The U.S. military seized an oil tanker carrying Venezuelan crude in the Caribbean Wednesday, marking a new step in the Trump administration’s efforts to pressure the South American country’s government.  The ship, which U.S. officials said is named Skipper, has previously been sanctioned, and a federal judge issued a warrant two weeks ago for its seizure due to its activities carrying Iranian oil. Footage released by Attorney General Pam Bondi showed American troops jumping out of helicopters to take control of the ship. “The oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations,” Bondi wrote in a post on X. President Donald Trump, speaking at a business round table at the White House, appeared pleased with the operation. The president described the tanker as “the largest one ever seized, actually.” Venezuela’s foreign minister, Yvan Gil, denounced the seizure in a post on Instagram. The Venezuelan government “strongly denounces and rejects what constitutes a blatant theft and an act of international piracy,” Gil wrote. Oil exports are the Venezuelan government’s main source of income. The seizure is a notable escalation in the Trump administration’s campaign against the Maduro regime. The U.S. has deployed sizable naval forces around the country in a bid to push the strongman president to resign. Previously, the forces were only being used in counternarcotics operations, including airstrikes of small drug-smuggling craft.  The post U.S. Seizes Tanker Off Venezuelan Coast appeared first on The American Conservative.

A quiz to test your knowledge of the fairy tales that Disney adapted into their films.

The House passed an annual defense policy bill on Wednesday that takes surprising aim at the Pentagon's boat strike campaign in Latin America and the Trump administration's dismissal of longstanding U.S. military commitments. The National Defense Authorization Act heads to the Senate, which will likely send the measure to President Donald Trump, who supports the bill. The agreement would withhold a quarter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's travel budget until the Pentagon provides Congress with unedited videos of airstrikes against alleged drug smuggling boats. It also goes after Trump's push away from European allies and demands a rationale when the Defense Department fires officials.

The House voted to pass a sweeping defense policy bill Wednesday that authorizes $900 billion in military programs, including a pay raise for troops and an overhaul of how the Department of Defense buys weapons. The bill's passage on a 312-112 vote comes at a time of increasing friction between the Republican-controlled Congress and President Donald Trump's administration over the management of the military. The annual National Defense Authorization Act typically gains bipartisan backing, and the White House has signaled "strong support" for the must-pass legislation, saying it is in line with Trump's national security agenda. Yet tucked into the over-3,000-page bill are several measures that push back against the Department of Defense, including a demand for more information on boat strikes in the Caribbean and support for allies in Europe, such as Ukraine.

Every politician is fair game when it comes to criticism, and every single one of them deserves it. But if your attacks are empty or lies, it says more about you and the quality of your character than it says about the target of your scorn. Such is the case with the left-wing industrial complexes' attacks on President Donald Trump. Most attacks on Trump are amazing in that they are completely devoid of substance. That, in itself, is a form of accomplishment, as speaking constantly without really saying anything or offering up anything to back up your claims is a sort of skill most people do not have, yet leftist cable news in pretty much just that. "Trump is the most corrupt President in history," you'll hear a Democrat say. "He's making himself and his buddies rich at the expense of the American people," someone else will scream. Then there is the non-stop crying about "threats to democracy!!!" What you never hear is the one follow-up question that would stump all of them – a si…

The Supreme Court is preparing to hear Trump vs. Washington, a case that could redefine the constitutional meaning of birthright citizenship for the first time in more than a century. At issue is President Donald Trump's January 2025 Executive Order 14160, "Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship," which instructs federal agencies not to recognize citizenship for children born in the United States to "temporary visitors and illegal aliens" if their birth occurs more than 30 days after the order takes effect. The court's decision will determine not only the legal status of children born to undocumented or temporary status parents, but also the constitutional boundaries of who belongs in the American political community.

On the campaign trail in late summer of 2024, Donald Trump stood at his Bedminster, N.J., club flanked by tables of everyday goods and small placards describing how much those items had risen in price during Joe Biden's presidency. Correctly assessing that this issue would be consequential in the race for the White House, Mr. Trump's campaign had smartly positioned him to highlight it. And it rang true with voters who weren't buying into the overly rosy messaging about the economy that was coming from the Biden administration. Now it is Mr. Trump who is claiming that voters should not believe their own wallets, calling the issue of affordability a "con job" by Democrats. The same trap that caught Mr. Biden (and subsequently his vice president, Kamala Harris) has now ensnared the president, and he has the job approval figures to match. Those numbers have fallen steadily this year and last month fell under 40 percent across multiple polls, rivaling the low-water mark of Mr. Trump's fi…

From college kids with 'disabilities' to the Minnesota fraudsters, we see the results when society or government confers benefits on certain groups or behaviors. In August 2011, near the steps of the Wisconsin Capitol, congressional candidate Kelda Roys stood atop a flatbed truck and addressed the attendees at a gay pride parade. Roys, now a state senator and candidate for Wisconsin governor, pressed the need for marriage equality and told the onlookers that because of Wisconsin's ban on same-sex weddings, she herself had to flee to the gay-marriage-friendly state of Iowa to marry her "partner."

President Donald Trump's administration officially launched his "Trump Gold Card" visa program on Wednesday to provide a pathway, with a steep price, for non-U.S. citizens to get expedited permission to live in the United States. The website Trumpcard.gov, complete with an "apply now" button, allows interested applicants to pay a $15,000 fee to the Department of Homeland Security for speedy processing.