Tomas Escotto, a current U.S. Secret Service agent on Vice President JD Vance’s protective detail, was recorded on a hidden camera providing an undercover journalist with sensitive security information, including protective formations, shift schedules, travel plans, & real-time locations. The agent, Tomas Escotto, a Biden-era holdover, stated he voted for Joe Biden and said he […] The post A Most Serious Breach in JD Vance’s Secret Service: Sensitive Information Leak appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

President Donald Trump could be seen on video flipping the bird and saying the phrase “f*ck you” in the direction of a heckler during his Tuesday visit to the Ford F-150 plant in Dearborn, Michigan. The president, in town for a speech at the Detroit Economic Club, toured the F-150 plant as well — and responded in the moment as someone in the crowd shouted at him, apparently accusing the president of “protecting” the late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Entertainment site TMZ first reported the news, sharing video of the brief exchange that quickly made its way across social media. WATCH: #EXCLUSIVE ? President Trump was filmed flipping off a Ford worker who yelled “pedophile protector” at him. https://t.co/m5nLYtWxxT pic.twitter.com/512zEYV6WC — TMZ (@TMZ) January 13, 2026 “It’s hard to make out the full sentence shouted at Trump, but it seems to have included the words ‘pedophile protector,'” the outlet reported. Trump could be seen turning to look at the person who had shouted at him before apparently saying, “f*ck you,” and flipping him a middle finger for good measure. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung addressed the video as it circulated, explaining, “A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the President gave an appropriate and unambiguous response.” Throughout most of the president’s tour, the plant workers crowded around him as they shook his hand and posed for photos. ?? pic.twitter.com/OFqEPVD9LY — The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 13, 2026 While he was at the Detroit automotive plant, Trump also sat for an interview with new “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil. In that interview, among a number of other topics, Trump talked about what was going on in the auto industry – particularly since he’d put a stop to imminent electric vehicle mandates set in motion by former President Joe Biden’s administration. WATCH: .@POTUS: “I want electric, and I want gasoline, and I want hybrids — I want everything. But you were going to be forced, under the mandate, to buy an electric car in a very short period of time. I didn’t want that, and I ended that.” pic.twitter.com/jTU4v6bMev — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 13, 2026 “I want electric, and I want gasoline, and I want hybrids — I want everything. But you were going to be forced, under the mandate, to buy an electric car in a very short period of time. I didn’t want that, and I ended that,” Trump explained.

White House border czar Tom Homan said Tuesday that the immigration officer involved in the shooting death of anti-ICE activist Renee Good is in hiding. Homan said that Jonathan Ross is in hiding because of an excessive amount of threats made against him and his family since Good’s death last week. The border czar said that Ross would wait for the investigation to end before he comes out of hiding, and then potentially file lawsuits for defamation. “I think he’s going to, you know, wait for this investigation to play itself out and wait for them to come out with actual facts, what happened,” Homan said during an appearance on “Will Cain Country.” “Then, I think you may see him take action because I know for a fact, you know, now he has to be in hiding.” Host Will Cain asked Homan directly if Ross was in hiding now. “Yes, for the safety of him and his family,” Homan responded. “I mean, there are wanted posters with his picture, his license plate number, you know, and the death threats against him and his family.” People were seen at Ross’ home late last week packing boxes, a neighbor of Ross told NBC News. Some of Ross’ neighbors have spoken about leaving the area for a few days while the uproar around Good’s death rages. Last week, Ross shot and killed Good, a 37-year-old activist who blocked and antagonized immigration officials working in Minneapolis. Good blocked a street with her car and held immigration officials up for several minutes. After immigration agents requested she exit her vehicle, she backed up and pulled forward in the direction of Ross. After her car bumped him, Ross fatally shot her. The shooting has become a flashpoint of criticism over President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. Democratic politicians such as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz have demonized federal immigration enforcement as part of their criticisms of Trump’s agenda. Walz warned of a brewing “civil war” in the aftermath of the shooting. Last year, he compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to Nazi gestapo. Protests against ICE have featured violent language and threats against ICE and top Trump officials. At a recent protest in Manhattan, activists chanted slogans such as “Save a life, kill an ICE,” and “Kristi Noem will hang.”

