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Trump: Retaliatory Strikes 'Love Tap'; Iran Says Truce Broken

President Donald Trump said Thursday that retaliatory strikes by American forces against Iran were just a "love tap" and that the ceasefire in effect since April 7 remains intact.

The U.S. military said it carried out retaliatory strikes on Iran earlier Thursday, targeting sites it said were behind attacks on three Navy warships in what it called unprovoked hostilities by Tehran.

"U.S. forces intercepted unprovoked Iranian attacks and responded with self-defense strikes as U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers transited the Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf of Oman," U.S. Central Command wrote on X.

"Iranian forces launched multiple missiles, drones and small boats as USS Truxtun, USS Rafael Peralta, and USS Mason transited the international sea passage. No U.S. assets were struck."

ABC News senior political correspondent Rachel Scott wrote on X that Trump told her during a phone call the retaliatory strikes against Iranian targets were just a "love tap."

 

Scott wrote that when she asked whether the strikes meant the ceasefire was over, Trump replied: "No, no, the ceasefire is going. It's in effect."

In a Truth Social post later Thursday, Trump said the three destroyers transited the Strait of Hormuz "very successfully" while under fire and claimed the Iranian attackers were "completely destroyed."

Iran accused the U.S. on Thursday of violating the ceasefire by targeting two ships in the Strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian areas.

A spokesperson for Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said in a statement reported by state media that the U.S. targeted "an Iranian oil tanker traveling from Iran's coastal waters near Jask toward the Strait of Hormuz," as well as another vessel entering the strait near the Emirati port of Fujairah.

"At the same time, with the cooperation of some regional countries, they carried out air attacks on civilian areas along the coasts of Bandar Khamir, Sirik, and Qeshm Island."

CENTCOM said it eliminated inbound threats and targeted Iranian military facilities responsible for attacking U.S. forces, including missile and drone launch sites, command-and-control locations, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance nodes.

"CENTCOM does not seek escalation but remains positioned and ready to protect American forces," CENTCOM said.

Trump also warned in his Truth Social post that if Iran "doesn't get their Deal signed, FAST," the U.S. would respond "a lot harder, and a lot more violently" in the future.

Trump has been pushing Iran to accept a U.S.-backed peace proposal.

"They are led by LUNATICS, and if they had the chance to use a Nuclear Weapon, they would do it, without question," Trump wrote. "But they'll never have that opportunity and, just like we knocked them out again today, we'll knock them out a lot harder, and a lot more violently, in the future, if they don't get their Deal signed, FAST!"

 

Pratt: Is Karen Bass Trolling Palisades Fire Victims With the 'Deranged' Theme of This Playground?

After the Palisades and Eaton fires in January 2025, a FireAid concert raised hundreds of millions of dollars that were to go (allegedly) directly to the victims for rebuilding. We know through multiple audits and grant documentation that not much of it actually made its way to those individuals; instead, a significant portion has been awarded to nonprofits that allegedly were going to then distribute it to victims or that offered services needed for recovery, such as mental health resources to assist survivors in healing from the trauma of those days and grieving what they lost.

 

So it's really insulting to know that a $1 million FireAid grant to the Los Angeles Parks Foundation was used to rebuild a playground at the Palisades Recreation Center featuring a "first responder" theme, complete with a fire truck equipped with a blaring siren that will undoubtedly bring back horrible memories for the children and parents for whom that noise was the soundtrack playing as they ran from the fast-moving flames that day.

 

The fire broke out around 10:30 AM on what was, until then, a perfect, if blustery, California day, so school was in session, and students waited on playgrounds for their parents to pick them up.

And then many of them were stuck in traffic on Palisades Drive attempting to escape.

It was a day none of them want to remember, but can't forget.

Palisades fire victim Spencer Pratt, who's now running for Los Angeles mayor, highlighted the insanity of the theme and demonstrated how loud that siren is.

Pratt said:

"You wanna see one of the more insane things you could possibly see?

"This is the Palisades park that didn't burn down, and that the city took FireAid money to rebuild and redesign in a fire truck, fire station, fire-themed frickin...like, what? These kids all had to run out of school, flames coming down at them, crying moms, and now their park that they have to come back to is just this triggering troll park?

"Watch this. What? What are they thinking? This is what kids wanna hear after their town burned down? Let's put sirens in their park? Who are you people making these decisions? I think you're sick in the head."

Getting that playground completed was a big deal for Bass, who partnered with her former opponent Rick Caruso's nonprofit, Steadfast LA, on the project. Caruso engaged a private firefighting company to save his shopping center, Palisades Village, so perhaps he doesn't have the same terrible memories of the fire as those who lost everything.

