Good evening, and welcome to Raw America. I’m British Chris.
South Carolina Republicans just defied Donald Trump and killed a redistricting push that would’ve wiped out Jim Clyburn’s congressional seat. The president is hosting a cage fight on the White House lawn with your tax dollars while gas prices creep toward five bucks a gallon. Elon Musk is attacking Bruce Springsteen for calling out the death toll from his cuts to USAID funding. And Trump is scrambling to convene his entire Cabinet as his negotiations with Iran collapse in real time.
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Republicans in Deep-Red State Defy Trump on Redistricting
South Carolina Republicans just slammed the door on a last-minute push to redraw the state’s congressional districts that would’ve pushed Democrat Jim Clyburn out of his seat ahead of the 2026 midterms. A vote on the new map failed 24 to 20 in the state Senate, with a dozen Republicans crossing over to join every Democrat in opposition. The Senate then voted to adjourn until June 10, which effectively kills any realistic chance of a redraw before the midterms.
That’s a significant reversal from just a couple of weeks ago, when Republican Governor Henry McMaster called a special session under direct pressure from Trump and the White House.
According to a source close to Trump’s orbit, the rebuke caught the White House off guard. McMaster apparently never gave the White House any heads-up that Republicans were potentially voting down the new maps. That won’t go forgotten in Trump world.
Now, the Republicans who voted against this will likely be safe from MAGA primary challenges until 2028, because early voting in South Carolina has already begun for this cycle. But the clock is running. Indiana Republicans who crossed Trump recently paid for it at the ballot box.
Republicans still have reason to be optimistic. The Supreme Court’s decision to weaken the Voting Rights Act has set off a wave of redraws in Southern states. That came on top of Republican-appointed justices on Virginia’s Supreme Court erasing a four-seat Democratic-friendly map approved by voters. Alabama and Louisiana are still working through their own map fights.
Clyburn’s seat is safe, for now. The key word being “now.”
Your Tax Dollars Are Building a UFC Cage on the White House Lawn
While a war is actively raging and gas prices are creeping up toward five dollars a gallon, the federal government is spending taxpayer money to construct an octagon on the South Lawn of the White House.
The UFC released its latest renderings of the setup this week. It includes a star-spangled arch over the cage, seating for thousands, and a fan fest on the Ellipse that the White House says could draw 75,000 to 100,000 people. The fight is scheduled for June 14, which is Trump’s 80th birthday.
UFC president Dana White said it was Trump’s idea to host a fight at the White House. The two have been friendly ever since Trump held UFC events at his properties, when then-Senator John McCain was still referring to the sport as “human cockfighting.”
While construction is already underway on the White House lawn, other logistics include fighter weigh-ins taking place at the Lincoln Memorial. American taxpayers are footing the bill, at a moment when families are deciding whether to drive less because of gas prices, and when the Iran war is costing billions of dollars every week.
Elon Musk Takes Aim at Bruce Springsteen After Singer Criticizes USAID Cuts
Bruce Springsteen went after Elon Musk during a recent show, and the multibillionaire is deep in his feelings about it.
On his current U.S. tour, Springsteen calls out USAID cuts without ever naming Musk directly. The New Jersey-born singer said, quote, “The richest men in America have abandoned the world’s poorest children to death and disease by dismantling USAID. It’s not on the front pages anymore but it’s happening now. People are dying.”
Musk responded by calling the celebrated singer an “America-hating idiot and billionaire hypocrite” in one post. In another, responding to a video of the speech, Musk wrote “I wonder who wrote it for him. He’s just a puppet,” apparently taking a shot at Springsteen for using a teleprompter during the show.
But the facts are clear: more than 757,000 people, the majority of them children, have died as a result of funding cuts to USAID according to ImpactCounter and Health Policy Watch. USAID was created by President John F. Kennedy. It delivered nutritional assistance to malnourished infants and children, ran HIV clinics across sub-Saharan Africa, and provided humanitarian aid to disaster zones worldwide. Musk previously referred to the agency as a “criminal organization.”
