CNN’s Jake Tapper shot down President Donald Trump’s claim on Tuesday that he had 100% approval in a recent CNN survey.

While speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump boasted about strong polling numbers from one of his most frequent media targets: CNN.

“I am at, according to CNN, 100% approval within the Republican Party… I’m at 100% approval,” the president said. “Did you see the CNN poll? Nobody talks about it. CNN, I think the people that did that poll probably got fired. But within the Republican Party and MAGA, which is basically 100% of the party, I think, but 100%.”

“Nope,” Tapper wrote in a response on X. “Relatedly: ‘Charting how Trump became a historically unpopular president.”

Tapper shared the latest CNN poll on Trump, which showed Trump’s approval among Republicans dropped recently from 90% in March 2025 to 80% and “strong support” has fallen from 64% to 43% in that same period.

“President Donald Trump appears to be more unpopular than he’s ever been – including after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot,” the survey reads.

The poll shows Trump’s support on multiple key issues, including the economy, immigration, and foreign affairs, has steadily fallen in recent weeks.

According to the survey, Trump’s overall approval has fallen from 48% in late February of last year to 35% this year. Among Democrats, he currently holds a 10% approval. For independents, he has a 26% approval.

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten reported on Monday that Trump has seen an “absolute collapse” in support among Republican-leaning independents amid the Iran war. Trump’s support among the group has fallen from 73% last year to 53% this year.

“As I said, this is a core group for Donald Trump, and they are waving, ‘Adios, amigos! Goodbye! We no longer support you, president of the United States. We are going in the other direction,'” Enten said. “He’s just above 50% in a group that overwhelmingly supported him back in the 2024 election.”

The post ‘Nope’: Jake Tapper Shoots Down Trump’s Claim CNN Poll Has Him at 100% GOP Approval first appeared on Mediaite.

President Donald Trump continued his attacks on Pope Leo XIV on Monday, claiming the pontiff is “endangering a lot of Catholics” with his criticisms of the Iran war.

The president made his remark during a phone interview with radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt, who asked Trump whether he would speak with the pope about Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai. Lai, a vocal free speech advocate, was arrested in 2020 and charged with counts including the publishing of “seditious material” in a ruling widely condemned as politically motivated.

Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping in December to “consider” Lai’s release. In light of the president’s upcoming meeting with the Chinese president, Hewitt asked Trump if he would bring up Lai’s arrest for a second time while noting that he wished the Pope would discuss the case as well.

“You know, you’re going to China. Let’s talk about that, Mr. President,” he said. “You’ve had this back and forth with Pope Leo. I wish Pope Leo would talk about Jimmy Lai. You talk about Jimmy Lai with the chairman. Will you be bringing him up again?”

The president said that he would bring up Lai to Xi, before Hewitt interjected to express his desire, yet again, that the Pope discuss the jailed publisher. Trump told the radio host that Pope Leo “would rather talk” about the Iran war, claiming the pontiff believed it was “just fine” for Iran to possess nuclear weapons.

Read their exchange below:

TRUMP: I will. I brought him up, and there’s a lot of– there’s a little bitterness, I would say, with him and Jimmy Lia. You know, he was– Hong Kong was not as easy. But I will be– I will be bringing him up. Yeah, I just–

HEWITT: I wish the Pope would. I want the Pope to talk about Jimmy Lia, and I want you to bring him home. That would be a good deal.

TRUMP: Well, the Pope would rather talk about the fact that it’s okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. And I don’t think that’s very good. I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people. But I guess if it’s up to the Pope, he thinks it’s just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

The Pope previously condemned Trump’s threat to wipe out a “whole civilization” in Iran if a deal was not reached, later speaking out against the war, saying, “God does not bless any conflict.” Trump has repeatedly attacked Pope Leo since his initial post last month, accusing Pope Leo of being “WEAK on Crime.” Reporters pressed Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday over whether his recently announced trip to Italy, where he will meet with the Pope, was an effort to smooth over tensions.

“The trip is really not tied to anything other than the fact that it would be normal for us to engage, and other secretaries of state have done that in the past,” Rubio said.

Watch above via the Hugh Hewitt Show.

The post Trump Says Pope Leo Is ‘Endangering a Lot of Catholics’ first appeared on Mediaite.

Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) said Georgia should “suspend” the state’s House primaries so that the Republican-controlled legislature can redraw the state’s electoral map in a more GOP-friendly way.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a severe blow to Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which prohibited discrimination based on race, while also sometimes requiring the consideration of race when redistricting, to ensure fair representation for racial minorities.

But in Wednesday’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the Voting Rights Act does not require Louisiana to consider race as the basis when drawing its electoral maps. The state has six congressional districts, two of which are majority-minority districts, as about one-third of residents in the state are Black. But after Callais, Louisiana’s Republican-controlled government is looking to redraw the state’s map and eliminate at least one of those two districts.

Carter appeared on Newsmax on Tuesday, where he urged the Republican-controlled legislature in Georgia to pursue similar measures – even though early voting has already started ahead of the state’s May 19 primaries. The state has 14 congressional districts, four of which are held by Democrats. A fifth was until last month, when 80-year-old Rep. David Scott died while seeking reelection.

