That’s the question many Americans are now asking after longtime Obama strategist David Axelrod was spotted meeting with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican just days before the Chicago-born pontiff ramped up his criticism of President Donald Trump and U.S. policy.
David Axelrod, the chief strategist behind Barack Obama’s two presidential campaigns and a key player in the Obama White House, was spotted at the Vatican last week meeting with the newly installed “American” Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pontiff in history and a Chicago native with deep ties to the same political circles that produced Obama.
Pope Leo XIV on Thursday met with David Axelrod, a longtime Democratic strategist and former senior advisor to former President Barack Obama.
The meeting has many wondering if the pope might soon have a formal meeting with Obama himself.
Leo was born in Chicago and raised in south suburban Dolton. While Axelrod was born in New York, like Obama, he attended the University of Chicago, and after working as a reporter at the Chicago Tribune in the 1980s, he later helped Obama get elected president in 2008.
While the Vatican did not provide any details on Axelrod’s meeting with Leo on Thursday, six weeks ago, Obama made it clear he’d like to meet his hometown pope.
“Being president, or even being an ex-president, I can kind of meet everybody. So, I’ve met a lot of folks. The person who I have not yet met, and that I’m looking forward to meeting – and I hope I get an opportunity sometime in the future – is the new pope, who’s from Chicago, and a White Sox fan,” Obama said on Bryan Tyler Cohen’s podcast in February.
Then, almost immediately, Pope Leo XIV and a trio of cardinals began hammering President Trump and his America First policies in unusually aggressive terms.
Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton weighed in on X, blasting the optics of the appearance and the glaring double standard of three cardinals.
“America kills about 1,000,000 unborn human beings a year through abortion and yet three leading cardinals go on 60 Minutes to promote left-wing talking points on Trump, the illegal immigration invasion, etc.”
“The Catholic vote swung big for Trump in 2024… So the issue now, of course, is what can be done to bring the Catholics back to the Democrats. So you have an op coming on multiple fronts.”
Cernovich pointed to what he described as a contradiction in messaging from Church leadership:
“The Pope plays this game where he goes, well, of course a country can have a border… But then the bishops are on 60 Minutes going, these mass deportations are inhumane. Well, how can you have a border if you don’t have deportations?”
He continued, questioning the selectivity of moral outrage:
“Where’s the Pope’s moral authority when it comes to condemning official Democrat policies on abortion? You’re not seeing it. You’re seeing an op.”
Cernovich also criticized what he sees as a broader pattern of political alignment:
“Understand that we’re being attacked by false doctrine… You have to take the straight narrow path right in between that.”
On a recent segment on CNN, Hal Lambert, former director at Credit Suisse and manager at JP Morgan, laid it out crystal clear:
“100% political. Okay. This is all about trying to hurt President Trump’s Catholic vote during the midterms and Republicans during the midterms. If you look at what— play out the dots here. David Axelrod goes and visits Pope Leo last week… David Axelrod goes and visits Pope Leo last week. They’re talking about Obama going to visit Pope Leo. Pope Leo’s from Chicago. All of a sudden, now Pope Leo is out attacking Trump and the policies of the United States and Israel.”
Lambert continued:
“You have 3 cardinals come out today attacking the immigration policy. This is all about trying to get the Catholic vote against Trump… Axelrod is chief strategist for Obama. The pope is saying he’s not political? Why is he meeting with the chief strategist for both Obama’s campaign and in the White House?”
When challenged by a skeptical Abby Phillip, Lambert fired back without hesitation, pointing out the glaring double standard on foreign policy:
“Let me ask you this. Why Pope Leo been— when Iran killed 30,000-plus of their own citizens, he didn’t call out the Iranian regime at all. He said we need to stop violence. That was very milquetoast. That wasn’t calling out the Iranian regime. And yet he’s calling out the United States and Israel. Why is that?”
Exactly. Why the selective outrage?
WATCH:
HAL LAMBERT JUST CALLED IT OUT
“David Axelrod goes and visits Pope Leo…all of a sudden, now Pope Leo is out attacking Trump and the policies of the United States and Israel.”
“Axelrod is the chief strategist for Obama. The Pope was saying he’s not political. Why is he… pic.twitter.com/AQ4vwcoLty
Catholic voters handed Trump historic margins in 2024. The globalist left knows it. They also know that if they can peel away even a portion of that support by weaponizing the “American Pope,” they can flip key districts and slow down Trump’s America First agenda.
Vorschau ansehenImage: Wikimedia Commons (U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II from the 25th Fighter Squadron by Senior Airman Audree Campbell, 2025)
On September 23, 2021, an active-duty Air Force officer who has served for 18 years submitted a request for a religious accommodation for the COVID-19 shot mandate. Four and a half years later, there is still derogatory paperwork in his personnel file, leaving him ineligible or significantly disadvantaged for all career advancement and more.
This story provides an update on developments from September 2025 and March 2026, reinforcing J.M. Phelps’ assertion that the Board of Correction of Military Records (BCMR) is “ineffective” and frequently highlights the widespread “bureaucratic malfeasance” within the military institution, providing little more than a “half measure” to service members, as in the case of Air Force Captain Anthony Monteleone.
Furthermore, concerning Air Force BCMR (AFBCMR), the situation underscores how their decisions are a direct affront to the goals of President Donald Trump and Department of War (DOW) Pete Hegseth to restore the military.
Case in point: On April 3, 2026, AFBCMR issued a “finding” that flatly denied any relief whatsoever to Capt. Monteleone. Given the overwhelming mountain of evidence reviewed by J.M. Phelps and provided to the Board, one can only conclude that the Board continues to undermine the efforts of President Trump and his appointees within the Department of War. This bureaucratic obstruction appears aimed at continuing the denial of mandated relief to those who suffered under the military’s unlawfully enforced COVID-19 shot mandate, which was rescinded in January 2023.
Mr. Richard Anderson, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserves, representing the AFBCMR and operating under the full delegated authority of the Secretary of the Air Force, stated that when it comes to Capt. Monteleone’s case, “the [AFBCMR] determined there was insufficient evidence of error or injustice. Accordingly, your application is denied.”
Sadly, for the author of this article, Mr. Anderson’s statement brings to mind the idiom, “If I had a dollar for every time I heard that.”
The Board’s stated reasoning behind this decision was that, although the entire mandate was ruled unlawful, the guidance from Undersecretary of War for Personnel and Readiness, Anthony Tata, to the branch BCMRs did not specifically state that all [emphasis mine] service members harmed by the entire COVID-19 mandate must be granted relief. Instead, in their interpretation [emphasis mine], his guidance indicates that only those punished for solely refusing the order to take the shot itself were eligible for remediation under the guidance.
This interpretation significantly reduces the amount of service members who, in the Board’s eyes, “suffered harm” under the “unlawful as implemented” COVID-19 shot mandate. It ignores the punitive actions taken against those who submitted a Religious Accommodation Request (RAR) and disregards the coercive measures employed to compel them to receive the shot prior to the denial of their RAR.
According to the Board, the only punishments that count for relief are those received after a service member’s RAR was denied, and only after service members received the final order to take the so-called vaccine.
Therefore, based upon the AFBCMR’s interpretation of the order by the Undersecretary of War for Personnel and Readiness [USW(P&R)], Capt. Monteleone did not suffer an error or injustice during unlawful COVID-19 vaccine mandate and does not fall under the USW(P&R) guidance addressing relief for those negatively impacted by the mandate.
Additionally, the AFBCMR’s interpretation of the USW(P&R) guidance specifically ignored the fact—and also failed to address in their denial statement—that the ordered weekly “screening testing” of only unvaccinated servicemembers was part of then-Department of Defense’s COVID-19 shot mandate, as clearly stated in the original order from October 2021: “Once the applicable mandatory vaccination date has passed, COVID-19 screening testing as described in Attachment 7 is required at least weekly for Service members who are not fully vaccinated, including those who have an exemption request under review, or who are exempted from COVID-19 vaccination and are entering a DOD facility.”
When President Trump declared by Executive Order that the military’s entire COVID-19 shot mandate was “unfair, overbroad, and completely unnecessary burden on our service members,” this also included —contrary to the Board’s current interpretation—the portion of the mandate that ordered all service members who refused the shot for any reason to undergo weekly screening testing with an EUA, or emergency use, only COVID-19 test. This crucial fact must not be overlooked by War Secretary Hegseth and Undersecretary (P&R) Tata.
