Category: The Washington Free Beacon
Country Singer Jeffrey Steele’s New Song Gives ‘A Voice’ To The Forgotten American
‘I hope this song becomes a voice not only for people speaking up for others and themselves, but for these young kids and these young artists,’ Steele told The Federalist.
‘Tariff king’: Trump considers imposing economic pressures to secure Greenland
President Donald Trump reaffirmed his commitment on Friday to the U.S. acquiring Greenland, hinting that he may impose economic pressure on reluctant nations to secure their backing.
Trump has argued that the acquisition of Greenland is imperative to America’s national security and stated that he would consider imposing steep tariffs on countries that do not support the U.S. taking control of the island.
‘We’re talking to NATO.’
Trump participated in a roundtable on Friday morning, during which he said he had pressured President Emmanuel Macron of France to raise prescription drug prices. If Macron refuses to comply, Trump has threatened to place a 25% tariff on all French imports.
Trump, who declared himself the “tariff king,” explained that he made the same threat to the “top 10 countries,” including Germany, to lower U.S. drug prices. He stated that the tariff hike would have been roughly seven times more than what the countries would pay by raising their drug prices. He noted that all of the countries he contacted agreed to his request, securing “Most-Favored-Nation” pricing.
“And I may do that for Greenland too,” Trump remarked. “I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that.”
RELATED: Rubio reportedly reveals Trump’s plan to acquire Greenland to bolster US defense
Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images
In separate comments on Friday outside of the White House, Trump told reporters, “NATO has been dealing with us on Greenland. We need Greenland for national security very badly.”
“If we don’t have it, we have a big hole in national security, especially when it comes to what we’re doing in terms of the Golden Dome and all of the other things. We have a lot of investments in military,” he added.
“We’re talking to NATO.”
RELATED: JD Vance visits Greenland to make the case for annexation: ‘We can’t just bury our head in the sand’
Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained that the administration has aspirations to purchase Greenland from Denmark.
“The United States is eager to build lasting commercial relationships that benefit Americans and the people of Greenland,” a State Department spokesperson previously told Blaze News. “Our common adversaries have been increasingly active in the Arctic. That is a concern that the United States, the Kingdom of Denmark, and NATO Allies share.”
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Leftist candidate tries to orchestrate Trump ‘gotcha’ — and fails miserably
A leftist congressional candidate launched a lousy attempt to further conflate President Donald Trump with literal Nazis, but failed miserably.
Candidate Mark Davis of Florida sounded the alarm Thursday, noting the website “Nazis.us” redirects users to the Department of Homeland Security page. Davis implied that he stumbled upon this website and urged supporters to “give them a donation.”
‘I pointed it directly at Kristi Noem’s department.’
“OK, I think I have it figured out….if you go to Nazis.us it takes you to our DHS website because, of course it does,” Davis said in a post on X. “It just makes sense. Whoever did that, give them a donation.”
Despite his attempt to frame the Trump administration as Nazis, X users quickly found out that Davis was actually the one who created the website.
RELATED: Florida Panthers praise Trump during White House visit: ‘Nothing beats this’
Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
After getting brutally ratioed in his comment section, Davis changed his tune and openly admitted that he purchased the domain himself.
“If Kristi Noem and donald trump didn’t know my name before, they damn sure do now,” Davis said. “I bought nazis.us. I pointed it directly at Kristi Noem’s department. And now the whole damn world is watching. I just held up a mirror … and they hate their reflection. And it’s a middle finger they can’t erase. You want to cry about ‘decency’? Then maybe don’t prop up fascists while killing women, immigrants and the working class. You built this. I’m just handing out the receipts.”
RELATED: ‘Lectern guy’ from Jan. 6 running for election in Florida to promote ‘MAGA principles’
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Davis, who is running in a deep-red district represented by Republican Congressman Vern Buchanan for over a decade, continued his unhinged rant on X, even urging people to divorce their spouses if they support Trump.
“If your husband or wife still supports trump, leave them. Divorce them. Kick their sorry f**king ass to the curb,” Davis said.
“They backed a pedophile. They cheered for a wannabe dictator. They watch this country burn … and f**king clap[.] And if they chose the rapist who wants to end elections, they don’t deserve your loyalty. Or your home. Or your f**king silence. They f**ked the country. Don’t let them f**k your life too.”
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Orthodox saint meets Chicago gang life in gritty crime flick ‘Moses the Black’
50 Cent is going from sin to sanctity.
Hot on the heels of his recent Netflix documentary on the debauched downfall of hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, the rapper turned producer is set to release an urban crime drama inspired by the life of fourth-century Ethiopian monk Moses the Black.
