Raw Story

An analyst Wednesday described how the ICE attacks in Minneapolis and deadly shooting of Renee Good were all prompted by a MAGA influencer "chasing clicks" — and showed the potentially grim future of MAGA journalism.

The Bulwark's Andrew Egger revealed how MAGA influencer Nick Shirley's "highly misleading gonzo video" led to the chaos in Minnesota. Shirley was confronting workers at Somali-run daycares and health care centers over claims of fraud in a now-viral video created unfounded allegations that spurred into a new campaign under the Trump administration to target the Somali community.

"Within days, the White House was surging immigration enforcement to Minneapolis; Vice President JD Vance said Shirley had 'done far more useful journalism than any of the winners of the 2024 [Pulitzer] prizes,'" Egger wrote.

"If this sort of person doing this sort of work can be so richly rewarded on the right right now, it’s safe to say both that Shirley will be a major fixture of the online right for a while, and that many others will try to follow in his footsteps," Egger added. "But if he’s the future of right-wing journalism, the future is very bleak indeed."

In the past, and in traditional media, Shirley would have had oversight or rules to abide by. But that's not the case now.

"Much of the old press model has collapsed entirely, especially on the right," Eggers wrote. "Guys like Nick Shirley aren’t trying to join a publication, they’re picking up a camera and trying to go viral on their own. They have no safety net, no sounding board, no mentorship, no way to grow beyond what they’re doing this minute. All they have is the zero-sum game of the algorithm: Get noticed or die. Of course they’re going to do what the algorithm demands—which, on today’s right, means snappy, confrontational, fact-agnostic propaganda for the regime. That’s what the ecosystem rewards, so we’re going to get more and more of it. If you think that’s grim today, wait till you see the future."

President Donald Trump dropped a stunning new excuse for why the United States should take over Greenland Friday.

Trump was meeting with American oil executives over the military incursion of Venezuela and his goals to shift the country's oil production to benefit the U.S. when a reporter asked about Venezuela and if the country would be considered an ally.

"Right now they seem to be an ally and I think it'll continue to be an ally," Trump said. "We don't want to have Russia there. We don't want to have China there. And by the way, we don't want Russia or China going to Greenland, which if we don't take Greenland, you're going to have Russia or China as your next door neighbor. That's not going to happen."

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene erupted Friday after reports suggested Trump’s own team suspected she may have tipped off anti-war protesters ahead of a surprise appearance by Donald Trump at a Washington, D.C., restaurant last year—an encounter that reportedly left the former president rattled and ended his pop-in appearances. Greene furiously denied the allegation, calling it a “horrific” and “dangerous lie,” and insisted she had no knowledge of Trump’s schedule at the time, noting the incident occurred months before her public falling-out with him. Instead, Greene accused the White House of retaliating against her for pushing to release Jeffrey Epstein-related files, lashed out at Axios for publishing the report, and questioned why the Secret Service failed to properly secure the restaurant—raising new questions about internal distrust, security lapses, and the chaos surrounding Trump’s inner circle.

Watch the video below.

Marjorie Taylor Greene melts down over claim she tipped off Trump protesters Marjorie Taylor Greene melts down over claim she tipped off Trump protesters

WASHINGTON — Greenland’s the talk of the town, which even has many Republicans nervous.

“The rhetoric going on now is irresponsible,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told Raw Story.

The rhetoric — including the White House declaring “all options” are on the table when it comes to obtaining the Danish-governed territory — has only been ratcheting up since last weekend, when President Donald Trump deployed the U.S. military to invade Venezuela and capture President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

“You have to take it more seriously than we did six months ago,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told Raw Story.

“Did you see this coming with Maduro?” Raw Story pressed.

“I'm still so naive that I took them at their word during their classified briefing in December when they told us they weren't interested in regime change,” Murphy said. “Yeah, it's hard to take any of this seriously, given that they have had very little compunction misleading us in the past.”

Murphy was speaking as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth went to Capitol Hill to give confidential briefings about the Venezuela operation.

With Rubio now slated to meet with Danish officials to discuss Greenland, an autonomous territory of the European nation, many on Capitol Hill are reassessing previous political complacency.

“I said all last year, ‘Ah, you know, nothing will come of it,’” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) told Raw Story. “Obviously, it's at the head of my priority list now.”

Even many of President Trump’s GOP allies fear Congress will once again be left in the dark.

