‘Every day I have been shocked and disgusted': Judge Luttig on Trump weaponizing the Justice Dept
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‘South Park' Lets Loose With A Trump, Satan & JD Vance Ménage À Trois, ICE Raiding Heaven & Kristi Noem Shooting Dogs
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details of tonight's episode 'Got a Nut' — like, a lot of details. With a nod — a head butt, really — to Donald Trump and masked ICE abductions of undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens, South Park was very relevant tonight. More from Deadline 'Well, I Finally Made It': JD Vance Responds To His Blistering 'South Park' Debut 'South Park' Trolls Donald Trump's DHS Ahead Of ICE Barbie Episode: 'Wait, So We ARE Relevant?' Ramsey Naito To Remain Paramount Animation Head; Skydance Animation Stays Solo Post-Merger Under John Lasseter & Holly Edwards - The Dish Just ask Vice President JD Vance and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. 'A few years ago I had to put my puppy down by shooting it in the face, because sometimes doing what's important means doing what's hard,' the animated Noem says in the second episode of the 27th season of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's animated satire. (Throughout the episode Noem, who confessed to putting her own dog down, shoots multiple puppies on the streets, in heaven and while having a bath.) RELATED: But back to the video. The bulletproof vest-wearing Noem is addressing ICE agent recruits by video, including laid off South Park teacher Mr. Mackey. The perpetually camera-ready former Governor of South Dakota ends her video to the newbies by promising that 'together we will make sure everyone is in this country legally.' Then ICE goes after Dora the Explorer. Then, raising the stakes, and with Noem declaring 'remember, only detain the Brown ones, if it's Brown it goes down,' they raid Heaven too. Seriously. There is also Cartman as right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk doing his podcast on the toilet while getting busy. Oh yeah, VP Vance made his South Park debut Wednesday. He's stylized as a sycophantic Tattoo from the original run of Fantasy Island to Trump's white-suited Mr. Roarke. It was both the best and worst Hervé Villechaize impersonation you'll ever get in up-to-the-minute primetime. In that, there was more on POTUS' love affair with an increasingly red-faced Satan — with the chubby cheeked Veep offering a small tribute to Sean 'Diddy' Combs via a promise of a massage of sorts to the fallen angel. 'Would you like me to apply the baby oil to Satan's assh*le, boss?' inquires Vance about a potential MAGA ménage à trois. After that, the best efforts of big screen Superman's best four-legged friend Krypto to save newly appointed DHS boss Mackey from getting pulled in bed with Trump and Satan at Mar-A-Lago ends badly. Eager to keep her job and her cred, ICE Barbie Noem shoots another dog dead — and promptly loses her allegedly surgically enhanced face. So, let's just say, two weeks after the delayed (and ratings surging) Season 27 premiere offered the most mocking and effective kick to Trump's 'tiny teeny' since the increasingly authoritarian former Celebrity Apprentice host returned to the White House, tonight's 'Got a Nut' episode on the now David Ellison-owned Comedy Central again went for the the groin as well as the jugular. After the delayed July 23 episode 'Sermon on the Mount' depicted a less than well-endowed Trump in bed with a less than satisfied Lord of Hell and a naked, live-action president in the desert in a pseudo-PSA (one of many stabs at Paramount and its recent $16 million knee bend to POTUS) Trump was reportedly 'seething' and the Executive Branch went ballistic. This show hasn't been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention,' the White House Taylor Rogers exclaimed. 'President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any other president in our country's history – and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump's hot streak.' This week, after ICE tried to be witty and lift an advance image from tonight's episode for its X feed, South Park hit back: 'Wait, so we ARE relevant?' On Tuesday they also added a certain hashtag as a kicker. Tonight's episode confirmed it more than ever: Yes, indeed you are! Best of Deadline 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Emmys, Oscars, Grammys & More
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‘South Park' Trolls Donald Trump's DHS Ahead Of ICE Barbie Episode: 'Wait, So We ARE Relevant?'
