President Trump’s administration is tightening the screws on Cuba’s communist regime. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday that the State Department has designated 11 Cuban government officials and three security agencies for sanctions. The targets include Cuba’s Directorate of Intelligence, the Revolutionary National Police, and the Ministry of Interior. @SecRubio says he has designated 11 Cuban regime elites & 3 government organizations, including government officials and military figures associated with Cuba’s security apparatus, for their responsibility in repressing the Cuban people. — Hiba Nasr (@HibaNasr) May 18, 2026 The Associated Press reported on the new designations: The State Department imposed a new layer of sanctions on several Cuban government agencies. The targeted agencies included the Interior Ministry, the National Police, and the Intelligence Directorate as the Trump administration ratchets up pressure against the island. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday he had also designated 11 Cuban government officials for sanctions. Those officials included the ministers of justice, energy and mines, and communications. The list also included the chief of staff of the Cuban army and the chief of staff of military counterintelligence. The sanctions block any assets that they may have or that come into contact with the U.S. financial system. Many of those designated had already been subject to U.S. sanctions. The new action adds the Cuba-focused sanctions authority to a larger pressure campaign. “These sanctions advance the Trump administration’s comprehensive campaign to address the pressing national security threats posed by Cuba’s communist regime and to hold accountable both the regime and those who provide it material support,” Rubio said in a statement. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on May 18 new sanctions against several Cuban government agencies and senior officials to address “repression in Cuba and threats to U.S. national security.” “I designated 11 Cuban regime elites and three government organizations,… pic.twitter.com/zHZ1xTOsh2 — The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) May 19, 2026 The sanctioned officials include some of the most powerful figures in the Cuban security state. Local 10 detailed who made the list: President Donald Trump’s administration announced new sanctions on Monday against a group of top Cuban Communist Party officials. The U.S. State Department announced designating 11 “regime-aligned elites” associated with Cuba’s security apparatus. The move also targeted three Cuban government bodies: the Directorate of Intelligence of Cuba, also known as DGI or G2; the Revolutionary National Police of Cuba, or PNP; and the Ministry of Interior of Cuba, or MININT. The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also released the list. It included Eugenio Armando Rabilero Aguilera, Raul Cuba Villar Kessel, and Joaquin Quintas Sola. The list also included Jose Miguel Gomez Del Vallin, Cuba’s chief of staff of military counterintelligence. The others sanctioned were Vicente de la O Levy, Cuba’s minister of energy and mines; Rosabel Gamon Verde, Cuba’s minister of justice; and Mayra Arevich Marin, the minister of communications. Juan Esteban Lazo Hernandez, the president of Cuba’s National Assembly, and Dr. Roberto Tomas Morales Ojeda, secretary of the party’s Organization of the Central Committee, were also listed. A State Department spokesperson signaled more pressure is ahead. “The United States will continue to take action to counter the Cuban regime, those furthering its goals, and those abroad enabling the elites to profit while the Cuban people suffer,” the spokesperson said. Cuba’s communist dictatorship sits 90 miles off the coast of Florida. Rubio is signaling that more designations are coming as the Trump administration targets the regime’s security and intelligence apparatus. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

A violent teen brawl inside a Chipotle restaurant in Washington, D.C.’s Navy Yard neighborhood went viral over the weekend, and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro wasted no time using it as Exhibit A in her escalating crackdown on teen takeovers in the nation’s capital. Video from Friday night showed teens throwing punches and hurling furniture inside the packed restaurant while ordinary customers were trapped nearby with nowhere to go. Massive brawl broke out Friday night at a Chipotle in the Navy Yard area. pic.twitter.com/xqZTliXWvK — Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 17, 2026 The brawl happened just days after Pirro announced on May 15 that her office would take a more aggressive enforcement approach to the teen mob gatherings plaguing D.C. neighborhoods and businesses. By Monday, she was back on camera with a sharper message aimed directly at parents. Fox News reported that the chaotic Chipotle brawl was part of a growing pattern of teen disorder in the capital, tying the incident directly to Pirro’s plan to prosecute parents of lawbreaking juveniles involved in takeovers. The brawl went viral after video showed teens fighting and throwing furniture inside the restaurant while customers were stuck nearby. The footage showed the kind of scene that makes the phrase “teen takeover” sound too polite for what ordinary families and workers are actually facing. Fox tied the Navy Yard incident directly to Pirro’s new plan to prosecute parents of lawbreaking juveniles. That timing matters because Pirro had announced the enforcement push just days earlier. Her warning was that D.C. could no longer treat these gatherings as harmless youth activity when assaults, robberies, fights, and disorderly conduct keep following them. The Chipotle video gave her office a fresh and graphic example. It was not an abstract policy debate about curfew language or council procedure. It was a restaurant full of people forced to watch teens throw punches and furniture in a public place where families should be able to eat without wondering whether a brawl is about to break out. The disorder is no longer hidden in police logs or neighborhood complaints. It is showing up on video inside ordinary