Month	Stories	All outlets
January 2026	1	54
February 2026	0	180
March 2026	1	1,094
April 2026	2	4,537
May 2026	0	none collected
June 2026	0	none collected
July 2026	0	none collected
August 2026	0	1 (collection gap)
September 2026	1	598

Donald Trump speaks outside the Oval Office on April 13, 2026. (Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images) On Friday, President Trump is scheduled to appear at the Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, for a Turning Point USA event. Trump’s appearance at the event is part of Turning Point USA’s “Build the Red Wall” campaign. It is an effort championed by Erika Kirk, the widow of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, to secure victories for MAGA candidates in the 2026 and 2028 elections by increasing Republican support in Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada. The event is free for people who would like to listen to Trump’s speech from the pews at Dream City Church. But a more interactive experience is available — for a price. An email sent by Sinan Kanatsiz, an obscure but well-connected figure in Trump’s political orbit, offers its recipients a “one-on-one meeting and private photo with President Donald Trump” in exchange for a “contribution of $500,000 to TPUSA PAC.” Kanatsiz describes his invitation as “strictly confidential and non-transferable.” The bottom of the message warns, “NOT FOR SHARING — CONFIDENTIAL.” The email was obtained by Popular Information from a source who received it. The source shared the email on the condition of anonymity, fearing professional consequences for providing information to a journalist. In a phone interview, Kanatsiz confirmed he made the solicitation. In addition to the meeting with Trump, donors of $500,000 or more receive a tour of Turning Point USA headquarters, a meeting with the organization’s leadership, a dinner, lodging, and “round-trip travel via JSX to Scottsdale Private Airport.” JetSuiteX (JSX) is a semi-private charter plane service. Flights to Scottsdale on JetSuiteX are available from a variety of cities for a few hundred dollars. Kanatsiz is the founder and CEO of KCOMM, a PR and government affairs firm, and the chairman of the Internet Marketing Association (IMA). Amanda Gort, KCOMM’s Vice President of Government Affairs, is a registered federal lobbyist. (Gort also works for IMA.) Kanatsiz has never registered as a lobbyist but operates as a high-level networker. Kanatsiz has transformed IMA from a marketing group to an organization that connects business executives to government officials. The IMA website promises “access to an elite network“ for an annual membership fee of $10,000. The 2025 flagship event, IMPACT, touted that 17 members of the Trump administration, including Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, and 12 members of Congress, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA), attended. In December 2024, Kanatsiz coordinated an event at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club in Florida, according to a report in the Orange County Business Journal (OCBJ). It was attended by David Sacks and Michael Kratsios, two of Trump’s top advisors on technology issues. While Trump did not formally address the group, “he did stop by to exchange pleasantries.” Kanatsiz warned business owners to “align” with Trump or suffer the consequences. “Donald Trump is a businessman and any business owner who doesn’t want to align with this administration will be left in the dark,” Kanatsiz told the OCBJ. “I am all in to help my network grow, communicate and engage with our administration,” Kanatsiz said. In a February message posted on LinkedIn, Kanatsiz wrote that “my family and I opened up our Command Center to host Turning Point USA’s leadership for an evening with more than 60 leaders.” According to Kanatsiz, the discussion included “the culture war with Gen Z, President Trump’s strategy with voters going into mid-terms and Turning Point USA’s priorities for the next 2–4 years.” Matt Scherr, the Senior Major Gifts Director at Turning Point USA, who Kanatsiz references in the email, was in attendance. “My family and I are committed to Turning Point USA, to our country, to the administration, and most importantly the next generation of Americans,” Kanatsiz said. In the phone interview, Kanatsiz described himself as a “volunteer” helping Turning Point. “I have a network of friends that want to support Turning Point that may have never met them,” he said. Kanatsiz said he sent the offer to meet with Trump to “a few people,” but “unfortunately, no one took it on.” He acknowledged it was a “big request.” Outside of his personal invitations, Kanatsiz said he had “no idea” if anyone had paid $500,000 for the opportunity to meet Trump. The solicitation of $500,000 contributions, with the help of Trump, is a major acceleration in Turning Point PAC’s fundraising. The organization has raised less than $10 million since its founding in 2021, and about one-third of its funds were funneled from other Turning Point organizations. Turning Point PAC has received only five donations from individuals of $100,000 or more in its history. The two largest, from casino mogul Steve Wynn and hedge fund manager Tom Klingenstein in 2024, were $495,000 each. Notably, Erika Kirk has endorsed Vice President JD Vance for president in 2028. (Vance appeared at a separate Turning Point event on Tuesday.) Turning Point PAC’s aggressive fundraising could signal a push to provide Vance with a shadow political infrastructure in advance of a formal campaign.