Yet, this fact is being overlooked. According to the reasoning outlined by the AFBCMR, Capt. Monteleone was punished for raising concerns and submitting a protected whistleblower complaint to his Wing Commander, the Wing Inspector General, and the DOD Inspector General regarding the mandatory weekly screening tests conducted solely on unvaccinated service members using an EUA-only COVID-19 test. Essentially, he does not fall under the current USW(P&R) guidance related to the unlawful mandate and is not eligible for relief. How is this possible?
Furthermore, the AFBCMR stated that the necessary remediations required to return Capt. Monteleone to pre mandate status were “outside of the Board’s authority to provide.”
This raises the question: Does the Air Force BCMR have the broad authority to rectify the damage suffered by those impacted by the shot? According to Undersecretary Tata, yes. But according to the Board, no. Does this indicate another attempt by the Board to undermine the intentions of President Trump and War Secretary Hegseth to reinstate service members?
Even if the Board had not denied Capt. Monteleone’s case, it would have denied him the appropriate and necessary remediations to fix the extensive damage to his career during the mandate. In numerous cases comparable to that of Capt. Monteleone, the BCMR is unwilling to provide the requisite justice.
This is yet another instance where the direct intervention of DOW leadership is required to ensure that their guidance and intentions are effectively carried out, allowing for Capt. Monteleone’s case to be resolved appropriately and satisfactorily.
Emphasizing that his views are his own and do not reflect those of the Department of War or the Department of the Air Force, Capt. Monteleone spoke to The Gateway Pundit. “My final hope is to appeal directly to Undersecretary of War for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata, who authored the guidance directing the remediation of all service members harmed by the unlawful as implemented DOD COVID-19 vaccine mandate,” he admitted.
Once his case reaches the DOW level leadership, he is optimistic that his “significant and repeat struggle to get justice will shine a spotlight on the current modus operandi of the Air Force BCMR when it comes to implementing DOW guidance on the unlawful DOD COVID-19 vaccine mandate.”
He is also hopeful that his story will drive reform in the Air Force’s COVID-19 remediation efforts, as many personnel from both the uniformed Air Force and the civilian appointees from the previous Biden Administration—who endorsed and enforced the illegal mandate—remain very antagonistic towards those who opposed the shot mandate. This hostility affects their ability to implement the current DOW guidance on remedying the harm caused by the mandate in an objective and impartial manner.
And according to Capt. Monteleone, “There are many more service members going through the same hostile and broken process who have no voice when their cases are similarly denied.”
Vorschau ansehenAI-Generated image by Grok – Starmer, Trump, and a North Sea Oil platform
Trump further called on the UK to ‘get rid of windmills.’
By now, no one is surprised that US President Donald J. Trump is out on social media criticizing the suicidal energy policies of the leftist Labour government of the United Kingdom.
Under failing Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the British keep following the ‘green’ playbook that has ruined economies and debased standards of living across Europe.
“The United Kingdom refuses to open North Sea Oil, one of the greatest fields in the World. Tragic!!!
Aberdeen should be booming. Norway sells its North Sea Oil to the UK at double the price. They are making a fortune.
The UK, which is better situated on the North Sea for energy purposes than Norway, should DRILL, BABY, DRILL!!!
It is absolutely crazy that they don’t… AND, NO MORE WINDMILLS! President DJT.”
“Donald Trump has launched an attack on [Energy Secretary] Ed Miliband’s ‘crazy’ ban on new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea.
The US president called on Labour to ‘drill, baby drill’, criticizing the UK Government for cutting back on exploration just as Europe and the world are ‘desperate for energy’ following the crisis sparked by his war in the Middle East.”
“[Energy Secretary Ed] Miliband has so far resisted calls to weaken his North Sea crackdown, claiming that more drilling will not reduce bills or provide substantial amounts of new energy.”
The O’Keefe Media Group on Tuesday released undercover video of a Finance Development Officer for Los Angeles Housing Department admitting to witnessing multiple instances of fraud.
Donald Byers told the undercover OMG journalist that $10 to $20 million are going into people’s pockets and that homeless developers are embezzling money.
Byers also said that the superiors look the other way to help corrupt Democrat Mayor Karen Bass maintain “re-election funds.”
Per the O’Keefe Media Group:
Donald Byers, a Finance Development Officer from the Los Angeles housing programs, admits on hidden camera that millions of taxpayer money disappear inside the city’s low-income housing system. Byers told our undercover journalist he flagged the fraud internally but was ignored.
“I’ve reported it… nothing happens.”
Accountability is avoided. Despite years-long delays on projects, funding continues to flow even when, by his own admission, officials are failing. Meanwhile, as billions are poured into homelessness programs, the money is “going to people’s pockets.”
Despite years-long project delays, funding continues to flow even as, by his own admission, oversight appears to be failing. After raising red flags, Byers says nothing changed and now he claims, “At this point, I’m just covering myself.”
“I have a couple of developers doing really sketchy stuff,” Donald Byers said.
My project was with a developer called CRCD — Marcella Gardens. We [LA City] can’t figure out where all the money is going… it’s going to people’s pockets,” Donald Byers said.
“If they [LA Housing Department] were to call out the people [Developers] contacting Karen Bass’s office, she might not get enough money for re-election — or for what she needs done,” he said.
“For whatever reason, LAHSA gets allocated a ton of money, but they [LAHSA] don’t really have a whole lot to show for it,” he said.
WATCH:
CAUGHT ON HIDDEN CAMERA: LA Housing Department Financial Officer Admits Witnessing Multiple Instances of Fraud Up To “$10–$20 Million” & “Going To People’s Pockets,” Homeless Developers Committing Forms Of Embezzlement, With Superiors Looking The Other Way To Help Mayor Karen… pic.twitter.com/xyY7aCLXIG
As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, conservative journalist and TPUSA Frontlines reporter Savanah Hernandez was viciously assaulted by a deranged far-left anti-ICE mob outside the Whipple ICE Facility in Minneapolis on Saturday during their unhinged “National F*ck ICE Day” meltdown.
I’m waking up with a headache and stiff neck this morning due to how violently anti-ICE activist, Chris Ostroushko, shoved me down yesterday.
A second angle shows that he had to be held back by 5 men as he continued to charge at me.
United States Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dhillon, appeared on Newsmax and told host Carl Higbie that the DOJ will explore the possibility of federal charges in the attack on Hernandez.
Carl Higbie: United States Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dhillon. Great to have you back on, ma’am. This is incredible that we’re actually having to have this conversation.
AAG Dhillon: Yeah, I mean, it’s all too familiar for me. I’ve been fighting for journalists under this kind of attack for, you know, close to a decade now, representing journalist Andy Ngo several years ago in an Antifa attack in Portland, Oregon. And since then, we’ve seen countless incidents like this.
And, you know, very concerning what happened to this young lady, this reporter, and I’ve been in touch with her team. And, you know, we have an open investigation, so I can’t get into any details.
But my office is actively involved in investigating what happened and seeing whether there are federal charges that can be brought.
Of course, FBI and potentially Homeland Security investigators also do their legwork and investigation. We analyze the legal claims. And so we’re going to gather all the evidence. But one of the individuals seen there in that mob is somebody who I’ve already had indicted for the attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, that’s William Kelly.
He’s out on bond. And, you know, this judge has refused to keep him in custody, although we believe he’s a dangerous person who’s done this type of attack in other cities, including here in the District of Columbia, allegedly.
So, you know, there’s only so much the Department of Justice can do when judges refuse to keep communities safe.
Watch:
Attacks on journalists for simply doing their jobs are illegal and un-American. @TheJusticeDept’s @CivilRights will protect the fundamental right to freedom of expression—and will explore the possibility of federal charges. pic.twitter.com/XxL4A8be3X
Hernandez was attacked by a family of radical extremists:Chris Ostroushko (the self-proclaimed “Minnesota Angry Man”), his wife DeYanna, and their daughter Paige Ostroushko (aka “MN Angry Daughter,” a University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point soccer player).
Video footage captured the entire cowardly assault: the family swarming Hernandez, blasting whistles in her ears, waving dildos in her face, screaming obscenities, punching her, and slamming her to the concrete simply because she was filming their meltdown in a public space.
Paige was briefly detained before being released. Her boyfriend, 20-year-old Lorenzo Amadeo Garcia of St. Cloud, was arrested on probable cause for obstructing police.
