Good evening, and welcome to Raw America. I’m British Chris.
Tonight: Trump’s preparing to storm Iranian islands with floating hospitals, laser cannons, and hovercrafts, while two U.S. planes have already been shot down. The most powerful men in the world have decided they want to own your news, and they’re not being subtle about it. Trump wants one and a half trillion dollars for the military, while cutting schools and the EPA. And two Supreme Court justices in their seventies may be about to hand Trump the most lasting gift of his presidency. Let’s get into it.
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Trump’s Preparing to Storm Iranian Islands With Laser Cannons. Two Planes Are Already Down.
Two American fighter jets have been shot down over Iran. One pilot’s been recovered. A second remains missing. The Pentagon hasn’t fully explained how Iran’s degraded air defenses managed it. Military analysts are asking.
Meanwhile, according to the US Sun, the United States is now sending thousands of additional Marines to the Persian Gulf, with a converted container ship carrying over 100 hospital beds, dozens of large hovercraft, and newly developed laser cannons capable of destroying entire drone swarms. The lower decks of one vessel have been turned into a well deck specifically designed to ferry armored vehicles to shore. The Pentagon has also placed orders for prefabricated bunkers intended for island occupation.
The target is Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil terminal. It’s where 95 percent of its oil is exported. Trump said last week he was considering taking Kharg. Iranian-controlled islands dominating the Strait of Hormuz are also reportedly circled in red.
Military experts aren’t enthusiastic. An Army War College professor told the Sun that Marines on those islands could become “a drone magnet.” A retired Special Forces colonel noted that sustaining forces there would require continuous air defence and engineering support. Iran’s parliament speaker has promised to “rain down fire” on any invading forces. Iraqi Shia militias are crossing the border to reinforce Iran’s army as it prepares to repel any assault.
The Strait of Hormuz is nineteen miles wide. The islands are small, fortified, and surrounded by mines. America’s allies have declined to help. The operation, if it comes, will be entirely American — and entirely dangerous.
The Billionaires Have Decided They Want Your News. All of It.
The Hollywood Reporter this week published an unusually candid piece about what’s happening to American media, and it’s worth your attention. As you know, the Ellisons are pursuing a takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN.
Meanwhile, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, this week purchased his favorite tech talk show because — and this is a direct quote — he wanted media coverage of OpenAI to be “more constructive.”
Jamie Dimon, CEO of Chase, told Axios he wants to start his own media company, because he believes media coverage is responsible for bad policy. Elon Musk, for his part, has been encouraging his followers to abandon traditional outlets entirely in favor of his own platform.
The Hollywood Reporter notes, drily, that this has happened before. Gulf and Western owned Paramount. General Electric owned NBC. Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post for $250 million.
Bezos’ Post purchase isn’t going well. Mark Zuckerberg, of course, bought The New Republic, lasted two years, and discovered that working with journalists isn’t, in the Reporter’s words, “so easy.”
The difference this time is intent. Previous corporate media owners wanted returns on investment. These owners want something else. Control.
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Trump May Be About to Get Two More Supreme Court Seats.
This is the story that should keep you up at night.
Progressive advocacy group Demand Justice is launching a multimillion-dollar preemptive campaign to oppose potential Trump Supreme Court nominees before they’re even named. As much as $18 million stands ready to deploy.
The reason: Justices Clarence Thomas, 77, and Samuel Alito, 76, are expected by multiple progressive legal groups to retire during Trump’s term. This would give him the opportunity to replace them with younger, more radical loyalists.
Josh Orton, president of Demand Justice, invoked the cautionary tale of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“If you think that Trump’s willing to leave two of the three justices he thinks are most loyal on the court in their 80s past when he leaves office,” he said, “you’re not paying attention.”
Trump has already placed three justices on the court. Two more would give him a 5-4 majority of his own personal appointees, potentially for the next three decades. On abortion. On elections. On voting rights. On executive power. On everything.
Blocking a Trump nominee would require all Senate Democrats plus four Republican defectors. Orton believes as many as six Republicans could break ranks under the right political pressure.
That math only works if Democrats hold together completely and if the political conditions are right. A Democratic Senate takeover in November would also change the calculation.
Trump Wants $1.5 Trillion for the Military. He’d Like to Pay for It by Cutting Schools.
Donald Trump this week released his 2027 budget proposal. He’s requesting $1.5 trillion in military spending. This is the largest dollar amount in modern American history, by a considerable margin. That includes more than a trillion for the Defense Department, $350 billion for munitions, and money to build new battleships named after Trump himself.
To pay for this, the administration’s proposing a 10 percent reduction in nondefense spending.
That means cuts to education. It means halving the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency. It means slashing $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health.
It would also cut NASA by a quarter, days after the agency launched astronauts toward the moon.
The budget also proposes $150 million to rebuild Alcatraz as “a state-of-the-art secure prison facility.” Alcatraz is currently a tourist attraction in San Francisco. It isn’t, by anyone’s definition, currently a prison.
The White House forecasts the budget will be partly funded by $406 billion in tariff revenue this year alone, more than double what independent economists project.
Trump’s attempt to turn America into a military state brings us back to why independent journalism matters more than ever.
Raw America now has a reporter providing on-the-ground coverage right there in Washington DC — covering congressional hearings, Iran War protests, and critical votes in the House and Senate. That kind of access doesn’t come cheap, and it only happened because readers like you made it possible.
If you’re not yet subscribed, consider doing it now. Because when billionaires are buying up newsrooms and turning them into propaganda, independent media isn’t just nice to have. It’s essential.
This has been Raw America. I’m British Chris, and I hope you enjoy your weekend.
