'Send in the Clowns': Viral video fuels claims Denmark trolled Trump and Rubio
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Cover image: TRUTH OR FAKE © FRANCE 24

Issued on: 24/09/2026 
04:25 min


A viral video claims Danish officials played Judy Collins's "Send in the Clowns" as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived for a Greenland signing ceremony, sparking claims of Danish "trolling". Our checks of separate livestreams confirm the song really played and the video was not manipulated. Denmark has denied choosing the music, while the UN says it did not organise the event. Whilst the song was real, there is no evidence Denmark selected it deliberately. Vedika Bahl fact-checks.


On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the United States, Denmark and Greenland signed a deal on Tuesday to expand Washington's military presence in Greenland. The agreement came after months of diplomatic tensions over the Arctic territory, with Denmark also seeking to reaffirm its control over the island.

But an unusual song played before the signing has sparked a wave of speculation online.

A video circulating widely on social media claims Danish officials deliberately played Judy Collins's version of the classic Broadway song "Send in the Clowns" as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived.

The clip has amassed more than a million views in a single post on X, with the footage also widely shared on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Instagram.
The song's lyrics include the line: "Where are the clowns? Send in the clowns. Don't bother, they're here."

Social media users quickly interpreted the music as a deliberate dig at the US delegation, with some praising Denmark for what they described as "epic trolling". Others questioned whether the footage was genuine, while some went further, sharing AI-generated images depicting members of the US delegation as clowns.

The speculation raised a key question: did the song actually play at the ceremony, and if so, was it deliberately chosen by Denmark?

We checked footage from multiple livestreams of the event.

The original viral video carries the watermark of US-based outlet MAGNO News. In its Facebook livestream, just before the 11-minute mark, Rubio and other delegates can be seen entering as "Send in the Clowns" plays in the background. The Guardian's livestream, filmed from a different angle, also captures the same song playing as the delegates arrive.

The evidence therefore confirms that the song really was played. There is also no indication that the viral footage was manipulated, but there's also no evidence that Denmark selected it.

Whilst the song played as Rubio entered, the ministers for Denmark and Greenland entered along with him. If this was an attempt to "troll" a particular nation or send a message, it didn't go quite as intended as all countries' representatives entered together.

A spokesperson for Denmark's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Denmark was "not involved in selecting the music for the signing".

Fact-checking outlet Lead Stories also contacted the United Nations. The spokesperson for the UN secretary general directed the outlet to the US mission, saying it had not organised the event.

It's possible the song was played by coincidence or accident, rather than as a deliberate message to any one country.

So while "Send in the Clowns" was genuinely playing before the signing of the Greenland deal began, the claim that Denmark deliberately selected it to mock the US delegation remains unsubstantiated.

BY: Vedika BAHL

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WSJ editors bury Hegseth for bizarrely offensive 'weirdo' speech: 'Has he met anyone?'

Matthew Chapman
October 1, 2026 

RAW STORY


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


The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board had scorn for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's bizarre speech boasting about how his military only had "warriors," rather than "beardos," "weirdos," or slurs for transgender people.

Hegseth, wrote the board, "rolled out several good U.S. military initiatives on Wednesday, and usually the purpose of big speeches is to persuade the public of worthy ideas. Yet Mr. Hegseth seems determined to shrink his support with gratuitous potshots, and that bears on whether the Administration can boost recruitment or confront new technology in warfare."

Many of the things Hegseth talked about are decent, the board wrote, like a program for recruiting officers out of schools — even if the focus is intensely on right-wing schools like Liberty University and Hillsdale College — as well as plans to establish a four-star command for autonomous weaponry.

However, the board said, Hegseth "couldn’t resist his usual polarizing attack routine against all and sundry, and he even accused the press of 'treason' for publishing what’s leaking out of the secretary’s shop. The most remembered line of the speech will be Mr. Hegseth’s declaration that the U.S. military no longer abides 'beardos' or 'weirdos.' As a practical matter, has he met anyone in defense technology lately?"

The fact is, said the board, "voters wanted the Trump Administration to restore and protect the military’s meritocracy, after race and identity excesses in the Biden Administration," something Hegseth promises to do, but now "his shoot-first firings of general officers have exasperated even some Republican Members of Congress, and the public is losing confidence in the project as it descends into debates about testosterone levels."

Ultimately, the board concluded, "Mr. Hegseth relishes attacking opponents, and even sometimes allies, as if he’s running a political campaign. But he’s a cabinet officer who needs allies to achieve his military goals."

Hegseth mocked for 'not achieving full extension' after speech about troop fitness

Erik De La Garza
September 30, 2026 

RAW STORY

Kasie Hunt and retired Army Lt. Gen. Karen Gibson on "The Arena." (Screengrab via CNN)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s fixation on military fitness became a punchline when a retired lieutenant general was asked to evaluate his own workout form.

CNN’s Kasie Hunt noted Wednesday that Hegseth has repeatedly stressed physical fitness standards and cited an assessment in The Atlantic that described his push-ups as more like “half-ups.”

Hunt then played several clips of Hegseth working out on camera and asked retired Army Lt. Gen. Karen Gibson whether he was performing the exercises correctly.

“The kettlebell, not so much,” Hunt joked as laughter broke out on the CNN set of her show, “The Arena.”

“The pull-up is like this, not like this. Yes? No?” Hunt asked while mimicking the movement.


Gibson agreed that Hegseth’s form appeared incomplete.


“Well, he’s not achieving full extension of his arms or the joint there,” she said.

But Gibson quickly shifted to a broader point about Hegseth’s emphasis on physical fitness.

“I think every soldier should be fit. That’s really important,” she said. “But his fixation on some specific exercises is not the quality that makes the U.S. military so incredibly lethal and powerful.”


“There are lots of other things that make a good soldier,” Gibson added.