Carter said:

First of all, I applaud the Supreme Court for the decision they made. They made the right decision. Race should never be considered in drawing congressional districts. And I’m glad that Tennessee and Alabama are redrawing their districts. And I think that Georgia should do the same thing. Yes, we have started early voting. And yes, it would be inconvenient. But at the same time, it’s never too late to do the right thing. And the right thing is for the governor and for the legislature to call a special session to redistrict so that Georgians will be represented by people who represent their values. We shouldn’t have to suffer through the next two years just because it’s inconvenient to do it now.

We need to suspend the House races, and we need to go ahead and redistrict so that Georgians would be represented in the next two years by people who represent their values.

The redistricting after the Callais decision is part of a rare, mid-decade gerrymandering war that Texas Republicans set off last year by redrawing its map in the hopes of gaining up to five seats. California responded in November by enacting a ballot measure that would gerrymander several Republicans out of Congress.

Watch above via Newsmax.

The post GOP Congressman Calls for Georgia To ‘Suspend the House Races’ So State Can Draw Republican-Friendly Map Before Election first appeared on Mediaite.

Retired four-star Army Gen. Jack Keane predicted on Fox News on Tuesday that President Donald Trump would have to resume combat operations against Iran, one way or another.

Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum welcomed Keane to her program and began the interview by asking about military leaders saying earlier in the day that the ceasefire continues to hold. “You’ve got 10 attacks against U.S. Forces, two ships taken, but it doesn’t meet the threshold to return, to end the ceasefire, essentially?” she began.

Keane replied, “Well, I think what he’s saying, the interaction has taken place at the Straits. We’re conducting a defensive operation, so we did expect to be attacked, and we’re defending against that. But I think there are two notable exceptions to that. Number one, they’re now attacking our allies in the region. That is not something that’s taken place in the Strait. I think that’s clearly a violation of the ceasefire agreement. The second.”

MacCallum clarified, “The UAE attacks.”

“The UAE, they’ve come back for a second attack. The second thing is, if you attack a U.S. warship, nothing is going to be the same after that. Because we’re not just going to conduct a defensive attack against you, we’re going to punish you for attacking a warship. We’re not going to wait until you hit that warship and kill some of our sailors. We’re going to make certain that this thing is off limits. And that is the exception in my book,” Keane argued.

MacCallum followed up, “Alright, so how do you see this? You know, a few days back we were talking about resuming of talks. We hear Araghshidhi, the foreign prime minister—the Foreign Minister, I should say, of Iran—saying that the Pakistanis have been wonderful and, you know, lots of blah blah, essentially at this point. Are there actually negotiations that are still going on that you can tell?”

“Well, it is likely that what has always been going on is some discussion with our negotiating team and some of their emissaries involved in negotiations. And I think they have always operated in the reality that, listen, the objective here, after getting—closing down the Straits and we go to a ceasefire—the object then was to drag that ceasefire out as much as possible. And how do they do that? By promising that they’re going to make some concessions,” Keane said, adding:

And now our negotiators hear those words and go back to the president and say, “Look, this thing looks like it may happen.” And you heard him say publicly, “Look, these guys really want a deal.” I think that has always been part of their negotiating strategy. With the Obama administration over the nuclear—18 months they drag this thing out.

They’re really good at this. They lie to our faces about what they may want to make concessions of, and then all of a sudden we’re sitting down, we fly all the way out there, eighteen hours of sitting across from the guy. Okay, we hit one to hear the consent on. All we have to check with somebody else, and somebody else says “No, no deal.” So the president is on to this, and he knows full well—I mean, I call him. He’s our stop-back measure because he is not going to accept a bad deal.

And that’s the reality of it, nor are they going to give us any deal that would meet his objectives, Martha. And I think that’s where we are. The singular objective with the leaders who are running Iran today—it’s not the president of Iran, he’s sidelined; it is not the foreign minister, he is sidelined, it’s not that they’re not having voices, but the guys who are now running the place are the ones in charge.

The guy who’s in charge is Ahmed Vahidi. And he is in regular consultation with the Ayatollah’s son, who is now the Ayatollah. And that’s the reality of it. And he has one singular objective in mind right now, and that is to survive—for he and his leaders to survive this, and at some point they believe they’ll recover. That is their objective. And that is why I think even a blockade, which is an incredibly good decision on the part of the president, opening up the Straits of Hormuz, another good decision on the part of the president.

But at the end of the day, these guys are still thinking about surviving. And as much as the blockade shutting down 100% of their imports, exports—excuse me—is going to punish them and put them in economic peril, these diabolical, tyrannical leaders are willing to absorb that. When you look at it through our prism of values and reason, none of that makes any sense. But from their perspective is where you have to look at it. That’s why our intelligence guys are so valuable, because they actually put themselves through—how are they thinking, as opposed to looking at it through our thinking.

I think that’s where they are. But right now, we have momentum. We got the blockade going. We’re opening up the Straits of Hormuz by force because, obviously, negotiations couldn’t achieve that. I think we’re likely going to go into more full-scale combat operations as well as the Iranians continue to up the game here.