Vorschau ansehenA 35-year-old California man became engulfed in flames near a shopping mall in Victorville. Credit: GoFundMe
A terrifying incident unfolded in a Southern California town that has left a young father of three fighting for his life.
As The Daily Mail reported on Tuesday, a 35-year-old man named Joel from San Bernardino County suddenly burst into flames at a Victorville shopping center near the Mall of Victor Valley.
According to the Victorville Police Department, the incident occurred on March 30 at roughly 7:35 p.m.
When the police arrived, they stumbled upon a gruesome scene, as Joel’s skin was reportedly falling off from the flames.
Joel was left with third-degree burns covering 90% of his body.
He was airlifted to Arrowhead Regional Hospital and is in ‘extremely critical’ condition.
It’s unclear how the fire started, but witnesses told the Victor Valley News that they suspect it could have started in an area that Joel, a transient from nearby Hesperia, used as an encampment.
Joel’s sister-in-law, Jenny Cobb, started a GoFundMe to support his recovery and released the following statement:
Our family is completely heartbroken. Joel is a father of three, and his children need him. Watching someone you love go through something this devastating is something you can never be prepared for.
We are leaning on our faith during this time, trusting God, and asking for prayers for Joel’s healing, strength, and recovery.
The road ahead is overwhelming. When Joel is able to recover, he will face multiple surgeries, intensive burn care, risk of infection, and a long, painful rehabilitation process that could take months or even years. Burn recovery is one of the most difficult journeys a person can go through, both physically and emotionally.
We are asking for help so that Joel can focus on fighting for his life and, if he recovers, on healing and getting back to his children—without the added burden of financial stress.
Joel’s family is currently seeking $9,000 in total donations. As of this writing, the GoFundMe has raised just shy of $3,500.
The Daily Mail notes that Joel’s wife, Brittney Buell, died unexpectedly in 2022. The pair shared three children: Aleah, Jimmy, and Joel.
The Daily Show host Jon Stewart had a goofy on-air meltdown Monday night after realizing he has a striking resemblance to the sickly man being “healed” in a controversial AI-generated meme posted by President Donald Trump.
The now-deleted image, which Trump shared on Truth Social late Sunday night, depicted the president dressed as Jesus Christ, wearing flowing white robes with a red sash, extending a glowing hand over an elderly man lying weak and bedridden in a hospital bed.
The background included American flags, bald eagles, fighter jets, and a winged creature with horns in the sky.
Trump deleted the post after it drew sharp backlash from some conservatives who labeled it blasphemous.
When asked about the meme Monday at the White House, Trump downplayed it, claiming he thought the image showed him “as a doctor” in a Red Cross context rather than as Jesus.
During Monday evening’s episode of The Daily Show, Stewart paused when the meme appeared on screen.
Zooming in on the bedridden patient, he said, “Oh my God… What the guy in the bed, can I just…”
“Am I okay?”
Stewart continued, “What the f-ck?! I mean, look, I know I don’t have the vigor and spunk of my MTV days. But I didn’t know we were here already. I didn’t realize my look had reached… leper territory.”
“I mean, from the picture, it looks like it was touch and go for a while. Thank God, in my time of need, I was surrounded by family… This is freaking me the f-ck out. I’m just glad that Jesus-Trump brought his healing orb.”
The official The Daily Show account posted the full segment clip on X, captioned, “Trump posted an AI image of himself as Jesus healing a bedridden–wait, is that Jon Stewart?!”
WATCH:
Trump posted an AI image of himself as Jesus healing a bedridden–wait, is that Jon Stewart?! pic.twitter.com/P4Fgs7v8YY
The meme was posted amid Trump’s ongoing public criticism of Pope Leo XIv, whom Trump accused of being “soft on crime” and too weak on foreign policy issues.
Senator Ruben Gallego turned on his good friend Eric Swalwell after initially defending him on social media.
On Monday, Gallego began to distance himself from Swalwell shortly before the California Democrat announced his resignation from Congress amid allegations of sexual assault.
“I want to be clear: I had no knowledge of the allegations of assault, harassment, and predatory behavior against Eric Swalwell,” Gallego said ahead of Swalwell’s resignation.
“I trusted someone who I believed was a friend, but it is now clear that he is not the person I thought I knew,” he added.
On Tuesday, after a fifth Swalwell accuser came forward at a press conference in Beverly Hills and accused the California Democrat of violently raping her at a West Hollywood hotel in 2018, Gallego threw Swalwell under the buss
“Eric Swalwell lied to all of us. He lies to the most powerful people in this country. And they trusted him,” Gallego told reporters.
“They trusted him with the most sensitive spots in our government. Whether it was a Judiciary Committee, Intel Committee, or impeaching Donald Trump,” he said.
“And that clouded my judgment, my friendship with him, our family’s friendship together with him clouded my judgment, and I was wrong,” Gallego said.
Gallego claimed that Swalwell was living a ‘double life’ but conceded he heard rumors that Swalwell was ‘flirty’ with women.
WATCH:
A reporter asked Gallego if he was in the hotel room and sitting next to Swalwell on the bed in the leaked video.
Martin Shkreli and Jack Posobiec released videos of Swalwell sitting on a bed with a sex worker. A man who resembles Gallego is briefly seen sitting on the bed.
“Was that you sitting next to him?” a reporter asked Gallego.
Gallego said that was not him in the video.
“No, I was not sitting next to him, I was not in the room,” the Democrat Senator said.
“I didn’t know where it happened. Right-wing political operatives are pushing this narrative that somehow I was in that room with uh Eric Swalwell and that is an absolute lie,” he said
WATCH:
HUGE UPDATE: Sen. Ruben Gallego (D) just DENIED being in the room or on the bed with Eric Swalwell in the leaked video.
Q: "Was that you sitting next to him?"
GALLEGO: "No, I was not sitting next to him, I was not in the room."
Joe Biden personally wanted Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer as his 2020 running mate, but ultimately went with Kamala Harris because of the Black Lives Matter riots, according to a new profile published in The Atlantic.
The revelation comes from an in-depth piece on Whitmer as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, which details the behind-the-scenes dynamics of Biden’s vice-presidential vetting process.
Whitmer had risen to national prominence in 2020 for her aggressive and authoritarian response to the COVID-19 pandemic and her public clashes with President Donald Trump.
By summer 2020, Whitmer was actively being vetted for the VP spot.
Whitmer was the first finalist to meet with Biden in person in Delaware in August 2020.
Insiders said she got along well with Biden and was prepared to accept the position if offered.
A former senior staffer for Whitmer told The Atlantic, “The moment called for a black running mate,” explaining the intense pressure on Biden following the nationwide riots after the death of George Floyd.
All of this attention seemed like it might add up to something, and by summer 2020, Whitmer was being vetted for vice president. She wasn’t sure about it at first, people familiar with her thinking at the time told me; she struggled to imagine herself as a creature of Washington, D.C. She got along well with Biden, though, and by the time he asked her to fly to Delaware for an in-person chat, she was ready to say yes. Biden didn’t ask. The moment called for a Black running mate, the former senior staffer for Whitmer told me, so he had to choose Kamala Harris. “But I think he wanted it to be Whitmer,” this person said. Asked to confirm, a former adviser to both Biden and Harris said that the assessment carried “some weight.”
A former adviser to both Biden and Harris added that the claim Biden “wanted it to be Whitmer” carries “some weight.”
Whitmer herself confirmed in a December 2020 interview with Detroit’s FOX 2 that she would have accepted the role if Biden had asked.
“If Joe Biden had called and said, ‘I need you to be my partner and be my running mate,’ I would have said yes. This election was that important,” she stated.
Whitmer later claimed she felt a “sigh of relief” that the call never came, as she preferred to remain governor of Michigan.
Biden had publicly pledged to select a woman as his running mate. Whitmer was seen as a strong ideological and geographic fit. However, multiple outlets at the time reported that black Democratic leaders and activists urged Biden to choose a black woman, with some warning that picking Whitmer could cost him support in key states like Michigan.
Whitmer went on to campaign vigorously for the Biden-Harris ticket and continued supporting Biden through his 2024 reelection bid until he withdrew.
Vorschau ansehenPresident Donald Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni talk during a break at the G7 summit, Monday, June 16, 2025, in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Daniel Torok/Wiki Commons)
Meloni lacks courage, says Trump.
