CNN correspondent shows what life looks like in Iran one day after US strike
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27 minutes ago
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Trump and Hegseth Are Melting Down Over Leaked Iran Strike Intel
Donald Trump is not happy over the leaked Pentagon intelligence that found the strikes against Iran over the weekend were not as damaging as the president and his administration have been claiming. CNN and The New York Times both reported on the government's preliminary information about the efficacy of the attacks on Tuesday, and Trump has spent the past few days incessantly attacking the outlets while repeatedly insisting that strikes 'obliterated' Iran's nuclear capabilities. The details of the intelligence report — which found that the strikes only partially damaged their targets and likely only set back Iran's nuclear program a few months — went public as Trump was attending a NATO summit in the Netherlands, and his comments at the meeting of the allied nations largely revolved around the Iran strikes and how 'disgusting' and 'horrible' the media is for reporting on the government's early findings about what happened. Trump's Truth Social account has meanwhile been rife with all-caps attacks against CNN and the Times, as well as calls for everyone involved to be fired. 'FAKE NEWS REPORTERS FROM CNN & THE NEW YORK TIMES SHOULD BE FIRED, IMMEDIATELY!!! BAD PEOPLE WITH EVIL INTENTIONS!!!' he wrote this morning. Trump also used Truth Social to tease an early-morning press conference from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who berated the media today alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine. 'How many stories have been written about how hard it is to fly a plane for 36 hours?' a visibly enraged Hegseth asked the congregated press, referring to the mission to bomb the Iranian nuclear sites, which he described as 'the most complex and secretive military operation in history.' 'How about we celebrate that?' Hegseth continued in his screed about the media's coverage of the strikes. 'How about we talk about how successful America is, that only we have these capabilities? I think it's too much to ask, unfortunately, for the fake news.' Hegseth even went after one of his former colleagues, Jennifer Griffin of Fox News, who asked about the administration's confidence that Iran did not preemptively move uranium from the sites of the strikes, which the Pentagon's preliminary report indicated was likely. 'Jennifer, you've been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most, intentionally, what the president said,' he said. The chaotic scene today at the Pentagon, and on Trump's Truth Social feed, is part of an administration-wide effort to defend the strikes, discredit the leaked intelligence report, and inflate the president's ego while chastising or threatening those casting the strikes as anything short of a historic success. The president has been especially sensitive about the prospect of Iran having moved uranium ahead of the strikes. In recent days, a person with direct knowledge of the situation tells Rolling Stone that the president has been sensitive about any reporting suggesting stockpiles had been moved, in part because Trump essentially tipped off the Iranians by teasing that the U.S. could take action. 'It really pisses him off when people say that,' this source says, noting that would undermine Trump's assertion of how 'perfectly' this operation was conducted. Trump claimed on Truth Social as Hegseth berated the media today that 'nothing was taken out of the facility' and that the trucks appearing on satellite imaging ahead of the strikes 'were those of concrete workers.' Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and other top officials have leapt to Trump's defense in response to the leaked report — but Hegseth may be the tip of the spear. One Trump adviser tells Rolling Stone that they chuckled at the former Fox News host's seemingly prepared line about how Trump's bombing operation was 'the most complex and secretive military operation' ever — or, in this source's paraphrase, even 'better than D-Day.' This adviser says it immediately reminded them of former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's much-ridiculed declaration that Trump's first 2017 inauguration had 'the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.' Trump has joined Hegseth in pushing absurd exaggerations about the efficacy of the strikes, and, not surprisingly given that the intelligence report did not parrot the president's talking points, the current propaganda blitz is accompanied by yet another one of Trump's sprawling leak crackdowns. As Rolling Stone first reported, the leak of classified material to outlets such as CNN and The New York Times quickly triggered a particularly aggressive investigation, with Trump and other senior administration officials fuming that this could have happened. The leak hunt was launched concurrently with the Trump team's broader clampdown on intelligence and sensitive information. Staff at the Pentagon and elsewhere in the federal government were personally warned by superiors that if they had anything to do with this disclosure to the media, they could be facing serious prison time, two sources with knowledge of the matter say. Additionally, Trump lieutenants moved to put an even tighter stranglehold on the amount of classified information it shares with Congress. 