Trump Allies Push Extreme Measure to Force Tulsi Gabbard Through

A Trump-aligned effort to make the Senate vote to confirm Tulsi Gabbard public could be what pushes the controversial nominee over the finish line.

Gabbard is the forty-seventh president’s pick for director of national intelligence, but in order to actually get the job, she’ll need the support of every single Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee—and it appears that she currently does not have the votes.

“I think it remains to be seen,” Republican Senator John Cornyn, an Intelligence Committee member, told The Hill of Gabbard’s odds. “I think the jury’s still out.”

The committee has a 9-8 split, with Republicans holding the majority. That means that just one Republican voting against Gabbard could compromise her nomination, should Democrats uniformly vote against her.

But a MAGA coalition in the Senate is trying to turn the traditionally closed vote into a public one in order to pressure Republicans on the committee from voting against Trump’s nominee, Politico reported Monday.

Doing so would break Intelligence Committee procedure: “While panel rules allow for the release of a vote tally, they do not allow for a public roll call of how each member voted. Members are free to disclose their votes if they wish,” an unidentified source familiar with the committee told Politico.

According to the outlet, Gabbard’s allies hope that forcing a public vote could scare any reticent Republicans into line. When a few Republican senators expressed concerns about Pete Hegseth, who was sworn in over the weekend as secretary of defense, MAGA fans and Elon Musk threatened to primary them in the 2026 midterms.

Gabbard is scheduled to participate in open and closed hearings before the committee on Thursday.

So far, Maine Senator Susan Collins has expressed frustration with Gabbard’s criticism of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows intelligence officials to conduct surveillance operations on foreign targets and Americans without a warrant.

“There are several questions I want to follow up on in the hearing,” Collins told The Hill, noting that she wants to hear Gabbard’s “unpracticed responses.”

Gabbard, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate turned MAGA acolyte, has also gotten heat from GOP lawmakers for her relationship with fallen Syrian dictator Bashar Al Assad, as well as her apparent affiliation with Russian media, her propensity for amplifying Russian propaganda, and spreading conspiracy theories.

In December, the editor in chief of the Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT said that Gabbard was one of the friendly faces in Trump’s proposed Cabinet that brought the Kremlin “lots of joy.”

If confirmed, Gabbard would be the first director of national intelligence to have never held any senior government roles. For reference on her relative lack of experience: Gabbard would replace Avril Haines, the first woman to serve in the role. Haines held top national security and intelligence positions before being appointed by President Joe Biden to the role, including serving as deputy national security adviser and deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency during the Obama administration.

Senate Republicans are wary of Tulsi Gabbard, putting her confirmation as director of national intelligence in jeopardy.

The former Hawaii congresswoman’s confirmation hearings are scheduled for this week, along with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s for secretary of health and human services, but Gabbard seems to be facing more opposition from the GOP, The Hill reports.

“I think it remains to be seen,” said Senator John Cornyn, a Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, regarding whether the committee will back Gabbard. “I think the jury’s still out.”

Another Republican senator told The Hill that Gabbard “has a path [that] continues to narrow.”

The committee is split 9–8 between Republicans and Democrats, meaning that Gabbard can’t lose a single GOP vote. Republican Senator Susan Collins is a member of the committee, and she was one of the three Republicans who voted against Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense, necessitating a tiebreaker vote from Vice President JD Vance.

Collins said she was concerned about Gabbard’s stance on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows foreign targets to be surveilled without a warrant. As a member of the House in 2020, Gabbard proposed repealing the program, and has voted against reauthorizing it.

Gabbard claims to have changed her position recently, telling Punchbowl News that Section 702 is “crucial” and “must be safeguarded to protect our nation while ensuring the civil liberties of Americans.” But Collins isn’t Gabbard’s only GOP skeptic on the committee. Senator Todd Young has been described as being a “problem” for Gabbard by two GOP aides, according to The Hill.

“Those members are going to have a really hard time getting to ‘yes,’” said one of the aides. An aide also said that Senator Mitch McConnell, who was a “no” vote on Hegseth, is telling other Republicans that he is “adamantly” opposed to Gabbard’s appointment.

Even if Gabbard sways enough skeptics on the Intelligence Committee, she could face broader GOP opposition in the full Senate over her policy views, as well as her sympathies toward Russia and ousted Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. The question is whether that is enough to sink her nomination.

Forget about the price of eggs—Trump still wants to build the United States its own “iron dome.”

The president is set to sign an executive order that would begin the production of a “next generation” missile defense shield that would envelop the entire country.

“The order calls for an ‘Iron Dome’ for an America, borrowing the name of the short-range Israeli missile defense system that for years has been used to intercept launches from Gaza. The U.S. provided billions of dollars in funding to Iron Dome, and the US Army has its own system,” White House reporter Alayna Treene wrote on X.

