Jon Voight Calls Gavin Newsom a Fool for Letting ‘Animals and Criminals' Destroy Los Angeles
It seems as though Jon Voight's meeting with Gov. Gavin Newsom last week did not leave the pair seeing eye-to-eye. That's because the Oscar-winning actor just put the California politician on blast for his handling of the Los Angeles ICE protests, all while calling President Trump 'the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln.'
'You're a fool, blaming Trump. What are you doing for this destruction, these animals destroying Los Angeles? Are you there talking calmly with them, you fool? They would burn you down like they're burning the cars and the American flag with no regard for humanity,' Voight said in a video posted to X late Tuesday night. 'This is not about Trump. This is about protecting the people from these animals and criminals trying to destroy us and our police force. Are they supposed to stand there, let rocks hit them and kill them? Who's going to save them? You?'
'President Trump called in the National Guard and the Marines to help with these destructive, barbaric riots. All you do is cause chaos for the people. You're a disgrace,' he continued. 'You're nothing but a lying dog for the hopes of becoming the president one day, and God is my witness, truth will prevail because of your faults and your incompetence for California's failures. We the People, we stand — I stand — with Donald Trump to make this state great again. We the people choose Donald Trump to save America, and we're in danger with threats from terrorists now and we must protect our country.'
'This has now become good against evil, and evil will lose because our president of the United States of America was sworn in to protect this nation's greatest gifts: freedom, safety, prosperity,' Voight concluded. 'And he shall, he will, because he is the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln and we the people stand with this nation's honor and respect, and with the President of the United States of America. Donald J. Trump. God Bless.'
The actor is, of course, one of Trump's three Hollywood Ambassadors alongside Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone. His comments came shortly after Gov. Newsom condemned Trump for sending troops to L.A. without being asked.
'The moment we have feared has arrived,' he said in a televised speech Tuesday night. 'This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation … He again chose escalation. He chose more force. He chose theatrics over public safety.'
'If some of us could be snatched off the streets without a warrant based only on suspicion or skin color, then none of us are safe,' the governor added. 'Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves, but they do not stop there. Trump and his loyalists, they thrive on division because it allows them to take more power and exert even more control.'
It's worth noting that Newsom also told his constituents that 'if you incite violence or destroy our communities, you're going to be held to account. That kind of criminal behavior will not be tolerated.'
Gov. Newsom and Voight met in Century City last Thursday to discuss the actor's 'Make Hollywood Great Again' proposal.
'The group discussed their shared commitment to supporting the television and film industry, including the Governor's proposed $750 million investment in California's film and television industry, which will protect good-paying jobs and support the workers who power the state's creative economy,' the governor's office told TheWrap.
The post Jon Voight Calls Gavin Newsom a Fool for Letting 'Animals and Criminals' Destroy Los Angeles | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
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CNN
10 minutes ago
- CNN
DHS defends social media post calling for public to help ICE locate ‘all foreign invaders'
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security posted a striking graphic on its official X account. Uncle Sam, a symbol of American patriotism, is depicted nailing a poster to a wall that reads, 'Help your country… and yourself.' Written underneath the poster is the sentence, 'REPORT ALL FOREIGN INVADERS,' and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement hot line. The post — which DHS and the White House also posted to Instagram — prompted a flood of criticism, with some social media users comparing the post to authoritarian propaganda. On Thursday, at least two far-right X accounts claimed to have a hand in creating or disseminating the image before it was shared by DHS. A source within DHS told CNN the agency did not create the graphic. The DHS's Uncle Sam post has more than 81,000 likes and comes as immigration protests roil Los Angeles and other cities around the country, amid a deportation crackdown by President Donald Trump and DHS. And it marks an escalation in the agency's communication strategy, after weeks of using social media to attack or mock perceived enemies, promote ICE arrests and ridicule media reports it disagrees with. In another recent post, DHS responded to a comment appearing to question a popular X user's immigration status with a meme of a character with magnifying glasses. In May, DHS also said it was reviewing a reality TV show pitch where immigrants would compete for US citizenship, which an agency spokesperson said at the time was in the early stages of vetting and had not yet been approved or denied. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem later told a Senate committee that she had 'no knowledge' of a reality show plan. The Uncle Sam graphic is reminiscent of media used previously by other governments to provoke fear, especially of immigrants, said Elisabeth Fondren, a journalism professor at St. John's University who has studied government propaganda and communications during war times. 'This poster fits within a long history of anti-immigrant rhetoric and, yes, state propaganda,' Fondren said. 'It evokes these remnants of Cold War, fake propaganda by the Russians, or, you know, authoritarian fear mongering messages … but what I think is so interesting is that this is a call to action in an environment where we're not in a war.' In defending the Uncle Sam post, the agency told CNN that it aligns with terminology used by other officials in the executive branch. DHS pointed CNN to a number of posts from White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller using terms like 'invade' or 'invaders' when referring to undocumented immigrants. Asked for comment on this story, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told CNN that criticisms of the post 'are fundamentally unserious and reflect the completely juvenile state of mainstream journalism. These reporters should get off social media and start focusing on the very real victims of illegal alien crime.' 'Every American citizen should support federal law enforcement in their just effort to deport criminal illegal alien invaders from our country,' McLaughlin said in a statement. 'During the Biden Administration our borders were opened to an invasion by the very worst from around the world. Now President Trump and Secretary Noem are reversing the destruction of our nation.' Trump's overall handling of immigration tends to earn higher approval ratings than his performance on other issues, but there is also evidence that Americans are less supportive of the way he's carrying out deportations. A CNN poll in April showed 52% of Americans said Trump has gone too far in deporting undocumented immigrants. DHS's provocative social media strategy has led to a rapidly growing audience. Engagement with the DHS account has grown significantly since Trump took office; it's second only to the White House in online engagement among US government accounts, the agency said. DHS communication officials have in recent days frequently posted videos from the LA protests that it says indicate the demonstrations are not peaceful and highlight law enforcement efforts to quell disorder. The demonstrations have impacted a relatively small area of the city, mostly in a section of downtown LA, where largely peaceful daytime protests have been giving way to volatile, occasionally violent scenes each night that have resulted in hundreds of arrests. The curfew zone is about one square mile, in a city that covers more than 450 square miles. The agency's posts come as random and anonymous users on platforms like X and TikTok have also shared old and sometimes completely fake content about the unrest, projecting an image of chaos, often in an apparent attempt to juice their own engagement. The agency has also posted names, photos and alleged charges of people it has arrested as justification for ICE's operations in Los Angeles. And on Wednesday, DHS shared a post on X that said: 'Liberals don't know things.' Many of the posts to the DHS account are memes or content created by outside sources. The image of the Uncle Sam poster was posted on X last Friday, around the time tensions in Los Angeles escalated, by podcaster C. Jay Engel, who describes himself as 'Christian nationalist adjacent' and has claimed that 'nations cannot survive replacement migration.' After DHS shared the Uncle Sam image, Engel posted: 'This image came from my account. NEVER STOP POSTING.' 'The question is, 'Is there room for like-minded Christians and patriots in Tennessee?'' the podcaster, Engel, said in an October podcast, in response to a listener's question. 'Yes, there's an imperative for like-minded Christians to gather and fight with us.' Although Engel circulated the image of the Uncle Sam poster, another X user claimed to have created the image. That pseudonymous X account, which has the words 'Wake Up White Man' in its biography, is full of nativist rhetoric and reposted another X user who declared: 'Whites deserve our own nations, like everyone else is allowed to have.' The pseudonymous account appears to have been the first to post the image. CNN has requested comment from Engel and attempted to reach the X user who claimed to have created the image. CNN's Samantha Delouya contributed reporting.
Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘Prime Minister' Review: An Up-Close-and-Personal Peek Into Jacinda Arden's Six-Year Term Shows What Thoughtful Leadership Can Look Like
Editor's Note: This review originally ran during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Magnolia Pictures releases 'Prime Minster' in theaters Friday, June 13. A down-to-earth, compassionate woman who's spent her entire life building a career in public service is suddenly thrust into the leadership role of her party after the previous occupant is forced to step aside due to bad polling. Oh, and she only has a few weeks to turn things around before the entire country votes on whether or not they want her to assume the top office in the land. Sound familiar? More from IndieWire Wayward Teens Find Solace in Horse Country During Sundance Award-Winning 'East of Wall' Trailer 'Inside' Review: Guy Pearce Delivers Another Incredible Supporting Performance in Australian Prison Drama That Cuts Through All the Bull With 'Prime Minister,' filmmakers Michelle Walshe and Lindsey Utz present a compelling what-if to Americans now dealing with another four years under a ruthless tyrant by showcasing the capable leadership and everyday life of former New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern during her six-year term, as well as where she is today post-resignation. The documentary acts as an intimate study of what it means to serve others when it seems like the world is falling apart and to be a partner and mother at the same time. Despite the challenges both present, Ardern's deft and humane handling of crises reminds us that government can be a force for good, but only so long as we let it be. 'We have to rehumanize one another again' Ardern tells her students at Harvard University at the beginning of the film. We first meet Ardern in 2024, outside of her home country and relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she's working on a dual fellowship in both public leadership and online extremism — but also having time to walk her daughter, Neve, to the school bus in the morning. This dichotomy — of trying to be a force for good on both a grand and personal scale — persists throughout 'Prime Minister' as we flash back to 2017, when Ardern took to the political stage two months before the election and newly pregnant. She didn't have the time to think or panic. 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As Neve grows up playing in parliamentary offices and watching her mother on TV with no comprehension of the burdens she's shouldering, it's evident the impact of Ardern on her daughter during these years is mainly in shaping her independence, a fact she ultimately discerns in her resignation speech before Parliament. This ties back to one of the first things you start to notice about Ardern; Her sense of humor. She's always ready with a joke or a demonstration of wit, willing to laugh at herself and others in need of a bit of levity, but by the time the hateful rhetoric reaches her doorstep, that bubbly, yet sharp personality has given way to an exhausted individual ready to put herself and her family first. Ultimately, 'Prime Minister' feels like a film that would've had more impact if released a year ago, but today reads as a tragic depiction of yet another experienced, thoughtful woman whose determination to do good, both by her family and the country she represents, is steam-rolled by the horror and bigotry other individuals wish to bring on the world. Ardern ends up relying on force to push out the protesters and in doing so realizes that she can no longer keep the country together as a leader must do. Though it's not featured as part of the narrative, in resigning as PM, Ardern opened the door for Labour to suffer a landslide defeat in the next election, marring her own legacy for the sake of her mental health and as a response to those who stood in opposition to her. As she packs her office sporting a Portishead t-shirt and reveling in the presence of her now fiancé and their daughter, we can see her joy slowly start to flow back in, forcing us to wonder if any good person can actually govern in a world where politics have become seemingly ruled by those who are loudest and most out for themselves. Throughout the film, Ardern likens her experience at the helm of New Zealand's ship to explorer Ernest Shakleton's Antarctic voyage, a failed mission that was still considered a success based on every member of the crew surviving the journey. Maintaining confidence and bringing the team together under tenuous circumstances was a task Ardern seemed made for, but in stepping away, she reveals that with some missions, you can only go so far. 'How do we shine a light on the humanity that I know is still there' she asks herself and others watching this documentary in present day, fully aware that there are still greater battles to be fought despite our woeful inability to work as a collective. What unfortunately goes unsaid is that we need progressive leaders like her who push us in the right direction even if we're not ready to go there ourselves and as much as she may love her home country, choosing to leave it after what she went through does point to politics and governance on a global scale as a system that will always go through swings of progression and regression. Based on her efforts now, trying to both train the next generation and stem the tide of rising fascism online, we're left with the feeling that the best Ardern can do is pass it off, as it has been before, hoping that someday, someone else will come along to do their bit of good in the arena before the lions tear them apart. It's not exactly a bright message, but better than giving up entirely, and necessary considering her daughter will soon have to face these challenges in her own way as well. 'Prime Minister' premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Magnolia Pictures releases the film Friday, June 13. Want to stay up to date on IndieWire's film and critical thoughts? to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings — all only available to subscribers. Best of IndieWire The 25 Best Alfred Hitchcock Movies, Ranked Every IndieWire TV Review from 2020, Ranked by Grade from Best to Worst
Los Angeles Times
16 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
