Good evening, and welcome to Raw America. I’m British Chris.
There’s a lot to cover today. A friend of Trump is using ICE as his personal weapon. A new media merger is giving a right-wing billionaire control of almost all local news. New footage suggests Trump’s health is rapidly declining. And — in good news — Democrats may have forced Trump to unmask ICE agents.
MAGA oligarchs are buying up media outlets at a staggering pace, hollowing out newsrooms, and silencing all reporting they don’t like. That’s exactly why supporting independent media matters right now. If you haven’t already, please consider becoming a paying subscriber. It’s the most direct way to fight back against the billionaire takeover of your news.
Trump Ally Asked ICE to Detain the Mother of His Child
Paolo Zampolli is the man who claims credit for introducing Donald Trump to Melania back in 1998 at a New York nightclub. Last June, Zampolli had a problem. His Brazilian ex-girlfriend, Amanda Ungaro, had been arrested in Miami on fraud charges. They were locked in a custody battle over their teenage son. And she was in the country on an expired visa.
So he picked up the phone.
According to records obtained by the New York Times, Zampolli reached out to a top ICE official named David Venturella. He explained that Ungaro was undocumented and suggested that getting her into ICE detention could help him win custody of his son.
Venturella then called the Miami ICE office to make sure agents would pick Ungaro up before she could be released on bail. He reportedly noted that the case mattered to someone close to the White House.
Ungaro was placed in ICE custody and eventually deported to Brazil.
DHS insists she was detained because of her expired visa and the fraud charges. And it’s possible she would’ve been deported regardless. But the speed with which a senior ICE official jumped into action for a minor Trump associate is quite a story.
This is what the abuse of power looks like. It doesn’t always come in the form of a presidential order. Sometimes it’s a phone call from a bloke who goes to the same parties as the first lady. Draw your own conclusions.
One Company Will Now Control Local News for Over 70% of US Households
As we mentioned this morning, Nexstar Media Group has just been cleared by the FCC and the Department of Justice to acquire Tegna, another major local broadcaster. Already the largest provider of local news in the country, Nexstar will now reach more than 70 percent of U.S. households with its local newscasts.
The FCC granted Nexstar a waiver of the rule that caps how many households a single broadcaster can reach. In other words, the rule that was supposed to prevent this kind of consolidation was just waved away.
Nexstar’s CEO praised President Trump and FCC Chair Brendan Carr by name for making it happen.
Eight state attorneys general had filed a lawsuit just the day before to block the deal, arguing it violates antitrust law and would put more broadcast news in fewer hands, gut local jobs, and remove accountability to the communities being covered. Those concerns were brushed aside.
This is exactly why independent media is more important now than ever. When billionaires control what gets printed and broadcast, they control efforts to hold them accountable. But Raw America has no billionaire owner – we only answer to you. Subscribe today.
New Footage Raises Serious Concerns About Trump’s Cognitive Health
A new Netflix documentary about the Murdoch family called “Dynasty: The Murdochs” also includes footage of Donald Trump spanning the past decade, and the contrast is striking.
The film includes clips of Trump from the first Republican primary debate of the 2016 election cycle, where he came across as coherent, sharp, and effective. Whatever one thinks of his politics, he was in command of himself.
Compare that to recent footage of the 79-year-old president, and the difference is difficult to ignore. Medical observers and Trump critics have for some time been pointing to rambling speech, verbal stumbles, and apparent difficulty concentrating during public appearances.
Trump himself dismissed questions about his cognitive health in January, saying his father had Alzheimer’s but that he does not.
He forgot the name of the disease mid-sentence while making that point.
Trump’s supporters argue the criticism is politically motivated. Medical professionals have noted the cumulative effects of age and stress. The documentary footage adds a visual dimension to a conversation that isn’t going away.
Trump May Be About to Cave to a Key Demand from Democrats
The partial government shutdown is still dragging on, with negotiations centered on funding for the Department of Homeland Security and reforms to ICE and Customs and Border Protection.
Border czar Tom Homan was expected to meet with Senate Democrats on Friday to continue talks.
According to NBC News correspondent Julie Tsirkin, the White House is open to compromising on some Democratic demands. One item reportedly under discussion: agents unmasking, with restrictions. That means potentially limiting the ability of immigration enforcement agents to conceal their identities during operations.
Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin also agreed he’d use judicial warrants for home entries if he were named Homeland Security secretary.
Here’s the context that matters.
These negotiations are happening after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minnesota: Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Two Americans, dead. That’s what it took to get any movement toward accountability measures.
The willingness to even discuss warrant requirements and agent transparency only appeared at the table after American lives were lost. That’s not reform. That’s damage control.
Those are your four stories. And the thread running through all of them is the same: power operating without accountability, consolidating in fewer and fewer hands, with fewer and fewer people in a position to push back.
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I’m British Chris with Raw America. Thanks for watching. We’ll see you next week.
STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Russia Offered Quid Pro Quo to Trump That Would Require Ceding Ukraine. The Kremlin reportedly offered to stop sharing intelligence with Iran on where to strike U.S. targets if President Donald Trump agreed to cede Ukraine. Politico reported that Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev made the offer to Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner (Trump’s son-in-law) last week during a meeting in Miami, Florida, though the U.S. reportedly rejected the idea.
Federal Judge Rules Pentagon’s Restrictions on Journalists Are Unconstitutional. In a Friday ruling, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman – an appointee of former President Bill Clinton — struck down parts of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s policies regarding reporters in the Pentagon. Friedman specifically ordered the Defense Department to restore the press credentials for seven New York Times reporters after they were revoked due to their refusal to sign Hegseth’s new rules for journalists.
Trump DOJ Aims to Drop Case Against Officers Who Took Part in Breonna Taylor Raid. The Department of Justice on Friday petitioned a federal judge to dismiss federal civil rights judges against two Louisville Police Department officers who participated in a wrongful March 2020 raid on the home of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was shot to death in her sleep. The two officers — Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany — were charged with knowingly using false information to obtain the warrant used to justify the raid.
Failed North Carolina GOP Candidate Admits Lying About CNN Report. Mark Robinson — the Republican who lost his 2024 bid in the North Carolina gubernatorial election by more than 14 points — acknowledged in a recent podcast interview that he lied when he denied CNN’s report about his posting history on a pornographic website. In the posts, Robinson called himself a “Black Nazi” and expressed support for bringing back chattel slavery.
Texas AG on Track to Beat Incumbent GOP Senator if Trump Doesn’t Endorse. A new poll released Friday shows Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton would prevail in the May runoff election against Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) should Trump continue to not endorse Cornyn. Paxton — who has cast himself as a MAGA acolyte — is viewed as more vulnerable in a general election, with several polls showing Democrat James Talarico notching a narrow victory over Paxton should he make it to the general election ballot.