Keane also told Fox Business on Tuesday that a return to combat operations was “inevitable.”

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

The post Ex-General Keane Predicts On Fox: Trump Will Return to Combat Operations In Iran first appeared on Mediaite.

(Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images)

The Trump Justice Department replied to a court filing from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on Tuesday and indirectly conceded that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche made an inaccurate statement on Laura Ingraham’s April 21st Fox News show.

In April, Todd announced an 11-count indictment against the SPLC related to allegations of wire fraud, making false statements to financial institutions, and money laundering. The thrust of the DOJ’s complaint against the SPLC revolves around allegations that the SPLC paid informants inside far-right hate groups for information. The SPLC has been a longtime watchdog monitoring and taking legal action against white supremacist organizations.

In late April, the SPLC filed two motions against the DOJ, demanding a transcript of grand jury proceedings that led to the indictment and that Blanche retract statements the SPLC argued were lies – including the statement on Ingraham’s program.

“There’s no information that we have that suggests that the money they were paying to these informants and these members of these organizations, they then turned around and shared what they learned with law enforcement,” the group quoted Blanche saying to Ingraham in their motion.

The DOJ responded by quoting a statement Blanche made to Fox News Sunday’s Shannon Bream on April 26th.

“On April 26, 2026, Acting Attorney General Blanche made the following statement on Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream, ‘It is true that over the years they have selectively shared information with law enforcement. That’s well-documented and there’s no dispute there. They aren’t charged with any of that conduct.’ To the extent that any clarification was needed, Acting Attorney General Blanche’s remarks on a major Sunday television program certainly suffice,” wrote the DOJ in its reply, suggesting that Blanche contradicting his previous statement was clarification enough.

The post Trump DOJ Uses One Todd Blanche Fox Appearance to Correct Another first appeared on Mediaite.

Billionaire hedge-funder Bill Ackman said the Iran War is “a very good one” in an interview with CNBC’s Money Movers.

“Iran has been, I think, a major funder of anti-American protests and kind of otherwise,” Ackman told reporter Sara Eisen. “I think that war is a very good one.”

“The war is a very good one?” she repeated. “It’s very unpopular, though.”

Ackman responded with uncertainty about the war’s popularity.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know which surveys to trust. Look, I think most Republicans, many, support the president, and it shouldn’t be a bipartisan issue, right? You have a nearly nuclear launch-capable Iran that we’ve set back in a very dramatic way. They’ve been a major driver of terrorism around the world, they’re a fierce enemy of the United States, they’ve threatened global shipping, energy, etc., and now the president and our military are getting that under control. It’s something that was hanging out there for many years. It’s a bit like Fannie and Freddie. The president, he doesn’t let stuff linger. It’s generational what he’s doing.”

However, Eisen commented on investors’ concerns.

“I do think investors, though, are wondering, how does it end?” she said. “When does it end?”

Ackman predicted its near conclusion.

“I think we’re almost done,” he said. “I think it’s weeks as opposed to many months, a few months as opposed to — it’s not years. This is towards the tail-end of a war.”

On whether the conflict has made Ackman think differently about investment opportunities in the Middle East, he said the Middle East has been “reset in a very positive way. It’s not been good to be a terrorist in the last couple of years. … The greatest enemies of democracy in the United States have been set back in a dramatic way.”

“I think the Abraham Accords are going to expand kind of meaningfully,” he continued. “I think Iran has shown itself not just to be an enemy of the United States and Israel, right, the first thing they did was they attacked all the other Gulf countries. I think a piece dividend emerges from this. I think we’re hopefully weeks away from a resolution that is going to be very, very favorable not just to the United States but to the globe.”

The post Bill Ackman Calls the Iran War ‘A Very Good One’ first appeared on Mediaite.

(Photo Credits: Secular Talk on YouTube and Tom Williams for AP)

Progressive podcaster Kyle Kulinski went off on Americans who support President Donald Trump for being “f*cking mental” and “evil” people who want to wreak carnage on the USA.

Kulinski delivered his rant on his Secular Talk show on Tuesday. He argued that while the Make America Great Again coalition is “cracking,” it is still a shame that millions of Americans refuse to jump off the MAGA bandwagon.

“There’s a solid 32% of the public that are f*cking mental, bro. They are deranged.They are demented. They have lost their minds,” Kulinski rattled off. “And they actively want pain and hurt and devastation and they want evil. They want bad things to happen to people that they don’t like.

He added pro-Trump Americans are “the worst of the worst,” but they will “go down with the ship.”

Kulinski slammed MAGA after playing a clip from a CNN report a few days ago that said Trump’s base was “cracking.”

CNN chief national correspondent John King reported from Mahoning County in Ohio, where he noted Trump had turned the state red — winning Ohio in 2016, 2020, and 2024 — after it had been purple for decades. King said Republicans were now in danger of losing their hold on the state, less than two years into Trump’s second term.

Kulinski said the only reason Trump was able to win Ohio and states like it is because he “lied” about NAFTA and the threat of globalism.