South Park continues to aim at the Donald Trump administration and is firing back amid claims the animated series is not relevant anymore. The Comedy Central series opened Season 27 mocking Trump and has not stopped since. An upcoming episode will parody Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, often referred to as ICE Barbie. More from Deadline 'South Park' Takes Shot At Kristi Noem In Season 27 Episode Titled 'Got A Nut' Amid Trump's DHS Embracing Parody Trump Seething Over 'South Park' Mockery On Eve Of Skydance-Paramount Deal Closure; White House Lashes Out At 'Desperate' Season 27 Premiere Trump Thanks Casey Wasserman For Olympic Medals: "Can I Say That I Won Them Athletically?" Ahead of the episode 'Got a Nut,' the show released a preview that teases a storyline revolving around the immigration raids Trump has imposed across the nation. DHS used a still of the teaser to create a post on X and recruit people to fill positions at ICE. Hours later, South Park fired back and asked, 'Wait, so we ARE relevant?' The post also included a hashtag directing DHS to do something else, which you can read below. RELATED: Following the Season 27 premiere of South Park, a source in Trump's administration told Deadline the president was not thrilled with the parody of himself. White House Assistant Press Secretary Taylor Rogers dismissed the show and questioned its relevance in today's world. 'This show hasn't been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention,' Rogers said. 'President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any other president in our country's history – and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump's hot streak.' RELATED: The South Park Season 27 premiere was a major win for Comedy Central, with the episode scoring its biggest season premiere share on the network since 1999 and up 68% from last season. It also was the best season premiere rating in three years, with nearly 1M viewers (996,000) compared to 866,000 last year, and was the No. 1 telecast across all cable that same night. Best of Deadline Everything We Know About Paramount's 'Regretting You' Adaptation So Far Everything We Know About 'My Life With The Walter Boys' Season 2 So Far 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery Solve the daily Crossword
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GOP's FBI talk on Texas sparks firestorm with Democrats
Claims by Texas Republicans that the FBI is getting involved in efforts to track down and possibly detain Democratic state lawmakers who fled Texas to stop a partisan redistricting effort is getting strong pushback from Democrats in Congress. Democratic lawmakers are investigating how involved the FBI is in the Texas redistricting battle, but lawmakers who have weighed in on the matter say FBI intervention would be an egregious politicization of the nation's top law enforcement agency. Claims that FBI Director Kash Patel is helping to track down state-level Texas Democrats come after Senate Democrats received information that the Justice Department ordered 1,000 FBI personnel to come through 100,000 Jeffrey Epstein-related documents in March to flag mentions of President Trump. Democrats say that if Patel is taking sides in the Texas redistricting fight, it would be a misuse and politicization of the FBI — something they warned about during Patel's Senate confirmation proceedings earlier this year. 'Shouldn't the FBI be tracking down terrorists, drug traffickers and child predators? The Trump administration continues to weaponize law enforcement to target political adversaries,' House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) said in a statement on social media. Responding to a claim by Texas Sen. John Cornyn (R) that the FBI will help find Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled the Lone Star State, Jeffries said: 'These extremists don't give a damn about public safety.' 'We will not be intimidated,' he declared. Jeffries said in a Thursday interview with ABC News that the FBI lacks the legal authority to intervene in a state-level political dispute. 'There would be no authority for the FBI to target Democrats from the Texas Legislature in connection with an act that Democrats have taken that is authorized by the Texas Constitution,' he said. He said the redistricting effort in Texas is 'a clear power grab because Donald Trump and House Republicans are desperate to try to hold on to their thin majority in the House of Representatives.' Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) declared: 'This is authoritarianism. Plain and simple.' 'Texas Democrats are standing up for Democracy, and Republicans want to send in the federal government to round them up? That is not American,' he wrote in a social media post. The FBI declined to comment on Republican claims that the agency was assisting Texas law enforcement in tracking down Democratic state lawmakers who have taken refuge in Illinois and other states. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called out the Trump administration for abusing its power and misusing law enforcement personnel. 