Trump officials' cell phone habits made them vulnerable to 'unhinged' spying campaign: NYT

Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, January 22, 2026. 

Sputnik/Alexander Kazakov/Pool 

David McAfee
June 6, 2026 

RAW STORY

The New York Times on Saturday added significant new detail to a bombshell report first published by NBC News — and covered by Raw Story — revealing that the Pentagon has raised its counterintelligence threat assessment for Israel to "critical," its highest level.

The most striking addition: a senior U.S. official's characterization of what Israel has been doing. The aggressiveness of Israeli intelligence collection on top Trump administration officials, the official told the Times, has been "unhinged."

The Times also identified the specific American officials Israel is believed to have targeted: Steve Witkoff, Trump's chief Iran negotiator; Elbridge A. Colby, the Pentagon's top policy official; and Colby's deputy for Middle East policy, Michael P. DiMino IV.

The paper also reports American personnel in Israel found that software to intercept their communications had been installed on their phones.

That last detail underscores what officials described as a self-inflicted vulnerability. Senior Trump officials have routinely conducted national security business on personal cellphones, flown on private aircraft, and declined embassy staffing support abroad — habits that make them easy targets, according to the new report.

"The tendency of some senior Trump administration officials to fly on private aircraft, to conduct national security business on their personal phones and to reject staffing from U.S. embassies abroad made them especially vulnerable targets," a former senior official told the Times.

"Other current officials also acknowledged the use of personal cellphones by top American officials have made them easy targets for eavesdropping," the Times states.

Israel's threat designation now stands higher than any other U.S. ally and higher than some adversaries, the report notes. The Pentagon declined to comment. The White House called the account false. Israel's embassy said Israel "does not gather intelligence on American entities, let alone U.S. government officials."

ALBANIA

Foreign leader's excuse for hysteria 

PROTESTS spurred by Ivanka Trump raises eyebrows: report

Bennito L. Kelty
June 6, 2026 
RAW STORY


Protesters take part in a protest against a luxury resort plan by a company linked to U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, on an environmentally sensitive part of the Adriatic coast, in Tirana, Albania, June 6, 2026. REUTERS/Florion Goga

A foreign leader's excuse for outrage caused by Ivanka Trump is raising eyebrows and doubt, according to reporting by The Daily Beast.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama went to X to attack "all the endless media outlets" covering the hysteria over a luxury resort planned by Ivanka and Jared Kushner.

"Today's protest has drawn roughly 2,000 participants," Rama said. "It is the lowest turnout so far, but even at its peak, participation never exceeded 8,000 people."

However, protests have been taking place across Albania all week, the Daily Beast noted, as people decry the potential harm to the Balkan country's natural landscape.

Ivanka wants to develop a $1.4 billion resort on one of the country's uninhabited islands, Sazan, and develop hotels along a wildlife-rich coastline, the Daily Beast reported.

"How is it that what much of the world has seen over the past days appears so enormous, so dramatic, so overwhelming?" Rama asked in his post. "How could a tiny country become global news for reasons so disconnected from the reality on the ground?"

The real cage fight MAGA's going crazy for

Nick Anderson. 

Raw Story
June 4, 2026



Nick Anderson/Raw Story

Nick Anderson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist.

Chris Hayes says vulnerable GOP senator got 'sham vote' to look independent against Trump

Matthew Chapman
June 5, 2026 

RAW STORY


U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) speaks on behalf of one of U.S. President Donald Trump's judicial nominees during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 30, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz


Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner has endured a brutal week of reporting on his personal history and unsavory interactions with women — issues that have left many people wringing their hands over the state of the race. However, MS NOW's Chris Hayes, who interviewed Platner earlier in the week, noted that Maine voters on the street largely seem unfazed.

Part of the reason, he suggested, is that there is genuine disgust with longtime GOP incumbent Susan Collins — despite their "reservations about his character."

"A lot of them ... really do not want to send Susan Collins back to the Senate," said Hayes. For all her posturing over the years as a dealmaker and moderate, she "is really a party line Republican" and "a rubber stamp for the Trump agenda during both terms."