But when it comes to employment fears, Trump’s “only made it worse!” Kulinski yelped, before pointing to Trump’s pro-AI stance and economic policies.

He then continued watching King’s report. CNN showed a Foxconn building that is “mostly idle,” King said, despite Trump’s previous calls to save jobs at the plant, which was built on an old General Motors site.

“Conned everybody, bro!” Kulinski chimed in. “Conned everybody.”

Watch his anti-MAGA rant above, and you can watch his full review of the CNN segment by clicking here.

The post ‘They Are Demented!’ Left-Wing Influencer Says ‘32% of the Public’ is ‘F*cking Mental’ in Rant Denouncing MAGA first appeared on Mediaite.

Anti-MAGA conservative Jonah Goldberg suggested the $1 billion taxpayers will pay to secure President Donald Trump’s new White House ballroom will raise tough legal questions for the president, like whether or not he should go to jail for the ballooning cost.

Goldberg shared his thoughts during an appearance on CNN’s The Arena with Kasie Hunt on Tuesday.

Trump had touted the ballroom would be funded by private donations from companies like Meta and Amazon, but new legislation from Senate Republicans added $1 billion for security enhancements to the project.

Goldberg said that could be a problem for Trump, since he bashed outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for spending too much dough on the Fed building renovation.

Trump late last year said he was aiming to sue Powell because the cost was north of $4 billion — about $1.5 billion more than projected. The Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into Powell weeks later; Powell said he was being targeted as a “consequence” for not adhering to the president’s demands to lower rates. That probe was recently dropped.

“They just tried to put a guy in jail for construction overruns on the cost of the Federal Reserve building. And now he’s talking about how it’s going up to $1 billion,” Goldberg said on Tuesday. “So like, at some point, those sound bites are going to be the next segment on The Arena where they’re going to say, like, ‘Why shouldn’t you go to jail for cost overruns?’

Host Kasie Hunt found that pretty funny.

“My producers are probably working on that right now, actually,” she quipped.

Goldberg then went on to say there is a “good argument to build a new State-of-the-art Bat Cave underneath the ballroom.” But he said the problem is Trump “lied” about it, just like he “lied” about the Iran war and the operation that kidnapped Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela.

Trump has argued the ballroom must be built, especially after the latest assassination attempt against him at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last month.

Watch above via CNN.

The post ‘Why Shouldn’t You Go to Jail?’ Conservative Pundit Suggests Cost Overruns on Ballroom Could Trigger Tough Legal Questions for Trump first appeared on Mediaite.

Brian Zak/Sipa Press (via AP)

President Donald Trump‘s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a federal lawsuit against The New York Times, alleging the outlet has participated in hiring and promotion practices that discriminate against white men.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday, brings claims on behalf of a white man who alleges that his race and sex factored into his denial for a promotion at the newspaper in early 2025, a violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He had reportedly been working at the paper as an editor since 2014.

According to a press release from the EEOC, The New York Times excluded “a white man with extensive experience in real estate journalism, out of its final panel interviews for a vacant Deputy Real Estate Editor position” and “every candidate who advanced through to the final interview process was not a white male.”

“The company ultimately hired an outside candidate for the role — a non-white female with little to no experience in real estate journalism, despite such experience being a requirement for the real estate editor position,” the press release states. “Further, the hiring manager greenlit this external candidate for inclusion in the final interview panel without her first going through the standard interview processes for the position. Moreover, The New York Times selected this candidate for the position despite the company’s own final interview panel rating her less favorably than two other final candidates.”

EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said the commission will not “pull punches” in the enforcement of Title VII under her leadership, in a quote shared within the press release.

“No one is above the law — including ‘elite’ institutions,” she said. “There is no such thing as ‘reverse discrimination’; all race or sex discrimination is equally unlawful, according to long-established civil rights principles. The EEOC is prepared to root out discrimination anywhere it may rear its head. No matter the size or power of the employer, the EEOC under my leadership will not pull punches in ensuring evenhanded, colorblind enforcement of Title VII to protect America’s workers, including white males. Federal law is clear: making hiring or promotion decisions motivated in whole or in part by race or sex violates federal law. There is no diversity exception to this rule.”

In an article about the lawsuit released Tuesday afternoon by The New York Times, Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokeswoman for the paper, asserted that the paper will defend itself “vigorously” against the claims brought about in the complaint.

“The New York Times categorically rejects the politically motivated allegations brought by the Trump administration’s E.E.O.C.,” Ha said. “Our employment practices are merit-based and focused on recruiting and promoting the best talent in the world. We will defend ourselves vigorously.”

She later added, “The allegation centers on a single personnel decision for one of over 100 deputy positions across the newsroom, yet the E.E.O.C.’s filing makes sweeping claims that ignore the facts to fit a predetermined narrative,” she said. “Neither race nor gender played a role in this decision — we hired the most qualified candidate, and she is an excellent editor.”

Per The New York Times, the outlet took part in a “voluntary, brokered mediation” with the EEOC in April before the commission cut off the process on April 21st. The complaint indicates no solutions acceptable to the EEOC were offered.