Alarm as Hegseth gives mega MAGA donors a say in future of warfare: 'Feels different now'

Robert Davis
October 1, 2026 
RAW STORY


FILE PHOTO: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shakes hands with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff US Air Force General Dan Caine as he returns to his seat after his remarks at a ceremony in remembrance of US military prisoners of war and those missing in action (POW/MIA) at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., US, September 18, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth alarmed some analysts Thursday after he announced he was inviting a few private citizens to collaborate with the Defense Department on the future of warfare.

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, and Palmer Luckey, founder of drone company Anduril, have been given advisory roles in a Pentagon project about the future of war, The Guardian reported. The project, known as “Project Meridian," seeks to develop new weapons of war for different terrain ranging from outer space to subterranean.

The inclusion of private citizens in defense contracting is nothing new, but Brendan Glavin at Open Secrets noted in the report that the motley crew Hegseth has gathered raises some important questions.

“Bringing major industry players into these types of positions at the Pentagon is not something new, but what feels different now is the substantial financial support these two have, and continue to, deliver for the Republican Party,” Glavin told The Guardian.

Musk was one of the largest donors to President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign, spending an estimated $250 million to help elect the president. Musk's companies have also been deeply wedded to some of the Trump administration's pet projects, such as the Department of Government Efficiency and the so-called "golden dome" missile defense project.

Luckey's company is also supported by the venture capital firm run by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, according to the report.

Luckey has also been dubbed the "godfather of Republican fundraising on the West Coast," according to the report.

"Invitations to political fundraisers obtained by the Guardian show Luckey hosted and co-hosted events for candidates from Trump himself to Ken Calvert, Rick Scott, Mehmet Oz, Ted Cruz and others. The most recent event was on 22 August, where he and his wife co-hosted a $50,000-a-head effort to 'Keep the Senate,' and listing guests John Thune of South Dakota, Mike Rogers of Michigan, Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Jon Husted of Ohio," the report reads in part.

‘Best Minds’? Hegseth Taps Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey, and Newt Gingrich to Lead ‘Future of Warfare’ Project

“A board loaded with defense contractors and one draft-dodging war hawk will decide the future of the US military,” said one observer. “What could possibly go wrong?”

Palmer Luckey (left), Newt Gingrich (center), and Elon Musk (right) look on during US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s “State of the Force” speech—in which the trio was announced as leaders of the “future of warfare” initiative—at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia on September 30, 2026.
(Photo by Sean Parnell/X)

Brett Wilkins
Sep 30, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday that three men—none of whom have served in the military and two who make billions of dollars from it—will help lead a new Pentagon project on the “future of warfare,” even as he moves to eliminate hundreds of senior armed service leadership position, including many generals and admirals.

Hegseth unveiled Project Meridian during his “State of the Force” address at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. The 120-day initiative will examine emerging technologies that the Department of Defense believes will be critical in future warfare.

“America’s best minds” will be brought together to “reimagine what warfare will look like in the future,” Hegseth said.

To that end, the defense secretary said that “Project Meridian will be co-led by three of our nation’s best minds, Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey, and Newt Gingrich.”




Musk, the world’s wealthiest human, is already deeply involved in US national security infrastructure through SpaceX—the recipient of billions of dollars in Pentagon contracts—and other businesses. He was previously part of the administration as the de facto leader of the Department of Government Efficiency.

Luckey, who like Musk is a major Trump donor, is the co-founder of defense technology company Anduril Industries. Last year, he said that Anduril planned to produce “large numbers” of cruise missiles, fighter jets, and other artificial intelligence-powered weapons systems.

“If we have to fight Iran, and China, and Russia all at the same time, we are screwed,” Luckey said in pushing for more arms production.

Gingrich is a former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives who had been pushing for war with Iran since at least 2005. Like President Donald Trump, he has been accused of dodging the draft during the Vietnam War by receiving numerous deferments; in Trump’s case for bone spurs, and for Gingrich because he was a student and a father.

“Those three great Americans are going to be joined by a team of senior leaders, hand-picked private sector leaders, and subject matter experts from across our nation’s unmatched innovation, academic, and policy ecosystems,” said Hegseth—whose Senate confirmation last year was so contentious due to concerns about him being unfit for office that it required a tie-breaking vote by Vice President JD Vance.

The defense secretary also announced the creation of an Autonomous Warfare Command—or Autowarcom—“a new four-star combatant command with service-like authorities built to scale autonomous and robotic capabilities across the joint force.”

The appointments come as Hegseth simultaneously pursues a major reduction in the military’s senior leadership. He announced Wednesday that the Pentagon would eliminate 20% of its roughly 800 general and admiral positions by January—doubling a previously announced 10% reduction. Hegseth described the cuts as necessary to eliminate “redundant force structure” and “unnecessary bureaucratic layers.”

The reductions follow the removal or early departure of more than two dozen senior military and civilian defense officials since Hegseth became defense secretary.

The contrast has drawn criticism from lawmakers and military observers, who expressed alarm at the prospect of removing experienced officers while handing an influential role in planning future war to warfare technology executives and a hawkish former lawmaker who is no longer accountable to the public.

“Interesting. A board loaded with defense contractors and one draft-dodging war hawk will decide the future of the US military,” NewBlue USA executive Marty Taylor said on social media. “What could possibly go wrong?”

Patriotic Cowboys ‘R Us


Warfighter-obsessed Pete Kegsbreath
Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Abby Zimet
Oct 02, 2026
FURTHER 

COMMON DREAMS

Sidestepping his debacle of a war, “smug pathetic little man,” warfighter fetishist and Gen.-Patton-cosplaying clown Pete Hegseth just gave a blustering speech before troops In a “hyper-macho freak show” to announce he’s cutting forces, starting several senseless new programs, and proclaiming, “We are no longer the woke (or) weak department...No fatties, trannies, beardos, weirdos, wimps, radicals. Just warriors.” Appalled consensus on the yahoo “turning the military into a frat house”: “What a dick.”