The nearly 40-year-old playground was slated for renovation before the fire; in July 2024 three themes and accompanying design documents were presented to the Park Advisory Board for community input and collaboration: ocean, desert, or forest. At the time of the fire, a final theme had not yet been decided upon, and the LA Recreation and Parks Board and the LA Parks Foundation thought it was best to ditch the three themes for which they already had designs and leave the community out of the discussion, with the rationale that "if parents have not weighed in before, to do so now would delay the project." And the last thing Karen Bass wanted was to have the project delayed.

Once the playground opened on July 31, 2025 (less than a month behind schedule - imagine that!) residents started voicing concerns. Local newspaper Palisadian-Post ran an informal poll asking whether the theme should be changed, and nearly 77 percent of respondents said yes. On August 28, Nathan Younker of GameTime, the vendor that donated the playground equipment, explained that they could swap out the first responder themed paneling and change the appearance of the vehicles to create a "Pacific Coast Highway" theme:

What is “themed” now, Younker explained, are a fire truck, an ambulance and a fire station structure, small and midsize rocking toys, and play panels, including a “police climber.”

“With so many vehicles, we can make use of the structural elements of the playground and changing the appearance of vehicles to a [‘peace wagon’-style] bus, a station wagon, a lifeguard buggy, etc.,” Younker said, which would create a “Pacific Coast Highway” theme.

Things like the fire station playhouse could be replaced with a “nature discovery playhouse,” Younker said.

Likely due to the fact that people haven't started to move back to the Palisades yet, the playground theme hasn't changed. It's just another reminder of how little Mayor Bass cares about the challenges facing residents of her city.

 

Comedy Gold: Sen. Kennedy Mocks Lovefest Between Fawning Late Night Host and Obama, 'Get a Motel Room'

Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy has become somewhat of a comedy legend, at least among conservatives. Liberals, not so much, because he regularly shreds them with his easy homespun humor and exposes their hypocrisy with such wicked effectiveness.

Former President Barack Obama and the toxic Stephen Colbert (who’s somehow supposed to be a comedian?) are anything but funny, and so if you put them in a room together, what would you get? 

Maximum cringe.

That’s just what happened Tuesday when Barack sat for an interview with the soon-to-be-jettisoned CBS late-night talk show host. As RedState’s Nick Arama reported, Obama, as usual, put on his “I’m a saint and bring peace and unity wherever I go” act, pretending that he is somehow ascendant and above it all. Of course, anyone who pays attention to politics knows that it is and always was a perversion of the truth, and that he remains one of the most divisive figures in the country. He ended his eight-year run as commander in chief by leaving behind a nation far more racially polarized than when he took office.

Colbert, of course, acted like a little lap dog, gushing and fawning over Michelle’s husband. He certainly seemed to have ye olde “thrill up the leg.”

 

But Kennedy wasn’t about to let them get away with it:

Oh my, this was some good stuff. If Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, or whatever the other jerk's name is were half this funny, you wouldn’t see shows losing millions of dollars and tanking in the ratings. What I especially love about Kennedy is something that GOP LA Mayoral Candidate Spencer Pratt seems to have quickly mastered, as he proved in Wednesday night’s debate against incumbent Karen Bass and a wooden democratic socialist: you can savage your opponents without coming across as venal and nasty.

Kennedy:

I also got a kick out of Mr. Colbert.

He and President Obama are obviously best buds. Maybe they ought to get a motel room or something.

They were just fawning all over each other. I don't have anything against Mr. Colbert. I've always thought that he was, he was, um, shallow as a puddle.

Now, he doesn't believe that. He thinks he's one of the smartest people on the planet. If you don't take my word for it, ask him.

His personal vanity has always been unshakable. But his problem is not his vanity or his intelligence, it's his numbers. He was losing CBS $40 million a year, 'cause nobody was watching, so CBS told him to sit his 50-cent ass down. And they said, well, you're fired.

Now I am a deeply serious, solemn political writer, so I of course didn’t laugh at any of that. If you did, however, I certainly wouldn’t fault you.

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MORE: Hot Takes: Obama's Effort to Attack Trump on Weaponization Accidentally Backfires on Him

Surprise: Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show' Has Been Canceled, and Adam Schiff Is Hilariously Aggrieved

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But Kennedy had bigger targets to hit than a failed far-left extremist late-night talk show host; he also took the ex-president to task for piously droning on about the politicization of the Justice Department. And who made an art form out of that? Kennedy asked. The answer: YOU, Mr. Obama:

🚨 BOOM: Sen. John Kennedy MIC DROPS Hussein Obama whining "the president shouldn't tell the Attorney General who to prosecute!"