'This ridiculous misuse of federal law enforcement for political ends should be rejected by any fair-minded person,' Whitehouse said. Whitehouse, the ranking member of the Judiciary panel's Federal Courts Subcommittee, said in December that there was 'a lot of quiet concern about Kash Patel' and how he would lead the FBI. 'You really don't want an FBI director who wants to use that position to try to direct, intimidate and control the American media, and you really don't want one who comes in with an enemies list of his own that he wants to pursue without justification,' Whitehouse told MSNBC in an interview at the time. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that 'the FBI is not a national secret police operating at the beck and call of President Trump.' 'It has no legal authority to track down state legislators who are breaking no federal laws just for standing up to a Republican scheme to purge Democrats from Congress and rig our elections,' he said. Raskin urged FBI personnel to 'refuse to participate in this act of political harassment and persecution.' Democratic lawmakers warned the FBI to step back from the Texas redistricting fight after Cornyn, the senior Republican senator from Texas, who faces a tough primary fight against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton next year, urged Patel to help track down Texas Democrats and investigate them for the potential crimes. 'I am proud to announce that Director Kash Patel has approved my request for the FBI to assist state and local law enforcement in locating runaway Texas House Democrats,' Cornyn said in a statement Thursday morning. 'I thank President Trump and Director Patel for supporting and swiftly acting on my call for the federal government to hold these supposed lawmakers accountable for fleeing Texas,' Cornyn said. Democrats called the development a potentially 'dangerous' politicization of the FBI. 'The FBI should be working to keep our communities safe, not getting involved in the political thuggery of Texas Republicans. What legal grounds they could possibly have to play a role in this escapes me – but if they were to get involved, it would certainly set a dangerous precedent for the politicization of the Bureau,' Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told The Hill. Van Hollen sponsored an amendment to the Commerce, Justice, and science appropriations bill for fiscal 2026 that would have blocked the Trump administration from spending money to relocate the FBI headquarters to anyplace other than Greenbelt, Md., the site chosen by the General Services Administration in 2023. The amendment was initially adopted to the spending bill but then stripped on a party-line Republican vote. Democratic sources say the growing politicization of the FBI will likely become an issue in the upcoming September government funding negotiations. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) kept the Commerce, Justice and science spending bill out of a three-bill appropriations package that passed the Senate on Friday after Democrats objected. Thune was doing events in South Dakota on Thursday and did not comment on the latest partisan back-and-forth of the FBI's involvement in the Texas redistricting battle. Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) office did not respond to a request for comment. Cornyn has spearheaded the push to bring the FBI into the political food fight over Texas redistricting; Democrats suspect he is jumping into the fray to win points with the Republican base ahead of next year's primary at a time that some polls show him trailing Paxton. The fourth-term senator sent a letter to Patel on Tuesday to 'encourage' the FBI to 'take any appropriate steps to aid in Texas state law enforcement efforts to locate or arrest potential lawbreakers who have fled the state.' He argued the departure of state lawmakers from Texas was designed to 'avoid legislative responsibilities' and a 'violation of their oath of office.' Cornyn said he is specifically 'concerned' that Democratic legislators 'solicited or accepted funds to aid in their efforts to avoid their legislative duties' and 'may be guilty of bribery or other public corruption offenses.' Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that 'Texas DPS and the FBI are tracking down derelict Democrats.' 'They will be taken directly to the Texas Capitol,' he wrote on the social platform X. Not Above the Law, a coalition of left-of-center activist groups, said Cornyn's efforts to push the FBI into the Texas political fight threatened political rights and freedoms 'core to our democracy. 'Federal law enforcement must never be weaponized as a political tool of the president or manipulated by state-level politicians to serve partisan agendas. Using federal agents to encroach on state matters sets a dangerous precedent that threatens the rights and freedoms of every Americans,' the group said in a statement. The signatories to the statement include Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen; Praveen Fernandes, vice president of the Constitutional Accountability Center; Kelsey Herbert, campaign director at MoveOn; and Brett Edkins, managing director for policy and political affairs at Stand Up America. Updated at 9:17 a.m. EDT Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
