Kristi Noem had a rough ride at a Congressional Committee this afternoon. Meanwhile, the MyPillow guy is running for office. All this and more in today’s unhinged roundup
Donald Trump has been increasingly wielding his influence on the world’s stage from the comfort of the Oval Office in recent weeks. Not satisfied with trying to reshape latin America in his own image by boosting MAGA-adjacent leaders in Venezuela, Honduras and Argentina – while trading jibes with the very much not MAGA-adjacent leaders in Mexico and Colombia – he’s being increasingly critical of America’s traditional allies in Western Europe. And the language he’s using and the arguments he’s making are increasingly far-right and white supremacist in nature. They draw from the “great replacement” theory that immigration will lead to the demise of western culture and the extinction of white people. Which leads to a question for us in the UK – at what point does someone stand up to him? At what point is his rhetoric and policy so dangerously racist that it’s more of a risk to the rest of the world than tariffs. And are we sure we haven’t crossed that line already?
Meanwhile in Trumpworld
- Kristi Noem heckled – Have you no shame?
- The MyPillow guy is running for governor
- US drops defence of FIFA corruption prosecutions
- ICE kidnap an innocent US citizen for looking Somali
- There’s Gold in them thar cards
Here’s what you need to know
1. ‘Have you no shame?’
Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security Secretary – who is in charge of delivering Trump’s mass deportations scheme – was angrily heckled as she left a Congressional hearing today. Noem, who had given a typically combative and answer-free performance at the Homeland Security committee, told members she had to leave the hearing early. But on her way out of the session she was set upon by protesters who yelled “Have you no shame” and “Shame on you Kristi Noem”.
Earlier in the disastrous session, a man was heard interrupting Noem’s evidence by shouting “Stop ICE raids, the power of Christ compels you. The power of Christ compels you.” (Yes, that is the phrase the priests use in the Exorcist.)
And she was asked repeatedly who had approved the asylum of Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who shot and killed a National Guard soldier in Washington DC last month. His application was approved this year, under the Trump administration. But when Noem tried to blame Joe Biden for it, Congressman Benny Johnson floated the idea of perjury charges against Ms Noem. “I don’t want to charge — file perjury charges against you, but I’m of the opinion that the Trump administration, DHS, your DHS, approved the asylum application,” he said. Noem claimed the application “moved forward under all of the information and vetting processes that were put in place under the Biden administration.”
House Democratic identified members of the audience they said had family members who had been improperly treated by the immigration system. Noem said she would review the cases of several called out by Rep. Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island. One, a combat veteran, appeared on a screen via a video call. Magaziner said the Purple Heart recipient had been deported earlier this year. “You don’t seem to know how to tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys,” Magaziner said to Noem.
2. GB News’ Trump interview reported to Ofcom
GB News’ fawning interview with Donald Trump should be investigated by Ofcom, campaigners said today as they submitted an official complaint to the broadcast regulator. Campaign group 38 Degrees delivered the complaint after more than 65,000 people signed a petition demanding an investigation into whether the interview broke impartiality rules.
During her interview with the US President, critics say she failed to challenge him after he said climate change was a “hoax.” He also branded immigrants “scum” and made unfounded claims about crime in London.
“Tens of thousands of Brits have told us over the past few weeks that they think this Donald Trump interview was one-sided and want it investigated,” Matthew McGregor, CEO of 38 Degrees said. “It’s simply not good enough to allow an interviewee to call climate change “a hoax” and immigrants “scum” unchallenged – even if he is the most powerful person in the world.
“Broadcasters have a duty to ensure they don’t spread false information and we’re not afraid of pointing out when standards fall short of that, whoever it is.”
3. The MyPillow guy is running for Governor of Minnesota
Mike Lindell, the Nazi dogwhistling, conspiracy theorising, serial defamer and pillow magnate is running for Governor of Minnesota.
If you’re not familiar with his work, I truly envy you.
He officially announced today that he’s seeking the Republican Party’s nomination to challenge Democratic Governor Tim Walz. Minnesota has not elected a Republican since 2006. Since hitching his cart to Trump’s wagon during his first term, he became one of the most prominent boosters of a lies and falsehoods about “election fraud” in the 2020 race, which Trump lost to Joe Biden, legitimately, by a lot. A federal judge found he’d defamed Smartmatic, a voting machine company, with 51 fake statements. And in June a Colorado jury found he’d defamed a former executive of Dominion Voting Systems by branding him a traitor, and awarding him more than $2m in damages.
4. US drops bid to preserve FIFA bribery convictions
The US government has dropped a long-running bid to preserve convictions against a former Fox broadcasting executive involved in the FIFA corruption scandal. Federal prosecutors told the Supreme Court they would no longer be pursuing the case against Hernan Lopez and Argentine sports marketing firm Full Play. Both were found guilty in 2023 of paying bribes to international football officials in return for lucrative TV broadcast rights. They told the court the dismissal of the case was “in the interests of justice”, but did not give any further information.