The post Trump Administration Sues The New York Times Over Alleged Discrimination Against a White Man first appeared on Mediaite.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio joked with the press Tuesday that he’d been told which reporters to avoid during a White House briefing.

Rubio held the briefing Tuesday afternoon to provide updates on the U.S.’s various international affairs. Throughout the briefing, Rubio repeatedly requested some grace from the press corps as he didn’t have everyone in the room memorized like a press secretary would. Because of this, Rubio asked reporters to identify themselves when called upon.

At one point in the briefing, Rubio had a question about the seating arrangements in the Briefing Room.

“Are you guys all the TV people?” Rubio asked as he motioned to front row of correspondents. One of them told him that was not the case.

“Go ahead. I’m sorry, go,” Rubio continued. “I’m learning. They gave me a little map — I don’t know where I put it — of the people here. Some of you had, like, red Xs. I’m kidding, that’s not true.”

For the press corps, it was a moment of levity in what’s often a contentious environment with full-time Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. During her briefings, Leavitt has routinely gone after the media for its coverage of the Trump administration, and has even singled out reporters by name while citing her issues with specific reports.m

Among Leavitt’s most frequent targets is CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins. The two have had numerous brawls over the coverage from both Collins herself and the network as a whole.

Watch above via Fox News

The post ‘Some of You Have Red Xs’: Rubio Jokes He Was Given Map of Reporters in Press Room first appeared on Mediaite.

Former California Rep. Katie Porter (D) made an interesting artistic decision in her new gubernatorial ad — she joked about the time she screamed at a staffer to “get out of my f*cking shot!”

Porter was all smiles while referencing her now-infamous rant, which was unearthed by Politico last year. Behind-the-scenes footage from 2021 showed Porter fuming at a masked staffer who was seen behind her as the California liberal recorded a video for ex-President Joe Biden.

The staffer told Porter she was simply trying to inform her that one of her statements about electric vehicles in the video was “incorrect.”

“OK, you also were in my shot before that. Stay out of my shot!” Porter screeched.

That led to some bad headlines for Porter, but she apparently believes the axiom “all publicity is good publicity,” because her new governor ad makes light of it.

At the end of her ad, Porter turns and looks at a bunch of supporters behind her and says, “Now, could you guys please get out of my shot.” Porter then turns back around and smiles as the crowd laughs at her “joke”; the laughter sounded like it was from a ’90s sitcom that used a laugh track.

The supporters behind Porter are standing in a park and holding a bunch of signs. Some of the phrases on those signs include: “Dump Trump,” “Call Out Racism,” and “Abolish ICE.”

Porter talked to KRON 4 in San Francisco on Monday about her ad.

She said it showed she is “able to laugh at herself and show that she’s grown.”

“I think that is the mark of leadership, and I want to show people that,” Porter added.

Reporter Nikki Laurenzo then said Porter’s new ad will certainly lead to people watching the clip where she raged at her staffer. Porter said it was not her “best moment,” but that she has shown on the campaign trail that she “can do better.”

About 8% of Californians support Porter in the crowded race to replace Gavin Newsom (D) as California’s next governor.

Most polls show Republican Steve Hilton — who received President Donald Trump’s “COMPLETE” endorsement — or former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra (D) with a narrow lead.

Watch her ad above.

The post Katie Porter Cracks a Joke in New Ad About Viral Clip of Her Raging at Staffer first appeared on Mediaite.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio shrugged off a question about a picture of him posing in front a map of Cuba on Tuesday, saying he merely thought it would be “good” to do so.

Rubio was asked about the pic while filling in for White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday.

About an hour before he stepped to the podium in the press room, U.S. Southern Command posted a picture on X of Rubio shaking hands with Gen. Francis L. Donovan in front of the map.

The Daily Mail reporter Jon Michael Raasch asked him about it, after asking “What did you discuss with South Com about Cuba?”

“I’m not going to tell you what I discussed with South Com,” Rubio said, which made a few reporters chuckle in the press briefing room.

“I mean, Cuba’s in South Com. I was there — our Ambassadors were in from the whole Western Hemisphere — [and] I was addressing them, meeting the general who just took command of South Com,” Rubio explained. “And there happened to be a map of Cuba, and I said it’d be good if we took a picture in front of that map because it’s like the closest thing in South Com to the United States. So there it is.”

He then joked they had maps of other countries, but one of Greenland was not available.

Cuba was a major topic during his press briefing on Tuesday. Rubio ripped Cuba’s leadership for being a bunch of “incompetent communists” earlier in the briefing, saying their economy was on the verge of total collapse because the island was no longer receiving free oil from Venezuela.

His remarks come after President Donald Trump has said he plans on focusing on Cuba after the Iran war. Trump said in March he will soon “be having the honor of taking Cuba.”

“Whether I free it, take it. I think I can do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth,” Trump told Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy. “They are a very weakened nation.”

More recently, Trump slapped new sanctions on Cuba. He also said last week the U.S. will be taking over Cuba “almost immediately,” but that he wants to “finish” the Iran “job” first.

Watch above via CNN.

The post ‘So There It Is’: Rubio Explains Why He Took a Picture With Top General In Front of Map of Cuba first appeared on Mediaite.

ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday if the U.S. is actually any closer to “getting rid of Iran’s nuclear material?” Rubio offered a lengthy reply, which included declaring Operation Epic Fury official over.

“Secretary, on the rising oil and gas prices, the president has said that this is a small price to pay for getting rid of a nuclear weapon. But 10 weeks in, are we any closer to getting rid of Iran’s nuclear material?” Bruce asked Rubio, who was filling in for Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt while on maternity leave.

‘Yeah, but look, here’s the way to think about Iran. And this is what I described at the very beginning of this. What was Iran’s plan? You have to understand what their plan was. Their plan was that they were going to build this conventional shield where they would have so many thousands of missiles, drones, and rockets that they couldn’t be attacked,” Rubio replied, adding:

And behind that conventional shield that they were trying to build, they would then break out and do whatever they wanted with their nuclear program. They no longer have that conventional shield. We told you guys from the very beginning, and we’re very consistent in this messaging: the operation that has concluded was going to destroy their Navy. They have no Navy left. Not a navy. They have small boats in Boston, but they don’t have a Navy left.

They don’t have an Air Force. I challenge you: when is the last time you read or heard about an Iranian jet flying anywhere? They don’t have an air force. Their missile-launching capability has been substantially degraded, and their industrial base—their defense industrial base—has been severely, severely damaged. So their ability to build a shield behind which they could hide their nuclear program was wiped out. That’s a very substantial achievement, and that was the purpose of this operation from day one.

Why do you have to get their nuclear material in order for this war to end? Well, that’s one of the topics that needs to be discussed. I don’t know about—I think you’re linking it. The operation is over. Epic Fury, the president notified Congress. We’re done with that stage of it, okay?

We’re now on to this project of freedom. As far as the negotiation is concerned, I think the president’s been clear that part of the negotiation process has to be not just the enrichment, but what happens to this material that’s buried deep somewhere that they still have access to if they ever wanted to dig it out. That has to be addressed. And that’s being addressed in the negotiation. I’m not going to go further on what progress has been made on that topic because I don’t want to endanger the negotiations, but suffice it to say that the president and this entire team is aware of the centrality of that question, and that will have to be addressed one way or the other.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

The post ‘The Operation Is Over’: Marco Rubio Says Iran Conflict Moving Onto a New Phase first appeared on Mediaite.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed the press on Tuesday to focus on a key talking point about the Iran war, but admitted he can’t “tell you what to write.”

Rubio joined the White House press briefing room on Tuesday to give an update on the Iran war. The secretary of state announced that the U.S. military would be conducting non-offensive operations to rescue stranded ships in the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply moves through.

Amid a ceasefire, Iran has been targeting and charging tolls on ships using the Strait of Hormuz, something Rubio called for an immediate end to.

Rubo said on Tuesday that the goal of operations in the Strait is to “establish a zone of transit that is protected by a bubble, both naval and air assets, and then allow ships who want to move to move through there and get to market.”

The secretary called Iran’s current leadership “insane in the brain” and difficult to negotiate with. Rubio wrapped up his opening comments by stressing to the gathered reporters one particular point he feels be focused on above all else.

“Guys, again, if you take anything away today and I can’t tell you what to write, but Iran cannot be allowed to normalize this control,” he said. “It’s completely unlawful, illegal, it’s outrageous, and every country in the world should be joining us in condemning it and doing something about it but the United States has stepped up and is trying to do something.”

The secretary warned Iran that if they continue on the path they’re on they will face “economic collapse” and “growing isolation.”

“They really should not test the will of the United States, at least not under President Donald Trump,” Rubio said. “He has proven time and again that he will back up what he says and if they test him, ultimately they will lose, the hard way, the easy way, the long way, the short way, they will lose.”

Watch above via Fox News.

The post ‘I Can’t Tell You What to Write’: Marco Rubio Urges Press to Cover One Key Talking Point on Iran first appeared on Mediaite.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio asked LindellTV’s Cara Castronuova if her peers are mean to her during Tuesday afternoon’s White House press briefing.

After being called on, Castronuova introduced herself by both her name and her employer, and thanked Rubio for taking her question. As she began to ask it, chuckles could be heard throughout the room, causing Rubio to interrupt and ask, “What happened? Why is everyone giggling? What happened?”

Turning back to Castronuova, he asked, “Are they mean to you?”

“No, they’re not mean to me. I don’t think they are — I hope not,” she replied before getting back to her question, which was: “How does the State Department interpret the president’s recent remarks when he said, quote, ‘the Iranian people need to have guns, and I think they’re getting some guns,’ end quote. What did he mean, and do those comments relate to any ongoing or potential U.S. actions like supplying those weapons?”

“Well, I think it goes back to the question I was asked a moment ago. I think the president thinks it’s heartbreaking that the Iranian people are abused by this regime the way they are,” answered Rubio, who continued:

In the end, I mean, this regime is not-, guys, I know I’ve said this, I think I said this in my hearing before the Senate when I got confirmed: I don’t know of any country in the world where there’s a bigger difference between the people and the people who run the country. Okay? This country is run by radical Shia clerics. And that’s not what Iran and the Iranian people are. Now they may be Shia, but they’re not radicals, and they’re not clerics, and they just want a normal life and a regular life, and in many ways a very cosmopolitan country with an incredible history, incredible history and incredible legacy and the like.

