Good evening, and welcome to Raw America. I’m British Chris.
There’s a lot happening right now, and it’s moving fast. The US military is deploying thousands of troops near Iran. Traders are making hundreds of millions in bets in suspicious oil trades. JD Vance shrugs while 42 million Americans face losing food assistance. Pete Hegseth’s pastor calls for the death of a Democratic politician. And a veteran journalist says she’ll leave CNN if the billionaires take over.
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Trump Deploys Troops Following Very Suspicious Oil Trades
The Pentagon is deploying roughly 3,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East. Two US officials confirmed the deployment order is expected imminently.
The 82nd Airborne isn’t your average unit. It’s the Army’s emergency response force, capable of being dropped anywhere in the world in under 24 hours, trained to parachute into hostile territory and seize airfields. This is a serious escalation.
That’s the military piece. Now here’s the part that should make your blood boil.
Fifteen minutes before Trump posted on Truth Social claiming the US had held “productive” talks with Iran and announcing a ceasefire on energy strikes, more than six thousand oil futures contracts worth an estimated $580 million changed hands in the span of sixty seconds.
When Trump posted, oil prices dropped. The traders made a fortune.
Iran denied any negotiations had even taken place. Their security council secretary accused Trump of manipulating financial markets with “fake news.” One user on Polymarket — a betting platform that runs on cryptocurrency and doesn’t require real names — made over a million dollars since 2024 from what analysts are calling “suspiciously well-timed” bets predicting US and Israeli military action against Iran.
Democrats Chris Murphy and Greg Casar are now pushing legislation to regulate prediction markets. Meanwhile, two Israelis have already been charged in a separate case over using classified information to place bets on Polymarket.
Nobody knows for certain who’s behind these trades, and it hasn’t been proven they had inside information. But the question hanging over all of this is obvious: who knew what, and when did they know it?
JD Vance Shrugs at 42 Million Hungry Americans
A government shutdown is looming, and the 42 million Americans who rely on food stamp benefits are running out of time.
A reporter asked Vice President JD Vance directly: what does he say to the millions of people who could lose their food assistance?
Vance didn’t express concern. He didn’t acknowledge the scale of the crisis. Instead, he praised Trump and blamed Democrats entirely, saying the suffering that’s coming will be Democrats’ fault for not passing a “clean bill.”
Airport disruptions are already causing chaos. Food assistance cuts are coming. And the Vice President’s message to struggling Americans is essentially: Too bad, so sad.
Senate Republicans are reportedly working on a compromise with Democrats over DHS funding, but a key Democratic demand, that immigration raids require judicial warrants, appears to be off the table. Whether Democrats will accept that remains unclear.
People are going to go hungry while this plays out. That’s not a partisan statement. That’s just a fact.
Pete Hegseth’s Pastor Prays for James Talarico’s Death
Brooks Potteiger, described as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s closest spiritual adviser, appeared on a podcast called “Reformation Red Pill” last week and called on God to kill Texas Democratic state representative James Talarico.
The podcast host said he “prays that God kills” Talarico, clarifying it was spiritual. Potteiger agreed, saying he wants Talarico “crucified with Christ.” The host then added that if divine transformation isn’t in the cards, they want Talarico stopped “by any means necessary.”
Talarico is a 36-year-old Democratic rising star currently running for US Senate in Texas. He’s become a prominent voice arguing that the religious right has distorted Christianity.
Hegseth has appeared on the “Reformation Red Pill” podcast at least four times. He brought Potteiger into the Pentagon last May to lead a prayer service where Hegseth hailed Trump as a divinely appointed leader.
The calls for Talarico’s death are being condemned as dangerous rhetoric. Critics are asking why the Defense Secretary’s spiritual adviser is appearing on podcasts calling for harm, in any framing, to come to a sitting Democratic official.
CNN Commentator Gives an Ultimatum Over Potential MAGA Takeover
Veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher made it plain at a media event at Syracuse University this week: if Paramount Skydance acquires Warner Bros. Discovery and takes over CNN, she’s gone.
Swisher, who has a new CNN show scheduled to debut next month, didn’t mince words about what’s happening across the media landscape. She pointed directly to tech billionaires buying up outlets and called Larry Ellison, whose money helped reshape CBS News, “a terrible person.”
Scott MacFarlane, the former CBS News correspondent who left the network after its MAGA makeover, was in the room. Swisher told him directly he made the right call.
She said she doesn’t believe the Ellisons have any interest in real journalism, and she’s not willing to work for an organization that doesn’t respect journalists. Given that she already runs her own media operation, she said she could take her show anywhere, including MSNBC, if she wanted cable television.
CNN is already bracing for layoffs later this week.
Exciting News from Raw America
This week, Raw America is bringing you exclusive interviews with Miles Taylor, the former Trump DHS official who became a prominent whistleblower. We’ll also be talking to SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah, and Michael Fanone, the former Capitol Police officer who fought off rioters on January 6th and has been speaking out ever since.
We also have a reporter on the ground in Washington DC covering Congress, documenting Iran war protests, and breaking news in the nation’s capital.
None of this is possible without paying subscribers. Raw America doesn’t answer to billionaires or corporate boards. We answer to you, the readers. If you haven’t subscribed yet, now is the time. The link is right below. Independent journalism only survives if people choose to fund it. Thanks for being one of those people.
Thanks for watching. I’m British Chris, with Raw America. We’ll see you tomorrow.
STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
MAGA Furious at Sarah Huckabee Sanders Over New Prison. Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders — who was once President Donald Trump’s White House press secretary — is attracting significant criticism over her plans to build a new 3,000-bed prison in a rural portion of her deep-red state. Funding for the prison has stalled in the legislature, and Sanders’ attempts to oust two Republican state senators in recent primaries who were opposed to the facility were unsuccessful.
Former GOP Governor Sentenced to 60 Days in Prison. Former Kentucky Republican Gov. Matt Bevin has been ordered to serve 60 days in prison after a judge found him in contempt of court. Bevin’s contempt charge came after he refused to disclose financial details in a year-long legal battle with his 19 year-old son, who alleged that his parents abandoned him. Bevin was ousted by Democrat Andy Beshear in 2019, who was attorney general at the time, despite Trump holding a campaign rally for him the day before Kentucky’s gubernatorial election.
Top North Carolina Senate Republican Loses Primary By 23 Votes. North Carolina State Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger officially conceded to Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page after losing the March 3 Republican primary by just 23 votes. Berger had served as the leader of the North Carolina Senate since 2011, when Republicans regained full control of the General Assembly for the first time in 140 years.
Democrat Mulls Primary Run Against John Fetterman. Former Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.) is rumored to run against Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) in 2028. Fetterman has become a pariah within the Democratic Party for consisting voting with Republicans, including on the recent confirmation of Markwayne Mullin to lead the Department of Homeland Security. A recent Quinnipiac poll found that Fetterman has a -40 approval rating with Pennsylvania Democrats, which is a 108-point swing from 2023, when he had a +68 favorable rating.
Trump Rapidly Losing Support Among Young Men. While male voters under the age of 45 were one of Trump’s biggest blocs of supporters in 2024, that cohort appears to be rapidly abandoning him. CNN data analyst Harry Enten reported Tuesday that despite Trump winning men under 45 by 13 points in his most recent campaign, he is now seven points underwater with that same group. Young men say their men gripe with Trump is his management of the economy.
