Watch: Lockdown Architect Deborah Birx Smirks Over PCR Testing For Hantavirus
The former White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator who helped shape the 6-foot rule, extended lockdowns, school closures, and “15 Days to Slow the Spread” (that somehow became much longer) is once again on television recommending widespread PCR testing – this time for hantavirus.
In recent appearances on mainstream outlets, Dr. Deborah Birx discussed a hantavirus situation linked to a cruise ship. She suggested offering PCR tests to passengers who had already disembarked and were scattered around the globe, calling it “21st-century technology” and arguing it would catch early or asymptomatic cases. She referenced lessons from COVID, noting that “we’re not testing populations… we don’t really know whether there are subclinical cases” and that “it’s never good to track viruses through symptoms; we should be tracking viruses through blood tests like PCR, we learned that with Covid.”
Dr. Deborah Birx starts to laugh and suggests that we need to begin testing the population for hantavirus with PCR testing, similar to what was done during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She says there could be more human-to-human transmission occurring and that they should be tracking… pic.twitter.com/lkZbilTpcF
She also pointed out that many universities and schools were able to stay open during the pandemic because of weekly testing. The clip, which has circulated widely, shows her laughing while making the case for broader availability of such testing.
This, of course, is the same Dr. Birx who, in her 2022 book Silent Invasion, described how the initial two-week shutdown was never really meant to be just two weeks. She wrote that she didn’t have the numbers yet to justify extending it but had two weeks to get them – aka she pulled it out of her ass.
The 6-foot distancing rule, school closures, and other measures she defended have faced years of scrutiny. Former Trump administration health official Dr. Paul Alexander has stated publicly that certain CDC guidelines, including aspects of social distancing, were essentially “made up” with little to no science behind them at the time. Congressional testimony and reporting later revealed internal debates and evolving rationales for lockdowns and mitigation steps that went well beyond the original “flatten the curve” pitch.
Now, with a hantavirus outbreak tied to one cruise ship – a virus that has existed for decades, spreads primarily through rodent droppings, and has limited human-to-human transmission – Birx is reaching for the familiar tools: more PCR testing, population-level tracking, and references to what “worked” during COVID for schools and beyond.
Hantavirus is serious in the rare cases it occurs, but it is not a novel respiratory pathogen racing through communities the way SARS-CoV-2 did. The current context is narrow and specific. Yet the language echoes 2020: test more people, track more aggressively, make it widely available, because that’s what we learned last time.
No visible course correction. No reflection on the documented limitations of PCR testing at high cycle thresholds, the collateral damage from prolonged restrictions, or the fact that many of the original rules were adjusted or walked back as more data emerged. Just the same public-health reflex applied to the next virus that makes headlines.
“Operation Epic Fury was the loud one. Operation Economic Fury is the quiet one. . . . While the carriers were on television, Treasury was doing the actual demolition.”
– Jesús Enrique Rosas on X
Expect a consequential week.
The Persian Gulf remains closed and colossal oil slicks leak out of Kharg Island while Iran blusters and stomps its feet. No one can even try to buy its oil anymore, not even China. The sanctions are too onerous. Iran’s wells must be shut in now. Imagine how the production chiefs out in the oil fields are howling at their insane IRGC overseers.
Iran has no economy left operating. Iran’s domestic security force, the Basij (Sâzmân-e Basij-e Mostaz’afin, or “Mobilization of the Oppressed”) is strangling anyone who expresses discontent in the streets, not a good look for a regime that can’t survive without the pretense of popular support.
Late Sunday, the US President rejected the Tehran’s latest conditions for peace out of hand.
They are trying to jerk the whole world around, even while they whirl around the drain. Despite what you read in The New York Times — Iran’s US-based chief cheerleader — it is probably a matter of days now before capitulation. The ball is in America’s court this morning, a real hanging lob shot. The return is apt to be hard. Of course, whatever official utterances come out of Iran, you must discount by about 99.9-percent. For now, there is nothing but the morning fog of suspense.
But strange doings are a’foot elsewhere.
You might have noticed that the UK’s labor government got drubbed in local elections, losing nearly 1,500 council seats, a humiliating repudiation. It’s a matter of days before PM Keir Starmer will have to hang it up. His possible replacements are utterly unknown to Americans — Angela Rayner, a former Deputy PM, Energy Secretary Ed Milliband, Health Sec’y Wes Streeting — and any of them is just a place-holder for the election’s main winner Nigel Farage of the Reform Party, which exists wholly outside the age-old British political transect of Labour / Tories.
The Labour Party, you see, is lately as loathsome in the altogether to British voters as its current avatar, Sir Keir (Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, KCB), whose latest act was to extend social welfare benefits to the additional wives of poly-marital Muslims. Way to go! Why not just travel the island empire from town-to-town and slap every indigenous Briton in the face? And the Tories (putative Conservatives), well, just fuggeddabowdem. Sir Keir’s Tory predecessor as PM, Rishi Sunak, screwed the pooch for his party into the next twenty years allowing net Third World migration to hit record highs while the kingdom crumbled.
The way it works over there, Sir Keir or whoever takes over from him, asks King Charles to dissolve Parliament, and you get a sudden national election short of Parliament’s regular five-year term. And so, sometime in the months ahead, Nigel Farage will become Prime Minister and things will change-up bigly in Britain. Mr. Farage will have to contend, among other things, with Donald Trump’s dismantling of whatever was left of Britain’s stealth neo-colonial command of global finance through the British banking system. The question really is: can Farage arrest his country’s sickening slide into becoming an Islamic caliphate, with all the Third World bells and whistles? Can he possibly even start shipping the most recent arrivals back to where they came from? Can he do what Mr. Trump is attempting in the USA and turn the UK back to an economy based on the actual production of goods rather than financial finaglery?
Oddly, as the old Mother Country rejects the Globalist tool, Keir Starmer, Canadian PM Mark Carney attempts to highjack the Globalist baton for the rest of Anglosphere remnant of the old empire. And also, in case you didn’t notice just days ago, King Charles’s attempt to kiss up to Mr. Trump, despite all the mutual flattery and gala ceremony, was a failure for the King of England. That is to say, he did not succeed in getting Mr. Trump to back off even a little bit from reducing the Crown’s imperious control over world affairs.
