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Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) was among several lawmakers grilling Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the US attacks on Venezuela. Kaine called out Rubio and the Trump administration for not seeking congressional approval or consulting lawmakers in the five months since initiating strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea, sending troops into the conflict and the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. "We started this operation on September 2nd with the attack on Venezuelans and boats in open waters, and now we are nearly five months in. Next week is five months. Finally, a public hearing! Wow! How novel," Kaine said. "Finally, a public hearing in the Senate or House. This is the first public hearing we've had. Two hundred folks who are on secret designated combatant lists have been killed, U.S. troops have been injured, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent, an armada amassed the announcement of a new Monroe Doctrine, which does not land well in the Americas. Democrats have been asking over and over again, can we have a public hearing? Can we share what we know with the American public? Finally, a public hearing. But even that hearing is constrained."Kaine delivered a sharp critique against Rubio and the Trump administration, expressing his frustration over the attack. "I'd like to talk about the complete weakness of the legal rationale about the strikes on boats in international waters. But I can't, because the administration has only shared it with members in a classified setting," Kaine said. "I can't tell you why the domestic rationale is hollow and the international rationale is hollow. I can't tell you why the rationale for attacking Venezuela is hollow, because, again, the rationale has been shared with us in a closed setting. I can't share with you the grim details of the murder of shipwrecked survivors in open waters that we all know, because we've seen the videos and we've questioned the US military officials involved about legality, because the administration will not release that publicly. They release the boat strike videos publicly, but they hid the second strike that killed struggling shipwreck survivors, even from Congress, for nearly three months. But I can't really talk to you about it." Kaine questioned what the administration was hiding and why they were targeting these boats. "I can't talk to you about the weakness of the targeting criteria being used to attack boats in the Caribbean and Pacific," he added. "I would encourage any colleague, if you have not go to the classified setting and ask for a briefing on each strike and ask this question, 'what was the evidence that there were narcotics on that craft?' You will be very surprised if you ask that question about every strike. And so even in this first public hearing, five months in, there's a lot we can't talk about. If it was such a righteous operation, why is the administration and the majority in the senate so jealously protecting the details about it from being revealed to the American public?" Kaine also described how his constituents have asked him about the American military actions in Venezuela. "I have Virginians deployed in this operation. I can't answer their families questions," Kaine said. "Thank God we're having a public hearing five months in. This is supposed to be the greatest deliberative body in the world."

Ecuador lodged a complaint after claiming that at least one U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent tried to force his way into the country's diplomatically protected consulate in Minneapolis.According to Reuters, Ecuador's Foreign Ministry sent a "note of protest" to the U.S. Embassy, insisting that future incidents "not be repeated."Ecuador's protest described Monday's incident as an "attempted incursion into the Ecuadorean Consulate in Minneapolis by ICE agents."In a video obtained by BN, consulate staffers could be seen blocking an ICE agent."This is a consulate, you cannot enter here," one of the staff members says in the video.

A President Donald Trump ally described his concern and shock over the president's mental state, according to a report Wednesday. Robert Fico, the Prime Minister of Slovakia, apparently made a private comment after a recent trip to Mar-a-Lago and described his surprise over Trump's disposition, Politico's PL reported. “Slovakia’s prime minister told EU leaders at a summit last week that a meeting with Donald Trump left him shocked by the U.S. president’s state of mind, five European diplomats briefed on the conversation said," Politico reported. The MAGA-friendly EU leader has been one of the few European leaders to continue his support for Trump, including the president's stance on "Europe's weakness," according to Politico. Fico was "concerned about the U.S. president’s ‘psychological state,’ two of the diplomats said.”“Fico used the word ‘dangerous’ to describe how the U.S. president came across during their face-to-face meeting,” according to Politico. Trump has faced mounting questions about his health, which have increased as the president continues to be spotted in public with swollen ankles and bruised hands. His increased instances of rambling during speeches, along with his MRI scan last year that has yet to be fully explained have also raised concerns among critics.