businesses, with customers and workers caught in the middle. Pirro did not mince words on Monday. She told parents that every curfew violation by their child could mean a $500 fine, and that contributing to the delinquency of a minor carries up to six months behind bars. Washington Examiner reported that Pirro warned parents who fail to supervise minors involved in violent mob gatherings, curfew violations, truancy, drug use, and other criminal activity could face prosecution under Washington’s contributing-to-the-delinquency statute. Pirro said parents are not bystanders in this crisis. According to the Washington Examiner, she warned that parents who fail to supervise minors involved in violent mob gatherings, curfew violations, truancy, drug use, and other criminal activity could face prosecution under Washington’s contributing-to-the-delinquency statute. The warning was not limited to a lecture about responsibility. Pirro put numbers and consequences behind it: $500 fines for curfew violations, possible criminal prosecution, and possible jail time when the facts show an adult enabled or failed to stop a minor from joining the chaos. The Examiner placed those comments in the immediate aftermath of the Navy Yard Chipotle brawl. That is why the Monday message landed harder than the original May 15 announcement. Pirro was no longer talking only about future prevention. She was pointing to a viral incident and telling parents that the federal prosecutor’s office is ready to follow the facts back home. The warning also put D.C. leaders on notice. If the city will not stop repeat teen takeover scenes before they erupt, Pirro is signaling that her office will look for accountability after the fact. .@USAttyPirro: "If your teen, parents, is a curfew violator, you’re subject to a $500 fine each and every time—and if there are crimes, under contributing to the delinquency of a minor, you face up to 6 months in prison, and I am not shy about looking for jail time." https://t.co/gIReSJZCVH pic.twitter.com/9v5l4KjPWD — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 18, 2026 The Justice Department laid the groundwork for the escalation in its May 15 release, where Pirro announced the new enforcement posture and spelled out the scope of the problem. The Justice Department said Pirro was responding to teen takeover gatherings that have disrupted neighborhoods, forced businesses to close temporarily, and diverted law enforcement resources away from residents. The release said these incidents have become increasingly common in areas such as Navy Yard and NoMa. The department also said the gatherings are often accompanied by criminal conduct, including assaults, robberies, fights, and other disorderly behavior. Pirro argued that even with Mayor Muriel Bowser enforcing the juvenile curfew, more action was needed immediately. Pirro put the blame squarely on local leaders who have refused to move fast enough. She said the D.C. Council’s lack of action creates an extremely dangerous situation for residents and teens alike. Her office would look at parents and adults who enable, facilitate, or permit minors to engage in delinquent acts. That official posture is what turned the weekend Chipotle video into more than another viral crime clip. Under D.C.’s Juvenile Curfew Act, citywide curfew hours for those under 18 run from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. every day. Adults who violate the act can face a fine of up to $500 or community service. But the city’s curfew enforcement tools are not fully in place. Axios reported that Pirro and Mayor Muriel Bowser urged the D.C. Council to reinstate youth curfew zones with immediate effect following the Navy Yard fight. Pirro and Bowser were both pushing the D.C. Council to reinstate youth curfew zones with immediate effect. The pressure came after the Navy Yard Chipotle fight went viral and after Pirro promised to prosecute parents of troublemakers when the facts support it. Youth curfew zones were not in effect because the council had not approved an emergency version of the law. That left the city arguing over enforcement tools while another public brawl became national news. Pirro told residents to contact council members and demand a curfew tool. That turned the issue from a closed-door city government argument into a public-pressure campaign aimed at leaders who have not kept pace with the disorder residents are watching on video. The pressure is unusually direct because Bowser and Pirro are not normally interchangeable voices. When the mayor and President Trump’s top federal prosecutor in D.C. are both pushing for a stronger curfew tool, the council’s inaction becomes harder to defend. That is the governing problem the viral video exposed. Residents are watching another violent youth gathering spill into a business, while the city still has not settled the basic enforcement authority officials say they need. The dynamic here is telling. President Trump’s DOJ, through Pirro, is doing the work that D.C.’s own elected leaders have refused to do for years. Teens are brawling inside fast-food restaurants, customers are cowering behind tables, and the D.C. Council still has not passed emergency curfew authority. Pirro is making it clear that if local government will not protect the city, the federal government will, and the bill is going to parents first. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