"I also think Senate Republicans realize she's in trouble, right?" he continued. "I mean, this is a state that Donald Trump has lost three times. She managed to win in 2020, but she's got a real tough road ahead of her."

Because they realize she's in trouble, he continued, they organized a "sham vote" in the reconciliation bill for an amendment to formally restrict President Donald Trump's $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization" slush fund — and while the GOP voted it down, Collins and two other vulnerable Republicans were allowed to vote against it.

"Everyone knew that it was doomed to fail from the beginning," said Hayes, because Republicans would not let such a huge rebuke to Trump pass, even though his Justice Department is now claiming the fund won't go forward anyway. "They don't actually want to bar your money from being stolen from the government to pay off cop-beaters and seditionists. And so what they do is Collins gets to pretend to be independent when the stakes don't actually matter."

When they do, though, said Hayes, Collins reliably joins the party line — most famously being "the key vote to get Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court" while falsely assuring voters he would never restrict abortion rights.

I LOVE YOU, SIR

Latest Trump retreat leaves Todd Blanche holding the bag as he faces disbarment: analyst

David McAfee
June 7, 2026

RAW STORY


Former U.S. President Trump walks alongside his attorney Todd Blanche in New York, New York, U.S., 30 May 2024. Mark Peterson/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

President Donald Trump's decision to abandon his $1.8 billion IRS settlement didn't defuse the legal crisis surrounding it — it just shifted the target, according to a federal trial attorney who has been tracking the case.

Sabrina Haake, a 25-year federal litigator and political analyst who writes the Substack newsletter The Haake Take, argues that Trump dropped the so-called anti-weaponization fund not because of political pressure ahead of the midterms, but to avoid forcing the appointment of a third attorney general. The real threat, she writes, came from an extraordinary intervention by 35 retired federal judges.

On May 27, those judges — spanning both parties — filed a motion to reopen Trump's IRS case on suspicion of fraud against the court. Their motion accused the Department of Justice of deceiving U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams by announcing a settlement publicly without notifying the court, then using that settlement as legal justification for transferring $1.776 billion in taxpayer money to Trump, his family, and his businesses while purporting to release all federal claims against them.

The judges called it "most egregious conduct involving a corruption of the judicial process itself," writing that the parties "used the proceedings before this Court as a legal pretext" while working to prevent the court from determining whether a legitimate case even existed. If Trump controlled both sides of the same case and personally profited from the outcome, the judges reasoned, there was no legal controversy — only theft.

At the center of it all is Attorney General Todd Blanche. Haake notes that Blanche moved to dismiss the case two days before a brief outlining the court's jurisdiction was due, and that he failed to assert basic defenses the DOJ was legally obligated to raise — defenses the department had previously asserted in a nearly identical prior case involving the same IRS contractor. His failure to mount any defense at all, the judges wrote, "only emphasizes the fraudulent nature of the settlement reached here" and "strengthens the conclusion that the litigation was collusive from the start."

Judge Williams ordered the DOJ to respond to the fraud accusations by June 14. Blanche will be editing that brief knowing that in New York, where he is licensed to practice law, committing a fraud upon the court is considered grounds for immediate suspension or permanent disbarment, according to Haake.

Stripping the larceny from the equation, Haake concludes, does nothing to resolve the underlying fraud finding. The money may be off the table. The judges' accusations are not.

'Newsflash— it's not working': MS NOW dumps more bad news in Trump's lap

Bennito L. Kelty
June 6, 2026 

RAW STORY



Reporter Jake Traylor slammed Trump's attempted 'distraction' from an ongoing affordability crisis (MSNOW/screenshot)

Trump sees his slate of D.C. vanity projects a "welcome distraction" from an ongoing affordability crisis, but MS NOW slammed the idea.

"Newsflash, it's not working," MS NOW reporter Jake Traylor said.

Traylor quoted a former White House official who said that Trump saw his reflecting pool, various fountains, and other projects as "a welcome distraction" from the ongoing war in Iran and an affordability crisis in the United States.

However, Traylor pointed to new polling that shows a meager 28 percent approval rating for the White House ballroom, a 21 percent approval rating for the triumphal arch, and 12 percent approval for putting his name on a $250 bill.