The Israeli Iron Dome was a collaboration between Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and U.S. weapons manufacturer Raytheon that came online in 2011. It is not a literal iron dome but a system of “interceptor missiles” that can shoot down enemy missiles before they reach their targets

Even still, it’s hard to imagine a system that could do the same for the entirety of the continental U.S., as Trump has suggested multiple times before today.

“We will build a great iron dome over our country, a dome like has never seen before, a state-of-the-art missile defense shield that will be entirely built in America,” Trump said at a Wisconsin campaign rally last summer. “We are going to build the greatest dome of them all. You see what happened in Israel, they shot 3000 missiles and they knocked down almost all of them … we are entitled to that also, you know and it was our idea, by the way.”

The iron dome was also the eighth point of the first part of his campaign platform, as the president promised to “BUILD A GREAT IRON DOME MISSILE DEFENSE SHIELD OVER OUR ENTIRE COUNTRY—ALL MADE IN AMERICA.”

National security analyst Joseph Cirincione has been highly skeptical since the beginning of Trump’s iron dome fantasy.

“[The] Iron Dome is designed to intercept short-range rockets, not intercontinental ballistic missiles. Each Iron Dome system can defend an area of roughly 150 square miles,” Cirincione wrote for the Defense One website last summer. “We would need to deploy more than 24,700 Iron Dome batteries to defend the 3.7 million square miles of the continental United States. At $100 million per battery, that would be approximately $2,470,000,000,000.”

Not only would this iron dome be a waste of time and effort, it would also cost three times more than America’s entire military budget for 2025.

Defending America’s police force is apparently no longer a priority for Republican leadership.

Five years after the party took a hard pro-police stance in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, Vice President JD Vance believes it’s okay to support individuals who beat and kill cops, so long as they do so in support of Donald Trump.

While listening to a list of January 6 offenders who had harmed police officers while invading the U.S. Capitol, Vance said he continued to “stand by” the decision to grant the violent attackers full, complete, and unconditional pardons.

“If you stand with law enforcement, how can you call these people unjustly imprisoned?” asked CBS’s Margaret Brennan on Sunday.

“Margaret, you’re separating—there’s an important issue here,” Vance said. “There’s what the people actually did on January the 6th, and we’re not saying everybody did everything perfectly, and then what did Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice do in unjustly prosecuting well over 1,000 Americans in a way that was politically motivated?”

“Is violence like that against a police officer ever justified?” pressed Brennan.

“Violence against a police officer is not justified but that does not mean that you should have Merrick Garland’s weaponized Department of Justice expose you to incredibly unfair process, to denial of constitutional rights, and frankly, to a double standard that was not applied to many people,” Vance responded.

“The pardon power is not just for people who are angels or people who are perfect. And of course, we love our law enforcement and want people to be peaceful, with everybody, but especially with our good cops. That’s a separate issue from what Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice did. We rectified a wrong, and I stand by it.”

Last week, the country’s most powerful police union torched Donald Trump for pardoning more than 1,500 people in connection with the January 6 riot, including individuals who attacked Capitol Police as they broke into the Capitol building.

“The [International Association of Chiefs of Police] and FOP are deeply discouraged by the recent pardons and commutations granted by both the Biden and Trump Administrations to individuals convicted of killing or assaulting law enforcement officers,” the Fraternal Order of Police said in a statement. “The IACP and FOP firmly believe that those convicted of such crimes should serve their full sentences. Crimes against law enforcement are not just attacks on individuals or public safety—they are attacks on society and undermine the rule of law. Allowing those convicted of these crimes to be released early diminishes accountability and devalues the sacrifices made by courageous law enforcement officers and their families.”

The both-sides statement was a humbling turnaround for the fraternal order, which endorsed Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Moments after the pardons were announced, the order initially reacted with “no statement” statement.

Even some of the people who raided the U.S. Capitol and received pardons do not believe they deserve the nation’s forgiveness. Former MAGA granny Pamela Hemphill, 71, rejected Trump’s offer of clemency last week after serving 60 days in jail on a misdemeanor charge for her role in the insurrection. In an interview with NPR on Thursday, Hemphill claimed that accepting the pardon “would be a slap in the face to the Capitol police officers, to the rule of law, to our whole nation.”

“You know, I broke the law that day—period, black and white. I’m not a victim. I’m a volunteer,” Hemphill said. “And I don’t want to be a part of them trying to rewrite history what really happened that day. So if I took a pardon, I’m saying, yeah, it’s OK what I did that day. No, it was not OK.”

Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts are already going too far and have caused Native Americans to be questioned and detained.

At least 15 Native people in New Mexico and Arizona have reported that they’ve been stopped, questioned, or detained by federal law enforcement officials during immigration roundup efforts since Wednesday, according to Navajo Nation officials. They were asked to provide proof of citizenship despite being Indigenous to the United States.