President Trump just did something Washington has talked about for decades but never delivered: he built a tool that lets Americans see what their prescriptions actually cost and shop for the best deal. The White House announced a major expansion of TrumpRx.gov, the administration’s drug-price transparency platform, adding more than 600 generic medications to the site. TrumpRx and Most-Favored-Nations Drug Pricing: Saving BILLIONS for Americans. Watch President Trump deliver remarks on TrumpRx at 4:30 pm TODAY. pic.twitter.com/BiGOIEtjqd — The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 18, 2026 Even more notable than the drug list is who Trump brought into the room to make it work. Mark Cuban, Amazon Pharmacy, GoodRx, and Cost Plus Drugs are all now integrated into the platform, giving users real-time price comparisons from multiple discount providers in one place. Cuban, of course, was no Trump ally during the 2024 campaign. He stumped hard for Kamala Harris and took shots at Trump on every cable news show that would book him. Trump brought him in anyway, because the goal is lowering prices, not nursing grudges. That is the difference between a dealmaker and a politician. The White House fact sheet explained the expansion this way: The administration said TrumpRx.gov now includes more than 600 generic medications, giving Americans a clearer way to compare cash prices for everyday prescriptions without being trapped inside the usual insurance and pharmacy middleman maze. The fact sheet said the site will let patients compare competitive cash prices against what their insurance company offers. It also said the new generic-drug listings are separate from the discounts on high-cost branded medications tied to President Trump’s Most-Favored-Nation drug price agreements. The new platform integrates discounts from Amazon Pharmacy, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs, and GoodRx, while offering local pharmacy and delivery options. The White House listed common medicines such as atorvastatin, clopidogrel, lisinopril, and metformin as examples of the kinds of everyday generics featured. The core idea is simple: patients should be able to see the price before they pay it, compare that price against their insurance copay, and choose the option that actually saves them money. The site works like a search engine for prescription drug prices. You type in your medication, and it pulls up cash-pay options from multiple providers so you can compare instantly. No middlemen. No hidden pharmacy benefit manager markups. Just the price. Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Announces Expansion of TrumpRx to Bring Americans Transparency and Choice on Everyday Medicineshttps://t.co/ldd4PL72tm — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 18, 2026 The Cuban partnership became one of the sharpest parts of the rollout. “He made a mistake. It was a big mistake.” President Trump jokes about Mark Cuban previously backing Kamala Harris as the two appear together at a healthcare affordability event focused on lowering prescription drug costs. Trump says Cuban joined the effort because “this is… pic.twitter.com/ot5rA1L56y — Fox News (@FoxNews) May 18, 2026 The Washington Examiner reported that the Trump administration is joining with Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs, Amazon Pharmacy, and GoodRx to add generic medications to TrumpRx. AP reported the practical scope of the rollout: President Trump announced that more than 600 generic medications are being added to TrumpRx, dramatically expanding a discounted-drug website that launched earlier in his administration. The expansion is made possible through partnerships with Amazon Pharmacy, GoodRx, and Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs. Trump said the additions make the site’s offerings nearly seven times larger and that TrumpRx has already had more than 10 million visits since launch. The savings depend on a patient’s situation. People with strong insurance may sometimes do better through their plan, while uninsured patients or people stuck with high deductibles may benefit more from seeing cash-price discounts. That caveat strengthens the case for the site because it proves why price comparison matters in the first place. Americans should be able to see whether the cash price, the coupon price, or the insurance copay is the best deal before they hand over their money. The political fight is affordability, but the practical fight is information. A family at the pharmacy counter should not need a consultant to know whether they are being overcharged. Some outlets have pointed out that TrumpRx.gov is most useful as a cash-price comparison tool and may not always beat what someone pays through employer insurance. That criticism runs straight into the point of the project. Transparency matters because millions of Americans are uninsured, underinsured, or stuck with high-deductible plans where they are paying cash prices anyway. For those people, this site can be a real tool. Axios noted why the generic-drug piece matters: Adding hundreds of generics fills a major gap in TrumpRx because generic drugs are often cheaper than brand-name medicines and are exactly what many families use month after month. Mark Cuban joined Trump at the White House, bringing in a business model built around direct-to-consumer prescription sales through Cost Plus Drugs. Amazon Pharmacy, Cost Plus Drugs, and GoodRx discounts will be integrated into the site, turning TrumpRx into a comparison point rather than another government page that tells people to trust the system. Trump’s own explanation was direct: consumers need one source where they can check whether they are getting the lowest possible price on a prescription. That is the kind of sentence Washington experts often overcomplicate because it makes too much common sense. One website will not fix every health-care bill in America. But competition starts when customers can finally see the prices hidden from them. That is why generic drugs are such an important addition. They are the ordinary, repeat-fill medications where small monthly savings can add up fast for families on tight budgets. And even for insured Americans, knowing the actual cash price gives you leverage. If your copay is $45 and the same drug is $8 through Cost Plus, you should know that. The pharmaceutical middleman industry has survived for decades because nobody could see the real numbers. Trump just turned the lights on. This is a cost-of-living story. Families are paying too much for basic medications because the system is designed to hide prices and protect margins. Trump is doing what he has always done best: using competition and leverage to break through a rigged system. Washington spent years holding hearings about drug prices. They wrote reports. They gave speeches. They did nothing. Trump built a website, called his opponents, and got the deal done. That is what happens when you put a businessman in the Oval Office instead of another career politician.