Former President Obama tries shadow foreign policy with Canadian PM Carney
And so, in the background, you see former president Barack Obama skulk into Ottawa to plot around all those developments with Canadian PM Carney, who is positioning himself to operate as the British Empire’s shadow PM-in-absentia — like the Pope in Avignon during the tumultuous 1300s.
That is, Carney, former head of the Bank of England, is electing himself to oppose Nigel Farage, with the stealth assistance of America’s shadow leader of the Democratic Party, Mr. Obama, who actually represents the Islamic-Marxist chimeric alliance that Globalism has become.
Why is Barack Obama not subject to violation of the Logan Act for this?
Alas for that shifty operation, the Democratic Party in America is now way back on its heels after the double punch of flubbing its Virginia redistricting gambit and then the SCOTUS decision against racial gerrymandering that will cull dozens of racially-engineered Democratic districts out of the US House of Representatives.
Out the window is the Democrats’ scheme to impeach both Mr. Trump and Veep Vance in 2027 so as to install Hakeem Jeffries in the White House.
Yeah, really.
That was their plan. . . suddenly up in a vapor.
And the DOJ’s prosecutions of the Party’s multitudinous grifters and color revolutionists has barely even begun. My Gawd, they are sinking really fast now.
And mid-week, it’s off to China for Mr. Trump to meet Uncle Xi.
How badly do they want their oil supplies switched back on? And what are they prepared to do, to make that happen?
Trump Mulls Renewed Military Action As Ceasefire “On Life Support”; Treasury Again Targets Iran’s Oil To China
Summary
US President blasts ‘piece of garbage’ Iran response, says ceasefire on ‘life support’, reportedly mulls renewed military action; US Treasury imposes yet more sanctions.
Trump mulls restarting Project Freedom in Hormuz and says forcibly retrieving ‘nuclear dust’ is still on the table, oil jumps on headline.
Iran Foreign Ministry: “Everything we proposed in the text was reasonable and generous.” However, US officials insist on their “unreasonable demands.“
Saudi Arabia condemns Iran for its latest drone attacks targeting the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait on Sunday.
Qatari LNG tanker abruptly U-Turns In Hormuz chokepoint after earlier in weekend an initial one made it through – an unprecedented first for a Qatari tanker of the war.
Israeli reservist killed in Hezbollah drone attack on northern Israel as Lebanon war intensifies.
US Rolls Out Yet More Sanctions, & Connected to China
Per Reuters on Monday afternoon: “The U.S. government on Monday announced sanctions against three people and nine companies, including four based in Hong Kong and four in the United Arab Emirates, for aiding Iran’s shipment of oil to China. The ninth company is based in Oman.”
“The Treasury move follows sanctions announced on Friday on individuals and companies aiding Iranian purchases of weapons and components used to make drones and ballistic missiles,” the report adds. These new measures target some Iran-linked entities in Hong Kong/China.
As there’s not a whole lot to still sanction inside Iran, it looks like the US Treasury is focused on taking aim on external entities, though this is sure to increase Washington tensions with Beijing…
As Iran’s military desperately tries to regroup, Economic Fury will continue to deprive the regime of funding for its weapons programs, terrorist proxies, and nuclear ambitions. Treasury will continue to cut the Iranian regime off from the financial networks it uses to carry out… https://t.co/nenSlWtW8T
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) May 11, 2026
Trump Mulls Military Action As Ceasefire On “Life Support”
President Trump is meeting with his national security team Monday to discuss the way forward in the Iran war, including possibly resuming military action, after negotiations with the country deadlocked on Sunday, three U.S. officials told Axios.
U.S. officials say Trump wants a deal to end the war, but Iran’s rejection of many of his demands and refusal to make meaningful concessions on its nuclear program puts the military option back on the table.
This sent oil prices back to the highs of the day…
President Trump also told Fox, that he sees a 1% chance of an Iran deal materializing and succeeding, as even the ceasefire is one of “the weakest, on life support“:
President Donald Trump called out the “piece of garbage” peace proposal from Iran on Monday from the Oval Office, saying only “stupid people” in Iran are questioning his resolve in guaranteeing Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.
The latest Iranian proposal reneged on a past vow to give up enriched uranium.
None of this bodes well for the prospect of the Strait of Hormuz opening up anytime soon. Oil prices have reflected general pessimism at the start of this week.
Trump Might Fully Restart Project Freedom
Fox News is reporting that President Trump is considering renewing Project Freedom, pushing oil up. According to the developing story:
President Donald Trump has stated in an interview with Fox News that he is considering renewing Project Freedom, a military operation originally launched to secure the passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz. This operation, involving significant U.S. naval assets, had been paused amid diplomatic efforts with Iran. The initial pause was influenced by diplomatic progress mediated by Pakistan, although recent developments suggest a potential escalation.
However, the reality is that the de facto US naval blockade has remained in place. The Iranians last week fired on US warships which were escorting foreign vessels through the strait. Since then there’s been an uneasy calm amid stalled negotiations. There’s really no movement on either side. Trump indicated in the fresh comments that all of this could be part of a larger operation, and strangely a bit of a contradictory stance: he said of Iran’s “hardline leaders” that “they are going to fold” and that “I will deal with them until they make a deal”. Of course, the very label of ‘hardline’ would suggest the opposite.
The same Fox correspondent was told by Trump that forcibly retrieving Iran’s ‘nuclear dust’ is still on the table:
.@realDonaldTrump Also told me that Iranian negotiators told him the US will have to retrieve the “nuclear dust” at Iran’s destroyed facilities as Iran does not have the technology to do it. pic.twitter.com/2GgLVdQQoL
It is clear there remains a huge gap between the positions of Washington and Tehran, after the past days saw proposal and counterproposal submitted via Pakistan, with the White House issuing its final response over the weekend, as President Trump called it ‘unacceptable’.
According to new Monday words from Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, “Everything we proposed in the text was reasonable and generous.” However, US officials continue to insist on their “unreasonable demands,” Baghaei stressed. He described that Iran’s demands for the war to stop, for the US to lift its blockade, and the release Iran’s frozen assets, remain legitimate. Further, Tehran is demanding safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, along with establishing security in the region and in Lebanon.
Senior Iranian military official Mohsen Rezaee to Tasnim: There Is No Clear Prospect for a Political Agreement With the United States
“Unfortunately, the US continues to insist on its one-sided view,” Baghaei added of the “reasonable, generous offer” built around Iran’s national interests. Iran has strongly suggested that the US is actually too influenced by driving Israeli interests, not American priorities.