In a news release, the Navajo Nation said its officials contacted the governors of Arizona and New Mexico, the Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to follow up on the reports.

“My office has received multiple reports from Navajo citizens that they have had negative, and sometimes traumatizing, experiences with federal agents targeting undocumented immigrants in the Southwest,” said the office of Navajo President Buu Nygren.

One Navajo woman was reportedly questioned by ICE after her workplace in Scottsdale, Arizona, was raided Wednesday morning, and was asked to show proof that she was Native, Arizona state Senator Theresa Hatathlie, who is Diné/Navajo, told CNN. The woman and seven other Indigenous people were lined up behind white vans and questioned for two hours without a way to contact their families.

“Now is it ICE or some other entity? I don’t know,” said Hatathlie, whose district includes Navajo land. “I did work with some individuals to confirm whether or not ICE did do that worksite raid, but the communication back to me was that it’s not a normal practice for ICE to confirm a raid or not.”

The woman was eventually allowed to use her cell phone and contact family members for proof of Native citizenship and then was allowed to leave, Hatathlie said.

With Trump reportedly dissatisfied with the pace of deportations and urging higher detention numbers with higher-profile raids, incidents like these are sure to continue as officers rush to meet the administration’s quotas. Due diligence is going to be swept aside as long as the president and right-wing lawmakers can claim that they are deporting large numbers of undocumented immigrants. All the while, more citizens and legal immigrants are likely to be swept up.

Vice President JD Vance wants you to believe that Donald Trump will bring down grocery prices, even if he can’t spell out the nitty gritty of how it’s going to be accomplished.

Speaking with CBS’s Margaret Brennan on Sunday, the vice president insisted that the price of food would come down—but couldn’t muster up any details on exactly how or when that would happen.

“You campaigned on lowering prices for consumers. We’ve seen all these executive orders. Which one lowers prices?” asked Brennan.

“We have done a lot,” Vance said. “And there have been a number of executive orders that have caused, already, jobs to start coming back into our country, which is a core part of lowering prices. More capital investment, more job creation in our economy, is one of the things that’s going to drive down prices for all consumers but also raise wages so that people can afford to buy the things they need.”

“So grocery prices aren’t going to come down?” Brennan interjected.

“No, no, Margaret, prices are going to come down, but it’s going to take a little bit of time,” Vance continued, claiming that Trump has so far used the power of his office to accomplish more in five days than President Joe Biden did during his entire term.

“The way that you lower prices is that you encourage more capital investment into our country,” Vance added.

But even with just one week in the bank, prices of some common grocery items are going up, not down, thanks to one of Trump’s most controversial economic policies: aggressive international tariffs.

Most recently, coffee prices have jumped in the wake of Trump’s weekend tariff dispute with Colombia, which saw the president threaten a 25 percent tariff increase against one of America’s strongest allies in Latin America, in order to force the country to accept the use of military aircraft to receive deportees out of the U.S.

Approximately 20 percent of the U.S coffee supply comes from Colombia. It’s second only to Brazil, which has failed to produce its typical yield while suffering through record temperatures and the worst drought in more than seven decades.

Meanwhile, Trump’s favorite TV network celebrated the price hike on Monday, saying on live air that rising consumer prices would be worth the cost if it successfully pushed immigrants out of the country.

“Ultimately, would you pay an extra quarter on a cup of coffee to send those people back?” Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy asked, to which Brian Kilmeade replied: “Yes!”

The co-hosts’ solution? Buy cheaper coffee options at the grocery store.

“You just go Taster’s Choice. It’s instant. You put it in, and you stir it,” Kilmeade said.

Trump—who claimed he won in November based on his promise to lower grocery costs—suddenly changed his tune in December, telling Time that “it’s hard to bring things down once they’re up.”

Trump is using the Justice Department to make key information regarding January 6 insurrectionists inaccessible to the public. 

CNN reported on Sunday that a database containing the names, charges, and convictions of Jan 6ers has been removed from the DOJ’s website—just as Trump allowed more than 1,500 of them to return to society via his mass pardons. The FBI also removed its page on “US Capitol Violence—Most Wanted,” seeking information on rioters who were fugitives or not yet identified.

“This has been a personal crusade I have worked on for many months.… This is a huge victory for J6ers,” wrote Brandon Straka, who was sentenced to three years in prison for his actions around January 6, which included giving an incendiary speech the day before and directing the mob to “go, go, go” on the steps of the Capitol building on that day.  

“This site was one of countless weapons of harassment used by the federal government to make life impossible for its targets from J6,” Stranka continued. “Every time a potential employer, landlord, new social or business contact, etc, would search somebody targeted for J6 they would read a dossier on each person filled with FBI and FOJ accusations and narratives that were never proven, along with links to documents with even more damaging allegations.… Thank you, Troy Nehls, Ed Martin, and all who worked to get this taken down!”

