Good morning, and welcome to Raw America. We’ve got a packed show today, and I want to get right into it because the stories breaking this week demand your attention. We’re talking about war drums beating over Iran, a federal judge holding a Trump lawyer in contempt, the surveillance state getting a quiet expansion, and Trump voters in suburban Arizona and Georgia waking up to find detention centers going up next door. This is the kind of coverage you’re not going to get from oligarch-controlled media, and that’s exactly why we’re here.
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Iran: Is Trump About to Start a War?
The White House has been briefed that President Trump could potentially order a strike on Iran as soon as this Saturday. Sources say Trump has privately argued both for and against military action, but has yet to finalize any decision, even after extensive conversations with advisers and allies. Senior military officials met in the White House Situation Room on Wednesday to war-game the options.
Trump has also been briefed by Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff, who held indirect talks with Iran on Tuesday. “He is spending a lot of time thinking about this,” one source said. There’s no indication whether he’ll make up his mind by the weekend, but sources note that U.S. air and naval assets in the Middle East have surged in recent days, standard pre-positioning for a potential strike.
The Pentagon is quietly relocating some Middle East-based staff to Europe and the U.S. in case Iran retaliates. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Iran is expected to share its negotiating position “in the next couple of weeks,” but declined to say whether Trump would hold off on military action until then. “I’m not going to set deadlines on behalf of the president,” Leavitt said, while insisting diplomacy remains “his first option.” She also said, and I’m quoting here, “There are many reasons and arguments that one could make for a strike against Iran.”
Earlier this week, a Trump adviser put the odds of military action at 90 percent within the next few weeks. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is headed to meet Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on February 28th for a briefing on the Iran talks. Israel would almost certainly be drawn into any U.S. strike. The wild card politically: a lot of Trump’s base wants America First, not a new Middle East war, and midterms are coming in November.
Federal Judge Holds Trump Lawyer in Contempt
A federal judge in Minnesota has found a Trump administration attorney in civil contempt of court over the treatment of a legal resident arrested by ICE. Judge Laura Provinzino ordered Matthew Isihara, a military attorney serving as a special assistant U.S. attorney, to pay a $500-per-day fine until all identification documents belonging to Rigoberto Soto Jimenez are returned to him.
Soto Jimenez is a Mexican national who has lived legally in Minnesota since 2018. He was swept up in ICE’s Operation Metro Surge in mid-January, and a federal judge ordered his release after ruling that immigration officials had not presented a valid warrant. The government not only failed to release him in Minnesota as ordered, it also failed to return his documents.
In court Wednesday, Isihara apologized and blamed the situation on high caseloads and understaffing. The U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota called the contempt ruling “a lawless abuse of judicial power.” That’s the government’s response to getting caught flouting a court order.
This is part of a much larger pattern. Federal judges across the country are at their breaking point with the Trump administration. A Yale Law professor who represents detained immigrants put it plainly: “Judges are no longer willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the federal government that they’re acting in good faith.” The chief judge of the Minnesota federal district compiled a list of nearly 100 instances of noncompliance with court orders since January. The DOJ’s own chief of staff for the Deputy Attorney General admitted the department had violated more than 50 court orders in New Jersey alone.
Stephen Miller Wants to Keep Warrantless Surveillance Alive
Stephen Miller is quietly leading a White House push to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the law that lets the U.S. government collect data on non-citizens abroad without a warrant. The authority is currently set to expire April 20th, and Miller wants it extended through at least 2027.
This creates an interesting split inside the Republican Party. Some MAGA hardliners are deeply uneasy about warrantless surveillance given the FBI’s use of FISA tools during the Russia investigation. Others argue Section 702 is essential for tracking terrorists, narcotraffickers, and cyberattackers. House Intelligence Committee Chair Rick Crawford told reporters: “April 20 is the deadline, so we’ve got to work fast.” Jim Jordan says he’s committed to reauthorization but wants guardrails. Trump’s own position remains unclear, which is a significant obstacle to getting anything done in time.
Not in My Backyard: Trump Voters Resist Detention Centers
Here’s a story that cuts right to the heart of the gap between what Trump promised and what his policies actually deliver. Stacy Bradley voted for Trump because of his border agenda. She supports law and order. But when the federal government bought a warehouse next door to her cheerleading gym in Surprise, Arizona, and announced plans to convert it into a detention center for up to 1,500 immigrants, she was shaken. Children as young as three train at her gym. She’s worried about escapes, protests, and kids seeing people in shackles next door.
This scene is playing out in communities across the country. Local officials and residents in at least a dozen areas have pushed back against the administration’s plan to buy industrial warehouses and convert them into detention facilities. The objections cut across party lines: property tax losses, strained infrastructure, water and sewer capacity, and basic humanitarian concerns about holding people in warehouses for an average of 60 days.
ICE currently holds about 68,000 people in detention. The administration wants to expand that to more than 100,000 beds, at an estimated cost of $38 billion. At least eight warehouses have already been purchased in Maryland, Georgia, Texas, and Pennsylvania. Some sales have collapsed after public backlash. In Social Circle, Georgia, city officials are warning that a planned facility for 8,500 detainees would overwhelm a town of 5,000 residents that already has two police officers on duty at any given shift and no nearby hospital equipped for emergencies.
Even in places where over 70 percent of residents voted for Trump, the majority opposes putting these facilities in their communities. One Surprise business owner who voted for Trump last year said it plainly: “I was so sick and tired of seeing millions of people flood across the border. I’m so happy with what they’re doing. Do I want it to touch my neighborhood? No.”
That tension, between supporting the policy in the abstract and living with its consequences, is going to define the next two years.
Stay with us. More Raw America ahead.
STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor Arrested Over Epstein Ties. The former British royal was arrested Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office. King Charles III stripped Mountbatten-Windsor of his titles after Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir detailed a 2011 encounter in which she said Epstein forced her to have sex with then-Prince Andrew.
Oklahoma Suspends 122 Students Over Walkout to Protest ICE. Mustang Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Charles Bradley suspended the students who walked out, saying they had been warned not to do so after the walkout plans were discovered. Students across the country have been staging walkouts as a way to demand accountability for ICE, including in other red states like Florida and Texas.
DOJ Removes Trump Allegations from Epstein Files. A record of FBI interviews with one of Epstein’s victims who accused Donald Trump of assaulting her appears to have been scrubbed from the DOJ’s Epstein database. The FBI spoke to the woman on four separate occasions. She said Epstein introduced her to Trump between 1983 and 1985.
Hegseth Invites Pastor Who Downplayed Slavery to Lead Pentagon Prayer. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly invited pastor Doug Wilson of the Community of Reformed Evangelical Churches (Hegseth’s denomination) to lead a prayer at the Pentagon this week. Wilson has a record of extremist public statements, including that there were positive aspects to chattel slavery.
Maryland and New Mexico Ban All State Contracts with ICE. After Governors Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) and Wes Moore (D-Md.) signed new legislation into law this week, two more blue states will now no longer do business with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Counting those two states, there are now a total of nine states across the country (California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington) who have codified a ban on working with ICE into state law.