President Donald Trump announced a possible military action against Iran in an early morning social media post.The USS Abraham Lincoln and three other warships arrived Tuesday in the Middle East as the 79-year-old president considers airstrikes over Iran's crackdown on protesters, which may have resulted in the deaths of nearly 6,000 people and detentions of nearly 42,000 more."A massive Armada is heading to Iran," Trump posted Wednesday morning on Truth Social. "It is moving quickly, with great power, enthusiasm, and purpose. It is a larger fleet, headed by the great Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln, than that sent to Venezuela. Like with Venezuela, it is, ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary."The deployment is intended to pressure Iran to negotiate an end to its nuclear program, Trump said, which U.S. forces targeted in June."Hopefully Iran will quickly 'Come to the Table' and negotiate a fair and equitable deal - NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS - one that is good for all parties," he posted. "Time is running out, it is truly of the essence! As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn’t, and there was 'Operation Midnight Hammer,' a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP."

The fall-out from Donald Trump’s abrasive Davos speech which led Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney to call out the bullying American president, escalated on Saturday morning with a new tariff threat — a favorite Trump weapon when he feels personally aggrieved.Prior to the Davos World Economic Conference, Carney traveled to Beijing where he reached a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping to open Canada to Chinese electric vehicle importation.On Saturday morning, Trump latched on to that deal to retaliate for the humiliation he felt in Davos and, once again, he threatened another tariff.On Truth Social, he reiterated once again that China will overwhelm Canada, writing, “If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a “Drop Off Port” for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken. China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life.”He then added, “If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit with a 100% Tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the U.S.A.” before closing with his customary, “Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT”You can see his post here.

A longtime Republican Party strategist is cautioning Donald Trump that his days of bulldozing opponents and receiving little to no opposition are drawing to a close, which is a harbinger of worse things to come if he loses control of Congress.As Naftali Bendavid of the Washington Post wrote on Saturday, the president is getting it from all sides as world leaders in Davos not only ignored his demands to be handed Greenland, but also pushed back, while at the same time at home, his immigration policies have given rise to massive demonstrations, including a strike that shut down the city of Minneapolis on Friday.Adding to that, the targets of his retaliation campaign are not rolling over and are instead fighting –– and suing –– back instead of being cowed.Bendavid is reporting, “Foreign leaders, meanwhile, appeared to conclude they had little to lose from openly accusing Trump of thuggery, something they had been reluctant to do before,” while adding that lawmakers like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D), California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Sen Mark Kelly (AZ-D) have openly challenged Trump's authority believing he will back down.RELATED: Trump's change in travel plans exposes White House fears he's 'in trouble': reportAccording to GOP adviser Mike Madrid, one year into his second term, the president is finding he is facing a radically changing political landscape as the polls show voters are turning against him in a stunning reversal.“I don’t think there is any question. It’s the prime minister of Canada. It’s the pope,” he told the Post. “There is this new energy when our allies are rattling the saber back, and that is in turn emboldening folks at home.”The Post reports notes that the pushback to Trump is undeniably being effective as his threats to invade Greenland if he didn't get his way quickly dissipated, and the plans to invoke the Insurrection Act at home withered quickly away in the face of resistance.That led Madrid to warn Trump, ““In the past six months, everything has changed. The fever swamp is still full force, but there is no question there are breaks. The question is, can [Trump] hold it together? And if this is happening before the midterms, imagine what happens if the Democrats take one or both houses.”You can read more here.

Prince Harry on Friday rebuked President Donald Trump's comments dismissing NATO allies and spoke out about sacrifices among those who fought alongside the United States. The Duke of Sussex served in the British Army for a decade and did two tours in Afghanistan, among many of the service members who answered the call to serve after NATO invoked Article 5 under the mutual defense agreement following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, NBC News reported. “I served there. I made lifelong friends there. And I lost friends there. The United Kingdom alone had 457 service personnel killed,” he said. “Thousands of lives were changed forever. Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost.”“Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect, as we all remain united and loyal to the defense of diplomacy and peace,” the Duke of Sussex said.In an interview Thursday with Fox News from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump questioned NATO allies' reliability, and claimed the U.S. "never needed them" and that allies sent troops to Afghanistan but "stayed a little back, a little off the front lines." Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also hit back at Trump's statement. "The American officers who accompanied me then, told me that America would never forget the Polish heroes. Perhaps they will remind President Trump of that fact," Tusk wrote on X. Several other European leaders have spoken out in response against Trump's comments, including UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer, who called the president's statements "insulting and frankly, appalling."

