Trump Screws Allies As ICE Contracts With Group Accused Of Torture

Trump Pulls Troops From Germany; Brags About Cognitive Exam; ICE Contracts With Shady Torture Group; Conservative Media Makes Mass Layoffs

Good morning.

This morning, Trump pulled 5,000 troops from Germany in a fit of pique after the German chancellor said Iran was humiliating the United States. Trump spent part of his week at a Florida retirement community bragging about identifying a bear on a cognitive test and telling his supporters most of them wouldn’t be smart enough to pass it. The Daily Wire is gutting its staff in what insiders are calling an open secret collapse. And ICE has hired a private security contractor accused of torture and enforced disappearance during the first Trump administration to conduct so-called wellness checks on undocumented immigrant children. Corporate media is running cover for all of it. The FCC chair has made clear what happens to broadcasters that step out of line. And the Ellisons keep buying. Let’s get into it.

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TRUMP YANKED 5,000 TROOPS FROM GERMANY BECAUSE THE CHANCELLOR HURT HIS FEELINGS

After German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said publicly that Iran was humiliating the United States and that he couldn’t understand Trump’s exit strategy, Trump threatened on Truth Social to pull American troops from Germany. Two days later, the Pentagon announced it was doing exactly that, withdrawing 5,000 of the roughly 35,000 active-duty troops currently stationed there.

Sources say the Pentagon was not expecting the order and had not been planning any kind of drawdown. A review of U.S. troop deployments worldwide had not recommended major reductions in Europe. A senior Pentagon official told reporters that Merz’s comments were “inappropriate and unhelpful” and that “the president is rightly reacting to these counterproductive remarks.”

This is the man running American foreign policy. A NATO ally’s chancellor says something true about the war’s trajectory, and the response is to weaken the alliance’s most important forward presence on the continent.

The move fits a broader pattern. Trump called on European allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a war they were never consulted about and never agreed to join. When they declined, he threatened to pull out of NATO entirely. Now he is following through, piece by piece, on those threats.

Friday also marked the 60-day deadline under the War Powers Resolution requiring congressional authorization for military action. Trump sent a letter to congressional leaders claiming the deadline does not apply because the ceasefire has effectively “terminated” the hostilities, even though tens of thousands of U.S. forces remain in the region and the blockade continues. Congress left town on a week-long break Thursday and is not expected to take any immediate action.

TRUMP TOLD A FLORIDA RETIREMENT CROWD HE’S SMARTER THAN THEY ARE

Trump traveled to The Villages in Florida this week to speak about his administration’s record on seniors. He spent most of his time talking about cognitive tests.

The president, who claims to have aced three cognitive assessments, told the crowd about a question he said was on the test: identifying which animal in a list is a bear. “Everybody says ‘Oooooh,’” he recalled. He then told the assembled audience of his own supporters, “A lot of you wouldn’t have been able to answer those 10 questions.”

He went on to say he doesn’t think Barack Obama could pass a cognitive test, falsely suggesting Obama got into Harvard with a C average. Obama attended Harvard Law School. He also claimed he decided to take the test after critics called him “a horrible human being” and “not a smart person at all,” which he said he “really hated.”

He reenacted a math problem he said was on the test, rattling off a series of operations without ever providing the answer. He then said the real test was “longer and more complex than that.”

Trump has repeatedly bragged about passing cognitive assessments. The detailed results have never been released. Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin has called on Trump to take another test and release the results publicly, and has separately demanded that Trump’s White House physician be made available to testify under oath about the president’s health.

Trump’s niece Mary wrote in her 2020 book that Donald paid a classmate with a reputation for being a good test-taker to take his SATs for him.

THE DAILY WIRE IS LAYING OFF A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF ITS STAFF

Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire confirmed mass layoffs Friday, saying the company had made “a difficult decision to restructure the organization,” with cuts concentrated at its Nashville headquarters and affecting “a number of teams.”

The outlet has faced years of internal drama, most notably the high-profile firing of Candace Owens after she promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories. Sources familiar with the media landscape say the layoffs were not a surprise. “Despite the press releases the Daily Wire was pushing to billionaires’ blogs that few people read, it’s been an open secret in the media that the Daily Wire was crashing,” said one communications professional on social media.

Democratic strategist Mike Nellis, who appeared on a Daily Wire show earlier this year, noted that the people being hurt are the hair, makeup, and production staff. “I imagine a lot of them have families,” he wrote, “and I’m sending some love to them, even if we have political disagreements.”

