Raw Story

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was roundly mocked by political analysts and observers on Wednesday after it was revealed that her agency is spending $140 million to buy new airplanes for its deportation operations.

The Washington Post first reported on Wednesday that DHS has signed a $140 million contract with a company called Daedalus Aviation, which was formed in August 2024, to purchase six Boeing 737 airplanes that a Trump administration official told the outlet will allow immigration agents to "operate more effectively, including by using more efficient flight patterns."

Daedalus Aviation appears to have been created by a pair of executives from a company that already has a nearly $1 billion contract with DHS, according to the report.

Political analysts and observers shared their reactions on social media.

"You can’t afford healthcare — and DHS is buying itself a fleet of 737s with your money," the House Homeland Security Committee Democrats posted on X. "Were 2 private Gulfstream jets not enough for Kristi?"

"DHS is spending $140 million dollars on 6 Boeing 737 planes so they can have their own 'deportation fleet.' F Boeing," independent journalist Karly Kingsley posted on X.

"DHS is now for the first time buying its own deportation planes," journalist Katya Schwenk posted on X. "ICE already uses air charter companies for deportation flights, which is cheaper than maintaining a fleet; imo, this is about making it more difficult to scale back the agency in the long run."

"Your tax dollars at evil. Evil in your name," author Jeff Jarvis posted on X.

President Donald Trump failed to keep a Republican primary clear for one of his MAGA allies in his home state of New York.

The president personally called attorney Bruce Blakeman, the county executive for Nassau County, to persuade him not to run in the GOP gubernatorial primary against Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), saying polling indicated she was the favorite to face off against Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, but he entered the race anyway, reported New York Magazine.

“He’s great, and she’s great,” Trump said after Blakeman announced his candidacy. “They’re both great people.”

However, sources told the magazine that Trump believes Blakeman will lose the primary but doesn't want to publicly come out against him, and New York Republicans say the situation reminds them of the 2022 GOP primary, when Lee Zeldin had to spend much of his campaign money to win a fairly uncompetitive race before losing that November.

“He ran a hell of a race against Kathy Hochul, as close as anyone’s come in a generation,” said one New York Republican operative. “Can we say for sure that, if not for the primary, he wins? No, we can’t say that, but boy, he’d have had a better shot.”

Blakeman may not appear on the ballot unless he wins the support of 25 percent of attendees at the party’s February convention, where Stefanik will likely have many allies, or obtains 15,000 valid signatures from registered Republicans across the state.

Donald Trump erupted on Truth Social Tuesday night, accusing The New York Times of committing “sedition” and even “treason” for reporting on his apparent physical and cognitive decline. Fresh off a meandering Pennsylvania speech that drifted far from its billed focus on affordability, Trump insisted he is the “hardest-working” president in history and raged that any suggestion he’s “slowing up” is a deliberate lie. He attacked the outlet as “Enemies of the People” and said the country would be better off if it “ceased publication,” even as medical experts point to recent cognitive tests, MRIs, and visible physical changes as signs of his deteriorating health.

Watch the video below.

President rages at paper, calling health reporting 'seditious' and 'treasonous'

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon claimed that the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division was guilty of "50 years of discrimination" against white people after about 75% of the agency's lawyers said she was behind a plot to drive them out.

"I think there was some denial and they had crying sessions together," Dhillon told The New York Post this week. "Frankly, it was shocking to them. They had unhappy hours. It was like a lot of drama and handwringing."

"I didn't fire anybody. I just told them they have to approach their job differently. They self-deported with a nice golden parachute from the government."

On Wednesday's appearance on The Charlie Kirk Show, Dhillon encouraged viewers to apply for jobs at the reconstructed Civil Rights Division.

"We just sued Minneapolis for discriminating against teachers who are not minorities and, you know, on and on and on," she promised. "And so we are hiring, and so lawyers with at least 18 months of experience who are interested in serving a tour of duty to help their country."

Charlie Kirk Show producer Andrew Kolvet lamented that white people could soon no longer hold majority status in the U.S.

"Let's say it was 83% white country [in the 1960s]; now we're basically 50%," he noted. "You give that another 10 years, it's going to be probably under 50%, maybe right around 50%. ... When I was born, I think we were around 80% white still."

Dhillon admitted that "we have a history of discrimination in our country."

But she suggested that the courts went too far with a 1971 decision that started the concept of disparate impact.

"So in other words, you no longer necessarily had to prove in your discrimination case, whatever the context was, that you are actually being the victim of intentional discrimination," she remarked. "You could simply prove that there's a hiring process or a policy, or there's certain, you know, tests that are required, and I, because I'm African-American, I can't pass a test."