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s erratic behavior on the world stage — threatening to seize Greenland from Denmark, making rambling speeches and attacking key NATO allies at Davos — was just business as usual, a prominent moderate Republican insisted.“Eleven years of this, have people not figured it out?” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) told Raw Story at the Capitol. The U.S. will benefit “if the end result is that he gets greater access, increased military presence” in Greenland, Lawler said, bemoaning the media’s “pandemonium” coverage of a head-spinning week.President Trump first told Norway’s prime minister he wanted to buy or seize Greenland, in part because the Nobel Committee passed him over for the Peace Prize he so covets, even though the committee is completely independent from the Scandinavian country’s government. Then, at the 56th World Economic Forum in Switzerland, President Trump saw Canadian PM Mark Carney win rave reviews for a pointed speech about the need for mid-sized countries to work together and not rely on America in the wake of the tariff-fueled trade wars Trump’s waged across the globe.In stark contrast to the clarity offered by the leader of America’s northern neighbor, Trump’s own remarks in Davos saw him continually confuse Greenland with Iceland; promise not to use force to seize the former but insist he wants to take it regardless; say he and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had worked out the “framework of a future deal” for increased U.S. access to Greenland; and then abuse NATO allies whose troops fought alongside the U.S. in its post-9/11 wars."We've never needed them," Trump told Fox News, adding: "We have never really asked anything of them."They'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines."Just in the case of the United Kingdom, 457 British troops were killed in Afghanistan and another 179 in Iraq, while waging former President George W. Bush’s “global war on terror.”Denmark lost 43 service members in Afghanistan and eight in Iraq.‘Permanent damage’Now that 2026 is here, November’s midterm elections are starting to engulf everything in Washington, especially for endangered Republicans like Lawler who have tried to create distance from Trump without enraging his MAGA base. While Lawler and others in the GOP straddle that Trumpian tightrope, Democrats insist they won’t let them off the hook for letting Trump embarrass America on the world stage. “Trump's craziness has done permanent damage,” Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) told Raw Story.Boyle, who serves on NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly — a body comprised of 281 parliamentarians from 32 countries — is visiting the organization in Brussels next month. He expects to perform damage control.“This is doing permanent damage,” he stressed.In the wake of Trump’s gaffes in Switzerland, Boyle got started on international diplomacy early, after American allies freaked out and blew up his phone throughout the week. ‘President was a draft dodger’Other members of Congress have also been trying to clean up the president’s international messes, many of which predated the Davos disaster. Last week, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) “spent time with the representative from Greenland and the Danish Ambassador.” “I think [Trump’s] staff didn't inform him of our relationships with Greenland and Denmark,” Kaptur told Raw Story this week. The midwestern progressive is embarrassed that President Trump threatens allies with U.S. military might, despite what she dismissed as his own lackluster record on military matters.“Well, the President was a draft dodger,” the Congresswoman said, “so, yeah, I don't really think he has a sense of the military. I think he views it as his police force.”Trump, 79, obtained five draft deferments during the Vietnam War, four for academic reasons and one due to a claim to have bone spurs in his heels.Infamously, in 2015 and 2016, during his first run for president, he stoked controversy by deriding Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, a decorated war hero, for having been captured by Vietnamese forces. "He's a war hero because he was captured,” Trump said. “I like people that weren't captured.”Perhaps more infamously still, Trump once told shock jock Howard Stern that avoiding sexually transmitted diseases while dating in New York had been his “own personal Vietnam.”“I feel like a great and very brave soldier,” he said.