Ed Martin is Trump’s newly appointed U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., and played a prominent role in the fraudulent “Stop the Steal” movement in 2021.

Some parts of the Justice Department database are still viewable on the Internet Archive.

Donald Trump plans to sign a new set of executive orders Monday aimed at changing the makeup of the U.S. military.

CNN reports that the president plans to sign three executive orders that would ban transgender people from serving in the military; end the military’s diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; and reinstate any service members, with backpay, who were discharged for refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine. As of 2023, only 43 of the 8,000 service members who were discharged over refusal to get the vaccine have returned to the military.

One of Trump’s executive orders last week revoked a 2021 order from President Biden allowing transgender service members to openly serve in the military. That order in turn revoked a 2017 ban on transgender service members implemented in Trump’s first term. However, until Trump orders an outright ban, the estimated 9,000 to 14,000 transgender individuals currently serving the military are not affected.

Trump’s new executive order will go even further than his 2017 ban, according to two unnamed White House officials who spoke to CNN. It will create new military standards on gender pronouns and make a case against transgender service members based on mental and physical readiness.

“It can take a minimum of 12 months for an individual to complete treatments after transition surgery, which often involves the use of heavy narcotics. During this period, they are not physically capable of meeting military readiness requirements and require ongoing medical care. This is not conducive for deployment or other readiness requirements,” said one official, in attempts to justify the ban.

While the executive order on Covid-19 isn’t a big change, as Biden already rescinded the military’s Covid vaccine mandate in 2023, the other executive orders could hurt military recruitment numbers at a time when all three service branches are worried about future numbers. But that is of little concern to Trump and his new secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, who has made negative remarks about even women serving in the military. It seems that Trump and conservatives are more concerned with how the military looks rather than its size and strength.

After investing weeks at Mar-a-Lago to catch Donald Trump’s ear, Elon Musk has been relegated to the outskirts of Trump’s inner circle.

That separation was forced by chief of staff Susie Wiles—Trump’s so-called “ice maiden” and his 2024 campaign co-manager—who denied Musk a coveted permanent office in the White House.

Wiles is singularly focused on advancing Trump’s mission: That means reining in his chaotic Cabinet, managing staff, and limiting access to the president in order to streamline his operation.

“I don’t welcome people who want to work solo or be a star,” Wiles told Axios by email in early January. “My team and I will not tolerate backbiting, second-guessing inappropriately, or drama. These are counterproductive to the mission.”

That philosophy turned into a concrete win for Wiles hours after the forty-seventh president was inaugurated. While signing executive orders in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters that Musk would not be receiving a space in the West Wing to work on the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, despite growing attention to his influence in Trump’s administration. (DOGE is not an official department but rather a team tasked with slashing up to $2 trillion in federal spending, if Musk’s own metrics are to be believed.)

“He’s getting an office for about 20 people that we’re hiring to make sure that these [executive orders] get implemented,” Trump said last week.

Instead of a spot beside Trump, Musk and his team will be based in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. That’s still inside the White House compound, but a walk from the main complex.

It’s an essential feat for Wiles, who sought to squash rumors that the world’s richest man was morphing into a “co-president” for Trump, or the “real vice-president,” instead of JD Vance. Last week, Musk appeared to overstep after Trump announced a public-private tech initiative—Stargate—to advance the development of artificial intelligence in the U.S. Moments later, Musk wrote on X that he believed the effort was a dud from the jump, claiming that he had it on “good authority” that the finances weren’t there to back Trump’s first major achievement.

“I cannot stress teamwork and mutual support enough,” Wiles, the first woman to hold what’s commonly referred to as the world’s toughest job, told Axios. “It’s not magic: set goals and timelines for me and the team and then work to exceed them. Simple, yes, but this worked quite nicely on the campaign.”

Every single Democratic senator signed a resolution Monday condemning Trump’s mass pardon of the January 6 insurrectionists.

“The Senate disapproves of any pardons for individuals who were found guilty of assaulting Capitol Police officers,” the one-line resolution reads.

Trump pardoned Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and multiple people who beat, tasered, and choked Capitol Police Officers that day, leading even the Fraternal Order of Police—a staunchly pro-Trump union—to condemn his decision. At least a handful of Republicans, too, were shocked by his decision.

Fetterman, who has made a habit of playing devil’s advocate for the Republican Party, was the last to sign onto the resolution, seemingly only after public confusion and pressure.

“Some people are very deserving of a second chance and get a pardon,” Fetterman told ABC News last week. “What I’m saying, though, that, that, pardons I can agree with, some that I don’t. And I think that’s really what it comes down to.” It now seems like he agrees with all of them.

This piece has been updated to note Fetterman’s late addition signing onto the resolution.