Even in our compromised state, saints remain scandalous and alluring precisely because they cut against our deepest desires and despair.
Fans of Fox Nation’s “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints” will remember the violent bandit turned desert-dwelling ascetic as one of the series’ most fascinating subjects. Officially recognized by Pope Leo XIII in 1887, the former slave has long been venerated as the patron saint of nonviolence and is widely praised as a symbol of the power of peace and repentance.
Out for blood
“Moses the Black,” a loose retelling of that story set against the backdrop of modern-day Chicago, follows Malik (Omar Epps), a gang leader fresh out of prison and seeking to avenge his murdered friend.
Complicating his quest his is grandmother, an Orthodox Christian who gives him an icon of St. Moses, whom she describes as a “saint who was also a gang member.” Haunted by frustration, loss, and a lifetime of sins, Malik starts having visions of the saint, who warns him that the bloody path he has embarked upon is one he will regret.
“Moses” — which also features hip-hop notables Wiz Khalifa and Quavo — makes for an interesting companion piece to director Yelena Popovic’s previous outing, 2021 St. Nektarios biopic “Man of God.” Where that film depicts sanctity as something preserved through obedience and suffering, “Moses” imagines it reclaimed from disorder.
Mean streets
Malik navigates an inner city filled with dealers and enforcers locked into violent criminal lives, casually killing rivals or shooting up funerals over petty grudges. These sequences are among the film’s darkest and do not soften their portrayal of brutality or drug use.
“Moses” is clearly a personal project for the platinum-selling artist born Curtis Jackson, whose own background mirrors Malik’s. Raised by a single mother in Jamaica, Queens — herself a drug dealer who was murdered when he was 8 — Jackson entered the drug trade at a young age. After barely surviving an attack by a rival in 2000, Jackson released his debut “Get Rich or Die Tryin'” in 2003.
Although that album cemented Jackson’s association with the violence and materialism of gangsta rap, its cover found him wearing a jewel-encrusted cross necklace. The tension between survival and transformation is one Jackson understands firsthand.
As he has said:
I believe in God. I didn’t survive being shot nine times for nothing. I didn’t claw my way out of the ‘hood just ’cause it was something to do. I know I’ve got a purpose, a reason for being on this planet. I don’t think I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do yet. But I do know this: I ain’t going nowhere ’til I’ve done it all.
Redemption song
There is something unsettling and compelling about the lives of saints. Even in our compromised state, they remain scandalous and alluring precisely because they cut against our deepest desires and despair. The film’s greatest strength is its depiction of how Catholics and Orthodox Christians turn to saints during moments of trial, seeking models of repentance and change — models Malik strains toward but does not easily inhabit.
RELATED: Blaze News original: 6 more pro-Trump rappers
Steven Ferdman/GC Images/Getty Images
The film’s ambitions, however, exceed its budget. Extensive handheld camerawork — whether a stylistic or budgetary choice — sits uneasily beside green-screen flashbacks and CGI-heavy desert scenes. The rough Chicago footage clashes with these elements, and the film might have benefited from a tighter focus on Malik’s interior struggle. Exaggerated performances from the supporting cast further push many scenes into melodrama.
Despite its “faith-based” trappings, “Moses the Black” is emphatically not a family film. It includes graphic violence, coarse language, and crude sexual innuendo, narrowing its audience to those inclined to receive its warning. Still, its central claim — that mercy extends even to the gravest sinners — lands with force in a culture starved for hope.
“Moses the Black” will be released through Fathom Entertainment on January 30.
Slate smear fails: DHS torpedoes anti-Trump agitator’s ‘lazy lie’ about infiltrating ICE
Slate magazine published a hit piece by an anti-Trump propagandist on Tuesday suggesting that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement does such a poor job of screening applicants that “trigger-happy” criminals — or even subversive Antifa apologists — could find themselves with badges.
“A few months ago, ICE hired me,” Laura Jedeed, the self-identified “anti-ICE journalist” behind the piece, noted in a summary of her article on X. “I didn’t sign and submit any paperwork. I’m real outspoken about my opinion of the Trump administration, and I am extremely googlable[.] And yet, there it was, in plain English. ‘Welcome to ICE!'”
‘ICE had officially hired me.’
Liberal rags such as the Guardian and Democracy Now! rushed to amplify Jedeed’s tale, along with her suggestion that if she made it through the recruitment process, then pedophiles, rapists, white supremacists, and other unsavory characters might similarly be securing ICE jobs.
The Department of Homeland Security stated, however, that the Slate article’s core claim was “a lazy lie.”
This response was met in turn with a community note on X casting doubt on the agency’s denial.