Perhaps due to his low-rent credentials as a weekend TV host at Fox - and a history of drunkenness, adultery, sexual assault and on-the-job incompetence so sordid he needed JD’s tie-breaking vote to get his job - Hegseth has built a sloppy, fragile “Department of Defensiveness” focused on shaping a narrative and persona to his liking - one based on paranoia, distrust, dysfunction, lies and frequent purges of those deemed disloyal. From his make-up studio to his press strictures to his blunders - Signalgate, the war, its first day’s war crimes - Pete’s spent an inordinate amount of time covering his ass and overcompensating for his failures. “He’s just a true believer in way over his head, the living embodiment of the Dunning-Kruger effect,” said one DOD employee. “Generally, we consider him a joke, a deeply unqualified clown.”

Still, with men reportedly fleeing MAGA, their need to “pump up that masculine animus” is well-served by Pete’s juvenile, chest-pounding, lethality-obsessed focus on testosterone in the name of a “High-T Department of War” that has “nothing to do with science and everything to do with regressive ideas of what masculinity is.” The same idiocy fuels all the culture war malevolence: Banning books, gutting DEI initiatives - “Diversity is not our strength” - blocking promotions for women and Blacks, a “no more dudes and dresses” transphobia, and ending tenure for civilian professors at military academies ‘cause who needs to protect independent thinkers, scholars, leaders, experts from “the tyranny of a government that actively hates its critics,” the “mindset of someone who has learned nothing (from) American military failures.”

And so to another cringey, Strangelovian “State of the Force Address,” which was not a thing until a TV bobblehead took over the military and turned it into bumbling amateur-hour theater. Last year, he summoned nearly 800 generals, admirals, advisors from around the world, all smarter and higher-ranking than him, to rant about beards and “fat troops,” tell them they “kill people and break things for a living,” and prattle about a 10% cut in their numbers by “removing redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership.” When he paused for applause, there was only deep silence. Maybe because a Joint Chiefs chairman, two service chiefs, two intelligence directors, several generals and the better part of the Army’s senior leadership “were told to run faster by a weekend television host.”

On Wednesday, he gathered about 600 officers and enlisted members, again at the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia, for another speech. In the weeks leading up to his latest dash of show business, The Wall Street Journal reported, he emailed commanders asking them to nominate troops to attend. They had to “fit certain physical standards,” he wrote, to have the proper height/weight ratio, with “impeccable grooming: ”I want central casting.“ If they were hot enough, he added, as a bonus some would have ”the opportunity“ to join him in a hot and sweaty dawn work-out at the Pentagon. Totally normal! And luckily, a camera crew was there to follow them on a chanting, banner-bearing run through D.C. To make them look even cooler, he gave them all t-shirts that read, ”This Is War.“ Or at least off-off Broadway.



Later, before a giant American flag, he dropped the hammer in a campy speech many compared to SNL’s Colin Jost doing Pete Hegseth, or Tom Cruise’s braying misogynist in Magnolia, or George C. Scott’s Gen. Patton “minus the inspiration.” Under his “less generals, more GIs” mandate - though it’s “fewer” not less - he said he was doubling the previous cut of 10% of high-ranking personnel to 20% with, wrote Tom Wellborn, “the confidence of a man who has looked at the most powerful armed force in the world and concluded its central weakness was the number of people in it who outrank a major,” what he was. Months into a disastrous war, “That is the force Pete Hegseth has built by subtraction. What it has lost is (what) a general is for, which is to be the person in the room who says no, and (he) has made sure, one firing at a time, there is nobody left in the room to say it.”

“The media calls that a purge,” blustered Hegseth, evidently expecting criticism. “I call it accountability. As usual, what the media levels as an accusation, I wear as an accomplishment.” He haughtily went on to “lay it out simply for the anti-American losers in our media...We are no longer the woke department, or the weak department. Simple translation? No fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors.” On coverage of the war and eight attempted suicides on the USS Lincoln, he slammed “disingenuous headlines about deployment lengths, false claims of low troop morale or flat-out propaganda as if it’s written by our adversaries.” “The information space is a battle space,” he said. “The ideological clowns are out. The patriotic cowboys are in.” Smirking, he added,.“With testosterone testing on top.” Jesus, dude.

He also announced several new programs with fancy warlike names like Fortress America and Autonomous War Command or AutoWarCom, a “four-star combatant command with service-like authorities built to scale autonomous and robotic capabilities,” and “The Next Great American Base,” the first new military base in 40 years, with all 50 states “invited to bid for it like an Amazon headquarters,” and “America’s Corps of Cadets, creating new college partnerships with right-wing Liberty University and Hillsdale College, plus Louisiana State, Mississippi, Tuskegee Universities, to increase the number of ”patriotic leaders of character“ and counter ”anti-American, DEI-worshiping woke factories,“ aka the Ivy League schools Hegseth attended.