"I wish that President Obama had talked to Attorney General MERRICK GARLAND and President Biden about that point!"

"They prosecuted a former president of the United States, then Donald Trump, now President Trump!"

"And not only was he a former president of the United States, he was a current candidate for president running against Attorney General Garland's own BOSS."

Kennedy is the gift that keeps on giving, not only because he’s funny, but because he has a deeply-seated sense of how to quickly get to the heart of the matter, reveal the true failures of progressive policies, and expose the endless gaslighting by the duplicitous Democrats.

I wish we had more like him.

 

The Democratic Party Is Dead, Long Live the Jacobins!

For the past century, the agendas of the Democratic Party were predictable. They professed concern for working Americans and supported blue-collar unions.

Unemployment insurance, a 40-hour work week, disability insurance, and Social Security were their trademarks -- often rapidly achieved by growing government bureaucracies and continually raising taxes. Still, many Democrats were socially conservative.

By the 1970s, Democrats still deplored antisemitism. Party officials had rejected their own segregationists to champion civil rights.

Presidents like Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy all supported strong defense and military deterrence.

All that is now passe.

The only vestigial Democrat left in Congress is Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman,

 

 himself roundly despised by Democrat leaders.

Today, supporting Israel and calling for campuses to stop their institutionalized antisemitism is Democratic political suicide.

Forty years ago, any Democrat with a Nazi tattoo was political toast; today, he can become the party's nominee for the Maine Senate race.

So, the current Democrat Party is no longer truly democratic at all. Its new spirit and methods resemble the radical Jacobin Party of the French Revolution. 

 

Today, Democrats claim that if any opponent gives a Roman salute, he is a Nazi -- while insisting that one of their own with a Nazi tattoo is not.

Jacobinism rejects Martin Luther King Jr.'s emphasis on the "content of . . . character." It instead prefers fixating on "the color of . . . skin."

It aims to divide the nation arbitrarily between the noble oppressed and the toxic oppressors.

So these new Jacobins have institutionalized racially separate college dorms and graduation ceremonies, along with hiring and promoting on the basis of race.

The new Jacobins destroyed the southern border and welcomed in 10-12 million illegal aliens, seen as a future proletariat constituency. Today's Jacobins would now ridicule Bill Clinton's 1990s calls for secure borders and an end to illegal immigration as "fascist" and "racist."

The most recent nihilist developments in American society can be attributed to these Jacobin "Democrats": biological men competing in women's sports; critical legal theory that normalizes cashless bail; race-based reparations; violent felons arrested and back on the street hours later; radical abortion on demand until birth; attacks on the concept of the cultural "melting pot"; and opposition to organized Christianity.

These agendas lack broad majority support. So street theater and violence focus on Tesla dealerships, ICE officers, conservative campus speakers, and, at times, any journalists covering the unrest.

Jacobins make excuses for pro-Hamas campus violence, which often targets Jewish students. The often violent and corrupt Black Lives Matter movement was a Jacobin ancillary.

Free speech is labeled "disinformation" and "misinformation" – synonyms for not toeing the Jacobin Party line. Until recent pushbacks, near-religious radical green agendas warred against fossil fuels and cost the working classes billions of dollars for sky-high fuel and electricity costs.

Like the Robespierre brothers of old, the most radical Jacobins are so often to be found among the wealthiest and most privileged Americans. Radical New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani grew up as a rich Ugandan. Radical, self-described communist Maine senatorial candidate Graham Platner attended one of the most elite and expensive prep schools in the United States.

When avowed socialists Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders barnstormed the country, they did so via private jets.

Radical "Squad" member Rep. Ilhan Omar cannot decide whether she is worth $30 million or nothing. Hard-left California billionaire, gubernatorial candidate, and radical environmentalist Tom Steyer is a billionaire who jump-started his fortune by investing in coal plants overseas and offshoring profits to avoid taxes.

At least 10 states are drafting laws to tax the net worth, as well as the income, of "billionaires and millionaires," apparently for their "social" crimes. Mayor Mamdani taps on the window of philanthropist Ken Griffin as a warning to get out of town. The mayor of Seattle scoffs at the rich leaving her state with their billions due to new punitive taxes, offering a sarcastic "bye."

In the old days, Democrats were embarrassed by their radicals and distanced themselves from the Weather Underground, Students for a Democratic Society, and the Black Panthers. Today, left-wing bomb throwers are the Democrat Party.