But per WSJ, Washington’s focus remains on the nuclear issue, which Iran considers a non-starter in negotiations: “The president on Sunday said a multipage response that Iran sent to the U.S. proposal to end the war, which didn’t include commitments about Tehran’s nuclear program, was unacceptable,” the publication writes.
Iran’s FM Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei:
Iran has proven to be a responsible power in the region, and at the same time, we are not bullies — rather, we are anti-bullies. Just look at our conduct.
Were we the ones who launched a military campaign against America thousands of miles… pic.twitter.com/q6fz3fi75A
Saudi Arabia has condemned and blasted Iran for its latest drone attacks targeting the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait on Sunday, according to a new Foreign Ministry statement. The UAE had intercepted two drones coming from Iran, while Qatar said a drone attack hit a cargo ship coming from Abu Dhabi in its waters. Kuwait in turn also said its air defenses had engaged hostile drones that entered its airspace. Kuwait, which borders Iran, has become a kind of front line for Iranian attacks and drone activity.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry reiterated its support and backing of all measures taken by Gulf states to protect their security and stability, saying, “The Kingdom demands an immediate halt to the blatant attacks on the territories and territorial waters of Gulf states, and to any attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz or disrupt international waterways.”
“It emphasizes the importance of adhering to the protection of international maritime routes in accordance with relevant international laws,” the ministry added.
Qatari LNG Tanker Abruptly U-Turns In Hormuz Chokepoint After Weekend Transit Breakthrough
Sunday’s response by Trump to Iran’s counterproposal pushed WTI crude futures nearly 3% higher to $98 a barrel as traders raised the war-risk premium tied to a prolonged disruption in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s counterproposal dominated attention over the weekend, but shipping activity in the region also drew focus after Bloomberg reporter Stephen Stapczynski cited vessel-tracking data showing that an LNG tanker successfully passed through the Strait of Hormuz without incident.
The shipment marked the first time Qatar exported LNG through the strait since the war began ten weeks earlier. The tanker later docked in Pakistan. By Monday morning, Stapczynski reported that another fully loaded LNG tanker, “Mihzem,” was approaching the waterway. “Another Qatar LNG shipment is nearing the Strait of Hormuz, bound for Pakistan,” Stapczynski wrote on X. He added, “Pakistan is dealing with a gas shortage, and has negotiated with Iran for several LNG shipments. If successful, this would be the second LNG cargo to transit Hormuz for Pakistan in a few days.”
Stapczynski’s X post and report about the second Qatar LNG tanker attempting to transit the maritime chokepoint came early Monday. By 0700 ET, new ship-tracking data showed that the Mihzem abruptly reversed course roughly 20 miles before reaching Hormuz Island.
Tanker Leaking
There is a large oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz spotted leaking a trail of oil, after a potential hostile strike. The incident, picked up by satellite monitoring, comes also amid reports of a large oil slick near Kharg Island; however, the Iranians have denied that the Kharg incident is a large-scale leak or oil slick.
Here’s what Tanker Trackers has commented on the below open sources satellite data and imagery (first struck on May 4):
The VLCC supertanker you see in the video below is BARAKAH (9902615). She is owned by UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC); the country’s state-owned oil & gas producer. BARAKAH was struck by Iranian drones on 2026-05-04, which is when we found her in this state on satellite imagery for clients. She’s empty of oil cargo following a secret transfer she had to conduct east of UAE to another tanker. She was struck once heading back west to fetch more oil. ADNOC condemned the attacks.
Satellite imagery appears to show a large oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz leaking a trail of oil following a possible strike. Intense small speedboat activity can also be seen nearby.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is convening a high level security meeting in his office in Jerusalem on Monday, according to The Times of Israel. The meeting comes after President Trump rejected Iran’s response to his ceasefire proposal, and ahead of direct Israel-Lebanon talks in Washington later this week. The Lebanon front has intensified, and IDF warplanes have heavily bombed not only southern Lebanon but the Beirut suburbs over the last days. Hezbollah drone attacks have become increasingly deadly in the meantime, with many serious injuries but also this latest:
An IDF reservist was killed in a Hezbollah drone attack in northern Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said on Monday. The slain soldier was named as Warrant Officer (res.) Alexander Glovanyov, 47, a driver in the Transport Center’s 6924th Battalion, from Petah Tikva.
The attack took place around 4 p.m. on Sunday, when several explosive-laden drones launched by Hezbollah struck in Israeli territory near Manara, close to the border with Lebanon. One of the drones killed Glovanyov, according to an IDF probe.
Iran Still Wants Comprehensive Deal to Include Lebanon
Responsible Statecraftwrites, “No new developments on the Lebanese front give reason for optimism that this round will yield an agreement that two prior rounds did not. The Trump administration, however, has an incentive to push for an agreement because of President Trump’s need to extract himself and the United States from the impasse involving the Strait of Hormuz.”
“The fighting on the Lebanese front since then has been as one-sided in the resulting death and destruction as Israeli combat with Palestinians,” the publication observes. “The Israeli assault has killed 2,700 people in Lebanon, while Israeli fatalities have been 18 military personnel and two civilians. At the height of the offensive, more than a million people — about a fifth of Lebanon’s population — were displaced, and most remain so. Israeli forces have destroyed entire villages in southern Lebanon.”
Iran continues to insist that any broader Iran war truce must encompass Lebanon as the conflict there flows out of the one in the Persian Gulf region. Al Jazeera meanwhile reports of the latest Monday: “Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon continues as Hezbollah claims more attacks on Israeli troops. The Lebanese Health Ministry says Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours have killed 51 people, including two medical workers.”
He’s a judicial pimp who pragmatically defends the Establishment’s bottom line.
I do not like Chief Justice John Roberts. I think his loyalties lie more with defending the entrenched powers of the political Establishment than with defending the Constitution of the United States. I find his jurisprudence squishy. Although his decisions could be described as advancing, more often than not, conservative viewpoints, Roberts does not seem to have a consistent philosophy guiding his opinions.
Roberts is a pragmatist. He surveys the mood of the country and considers how the rest of the members of the Court will vote on any case, and he chooses a position that he feels will best preserve the institutional longevity of the Judicial Branch. Roberts is, in other words, more interested in maintaining the power of the branch that he embodies than in making tough, but correct, decisions.