'We are declaring a war on leakers,' one senior White House official told Axios. Leavitt said Wednesday that 'the FBI is investigating who was the source of that leak because it's an illegal leak to CNN.' It's still too soon to know the reality of the operation's effectiveness. Caine was asked about this uncertainty during the press conference with Hegseth today. 'General, on Sunday you said final battle damage will take some time … and it would be way too early for me to comment on what may or may not still be there,' a reporter began before asking Caine, 'What has changed? Would you use the term 'obliterated,' as well?' Caine began to answer before Hegseth cut in and started attacking the media's 'irresponsible' coverage of the operation. More from Rolling Stone Republicans Keep Making Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' Worse Trump Demands Republicans Crack Down on Nonprofits That Protest ICE Trump Admin Says ICE Agents are the Real Victims Amid Violent Immigration Raids Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
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White House Pushes B.S. About ‘Big Beautiful Bill' as Popularity Craters
President Donald Trump has insisted that Republicans get his so-called 'Big Beautiful Bill' to his desk by the Fourth of July. With only days left before the self-imposed deadline, the White House is now scrambling to do damage control around the deeply unpopular legislation produced by Congress. A series of recent polls shows that the bill — which will force millions off of Medicaid, restrict access to food assistance programs, and cost the poorest Americans billions over the next 10 — is underwater with the public. A Washington Post survey recently produced a net favorability rating of -19. Fox News clocked in at -21, a Quinnipiac poll produced a -26 rating, and KFF — formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation — found net favorability to be at -29 points. In the face of this widespread public disapproval and the GOP's inter-party squabbling over the bill, the White House is pushing 'fact checks' insisting that the legislation would not hurt low-income families or the economy at large, and that it is not just a dressed-up tax break for billionaires at the expense of everyone and everything else. In a 'fact check' sheet issued Sunday night by the White House Communication Office, the administration claimed that the legislation would 'put more than $10,000 a year back in the pockets of typical hardworking families,' that the 'OBBB protects and strengthens Medicaid for those who rely on it,' and that the suggestion that people will 'literally die' if denied access to health care is 'one of the most egregious deranged attacks from the Left peddling fear over the facts.' The document repeatedly emphasized that American households would be taking home an extra $10,000 in income a year. Huge, right? Unfortunately — but not unexpectedly — the figure is a gross misrepresentation. The figure, which was circulated in several communications released by the White House and touted by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt during a briefing earlier this month, is the high end of a projection produced by the Council of Economic Advisers – an internal White House agency. According to a Politifact review, the Council's range of a $7,600-$10,900 increase in annual take-home pay for a family of four was based on uniquely optimistic projections about how much total economic stimulus the 'Big Beautiful Bill' would produce. Where other independent agencies have predicted a maximum GDP increase of around 0.5-2 percent over the next 10 years, the counsel assumed an almost five percent increase over five years and a weighted 2.9-3.5 percent increase over 10 years. The $10,000 figure isn't a tangible change in income based on rewrites to the tax code, but rather a fantastical number carved out of an imaginary GDP boom. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Trump's enshrinement of his 2017 tax cuts, along with the exclusionary reforms being made to programs like Medicaid and SNAP, will cost the lowest-earning tenth of American households about $1,600 a year. 'Federal and state in-kind benefits would decrease household resources by $1.0 trillion,' the CBO wrote. 