Hasan Piker, another multimillionaire, $200,000 Porsche-driving communist, has openly supported "social murder."

So Piker praised Luigi Mangione's targeted murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Meanwhile, Jacobins on social media expressed disappointment that all three assassination attempts on Donald Trump failed. The arsonist who burned down Pacific Palisades was a Mangione acolyte and saw his destruction as a revolutionary act, perhaps a form of mass "social murder."

Jacobin politicians call for Trump to be "eliminated," label him as a "fascist," and call for "any means necessary" to end his presidency. The aim is to lower the social and psychological barrier to violence.

The Jacobin Democrats of today are systematically destroying the legacy of the Democratic Party. And why not?

Their model is not the American Founding, but the radical mandated equality – and violence – of the French Revolution.

Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness. He is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author of "The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won," from Basic Books. You can reach him by emailing authorvdh@gmail.com.

 

This Tennessee Republican Had the Best Reaction to the New Congressional Map...and It Drove Dems Crazy

We win, you lose, so please be quiet. That’s all. We don’t need to engage with these people. Tennessee approved a new map that eliminated the last remaining Democratic seat held by Rep. Steve Cohen. 

 

The circus was in town yesterday, with leftists shouting that this move was racist—Cohen is white. The map has been set, so throw a tantrum all you want, guys. You still lost. State Rep. Todd Warner did a victory lap, wearing a MAGA flag like a cape and strolling around the Capitol. 

 

It was total pandemonium. Folks, Tennessee Democrats were calling for secession—just grossly irresponsible and unserious people:

If you’re on the right you’ve seen this playbook a thousand times.

Show up, raise hell, scream obscenities, blast bullhorns, and generally make yourself a nuisance as much as possible in the hopes that your incessant public wailing will intimidate the very people you hate.… https://t.co/MCylVcDE6W

— Christian Heiens 🏛 (@ChristianHeiens) May 7, 2026

If Tennessee’s redistricting is racist, why is it about to elect a Black Republican woman to Congress? pic.twitter.com/xm2ka17uA2

— Lydia Moynihan (@LydiaMoynihan) May 8, 2026

Well done, Tennessee. 

 

Lawsuit alleges GOP Sen. Grassley and FBI leadership orchestrated political purge of career agents

 

A group of disgruntled former FBI agents have filed a federal class-action lawsuit alleging that Iowa GOP Senator Chuck Grassley and high-ranking officials within the FBI, including Director Kash Patel, engaged in an “improper and retaliatory” campaign to fire career employees.

The fired plaintiffs, which include agents Michelle Ball, Jamie Garman, and Blaire Toleman, claim they were purged from the Bureau not for performance issues, but as retribution for their involvement in “Arctic Frost,” the investigation into alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

The lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., contends that the terminations were part of a broader “feedback loop” where Grassley’s office utilized unredacted whistleblower documents to identify and publicize the names of agents perceived as politically biased, effectively signaling for their immediate removal.

The legal filings argue that there was a highly coordinated effort between the Senate Judiciary Committee and the FBI’s Office of Congressional Affairs. According to the plaintiffs, Senator Grassley (R-Iowa) — the committee’s chairman — released internal Justice Department records and unredacted emails that exposed the identities of street-level agents.

 

The lawsuit also alleges that shortly after these public disclosures, Patel and then-Attorney General Pam Bondi moved to terminate the named individuals — without providing a formal explanation or adhering to standard disciplinary procedures.

One agent recounted allegedly being summoned to the Washington Field Office to receive a termination notice on Halloween while preparing to go trick-or-treating with his children, despite a twenty-year career “marked by a Medal of Excellence” and “exemplary” performance ratings.

 

Meanwhile, Grassley has fiercely defended his actions, describing his role as essential “good government oversight.” In a February 2026 floor speech, Grassley argued that the records he made public were provided by “patriotic whistleblowers” and he exposed the political weaponization of the Biden administration’s FBI.

 

He also maintained that the agents involved in Arctic Frost and other investigations into Republican figures had demonstrated clear partisanship toward the left, and he asserted that making such records public was his duty to inform the American people.

Grassley dismissed the allegations of improper coordination as “left-leaning media smears” intended to discredit legitimate oversight of the Bureau’s leadership. Conversely, the former agents argue that the criteria for their firing was a “perceived lack of political support” for the administration, which they claim is a “violation of Constitutional protections” for federal employees.

By naming these individuals in public letters and reports, the plaintiffs argue that Senator Grassley bypassed the FBI’s internal employee protections and “punched all the way down” to target staff.