"Americans are not getting on board with this distraction," Traylor said. "Even if it is something that's working in the president's mind right now."

Military vet files federal lawsuit to stop 'deeply corrupt' White House UFC plan

David McAfee
June 7, 2026 

RAW STORY


A section of the UFC Freedom 250 stage during assembly on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 25, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard


A Virginia political organizer and a military veteran filed a federal lawsuit Sunday seeking a court order to halt UFC Freedom 250, the upcoming mixed martial arts event planned for the White House South Lawn and Lincoln Memorial on June 14 — a date that is simultaneously the 250th anniversary of American independence and Donald Trump's 80th birthday.

The suit, reported by CBS News congressional correspondent Scott MacFarlane, calls the arrangement a corrupt transfer of public resources to a private business ally. "This plan is deeply corrupt," the complaint states. "The President is giving White and his company what none have enjoyed before: unfettered access to the White House and Lincoln Memorial to stage a private, for-profit sports event, with all the promotional and branding opportunities that accompany such access."

Dana White, the UFC's chief executive and a close Trump friend and ally, has publicly framed the event as a celebration of America's semiquincentennial. But the lawsuit notes that White has also admitted the event "was Trump's idea," and argues that UFC Freedom 250 is in reality "a celebration of the UFC's brand and the 80th anniversary of Donald Trump's birth" — and therefore does not qualify for the special permits that allow use of national monumental grounds.

Federal law tightly restricts private use of the South Lawn and Lincoln Memorial, both of which are national parklands administered by the National Park Service. Under the NPS's standard permitting regime, no special events of any kind, including sporting events, may be held on the South Lawn.

The physical footprint of the event is itself a subject of the lawsuit. The UFC has erected a 92-foot-tall, 600-ton steel structure on the South Lawn it calls "the Claw," which the suit says is "destroying much of the South Lawn in the process." Any structure on national monumental grounds, the complaint argues, must be expressly authorized by Congress and undergo a full National Environmental Policy Act review.

The commercial stakes are not being hidden. One UFC executive recently called the event "the greatest earned-marketing tool of all time." VIP packages are being sold for between $1 million and $1.5 million per head. Sponsors including Singaporean cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com are among those with a financial interest in the event.

Trump has not indicated any intention to scale it back. In a TikTok video, he suggested the Claw might "never" be taken down, comparing it to the Eiffel Tower. "It was supposed to be taken down immediately after the World's Fair," Trump said of the Paris landmark, "and then they said, you know, we sort of like it."

Trump's big promise to financially 'benefit' Americans implodes in real time: report

Alexander Willis
June 7, 2026

RAW STORY



U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as he signs an executive order recommending loosening the federal regulations on marijuana, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 18, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

President Donald Trump vowed back in January that his administration’s takeover of Venezuela would “benefit” Americans, and yet, just over six months later, that promise appears to be imploding after key players have reportedly gotten cold feet, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

In the immediate aftermath of the unprecedented U.S. attack on Venezuela earlier this year, the Trump administration took control of the nation’s oil revenue, which Trump claimed at the time would be “used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States.” The Trump administration had hoped U.S. companies would invest $100 billion into the South American nation’s energy infrastructure.

“But businesses don’t want to spend big on capital-intensive projects to extract heavy crude, which take decades to pay off, if there’s a high chance the government will backslide,” the Post’s report reads.

“ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance said recently that Venezuela has ‘a lot more work to do on their side of the equation.’ He said the overhaul of the hydrocarbon law was insufficient ‘to attract a whole lot of investment’ because it could amount to a ‘95 percent government take.’ Chevron CEO Mike Wirth has expressed similar sentiments.”

The Trump administration was recently in hot water over its handling of Venezuela’s oil revenue. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) pressed Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week during a congressional hearing on whether the administration was concealing lucrative private contracts related to Venezuela’s oil.

“The Venezuelan government’s illegitimacy raises the risk of investing capital,” the Post’s report reads. “Once real elections are held, U.S. companies will gain a clearer sense of whether it’s worth pouring in money.”

Even Elon Musk in disbelief over 'unprecedented' GOP proposal: 'Is this accurate?'