None of Roberts’ rulings better exemplifies this pragmatic, amoral approach to jurisprudence than his 2012 decision to save Obamacare by redefining the individual insurance mandate as a tax, rather than as a penalty. During oral arguments, the Obama administration barely addressed the possibility that the mandate could be seen as a tax. Democrats did not want to admit that nationalizing health insurance would increase costs for Americans, and the word “tax” certainly implies that prices will rise (which they did).
President Obama had been haranguing the Court for over a year that should it strike down his signature welfare legislation putting the federal government in control of American medicine, the decision would be disastrous for the American people and render the Court illegitimate. Roberts lives in the D.C. bubble. All his friends live in the D.C. bubble. The Democrat-controlled corporate news media reflect the prevailing opinions of those who live within the D.C. bubble. So Chief Justice Roberts chose to avoid leftist backlash (and to protect the Establishment’s sizable financial investments in government-controlled, socialized medicine) by aligning himself with Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan.
Obama celebrated Roberts’ valuable assist: “The highest court in the land has now spoken,” the president gloated. It is worth noting that similarly squishy jurist Justice Anthony Kennedy (a man whom Democrats succeeded in elevating to the Court after scuttling President Reagan’s original nomination of Robert Bork and then his replacement nomination of Douglas Ginsburg) actually joined the conservative members of the Court in a dissent that would have invalidated Obamacare in its entirety. Because Roberts joined the four leftist members of the Court in protecting Obama’s government takeover of the medical profession, healthcare is substantially more expensive and provides substantially worse treatment today.
Roberts’ constitutionally illiterate and philosophically unsound Obamacare opinion permitted a nefarious government-corporate power axis to take hold that has killed private practices across the country, made every medical doctor a de facto government employee, replaced medical science with government-regulated treatments, and inserted a government bureaucrat inside every examination room. But Roberts did preserve his standing in the D.C. bubble, maximize the profits of large insurance companies, bankrupt rural hospitals, increase the investment portfolio-generated wealth of insider-trading members of Congress, eliminate small practices that prioritized patient care, and let labor unions off the hook for healthcare obligations that they owed to their members. Furthermore, an entire generation of young leftists — too ignorant to know that President Obama and his fellow Democrats are responsible for the horrible state of healthcare in the United States today — openly celebrate the assassination of health insurance company executives walking down the street.
When the issue of Obamacare’s unconstitutionality came before the Roberts Court, the chief justice could have saved the country from all the harm that has come from forcing another illegitimate government power grab upon the American people. But that would have taken guts, wisdom, and principle. Roberts has none of those virtues. He’s a judicial pimp who pragmatically defends the Establishment’s bottom line. The medical profession in America is worse off and American patients are poorer and less healthy because of Roberts’ cowardice.
What I find particularly galling about the chief justice, however, is that he demands to be respected as some kind of impartial and inherently righteous judicial priest. If he could admit that he lacks a jurisprudential backbone and primarily represents the interests of the Establishment Blob in D.C., I would grant him some small measure of respect for being self-aware enough to understand that he is little more than a swampy, Leviathan-controlled, gelatinous judge whose opinions can be molded into whatever D.C.’s “elites” need. But Roberts is not honest enough to do that. Instead, he pretends to be above venal politics and struts around in his priestly robes as if he represents a branch of government too holy to be tainted by the inherently corrupting influence of power.
Although Roberts never said anything when Obama and his Democrat goons were threatening the Court before its damaging Obamacare decision, the chief justice jumped into action in 2018 to reprimand President Trump during his first term. Trump had publicly excoriated a 9th Circuit judge for usurping constitutional powers vested to the president of the United States. In doing so, Trump called the judicial tyrant “an Obama judge.” Well, that rather anodyne remark threw Chief Justice Roberts into a “Why, I never” tizzy, and the Judicial Branch’s limp caretaker found his way to a member of the Democrat-controlled press in order to correct the president’s errant thinking: “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.”
Uhhh…sure, Chief Justice Gumby. Why would a grown man feel compelled to tell such a blatant lie? The whole country knows that judges come with certain ideological proclivities that influence their decisions on the bench. While Republican presidents have repeatedly stumbled into nominating raging leftists (among them, Chief Justice Earl Warren and Justice David Souter) to the Supreme Court, nobody has any doubt that federal judges are chosen for their perceived philosophical bent.
This problem exists only because federal judges have proved incapable of performing their jobs with self-restraint. In the past, Roberts has correctly defined the Judiciary’s obligations: “Our role is very clear. We are to interpret the Constitution and laws of the United States and ensure that the political branches act within them.” But that’s not how most judges act! Instead of interpreting the Constitution, federal judges rewrite the Constitution. Instead of interpreting laws written by Congress, federal judges rewrite those laws into laws of their own. For Roberts to pretend that federal judges have not spent the last century imposing their will upon the American people makes him richly deserving of Queen Gertrude’s quip: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
Eight years later, Lady Roberts is still protesting! In a speech last week in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the chief justice claimed that judges are not “political actors.” (Tell that to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, whose opinions sound as if they were written by teenaged Marxists with dog-eared copies of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals!) Roberts lamented how too many Americans “think we’re making policy decisions.” (Perhaps that’s because too many judges are, in fact, making policy decisions!) The chief justice also insisted that it is “not appropriate” for Americans to criticize individual judges.
Well, perhaps Chief Justice Roberts should convince his federal judges to stop behaving as partisan hacks! Rather than permitting, through his silence, individual judges to usurp the powers of the president of the United States, perhaps Roberts should call those tyrannical judges out by name. If he wants the Judicial Branch to be perceived as “independent” and “nonpartisan,” then he should insist that judges exercise constitutional self-restraint!
But he won’t do that. Because Roberts has opinions but no spine.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
Tyson Sinks, Walmart Falls After Trump Moves To Temporarily Lower Beef Import Tariffs
Tyson Foods and Walmart shares moved lower around noon in New York, while major Brazilian meatpacker Minerva Foods moved higher on a Wall Street Journal report that says the White House will temporarily cut beef import tariffs
According to the WSJ report, the plan would suspend the annual tariff-rate quota, which imposes higher duties once import limits are reached, allowing more foreign beef to flood the U.S. at lower tariff rates to suppress soaring prices.
