This Is The Unholy Alliance Behind Iran

Kristi Noem blows $300 million on private jets, Trump's FBI director uses SWAT teams to ferry his girlfriend, and Bannon turns on Trump.

Good evening, it’s John Byrne, and this is Raw America.

Tonight, we’ve got five stories of war and taxpayer abuse. Trump’s Iran strike came after secret lobbying by Saudi Arabia. His FBI director is using SWAT teams to chauffeur his girlfriend to hair appointments. His MAGA base is fracturing. And Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem is blowing deportation money on a fleet of luxury jets.

But first: I want to thank you for being a paid subscriber. Raw America exists because of you. We’re fighting the billionaire-owned media who promoted Trump, who got us into this war in the first place. We’re building something big, together.

Now let’s get into it.

Saudi Arabia and Israel Got Their War

According to The Washington Post, Trump’s decision to attack Iran didn’t emerge from an imminent threat. It came from a lobbying campaign by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Here’s the stunning part: the Saudi Crown Prince publicly called for diplomacy while privately making “multiple phone calls” to Trump urging him to strike. His brother, Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, held closed-door meetings with U.S. officials in Washington reinforcing the same message. All while Riyadh issued public statements saying it would never allow Saudi airspace to be used for an attack on Iran.

U.S. intelligence assessments said Iran posed no immediate threat to the American mainland within the next decade. Trump’s Defense Intelligence Agency said Iran wasn’t even developing an intercontinental ballistic missile. Trump launched the war anyway: because Saudi Arabia and Israel wanted it.

As former diplomat Aaron David Miller put it, Trump is trying to “split the difference.” He’s rolling the dice with American military power while hoping air strikes alone can achieve regime change in a country of 93 million people. History says that won’t work.

“A Great Deal”

And then came today. This morning, the Pentagon confirmed that three American service members were killed in action amidst Trump’s initial strikes. Several others sustained shrapnel injuries and concussions.

Trump’s response? He told NBC: “We expect casualties with something like this. We have three, but we expect casualties — but in the end it’s going to be a great deal for the world.”

A great deal. Three Americans are dead and the President of the United States is talking about it like he just closed on a building. These human beings had families. And the man who sent them to die can’t even pause long enough to honor them.

Even MAGA Is Turning

Today, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, once one of Trump’s most reliable allies, posted a broadside against the strikes on X.

“Thousands and thousands of Americans from my generation have been killed and injured in never-ending pointless foreign wars and we said no more,” she wrote. “It’s always a lie and it’s always America Last. But it feels like the worst betrayal this time because it comes from the very man and the admin who we all believed was different.”

Trump fired back, calling her a “traitor.” But Greene isn’t alone.

On Steve Bannon’s War Room, the tone was just as damning. Curt Mills, Executive Director of The American Conservative, told Bannon the strikes look like “an open betrayal of the base.” He pointed out overnight polling was “overwhelmingly negative,” and that a majority of Republicans don’t support what’s happening or even understand why we’re doing it.

“What Bush-era neocon is not for this today?” Mills said. “Find me one. Name one.” Even John Bolton, he said, is “pleased as hell.”

This isn’t a fringe revolt. This is the MAGA media infrastructure, the same ecosystem that helped put Trump back in the White House. These are the people who voted for “no more forever wars.” Now they’re watching their president launch one because of the Saudis, and they’re not buying it.

When your base calls your war the “worst betrayal,” you’ve lost the plot.

Kash Patel’s Girlfriend Gets a SWAT Team

As American service members die in Iran, FBI Director Kash Patel has assigned a full-time SWAT team to protect his 27-year-old girlfriend. Alexis Wilkins is an aspiring country music singer.

The New York Times reports that SWAT agents ferried her to a British resort before a dinner at Windsor Castle, escorted her to hair salon appointments in Nashville, and stood guard outside a senior center in Illinois while she sang for a few dozen young conservatives.

SWAT teams are trained to arrest violent criminals and thwart terrorists. Now they’re doing personal security for a woman whose country music website says “NO UPCOMING SHOWS.”

This is the same Kash Patel who used government jets for vacations and dates, and who just last week partied with the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team in Italy on the taxpayer’s dime.

Noem’s $300 Million Luxury Jet Fleet

Speaking of your tax dollars at work: Axios reports that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has spent nearly $300 million on luxury jets, using money earmarked for border security and Trump’s own “self-deportation” program.

Until last year, Homeland Security owned no luxury jets. Now it could have three, including two Gulfstream G700s priced at $100 million each, and a Boeing 737 with 18 seats, a bar, and a bedroom.

Even Trump officials are horrified. “This is the world’s worst deal,” one administration official told Axios. “This is an abuse.” OMB Director Russ Vought raised concerns directly with the White House.

Trump’s self-deportation program, which Noem’s jet money was supposed to fund, signed up just 25,000 people. Instead of focusing on immigration, Noem bought Gulfstreams. As governor of South Dakota, she spent $60,000 renovating the governor’s mansion with luxury rugs, chandeliers, and a sauna.

Old habits die hard.

Thank You For Joining Us

This is what unchecked power looks like. A president with real estate deals in the Middle East who starts a war because the Saudis want him to. An FBI director who turns elite agents into a personal Uber for his girlfriend. A Cabinet secretary burning deportation funds on private jets with bars and bedrooms. And a MAGA movement that’s finally starting to crack under the weight of its own contradictions.

I’m excited to be on this journey with you. We’re building something big.

We need to get the message out far and wide. Share this with someone you know who needs to hear the truth. Help us get more subscribers, so we can do more amazing work. Let’s remake the media, together.

We’ll see you Monday.

— John Byrne,

Founder, Raw America and Raw Story