"We have now issued a guidance that says that this 50 years of discrimination is against frankly law-abiding practices and businesses and recipients is over," she added. "It is harming a lot of people. It is wrong."

Pete Hegseth’s reliance on using a Donald Trump deflection as allegations of incompetence, criminality and Pentagon infighting continue to grow is starting to wear thin, according to one former Trump White House insider.

The embattled Secretary of Defense is fighting a war on two fronts this week as he fends off accusations of war crimes over the killing of two alleged drug boat survivors who were reportedly clinging to their boat after a U.S. military attack.

At the same time, a damning report from the Pentagon Inspector General (IG) stated that the Pentagon chief violated protocols with his use of the Signal app, which endangered U.S. troops during an assault on Houthi rebels.

According to a report from Jack Detsh of Politico, in order to fend off bad press and investigations into his conduct, the former Fox News personality has been taking a page out of Trump’s MAGA playbook, by criticizing the messenger and not addressing the issues head-on.

As Detch wrote, Hegseth’s strategy can be summed up as, “Attack your enemies, revamp your story and never say you got it wrong.”

Add to that, Hegseth has been quick to fall back on calling anything that portrays him in a bad light as “fake news.”

As the report notes, that may work for Trump, but it’s being overused by the Pentagon chief, who has already has a trust deficit with many less-than-supportive Republican lawmakers.

According to a former senior Trump adviser, “There’s only so many times that you can stand next to the president and label everything as fake news and deny everything. It’s worn out.”

The same official also claimed the strategy doesn’t work for the defense secretary because of his reputation.

“When he takes this approach of, ‘this is fake news,’ and then hits back with some type of a troll…that only reinforces his biggest liability, which is that he’s unqualified for the job,” they explained. “That just reinforces that he’s not serious.”

You can read more here.

After criticizing media coverage about him aging in office, Trump appeared to be falling asleep during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday.

But that’s hardly the most troubling aspect of his aging.

In the last few weeks, Trump’s insults, tantrums, and threats have exploded.

To Nancy Cordes, CBS’s White House correspondent, he said: “Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? You’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person.”

About New York Times correspondent Katie Rogers: “Third rate … ugly, both inside and out.”

To Bloomberg White House correspondent Catherine Lucey: “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.”

About Democratic lawmakers who told military members to defy illegal orders: guilty of “sedition … punishable by DEATH.”

About Somali immigrants to the United States: “Garbage” whom “we don’t want in our country.”

What to make of all this?

Trump’s press hack Karoline Leavitt tells reporters to “appreciate the frankness and the openness that you get from President Trump on a near-daily basis.”

Sorry, Ms. Leavitt. This goes way beyond frankness and openness. Trump is now saying things nobody in their right mind would say, let alone the president of the United States.

He’s losing control over what he says, descending into angry, venomous, often dangerous territory. Note how close his language is coming to violence — when he speaks of acts being punishable by death, or human beings as garbage, or someone being ugly inside and out.

The deterioration isn’t due to age alone.

I have some standing to talk about this frankly. I was born 10 days after Trump. My gray matter isn’t what it used to be, either, but I don’t say whatever comes into my head.

It’s true that when you’re pushing 80, brain inhibitors start shutting down. You begin to let go. Even in my daily Substack letter to you, I’ve found myself using language that I’d never use when I was younger.

When my father got into his 90s, he told his friends at their weekly restaurant lunch that it was about time they paid their fair shares of the bill. He told his pharmacist that he was dangerously incompetent and should be fired. He told me I needed to dress better and get a haircut.

He lost some of his inhibitions, but at least his observations were accurate.

I think older people lose certain inhibitions because they don’t care as much about their reputations as do younger people. In a way, that’s rational. Older people no longer depend on their reputations for the next job or next date or new friend. If a young person says whatever comes into their heads, they have much more to lose, reputation-wise.

But Trump’s outbursts signal something more than the normal declining inhibitions that come with older age. Trump no longer has any filters. He’s becoming impetuous.

This would be worrying about anyone who’s aging. But a filterless president of the United States who says anything that comes into his head poses a unique danger. What if he gets angry at China, calls up Xi Jinping, tells him he’s an asshole, and then orders up a nuclear bomb?

It’s time the media reported on this. It’s time America faced reality. It’s time we demanded that our representatives in Congress take action, before it’s too late.

Invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment.

• Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.
• Robert Reich's new memoir, Coming Up Short, can be found wherever you buy books. You can also support local bookstores nationally by ordering the book at bookshop.org