Good evening, and welcome to Raw America. I’m British Chris.
Trump just turned a Cabinet meeting into an informercial for his own brand. He’s threatening to “blow up” a key U.S. ally if it doesn’t fall in line over the Strait of Hormuz. His Homeland Security Secretary says a U.S. senator deserved to get pepper-sprayed at an ICE detention facility. And Republicans are rushing to scrub every nasty thing they ever said about Ken Paxton off the internet.
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Trump Uses Cabinet Meeting to Hawk His Own Merch
Trump’s presidency is being run like a business. Specifically, Donald Trump’s personal business. And Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting was the clearest example yet of just how brazen he’s gotten with his corruption.
While senior officials sat around the table at the White House, prominently displayed in front of them were “USA 250 Anniversary” hats. The televised meeting also featured Trump Organization merchandise that retails for $55 a pop on the Trump Store website, right alongside mugs, sweaters, necklaces, and a $125 “age reversal kit.”
This wasn’t accidental staging. Cameras were rolling while Secretary of State Marco Rubio held up signed merch.
The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has been tracking this. According to their reporting, the Trump Store launched 622 new products in just the first fourteen months of Trump’s second term. In 2024, the store pulled in roughly $8.8 million. That’s more than double what it made in 2023, and more than 17 times what it made in its first full year of operation.
It’s not just $55 hats. There’s crypto. Branded Bibles. Sneakers. NFT collections. And according to new financial disclosures, more than 3,700 stock transactions made under Trump’s name, including securities of companies he had publicly promoted.
Here’s the big question no one in the Beltway press seems to have the courage to ask: Whose interests are being served when the presidency gets run this way? The hats on the table should give a big hint.
Trump Threatens to ‘Blow Up’ Top Middle Eastern Ally
At that same Cabinet meeting, a reporter asked Trump a straightforward question about the Strait of Hormuz negotiations. Specifically, whether he’d accept a short-term deal that allows Oman to help control the waterway alongside Iran.
His answer was eyebrow-raising. Trump said while the U.S. would “watch over” the strait, nobody would control it. And if Oman didn’t behave, “we’ll have to blow em up.” He immediately added that the country “understands that” and “they’ll be fine.”
The State Department’s official account on X posted a video of the comments almost immediately, as if amplifying the threat was something to be proud of.
To be clear, Oman is not an adversary. The U.S. doesn’t have permanent military bases there, but it does have strategic access agreements allowing American forces to use its airfields and naval ports for logistics, refueling, and regional operations. One of its ports has been used by U.S. Navy ships for maintenance and repair.
The Strait of Hormuz has been closed for nearly three months now, since the start of the Iran war. It’s one of the most critical chokepoints for global oil and natural gas shipping on the planet, and its closure has sent energy prices soaring. The U.S. Navy tried escorting vessels through the waterway earlier this month. That plan lasted two days before it was abandoned.
Trump is now pushing hard for a peace deal while simultaneously rejecting Iran’s demands and threatening allies in the region. There are a lot of threats flying in a lot of directions at once. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, one of our allies is apparently on notice.
DHS Secretary Says U.S. Senator Deserved to Be Pepper Sprayed
Meanwhile, inside that same Cabinet meeting, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin decided to weigh in on a U.S. senator getting pepper sprayed by ICE agents in New Jersey.
Democratic Senator Andy Kim was among a group of demonstrators outside Delaney Hall, a privately operated immigration detention facility, when federal agents deployed pepper spray on the crowd. The protesters were there in solidarity with detainees who had launched a hunger strike over the conditions inside.
Mullin’s response at the Cabinet meeting? Kim probably shouldn’t have been there. That’s a Cabinet secretary openly defending a sitting U.S. senator getting attacked with a chemical agent.
Mullin also denied the hunger strike was what anyone said it was, claiming detainees were only refusing to eat because they wanted their “ethnic food.” He said they could go back to their countries if they wanted different food.
The reality, according to attorneys representing the detainees, is that people are sleeping on the floor in overcrowded rooms, facing cold showers, no blankets, and in at least one documented case, food with worms in it. Senator Kim visited the facility and reported filthy bathrooms and rooms packed with 12 to 16 people.