 

The class-action suit now seeks reinstatement for the affected agents and a court declaration that the personnel purge was an unlawful act of political retribution.

Blue States Shield Welfare Fraud as Vice President JD Vance Moves

The headlines are blunt: federal agents recently raided dozens of Minneapolis day-care businesses and the Vice President has added Columbus to a national fraud task force after a bombshell report about Medicaid rip-offs. Those moves were sparked by dogged citizen journalists who knocked on doors and followed the money. Yet instead of congratulating accountability, many blue-state lawmakers seem more interested in shuffling deck chairs — and shielding the people who may have stolen from taxpayers.

Federal raids and new pressure on fraud investigations

The FBI’s sweep of 22 day-care locations in Minneapolis and the Vice President JD Vance’s decision to put Columbus on the fraud task force send a clear message: the federal government is treating welfare and Medicaid fraud as a real problem. These are not small scuffles. Independent reporting suggests the schemes could reach into the billions. When journalists like Nick Shirley and Luke Rosiak knock on doors, ask questions, and expose patterns, federal investigators often follow — and that’s how real corruption gets uncovered.

Blue states rushing to shield fraud?

Why this matters for taxpayers and transparency

And yet, in a twist that would make any law-abiding citizen sigh, several Democratic-run states are moving in the opposite direction. Instead of making it easier to catch scammers, some lawmakers are proposing rules that would make reporting and verification harder — changes that can bury tips, slow audits, and protect bad actors. Call it compassion for crooks: new privacy rules, licensing hurdles, and limits on who can access records all sound noble until you remember whose wallets are being emptied.

 

Consequences for accountability and the press

When you make it tougher for journalists and citizens to investigate, the only winners are the fraudsters. The losers are taxpayers, honest small businesses, and families who depend on a fair system. Independent journalism is often the first alarm bell in fraud cases. If blue states keep building legal walls around their welfare systems, that bell will be silenced while the theft continues. That’s not progress — it’s protection money by another name.

Fix the system — don’t hide it

Lawmakers who claim to care about the vulnerable should stop defending fraud and start defending transparency. The federal raids and the Vice President’s task force show what real enforcement looks like. States should cooperate with federal investigators, protect sources and whistleblowers, and make it easier — not harder — for watchdogs to do their job. If politicians truly want to help low-income families, the first step is stopping billions from flowing into fake day-care centers and sham health firms. Anything less is a photo op for compassion, with taxpayers picking up the bill.

 

Secret Service Shoots Man Near Washington Monument After Motorcade

There was a scary scene near the Washington Monument this week when U.S. Secret Service officers shot a man after he allegedly fired at agents. The incident happened shortly after the motorcade of Vice President J.D. Vance passed through the area. Officials say there is no current evidence the suspect was trying to target the vice president, but the questions this episode raises about White House security and media hype are real and worth asking.

 What happened near the Washington Monument: facts, not headlines

Plainclothes Secret Service agents spotted what they called a suspicious man who appeared to have a gun. Uniformed officers moved in, the man ran, and, according to Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn, the man fired toward officers. The agents returned fire and struck the suspect, who was taken to a hospital. A juvenile bystander was also hit but suffered non‑life‑threatening injuries. Law enforcement identified the suspect in media reports as Michael Marx, and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said prosecutors plan to charge him with assault on a federal officer and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.

Don’t let social media turn danger into a conspiracy

Within minutes, social feeds were treating the shooting like a Hollywood assassination. Let’s be blunt: speculation is cheap and dangerous. Deputy Director Matthew Quinn told reporters the motorcade had passed “not long before” the exchange and that investigators have found no indication the suspect intended to target Vice President J.D. Vance. If evidence changes, we’ll see it in charging papers and official statements. Until then, sensible people should let investigators do their jobs and leave the conjecture to the clickbait industry.

Legitimate questions for White House security and the Secret Service

Praise for the officers who stopped a possible violent actor should not end debate about policy and procedure. This incident comes during a period of heightened concern about security around the White House complex. The Secret Service and local police are doing a criminal and administrative probe, and the country deserves transparency. Release the briefing transcripts, share the surveillance video that investigators rely on, and let the internal review evaluate whether procedures worked or need fixing. We should demand rigorous oversight without making every scare into a political snipe hunt.

Final take: support the agents, demand the facts

Bottom line: agents acted to protect the public and officials. That response deserves support. But support does not mean shutting off scrutiny. The American people should expect clear answers about motive, timing, and whether any gaps in White House security need fixing. And the media should stop treating rumor as front‑page news. We want safety, not theater — and we want the truth, not a feed full of wild guesses dressed up as breaking news.

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