“It's hard to say what he's inching towards,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) told Raw Story. “They've kind of been a little bit all over the board.”

‘Wouldn't want to do it by force’

“In the New Year, where’s Greenland on your priority list?” Raw Story asked Sen. James Lankford (R-OK).

“Greenland was not on my bingo card two years ago,” Lankford said. “I don't even know how to answer that question.”

“Are you worried that this could be a distraction?” Raw Story pressed. “Or do you think it is key strategically?”

“No. There's some key strategic aspects there dealing with their own coast and dealing with the Arctic, there's no question about that, so that's a key relationship,” Lankford said. “It’s why we have a base there and have had a base there for years.”

To many Republicans, that relationship’s worked — so they don’t see any need to alter it.

“I wouldn't say it's a top priority for me, no,” Sen. Capito said.

While most Republicans on Capitol Hill don’t want to even entertain the thought of using the U.S. military to capture Greenland, they’re open to reassessing the relationship.

“It’s in our strategic interest to enhance our presence there,” Capito said. “I don't think that it's something that is a top priority for us, and I don't think it's something that needs to be grasped.

“Some kind of mutually agreed enhancement of our presence there would probably be a good start.”

Even so-called foreign policy doves — or isolationists — in the GOP are now openly courting the island country.

“It’d be nice if Greenland would decide they'd like to join the U.S.,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Raw Story.

“But I wouldn't want to do it by force. The only way that you'd convince Greenland to be part of the United States is by offering them things that would be to their benefit, not telling them we're going to invade them.”

‘Talk to the President’

With Russia’s war against Ukraine already straining NATO, bellicose chatter from the White House has U.S. allies nervous.

“Any type of move on Greenland, it'll threaten the existence of NATO, which will be inviting the end of the post-World War II international system,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) — the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee — told Raw Story.

“They'll be conceding, I think, to the Russians influence in Europe that they don't have now — and China.”

But few doubt that President Trump seriously wants the U.S. to take over Greenland — a reality which means many lawmakers are now fielding calls from their NATO counterparts.

“I'm worried that even these threats, even this rhetoric has stirred our NATO allies up so much,” Murkowski said.

“I've talked to the Danish ambassador, talking to my friends, the parliamentarians in other Arctic countries — the Nordic countries — and, yeah, there's a lot of anxiety.”

Still, even with Greenland the talk of this town, many Republicans still just shrug when talk turns that way.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) is chair of the nominally powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee but when Raw Story asked him about Greenland, he simply responded: “I don’t know.”

“Talk to the President,” Risch said.

An evasive Trump told reporters on Thursday that the American citizen shot and killed by ICE "behaved horribly," but stumbled when reporters pressed him harder.

As news of the fatal shooting of an observer by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis began to spark outrage and protests, President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform to defend the officers' actions and falsely claim that the victim, Renee Nicole Good, was driving toward officers or even that an officer was hospitalized, none of which appears to be true from reporting or video footage.

New York Times reporters went on to confront Trump about these discrepancies on Thursday morning, and when put on the spot, he became evasive.

“She behaved horribly,” said Trump. “And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over. I’ll play the tape for you right now.” Trump then had his assistant Natalie Harp bring over a laptop that played a slow-motion video of the shooting.

“With all of it being said, no, I don’t like that happening,” Trump added before the video played.

After Times reporters noted that the video didn't show any ICE officer being run over, Trump stumbled over his words, saying, “Well, I — the way I look at it — It’s a terrible scene. I think it’s horrible to watch. No, I hate to see it.”

Trump's claims that the shooting was justified have been echoed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who said the officer “used his training to save his own life and that of his colleagues” from a woman who was "stalking" them.

The exact nature of what caused the officer to fire his weapon is not the only criticism ICE is facing; other reports have indicated the officers blocked a doctor who was on scene from rendering medical assistance after the shooting.

President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday night that he will meet with his Colombian counterpart at the White House after threatening to arrest him over the flow of drugs into the United States.

Trump posted on Truth Social that he plans to meet with Colombian President Gustavo Petro at the White House. Just two days ago, Trump called Petro a "sick man" who "likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States" following the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

"And he's not going to be doing it very long. Let me tell you," Trump said at the time.

On Wednesday, Trump said he appreciated the "tone" of Petro's call with him.

"It was a Great Honor to speak with the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "I appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future."