The move comes as the U.S. cattle herd has fallen to a 75-year low, driving the latest USDA national average beef prices at supermarkets near $7 per pound, squeezing meat processors, and pushing consumers into trade-downs to cheaper proteins such as chicken and pork.
Walmart shares are down about 2.5% around noon.
Tyson Foods shares dropped about 4.5%.
Meanwhile, Brazilian meatpacker Minerva is up nearly 2%.
The move by the Trump administration to put a ceiling on ground beef and steak prices comes ahead of the midterm elections, as a race to make things more affordable in the wake of the energy price spike following the U.S.-Iran war becomes a central focus again.
We suspect U.S. ranchers won’t be too happy about foreign meats set to flood the U.S. in even greater quantities.
With partisan battle lines being drawn nationwide in a legal showdown over redistricting, Utah may be next in line after the judge who forcibly gerrymandered a congressional seat for Democrats stepped down in disgrace.
Diana Hagen, a justice on the Utah Supreme Court resigned Friday in a letter to Gov. Spencer Cox.
Utah News Dispatch: Utah Supreme Court Justice Diana Hagen announces her resignation from the court.
Hagen faced allegations she had a relationship with an attorney involved in a case about redistricting, which led to Utah getting a new congressional map. pic.twitter.com/aFQI3Uw8Lf
— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) May 8, 2026
Although Utah’s map currently has Republicans representing all four seats, the courts said it must redraw the maps ahead of the 2026 election to create a Democrat-favorable district around Salt Lake City.
The case centered on a 2018 ballot initiative that sought to create an independent voting commission to draw the maps. The legislature later passed its own 2020 law that limited the commission to an advisory role, but the courts determined it lacked the authority to do so.
Hagen subsequently recused herself from the proceedings after her ex-husband leaked text messages showing that she had been conducting an affair with attorney David Reymann, who was representing the plaintiffs in the redistricting case.
Although an independent investigation by the Judicial Conduct Commission found the allegations against Hagen had “very little credibility,” she continued to face pressure to resign over the perceived conflict of interest.
In her letter of resignation, Hagen cited the extra scrutiny on her private life and the toll it had taken on her family.
“They do not deserve to have intensely personal details surrounding the painful dissolution of my thirty-year marriage subjected to public scrutiny,” she wrote.
In a terse press release acknowledging the resignation, Cox’s office said only that additional information about filling the vacancy would be forthcoming.
With previous rulings against the Utah legislature having been unanimous, it is unclear that Hagen’s departure will change the calculus.
Moreover, the seat’s current occupant, RINO Rep. Blake Moore, voiced support for Proposition 4, the ballot initiative that would turn his own seat blue.
Under the new maps, Moore will run in a different district, with Riley Owen, an Oxford-educated naval intelligence officer and CEO, running in the newly blue-leaning District 1.
Ben Sellers is a freelance authored writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him atx.com/realbensellers.
Trump: Iran’s Response A “Piece Of Garbage”, Puts Ceasefire “On Life Support”
Summary
US President blasts ‘piece of garbage’ Iran response, says ceasefire on ‘life support’.
Trump mulls restarting Project Freedom in Hormuz and says forcibly retrieving ‘nuclear dust’ is still on the table, oil jumps on headline.
Iran Foreign Ministry: “Everything we proposed in the text was reasonable and generous.” However, US officials insist on their “unreasonable demands.“
Saudi Arabia condemns Iran for its latest drone attacks targeting the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait on Sunday.
Qatari LNG tanker abruptly U-Turns In Hormuz chokepoint after earlier in weekend an initial one made it through – an unprecedented first for a Qatari tanker of the war.
Israeli reservist killed in Hezbollah drone attack on northern Israel as Lebanon war intensifies.
The latest from President Trump via Fox, who also said he sees a 1% chance of an Iran deal materializing and succeeding, as even the ceasefire is one of “the weakest, on life support“:
President Donald Trump called out the “piece of garbage” peace proposal from Iran on Monday from the Oval Office, saying only “stupid people” in Iran are questioning his resolve in guaranteeing Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.
The latest Iranian proposal reneged on a past vow to give up enriched uranium.
None of this bodes well for the prospect of the Strait of Hormuz opening up anytime soon. Oil prices have reflected general pessimism at the start of this week.
Trump Might Fully Restart Project Freedom
Fox News is reporting that President Trump is considering renewing Project Freedom, pushing oil up. According to the developing story:
President Donald Trump has stated in an interview with Fox News that he is considering renewing Project Freedom, a military operation originally launched to secure the passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz. This operation, involving significant U.S. naval assets, had been paused amid diplomatic efforts with Iran. The initial pause was influenced by diplomatic progress mediated by Pakistan, although recent developments suggest a potential escalation.
However, the reality is that the de facto US naval blockade has remained in place. The Iranians last week fired on US warships which were escorting foreign vessels through the strait. Since then there’s been an uneasy calm amid stalled negotiations. There’s really no movement on either side. Trump indicated in the fresh comments that all of this could be part of a larger operation, and strangely a bit of a contradictory stance: he said of Iran’s “hardline leaders” that “they are going to fold” and that “I will deal with them until they make a deal”. Of course, the very label of ‘hardline’ would suggest the opposite.
The same Fox correspondent was told by Trump that forcibly retrieving Iran’s ‘nuclear dust’ is still on the table:
.@realDonaldTrump Also told me that Iranian negotiators told him the US will have to retrieve the “nuclear dust” at Iran’s destroyed facilities as Iran does not have the technology to do it. pic.twitter.com/2GgLVdQQoL
It is clear there remains a huge gap between the positions of Washington and Tehran, after the past days saw proposal and counterproposal submitted via Pakistan, with the White House issuing its final response over the weekend, as President Trump called it ‘unacceptable’.
According to new Monday words from Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, “Everything we proposed in the text was reasonable and generous.” However, US officials continue to insist on their “unreasonable demands,” Baghaei stressed. He described that Iran’s demands for the war to stop, for the US to lift its blockade, and the release Iran’s frozen assets, remain legitimate. Further, Tehran is demanding safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, along with establishing security in the region and in Lebanon.
Senior Iranian military official Mohsen Rezaee to Tasnim: There Is No Clear Prospect for a Political Agreement With the United States
“Unfortunately, the US continues to insist on its one-sided view,” Baghaei added of the “reasonable, generous offer” built around Iran’s national interests. Iran has strongly suggested that the US is actually too influenced by driving Israeli interests, not American priorities.