As the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is ongoing, and the fragile US-Iran ceasefire still holds, Donald J. Trump keeps fighting the PR-social media war with guns blazing, never leaving an attack, a slight, or an affront unanswered.
This time, his target was Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, once an ally.
Meloni has just weathered a defeat in an important referendum on Judicial reform, and is now toeing the public opinion line very carefully, leading her to strive to keep away from the Iran confrontations, and to defend Pope Leo’s interference in political issues, denouncing Trump’s criticism as ‘unacceptable’.
So, today, Trump told an Italian newspaper that he was ‘shocked’ by Meloni’s behavior.
Trump said that he expected her to be more courageous, delivering scathing criticism to Meloni.
Trump blasts Meloni:
Does the Italian public like the fact that your prime minister isn’t giving us any help in getting the oil?
Do people like it? I can’t imagine they do.
I’m shocked by her. I thought she had courage—I was wrong.
“Trump responded in an interview with Corriere della Sera, saying Meloni was ‘very different from what I thought’ and denouncing her for refusing to help re-open the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blocked by Iran.
‘I’m shocked by her. I thought she had courage. I was wrong’, he is quoted as saying in the Italian-language article posted online.”
When criticizing her for failing to back US efforts in the Middle East, Trump said Meloni wanted America ‘to do the job for her’.
“Asked about her condemnation of his comments on Pope Leo, he said: ‘She is the one who is unacceptable, because she does not care whether Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow Italy up in two minutes if it had the chance’.”
Trump:
“Iran would blow up Italy in two minutes if it had the chance.”
“’They (Italy) pay the highest energy costs in the world and are not even ready to fight for the Strait of Hormuz… They depend on Donald Trump to keep it open’, Trump said.”
President Trump has now revealed why he deleted a post allegedly depicting himself as Jesus Christ on Truth Social, as he continues to fire back at criticism from even his own supporters.
As The New York Post reported, Trump told CBS News last night that, while he normally would double down on such a post, he felt he needed to make an exception because his supporters were so befuddled.
“Normally, I don’t like doing that,” the President explained. “But I didn’t want to have anybody be confused.”
“People were confused.”
Trump also responded harshly to conservative women’s rights activist Riley Gaines, who had some choice words for him over the meme on X:
Why? Seriously, I cannot understand why he’d post this. Is he looking for a response? Does he actually think this?”
Either way, two things are true
1) a little humility would serve him well
2) God shall not be mocked
Why? Seriously, I cannot understand why he’d post this. Is he looking for a response? Does he actually think this?
Either way, two things are true.
1) a little humility would serve him well
2) God shall not be mocked https://t.co/GViHqWeDEr
“I didn’t listen to Riley Gaines,” Trump told CBS News. “I’m not a big fan of Riley, actually.”
The Gateway Pundit previously reported that Trump took heat from the media and even some allies after posting an AI-generated image that critics rushed to label “blasphemous.”
The controversy erupted after Trump shared an image on Truth Social showing himself in flowing robes, appearing to heal a man, imagery that many in the media immediately framed as “Christ-like.” The president later deleted the post without explanation.
Here’s the image:
After a national uproar ensued, Trump explained during a news conference that he believed the meme depicted him as a Red Cross doctor.
“Well, it wasn’t depicted—it was me. I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do with the Red Cross, as a Red Cross worker there, which we support,” Trump said. “And only the fake news could come up with that one.”
“So I had—I just heard about it, and I said, ‘How did they come up with that?’ It’s supposed to be me as a doctor making people better. And I do make people better—I make people a lot better.”
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was beaming when disgraced Democrat Eric Swalwell announced his bid for California governor on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
After troubling revelations about Swalwell have unfolded, Kimmel has been notably quiet.
Instead of addressing the numerous, disturbing allegations against Swalwell, the partisan Kimmel instead continued his attacks on Republicans.
Fox News reports that during Monday night’s show, Kimmel focused on President Trump’s social media posts, his “No Tax on Tips” event at the White House, the Iran negotiations, and first lady Melania Trump’s remarks about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
On Monday, the House Ethics Committee on launched an investigation into Swalwell amid allegations of sexual assault.
The Manhattan District Attorney has also launched an investigation into Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell over serious allegations of sexual assault.
Four women have come forward on Swalwell so far with allegations of sexual assault.
One woman told CNN that Swalwell raped her in 2024 after he sexually assaulted her in 2019.
Another Swalwell accuser will appear at a press conference in Beverly Hills on Tuesday with her attorneys.
Martin Shkreli and Jack Posobiec shared disturbing videos exposing Swalwell’s bizarre hotel room antics with an alleged sex worker.
On Monday, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) dropped bombshell new details that have emerged that could send the serial scandal-plagued congressman straight to prison.
During an appearance with Fox News host Jesse Watters, Luna claimed that new forensic evidence and witness accounts suggest the now-viral hotel room video allegedly involving Swalwell is not only authentic but may involve an underage individual behind the camera.
For now, only silence from Kimmel.
Hey @jimmykimmel are you going to condemn Eric Swalwell?
Another Swalwell accuser came forward and spoke at press conference in Beverly Hills on Tuesday morning.
The 5th Swalwell accuser to come forward, Lonna Drews, is represented by attorney Lisa Bloom.
“I represent a brave Eric Swalwell accuser. Her disturbing story is forthcoming. We call upon him to resign from Congress and the governor’s race, and we will cooperate with authorities in their investigation,” Lisa Bloom (Gloria Allred’s daughter) said on Monday evening before the press conference.
Lisa Bloom also disclosed that three other women have contacted her in the last 24 hours with accusations against Eric Swalwell.
Lonna Drews recounted how Eric Swalwell drugged and raped her in 2018 and choked her to the point of unconsciousness in a West Hollywood hotel room.
“In 2018, while I was living and working as a model in Beverly Hills, and I also owned a fashion software company, I had contact with Eric Swalwell on three separate occasions,” the alleged sexual assault victim, Lonna Drews, said.
“I knew he was married at the time and that his wife was pregnant. He was my friend. On the third occasion, I believe he drugged my drink,” she said.
Lana Drews said Swalwell drugged her drink and violently raped her.
“He raped me, and he choked me. And while he was choking me, I lost consciousness. And I thought I died. I did not consent to any sexual activity,” she said threw tears.
“I would never have engaged in a consensual sexual encounter with Eric Swalwell,” she said.
WATCH:
WATCH LIVE: Swalwell accuser speaks at press conference after Dem resigns from Congress. https://t.co/akai7zIuLz
Lisa Bloom absolutely shredded Swalwell during the press conference.
Bloom called Swalwell’s statement about sexual misconduct a “slap in the face to the victims.”
Attorney Bloom said she will be filing police charges against Swalwell.
WATCH:
BREAKING: Attorney Lisa Bloom rips Eric Swalwell while sitting beside one of the disgraced congressman's alleged victims, calling the Democrat's recent statement about the sexual misconduct accusations levied against him a "slap in the face to the victims." pic.twitter.com/bqMHTTpHSB
Rasmussen Reports released polling results showing that 82% of American voters believe the “weaponization” of government is a serious threat to our Republic. Rasmussen shows that Americans are waking up … Read more
“North Korea conducted another test of strategic cruise missiles and anti-warship missiles on Sunday as part of operational efficiency trials of its destroyer Choe Hyon, state media KCNA said on Tuesday.
Leader Kim Jong Un observed the test alongside senior defense officials and naval commanders, the report said.”
North Korea 2nd TEST fire of missiles from its NEW naval DESTROYER ‘Choe Hyon’ pic.twitter.com/c7xpEvHk7r
“Two strategic cruise missiles and three anti-warship missiles were fired to check the warship’s integrated weapons command system, train crews in missile-launch procedures and verify the accuracy and anti-jamming performance of upgraded navigation systems, KCNA said.”
North Korea test-fired 5 missiles from its new 5,000-ton Choe Hyon-class destroyer off the west coast
The launch included 2 strategic cruise missiles and three anti-ship missiles
All missiles hit their targets with Kim Jong Un personally observing the test pic.twitter.com/siGJx5PFeS
Leader Kim was briefed of two additional destroyers under construction, the third and fourth vessels of the Choe Hyon class.
“Kim said strengthening what he called the country’s nuclear war deterrent remained a top priority, and called for improving strategic and tactical strike capabilities and rapid-response readiness, the report said.”