'demanding the truth'

STARBASE, Texas—War Secretary Pete Hegseth is on a mission. As he tours military installations and visits defense contractors, Hegseth is laser focused on what it will take to make sweeping changes for America’s military. He recognizes it won’t be easy, but there’s no other choice if America wants to maintain its dominance in our rapidly changing world. China, Iran, and Russia, along with other adversaries, are external threats. Closer to home, however, a slow-moving bureaucracy, lack of innovation, and a business-as-usual mentality present a different set of challenges. “When it comes to our current threat environment,” Hegseth declared, “we are playing a dangerous game with potentially fatal consequences. We need innovation to come from anywhere and evolve with speed and purpose.” Hegseth emphasized this point repeatedly during Monday’s trip to Texas, where he was accompanied by the state’s Republican senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, alongside other members of Congress. “We just want the best,” War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday. Dubbed the Arsenal of Freedom tour, Hegseth is traveling the country to see America’s warfighting capabilities firsthand—and send a not-so-subtle message to his own department and the defense contractors who support it. That much was clear when Hegseth set foot inside Lockheed Martin’s F-35 factory in Fort Worth and SpaceX’s headquarters on the outskirts of Brownsville. “We need to be blunt here,” Hegseth said Monday. “We can no longer afford to wait a decade for our legacy prime contractors to deliver the next perfect system only to find that it’s delivered years behind schedule and costs 10 times what it should.” Amidst the fanfare of his visits, Hegseth’s message was consistent: military superiority depends on both longtime partners like Lockheed and new disruptors like SpaceX. America’s Most Lethal Fighter Aircraft Inside of Lockheed Martin’s mile-long building, America’s military might was on full display. With planes under construction on the factory floor, Hegseth paid tribute to the company’s veteran-heavy workforce and complimented them for leading the way—quite literally. During last year’s Operation Midnight Hammer to destroy three nuclear sites in Iran, F-35s flew ahead of the B-2 stealth bombers that dropped the payload. More recently, during Operation Absolute Resolve, F-35s played a key role in the capture of Venezuela’s Nicholas Maduro. War Secretary Pete Hegseth at Lockheed Martin’s F-35 factory. (Department of War) Lockheed Martin delivered a record number of 191 fighter jets in 2025 at a breakneck pace. The company says its F-35 production line is running five times faster than any other allied fighter. The mile-long factory employs 19,000 workers and relies on nearly 2,000 suppliers across America. Hegseth’s visit served not just as a pep rally but also an opportunity to showcase a company that he pointed to as a model he’d like others to emulate. “We ultimately don’t care what the name is on the side of the missile or the plane or of anything that’s made at the War Department,” Hegseth said. “We just want the best, and our expectation is that every company competes, and every company competes on a level playing field.” ‘Make Star Trek Real’ More than 500 miles south in Starbase, along the U.S.-Mexico border, Hegseth spoke to hundreds of workers gathered Monday evening at SpaceX’s cutting-edge factory, where Elon Musk set the stage by casting a futuristic vision. “I’ll tell you a little bit just about the purpose of SpaceX,” Musk said. “It’s like, we want to make Star Trek real, OK?” No one on Earth can out-innovate an American entrepreneur once freed from the dead weight of a stifling bureaucracy.We will forge a new Arsenal of Freedom. Thank you @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/nHvgXoof2O— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) January 13, 2026 Acknowledging that SpaceX moves at a speed far faster than the Pentagon, Hegseth vowed to cut through red tape and make changes to reshape acquisition, embrace technology, and revolutionize how business is done at the War Department. “Here you iterate in terms of hours and days, maybe weeks,” Hegseth quipped. “In Washington, we talk in terms of months, years, and oftentimes multi-years. It’s too slow.” Hegseth’s speech was heavy on AI’s potential, and he announced that Musk’s Grok would follow Google’s Gemini as the next frontier AI model company to join GenAI.mil. He then proceeded to declare war on the Pentagon bureaucracy, abolishing the Defense Innovation Steering Group, the Defense Innovation Working Group, and the CTO Council. War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Elon Musk at SpaceX. (Department of War) “In modern warfare, the fastest innovator and iterator will be the winner, and no one can out-innovate an American entrepreneur who has been liberated from the constraints of cycling bureaucracy. That old era ends today,” Hegseth said. “We are done running a peacetime science fair, while our potential adversaries are running a wartime arms race.” Mission Alignment The adage “personnel is policy” clearly resonates with Hegseth, who inherited a Pentagon that was unfocused, misaligned, and not clear in its mission. By putting an emphasis on the “warrior ethos” and viewing everything from the perspective of the warfighter, Hegseth has already made remarkable changes to a department that inherently resists them. “Winning requires a new playbook,” he said, crediting Musk’s algorithm to “question every requirement, delete the dumb ones, and accelerate like hell.” .@SECWAR "In modern warfare, the fastest innovator will be the winner – and no one can out-innovate an American entrepreneur who has been liberated from the constraints of a stifling bureaucracy.The old era ends today: We’re done running a peacetime science fair while our… pic.twitter.com/Vx2I6MVhNw— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) January 13, 2026 Hegseth namechecked his key lieutenants who are making those changes happen: Deputy Secretary Steve Feinberg, Undersecretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michael, and Undersecretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment Mike Duffy. He also announced that Cameron Stanley was appointed chief digital and AI officer and Owen West would run the Defense Innovation Unit. Hegseth’s stops in Texas marked the latest leg of his Arsenal of Freedom tour. Previous stops included a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia, and Rocket Lab in Los Angeles. Trump’s $1.5 Trillion Budget Proposal The tour coincided with President Donald Trump’s Jan. 7 executive order empowering Hegseth to identify defense contractors that underperform and fail to prioritize U.S. government contracts. Trump’s order also prohibits contractors from stock buybacks and corporate distributions if they’re not hitting the Pentagon’s targets. Trump followed that news by calling out a defense contractor by name. “Raytheon,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, “has been the least responsive to the needs of the Department of War, the slowest in increasing their volume, and the most aggressive spending on their Shareholders rather than the needs and demands of the United States Military.” Later that same day, the president announced he would propose a $1.5 trillion budget for the War Department, the largest ever in U.S. history. Hegseth called it “a historic and generational investment in American security.” He added: “All of this will make our forces more agile, more lethal, and more ready to deter and, if necessary, win a future fight. This is what President Trump demands, and this is what we will deliver.” War Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at the SpaceX factory in Texas. (Department of War) The War Department has not yet announced where Hegseth will visit next, but you can count on hearing the same notes he hit Monday and last week. He wants you to know the status quo is unacceptable, and he won’t tolerate excuses. “This is not reform for the sake of reform. It never has been. This is about whether our warriors fight with yesterday’s tools, or they fight overmatching our adversaries using tomorrow’s technologies,” Hegseth said at SpaceX. “We know the threat. We know the opportunity. We know what must be done. We share the urgency. Now we will do it, and we must do it at wartime speed.” The post On the Road With Pete Hegseth: War Secretary’s High-Stakes Plan to Reinvent the Pentagon appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Turley: Keith Ellison's Lawsuit Makes Us All Dumber