Trump’s own border czar Tom Homan didn’t even bother to deny the hunger strike. He just said hunger strikes don’t work, and if things got bad enough, they’d seek a court order to force-feed people. Which, by the way, several human rights groups have flagged as a form of torture.
GOP Scrambles to Delete Ken Paxton Attacks from Internet
Within hours of Ken Paxton defeating John Cornyn in Texas, the National Republican Senatorial Committee deleted at least nine press releases and digital ads attacking him from its website. Every page attacking Paxton returned a 404 error by Wednesday morning.
These weren’t mild criticisms. One NRSC statement called Paxton’s conduct toward his wife, who filed for divorce on what she described as biblical grounds alleging adultery, “truly repulsive and disgusting.” Another attacked him for allegedly listing multiple properties as primary residences to lock in lower mortgage rates. The NRSC’s own communications director wrote that Paxton’s “betrayals of the public trust just keep coming.”
Now all of it is gone.
Because Trump endorsed Paxton last week, the NRSC is now backing a man they spent months and millions of dollars trying to destroy. And Paxton is now heading into a general election against Democratic challenger James Talarico, with polling showing the two neck and neck in what should have been a safely Republican seat.
The Republicans who backed Cornyn argued all along that Paxton’s scandals, his indictment, his impeachment and his fundraising deficits would cost the party over $100 million in Texas, that they’d rather spend in competitive states like Georgia, Maine, Michigan, and North Carolina.
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Thanks for watching. I’m British Chris, with Raw America. We’ll see you tomorrow.
STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Trump Says ‘I Don’t Care About the Midterms’ During Cabinet Meeting. President Donald Trump made a quip about November’s midterm elections that doesn’t bode well for Republicans vying to keep their majorities in Congress. While making remarks about the Iran war and the Iranian government betting on him to act to approve a peace deal before the midterms, Trump quipped: “I don’t care about the midterms.” This comes just weeks after Trump said he wasn’t considering Americans’ financial situation “even a little bit” while conducting peace talks with Iran.
Bipartisan Group of Judges Urge Investigation Into Trump’s IRS Deal. A bipartisan coalition of 35 former federal judges is now calling for an investigation into the deal President Trump made with the Internal Revenue Service to settle his $10 billion lawsuit. Trump initially sued the agency in response to an IRS contractor leaking his tax returns, though he dropped it earlier this month as part of a settlement in which he proposed setting aside $1.776 billion in tax money to compensate so-called “victims” of Justice Department “weaponization” under the Biden administration. As part of Trump’s deal, the IRS also agreed to permanently spare Trump, his family and his businesses from any IRS audits, potentially saving him hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and penalties.
DNC Calls Stephen Miller an ‘Ugly F—’ After Comment About James Talarico. In a post celebrating Texas U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton’s Republican primary runoff victory, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller referred to Democratic challenger James Talarico (who is cisgender) as the “first transgender senate candidate.” The Democratic National Committee’s official X account responded by simply writing: “shut up you ugly f—.” The Democrats’ tweet has so far reached more than eight million people just hours after it was posted.
Gavin Newsom Signs Bill Blocking Ballot Seizures Prior to Primary Election Day. California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) on Wednesday signed legislation banning any and all seizures of ballots prior to California’s June 2 primary election. The legislation is a direct response to Riverside County Sheriff — and Republican gubernatorial candidate — Chad Bianco seizing roughly 650,000 ballots as part of his investigation into the 2025 special election that allowed California to pass a Democrat-friendly redistricting map. Bianco alleged that more than 40,000 ballots in his county were part of an overcount, though he never proved his claims.
House Democrats Roll Out New Bill Aimed at Stopping Construction of Trump’s Proposed Arch. Democrats are hoping to stop President Trump’s plans to build a 250-foot tall “triumphal arch” on parkland just outside of Washington D.C. that would tower next to Arlington National Cemetery. While Democrats remain in the minority, Republicans’ majority in the House is slim enough for Democrats to peel off a handful of GOP votes. Republicans have also lately spoken out against Trump’s other D.C. construction projects, like seeking taxpayer money for his proposed ballroom.