This was the second test-fire of weapons on the Choe Hyon, after the first one in April 2025.
The ongoing sexual assault allegations surrounding now-former Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-China) have now caught the attention of FBI Director Kash Patel.
As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, Swalwell is facing explosive accusations of sexual misconduct from several women, including a former staffer who claims he raped her twice.
The allegations of the former staffer, who was the first to come forward, were initially reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
These accusations come just weeks before California’s June primary and prompted immediate calls from Democrat leaders, including Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff, for Swalwell to drop out of the race.
Seeing no way out of the crisis, Swalwell abruptly resigned from Congress last night.
“I am deeply sorry to my family, staff, and constituents for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past,” Swalwell said in a statement.
“However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make,” he said.
Following Swalwell’s resignation, Patel released a statement calling on him to sit down with the FBI and share his story.
The FBI Director also called on others to come forward with relevant information on the sexual assault allegations surrounding the now former congressman.
“@EricSwalwell has maintained that none of the allegations against him are true, and now that he’s resigned, we would welcome him to sit down with the FBI and share any information he has”, Patel wrote.
“We also encourage and welcome any person with relevant information to any of these matters to speak with us,” he added. “Door is open to all.”
.@EricSwalwell has maintained that none of the allegations against him are true, and now that he’s resigned, we would welcome him to sit down with the FBI and share any information he has.
We also encourage and welcome any person with relevant information to any of these…
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) April 14, 2026
If charged and convicted, Swalwell is likely facing years behind bars.
And he should be especially worried because his own party has deemed him a damaging burden. Democrats tend to give their own the Mafia treatment when things go south for them.
The DC Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday voted 2-1 to end Judge James Boasberg’s criminal contempt inquiry related to the Trump Administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act.
The three-judge panel ordered Boasberg to end his “intrusive” contempt probe of the Trump Administration.
Judge’s Rao (Trump) and Walker (Trump) ordered Boasberg to end his inquiry.
Judge Childs (Biden) dissented.
Last March Boasberg granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop the Trump administration from deporting thousands of Venezuelan nationals believed to be members of Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang under the Alien Enemies Act.
Boasberg then threatened to hold Trump officials in contempt for not bringing some of the world’s most vicious killers, criminals, and rapists back to the United States.
Judge Boasberg said he found probable cause to hold the Trump Administration in criminal contempt of court for defying his order to turn around planes carrying dangerous Venezuelan gang members.
In a 46-page opinion, Judge Boasberg said the Trump Administration showed willful defiance that amounts to criminal contempt.
In December Boasberg made it clear that he was not backing off from his planned contempt hearings and threatened to pierce through attorney-client privilege in his order denying the government’s motion to reconsider.
Last year, a three-judge panel on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily halted Boasberg’s contempt hearings.
Judges Rao (Trump), Walker (Trump) granted an administrative stay pending further order of the court.
Judge Childs (Biden) would have denied the motion for an administrative stay.
Boasberg recently took the next step toward ‘contempt prosecution’ after he revived his criminal contempt inquiry against President Trump over Alien Enemies Act deportations.
The Justice Department recently disclosed that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem greenlit the deportation flights in March despite Boasberg’s emergency order.
Vorschau ansehenNew Swalwell accuser Annika Albrecht. Credit: CBS News screenshot
A new Swalwell accuser has broken her silence for the first time, revealing how she luckily escaped the now-former Democrat congressman’s attempts to seduce her.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, Eric Swalwell (D-China) is facing explosive accusations of sexual misconduct from several women, including a former staffer who claims he ra*ed her twice.
The allegations of the former staffer, who was the first to come forward, were initially reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
While speaking with CBS’s Nancy Cordes on Tuesday alongside fellow Swalwell accuser Ally Sammarco, Annika Albrecht revealed her own harrowing experience with the former congressman.
Albrecht explained that while she was in college, Swalwell offered to stay in touch and mentor her after meeting with her student group in Washington, DC.
“That was an incredibly generous offer that I felt very lucky to have,” she said.
Swalwell then created a group chat on Snapchat with all the students and later added Albrecht as a friend on the messaging app.
Confused, Albrecht then asked the other students if Swalwell added them as friends, and they said no. Even more creepily, she was the only woman in the meeting.
Swalwell started out talking politics to her, but then his messages turned seductive and dark.
“Ultimately, it reached a point where he invited me to a hotel to meet him,” Albrecht said. “It was very clear what the connotation was.”
“At that point, I completely stopped responding.”
WATCH:
Two women who have accused Rep. Eric Swalwell of sexual misconduct, Ally Sammarco and Annika Albrecht, exclusively told CBS News’ @nancycordes that they “have served justice for his future victims” by coming forward: “I think we just prevented another 30 to 40 years, potentially,… pic.twitter.com/ceT2GxMYbb
“What I keep thinking back to is lucky I am that I didn’t go to that hotel,” Albrecht said.
“For me, justice won’t be until he can’t ever harm a woman ever again, and he has faced the consequences for the women that he has harmed,” she added.
Justice may soon be on the way. TGP notes that both the House Ethics Committee and the Manhattan District Attorney have launched an investigation into Swalwell.
In an attempt to avoid accountability, Swalwell abruptly resigned from Congress Monday night.
But he should remain worried, especially because his own party has deemed him expendable.
DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s Press Release on the conspiracy to impeach President Trump used by Congress. It was all built on lies. DNI Tulsi Gabbard is attacked because she is getting … Read more
(Note: Thank you for supporting businesses like the one presenting a sponsored message below and working with them through the links below which benefits Gateway Pundit. We appreciate your support!)
by Lindsey Hough
For the past two years, AI has been trapped inside our computers…
Chatbots like ChatGPT. Image generators. Voice assistants.
All impressive… but all confined to our digital screens.
That’s about to change in a big way.
Jeff Brown — the tech veteran who spotted Tesla and Nvidia years before they exploded — says AI is about to make its “great escape” into the physical world.
And it’s happening as soon as April 22.
“This isn’t just another software update,” says Jeff.
“We’re witnessing AI take physical form for the first time in history.”
And this former senior executive who helped grow THREE $50+ billion tech companies believes this “AI exodus” will create massive returns for early investors who position themselves now.
In fact, he’s found one stock that is 168 times SMALLER than NVIDIA…
But is ultimately responsible for bringing “Manifested AI” to life before our very eyes.
Vorschau ansehen‘My mental state is collapsing. My spirit is breaking’: Harvey Weinstein told the judge in January
Former Hollywood power player and alleged serial rapist Harvey Weinstein is back on trial in New York.
Again? Yes. The situation with the Harvey Weinstein trials, retrials, mistrial, convictions and acquittals can be quite confusing, so here’s a quick rundown:
Weinstein has been convicted in California in 2022 for three sex crimes, committed in 2013, against an unidentified Italian model and actress: Forcible rape, Forcible oral copulation and Sexual penetration by a foreign object.
For the crimes in this California trial, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
So far, it’s simple to understand. But then, there are the New York trials.
Today, Weinstein faces a THIRD New York trial on the rape charge involving hairstylist and actress Jessica Mann.
His original 2020 conviction was overturned by New York’s highest court in 2024 due to improper admission of testimony from uncharged accusers, which would have prejudiced the jury.
So, Weinstein had a 2025 retrial, in which prosecutors charged him with crimes against three women: the jury convicted him of one criminal sexual act count (involving Mimi Haley), acquitted him on another (involving Kaja Sokola), but was deadlocked on the Jessica Mann rape charge — leading to a mistrial.
Prosecutors chose to retry the unresolved Mann count alone, with jury selection now starting today.
After falling from the heights of Tinseltown fame to the depths of infamy, Weinstein has been locked in a prison cell for the last 8 years, since his arrest in May 2018.
“Jury selection is set to start as early as Tuesday in the onetime movie mogul’s latest retrial, where jurors will weigh — for the third time — whether he raped hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel in 2013.
But ‘it’s not going to be a mirror image of the last trial’, new Weinstein lawyer Marc Agnifilo told Judge Curtis Farber last month.
This time, jurors will weigh only one charge based on one accuser, rather than the array of allegations that were aired at Weinstein’s previous trials in New York and Los Angeles. The Oscar-winning producer denies all the accusations and declared in court this winter that he had ‘acted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone’.”
Weinstein has been behing bars for the last eight years
Weinstein is now being defended by Marc Agnifilo, who recently spearheaded the defense of now-incarcerated former rap mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.