After corresponding with both parties, Blaze News learned that contrary to the 38-year-old leftist’s suggestion, ICE neither hired Jedeed nor sent her a final offer.
In her article, Jedeed claimed she spoke to a recruiter and submitted her resume at an ICE career expo in Texas last August, working under the presumption that her time serving in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, her repeat deployments to Afghanistan, and her civilian analyst work might “tantalize a recruiter for America’s Gestapo-in-waiting.”
Photo by Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images
Jedeed indicated that on Sept. 3, she received a tentative offer instructing her to log on to USAJobs, fill out a declaration for federal employment, and submit several documents, including driver’s license information, an affidavit that she never received a domestic violence conviction, and a form consenting to a background check.
‘I never received an emailed final offer.’
Despite supposedly doing “exactly none of these things,” she allegedly received an email three weeks later indicating that she had confirmed her intention to continue with the hiring process and asking her to complete a pre-employment drug test.
The leftist suggested that she subsequently traveled to her local LabCorp, underwent a drug test with THC potentially coursing through her system, and then — nine days later — discovered that “ICE had apparently offered me a job.”
“According to the application portal, my pre-employment activities remained pending. And yet, it also showed that I had accepted a final job offer and that my onboarding status was ‘EOD’ — Entered On Duty, the start of an enlistment period,” she wrote. “I moused over the exclamation mark next to ‘Onboarding’ and a helpful pop-up appeared. ‘Your EOD has occurred. Welcome to ICE!'”
In a video Jedeed shared online, the ICE recruitment portal appears to indicate that she was in the fifth and final stage of onboarding for the role of deportation officer, despite indications that she not yet completed the drug or physical fitness tests. The video also appears to show the ICE portal state welcome Jedeed to ICE and specify that her EOD was on Sept. 30.
“By all appearances, I was a deportation officer. Without a single signature on agency paperwork, ICE had officially hired me,” Jedeed wrote. “Perhaps, if I’d accepted, they would have demanded my pre-employment paperwork, done a basic screening, realized their mistake, and fired me immediately.”
While the DHS did not comment on the authenticity of Jedeed’s video, a spokesperson told Blaze News, “This individual was NEVER offered a job at ICE. Applicants may receive a Tentative Selection Letter following their initial application and interview that is not a job offer.”
The agency’s careers page states that “following receipt of a tentative selection letter, you must complete per-employment requirements. These requirements vary by position. All positions require security vetting and drug test. You may also be required to pass a medical exam, fitness exam and oral board interview.”
The page notes further that “a tentative selection letter remains tentative until all pre-employment requirements are met for the position.”
RELATED: Blocking ICE with ‘micro-intifada’: Good’s group taught de-arrest, cop-car chaos before her death
Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images
When asked about the DHS statement to Blaze News, Jedeed said, “I did not receive a final offer, nor did I accept one.”
Jedeed noted in a follow-up email, “To clarify: I did not receive a final offer in the mail.”
“I never received an emailed final offer — the portal indicated that I had already accepted that offer, as you can see from the screen capture posted on X,” she wrote.
When asked whether she suspected or had any reason to believe that the system would have barred her from proceeding upon hitting the accept button, Jedeed told Blaze News:
I do not know what would have happened had I hit that accept button on the ICE portal. It’s possible they would have asked for the paperwork — I certainly hope so. But the fact I already had an EOD date before filling out paperwork which the tentative job offer described as mandatory for proceeding to the next phase of the hiring process (final offer, onboarding), and the fact that my background check showed up as completed, are reasons for concern.
While she was not hired, did not receive a final offer, and has conceded that perhaps what she experienced on the ICE recruitment portal was “some kind of computer glitch,” Jedeed nevertheless suggested in her Slate piece that her recruitment experience is indicative of a broader problem at the agency — a problem that set the stage for Renee Nicole Good’s death.
“How are we to trust ICE’s allegedly thorough investigations of the people they detain and deport when they can’t even keep their HR paperwork straight?” Jedeed wrote. “And if they’re not going to screen me out, what hope is there of figuring out which recruit might one day turn into a trigger-happy agent who would forget that law enforcement officers are trained not to stand in front of vehicles, get jumpy, and shoot a 37-year-old woman to death on the streets of Minneapolis?”
Jedeed, like her fellow travelers in the media, neglected to mention that Good — whom Jedeed claimed was murdered — was shot while driving her SUV into an ICE agent after ignoring multiple lawful orders and interrupting a federal law enforcement operation.
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Housing: Trump and Newsom Are Odd Bedfellows
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Greenlander Opposes America Taking Over His Island Because He Hunts ‘Cute’ Whales, Seals
‘they think whales and seals are cute’