“Just following orders” is not a defense for war crimes

For weeks, President Trump has threatened to destroy civilian infrastructure in Iran as retribution for the Iranian government’s refusal to open the Strait of Hormuz. On March 21, Trump posted the following to Truth Social: If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST! That deadline, and subsequent deadlines set by Trump, have been pushed back. But Trump has continued to make similar threats. On March 30, for example, Trump threatened to end the war by “blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells… and possibly all desalinization plants!” The targeting of civilian infrastructure is a war crime. The Geneva Conventions prohibit attacks on civilian targets and “acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population.” It would also violate a domestic law, the War Crimes Act. Trump could argue that the power plants are essential for the Iranian military, but he hasn’t bothered. Instead, he has explicitly stated he is “not worried“ about whether he commits war crimes. If there were any doubts about Trump’s intentions, he removed them on Tuesday morning, when he posted that, unless Iran opens the Strait of Hormuz by 8 p.m., “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” Trump’s threats have appalled even some of his strongest allies. “I think it would be a huge mistake. I mean, he loses me if he attacks civilian targets,” Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) told the Wall Street Journal. “Whatever we do has to be within the laws of warfare.” As the 8 p.m. deadline approached, Trump announced that he “agreed to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks.” Crucially, Trump has not renounced his plans to attack civilian targets. If an agreement to end the war is not reached over the next two weeks, it will be back on the table. Trump appears confident he will never be held accountable for war crimes, and, as the president, he is probably right. The same cannot be said for members of the military who follow Trump’s orders to strike civilian targets. Members of the military have an obligation to refuse illegal orders The Uniform Code of Military Justice states that it is a crime for a member of the armed forces to violate or fail to obey “any lawful general order or regulation” (emphasis added). According to the Manual for Courts-Martial, an order is lawful “unless it is contrary to the Constitution, the laws of the United States, or lawful superior orders.” An order to destroy civilian targets — or kill a civilization — clearly fails this test. The Military Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild explains that “members of the military have the right, and in some cases have the duty, to refuse illegal orders.” In March 1968, during the Vietnam War, members of the military killed hundreds of civilians in an incident known as the My Lai massacre. In a subsequent court-martial, Lt. William Calley argued that he was simply following orders from superior officers. Calley was convicted, and the U.S. Court of Military Appeals found that conformity with an illegal order is not a valid legal defense. Therefore, any members of the military who help destroy power plants or assist Trump in killing the entire Iranian civilization could be liable for war crimes. In an appearance on PBS News, retired Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham argued that Trump is “threatening to make our military engage in war crimes and therefore stain their honor and their soul and come back with moral injury.” In November, Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), a retired Navy captain, appeared in a video with five other members of Congress. The video asserted: “Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.” Trump claimed that the video was “seditious behavior” that was “punishable by death.” The Pentagon announced that it was investigating Kelly for possible violation of military law. Kelly responded by suing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. The DOJ also launched an investigation and sought to indict Kelly and the other members. But the information in the video was accurate. As a result, a grand jury unanimously rejected the DOJ’s indictment. A federal judge also ruled in Kelly’s favor in his lawsuit against Hegseth, finding the actions against Kelly constituted unconstitutional retaliation.

