'God help us': Alarms sound after Trump's latest military maneuver

08/16/26 10:17 PM

President Donald Trump stoked alarm on Sunday after he adhered to a foreign dictator's demands to reduce U.S. military exercises with South Korea. Trump announced on Truth Social that he had directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to reduce the scale of the joint military exercises conducted between the U.S. and South Korea. The move came just days after North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un described the exercises as a threat to his regime, and promised to escalate retaliatory threats in response. "These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful," Trump wrote. Trump's announcement rankled political analysts and observers across the political spectrum, some of whom shared their reactions on social media. "God help us," Ken Gardner, a political commentator, posted on X. "North Korea just provided Russia with thousands of missiles to attack Ukraine. Russia is working with Iran to murder U.S. citizens," Laura Loomer, a MAGA influencer, posted on X. "I wouldn’t exactly call North Korea unthreatening and respectful, personally, now that we know Russia has been giving weapons and satellite imagery to Iran to kill U.S. soldiers.""Helping North Korea even as they send 50,000 troops to help Putin. Almost seems as if it’s coordinated. Almost seems as if Vladimir Putin is acting as the White House chief of staff," Norman Ornstein, a contributing editor at The Atlantic and a political scientist, posted on X. "Russia before Ukraine and now N Korea before S. Korea. We have now lost international credibility," Jeff Storobinsky, host of the "In Front of Us" podcast, posted on X.

'He has failed us': Airman breaks silence after arrest over Trump impeachment

08/17/26 11:43 PM

A U.S. airman who was recently arrested at the Capitol after calling for President Donald Trump's impeachment spoke out on CNN in his first interview since being released. Air Force Maj. Jason Watson joined CNN's Erin Burnett on "OutFront" to discuss his arrest and the impact he hopes his statements against the Trump administration will have. Watson told Burnett that he is facing a court-martial for his statement, which he made while dressed in full uniform, and a host of other legal challenges that could upend his life. Even so, Watson said it is important to speak out against Trump, whom he considered to be a "failure" of a president. "He has failed us. And not only is he a failure as president, but he is also flagrantly violating the Constitution, breaking the law, engaging in rampant corruption, and killing Americans," Watson said. "And that is unacceptable to me. And it should be unacceptable to all of us. I feel like, unfortunately, many of us have gotten used to this, and we've normalized this conduct, and we think that there's nothing that we can do about it." Calls to impeach Trump have increased in recent weeks. Over the weekend, a report indicated that the White House had planned to retaliate against Colorado if the state did not release convicted election denier Tina Peters, which caused the impeachment calls to ramp up. Watson said that pressure needs to increase going forward. "I want to just inspire people and bring the conversation to impeach, convict, remove," Watson said. "I believe we can defeat this government if we just take a stand," he added.

'Heartbroken' military families beg for help over 'miserable' new warship revelations

08/14/26 7:04 PM

As concerns mounted Friday over poor conditions onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, families of military service members on another Navy ship were pleading for help.A new report from independent journalist Aaron Parnas detailed the troubling conditions and declining morale shared by sailors' families, including how service members on the USS George H.W. Bush were facing "virtually no food, water, or soap," The Daily Beast reported.A loved one of two U.S. sailors told Parnas via text how the situation was worsening for sailors on the warship in the Arabian Sea as the Iran war now drags on for more than five months."They've been out at sea for 146 days with no end in sight," the unnamed family member said. They learned about the conditions when her sister-in-law left the ship for a family emergency. "Morale is low, and everyone is miserable. It's heartbreaking."The USS Bush left Norfolk, Virginia, in March, The Beast reported.The reports onboard follow growing frustration about the USS Abraham Lincoln's roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines, who are nine months into a deployment that was supposed to end in May, with no return date announced.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has pushed back on the accounts, telling reporters Thursday that the conditions had been "completely misrepresented," though he did not specify his concerns with the reporting. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who pressed Hegseth for answers, rejected that characterization as disrespectful to the sailors enduring the hardships.The Navy has acknowledged the war disrupted supply routes but said the Lincoln now has access to clean water and healthy meals. The carrier USS George Washington is being sent to relieve the ship, which has been at sea more than 240 days with only two port calls.