There’s the bonkers Project Meridian to study “the future of warfare,” headed by “three of our nation’s best minds” - two tech fat cats and one 83-year-old MAGA hawk - none of whom have served in the military, two of whom have made fortunes from it. Cue Elon Musk, a gonzo rocket salesman with billions in Pentagon contracts, GOP pol Newt Gingrich, who got almost as many deferments as Trump during the Vietnam War, and Palmer Luckey, MAGA donor, self-proclaimed “radical Zionist” and founder of tech company Anduril - “three great Americans to help plan the next war with three people who have never been in one,” what could possibly go wrong?“ From a military Reddit: ”Is this real?“, ”Yes master code-monkey, infosec ninja, and tech infrastructure guru Newt Gingrich age 83. Our enemies are so fuct bro!“ and ”Oh fuck this fucking Nazi-loving fuck outta here.“

There’s a new Office of Religious Affairs for a DOD “putting on the full armor of God” to “strengthen the moral, ethical and spiritual readiness of our warfighters,” aka “do the Lord’s work to improve smiting capacity,” because, “while we wage physical war, the real battle is spiritual.” (Maybe why the Pentagon’s covering up not-real casualties?) It’s “voluntary,” which skeptics say is akin to being “voluntold” to do things. Finally, as a party favor, troops were given a new 144-page “field manual” of transcripts of Hegseth speeches. Its forward is by Trump, in classic Trumpese. “As your Commander-in-Chief, I will not ask you to fight dumb Wars,” it reads. “I will unleash you to be violent, lethal and unstoppable - and I will always have your back. Godspeed, Great Warriors. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

 YouTubewww.youtube.com

Along with other regime Nazis, crackpots and fools, theories abound as to what the fuck is wrong with Pete Hegseth. Many argue he’s afflicted with the common sickness of countless, soulless, mediocre white men who know, deep inside, they have risen further than they deserve to. Hence, the bottomless need to be subservient to a monster like Trump (who is too mad to know that) to maintain their place and value in a white guy patriarchy, to always understand “who they get to abuse, and who they are supposed to take abuse from,” and to remain within that vaunted structure, the only one where they have power and respect, by continuing to rule over those they’ve been taught are beneath them. It’s also why, conversely, they freak out when their vital slot is threatened: See Hegseth’s frantic lie detectors at any sign of leaking, mocking, saying no.

Hegseth seems particularly despised by Americans, many of whom eagerly await his war crimes trial, his impeachment,, his rapturing - hopefully first in line, though maybe behind Goebbels/Miller. The concrete damage done by his legacy - the calamitous war, hollowing of the military’s promotion chain, lethality-tinged dumbing down of its intellectual infrastructure and exploitation of those serving - will presumably take years to repair. But people hate him just as much for his personal failings: his gross unfitness and incompetence, his swaggering “Jr High Machismo,” the Nazi-adjacent arrogance of “this nose-powdering drunk,” the lying, preening chutzpah of the military’s worst-ever leader consistently “acting like a 19-year-old edgelord loser,” like “a dipshit,” “an asshole,” “an absolute tinydick in every goddamn way.”

Several truly obnoxious moments of his state-of-the-empire speech ignited that animus. His attack on media who do their job and tell the truth about him began with a lame nod to the First Amendment - “A free press is of course important” - that veered to a diatribe: “But partisan activism that intentionally smears the troops and the historic mission they are undertaking (is) anti-American. It’s sick. It’s a national betrayal. It’s treason, actually...It has to be said.” Umm, not, said America: “Secretary of Dewar’s doesn’t get he’s the only one getting smeared, not the troops,” “I love the free press until they say words I don’t like in which case I call them traitors and want them killed,” “Bro, they’re not shitting on the troops, just you,” “It’s called free speech, fucknut. The thing your troops are supposed to defend,” “The mission of our military has become historic only in the degree of its absurdity.”

Then there was a pitiful, fitness-instructor-like defense of his bullying of troops: “Telling someone to get in shape or shave or fix their uniform or start busting their ass - that’s not discrimination. That’s leadership.” Fact: Actually, it’s neither. It’s stupid, shallow, beside-the-point bullying. Many argued it’s just “being a dick” and “an asshole.” That he should “tell his boss to get in shape and start busting his ass.” That it’s weird how he “doesn’t get to the part where he actually discriminates.” That leadership is “inspiring, being an example, not getting your nation into an illegal war, losing it in days and committing war crimes.” That he’s “a drunk, vain, adulterous rapist with ridiculous sideburns.” That it’s “stunning in an awful way a man his age is so immature.” That “this motherfucker is waaay out over his skis.” And damn, more fucking patriotic cowboys is the last thing we need thanks.

How Pete's (deservedly) doingScreengrab from CNN

Trump's first Grand Prix DC race draws instant ridicule: 'Clowns need attention'

Bennito L. Kelty
August 22, 2026 

RAW STORY

The site of the Freedom 250 Grand Prix IndyCar series race in Washington D.C., U.,S., August 22, 2026. REUTERS/Aaron Schwartz

President Donald Trump's IndyCar race in Washington, D.C., drew early criticism and mockery as cars were still making their first laps.

On Saturday, drivers started doing practice, qualifying, and other preliminary races for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, which Trump touted as D.C.'s first-ever IndyCar race. The marquee race, which Trump is expected to attend, will start on Sunday, but the negative reviews started coming in as the drivers raced on bumpy roads, and critics called out the administration for organizing the unsolicited event.

"Turning the National Mall into a race track for the Freedom 250 is a reckless spectacle that puts public spaces at risk because clowns need attention," blasted speaker and advocate Khary Penebaker.

Progressive political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen lamented, "They'll give us literally anything other than healthcare."

"Anyone who has ridden a bicycle in Washington, DC, could tell you this is a terrible idea," activist Alex Palombo wrote in response to a post by NASCAR racer and GOP congressional candidate Jerrod Sessler that noted the "VERY bumpy" track.


"No one in DC is happy about this," journalist Aaron Parnas added.


"August 2026. The streets are now a racetrack," lamented veteran and political commentator Mike Nelson.

Reacting to a post touting the event, Topher Spiro, a senior fellow at American Progress, asked, "Why do you think DC residents want anything to do with this? How much did this promotion cost?"

Reacting to a video from the track, author Erin Page joked, "I have genuinely driven faster through DC, come on now."


"This is any driver from the DMV area," writer Ashley Reese agreed.

"Now just add some MD drivers for the full DC experience," added writer Joe Flood.

Pollster Jake Rubenstein noted that the event is "not packed. But all the people seeing the actual track are blocked by the trees."

