Category: USA Politics

As concerns about rampant fraud continue to grow nationwide, particularly in California, federal authorities announced the guilty plea of a man charged in a scheme to defraud taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Paul Richard Randall, 66, of Orange, California, has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud after local authorities say he billed Medi-Cal, California’s version of Medicaid, more than $269 million and was paid out more than $178 million for “19 expensive, non-contracted drugs containing low-cost, generic ingredients that were not medically necessary, not provided, or both.”

Randall and his co-conspirators took advantage of a temporary rule change in Medi-Cal that removed the need for pre-approval on certain drugs. Using a pharmacy they controlled, they billed Medi-Cal huge amounts each month for expensive generic medications that normally would’ve required approval.

Randall and his associates then laundered the illegal proceeds by routing money through a third party, using it to pay kickbacks to Anderson, further the scheme and hide the transactions from law enforcement.

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“This defendant used a public health program as his personal piggy bank,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a press release.

“This guilty plea should send a message that this administration — consistent with the President’s war on fraud — will not turn a blind eye while criminals fleece taxpayers.”

The press release says that Randall will be sentenced in August and will face a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison.

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California has been at the center of fraud concerns in recent weeks and has been called out by the federal anti-fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance, which recently revealed a staggering increase in California hospice and healthcare providers that were suspended as part of the task force’s efforts.

Last week, a federal sweep in southern California dubbed “Operation Never Say Die” resulted in eight local arrests and unsealed charges against 15 individuals allegedly tied to a $60 million fraudulent Medicare billing scheme, Fox 11 Los Angeles reported.

News of the guilty plea quickly spread on social media, with conservatives making the case that there is much more work to be done to combat fraud in California.

“California is without question the Fraud Capital of the United States,” Rep. Kevin Kiley, an Independent congressman from California, posted on X. “We are finally seeing accountability.”

“You can submit 300 million dollars in claims in under a year and actually obtain that money?” Conservative commentator Mike Cernovich posted on X.

“This is Gavin Newsom’s empire of fraud,” journalist Christopher Rufo posted on X.

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“Well done and thank you for protecting taxpayers and those in need,” Haywood Talcove, CEO of LexisNexis Special Services & LexisNexis Risk Solutions Government, posted on X. 

“We need to focus on the front end of the payment systems – how did a $250M get stolen in the, first place?   The systems are antiquated, lack front end identity verification, rely on self reported information and don’t do third party audits or use Spectrum.”

“Put him in chains and lock him up,” Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., posted on X.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office pointed Fox News Digital to a post on X where they pushed back on the DOJ’s press release saying there is a “small fact missing.”

“This alleged fraud was first discovered by state officials and referred for criminal prosecution,” Newsom’s office wrote. “We’d appreciate the acknowledgment of the long-standing partnership the state has in working with the feds to fight fraud — and end this misinformation effort driven by the current Administration. Folks can see how California has taken action: StopFraud.CA.Gov.”

Essayli responded in a post on X that referred to Newsom as the “fraud king.”

“Not good enough,” Essayli wrote. “You know what would be better than referring fraud cases to my office to clean up your mess? Stopping the fraud from happening in the first place.”

Newsom’s office has responded to critics in general in recent weeks by saying the state is “leading the nation in preventing fraud.”

“Since @CAGovernor Gavin Newsom took office: — $125 billion+ in fraud STOPPED — 1,200+ criminals ARRESTED — 83% reduction in EBT fraud in one year — New hospice licenses BANNED beginning in 2022,” Newsom’s press office posted on X earlier this month.

The Democratic nominee for a Senate seat in Arkansas is trying to distance herself from messaging ties to the mainstream Democratic Party, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, as she wages an uphill bid to flip a Republican Senate seat.

“Arkansas is a very independent state. In fact, if you look at our voting history, we are often split-ticket voters,” Hallie Shoffner told Fox News Digital.

“I feel that both of the parties just walked away from rural America — Democrats included,” added Shoffner, who is pushing back on claims that she invited Harris to campaign with her.

Her comments come as Harris plans to deliver keynote remarks at the Arkansas Shackelford Dinner in Little Rock later this month — the first campaign event she has headlined since she lost the 2024 presidential election.