“His sexual assault conviction involving [Mimi] Haley carries the potential for up to 25 years in prison; no sentencing date has been set. In this case, the yet-to-be-decided rape charge is a lower-level felony punishable by up to four years behind bars.”
The Gateway Pundit has been warning for years that the European Union is run by ideologues who hate Western civilization, capitalism, and basic common sense. Now, even they can’t hide the sheer insanity anymore.
The EU: “Open the Strait of Hormuz because the world needs the oil and gas.”
Also the EU: “Let’s cement the gas wells in the Netherlands, flood the coal mines in Germany, ban shale gas exploration everywhere in Europe, because we don’t need the oil and gas.”
Europe is led by… pic.twitter.com/okZMFBf21u
1. The entire planet runs on fossil fuels — and the EU knows it
The global economy, transportation, manufacturing, heating — everything — still depends overwhelmingly on oil, gas, and coal. Nuclear helps too, but the EU is busy shutting that down as well. When push comes to shove, even Brussels admits the obvious: the world needs fossil energy. That’s why they’re suddenly begging for the Strait of Hormuz to stay open. Without it, energy prices would explode higher than they already have.
2. Yet in Europe, the same bureaucrats are actively destroying their own fossil fuel infrastructure.
They’re cementing gas wells shut in the Netherlands. They flooded working coal mines in Germany. They’ve banned shale gas exploration across the continent. Nuclear plants? They’re decommissioning them too. All in the name of their insane “Green Deal” fantasy that has zero basis in reality or economics.
3. The result?
Europe is forced to buy fossil fuels from abroad at four times the price.
Instead of producing cheap, reliable energy at home, the EU now begs and pays premium prices to foreign suppliers — many of whom laugh at them while filling their coffers. Russia, Qatar, the United States, and yes, even Iran-linked sources get richer while Europeans freeze and factories close.
4. This is deliberately destroying European industry and condemning millions of families to poverty
Energy-intensive industries are fleeing the continent. Jobs are vanishing. Energy bills have skyrocketed. Families are choosing between heating their homes and putting food on the table. This isn’t “climate policy” — it’s economic suicide by design.
And here’s the part the mainstream media will never tell you: this isn’t stupidity. It’s ideological. We are talking about cultural Marxism in its purest, most destructive form.
Cultural Marxism
This is the legacy of the Frankfurt School and especially Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979). Faced with the total economic and intellectual collapse of classical Marxism, a new strain of “critical Marxism” emerged. It argued that the West isn’t dominated just through economics, but through culture itself. The goal? To tear down Western institutions, capitalism, and traditional values from the inside.
Marcuse — the closest thing the world of ideas has to a clinical psychopath — took it further. He mixed Marx with Freud in a toxic brew that claimed any “right-wing” opinion must be criminalized. Dissenters should be beaten, imprisoned, banished — eliminated.
This “kitchen Marxism,” stripped of any rational coherence but boiling with pure hatred for capitalism and the West, now dominates EU circles, especially the European Commission and its ideological twin, the European Court of Human Rights.
There is no grand conspiracy here — just a bunch of true believers, often unconsciously, marching to the same distorted ideological drumbeat. They hate fossil fuels not because they’re “dirty,” but because they represent energy independence, industrial power, and Western prosperity. Destroying those things is the entire point.
That’s not a joke. That’s the future they’re building: a weakened, impoverished, de-industrialized Europe fully submissive to globalist ideology and foreign energy masters.
Europe is transitioning to misery
Europe isn’t transitioning to “green energy.” It’s transitioning to poverty, dependency, and third-world status — all while lecturing the world about saving the planet.
The cultural Marxists in Brussels don’t care about the millions of European families freezing this winter or the factories shutting down. They care about destroying the West. And they’re succeeding.
Vorschau ansehenMilitary analysis shows that Russia holds a decisive advantage over Europe in a war without U.S. backing. Photo courtesy of TASS.
President Trump has been talking about withdrawing the U.S. from NATO since his first term and has refused to get deeply involved in the Ukraine war. Recently, U.S.-European ties were further strained because Europe declined to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, even though European oil supply was directly at stake.
Some European leaders have been insisting the continent can defend itself without American help, while simultaneously criticizing the U.S. for leaving Europe unprotected. At the same time, Viktor Orbán lost the election in Hungary, removing the last major European voice against escalation of the Ukraine war. As a result, Europe is now closer to open conflict with Russia than at any point in the last three decades, and likely without U.S. backing.
A detailed analysis of the overall warfighting capabilities of both sides reveals how dangerously unprepared Europe is for that confrontation.
According to SIPRI data, Europe, including the UK, currently fields approximately 1.47 million active-duty military personnel against Russia’s 1.32 million. On paper, Europe holds a narrow manpower advantage. In practice, that advantage is negated by the most consequential asymmetry in the entire comparison: combat experience. Russia’s 1.32 million active personnel are drawn from a force that has fought a large-scale conventional war for over three years, encompassing combined arms operations, mass artillery, drone warfare, electronic warfare, and urban combat at a scale not seen in Europe since World War II.
Virtually every Russian soldier currently serving has either fought in Ukraine or replaced someone who did. Furthermore, Russia’s entire military is under a single command structure while European troops are distributed across more than two dozen separate national armies with no unified command, no shared doctrine, and vastly different readiness levels. A CSIS assessment concludes that Europe’s problem is not one of headline scale but of readiness, coordination, and the ability to deploy quickly.
Russia demonstrated in 2022 that it can rapidly expand its force by drawing on conscript veterans and reserves, generating hundreds of thousands of additional soldiers within months. Most European nations have allowed their reserve and conscript systems to atrophy over the post-Cold War decades. Only a few European nations still have conscription, and the period has been greatly reduced over the past 30 years. Furthermore, countries such as Germany have very liberal requirements, which allow conscripts to select alternative civilian service instead.
The combat experience gap is the single most important asymmetry that raw personnel numbers do not capture. Russia has spent three years fighting a peer conventional war involving massed artillery, coordinated air defense suppression, drone attrition at industrial scale, and combined arms maneuver under fire. Russia’s professional officer and NCO corps has been largely preserved relative to overall losses, with the proportion of officer deaths declining from around 10 percent of total fatalities in early 2022 to between 2 and 3 percent by late 2024, as the burden of frontline casualties shifted to volunteer infantry.
This means the experienced leadership cadre that trains and commands Russian forces has survived the war largely intact.
In terms of hardware, Russia currently maintains around 3,460 operational tanks, including 620 T-90M, 350 T-80BVM, 470 T-72B3/B3M, 1,000 T-72 variants, 600 T-62M/MV, and 120 T-55A, with over 2,100 additional older tanks in storage. Production has kept pace with attrition throughout the Ukraine war. Russia’s defense sector increased T-90 production from approximately 90 to 110 tanks per year in 2020 and 2021 to 280 to 300 in 2024, effectively tripling output, and the number of T-90M tanks grew from approximately 50 to 200 units between 2022 and late 2025.
Between 2026 and 2036, Moscow plans to build at least 1,783 T-90M and T-90M2 tanks, with 1,118 slated for completion between 2027 and 2029, suggesting Russia will enter any future conflict with a larger and more modern armored force than it had in 2022.
On the European side, Turkey leads with 2,381 tanks, though most are older M48 and M60 variants. Poland has emerged as the most operationally capable armored force on the continent, rapidly fielding Leopard 2, South Korean K2 Black Panther, and US M1A2 Abrams tanks. Greece fields 1,385 tanks including Leopard 2A6 variants, with Germany, Romania, and Spain following.
Europe’s aggregate tank count exceeds Russia’s operational inventory, but that total is fragmented across more than twenty national armies with differing maintenance standards, logistics chains, ammunition types, and doctrine. Russia fields a single integrated force under unified command.
Russia’s total aircraft strength stands at 4,237, including 861 fighters, 698 dedicated attack aircraft, and 1,643 helicopters of which 556 are attack variants. Europe fields more total airframes in aggregate, with advanced platforms including the Eurofighter Typhoon, Rafale, F-35A and F-35B, and Gripen giving it a qualitative edge in individual aircraft. Russia’s frontline consists primarily of Su-35S, Su-34, Su-30SM, and MiG-31 variants, with very limited Su-57 fifth-generation aircraft in service. Despite Europe’s platform quality, Russia retains a decisive advantage in integrated air defense, with layered S-400 and S-500 systems that European air forces would need to suppress at enormous cost and risk before achieving meaningful air superiority over Russian territory.