 

Potentially dangerous problem flagged ahead of Trump’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix

Alexander Willis
August 22, 2026 
RAW STORY


Aug 22, 2026; Washington, D.C., USA; A.J. Foyt Enterprises driver Caio Collet (4) races past the U.S. Capitol during practice for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix on the street circuit of National Mall. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-Imagn Images

Just hours ahead of President Donald Trump’s IndyCar race in Washington, D.C., NBC News’ Sahil Kapur flagged a potentially dangerous problem that could pose a risk to drivers.

Dubbed the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, the race has been touted by Trump as D.C.’s first-ever IndyCar race, with the president expected to attend. Drivers hit the course Saturday for practice and qualifying races, but as flagged by Fox Sports, already ran into trouble. A bump in the course sent a number of racers into a runoff area after briefly losing control of their vehicles, as seen in a video compilation shared by “IndyCar on Fox.”

“It’s not an authentic DC street track without bumps!” wrote Kapur, NBC News’ senior national political reporter, in a social media post on X Saturday night. “That said, this is a big one in a flat-out section that caused a bunch of IndyCar drivers problems today – and will be a thing in tomorrow’s race.”

Trump’s big race has already received scrutiny from countless critics, some of whom called the event a “terrible idea” given D.C.’s “very bumpy” roads.

Even former NASCAR driver Jerrod Sessler, a Trump-aligned ex-congressional candidate who lost his primary race earlier this month, warned that the race could pose serious issues for drivers.

“The BUMPS are most certainly going to be the talk of the Freedom 250 in DC,” Sessler wrote in a social media post on X. “The track is VERY bumpy! Not just bumps but cars jumping off the ground sort of bumps!”

The Freedom 250 Grand Prix marks the first-ever IndyCar street race held in the nation's capital, run on a 1.66-mile, seven-turn temporary circuit weaving past the U.S. Capitol and Washington Monument. Trump formally established the race through a Jan. 30, 2026, executive order directing the Departments of Transportation and Interior to designate a race route through the National Mall and surrounding city streets, in honor of the United States Semiquincentennial.

‘Appalling and Fundamentally Dishonest’: Ruffalo Rejects Antisemitism Charges by Paramount Amid Merger Warning

“Now is the time to dive boldly into all these issues,” said the Avengers actor and social justice activist, “not step back or concede.”


LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 28: Mark Ruffalo attends the "Crime 101" UK gala screening at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on January 28, 2026 in London, England.
Photo by Simon Ackerman/Getty Images

Jon Queally
Aug 23, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Mark Ruffalo, the actor known worldwide for both his role as the Incredible Hulk in the Avengers movie franchise as well as his work as a dedicated humanitarian and voice for social justice, did not back down Saturday after his criticism of the pending merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. was cast as antisemitic by executives at Paramount, largely owned by billionaire Larry Ellison and run by his son, David.

While Ruffalo has been outspoken in his opposition to the Paramount-Warner Bros. deal for months—warning like many other critics that further consolidation by such media behemoths will hurt consumers, squeeze workers in the entertainment industry, minimize the range of viewpoints and creativity available, and further entrench right-wing control of the nation’s media system—what apparently sparked the accusation against him was the recent sharing of a years-old video clip of Paramount board member Safra Catz discussing “really profoundly scary technologies” that Oracle, which offers software and database services and the company upon which Larry Ellison built his vast wealth, provided to the Israeli military over recent years.

While the Instagram post Ruffalo shared has expired, the clip of Catz has been circulating on time for quite some time, seen as evidence of the close and well-documented ties that Oracle has had with the Israeli military:



In Ruffalo’s post, in which he reportedly warned that the Ellisons were “powering some of the most destructive and inhuman forces in the world,” he also made reference to the genocide in Gaza being carried out by the Israeli military as well as the apartheid under which Palestinians live in the Occupied West Bank.

“This merger has real consequences for real people, and for the entire country. Scrutinizing the Ellisons, including Oracle’s business built on data, surveillance technology and government contracts, and the serious threat to editorial freedom and the loss of a livelihood for thousands of families, is fair and necessary.”

Noting Catz’s comments in the video about Oracle, Ruffalo said, “This is the company that Larry Ellison is using to fund his son David’s Warner Bros acquisition.” And the “really profoundly scary technologies” that Catz mention, he continued “will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you. Look how she revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.”

In apparent reaction to Ruffalo’s post, which Variety characterized as the actor going “scorched earth on Paramount-Warner Bros. merger,” a spokesperson for Paramount issued a statement on Saturday saying that the company is “troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute. Words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid,’ applied to a corporate transaction, aren’t just wrong—they’re a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe. This doesn’t deserve a response in kind—and to be clear, we don’t tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone.”

But in a response to these accusation of antisemitism on Saturday, Ruffalo issued a new post on social media. It reads in full:
The accusation that I am antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest. Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticizing Jewish people. This critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel. To be clear, my views come from my own political convictions and should never be interpreted as hostility toward Jewish people, for whom I have deep love and respect. Everything I know about acting, activism and humanism has been profoundly shaped by the Jewish friends, colleagues and loved ones who have been integral and family throughout every point of my life.

This merger has real consequences for real people, and for the entire country. Scrutinizing the Ellisons, including Oracle’s business built on data, surveillance technology and government contracts, and the serious threat to editorial freedom and the loss of a livelihood for thousands of families, is fair and necessary. The $111 billion deal would hand one family control over CNN, HBO and Warner Bros., backed in part by foreign money whose influence on editorial decisions has never been fully explained to the public.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for serious national security review, and regulators still haven’t given the public a real answer. Until they do, the merger shouldn’t move forward. Now is the time to dive boldly into all these issues, not step back or concede.