The Justice Department under President Trump has announced a federal election integrity charge against a California woman accused of paying people to register to vote. Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, 64, of Marina del Rey, faces one felony count of paying another person to register to vote. Federal prosecutors say she agreed to plead guilty. The charge carries a statutory maximum of five years in federal prison. FBI RESPONDS: Director of the FBI Kash Patel's statement on the indictment of Brenda Brown from our Skid Row Election Fraud Investigation. @FBIDirectorKash https://t.co/pdKseUWKFH — James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) May 18, 2026 According to the Justice Department, Armstrong worked for roughly 20 years as a petition circulator, collecting signatures for ballot initiatives. Prosecutors say she regularly paid people small amounts of cash to sign petitions. The Justice Department laid out the alleged voter registration scheme this way: “False registrations undermine Americans’ faith in elections, even more so when payoffs are involved,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “This Justice Department is committed to ensuring that all U.S. elections are fair and free from illegal meddling, so that all Americans can accept the results with confidence.” According to her plea agreement, Armstrong periodically worked as a petition circulator for approximately 20 years. She was paid by coordinators to collect voter signatures on official petitions that qualify initiatives, referendums, and recalls for California state ballots. Armstrong regularly paid and offered to pay individuals cash, usually between $2 and $3, to induce them to sign her petitions. Starting no later than 2025, she began offering payment to complete voter registration forms in addition to petition signatures. Some homeless people did not have an address to put on the forms. On several occasions, Armstrong provided a homeless individual with her own former address in Los Angeles so they had something to write on the registration form. Because California automatically sends a vote-by-mail ballot to every registered voter, prosecutors noted that ballots could potentially be sent to addresses where the registered individuals did not actually live or collect mail. BREAKING: California woman to plead guilty for paying homeless people on Skid Row to register to votehttps://t.co/xyzu69lLpQ — Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) May 18, 2026 The announcement comes after conservative journalist James O’Keefe said his undercover investigation captured petitioners admitting they were paid for signatures. O’Keefe said his team posed as homeless individuals on Los Angeles Skid Row using hidden cameras. The Washington Examiner reported on the connection between the O’Keefe investigation and the federal charge. The Justice Department announced Monday that it charged a California woman with violating the law by paying people to register to vote. Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, 64, was charged with one felony count of paying homeless people living in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles, and other individuals, to register. Armstrong, also known as Anika, faces up to five years in prison and has agreed to plead guilty, according to prosecutors. Her coordinators only paid for signatures attributable to registered voters. Prosecutors say that led Armstrong to pay homeless people in Los Angeles to register to vote so they could add their signatures to petitions involving initiatives, referendums, and recalls. “Armstrong regularly paid and offered to pay individuals cash, usually in amounts between $2 and $3, to induce them to sign her petitions,” prosecutors said. “Starting no later than 2025, Armstrong began offering payment to individuals not only to sign her petitions, but also to complete a voter registration form.” The development comes after conservative media figure James O’Keefe said Sunday that his undercover investigation found petitioners admitted they are paid $7 to $10 per signature, sometimes earning $1,000 or more per day. O’Keefe said he and his team posed as homeless individuals on Skid Row, using hidden cameras to capture Armstrong on camera. Armstrong appeared Monday morning in a Santa Ana courtroom. First U.S. Assistant Attorney Bill Essayli explained the mechanics of the alleged scheme at a news conference. According to NBC Los Angeles: Federal authorities identified Brown Armstrong as a longtime petition circulator. She collected voter signatures on official petitions that qualify initiatives, referendums, and recalls for election ballots. The signed petitions were returned to coordinators, who provided payment for signatures that could be attributed to registered voters. Some of the signatures were collected in downtown Los Angeles’ Skid Row. Federal prosecutors alleged that Brown Armstrong paid $2 to $3 and offered cigarettes and phone cards in exchange for signatures on petitions. “While Skid Row offered a high-density location to collect petition signatures, many of the homeless people were not registered to vote in California,” court documents stated. “Before she could have a homeless person sign a petition, she first needed to get them to register to vote, and that’s what she paid them to do,” First U.S. Assistant Attorney Bill Essayli said at a Monday news conference. It was not immediately clear how many people were registered to vote. The case represents the kind of election integrity enforcement that conservatives have long called for. For years, concerns about vulnerabilities in voter registration systems were dismissed as conspiracy theories. Now the Trump DOJ has brought a federal charge with an agreed guilty plea. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