But per WSJ, Washington’s focus remains on the nuclear issue, which Iran considers a non-starter in negotiations: “The president on Sunday said a multipage response that Iran sent to the U.S. proposal to end the war, which didn’t include commitments about Tehran’s nuclear program, was unacceptable,” the publication writes.
Iran’s FM Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei:
Iran has proven to be a responsible power in the region, and at the same time, we are not bullies — rather, we are anti-bullies. Just look at our conduct.
Were we the ones who launched a military campaign against America thousands of miles… pic.twitter.com/q6fz3fi75A
Saudi Arabia has condemned and blasted Iran for its latest drone attacks targeting the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait on Sunday, according to a new Foreign Ministry statement. The UAE had intercepted two drones coming from Iran, while Qatar said a drone attack hit a cargo ship coming from Abu Dhabi in its waters. Kuwait in turn also said its air defenses had engaged hostile drones that entered its airspace. Kuwait, which borders Iran, has become a kind of front line for Iranian attacks and drone activity.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry reiterated its support and backing of all measures taken by Gulf states to protect their security and stability, saying, “The Kingdom demands an immediate halt to the blatant attacks on the territories and territorial waters of Gulf states, and to any attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz or disrupt international waterways.”
“It emphasizes the importance of adhering to the protection of international maritime routes in accordance with relevant international laws,” the ministry added.
Qatari LNG Tanker Abruptly U-Turns In Hormuz Chokepoint After Weekend Transit Breakthrough
Sunday’s response by Trump to Iran’s counterproposal pushed WTI crude futures nearly 3% higher to $98 a barrel as traders raised the war-risk premium tied to a prolonged disruption in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s counterproposal dominated attention over the weekend, but shipping activity in the region also drew focus after Bloomberg reporter Stephen Stapczynski cited vessel-tracking data showing that an LNG tanker successfully passed through the Strait of Hormuz without incident.
The shipment marked the first time Qatar exported LNG through the strait since the war began ten weeks earlier. The tanker later docked in Pakistan. By Monday morning, Stapczynski reported that another fully loaded LNG tanker, “Mihzem,” was approaching the waterway. “Another Qatar LNG shipment is nearing the Strait of Hormuz, bound for Pakistan,” Stapczynski wrote on X. He added, “Pakistan is dealing with a gas shortage, and has negotiated with Iran for several LNG shipments. If successful, this would be the second LNG cargo to transit Hormuz for Pakistan in a few days.”
Stapczynski’s X post and report about the second Qatar LNG tanker attempting to transit the maritime chokepoint came early Monday. By 0700 ET, new ship-tracking data showed that the Mihzem abruptly reversed course roughly 20 miles before reaching Hormuz Island.
Tanker Leaking
There is a large oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz spotted leaking a trail of oil, after a potential hostile strike. The incident, picked up by satellite monitoring, comes also amid reports of a large oil slick near Kharg Island; however, the Iranians have denied that the Kharg incident is a large-scale leak or oil slick.
Here’s what Tanker Trackers has commented on the below open sources satellite data and imagery (first struck on May 4):
The VLCC supertanker you see in the video below is BARAKAH (9902615). She is owned by UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC); the country’s state-owned oil & gas producer. BARAKAH was struck by Iranian drones on 2026-05-04, which is when we found her in this state on satellite imagery for clients. She’s empty of oil cargo following a secret transfer she had to conduct east of UAE to another tanker. She was struck once heading back west to fetch more oil. ADNOC condemned the attacks.
Satellite imagery appears to show a large oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz leaking a trail of oil following a possible strike. Intense small speedboat activity can also be seen nearby.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is convening a high level security meeting in his office in Jerusalem on Monday, according to The Times of Israel. The meeting comes after President Trump rejected Iran’s response to his ceasefire proposal, and ahead of direct Israel-Lebanon talks in Washington later this week. The Lebanon front has intensified, and IDF warplanes have heavily bombed not only southern Lebanon but the Beirut suburbs over the last days. Hezbollah drone attacks have become increasingly deadly in the meantime, with many serious injuries but also this latest:
An IDF reservist was killed in a Hezbollah drone attack in northern Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said on Monday. The slain soldier was named as Warrant Officer (res.) Alexander Glovanyov, 47, a driver in the Transport Center’s 6924th Battalion, from Petah Tikva.
The attack took place around 4 p.m. on Sunday, when several explosive-laden drones launched by Hezbollah struck in Israeli territory near Manara, close to the border with Lebanon. One of the drones killed Glovanyov, according to an IDF probe.
Iran Still Wants Comprehensive Deal to Include Lebanon
Responsible Statecraftwrites, “No new developments on the Lebanese front give reason for optimism that this round will yield an agreement that two prior rounds did not. The Trump administration, however, has an incentive to push for an agreement because of President Trump’s need to extract himself and the United States from the impasse involving the Strait of Hormuz.”
“The fighting on the Lebanese front since then has been as one-sided in the resulting death and destruction as Israeli combat with Palestinians,” the publication observes. “The Israeli assault has killed 2,700 people in Lebanon, while Israeli fatalities have been 18 military personnel and two civilians. At the height of the offensive, more than a million people — about a fifth of Lebanon’s population — were displaced, and most remain so. Israeli forces have destroyed entire villages in southern Lebanon.”
Iran continues to insist that any broader Iran war truce must encompass Lebanon as the conflict there flows out of the one in the Persian Gulf region. Al Jazeera meanwhile reports of the latest Monday: “Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon continues as Hezbollah claims more attacks on Israeli troops. The Lebanese Health Ministry says Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours have killed 51 people, including two medical workers.”
ASP Isotopes Subsidiary Signs MOU With European Nuclear Technology Company For Fuel Supply
ASP Isotopes said its subsidiary Quantum Leap Energy LLC has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with an unnamed European nuclear technology company to explore a potential long-term partnership to supply fuel for advanced nuclear reactors, according to a company press release Monday morning.
The agreement focuses on high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), a type of nuclear fuel enriched to more than 10% uranium-235 that is expected to play a key role in powering next-generation reactors. Under the proposed arrangement, the European company would provide uranium feedstock to Quantum Leap Energy’s planned conversion and enrichment facilities, where it would be processed into HALEU and potentially deconverted before being delivered back to the partner.