Commentators on social media also came to Ruffalo’s defense, calling Paramount’s accusations nothing more than a smear against well-founded criticisms of Oracle’s business model, the crimes of the Israeli government, and warnings about what powerful, right-wing billionaires like the Ellison’s could do with what could become one of the largest media corporations on the planet.

“Despicable to call Ruffalo antisemitic,” said John Abrams, an entertainment editor. “Hi, I’m Jewish. I will be the one to tell you when something is antisemitic, you dishonest clowns. It is not antisemitic to decry Israel’s crimes. In fact, it is our moral obligation—as Jews, and as human beings.”

Journalist Mehdi Hassan called the accusations “truly cynical, shameless, and dangerous.”



“The Israel crybully lobby will try, as they always do,” wrote author and media critic Adam Johnson, “to make an example out of Ruffalo because he had the temerity and integrity to note the Ellisons’ open advocacy and financial support for a military every major human rights group on earth had determined committed genocide.”

“My unsolicited advice,” Johnson continued. “Don’t give these cynical assholes an inch. Don’t accept their ‘antisemitism’ shrieking as good faith.”

Noting that “Ellison put out a press release EXPLICITLY BOASTING about how his Paramount purchase would be good for Israel and his financial support for the IDF,” Johnson argued that somebody “cannot do this THEN CRY ANTISEMITISM when they are held responsible for the actions of the state and military they support.”

OPINION

'Start doing your damn jobs': Editor issues furious letter to the press

D. Earl Stephens 

August 15, 2026 

ALTERNET

Dear Mainstream Media,

Please sit down and shut up, while I have a word with you.

Today in America, tired, desperate sailors are jumping off aircraft carriers, masked government agents armed with guns and cattle prods are murdering and caging innocent people, proverbial and real wrecking balls are battering our government offices and landmarks; our national parks are being mauled by bulldozers, our air and water is intentionally being poisoned, and our endangered wildlife is being slaughtered; life-saving vaccines are being shelved, while measles are making a comeback, science is under mass attack, wars and more wars are cropping up with no end in sight, OUR so-called Justice Department, aided and abetted by a bought-and-paid-for Radical Right Supreme Court is torching the rule of law, while protecting the very worst among us; voting rights are being assaulted right out in the open, a money-laundering operation is underway in OUR White House, bigotry and more bigotry is being heaped upon our children, and the torrent of lies coming from that White House is drowning out what is left of the truth.


Oh, and everything costs too much in America these days. EVERYTHING.

So let me stop there, while my keyboard cools, my readers wipe the sweat from their worried brows, and I ask you this:


WHY can’t you take a day off — JUST ONE STINKING DAY — from your sheer incompetence and report these things, and JUST THESE THINGS? It is absolutely staggering what the good people of America are being forced to endure on an hourly basis right now.

Are you even living in the same country we are???

We are a nation under siege by an authoritarian regime with the most powerful — albeit abused — military in the world, and it is almost impossible to see how we survive it unless everybody is clear-eyed about what we are up against.


That is your job.

How is it the most serious homegrown attack on America since the Civil War STILL isn’t grabbing every headline, every day???

Because here’s the thing, you self-important clowns, if this attack continues apace, we are done. Those are the stakes right now.


If your job is to report on the stories that most affect your readership, listeners and viewers (it is), how is it that this attack isn’t getting every bit of your attention?

What in God’s name are you talking about in your editorial meetings each day?

And I don’t need to hear breathless reporting about what Democrats are doing or aren’t doing right now (that is merely a sidebar), only what has been done by the most lawless administration (regime) in American history by far.

Go ahead, point to one administration that is even remotely comparable to this one. They are battering America into dust. And they aren’t apologizing for it, they are doubling down on it.


WHEN will you, our free press, provide the necessary situational awareness and information our citizenry so desperately needs, so that they can properly arm themselves against an authoritarian monster, who doesn't give a damn about them?

And if you are already trying to dismiss this as nothing but a scalding rant from an old, cranky newspaperman who needs more sleep, go right ahead, but I am right about all of this, and you would do well to listen to it, because millions of people out there are scared to death, and have been waiting years for these things to be said.

So what the hell is wrong with you?

Are you really being paid off by the regime to ignore this story?


Is it greed?

Do they own you?

Are you scared? Is that it, you’re scared …?

Are you simply incompetent, and don’t know how to prosecute journalism, and how to order and play stories based on importance?


My God, it has gotten so bad, just weeks ago you were actually wining and dining the guy who wants to end you.

Do you see how terrible that looks?

You are coming off right now as pathetic failures, and slobbering all over a profession many of us gave our lives to.

You need to get it together right now — RIGHT NOW, because we are out of time.

Donald Trump is a rotting, sick old man who can’t even stay awake anymore. He’s exhausted to the point where he isn’t even pretending to care about the country and people he is openly raping each day.

His only remaining goal in what remains of his miserable, destructive life is to make as much money as he can, and destroy everything and everybody around him, who won’t help him do it.

I want you to read that again, too, because it is indisputable that this is what is happening right now.

Are you going to report this at all — much less with the urgency it demands? Because if Joe Biden or Barack Obama, our ANY president in America’s history, had pulled this, you’d be reporting it as a national emergency, and you’d be right to do so.

You’d be calling for their immediate removal.

It would be 24/7 news, because there isn’t a bigger story than this man’s attack on America.

Trump is a sick, rabid dog who when not spending his waking hours counting his money, playing golf and hiding in food trucks, is marking his territory all over Washington. What is happening at the Kennedy Center right now is just obscenely demented.

Who does this?

Dictators, that’s who.

Are you going to start calling him one, or are you hellbent on tucking the word “president” in front of the name of this ignorant, stupid man, who I guarantee you has never read the Bill of the Rights, and couldn’t name more than a handful of Amendments in our Constitution.

He is literally attacking museums, and rewriting our history right out in the open.