Apr 8, 202630 votes

Planning to fail

Shortly after the start of the war in Iran on February 28, Iran declared that the Strait of Hormuz — which is used to transport about 20% of the world’s oil — was closed. Since then, vessels near the strait have been struck by drones and other projectiles. Only a handful of non-Western tankers have safely made it through the sea passage As a result, the price of a barrel of oil has skyrocketed from $70 to over $100. Americans are now paying an average of $3.70 for a gallon of gas, an increase of about 80 cents over the last month. The higher prices are already inflicting pain on Americans struggling to make ends meet, and if oil prices continue to rise, it could tip the economy into a global recession. Oil prices will likely continue to go up as long as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to most traffic. Thus far, the Trump administration has not identified an effective strategy to reopen it. The administration “significantly underestimated Iran’s willingness to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to US military strikes while planning the ongoing operation,” according to a March 12 report on CNN. Trump and his advisors, according to CNN, “failed to fully account for the potential consequences of what some officials have described as a worst-case scenario.” Last June, after the U.S. military targeted nuclear sites in Iran, Secretary of State Marco Rubio downplayed concerns that Iran would target the Strait of Hormuz, calling such an action “suicidal.” Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) relayed a similar message on March 10 after receiving a classified briefing. According to Murphy, the administration had “NO PLAN” on the Strait of Hormuz and “don’t know how to get it safely back open.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the CNN report as “100% FAKE NEWS“ and blasted the network for publishing “garbage.” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called it a “fundamentally unserious report“ and insisted the administration had “planned” for every possible scenario. These are strong words, but the administration’s actions tell a different story. In the lead-up to war, the Trump administration made a number of decisions that indicate it was relatively unconcerned that Iran would attempt to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. Mining for disaster The Strait of Hormuz remains unsafe, in part, because of Iran’s ability to deploy mines across the narrow passage. In September 2025, however, the Trump administration decommissioned the last of its four mine countermeasure ships, which had been based in Bahrain. These ships were “capable of finding, classifying and destroying moored and bottom mines.” The ships were to be replaced with three more advanced Littoral Combat Ships. But according to U.S. Navy documents obtained by Hunterbrook, the “next-generation mine-hunting systems suffered from unreliable unmanned vehicles, critical single-point failures, and sonar that couldn’t see.” In a training mission, one of the unmanned vehicles became a “runaway” and could not be recovered by the mothership. Two of the three replacement ships were recently spotted docked in Malaysia. Had the Trump administration been competently preparing for Iran to try to close the Strait of Hormuz, it would not have begun operations without an effective anti-mine fleet in the region. A coalition of the unwilling In addition to mines, Iran can disrupt travel through the Strait of Hormuz with drones and small vessels. Eager to halt the run-up in oil prices, Trump promised the United States military would “escort” tankers through the strait. “If necessary, the United States Navy will begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, as soon as possible,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on March 3. But escorting a tanker is complex work, and many U.S. Naval assets are occupied fighting the war itself. On March 10, Energy Secretary Chris Wright posted on social media that the “U.S. Navy had successfully escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz.” That claim, Wright later admitted, was false. A week later, there are still no documented cases of a tanker traversing the strait with a military escort. To accelerate this process, Trump has demanded that other nations help escort tankers. “I’m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory, because it is their territory,” Trump said. Thus far, no other nation has offered to assist Trump. “This is not our war, we have not started it,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. Spain’s defense minister also rejected Trump’s request and called on Trump to end the war. Trump claimed on Monday that some ships from other countries were “coming“ but did not provide any specifics. Trump also revealed he was asking other nations, “Do you have any mine sweepers?” Had the Trump administration planned for Iran to take adverse actions in the Strait of Hormuz, it would have secured agreements from international allies to assist in advance. Instead, Trump is making abrupt demands as the situation spirals out of control. A war without a mission As Popular Information previously documented, Trump and his administration lacked a clear rationale for the war in Iran. We documented 17 often-conflicting explanations for why the war began. More than two weeks after the war started, its goals remain unclear. Is it to degrade Iran’s conventional missile capabilities? Is it to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program? Is it regime change? Ultimately, the administration’s failure to plan for the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is part of a broader failure to plan for anything beyond “shock and awe.” “[T]here is no indication of preparedness for how to translate military action into effective and stable regime change, no plan to manage refugee flow or humanitarian consequences, no plan to handle arms proliferation, and no indication of a strategic direction other than blowing stuff up and seeing what happens,” Matthew Wallin of the American Security Project wrote. “Destruction is easy, but as the last few decades has taught us, the rest is hard.”

Mar 17, 20269 votes

ICE has stopped paying for detainee medical treatment

An exterior view of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency headquarters. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) During the second Trump administration, the population of migrants held at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities has exploded — from below 40,000 in January 2025 to over 73,000 today. Under the law, ICE is required to provide necessary medical care for this population. While ICE employs some of its own medical staff, it often uses third-party providers. ICE’s Buffalo Federal Detention Facility, for example, houses over 500 detainees and has no doctor or dentist on staff. ICE, however, has not paid any third-party providers for medical care for detainees since October 3, 2025. Last week, ICE posted a notice on an obscure government website announcing it will not begin processing such claims until at least April 30, 2026. Until then, medical providers are instructed “to hold all claims submissions.” ICE’s failure to pay its bills for months has caused some medical providers to deny services to ICE detainees, an administration source, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, told Popular Information. In other cases, detainees have allegedly been denied essential medical care by ICE. ICE was unable to respond to a request for comment in time for publication. In lawsuits, numerous ICE detainees with severe illnesses allege that they cannot obtain treatment. For example, Viera Reyes, a detainee being held at ICE’s California City Detention Facility, has symptoms and test results that suggest he has prostate cancer. But despite often being in excruciating pain, Reyes cannot obtain a biopsy. All of his requests to see a urologist have been ignored. Without a biopsy, Reyes has no formal diagnosis and cannot begin chemotherapy or take other steps to slow the cancer’s progression. Reyes was one of seven ICE detainees to sue over inhumane conditions at the California City facility. How did this health crisis inside ICE detention facilities begin? Beginning in 2002, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) played a small but critical role in providing essential medical care to ICE detainees. When an ICE detainee needed medication or treatment that the ICE facility could not directly provide, the VA Financial Services Center processed reimbursement claims from pharmacies and third-party medical providers. ICE paid the VA for this service — no resources were diverted from veterans. Beginning in 2023, however, the VA’s role in administering these claims from ICE was subject to criticism by Republican officials and right-wing media outlets. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who introduced legislation to end the practice, falsely claimed Biden was “robbing veterans to pay off illegals.” After Trump’s election, criticism of the VA’s role quieted down until, on September 30, 2025, the Center to Advance Security in America (CASA), a small right-wing nonprofit, filed a lawsuit. The CASA lawsuit sought to compel the Trump administration to respond to a public records request for documents regarding the VA’s role in administering medical claims from ICE. According to government documents first reported by Popular Information, the VA “abruptly and instantly terminated” its agreement with ICE on October 3. That cancellation, according to the documents, left ICE with “no mechanism to provide prescribed medication” and unable to “pay for medically necessary off-site care.” Among the services ICE said it could not provide were “dialysis, prenatal care, oncology, [and] chemotherapy.” The documents were posted to SAM.gov on November 12 as part of ICE’s effort to hire a private contractor to process medical claims in place of the VA. The situation was described by ICE as an “absolute emergency” that needed to be resolved “immediately” to “prevent any further medical complications or loss of life.” More than three months later, the situation is not resolved, and is expected to last until the end of April, if not longer. The process of replacing the VA, according to the administration source, has proven very complex. Acentra, one of the companies that won the ICE contract to replace the VA, says it will not be ready to process claims until at least April 30. Even if Acentra meets that target date, which is not a guarantee, claims filed on the first day may not be paid until May 30. In the meantime, the situation with ICE detainees has grown so dire that the VA is now working to potentially bring its claims processing back online temporarily, the administration source said. Internal administration data obtained by Popular Information reveals a massive gap in essential medical treatment for ICE detainees. The data shows that, in 2024, the VA processed $246.42 million in medical claims related to the treatment of ICE detainees by third parties. In 2025, despite an 82.5% increase in the daily detained population, the VA processed just $157.2 million in claims. (The data also includes medical reimbursements from a much smaller number of detainees held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.) Assuming the medical needs of a typical ICE detainee remain constant, the data suggests nearly a $300 million gap between needed care from third-party providers and what ICE paid. This gap is a combination of unpaid bills since October 3 and ICE detainees who are simply being denied necessary medical treatment. An investigation by Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) identified “85 credible reports of medical neglect, including cases that reportedly led to life-threatening injuries and complications,” among ICE detainees between January 20 and August 5, 2025. The incidents included “a heart attack after days of untreated chest pain, complications from untreated diabetes, and denial of necessary medications and associated complications.” After October 3, medical care for ICE detainees almost certainly became much worse. And it is not likely to improve anytime soon.

Jan 20, 202621 votes

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UPDATE: MAGA Inc.'s audacious new ads

UPDATE: MAGA Inc.'s audacious new ads

$500,000 buys a “one-on-one meeting” with Trump

“Just following orders” is not a defense for war crimes

Planning to fail

Planning to fail

Planning to fail

Planning to fail

Planning to fail

ICE has stopped paying for detainee medical treatment

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Scores for Popular

Credibility

Political lean

Originality

Stories ChamberLight collected, by month

Top topics

Who they cover

Most covered

Article tone

Challenges to these scores

Articles served from popular.info

UPDATE: MAGA Inc.'s audacious new ads

UPDATE: MAGA Inc.'s audacious new ads

$500,000 buys a “one-on-one meeting” with Trump

“Just following orders” is not a defense for war crimes

Planning to fail

Planning to fail

Planning to fail

Planning to fail

Planning to fail

ICE has stopped paying for detainee medical treatment