President Trump’s Justice Department announced Monday that a California man has been arrested on a federal hate crime charge for allegedly assaulting a Jewish man near a Los Angeles synagogue. Zaid Gitesatani, 28, of Carlsbad, California, was indicted by a federal grand jury and arrested by the FBI. The charge stems from an alleged assault that occurred in June 2024 outside the Adas Torah Synagogue in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announced the arrest on X. This morning in CA, our FBI colleagues arrested Zaid Gitesatani, who was indicted by a grand jury for his alleged assault on a Jewish man outside the Adas Torah Synagogue in Los Angeles, CA in 2024. Antisemitic violence is un-American and illegal! @CivilRights @USAttyEssayli… pic.twitter.com/E5OlrIkfGA — AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) May 18, 2026 The Justice Department released details of the indictment: A San Diego County man was arrested today on a federal grand jury indictment charging him with assaulting a Jewish man near a synagogue in the Pico-Robertson area of Los Angeles. The synagogue was hosting an event to promote the purchase of real estate in Israel, an event protested by several pro-Palestinian groups. “The defendant’s conduct, if proven, is a serious violation of the law.” “Every American deserves to live without fear of violence based on who he is or how he worships,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department is committed to vigorously prosecuting such crimes of hate and violence.” Zaid Gitesatani, 28, of Carlsbad, California, is charged with one count of hate crime. According to the indictment, a federal grand jury returned the charge on May 5. According to the indictment, a real estate agency called “My Home in Israel” had scheduled an event at the synagogue on June 23, 2024. Several pro-Palestinian groups organized a protest at the location. Prosecutors allege Gitesatani traveled from San Diego to Los Angeles specifically to attend the protest. Los Angeles – Zaid Gitesatani has been charged federally with a hate crime after he physically attacked a Jewish man outside the Adas Torah synagogue in 2024. Gitesatani approached the victim from behind and punched him in the face in what investigators describe as an… pic.twitter.com/Lw70K3kV97 — StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) May 18, 2026 MyNewsLA reported on the details of the alleged assault: On the afternoon of the event, a Jewish man whose name was not revealed in court papers was walking his dog near the synagogue. Gitesatani approached from behind and punched him in the jaw, according to federal prosecutors. Gitesatani then walked away and retreated into the crowd, the indictment contends. On the same day, Gitesatani allegedly posted to his Instagram account a screenshot of the assault. The post included a message that read, “Whooped the Zios today and we took their flag,” along with two images of himself displaying his bruised knuckles following the assault, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ alleges that in the days after the assault, Gitesatani had an Instagram exchange with another user regarding the attack. He allegedly wrote, “I whopped 2 zios,” “I swung good on them” and “It was satisfying.” If convicted, Gitesatani could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison, prosecutors noted. The indictment also alleges Gitesatani posted a still image of the assault with the caption, “The Chosen People sometimes need a good smack to wake up.” If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in federal prison. The incident at the synagogue drew national attention in 2024. Israel National News reported on the scene that day: Reports from the scene of the June 2024 event said protesters surrounded the synagogue and prevented Jews from entering. Pro-Israel counterprotesters also gathered at the location. Clashes later broke out between the groups, with members of both sides pushing, shoving, and throwing punches. One anti-Israel protester allegedly sprayed bear mace at members of the opposing group as well as at an independent journalist at the scene. Police responded in riot gear and arrested one individual on a misdemeanor charge for allegedly carrying a “spiked flag” during the protest. Following the incident, then-President Joe Biden condemned the violence and wrote on X, “I’m appalled by the scenes outside of Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles.” “Intimidating Jewish congregants is dangerous, unconscionable, antisemitic, and un-American,” Biden added. “Americans have a right to peaceful protest. But blocking access to a house of worship and engaging in violence is never acceptable.” The former DOJ under Attorney General Merrick Garland announced an investigation into the violence but brought no federal charges. Now, under President Trump, the Justice Department has acted. An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. Peaceful protest is constitutionally protected. Alleged violence outside a house of worship is exactly where federal civil rights enforcement belongs. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.