The collapse of a major right-wing media outlet is worth noting, not to celebrate the job losses, but because it tells you something about the broader media landscape. Ideologically captured outlets built around a single brand and a single moment tend not to last. The Ellison model at CBS is betting on the same kind of capture producing different results.

ICE HIRED A COMPANY ACCUSED OF TORTURE TO TRACK DOWN UNDOCUMENTED CHILDREN

ICE has awarded a contract to MVM Inc., a private security firm, to conduct what the agency calls “wellness checks” on undocumented immigrant children who arrived in the U.S. alone and were placed with sponsors while their immigration cases move through the courts.

MVM is currently being sued by two Guatemalan fathers and their children for alleged torture, enforced disappearance, and cruel and degrading treatment stemming from the company’s role in the family separation policy during Trump’s first term. The lawsuit says MVM “physically took thousands of children away from their parents and transferred them to shelters” using unmarked vehicles, commercial airlines, and makeshift detention centers. A federal judge dismissed some claims on procedural grounds in 2025 but allowed the torture and enforced disappearance claims to proceed. The case is ongoing.

MVM’s track record includes holding immigrant children in a vacant office building during the 2018 family separation crisis, detaining immigrant families in hotels during the pandemic before removal, and, most recently, locking an immigrant woman and her baby in a Chicago hotel for five days last August.

ICE says the wellness checks are about confirming children’s safety and checking for signs of abuse or trafficking. Immigration attorneys and advocates say that is not what is actually happening. “This all seems like a ploy to do two things,” said the executive director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. “One, find either kids or their sponsors to arrest and deport. Or two, scare children into self-deporting.”

An internal ICE document reviewed by the Guardian last year showed that these operations are run with the goal of deporting the children or pursuing criminal cases against them or the adults legally sheltering them.

The contract amount is redacted. The number of checks MVM is expected to perform is redacted. What is not redacted is the name of the company doing them, and its history.

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STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

• The Supreme Court just gutted the Voting Rights Act — and Republicans are already redrawing maps. In a 6-3 decision along partisan lines, the Supreme Court effectively gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the last major remaining provision of the landmark 1965 civil rights law. The ruling now requires proof of intentional discrimination — something Congress did not write into the law and that is extremely difficult for plaintiffs to show. Justice Elena Kagan wrote in dissent that it was the “latest chapter in the majority’s now-completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act.” Florida immediately convened a special session to redraw its congressional map, potentially flipping four House seats to Republicans ahead of November.

• The 76-day DHS shutdown is over — but ICE and CBP still have no new funding restrictions. Trump signed a bill funding most of the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, ending the longest agency shutdown in U.S. history after 76 days. The legislation funds the TSA, Coast Guard, FEMA, and other DHS agencies but does not include dollars for ICE or Border Patrol, which have been largely unaffected by the shutdown and continued operating throughout. Democrats had demanded use-of-force reforms and legal access guarantees for detainees as conditions. They got neither. Republicans will now attempt to fund ICE and CBP separately through reconciliation without Democratic votes.

• The Labor Secretary resigned amid an inspector general probe — she’s the third Trump cabinet member ousted in this term, and all three were women. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer stepped down from the Trump administration amid an internal investigation into possible misconduct, including allegations that she pursued a romantic relationship with a member of her security detail and used agency resources for personal travel. Her exit marks the third Cabinet secretary removed since January, and all three ousted secretaries were women. She joins Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi on the list. The White House said she was leaving “to take a position in the private sector.”

• The war in Iran has now officially cost American taxpayers $25 billion. Pentagon officials put a price tag on the Iran conflict this week: $25 billion and counting, as gas prices hit a four-year high with a national average of $4.30 a gallon. That is on top of the estimated $900 million per day the conflict is costing in ongoing operations. Energy companies, meanwhile, reported massive profits this same week. The administration has not sought a congressional vote to authorize the war, and Senate Republicans blocked a war powers resolution for the sixth time Thursday.

• The Texas court interpreter detained by ICE for weeks has been released. Meenu Batra, the only licensed Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu court interpreter in Texas, walked free after weeks of confinement in an ICE detention facility. Batra, who had lived in south Texas for 35 years and held legal immigration status, was detained at a Harlingen airport in March after agents stopped her during a work trip. Her case became a flashpoint for the administration’s treatment of legal immigrants with protected status. No explanation was offered for her original detention or her release.