So there’s this huge divide between the people of Iran whom we sympathize with — and who the president sympathizes with, because they’re the ones suffering. Look, the world is a victim of Iran, okay? The world is a victim of Iranian because they are terrorists, because of what they’re doing now in the strait. But the people of Iran are daily victims of the regime, and the president has deep sympathy for what they are going through. And I think he’s just expressing that sympathy and that frustration that they don’t have the ability to do more to get rid of this regime that has crushed this country and isolated it from the world, which is a country that shouldn’t be isolated from the world, because its people are phenomenal.

Watch above via Fox News.

The post ‘Are They Mean to You?’ Marco Rubio Asks LindellTV Reporter if Her Peers Bully Her After Room Erupts in Laughter first appeared on Mediaite.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio jested with reporters during a press conference Monday afternoon as he jokingly asked, “Do they get two questions?”

Rubio held a White House press briefing — his first as he fills in for Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

As he adapted to the new role, Rubio worked to navigate the press and determine which reporters to call on.

“All right, can I — there’s no way I can figure out who to call on,” he said as he pointed to the center of the room. “I’m just going to, like, press right in the middle. Right there. You right there? Yeah, in the back row.”

The reporter accidentally misspoke, saying, “Thank you, Mr. President,” before quickly correcting himself, “Thank you. Secretary Rubio. Welcome to the White House.”

“I have two questions on two separate issues—” began Gray Television correspondent John Decker as Rubio looked over to the side and jested about the quantity of questions.

“Do they get two questions for these?” he jested. “I thought it was one. There’s a lot of people in here, man.”

Rubio joked that Decker could ask him two questions, and “I’ll pick the one I like better” to answer.

Decker proceeded to ask both questions.

“The first has to do with the blockade: There are lawmakers from both parties who claim the blockade is an act of war,” he said. “What do you say to that? And my second question has to do with the fuel embargo of Cuba: How long, Mr. Secretary, will that last?”

Rubio changed his mind about only answering one question.

“Okay, two things,” he said with a smile. “Alright. Good. I’ll answer both your questions, because I like the second one, too.”

“We have a blockade because they shut down the straits,” Rubio said as he began answering the questions. “So I don’t know which members of Congress you’re talking to, but here’s what I would ask them, I would ask everybody here, it’s very simple: These guys have shutdown the Straits of Hormuz. This is what Iran is saying: We will shut down the straits. No one can go through. No country in the world can go through unless we allow you to go through, and you have to pay us, but our ships can go through, meaning the Iranian ships, as much as they want. That’s crazy. Who would agree to that?”

Watch above via CNN.

The post ‘Do They Get Two Questions?’ Marco Rubio Jests With Reporters As He Briefly Steps Into Press Secretary Role first appeared on Mediaite.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio hammered Cuba’s leadership for being a bunch of “incompetent communists” who have run the island into the ground with their economic policies.

Rubio went off on Cuba while filling in for White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday.

“Their economic model doesn’t work. Doesn’t work. And the people who are in charge can’t fix it. And the reason they can’t fix it is not just because they’re communist — that’s bad enough — but they’re incompetent communists,” Rubio said. The only thing worse than a communist is an incompetent one.”

That was part of a lengthy answer after Gray Television correspondent John Decker asked how long the “fuel embargo” on Cuba will last.

The secretary of state said there was “no oil blockade on Cuba, per se,” but that the country had stopped receiving free oil from Venezuela after President Donald Trump’s mission that kidnapped Nicolas Maduro earlier this year.

Rubio said Cuba’s leadership was so cash-strapped that it would take about 60% of the free Venezuelan oil and sell it. That isn’t happening anymore — and has put Cuba in spiral towards complete economic collapse, he said.

“The Venezuelans have decided we’re not giving you free oil anymore,” Rubio said. “And you can only imagine nowadays, the way oil prices are, no one’s giving away free oil — much less to a failed regime.”

His answer comes as Trump has said he plans on revamping the Caribbean island following the Iran war. Trump said in March he will soon “be having the honor of taking Cuba.”

“Whether I free it, take it. I think I can do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth,” Trump told Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy. “They are a very weakened nation.”

More recently, Trump slapped new sanctions on Cuba. He also said last week the U.S. will be taking over Cuba “almost immediately,” but that he wants to “finish” the Iran “job” first.

Watch above via CNN.

The post ‘Incompetent Communists’: Marco Rubio Hammers Cuba’s Leadership Amid Trump’s Takeover Threat first appeared on Mediaite.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Iran not to “test the will” of President Donald Trump, promising “growing isolation” and “economic collapse” if they continue attacks and charging tolls for cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Rubio joined the White House press briefing room on Tuesday to give an update on the Iran war, where he explained the U.S. Navy will be helping to guide stranded ships out of the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply moves through. Rubio blasted Iran for targeting ships and charging them tolls amid a ceasefire. He also stressed rescuing stranded ships is not an “offensive” operation.