“fuse the U.S. and Israeli defense sectors in multiple areas” in an “unprecedented” manner

Alexander Willis
June 7, 2026 

RAW STORY

Elon Musk shows a bruised eye that Musk claimed he received at the hands of his son, X Æ A-12, as he attends a press conference with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 30, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Tesla CEO and Trump administration ally Elon Musk expressed disbelief Saturday regarding a GOP proposal to reshape the U.S. military in an “unprecedented” fashion, going as far as to flag his own generative artificial intelligence chatbot for verification.

“Congress is hiding the U.S.-Israel military relationship in the defense bill,” wrote Democratic congressional candidate Ethan Wechtaluk in a social media post on X. “There is a second bill that goes further. It makes it law that a president can't pull intelligence sharing back without clearing a legal hurdle, even if you elect one who wants to.”

Wechtaluk was referring to a provision buried within the House Republicans’ defense budget proposal for fiscal year 2027, a memorandum that would “fuse the U.S. and Israeli defense sectors in multiple areas” in an “unprecedented” manner and integrate the Israeli military with the United States’ more so than “with any other country in the world,” the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft reported recently.

Wechtaluk also flagged a separate bill sponsored by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) that would prohibit the United States from suspending, reducing or limiting aspects of U.S.-Israeli intelligence and security cooperation arrangements “except on the basis of a specific and identifiable national security concern determined by the President.”

Musk, who spent $290 million “of his own money” to support President Donald Trump and Republicans in 2024 – and at least another $73 million in 2025 – appeared to be in disbelief at Wechtaluk’s claim.

“Is this accurate?” Musk wrote in a response to Wechtaluk’s social media post, while also tagging his own chatbot known as Grok.

“Yes, accurate on the key facts,” reads the written response from the Grok chatbot.

Trump interview disrupted multiple times in what journalist labels divine intervention

Alexander Willis
June 7, 2026
RAW STORY


U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as he speaks to members of the media on board Air Force One while flying from Joint Base Andrews to Chippewa Valley Regional Airport in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, U.S., June 5, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

In a pre-recorded interview between President Donald Trump and NBC News’ Kristen Welker that aired on Sunday, a severe downpour of rain disrupted discussions multiple times in what one independent journalist characterized as a form of divine intervention.

Trump was mid-sentence discussing "tractors" and "digging mechanisms" when an audible downpour outside the building drew his attention away from the interview, held at Custer Farms in Wisconsin.

“Is that wind, or what?” Trump asked, abruptly pivoting from his remarks. “What is that?”

A voice off camera – presumably a staffer at NBC News – confirmed the sound was due to rain.

“This would be the first of multiple interruptions due to the weather,” Welker said in a narration recorded after the interview concluded. “Rain, hitting the metal roof, making it difficult for both of us to hear each other.”

Independent journalist Aaron Rupar, who’s been labeled by The Times as “the man who watches Trump all day, every day,” characterized the multiple disruptions as a potential message from beyond.

“The big guy upstairs wasn't pleased with this interview,” Rupar wrote in a social media post on X to his more than 1.1 million followers.

After the disruption, Welker moved to get the interview back on track.

“So as we’re having this conversation we can hear a little bit of rain,” she said.

“No, a lot of rain!” Trump quipped as he began to smile.

'Hoo boy': Pete Hegseth slammed by both sides after 'huge own goal' offends Christian sect

David McAfee
June 6, 2026 

RAW STORY



Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (not pictured) in the Cabinet Room at the White House, in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 20, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Pete Hegseth's decision to strip the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of its Christian designation in the Pentagon's new religion classification system has ignited a rare cross-aisle pile-on, with Republican lawmakers, conservative commentators and Democratic senators lining up to call it a mistake.

As Raw Story reported, Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) moved quickly Saturday to condemn the change as "unacceptable," saying he was working to reverse it. He wasn't alone.

Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-UT) — a Utah Republican congresswoman — stopped short of criticizing Hegseth directly but made clear where she stood on the underlying question. "Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are Christians," she wrote on X. "We worship Jesus Christ, strive to follow His teachings, and His name is even in the name of our Church. Just last year, President Trump himself recognized Latter-day Saints as Christians." She said she looked forward to "conversations that will ensure all service members receive the religious support and First Amendment protections they deserve."

