Trump offers better terms ranks well below India on Transparency International's annual corruption index. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD There is no proof that Pakistan, Qatar, or Turkey bribed Trump, though a commonality of Trump's two terms is the conflict of interest between public policy and personal business. Trump's reference to gas deals with Pakistan, his Qatari involvement, and his and Barrack's repeated endorsements of Turkish President Recep Erdogan are coincidences that no Indian should ignore, especially given the coincidences, Trump's policy choices, and the lack of any other logical policy-driven explanation. India must respond in the only way Trump will understand, by denying opportunities to American businesses until Trump or his successors change US policy and again ground it in a partnership of democracies and consensus against terrorism rather than a partnership with corrupt, terror-sponsoring dictatorships. Here, India's decision to abandon the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter makes sense. The US defence industry purposely spreads itself across states and Congressional districts in order to immunise itself from cutbacks by ensuring it always has several dozen, if not hundreds, of lawmakers willing to protect the corporate interest for the sake of their employees. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD According to the Congressional Research Service, F-35 components are produced across 250 different districts in 45 US states. The same pattern holds true with other platforms that the United States would like to sell to India. Cutting contracts makes single headlines, but sending diplomats to each Congressional district to explain why New Delhi made its decision will augment pressure on Trump, especially as midterm elections loom. Trump might even reverse course. While some politicians double down to save face, Trump knows no shame, and if the pressure is great enough, he might simply change policy and try to scrub his recent past in an Orwellian frenzy of sycophantic press and statements. This still leaves India with a problem in the short term: Given the threat China poses to India, some Indian politicians may wish to replace the F-35 with Russia's fifth-generation Sukhoi-57E; this would be a mistake, given Russia's failure to honour previous contracts. Rather, India might shift toward European aircraft until such a time that Trump departs and the United States can right its present wrongs. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Even if New Delhi abandons Lockheed Martin because Trump's antics have raised questions about American reliability, such systems represent not only a lethal combat platform but also a decades-long partnership of training and maintenance. Whatever animus New Delhi might have toward Washington, the long-term stability of Moscow remains a bad bet given the political vacuum that will develop after Putin's death. Trump treats India unfairly, but Trump is an old and, frankly, corrupt man whose time is limited. India will soon be the world's third largest economy; Trump's failure to recognise the benefits of that and the wisdom of choosing democracies over dictatorships and kleptocracies is America's loss. The current crisis, though, can be the stress test to prove the strength of US-India ties. Trump can become the exception that proves the rule. The US Congress still favours India over Pakistan, and every politician motivated more by national security than side business deals will remember which country sheltered Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and which country will drive the international economy through the 21st century. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Bribery can never provide a solid base for bilateral ties like democracy and mutual interests do. Pakistan, like Turkey, will ultimately fall into the dustbin of past American partners no longer worth a future administration's time and energy. India must fight back but should not go scorched earth out of animus toward a man for whom the curtain of power is already closing. Michael Rubin is director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Firstpost.
Time of India
27 minutes ago
- Time of India
India to maintain Russian oil imports despite Trump threats
India will keep purchasing oil from Russia despite US President Donald Trump's threats of penalties, two Indian government sources told Reuters on Saturday, not wishing to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter. On top of a new 25 per cent tariff on India's exports to the US, Trump indicated in a Truth Social post last month that India would face additional penalties for purchases of Russian arms and oil. On Friday, Trump told reporters he had heard that India would no longer be buying oil from Russia. But the sources said there would be no immediate changes. "These are long-term oil contracts," one of the sources said. "It is not so simple to just stop buying overnight." Justifying India's oil purchases from Russia, a second source said India's imports of Russian grades had helped avoid a global surge in oil prices, which have remained subdued despite Western curbs on the Russian oil sector. Unlike Iranian and Venezuelan oil, Russian crude is not subject to direct sanctions, and India is buying it below the current price cap fixed by the European Union, the source said. The New York Times also quoted two unnamed senior Indian officials on Saturday as saying there had been no change in Indian government policy. Indian government authorities did not respond to Reuters' request for official comment on its oil purchasing intentions. However, during a regular press briefing on Friday, foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India has a "steady and time-tested partnership" with Russia. "On our energy sourcing requirements ... we look at what is there available in the markets, what is there on offer, and also what is the prevailing global situation or circumstances," he said. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. India's top supplier Trump, who has made ending Russia's war in Ukraine a priority of his administration since returning to office this year, has expressed growing impatience with Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent weeks. He has threatened 100 per cent tariffs on US imports from countries that buy Russian oil unless Moscow reaches a major peace deal with Ukraine. Russia is the leading supplier to India, the world's third-largest oil importer and consumer, accounting for about 35 per cent of its overall supplies. India imported about 1.75 million barrels per day of Russian oil from January to June this year, up 1 per cent from a year ago, according to data provided to Reuters by sources. But while the Indian government may not be deterred by Trump's threats, sources told Reuters this week that Indian state refiners stopped buying Russian oil after July discounts narrowed to their lowest since 2022 - when sanctions were first imposed on Moscow - due to lower Russian exports and steady demand. Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp , Bharat Petroleum Corp and Mangalore Refinery Petrochemical Ltd have not sought Russian crude in the past week or so, four sources told Reuters. Nayara Energy - a refinery majority-owned by Russian entities, including oil major Rosneft, and major buyer of Russian oil - was recently sanctioned by the EU. Nayara's chief executive resigned following the sanctions, and three vessels laden with oil products from Nayara Energy have yet to discharge their cargoes, hindered by the new EU sanctions, Reuters reported last week.