The PR says that the companies said they will conduct technical and economic assessments to determine whether a long-term commercial partnership is viable. Those evaluations will examine production scalability, operational requirements, costs, and potential business models.
The memorandum runs through Dec. 31, 2030, though either party can terminate it earlier. It also includes preliminary estimates for HALEU supply volumes, with potential deliveries beginning in 2028 and increasing through 2036 in line with the European company’s reactor development schedule.
The deal comes as governments and nuclear developers race to secure new sources of HALEU amid concerns over limited global supply and geopolitical risks tied to existing nuclear fuel supply chains. Industry leaders have warned that expanding enrichment capacity — particularly in the U.S. and allied markets — will be critical to supporting the rollout of advanced nuclear technologies.
Recall we wrote last month that ASPI was working to provide timely relief for the global helium shortage.
In a research note from Canaccord Genuity analyst George Gianarikas last month, he highlighted the company’s Virginia Gas Project in South Africa as a potential new source of supply just as Qatar’s helium exports face major disruption.
The warning came shortly after we reported on Qatar’s Ras Laffan complex damage and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which together threaten roughly one-third of global helium output. Helium remains essential for semiconductor manufacturing, MRI machines, aerospace systems, and quantum computing. It has no practical substitute in chip fabrication, where it cools wafers and detects microscopic leaks.
ASP Isotopes’ Virginia Gas Project stands out because of its unusually high helium concentrations. The 1,870 sq. km deposit averages 3.4% helium, with peaks reaching 12%. That compares with Qatar’s typical 0.01% and the U.S. average of 0.35%.
As we discussed last month, Phase 1 drilling wrapped up four months ahead of schedule in March 2026. Production is scheduled to begin in late 2026, delivering 58 MCF per day of helium alongside LNG.
Phase 2, targeted for completion around 2030, would scale output to 895 MCF per day. Using conservative pricing of $380 per MCF, Canaccord estimates Phase 1 revenue near $20 million annually and Phase 2 above $285 million.
The project benefits from U.S. International Development Finance Corporation backing and is located in a geopolitically neutral jurisdiction.
ASP Isotopes now faces the standard execution challenges of moving from drilling to full commercial output, but the asset positions the company as one of the few near-term Western-aligned sources capable of adding meaningful new supply.
The parabolic semiconductor rally crossed a line this week. SOXX, the iShares Semiconductor ETF, closed Friday at $509.77 after touching a fresh intraday high of $511.68. That’s a gain of roughly 244% from the April 2025 low of $148.31. Most of that move has been compressed into the last two months alone. Since mid-March, SOXX has tacked on another 58%. The chart is now textbook parabolic. And parabolic charts almost never end politely.
If you wanted a real-time stress test of how fragile this move is, you got one this week. Semiconductors took a -2.86% hit on Thursday on softer Iran headlines, with Broadcom and Micron dragging. By Friday’s open, the dip was already being bought aggressively. A stronger-than-expected April jobs report (115,000 vs. 65,000 expected) and renewed peace-deal optimism sent the Nasdaq up 1.71% on the day, with SOXX printing a new intraday high before the close. That’s not a market digesting risk. That’s a market refusing to take “no” for an answer.
I’ve watched this movie before. After 30 years of cycles, the ending is rarely a surprise. The setup, however, is almost always sold as “this time is different.” It isn’t. In fact, every parabolic semiconductor rally in modern memory has ended the same way, and there’s no reason to expect a kinder math this round.
Where The Parabolic Semiconductor Rally Stands Today
Start with the math, because it’s doing the talking. SOXX is currently trading 62% above its 200-day moving average and 34% above its 50-day. Readings that stretched are the back end of a move, not the middle. The slope of the advance has steepened in each successive month. That is the signature of a momentum trade pulling in late buyers, not of fundamentals catching up to price.
Look across the complex, and the dispersion is striking. Micron is up nearly 1,000% off its April 2025 low. AMD is up roughly 450%. Nvidia, the index’s anchor, is up “only” 140%. Notably, the stocks that crashed hardest a year ago have rallied the most in the recovery. That’s exactly how late-cycle chase trades behave. The trash leads the way up because it has the largest short position to cover and the most leverage to a narrative. In other words, this parabolic semiconductor rally is now being driven by the names with the worst fundamentals, not the best.
Notice in the chart above how the slope of the advance has steepened in each successive month. The early move off the April low was a recovery. The middle was a trend. What we have now is something else.
Real Demand Or A Speculative Frenzy?
I get the bull case. AI capex is real. Hyperscaler orders are real. Foundry utilization is real. Nvidia, Broadcom, and TSMC are delivering numbers that justify premium multiples. So far, so good. The shortage narrative around HBM memory and leading-node capacity has actual data to back it up, and that’s the part of the story bulls keep pointing to.
However, here is the problem with the current setup. A real fundamental story doesn’t require a parabolic chart to validate it. In fact, fundamentals tend to drag prices up the trend line, not push them through the ceiling. When a “shortage” narrative arrives at the same moment that the worst-quality names in the sector are leading the index higher, that’s not fundamentals at work. That’s the narrative being recycled to justify a move that has already happened. Indeed, the parabolic semiconductor rally we’re seeing right now bears almost none of the hallmarks of a fundamentals-led advance.
Look at the dispersion again. If this were a shortage-driven, fundamentals-led rally, the leaders would be the names with the cleanest demand visibility. Instead, the laggards from a year ago are the runaway winners. Micron up 1,000%. AMD up 450%. Nvidia, the company that actually owns the AI capex story, up “only” 140%. Quality is being left behind because the chase is no longer about earnings. It’s about beta.
Here’s the part that should bother bulls the most. SOXX is trading at multiples that already reflect strong 2026 earnings. The current rally has likely already fully priced in 2026 earnings. From here, you are paying for 2027 and 2028 growth in a sector where the cycle has not been repealed. Semiconductors are still cyclical. Always have been. The day the AI capex cycle hiccups, even briefly, is the day this chart breaks.
Make no mistake, the rally has been spectacular. The exit will be too. Importantly, we have decades of data on what happens when speculative momentum compresses years of expected returns into months. The pattern is remarkably consistent across asset classes and across decades. As a result, the path forward for this parabolic semiconductor rally is not a mystery, even if the timing is.