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is warning that the federal government is about to crack down on migrant welfare recipients who send money overseas — and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is shocked that it was ever allowed in the first place.“And from now on, anyone who wires money out from one of these money service businesses has to check a box saying whether they are on public assistance. And if you are on public assistance, we are going to start pushing that you cannot wire money out of the country,” Bessent told Laura Ingraham on Fox News.“Well, what if they lie and they don’t tell us they’re on public assistance?” Ingraham asked. “That’s a crime, lying on a federal form.” “We’re going to follow it up, and we are going to push that you can no longer do that. The American people, our generosity has been taken advantage of,” he responded.“Our generosity is funding al-Shabaab and Iranian interests. ... This is really bad,” Ingraham chimed in.“The money is supposed to go for alleged asylum seekers and their families and children, and if you were wiring the money out of the country, one of two things must be true: You are getting too much money and your benefits should be cut, or you are part of this conspiracy,” Bessent said firmly.“If the federal taxpayers are paying for you to live here, you’re not allowed to send their money. It’s not even your money. Their money, my money, you’re not allowed to send overseas. That should not be controversial at all,” Gonzales comments on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”“If you are so broke that you need taxpayer dollars, you are not allowed to send it overseas. You’re not allowed to send it to your family overseas. You’re not allowed to send it to terror groups overseas. You’re not allowed to send it to anybody overseas,” she continues.And the amount of immigrants receiving benefits from taxpaying American citizens is not a small number.“You’ve got over half of immigrant-headed households that receive cash, food, medical care, or housing benefits from taxpayers. Over half, according to the Center for Immigration Studies,” Gonzales says.“We know that over half of these people are taking more than they are bringing to the table,” she continues, pointing out that money sent or brought back by migrants is “almost three times as much as global foreign aid.”“Look at that chart: 822 billion versus 288 billion in foreign aid. ... This is just these people coming here, taking from us, and then sending it back home or sending it to their favorite terror group,” she adds.Want more from Sara Gonzales?To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Vigil Held for Father of Two Killed by Off-Duty ICE Agent