He said during his opening remarks:

The time has come for Iran to make a sensible choice and it’s not easy for them to do that obviously because they have a fracture in their own leadership system and apart from that the top people in that government are, to say the least, are insane in the brain. We need to address that and it’s difficult because it’s hard to get past that in their system but it’s important for them to make a sensible choice on the one right for the people. Our president has proven time and again that his preference is peace but Iran must accept the reality of the situation and come to the negotiation table and accept terms that are good for them but ultimately good for the world.

Rubio warned Iran not to “test the will” of the United States under President Trump.

“The last point I would make, and it really is important for them to understand this, they really should not test the will of the United States, at least not under President Donald Trump,” the secretary said. “He has proven time and again that he will back up what he says and if they test him, ultimately they will lose, the hard way, the easy way, the long way, the short way, they will lose.”

Watch above via Fox News.

The post Marco Rubio Warns Iran Not to ‘Test the Will’ of Trump During Lengthy War Update In Briefing Room first appeared on Mediaite.

(Photo by Andrew Leyden/NurPhoto via AP)

A man working as a mechanical engineer for the Federal Aviation Administration was charged with threatening President Donald Trump on Tuesday after sending an email to the White House claiming he was going to “neutralize/kill” Trump over the Iran war.

The 35-year-old suspect from New Hampshire is named Dean DelleChiaie. He worked as a contractor for the FAA before being arrested on Monday and charged with sending a threatening email.

“I, Dean DelleChiaie, am going neutralize/kill you – Donald John Trump – because you decided to kill kids – and say that it was War – when in reality – it is terrorism,” DelleChiaie allegedly wrote on April 21. “God knows your actions and where you belong.”

He sent that message three months after DelleChiaie allegedly searched the phrase, “I am going to kill Donald John Trump” on his government-issued work computer.

CBS News reported on Tuesday:

A Secret Service agent and a Nashua police officer interviewed DelleChiaie at his apartment on Feb. 3. He allegedly admitted to conducting the searches.

“DELLECHIAIE stated he realized he should not search these subjects and that it was crazy for him to do this on his work computer,” the affidavit stated. “DELLECHIAIE expressed, in substance, that what motivated him to conduct these searches was that he upset with the current administration based on multiple subjects, including the election, presidential pardons, and the ‘Epstein files.'”

A Secret Service agent said he also researched how to sneak a gun into a federal facility, as well as previous assassination attempts against Trump. DelleChiaie also searched for details on Vice President JD Vance’s family and the family of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

He was charged with interstate communication of a threat against the president; Dellachiaie was in federal court on Tuesday and faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

His arrest comes after a gunman attempted to murder Trump and several members of his administration at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25. It was the third known assassination attempt against Trump since 2024, including the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania and the attempted killing at Trump’s Florida golf course a few months later.

Cole Tomas Allen — the 31-year-old suspected WHCD shooter — appeared to have been motivated by conspiracy theories about Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. He wrote in his manifesto that Trump was a “pedophile” and “rapist” who needed to be killed.

The post FAA Employee Charged With Threatening President After Searching ‘I Am Going to Kill Donald John Trump’ on Government Computer first appeared on Mediaite.

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

President Donald Trump’s Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the city of Denver, Colorado on Tuesday, claiming the city “unconstitutionally bans certain constitutionally protected semi-automatic rifles.”

“The Constitution is not a suggestion and the Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement about the suit, adding, “Denver’s ban on commonly owned semi-automatic rifles directly violates the right to bear arms. This Department of Justice will vigorously defend the liberties of law-abiding citizens nationwide.”

The Denver area has been plagued by some of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, beginning in 1999 with the Columbine High School massacre. In April of 2025, Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed into law one of the strictest gun control regulations in the country. “Under the new law, it is illegal to buy, sell and make most semi-automatic firearms without background checks and training,” reported CBS News at the time, which noted Republicans planned to immediately challenge the law in court.

Both Polis and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston (D) have rejected pressure from the Trump administration to roll back the state’s gun laws. On Monday, Johnson responded to a Trump admin ultimatum to move to repeal the laws or face a lawsuit by saying, “We’re here today to let them know that our answer is hell no.”

Johnston also brought up the state’s dark history with mass shootings in pushing back against the Trump administration, arguing that Coloradoans overwhelmingly want action against assault weapons.

The DOJ’s statement on its lawsuit declared, “These laws unconstitutionally infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms in common use for lawful purposes.” The statement added:

As the complaint explains, the City enforces an ordinance that makes it a crime to possess so-called “assault weapons.” But that the City’s ban includes AR-15-style rifles, which are the most popular rifles in America. Law-abiding Americans own tens of millions of rifles like those banned by the City.

“The Civil Rights Division’s Second Amendment Section enforces the Second Amendment. If you believe your right to keep and bear arms is being infringed, please submit a complaint,” concluded the DOJ, soliciting requests from citizens to join their legal efforts.

The post Trump DOJ Sues to Overturn Assault Weapons Ban In City Plagued By Mass Shootings first appeared on Mediaite.