The gift Trump never meant to give: the spotlight to Democratic adversary Gavin Newsom
SACRAMENTO — President Trump craves attention and will stoop to any depth to grab it — even pour gasoline on a kindling fire in Los Angeles. But this time he unwittingly provided priceless attention for an adversary. Because Trump needlessly deployed National Guard troops and — more ridiculous, a Marine battalion to L.A. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom was granted a prime-time speaking slot on national cable television to respond. 'We honor their service. We honor their bravery,' Newsom said of the troops. 'But we do not want our streets militarized by our own armed forces. Not in L.A. Not in California. Not anywhere … . 'California may be first — but it clearly won't end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault right before our eyes. The moment we've feared has arrived.' I'm not sure the 'democracy is under assault' message has much traction, but keeping armed combat forces off our streets must be a salable pitch. Regardless, governors almost never get national TV time to deliver entire speeches, even as brief as Newsom's. You've practically got to be nominated for president. But the publicity-thirsty sitting president provided the cameras for California's governor. Newsom's strong address probably boosted his stock within the Democrat Party and revived dormant speculation about a 2028 presidential bid. No longer was the Democratic governor playing respectful nice guy and tempering criticism of the Republican president. Now he was standing up to the bully who loves to use California, Newsom and our progressive politics as a punching bag. Trump's red-state supporters love every swipe at this 'left coast' state. Newsom rose to the occasion, using his greatest asset: invaluable communication skills coupled with telegenic looks. He laid out his version of what happened to turn relatively peaceful protests against federal immigration raids into destructive street violence. And it's the correct version by objective accounts. On Saturday, Newsom said, federal immigration agents 'jumped out of an unmarked van' near a Home Depot parking lot and 'began grabbing people. A deliberate targeting of a heavily Latino suburb … . In response, everyday Angelenos' exercised their constitutional right to protest. Police were dispatched to keep the peace and mostly were successful, the governor continued. But then tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades were used — by federal agents, Newsom implied. Then Trump deployed 2,000 California National Guard troops 'illegally and for no reason,' the governor asserted. 'This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation … . Anxiety for families and friends ramped up. Protests started again … . Several dozen lawbreakers became violent and destructive.' Newsom warned: 'That kind of criminal behavior will not be tolerated. Full stop.' And hundreds have been arrested. But he emphasized: 'This situation was winding down and was concentrated in just a few square blocks downtown. But that's not what Donald Trump wanted … . He chose theatrics over public safety.' In Trump's twisted view, if he hadn't sent in the National Guard, 'Los Angeles would be completely obliterated.' Never mind that the violence was confined to a few downtown blocks, a fraction of a city that spreads over 500 square miles. 'We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free and clean again,' the president promised. Veteran Republican strategist Mike Murphy had it right, telling CNN: 'He's lighting the fire as an arsonist, then claiming to be the fireman.' It reminded me of President Lyndon B. Johnson's manufactured Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1964 that Congress passed, enabling him to vastly escalate U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Johnson reported a North Vietnamese attack on U.S. destroyers that many experts later concluded never happened. But I think Trump mainly is obsessed with attracting attention. He knows he'll get it by being provocative. Never mind the accuracy of his words or the wisdom of his actions. Sending in the Marines certainly was an eye-opener. So is staging a military parade on his birthday — an abuse of troops for attention, personal glorification and exercise of his own power. He'll say anything provocative without thinking it through: Tariffs one day, suspended the next. He'll boast of sending San Joaquin Valley water to L.A. for fighting fires when it's physically impossible to deliver it. While Trump was playing politics with immigrants and L.A. turmoil, a poll finding was released that should have pleased him. Californians no longer support providing public healthcare for immigrants living here illegally, the independent Public Policy Institute of California reported. Adult state residents were opposed by 58% to 41% in a survey taken before the L.A. trouble erupted. By contrast, a PPIC poll in 2021 found that Californians favored providing state healthcare for undocumented immigrants by 66% to 31%. Polling director Mark Baldassare concluded the public opposition stems mostly from the view that California taxpayers can't afford the costly program — not that they agree with Trump's anti-immigrant demagoguery. In fact, Newson has proposed paring back the state's multibillion-dollar program of providing Medi-Cal coverage for undocumented immigrants because the state budget has been spewing red ink. Given all the rhetoric about the L.A. protests, the statement that particularly impressed me came from freshman Assemblyman Mark Gonzalez (D-Los Angeles), whose downtown district stretches from Koreatown to Chinatown. 'Rocks thrown at officers, CHP cars and Waymo vehicles set on fire, arson on the 101 freeway — have nothing to do with immigration, justice or the values of our communities,' he said in a statement Sunday. 'These are not protesters — they were agitators. Their actions are reckless, dangerous and playing into exactly what Trump wants.' Gonzalez is a liberal former chairman of the L.A. County Democratic Party who stuck to his point: Hoodlums can't be tolerated. And, thanks to Trump, Newsom was able to make a similar point about the president on national TV: His dangerous, self-serving actions can't be tolerated either.