'Primarily because federal spending on benefits provided through Medicaid and SNAP would be lower. Changes to program benefits that states made in response to changes in federal policy would also reduce household resources.' Meanwhile, the richest Americans would see 'resources would increase, on average, over the projection period by about $12,000,' or even more given to the favorable pro-corporate policies packed into the bill. During Monday's press briefing, Leavitt insisted that 'this bill strengthens Medicaid,' and that rural hospitals were exaggerating the potential fallout of spending cuts to the program. According to the CBO, 11 million Americans could be squeezed out of their health care coverage over changes to Medicaid, bureaucratic red tape, more stringent work requirements, and changes to public insurance marketplaces. According to KFF, 'an estimated 1.5 million fewer people could be covered by Medicaid in rural areas under the reconciliation bill in 2034,' and the resulting drop in Medicaid enrollment could force rural hospitals and clinics — often the only nodes connecting rural Americans to the health care system — to close down. The bill 'protects' Medicaid only in the sense that the program will continue to exist, but it in no way protects the Americans who rely on it for their health. Millions of them will be forced to find care elsewhere if Republicans pass the 'Big Beautiful Bill.' More from Rolling Stone Senate Republicans Pass Trump's Bill to Strip Health Care From Millions J.D. Vance Dismisses Kicking Millions Off Medicaid: 'Minutiae' Trump Teases Deporting Elon: 'We'll Have to Take a Look' Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
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J.D. Vance Dismisses Kicking Millions Off Medicaid: ‘Minutiae'
President Donald Trump and the GOP's so-called 'Big Beautiful Bill' is far from beautiful and deeply unpopular with the public. Battling concerns from voters about increased barriers to accessing programs like Medicaid and food assistance; massive transfers of wealth from less fortunate Americans to corporations and the rich; and the mass deregulation of industries like crypto and AI, Vice President J.D. Vance is attempting a new tactic to persuade the hesitant: ignore all of that and focus on how much money the bill is giving to ICE. 'The thing that will bankrupt this country more than any other policy is flooding the country with illegal immigration and then giving those migrants generous benefits. The [One Big Beautiful Bill] fixes this problem. And therefore it must pass,' Vance wrote Tuesday on X. 'Everything else — the CBO score, the proper baseline, the minutiae of the Medicaid policy — is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions,' he added. The millions of people who are expected to lose access to their health insurance as a result of the legislation would likely beg to differ. The version of the legislation passed by the House would give Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over $100 billion for the construction of new immigration detention centers, increasing arrest and deportation efforts, militarization of the border and the hiring of new agents. Such a massive windfall for immigration enforcement comes as ICE has blown through its annual budget months before the end of the fiscal year. In May, during a hearing of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) laid into the reckless spending of the Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Kristi Noem. 'You are spending like you don't have a budget. You are on the verge of running out of money for the fiscal year […] You are ignoring the immigration laws of this nation, implementing a brand-new immigration system that you have invented that has little relation to the statutes that you are required — that you are commanded — to follow as spelled out in your oath of office,' Murphy said. 'Your agency acts as if laws don't matter, as if the election gave you some mandate to violate the Constitution and the laws passed by this Congress. It did not give you that mandate.' Through the reconciliation bill and presidential policy, Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration are looking to give DHS and ICE that mandate. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has demanded that ICE detain at least 3,000 migrants a day. As the reconciliation bill continues to move through the Senate, Trump and Noem traveled to Florida on Tuesday to tour the so-called 'Alligator Alcatraz,' a migrant detention center built in the hostile backwaters of the Florida Everglades. 'We're going to teach them how to run away from an alligator,' Trump said ahead of his visit to the center. 'Don't run in a straight line,' Trump said, waving his hand in a zig-zag to demonstrate how a detainee might potentially need to move to escape a half-ton reptile. This kind of callous cruelty is what the administration is focused on, whether it be its treatment of migrants, or dismissing kicking millions off of their health care as insignificant 'minutiae.' More from Rolling Stone White House Pushes B.S. About 'Big Beautiful Bill' as Popularity Craters Dem Senator Whines Amid GOP Push to Gut Medicaid: 'I Just Want to Go Home' Rick Scott Demands More Cuts to Medicaid, Which His Company Allegedly Scammed Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
