I spent years working at the Pentagon and on homeland security. The prospect of a military-developed weapon designed to inflict intense pain being operated by DHS on American soil raises serious red flags. What safeguards prevent its misuse by CBP or potentially ICE? Here’s why I’m concerned.👇

A weapon developed for war and designed to inflict intense pain has been approved for loan to federal law enforcement on American soil. The Pentagon authorized the heat ray for DHS. Could ICE get access? Could it be used against migrants or Americans exercising First Amendment rights? Who decides?

Why these planes? Why these prices? Why this contractor? And who approved it? Kristi Noem wants a retraction. Taxpayers should want the receipts. I dug into it in my latest Deep Dive:

Bedrooms. Marble showers. A bar. DHS spent hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars on planes under Kristi Noem, bypassing competition because the need was supposedly “urgent.” Most of the planes then largely sat idle. What happened to rooting out waste and fraud?

So I started asking: Why these planes? Why these prices? Why this contractor? And who approved it? Kristi Noem wants a retraction. Taxpayers should want the receipts. My latest Deep Dive:

And that’s just #1. A Farm Bureau revolt. The Postal Service nearly becoming an election gatekeeper. And a Kennedy Center financial mess. Five things worth knowing before the next headline takes over.👇

An FBI agent contemplating Election Day: “I’m either gonna be sick that day or they are going to have to fire me.” We’re weeks from the midterms. Kash Patel is running the FBI. Having worked alongside Patel, this has my attention…

Yesterday, Pete Hegseth spent part of his “State of the Force” speech focused on culture wars. Then he announced a 20% cut to America’s top military leaders. That’s not a small change, and I have a lot of questions about how this could impact our national security.

Iran is talking to American voters. Trump was talking to Xi. So what did America actually get from a week of meetings, negotiations and diplomacy? There were real outcomes. But some of the biggest national security questions are still unanswered. My latest Deep Dive 👇

ICE detainees are disappearing from a public locator. A new election-security plan arrived 40 days before the midterms. And déjà vu: Trump is once again hearing from outsiders with some very dangerous ideas. This time? Martial law. 5 things worth knowing before the next insane headline takes over.👇

Parts of one of America’s most advanced fighter jets ended up in Hong Kong. China reportedly has them. Xi Jinping just left Washington after a state visit with Trump. So…did anyone ask him about the F-35 parts?

There’s a storm brewing, but that harvest moon on its way is majestic. There is still hope. There is still light.

“Before you decide none of this has much to do with your life, it does. What happens this week can eventually show up in the price you pay for gas, how prepared we are when the next pandemic hits, and the rules being written around AI…”👇

A little UNGA history, some behind-the-scenes chaos, and what’s unfolding now. Read the Deep Dive:

There’s a lot more happening at the UN General Assembly than what you see from the podium. I’ve worked UNGA from the inside, so I know to watch what happens around the speeches. With Trump, Mamdani, Iran, Ukraine and China all in the mix, there’s a lot happening behind the scenes. 👇