There is no indication of direct involvement on the part of Donald Trump, however the US President has dished out a string of pardons for corruption related offences in recent months. He has also been remarkably cozy with Gianni Infantino, the President of FIFA, who this weekend bestowed the US President with a made-up peace prize.
5. US citizen ‘tackled, assaulted, kidnapped’ by masked ICE agents in Trump’s Somali roundup
ICE agents wrongfully “tackled, assaulted and kidnapped” a US citizen because he looked Somali. At a press conference last night, Mubashir, 20, (who only gave his first name) said he had been tackled and pushed into a restaurant by a masked man running at full speed while he was on his lunch break on Tuesday. “He never identified himself, he didn’t say ‘ICE stop.’ I feel like I was getting assaulted, I was getting kidnapped, and that’s exactly what it was,” he said. He said he had repeatedly told the agents he was a US citizen and offered to show his passport, but they declined. He said he was put in a headlock, bundled into a vehicle and taken to a federal building several miles away for hours. He added: “I asked them, ‘can you take me back to where you picked me up from?’ They said ‘no, you have to walk in the snow.'” He said the agents had only backed down in the face of video footage of the kidnapping. Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara said: “I apologize that this happened to you in my city, with people wearing vests that say ‘police.’ That’s embarrassing.” Mayor Jacob Frey added: “Taken into custody for no reason at all, in clear violation of law and the Constitution of the United States for simply walking down the street and looking like he’s Somali.”
Trump has repeatedly made racist speeches in recent days targeting the Somali community in Minnesota, the vast majority of whom are US citizens either by birth or by naturalisation. Trump said the community was “garbage” and he doesn’t “want them in our country.”
6. The Gold Card website is live
You too could skip the line and buy your way into US citizenship for the low, low price of $1 million as the White House started taking applications for the “Gold Card”.
In fairness, we should note that this isn’t hugely different from the Tier 1 (investor) visa the UK used to have – which was nicknamed the “Golden Visa”.
The visa allowed anyone who invested £2m in qualifying projects to come to the UK and apply for permanent residence.
The visa was scrapped in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and after a study found a “small minority” of individuals using the route posed a “high risk” of money laundering or other criminality.
Asked where the money will go, Trump said last night it will go in “an account where we can do things positive for the country. Many billions of dollars.”
7. Venezuela says US seizing oil tanker is ‘blatant piracy’
The United States last night seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela – fuelling tensions with President Nicolas Maduro, and concerns Trump is pursuing regime change in the country. Venezuela called the seizure ‘blatant piracy’, and said it exposed how US pressure has always been about controlling Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
Asked last night what would happen to the oil on the tanker, Trump said: “We keep it I guess”.
8. Trump says CNN should be sold, and he’ll ‘maybe’ be involved
Trump has inserted himself into the battle for control of CNN after his son-in-law helped finance a hostile takeover bid for Trump’s least favourite news organisation’s parent company.
Trump was asked last night about Paramount Skydance’s hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), the company behind CNN. Netflix signed a deal last week to buy Warner Bros. and HBO, but not CNN. Paramount is the only bidder trying to buy all of WBD, including CNN. Trump was pointedly asked about his son-in-law Jared Kushner being one of the investors behind the bid. While he doesn’t have a formal role, Kushner’s involvement in several “peace deals” on behalf of the White House effectively makes him part of the Administration.
Trump said that he thinks CNN has been “spreading poison” and that “you have some good companies bidding on it.”
It was reported earlier this week that Paramount boss David Ellison had offered Trump assurances that if he bought WBD he’d make sweeping changes to CNN.
Trump said last night: “I think the people that have run CNN for the last long period of time are a disgrace. I think it’s imperative that CNN be sold.” He claimed the network had spread “poison” and “lies” and told reporters he wouldn’t want CNN’s current leadership to stay on.
“I will be probably involved, maybe involved in the decision. It depends,” Trump said – effectively confirming he’d support a takeover deal if it meant CNN got squashed in the process.
9. Once again, Mike Johnson was not present
Hopefully someone is keeping a track of all the things that are awkward or difficult for Donald Trump, but for which House Speaker Mike Johnson was not present or poorly informed. This is something that happens quite a lot, most recently last night – when Speaker Johnson was asked about the potential release of a second video of the Trump administration’s bombing of a Venezuelan boat, that could reveal who gave the order to attack survivors of the first assault. Johnson’s excuse for not being in a position to answer the question this time? “My admission here is I was not in the Gang of 8 briefing yesterday because we were working on the healthcare stuff”.