The consistent thread is that parabolic charts don’t unwind through gentle rotation. They snap. The exit is faster than the entry, and the stocks that led the rally on the way up tend to lead the carnage on the way down. The investors most hurt are not the ones who avoided the move entirely. They’re the ones who showed up late, on the back of the same shortage narratives that are now circulating around semiconductors.
Recovery time is the part most investors underestimate. Cisco, the poster child of the dot-com semiconductor adjacency, only reclaimed its March 2000 peak on December 10, 2025. That’s 25 years, 8 months, and 13 days from peak to recovery. The business kept growing throughout. Earnings kept compounding. Revenues nearly quintupled. The stock simply paid forward too many years of growth at the top, and the math demanded a quarter century to absorb the excess.
Anyone who bought at the 2000 peak earned a nominal break-even after factoring in dividends, but lost meaningfully to inflation along the way. That’s not a recovery story. That’s a generational opportunity cost. ARKK, which ran +360% into its 2021 peak, still trades below it five years later. Different decades, different assets, but the pattern holds. Speculative tops resolve through painful, prolonged drawdowns, not graceful rotations.
The Risk Management Playbook
So what do you actually do? Of course, the answer depends on whether you’ve ridden this rally or you’re staring at the chart wondering if it’s too late to participate. Honestly, the answer for most investors is the same in either case. You don’t have to be all-in or all-out. You just can’t let the position size make the decision for you.
Here is the playbook we’re using for clients right now. First, five points if you’re already invested. Then, two if you’re not.
The Bottom Line
The semiconductor rally has been one of the most extraordinary moves of the post-COVID era. The fundamentals supporting the early stages of the move were real. The fundamentals supporting the most recent leg are increasingly imaginary. SOXX has likely fully priced in 2026 earnings already, and the stocks leading the index higher are no longer the ones with the cleanest demand stories.
Of course, parabolic charts rarely give back gracefully. Cisco, oil, silver, and ARKK all showed that exits come faster than entries, and recovery can take years to decades. The parabolic semiconductor rally has been spectacular. The exit will be too. The question isn’t whether the chart cools off. The question is whether you’ve prepared your portfolio for it before it does.
“Friendly Local Assassin” Suspect In White House Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting Pleads Not Guilty
In a federal courtroom in Washington this morning, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen entered a not guilty plea to charges stemming from the April 25 shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) Dinner. The plea sets the stage for a high-profile trial that could determine whether Allen faces life in prison for what authorities describe as an attempted assassination of President Donald Trump.
Allen was tackled by Secret Service after gunfire erupted just outside the ballroom packed with roughly 2,600 attendees – including the President, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and numerous Cabinet officials and journalists.
The night of April 25…
Around 8:36 p.m. EDT, as dinner service was underway, Allen – armed with a 12-gauge Maverick shotgun, an Armscor Precision .38 semi-automatic pistol, and multiple knives – rushed past a security checkpoint on an upper level of the hotel. He fired at least one shot (reports indicate possible additional rounds) in the direction of law enforcement before being tackled by Secret Service agents and other officers.
One Secret Service agent was struck in his bulletproof vest by buckshot; he was treated and released from the hospital. Allen sustained a knee injury after tripping during the confrontation but was not shot. No bystanders or attendees were injured or killed. President Trump was quickly surrounded by agents and evacuated – 10 seconds after JD Vance, and the dinner was halted and later rescheduled.
Surveillance footage captured the rapid sequence: Allen sprinting with weapons visible, the sound of gunfire, and swift law enforcement response. Allen had checked into the hotel as a guest days earlier, traveling by Amtrak from his home in Torrance, California.
Today, we are releasing video already provided to U.S. District Court showing Cole Allen shoot a U.S. Secret Service officer during his attempt to assassinate the President at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Born April 11, 1995, Allen is a California native with an extensive academic background – earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2017 and a master’s in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 2025. He interned at NASA, worked part-time as a tutor at C2 Education in Torrance (named “Teacher of the Month” in December 2024), and developed video games, including a ‘non-violent fighting game’ (lol) called Bohrdom that was later removed from Steam following his arrest.
Acquaintances and family described him as highly intelligent, polite, inquisitive, and generally “gentle” or “super stable,” with no prior criminal history. He lived with his parents and siblings, regularly practiced at shooting ranges, and had expressed anti-Trump political views online and in person—including a small donation to Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign and attendance at protests.
The Manifesto and Alleged Motive
Approximately 10 minutes before the attack, Allen emailed a lengthy note titled “Apology and Explanation” to family members. In it, he apologized for “abusing” their trust and stated he did not expect forgiveness. He exhibited deep hatred of Trump, referring to himself in one passage as the “Friendly Federal Assassin” and outlining an intent to target “administration officials (not including Mr. Patel)” – widely interpreted as sparing FBI Director Kash Patel – from highest-ranking to lowest.
The document criticized specific actions such as federal operations against alleged drug boats and highlighted what Allen perceived as lax security at the hotel and event. Also for some reason FBI Director Kash Patel was not a target.
Authorities have described the note and related materials recovered from his devices and hotel room as a manifesto reflecting political grievances and a belief that it was his “duty” to act. Investigators are still examining the full scope of his radicalization, but preliminary findings point to targeted political violence rather than random or personal animus.
#WHCD#TRUMP
**Here is the full text of Cole Allen’s manifesto**, as published by the New York Post (1,052 words, signed “Cole ‘coldForce’ ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Allen”).
Part: 1/2
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Hello everybody!
So I may have given a lot of people a surprise today. Let me start off… pic.twitter.com/6brCsHjHoJ
Allen was charged days after the incident with attempting to assassinate the president, assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon, and multiple firearms violations (including interstate transportation of a firearm with intent to commit a felony and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence). A federal grand jury later returned a four-count indictment.
He has remained in federal custody in Washington. Early proceedings included concerns over his detention conditions – initially on suicide watch, later removed – prompting a federal magistrate judge to express alarm about his treatment, including reports of five-point restraints, and to demand explanations from jail officials (poor baby!). Allen’s defense team has filed motions, including one seeking the recusal of U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro, and has highlighted what they describe as unusually harsh conditions compared to other high-profile detainees.
Today’s arraignment before Judge Trevor McFadden was the first formal opportunity for Allen to enter a plea on the indicted charges. With the not guilty plea entered, the case now proceeds toward trial, discovery, and potential pre-trial motions. If convicted on the lead count, Allen could face life imprisonment.