Hell, it’s gotten so bad that this sickly old man has even given up on caring what he looks like. I mean he used to shove his ugly face in the oven each morning, so it got that certain orange sheen he likes, and made sure the dead ferret on his head was puffed up just so.

Now he just looks like his mother shortly before her death. Are you seeing this? He looks absolutely ridiculous.

His health is abysmal. You know that, right?

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His ankles are grotesquely swollen, his little, chubby black and blue hands look like they are going to fall off his wrists, and he spends more time at the hospital than an emergency room nurse.

If you think I am being petty right now, go back and read what you were saying about Joe Biden, particularly in the wake of his debate performance. Trump gives these types of performances DAILY.

And at the end of each day of his pontificating, lying, attacking, and taking whatever he can, he heads off to his empty bedroom in the White House where guys like Marco Rubio, JD Vance and Stephen Miller towel him off, so he can be alone with his happy meal and nuclear-powered cell phone, and type absolutely insane things to the world that barely even get a mention by you guys anymore, because you’ve made the editorial decision to normalize it.

And speaking of normalizing … why aren’t you spending time holding the feckless, abhorrent, mouth-breathing Republicans to account for their cover of all this treason, because at the end of the day, that is what it is.

It’s that bad in America right now, and we won’t survive two more years of this. I assure you that many of the people reading this often wonder if we will survive two more hours of it.

The traitor, Trump, has only been in power for 19 months, has 29 to go, and for anybody who truly loves their country, it is almost impossible to process. The damage he has done has already been catastrophic.

This means the opposition better have one humdinger of an election in November that Trump will most assuredly continue to attack, or the next 29 months might as well be the next 290 months, because America as we used to know it — a decent but flawed place — will be long gone, and replaced by something you’d see in Moscow, which was probably the plan all along.

And still I read things that insinuate that both parties are basically the same, while you do your stupid horse race thing. Here’s where I really want to grab you, and shake you until your eyeballs rattle.

I’ll be the first to tell you, and have, that the Democratic Party is flawed, and hasn’t done enough in their own right, to fight off this attack. But they have never openly attacked our country and done this kind of damage. Quite the opposite, in fact. Every good thing that has come along in my long lifetime is thanks to those hapless Democrats, who actually fix economies and don’t break them.

Go ahead, look that up. Then do something crazy like report it.

Democrats fight for people’s rights, instead of attacking them.

You need to start doing your damn jobs, MSM. If you need more suggestions, call me. I’d be glad to talk, and if necessary slap some sense into you, because right now I’d fire 80 percent of you if I could.

To those of you who are doing the good work, thank you. To the rest of you who are quietly working away for chump change in our local communities and keeping an eye on the town hall, the schools and the ball fields, you rock. I’ve been there, and you are doing vitally important work.

To the rest of you so-called journalists suffocating the news inside our Beltway, stop being so pathetic, and start doing your damn jobs.

Because if you don’t, when this teetering country falls, there will only be one word left to describe you: COMPLICIT.

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.

Impeachment or Prison?

Joseph Natoli

 July 17, 2026

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Photograph Source: Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States – CC BY 2.0

“This was about staying out of prison.”

– Haberman and Swan (Regime Change) as to why Trump ran in 2024

Whether we impeach or imprison (or both) Donald J. Trump would be a first step if we are to return to a struggling path of an electoral, Constitutional, democratic order we recognized on this 250^th July 4^th.

Trump’s presidencies have taken us to a place where trust in our elections, a bedrock necessity, a peaceful transfer of power, respect for a Constitutional due process and judicial verdicts rendered, respect for First Amendment freedom of the press rights, and observance of the co-equal powers of executive, legislative and judicial branches of government are mockingly ignored and violated at will.

Trump’s struggle is to get those who would get him before they get him.  And meanwhile line his own pockets. The boldness in him that some admire goes no deeper than this.  He has been on trial and been found guilty by unanimous jury of 34 felony counts. This had all led to a second go at turning the country and the world upside down.

He’s taken us down the rabbit hole where half of us can’t distinguish bullshit and lies from verifiable assertions and the other half remain stunned or apoplectic. The man’s presence is absolutely confounding in a Mephistophelian way.

Also confounding is the historical path to where we are now.  I mean the struggle to American Exceptionalism. Were we struggling close to coming apart before Trump or after? Trump sold a story of American carnage that only he could remedy. There was carnage. By 2016, the top 1% had as much wealth as the bottom 90%. That Trump would readjust that carnage to the greater immiseration of the 90% not enough voters foresaw. Stunned or already at the Kool-Aid.

In Gore Vidal’s view, the United States of Amnesia has been more of a militarized republic than a 5^thCentury BCE Athenian “rule by the people.” The country has been protectively amnesiac regarding the extermination of an indigenous population, 89 years of Black African slavery up until the 1865 13^thAmendment, the annihilation of Japanese civilian populations with atomic bombs in August 1945, and 144 years after the declaration “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights” the 19^th Amendment extended the right to vote to women. 144 years.

It seems that such total amnesia has given way to what you would call a “So What?” response. It’s as if a callus has been formed on the American Mass Psyche. Perhaps this is what  happens when an individual or a country is bombarded constantly with words and images that punish an image, like Exceptional, we try to hold on to. Nevertheless, this “So What?” defense is tragic because unless we are able to fully feel and recognize what is true, though terrifying and humiliating, we cannot repair and improve. An overwhelming number of Americans need to conclude that Trump deserves – impeachment followed by imprisonment —  if this government and its citizens are to escape absolute farce post-Trump.

We’re all very soon going to get on the “Get Trump” bandwagon/funeral procession, or, off his sinking ship, and at the same time hopefully recognize that unless all his violations face justice and not allowed to slide into Amnesia or “So What? or “More Than I Can Deal With,” our very much on-going 250 year old struggle is going to be troubled as it never has before with challenges and damages to basic principles left unanswered.