Europe also lacks the high-altitude ISR platforms, space-based targeting networks, and strategic enablers that underpin any major air campaign, capabilities that European air forces currently cannot replicate without US support.
Europe’s naval advantage on paper is severely undermined by chronic readiness failures. As of early 2026, both HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales are out of action. Only three of the six Type 45 Daring-class destroyers are available for service, just six of the eight Type 23 frigates can operate, and only one in five Astute-class submarines is in the water.
Of the total Royal Navy fleet of 63 ships, only about half are available for duty, leading Former First Sea Lord Admiral Lord West to describe the situation as a disgrace. HMS Queen Elizabeth’s docking period in Rosyth is several months behind schedule, while HMS Prince of Wales, though on five days’ notice to sail as of March 2026, is not deployed.
The actual European carrier picture in April 2026 is therefore a maximum of three serviceable carriers: France’s nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle, Italy’s Cavour capable of operating F-35Bs, and Spain’s Juan Carlos I in a dual carrier and amphibious role. The two most capable European carriers, both British, are simultaneously non-operational. Italy also operates the Trieste, a 33,000-ton amphibious assault ship that entered service in 2024, and France operates three Mistral-class helicopter carriers.
France plans to begin construction of a next-generation nuclear carrier in 2026 at an estimated cost of €10 billion, with sea trials not expected until 2036 or 2037. Russia has no operational aircraft carrier, with the Admiral Kuznetsov remaining in extended refit. Russia never depended on carrier power; its naval strategy is built around submarines, long-range missiles, and land-based aviation.
In submarines, France operates four Triomphant-class ballistic missile submarines providing continuous at-sea nuclear deterrence, plus a growing force of Suffren-class nuclear attack submarines, with the third Suffren-class SSN Tourville entering operational service in July 2025 and three more due by 2030. The UK nominally operates four Vanguard-class SSBNs plus five Astute-class nuclear attack submarines, with the sixth and seventh Astute-class SSNs entering service in 2025 and 2026, but with only one in five Astute boats currently at sea, the operational reality falls far short of the nominal inventory.
Germany operates six Type 212A conventional submarines with air-independent propulsion. Norway, the Netherlands, Greece, and Turkey field additional conventional submarine fleets. Russia’s submarine force, centered on the Northern Fleet, remains fully intact and formidable, despite losing 29 naval vessels in the Ukraine war including 2 submarines and suffering severe Black Sea Fleet degradation.
Russia holds an overwhelming advantage in Arctic capability that has no European equivalent. Putin confirmed Russia operates 34 diesel icebreakers and 8 nuclear-powered icebreakers, with additional nuclear vessels under construction, and Russia is the only country in the world that builds and operates nuclear-powered icebreakers. Russia’s fleet of 42 icebreakers includes 8 nuclear-powered vessels, with five more planned including the Rossiya, a 71,380-ton Leader Project vessel.
The Lider-class nuclear icebreaker under construction at the Zvezda shipyard will be the most powerful ever built, with 150 MW output and no global equivalent, expected by 2030.
European NATO members collectively have 45 icebreaking-capable ships, 12 fewer than Russia. France’s only icebreaker is a Polar Class 2 vessel capable of operating only in moderate ice conditions. Finland maintains a sizeable fleet primarily for Baltic use, and Sweden’s icebreakers are also Baltic-focused.
Russia’s Arctic dominance enables it to ensure year-round navigation through the Northern Sea Route, support military movements to Arctic bases, maintain submarine operations under Arctic ice, and deny Europe any ability to contest the High North.
Russia has over 5,500 nuclear warheads, with the Federation of American Scientists estimating Russian non-strategic tactical nuclear warheads alone at 1,912. Europe’s independent nuclear forces consist solely of France and the UK. France has approximately 290 nuclear weapons and the UK has 225.
In March 2026, President Macron announced a significant shift, ordering an increase in France’s nuclear arsenal beyond 290 warheads, ending public disclosure of stockpile figures, and moving toward a concept of forward deterrence placing French nuclear forces at the heart of European security.
France will maintain a full nuclear triad of SSBNs, nuclear cruise missiles, and air-launched capabilities. Britain is currently dependent at any one time on a single SSBN on patrol. The asymmetry is stark: Russia’s 1,912 tactical nuclear warheads vastly outnumber anything Europe can field independently, and Russia’s doctrine explicitly contemplates first use of tactical nuclear weapons to de-escalate a conventional conflict.
On direct military hardware, Russia holds decisive advantages where they matter most. Its ground forces are battle-hardened at a scale Europe cannot match. Its armored production is outpacing losses and accelerating toward a larger future force. Its submarine fleet threatens European Atlantic supply lines from an intact Northern Fleet.
Its Arctic dominance is essentially uncontested. And its tactical nuclear arsenal dwarfs anything Europe can independently field, with Russia explicitly reserving the right to use those weapons first to halt a conventional conflict going against it.
Europe has more tanks on paper and more total aircraft, but paper inventories obscure readiness failures, fragmented command structures, and a near-total absence of peer conventional warfare experience. Europe’s carrier advantage exists only on spreadsheets: in April 2026, both British carriers are simultaneously non-operational, leaving Europe with three serviceable carriers against a Russian naval strategy built around submarines and long-range missiles that remain fully intact.
In short, without the US, Europe stands very little chance in a war with Russia.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton possesses two skills in an abundance: dishonesty and self-promotion.
Add to these her lingering, palpable bitterness over her loss to President Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election and you have the recipe for her comments about the Iran war Monday on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe.”
“You know, Joe, let me just say this,” Clinton said in a clip posted to the social media platform X.
Throughout the 37-second clip, co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski listened while Clinton lied and touted her own experience.
“When I was secretary of state and beginning the then-secret negotiations with Iran to try to reach a nuclear weapons deal to prevent them from ever having a nuclear arsenal,” Clinton added, “it was a very slow, deliberative process.”
Needless to say, an aversion to truth runs in the Clinton family. In this case, the former secretary of state lied when she used the word “ever.”
Indeed, according to the liberal-leaning Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, the most common criticisms of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the Iran nuclear deal forged under President Barack Obama — involved the agreement’s “sunset provisions,” which remained in force for only ten or 15 years, depending on the provision.
At best, therefore, JCPOA merely delayed Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Thus, when he terminated U.S. involvement in JCPOA in May 2018, Trump cited this act of kicking the can down the road as partial justification for his decision.
Still, Clinton wanted credit for the negotiations that led to that 2015 deal.
“This is hard work,” she continued, her voice betraying bitterness and resentment. “You don’t just show up in Geneva or Islamabad, talk for a bunch of hours, and go away. This is hard, disciplined effort that has to go into diplomacy to reach any result.”
Hillary Clinton brags about helping Obama with their disastrous Iran deal, where they sent $1.7 billion to terrorists. pic.twitter.com/OtZ6fAqz9z
Trump, of course, spent years criticizing not the Obama-era diplomats’ efforts, but the results they produced.
In fact, in the May 2018 announcement terminating JCPOA, the president insisted that “the deal gave the Iranian regime too much in exchange for too little.”
For instance, the Iran nuclear deal “foolishly gave the Iranian regime a windfall of cash and access to the international financial system for trade and investment” — money which, according to Trump, the Iranian regime then redirected to “its terrorist proxies, such as Hizballah and Hamas.”
According to the CACNP, the 2015 Iran nuclear deal freed up approximately $50 billion in frozen Iranian assets. Then, another $1.7 billion went to Iran from the U.S. as part of a settlement.
In short, Clinton wanted credit for a deal that gave Iran access to tens of billions of dollars. At the same time, that deal merely delayed the development of Iran’s nuclear program.
Reasonable conservatives may disagree — in some cases vehemently — over the wisdom of Trump’s ongoing military operations against Iran.
That does not mean, however, that Clinton sounded any less ludicrous when she touted the horrible Iran nuclear deal. If anything, JCPOA merely created this current mess.
A man allegedly linked to “white supremacist movements” has now pleaded guilty to a disturbing series of crimes, including firebombing a nonprofit using a napalm-style device and attempting to assist the foreign terrorist organization Hezbollah.