Springsteen’s tour doesn’t shy away from any of it. He’s been calling out the Iran war, the treatment of immigrants in ICE detention centers, the erosion of DOJ independence, the hostility toward NATO allies, the corruption of the Trump family, and the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis. His tour wraps up Saturday, May 30 in Philadelphia.
Trump Summons Entire Cabinet to Camp David as Iran Talks Fall Apart
Donald Trump is heading to Camp David on Wednesday for a rare retreat that will include his entire Cabinet, including outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. The White House is billing it as a review of recent administration wins. But the real conversation is almost certainly going to be about Iran, because the peace talks are in serious trouble.
U.S. Central Command confirmed that American forces attacked Iranian boats and missile launch sites late Monday night. The strikes reportedly targeted boats attempting to lay mines along the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian state media confirmed explosions at a port that houses key Iranian naval and air bases, and reported additional explosions in other cities.
The timing is extraordinary. Iranian officials had arrived in Qatar for peace talks just hours before the American strikes hit.
CENTCOM stated the strikes were in self-defense, arguing they were necessary to protect American troops from threats posed by Iran. Iran’s new supreme leader responded with a direct threat to American military bases in the region, writing on X in Farsi that “America will no longer have a safe haven for mischief and the establishment of military bases in the region.”
This is the twelfth time Trump has visited Camp David during his presidency, and the circumstances have arguably never been more serious.
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Thanks for watching. I’m British Chris, with Raw America. We’ll see you tomorrow.
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Utah County Pumps Brakes on New Data Centers. The board of commissioners in Iron County, Utah recently voted to halt all processing of new data center applications for the next six months. This includes the proposed 2,564-acre Red Butte Data Center and natural gas plant. The vote was unanimous, and came amid statewide outrage over a new planned data center in Box Elder County, Utah that would be twice the size of Manhattan once completed.
Trump Administration Forcing Federal Employees to Sign Non-Disclosure Agreements. As part of a plan to crack down on leaks to the media, President Donald Trump’s administration is now reportedly forcing federal workers across multiple agencies to sign binding non-disclosure agreements preventing them from spreading “confidential government information.” The new restrictions include far more than classified documents, and stipulates that any employee who discloses “non-public, confidential or proprietary information” could be subjected to criminal penalties.
Working-Class Tax Cuts from ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Erased by Iran War. Trump’s war in Iran has led to working-class Americans losing all financial benefits from Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that the president signed into law last summer. According to Gregory Daco, who is the chief economist at EY Parthenon, price growth as a result of higher inflation brought on by the war wiped out the value of the modest tax cuts included in the legislation. The wealthiest one percent of Americans — whose tax cuts are proportionally larger under the bill’s language — have still come out ahead in spite of higher inflation.
Dick Cheney’s Former Doctor Says Trump Has ‘Serious Illness.’ In a recent appearance on CNN, Dr. Jonathan Reiner — who was former Vice President Dick Cheney’s personal physician — said Trump’s frequent bouts of sleeping in public suggests he may be battling a “serious illness.” According to Reiner, the president has “severe daytime somnolence,” which he said “can result in an increase in risk of dementia, decrease in cognitive effects in older people.” White House spokesman Davis Ingle responded to the story by telling The Daily Beast that Reiner was a “hack doctor.”
Trump Raises Refugee Cap to Admit More White South Africans. The Trump administration on Tuesday raised the number of refugees it would be accepting in 2026, but only for white Afrikaners from South Africa due to “an unforeseen emergency refugee situation.” The administration argued that raising the cap was necessary due to white Afrikaners — who are mostly descendants of Dutch settlers who imposed the apartheid system — being targeted for racial oppression despite a lack of evidence on the ground. Billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who is from South Africa, has frequently trafficked in the “white genocide” conspiracy theory.