That events can be sent to the oblivion of the River Lethe in our American Mass psyche is a real thing. But whether the Trump assault can be so evaporated without the country still feeling, like an amputated limb, the aftermath of this assault is, to my mind, not possible. His devastation is of an order different than this country has struggled with before.  He’s attacked with reckless impunity the grounds upon which we can decisively squash the flood of troglodyte “posts” that fill the mosh pit of social media.

Gore Vidal called the U.S. “a militarized Republic” which, if reliable to some extent, and I think it is, then Trump is the first leader who has played the country as just that. Positioned at the top of a military/economic powerhouse, Trump dealt as such both domestically and internationally. Manipulating investment returns manipulates the flow of that money into political campaigns. Internationally, the wealth supporting winning military ventures replaces protocols of diplomacy with Mafia-like offers that can’t be refused. Don Corleone extorted competitors because Luca Brasi was his enforcer. Trump sees U.S. military might as his enforcer and the Justice Department at home as the same.

While we could feel that previous presidencies have not negotiated as a militarized Republic, when you look closely through that lens, or listen to international views, Neo-Con regime of Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz/Perle/Bremer/Feith et al seized  the 9/11 moment to get away with being a militarized Republic. Military/Economic power could position in an advantageous way then and in a future relation to China’s own rising power.  This was the window quickly closing of fixing a new American order. It was LBJ who also knew how to act on behalf of a militarized Republic: “America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea… If these two fleas continue itching the elephant, they just might get whacked good.” Not Cyprus but Viet-nam got “whacked good” based on the Gulf of Tonkin lies, equal in devastating outcome to the WMD lies.

In short, Vidal had history to prove his point but Trump’s push internationally is being played on a different board. Listen: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.” Message to us: Try to stop me. Trump has been successful in taking all he can get away with; a con man/grifter/extortionist, he will cut and run, as he is now doing with a war in Iran he began for no profit to himself — revealed thus far — but completely out of a demented hubris. Jared Kushner, who picks up slaughtered parts like a jackal in Trump’s wake may be too busy evicting Palestinians to make a Spa of a war torn Iran. The real estate investor’s eye is on Cuba but the country has to be war torn first.

And so, it’s not just the crippling of the U.S.’s always shaky Constitutional order compliments of Trump but a full scale exposure through Trump of the U.S’s strong arm international affairs that need to be answered.  The erratic tactics of Trump do not keep China at bay nor they reassure the EU that such tactics will support them and not Russia or China or North Korea. It is only because American focus on anything is always on the individual that we underestimate the macro level of damage that we face and the consequences of not insisting that a price must be paid.

I believe since Reagan planned a multi-layer missile defense system, the international community realized the U.S. would use its economic power in the service of its military power and international peace pacts be damned. All that was wanted was an American president who would without shame or hesitation slap aside honorable peaceful diplomacy, making it clear that filling the craw of this beast was the healthy thing to do.

 Perhaps everyone but Americans were surprised that someone like Trump hadn’t come along before, although everyone has been surprised at the sheer impossibility of such an existence. I would argue that in a country that values getting rich as a personal and societal  summum bonum and has only laughable deterrents to this predation of the weak and poor, the unscrupulous would be every other face in a crowd.

 If this is true, it would give us an answer to the hot question: Why do Republicans and Cabinet members not say no to Trump, challenge his lies, and stand up against his mania? Answer: They are so very like him, only differing in that he is the president and they are not. He lets them stick their beak in the money pot to be had in return for their loyalty. As Putin’s moguls keep him safe, Trump’s moguls keep him from impeachment and imprisonment. Only when his grift and extortion threaten returns on investment will his moguls run from him. But like the crow who won’t leave the carrion feast in the middle of the road until the last second, this Trump gang will do the same.  Tsar Paul I of Russia’s fate may be what awaits Trump.

“I’ll pardon everyone who has come within 200 ft. of the Oval Office,” Trump has told this accessories to crime lot who are nervous about a real retribution conducted by an unchained Congress and Department of Justice, nervous about a time when reason will regain its hold on the country.

No need for armchair diagnosis of these criminal accessories as sociopathic or innately predatory. They are home grown American soil products. Trump’s uniqueness lies in extended public exposure. As president his corrupted soul is on a 24/7 display, which he enjoys because fame, or notoriety, simply goes along with being rich. Securities and insider trader fraudsters avoid such exposure for obvious reasons. Trump doesn’t forego parading his crimes in the limelight because his own megalomania and now the Supreme Court has made him invulnerable. Never before has the American Confidence Man, whom Melville saw as endemic, been in such full display or has so much latent mental illness been given so much time to blossom before our eyes on a presidential stage.

It may not be possible to bring to a hard core 35% Trump loyalists an acceptance of empirical and rational methods of establishing objective, verifiable facts and evidence, but all the mindboggling stupidities laid on us require that an effort be made. Amnesia will not set in here. Crimes alleged and pursued without evidence must be brought into the court of reason and answered.

Every department and agency Trump has contaminated must, like the Augean tables, be mucked out and his appointed clowns judged. The destruction to all the agencies listed in the U.S. Government Manual made by Musk and his Nerd Army need to be re-established.  An un-elected trillionaire batshit crazy should never again be allowed to take a chain saw to our government. The ways in which mind boggling stupidities swarm on social media cannot be primary in how we know, anything, including politics. That recuperation begins in the 3^rd grade, not with STEM, but reading comprehension.

Redemption here  is hard to imagine but it surely begins with Trump in jail, preceded by impeachment.

Joseph Phillip Natoli’s The New Utrecht Avenue novel trilogy is on sale at Amazon. Time is the Fire ended what began with Get Ready to Run and Between Dog & Wolf. Humour noire with counterpunches. .