28-year-old Regan Darby Prater of Tullahoma, Tennessee, stood before a federal judge in Knoxville and copped to one count of arson and one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
According to the Department of Justice, Prater admitted he drove from his home to the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee.
“Regan Darby Prater, 28, currently of Tullahoma, Tennessee, entered a guilty plea to one count of arson and one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Prater pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville. Sentencing has been set before U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan for Sept. 9, in Knoxville.
Prater faces up to 20 years in federal prison, along with related fines, restitution, and a term of supervised release to be served after he is released from custody. As part of his agreement, Prater waived indictment by a Federal Grand Jury and agreed to plead guilty to the aforementioned charges.
Court documents establish that Prater used a so-called “sparkler bomb,” i.e., a napalm-based incendiary device ignited by a common sparkler, to destroy facilities maintained by the Highlander Center, a school for grassroots leaders and social movements in New Market, Tennessee. As part of his guilty plea, Prater admitted that he drove from his home in Tullahoma to the Highlander Center, ignited the sparkler bomb, and destroyed a building, ultimately causing over $1.2 million in damage.
Before he detonated the bomb, Prater spray-painted the symbol of the Iron Guard, a 1930s-era paramilitary arm of the Romanian Nazi Party, in the Highlander Center parking lot. This same symbol was engraved on the rifle used in the terrorist attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, just two weeks prior to the arson. Prater acknowledged that he committed the arson at the Highland Center due to his white-supremacist ideology and as a response to the Highlander Center’s faith-based educational priorities and its association with the Civil Rights Movement.
Separately, Prater also admitted that, in 2019, he attempted to provide material support to Hizballah, also known as “Hezbollah,” which the United States has recognized as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997. Specifically, Prater obtained a document purporting to contain personally identifiable information of over 35,000 individuals purportedly affiliated with the government of Israel. He then provided that document to an individual he believed to be associated with Hizballah, stating, among other things: “Start the hunt.””
The 30-year-old creep caught on camera terrorizing a California family, screaming “Where’s your daughter?!” while kicking down their door and ripping off their doorbell, has now been hit with additional felony charges for “annoying or molesting a child under 18.”
Jason Thomas Nichols became an internet sensation for all the wrong reasons after a chilling home invasion in Fairfield, California.
Doorbell footage showed Nichols pacing outside a family’s home, demanding to know “Where’s your daughter?” while threatening violence and attempting to force entry.
At one point, the suspect bizarrely claimed to be “Harry Dresden,” a fictional wizard detective before escalating into outright terror.
Moments later, he forced entry through a sliding glass door, with a woman and child inside, triggering a violent confrontation with the homeowner, who rushed back and defended his family.
WATCH:
Scary encounter captured on Ring camera as man demands, “Where is your daughter?” … I’m trying to learn more about the situation and if any arrests were made. pic.twitter.com/vabWa9PqUc
The video depicts a resident of the 1700 block of Burbank Court using a shovel to battle the intruder on Tuesday before police arrived.
Police praised “the actions of the homeowner, who worked to protect his family while officers were responding to the scene.”
A man later identified as 30-year-old Jason Nichols attempted to break into the residence occupied by a woman and child by kicking the front door, police said. When that failed, he gained entry through a sliding glass door.
“The homeowner’s husband, who was away at the time, observed the suspect through a home security camera and immediately returned to the residence,” police said.
As the suspect entered the home, the homeowner “armed himself with a shovel, and confronted Nichols,” police said.
“A physical altercation ensued, during which both the homeowner and Nichols sustained head injuries,” police added.
According to Fairfield Police, the new charges stem from a disturbing April 5, 2026, encounter – just two days before the viral home invasion on April 7.
A witness contacted police on April 12 to report an incident involving Jason Thomas Nichols and the witness’s child.
Update Regarding April 7, 2026 Incident – Fairfield Police Department Statement
On April 12, 2026, a witness contacted the Fairfield Police Department to provide information regarding an encounter involving 30-year-old Jason Nichols and the witness’s child on April 5, 2026. Based on the investigation, officers determined there was probable cause to arrest Nichols for additional crimes. While Nichols remained in custody for the previous incident, he was additionally booked for one count of 647.6 PC, annoying or molesting a child under 18.
Fairfield Police detectives are actively investigating this incident. Due to the sensitive nature of this case and the involvement of a minor, no further information will be provided. The Fairfield Police Department remains dedicated to ensuring the safety of our community and supporting those affected by these crimes.
Vice President JD Vance, a man who converted to Catholicism as an adult and has repeatedly proven himself one of the most devout and principled Catholic voices in American public life, just delivered a stinging message to Pope Leo XIV: Stick to matters of morality and leave American public policy to the President of the United States.
Pope Leo has doubled down, condemning war and warning against using religious messaging to justify violence, insisting he will “continue to speak loudly” for peace.
Vance, speaking on Fox News with Brett Baier, didn’t mince words as the radical left and their Vatican allies continue their latest meltdown over President Trump’s America First agenda.
Bret Baier: Do you think that when the president says it’s hurting him very badly—going catering to the radical left—that it’s hurting the Catholic Church? Do you agree with the president there?
JD Vance: Well, look, I think the president has the prerogative to set American foreign policy. He’s got the prerogative to set American immigration policy. He has to look out for the interests of the United States of America. And that inevitably means that when the Vatican comments on issues of public policy, sometimes there’s going to be agreement—of course—and sometimes there’s going to be disagreement.
I think that’s a reasonable thing, Bret. Again, I don’t think that it’s particularly newsworthy, but I certainly think that in some cases it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality—to stick to matters of, you know, what’s going on in the Catholic Church—and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy.
But when they’re in conflict, they’re in conflict. I don’t worry about it too much, Bret. I think it’s a natural thing. I’m sure it’ll happen in the future, and it’s not that big of a deal that it happened in the past.
WATCH:
Fox News’ Bret Baier: “Do you think that when the president says it’s ‘hurting him very badly,’ ‘catering to the radical left’ is hurting the Catholic Church?’ Do you agree with the president there?”
Vance also addressed the media firestorm surrounding Trump’s viral AI-generated image. Vance dismissed the outrage as media-driven hysteria.
WATCH:
JUST NOW — JD VANCE on Trump’s deleted post after religious backlash: “He doesn’t send everything through a communications professional.”
“The president was posting a joke and of course he took it down because he recognized that a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor… pic.twitter.com/oFiRV6ry1d
Disgraced California Rep. Eric Swalwell was caught on video looking completely bleary-eyed and wearing nothing but a robe while partying with a rotating crew of young “yacht girls” during a luxury blowout off the coast of St. Tropez.
According to a report from New York Post’s Page Six, the video shows Swalwell aboard a luxury yacht surrounded by a group of young women, described by sources as a rotating cast of mostly British and American guests, during what insiders called a “hush-hush” getaway.
The video was shared on Instagram by Nik Richie, CEO of Warrior Network Agency, a full-service public relations and marketing firm based in Newport Beach, California.
Sources familiar with the trip told the news outlet that the week-long excursion was alcohol-fueled and chaotic, with jet skiing, partying, and a constant flow of guests cycling on and off the vessel.
The yacht, reportedly a 200-foot luxury vessel chartered in the French Riviera, hosted a small group of men alongside numerous young women, many of whom allegedly did not know each other prior to arriving.
The attendees were allegedly told to keep Swalwell’s presence quiet.
Sources tell us that in early September 2022, two of Swalwell’s pals jetted by private plane from Las Vegas to the French Riviera town where they chartered the 200 ft Arience yacht, and called Swalwell to come join them.
We’re told the now-former Congressman arrived by commercial flight and joined them by tender on the stunning luxury craft.
We’re told there were some four or five men on the boat, including Swalwell, and a group of beautiful young women.
According to our source, one of the women, a Brit believed to be in her late teens, appeared to be romantically involved with one of the men in the group. But the five or six other women, a mix of Brits and Americans who were a little older (apparently in their 20s), seemed otherwise unacquainted both with the group or with each other.
“The people on the boat were told to keep it hush-hush about Swalwell being on the trip,” said a source familiar with the week-long excursion around the French Riviera. “They were told everything stays on the boat.”
[…]
“It didn’t seem like a politician,” said a source familiar with the antics aboard, “More like president of a frat house.”
We’re told some of the women seemed to be shipped back to shore, never to return, while others arrived to “replace them.”
HAL LAMBERT JUST CALLED IT OUT
(@ThePatriotOasis) 
Trump:
