Trump meme breaks the internet — then unmasks the left’s religious hypocrisy
After decades of treating Christianity as a punch line, Democrats suddenly became staunch defenders of traditionalism over the weekend — all thanks to President Donald Trump.
Late Friday, the White House’s official X account reposted an AI-generated image of Trump wearing papal vestments. The image was posted after Trump joked that he would “like to be pope,” a comment made one week before the Catholic Church’s cardinals convene the conclave to select Pope Francis’ successor.
The AI image went not just viral but mega viral. By Monday morning, it had been viewed more than 100 million times on X alone.
Reaction to the image fell into four general buckets:
- Catholics expressed outrage and offense at the image, suggesting that Trump or the White House was mocking their tradition, which could not come at a worse time as the church mourns Francis’ death and prepares to select a new pope.
- Catholics and non-Catholic Christians thought the image was a joke and funny, not something to be upset about.
- Critics of President Trump expressed outrage — as they do over anything Trump does.
- Democrats, whose public policy subverts much of Christianity’s values, pearl-clutched.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is a prime example of No. 4.
“This is deeply offensive to me and to my fellow Catholics around the world as we continue to mourn our beloved Pope Francis,” Hochul responded.
That response, too, went viral, not because Hochul is perceived to be a coherent defender of Christianity and the Catholic faith but precisely the opposite: While she now wants to posture online to win brownie points with her progressive base, she has repeatedly mocked many of Christianity’s most important values….
Iran defies US and Israel by unveiling dangerous ballistic missile
Iran on Sunday unveiled its latest ballistic missile, propelled by solid fuel, the country’s state-run television reported.
The unveiling came amid rising tensions between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program, which included strong warnings from US. President Donald Trump, who in a recent interview with NBC demanded the “total” dismantling of the Iranian nuclear program.
Iranian television showed the ballistic missile, called Qassem Basir, during an interview with Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh.
The official said the missile, which was test-fired on April 17, includes improvements in both guidance and maneuverability, with the aim of overcoming layers of defense and easily evading missile defense systems.
Iranian state television noted that the missile has a range of at least 1,200 kilometers and is capable of identifying and hitting a specific target among multiple targets, without GPS guidance and with high accuracy.
The Iranian minister also referred to a statement by US Defense Secretary Pete Hagsth, who warned Iran about its support for Houthi terrorists in Yemen. Nasirzadeh said that if the United States or Israel were to start a war, Iran would attack their interests, bases and forces “wherever they are and whenever necessary.”…
Judge Boasberg Keeps Getting Assigned Trump Cases. Lawmakers Want to Know Why.
Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, has repeatedly been assigned cases to do with President Donald Trump’s second term, as Townhall has been covering.
Congress has taken notice, and the House last month passed a bill to rein in rogue judges like Boasberg and others. Questions still remain, though, and on Monday, Townhall obtained a letter from Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Darrell Issa (R-CA), and Chip Roy (R-TX) regarding such concerns. The letter was sent to Angela D. Caesar, the Clerk of the Court for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
As the letter begins in part by mentioning, the second Trump term has been hit with over 30 nationwide injunctions, with the term having started just over 100 days ago…
Among the cases that Boasberg has been assigned include not only the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) for deportations, but also to do with administration officials’ handling of the Signal app. The letter notes that Boasberg was assigned such “high-profile” cases less than two weeks apart.
He was also assigned cases to do with the Department of Government of Efficiency and federal funding for programs that violate civil rights laws. While the latter was dismissed, this was due to the plaintiff’s request…
The letter also offers why the congressmen are looking to hear from the clerk herself. “While the District Court’s allocation process is intended to produce an ‘equal distribution of cases to all judges,’ in practice the distribution of cases can be unequal. The Committee cannot independently verify the randomness of case assignments because the composition of assignment decks is kept secret…
Boasberg, like so many other district judges issuing ruling against the Trump administration, was nominated by former President Barack Obama. But the Biden-Harris administration plays a role here as well…
Towards the end, the letter mentions the legislation meant to rein in district judges, the No Rogue Rulings Act of 2025 (NORRA), which was sponsored by Issa. And again, more “potential reforms” may be coming. These include “requiring payment of security for all injunctions, constraining judges’ authority to set aside agency action, and reforming case assignment systems in district courts to prevent tampering and ensure integrity,” as the letter explains….
Israeli Air Force strikes Houthi port, airport & cement factory in Yemen after missile strike on Ben Gurion Airport
The day after a Houthi missile hit Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, the Israeli Air Force carried out a large wave of airstrikes against terror targets in Yemen, focusing once again on the port of Hodeidah.
An Israeli security source told media outlets that some 48 munitions were dropped in the attacks, and that Hodeidah port, which is among the terror group’s most important sea ports, suffered a fatal blow.
Israeli media also reported that Hodeidah airport and a cement factory in Bajil, east of Hodeidah.
“The terror infrastructures that were attacked at the Hodeidah seaport serve as a central source of income for the Houthi regime,” the IDF explained.
“The Hodeidah seaport is used to transfer Iranian weaponry, equipment for military needs, and other terror-related necessities. In addition, the “Bajil” concrete factory east of the city of Hodeidah was attacked; it serves as an important economic resource for the Houthi terror regime and is used for building tunnels and military infrastructures.”
“The damage to this factory constitutes a blow to the regime’s economy and its military buildup.”
According to the Saudi al-Arabiya network, over 30 Israeli aircraft took part in the strikes over 2,000 kilometers (some 1,200 miles) from the Israeli border…
Israel sets deadline: Large offensive will start after Trump’s Middle East visit unless Hamas releases hostages
Israel will give Hamas a last chance to agree to a hostage deal until after the Middle East visit of U.S. President Donald Trump next week, an Israeli official told local media outlets on Monday.
The senior security official stressed that without an agreement according to the Witkoff proposal, the new offensive dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots” would “begin with great force and will not stop until all its objectives are achieved.”
The Israeli cabinet approved plans for a large-scale, new offensive in Gaza on Sunday evening. “That was the chief of staff’s recommendation — to move, as he said, toward the defeat of Hamas,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a video message on Monday.
Netanyahu stressed: “One thing will be clear — we’re not going in and out [of Gaza] just to call up reserves so they’ll come and seize territory, we withdraw from territory, and carry out raids on what remains. … That’s not the intention. What’s our intention? The opposite.”
Israeli officials have emphasized that the new offensive would follow a different strategy than previous maneuvers, which were led by the previous IDF chief of staff and defense minister…
Qatar and China Are Pouring Billions Into Elite American Universities
Foreign donors have given as much to U.S. universities in the last four years as they did in the previous 40, according to a new report by the Network Contagion Research Institute shared exclusively with The Free Press.
The study shows an explosion in overseas funding for American schools between 2021 and 2024, with nearly $29 billion in foreign money donated during that period.
Qatar and China are among the largest sources of funding.
That $29 billion figure is more than double the total for the preceding four years, and accounts for half of the estimated $57.97 billion in foreign funding since 1986, when the federal government began tracking the data.
“The floodgates opened during the Biden era,” said NCRI’s co-founder Joel Finkelstein. “This isn’t just a financial issue—it’s a national security crisis. Hostile powers are buying influence on American campuses at an industrial scale.”
Here’s what the NCRI study found:…
US air defenses head to Ukraine as Putin hopes Russia doesn’t have to use nukes
Russian President Vladimir Putin said over the weekend of May 3 that he hopes nuclear weapons won’t be needed in Ukraine, even as Russian strikes continue across the country.
That same day, The New York Times reported that the U.S. is sending a refurbished Patriot missile system to Ukraine and weighing additional transfers from Europe to bolster Kyiv’s air defenses.
Putin also stated Russia has the strength to end the war on its terms. “
We have enough strength and means to bring what was started in 2022 to a logical conclusion with the outcome Russia requires,” Putin said.
The comments were part of a Russian state media documentary marking Putin’s 25 years in power
Meanwhile, Russian drone and missile attacks continue to batter Ukrainian cities. A strike on Kyiv early Sunday, May 4, injured 11 people, including two children, and sparked fires in residential buildings. Local officials also reported civilian deaths from Russian airstrikes in Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy.
Also on Sunday, The New York Times first reported that the United States is transferring a refurbished Patriot Air Defense Missile System from Israel to Ukraine. U.S. officials confirmed the move as part of efforts to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses in response to escalating Russian missile and drone attacks. The system is undergoing maintenance and is expected to arrive by summer….
President Donald Trump previously criticized Zelenskyy’s repeated requests for U.S. weapons. However, he softened his position following recent attacks. He publicly condemned the April 24 strike and urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop targeting civilians. Trump has since questioned Moscow’s sincerity in peace talks and met with Zelenskyy at Pope Francis’ funeral in late April, where they reportedly discussed Patriot systems and a minerals deal aimed at funding future military aid.
Last week, the Trump administration told Congress it intends to send $50 million worth of defense-related goods to Ukraine…
Iran fears Israeli strike, disassociates Houthis; IDF to launch Gideon’ Chariot TV7Israel News 05.05
1) Jerusalem’s security cabinet voted unanimously last night in favor of a gradually-expanding IDF operation in the Gaza Strip – dubbed: Gideon’s Chariots.
2) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledges to hold Iran responsible for the Houthi ballistic missile strike of Ben Gurion International Airport.
3) Iran insists that it has nothing to do with the Houthi belligerence against Israel and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.
Conservatives Can’t Make America Great Again Until They Hold ‘Red State’ RINOs Accountable
Acommon talking point trotted out to defend congressional Republicans’ failure to advance conservative priorities is that the party has slim majorities, and therefore, trying to pass anything outside of the usual “uniparty” slop is next to impossible.
But if that’s true, why does the same dynamic exist in states where Republicans have much larger legislative majorities and control the governor’s mansion?
On Wednesday, the GOP-controlled Texas House — which is run by liberal Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows — passed a bill that effectively seeks to criminalize the posting and distribution of certain altered media in political advertising. As noted by Texas Politics’ Daniel Molina, free speech advocates have argued the bill “threatens to criminalize satire, parody, and political expression online.”
Authored by liberal Republican Rep. Dade Phelan, HB 366 stipulates that an officeholder or political candidate “may not, with the intent to influence an election, knowingly cause to be published, distributed, or broadcast political advertising that includes an image, audio recording, or video recording of an officeholder’s or candidate’s appearance, speech, or conduct that did not occur in reality, including an image, audio recording, or video recording that has been altered using generative artificial intelligence technology.”
The bill lists a few exceptions to this rule, including media that have had their light and/or saturation adjusted and media with government-approved disclaimers noting it has been altered.
“Violators could face up to a year in jail under the proposed law,” Molina wrote.
Meanwhile, many conservative-backed bills are reportedly languishing in the House and at risk of not making it to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk before the 2025 session ends. This includes legislation related to election integrity, medical freedom, immigration, and more.
While these antics may seem strange for a state dominated by Republicans, the failure to advance conservative priorities isn’t exclusive to Texas. In fact, in many so-called “red states” across America, Republican lawmakers are quietly thwarting the will of their constituents….
Missouri Activists Use Abortion Amendment To Target Parental Consent Protections For Minors
Right By You, an organization that prides itself on instructing underage girls in Missouri on how to get birth control and abortions, filed a lawsuit on April 30 alleging that laws requiring a minor to secure a parent’s permission, or endure a “potentially traumatic judicial bypass process,” to end a pregnancy “flagrantly violate” the new amendment to the state constitution.
“The laws bully pregnant young people without parental support into giving birth and threaten legal action against and undermine the core activities of Good Samaritans who seek to help young people effectuate their own decisions about their pregnancies with dignity,” the lawsuit claims.
Missouri voters narrowly passed an amendment in November that enshrined abortion through all nine months in the state constitution. Proponents of Amendment 3 spent the months leading up to the 2024 election promising that adding a “right to reproductive freedom” to the state’s governing document would not threaten the abortion limits or parents’ rights already on the books in Missouri.
The activists deemed any attempt to inform voters about the ambiguous language and nature of the sweeping abortion amendment as “scare tactics.” The misnomered Missourians for Constitutional Freedom went so far as to claim that the amendment simply ensured “important health care decisions remain with families and their doctors, not politicians.”
The lawsuit filed by Right By You, however, uses the ill-defined and broad terminology included in the new amendment to argue that “all people of childbearing age,” including underage girls, should be able to get an abortion whenever they want without authorization from someone else.
“Indeed, the text of the amendment makes clear that the right is expansive,” the lawsuit continues. “It expressly extends to any ‘person’ providing or facilitating an abortion in addition to any ‘person’ seeking one. The amendment leaves no doubt that laws that ‘delay’ abortion
care violate the Right to Reproductive Freedom.”
The lawsuit follows the release of camera footage allegedly showing a Kansas City Planned Parenthood schemed to transport a 13-year-old girl across state lines to get her an abortion behind her parents’ backs….
AI Ethics
From humanoid robots to advanced AI, we’re not just approaching a new era; we’re already in it.
Raising never-before-addressed legal and ethical questions about crimes involving altered or entirely fabricated images, or even AI robots. Lisa Fletcher reports
Waste
President Trump’s cost-cutting creation, the Department of Government Efficiency, is diving toward an ambitious trillion dollar goal.
Nobody can be sure but officially, Elon Musk-led DOGE claims to have already slashed more than $130 billion in federal spending.
That’s your tax money. Today, Scott Thuman hears from three men who are experts at unearthing waste to get their ideas on where the axe should fall.
Portland Pot
America is smack dab in the middle of a major drug, business, and legal experiment. Odds are you live in a state where recreational marijuana has become legal in the past few years or is the target of an intense lobbying effort to make it so.
Yet possessing or selling marijuana technically remains a crime everywhere under federal law, punishable by prison time and fines. Today we take measure of a movement that’s not quite like any that’s ever happened before in the U.S.
Who will occupy the Millennial Kingdom? | GotQuestions.org
What awaits humanity during the Millennial Kingdom, the future thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ from David’s throne in Jerusalem?
Imagine an earth where the knowledge of the Lord is universal, yet its inhabitants include distinct groups – some possessing glorified bodies following the Rapture and resurrection, others still in their natural bodies after enduring the Tribulation.
How does Bible prophecy explain the connection between the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and who ultimately enters this unique period? Understand what eschatology reveals about life, worship, and judgment during the end times, and who will witness the restoration of Israel and worship the Lord directly. Are you curious about who gets to experience the Millennial Kingdom? In this video, Pastor Nelson answers your question: Who will occupy the Millennial Kingdom?
Fox News’ Peter Doocy reports the latest on the status of the president’s tariffs against China and foreign-made movies.
Fox News’ Peter Doocy reports the latest on the status of the president’s tariffs against China and foreign-made movies.
DHS announces new push to expedite deportations
Fox News’ Bill Melugin reports the latest on the policy and how it will minimize cost and reduce illegal immigration. DHS Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin also weighs in on the policy and the possible reopening of Alcatraz
(Watch)CRIMINAL: US Government ADMITS It Approved Pfizer’s COVID “Vaccine” Despite Knowing About a Long List of Trial Violations
They KNEW Pfizer’s COVID “vaccine” trials were a complete sham back in 2020.
But they didn’t pursue fraud because exposing it would blow up the very health policy they’re still clinging to today.
This revelation comes from the whistleblower case of Brook Jackson, a former regional director at Ventavia, the company that ran Pfizer’s clinical trials.
In 2021, Jackson filed a lawsuit under the False Claims Act, alleging that Pfizer, Ventavia, and others committed fraud by falsifying data and violating clinical trial protocols.
Newsfeed News.com 