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), whose handle is @BasedMikeLee, kept it simple: "Can anyone tell me why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was left out of the list of Christian churches?"

The answer, based on the list published by Hegseth's office, is that the Pentagon placed LDS in its own standalone category — "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (CJ)" — separate from the two dozen denominations listed under the "Christian" umbrella.

Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a prominent conservative commentator, said Hegseth shot himself in the foot: "Failing to characterize Mormons as Christians is a huge own goal by Hegseth."

The backlash wasn't limited to the right. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) — an Arizona Democrat whose state has a significant LDS population — replied directly to Lee: "I don't know why but I am with you. This needs to be fixed ASAP."

Not everyone was displeased. Milo Yiannopoulos, the far-right provocateur who goes by @Nero on X, used the moment to attack the LDS church itself. "It's not a religion. It's certainly not Christian," he wrote. "LDS is referred to by academics as a 'new religious movement,' polite sociological jargon for cult." RedState writer Bonchie offered a more succinct assessment of the situation: "Hoo boy."

The classification overhaul was announced by Sean Parnell, Hegseth's assistant for public affairs, who framed the reduction from more than 200 categories to 31 as a streamlining effort to help "religious support personnel" provide "spiritual care to our warfighters." Whether it accomplishes that — or simply hands Hegseth's critics a gift — is now a matter of bipartisan consensus.

Hegseth hammered for his 'disrespectful' D-Day speech in Normandy: 'Shameless'

"Why did he construct an analogy in which he is on the side of the Nazis?"

David McAfee
June 7, 2026

RAW STORY

WILDROOT OR BRYLCREME?!

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Department of Defense's FY27 budget request on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on April 29, 2026. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used the 82nd anniversary of D-Day to compare migrants crossing the Mediterranean to the Nazi invasion of Europe — and the backlash was immediate and bipartisan.

Speaking at the Normandy ceremony, Hegseth departed from solemn remembrance to deliver an anti-immigration political statement. "Sadly, today different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies," he said. "In Spain and Italy and Greece and Bulgaria, boats and men arrive. When will European capitals do something about that invasion? Or is it too late?"

Greg Bagwell, a retired British Air Marshal and former senior RAF commander, was among the first to respond. "The commemoration of the bravery, tragedy and importance of D-Day is not ever the place to try and score cheap political points. What an ignorant and disrespectful dumba--."

Tom Nichols, a national security expert and staff writer at The Atlantic, noted a glaring historical problem with Hegseth's framing — one that multiple people picked up on. "Making an analogy where the West is the defender of the beaches — you know, where the Nazis were — is not the smartest speechifying," Nichols wrote, "even for the man some inside the Pentagon refer to as 'Dumb McNamara.'" His post was reposted by former Republican congresswoman Barbara Comstock.

Reed Galen, a Republican strategist and co-founder of the Lincoln Project, was less clinical about it. "If you've been to the American Military Cemetery in Normandy, and you've looked out over those rows of crosses and stars of David, you'll know how odious this man is," he wrote. "Those men didn't die for this ideology or a------- like Pete Hegseth."

British attorney Jessica Simor pointed to Hegseth's "Deus Vult" tattoo — the 1095 Crusader rallying cry of Pope Urban II to expel Muslims from Jerusalem, which has since been adopted as a symbol by far-right extremists. "As a far-right Christian nationalist, likely of the kind that favoured the Final Solution, he should have been banned," she wrote.

Political commentator Anna Neumann put it plainly: "The heroes of Normandy deserve remembrance, gratitude and humility. Using D-Day commemorations as a platform for culture-war politics is shameless."

Occupy Democrats noted the core absurdity: Hegseth had compared migrant boats to the Allied invasion — placing Europe's governments in the rhetorical position of the forces that were trying to stop it.

Tim Kaine also weighed in, saying, "Apparently our nitwit Secretary of War(drobe) thinks a D-Day commemoration is an appropriate time to push his far right ideology in Europe."

Podcast host Matthew Yglesias chimed in with a question:

"Why did he construct an analogy in which he is on the side of the Nazis?"