Insiders spill Trump’s ulterior motive for warships: ‘Like making Epstein head of daycare’
While the Trump administration has rationalized its escalating hostilities with Venezuela as an effort to combat drug trafficking, several officials within the Trump administration are suggesting there to be an ulterior motive behind the escalation.
President Donald Trump ordered eight warships carrying 4,500 troops this week to sit off the coast of Venezuela in what the administration described as an “enhanced counter narcotics operation.” Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro has seen a $50 million bounty placed on him by Trump for what his administration says is his involvement in drug trafficking.
Three Trump officials, however, say there’s more to the operation than meets the eye, speaking with Axios under the condition of anonymity and reported by the outlet on Friday.
“Leaving Maduro in power in Venezuela is like making Jeffrey Epstein the head of a daycare,” said a Trump official, suggesting regime change may be an unofficial goal of the increased hostilities.
Another Trump official likened the operation to the United States’ operation to capture Panama President Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno, who in 1989 was captured after the United States invaded the Central American nation.
“This could be Noriega part 2,” a second Trump official told Axios. “The president has asked for a menu of options, and ultimately, this is the president's decision about what to do next, but Maduro should be s------- bricks.”
The United States has a long history of enacting regime change in South America, sometimes through direct military intervention, and others, through more covert operations. Perhaps the most prominent example is the United States-backed coup in 1973 that overthrew the democratically-elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende, done so largely at the behest of American mining and communications companies that were stripped of their control of Chile’s labor and resources under Allende’s leadership.
A third Trump official told Axios that, while the operation was still largely about combatting drug trafficking, ousting Maduro would also be a favorable outcome.
“This is 105% about narco-terrorism,” the official said. “But if Maduro winds up no longer in power, no one will be crying.”
Kash Patel’s girlfriend sues for defamation over being called ‘honeypot Mossad agent’
FBI Director Kash Patel's girlfriend is suing a former agent who is claiming whistleblower protections after he alleged she was a spy and part of a "honeypot" operation.
CNBC reported Friday that Alexis Wilkins filed a lawsuit against Kyle Seraphin, claiming he "has maliciously lied" about her by “falsely asserting that she—an American-born country singer—is an agent of a foreign government, assigned to manipulate and compromise the Director of the FBI,” the lawsuit alleges.
Seraphin, a conservative podcaster, refers to himself as a "recovering FBI agent," the report noted. Wilkins claims that he is using the accusations against her as "self-enriching clickbait."
Seraphin, in response, claimed on his show that he never directly accused Wilkins of being a spy, adding that similar rumors have circulated widely online. However, the lawsuit contends that, as a former counterintelligence FBI agent, Seraphin’s comments carry serious weight and can’t be dismissed as exaggeration or internet gossip. Indeed, Seraphin never says Wilkins' name when speaking about it.
Through her attorney, Wilkins flatly denies any ties to Israel, intelligence agencies, or covert activity.
The complaint continues, noting, “Ms. Wilkins is not even Jewish, let alone Israeli, and has never set foot in Israel,” calling Seraphin’s claims both baseless and insulting.
The suit also emphasizes that labeling her a “honeypot” essentially accuses her of being an agent of a foreign government attempting to undermine U.S. national security and law enforcement, which amounts to an accusation of treason.
Patel “has had his own little ‘honeypot’ issue that’s been going on of late, so we’re just going to acknowledge it real publicly,” Seraphin said on the podcast episode cited in the lawsuit.
“He’s got a girlfriend that is half his age, who is apparently is both a country music singer, a political commentator on Rumble, a friend of John Rich through [FBI deputy Director Dan] Bongino, who also now owns a big chunk of Rumble, and she’s also a former Mossad agent in what is like the equivalent of their NSA," he continued.
“But I’m sure that’s totally because, like, she’s really looking for like a cross-eyed, you know, kind of thickish built, super cool bro who’s almost 50 years old who’s Indian in America,” Seraphin said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Like it has nothing to do with the fact that uh we’re really close to the Trump administration,” he added. “Anyway, I’m sure that’s totally just like love. That’s what real love looks like.”
The suit asks for $5 million in damages.
Trump’s Air Force One ruse revealed war’s end is ‘further away than ever’: analyst
President Donald Trump's use of a decoy plane in Turkey and escape via a catering truck, with journalists none the wiser, was detailed in a new analysis for Slate by Ian Prasad Philbrick.
The plan, intended to avert an assassination threat, was basically "something out of a spy movie," Philbrick wrote.
"The catering truck, which typically loads in-flight meals, parked on the right side of Air Force One, partially shielded from media cameras," he wrote. As part of the ruse, Trump "crossed to the other side of the presidential plane after boarding and stepped into the truck’s elevated container," after which the catering truck lowered the container, drove to a military jet, and offloaded its human cargo to be routed home through the United Kingdom — without journalists or even some White House officials any the wiser.
One of the most shocking aspects of the whole affair, wrote Philbrick, is that the Trump administration was essentially using all the journalists who thought they were flying with the president "as bait" for any would-be assassination plot without letting them know.
Furthermore, he noted, after the flight, "asked why reporters had had to close their window shades when leaving Turkey, Trump failed to mention that he had switched flights. 'I’m No. 1 on their list,' he said, referring to Iran. 'But if I go, you go. Right?' As it turns out, maybe not."
Decoy flights are not completely unheard of for the president, Philbrick wrote — but it's still extremely uncommon.
"Officials were vague about George W. Bush’s whereabouts immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, and Bill Clinton took an unmarked plane from India to Pakistan in 2000," wrote Philbrick. However, in these cases, "even Bush had reporters with him, and Clinton’s staff told at least one journalist about the switch beforehand."
Philbrick also took the ruse as a sign that Trump's war against Iran is not going well.
"In short, lasting peace seems further away than ever," he wrote.
Trump ditched cabinet secretaries as ‘sacrificial lambs’ on decoy plane: NYT
President Donald Trump left his cabinet secretaries and top advisers on a plane threatened by Iran while he moved to safety, The New York Times reported.
Air Force One was targeted by Iran as he left a NATO summit in Turkey, but reports are surfacing that Trump switched planes by hiding in a catering cart. However, the latest reporting by The Times reveals Trump also ditched Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and traveling press, who were "kept in the dark."
Two anonymous officials told Times reporter Maggie Haberman that Stephen Miller, Trump's top domestic policy adviser, and Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, were also left on the threatened decoy plane. Trump meanwhile left Ankara, Turkey, aboard a C-32A military jet.
According to Haberman's reporting, Rubio knew about the threat from Iran and that he was traveling on a plane that had been targeted for an attack. However, it's unclear if other top White House officials knew about the threat too.
The anonymous officials who spoke with Haberman said that at least some of the White House staff who also left on the endangered plane were unaware of the threat.
A White House spokesman didn't respond to a request from The Times for comment about the discussion to decide who would be left on the threatened plane and who would be whisked to safety with Trump.
The New York Times's reporting did, however, include a comment from Andrew Marlowe, the Hollywood screenwriter of the 1997 Harrison Ford thriller "Air Force One."
Marlowe told The Times that even though the Secret Service was trying to keep Trump safe, the optics of the reporting that has been coming out don't make him look good.
"Now real life isn't a movie, but given the circumstances, I'm not sure I could ever script a moment like that for a heroic main character," Marlowe said. "If the threat were that great, it's hard to imagine the audience rooting for any character who would trade his own safety by treating the remaining civilians onboard as potential sacrificial lambs, especially without their informed consent."