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Shoffner strongly denied she had any intention of campaigning with Harris at her upcoming appearance.

“We had nothing to do with bringing the former vice president here. She’s speaking at a Democratic Party of Arkansas event, an event I will not be attending,” Shoffner said.

“This woman is coming, and she’s going to be here for all of two hours,” she said.

Shoffner believes the party should focus on its future, rather than highlighting high-profile names of the past. She blasted Republican attempts to link Harris’ appearance to her Senate bid.

“The Republican Party of Arkansas is talking like I’m the one who’s responsible. Why? Tom Cotton and the Republican Party, why are we relitigating the 2024 election right now?” Shoffner said, referring to her political opponent, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.

Instead, Shoffner said she is trying to emulate different Democrats who have used middle-of-the-road platforms to attract rural voters.

“If I were Hallie Shoffner, I’d pretend like I didn’t know Kamala Harris either,” Joseph Wood, the chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas, said in a fiery response to her comments. “But Shoffner can’t hide two very important things: her 25 donations to Harris, or that Harris is coming to Arkansas to raise money that will be used to try and help her failing campaign.” 

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Shoffner mentioned former Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who was defeated in 2024, as an example of a different Democrat.

“One of the things I really like about Sen. Tester is he takes the same approach when he’s going into diverse political communities in Montana,” Shoffner said.

“We’re all Arkansans. We’re all Montanans. You know, we want to be able to buy our groceries. We want to put gas in our car. We want to know that our job is going to be there the next day,” Shoffner said.

Tester represented Montana as a senator from 2007 to 2025. He lost his re-election bid to newcomer Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont.

Despite asserting confidence in charting her own course, Shoffner faces an uphill race against Cotton, the current chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Cotton, who was handpicked by former Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to run for the Senate in 2014, has come to the defense of President Donald Trump’s military engagement against Iran.

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Shoffner believes that’s a weakness she can exploit.

“Does it work for the people of Arkansas? That’s the point of Congress. That there should have been an Arkansan up there in D.C. who said, ‘Now, wait a minute, they need diesel and fertilizer prices to be low.’ That is when a senator or a representative from a state is supposed to step in and say, ‘My people at home will be affected,’” Shoffner said.

Shoffner will face off against Cotton in the state’s general election on Nov. 3.

Fox News has learned Vice President JD Vance’s new anti-fraud task force has identified nearly $6.3 billion in government contracts that are going to potentially fraudulent businesses, marking a major milestone in the Trump administration’s mission to slash wasteful spending contributing to the national debt.

The task force and General Services Administration are beginning to send out letters to nearly 400 businesses with government contracts that they believe could be fraudulent, who will have 30 days to prove to the task force that they have a physical address and are legitimate, as first reported by the Daily Caller.

A Vance spokesperson told Fox News the task force “will leave no stone unturned in the hunt for fraud.”

“If fraudsters are robbing hardworking Americans of their tax dollars and services, we will find them,” the spokesperson said.

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The announcement comes less than a month after President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing the team, led by Vance as chairman.

The unit’s mission is to target what the administration described as widespread exploitation of the American safety net by “illegal aliens, criminals, foreign gangs, bureaucrats,” and non-governmental organizations.

The executive order argued certain states have embraced loopholes, allowing people to self-certify for benefits including as housing, food and medical care while refusing to implement basic fraud controls.

The order specifically highlights Minnesota as a primary example of “staggering fraud and waste,” citing an alleged $250 million scam by nonprofit Feeding our Future, rampant Medicaid fraud, and a massive childcare fraud ring involving Somali immigrants accused of funneling stolen taxpayer funds to an African terror group.

The administration noted Minnesota and 20 other states previously sued the federal government to block basic eligibility reviews for food stamp enrollees.

Along with Vance, task force participants include Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Homeland Security advisor Stephen Miller.

Congress is in no rush to end the longest shutdown in history, despite having a deal in place and a backup plan that could both fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and secure cash for immigration operations for years to come.

Lawmakers in both chambers left Washington for a two-week recess around Easter and are not scheduled to return until Monday. Meanwhile, Republicans have pitched rival plans that, if not quickly resolved, could prolong the funding standoff into the summer.

After nearly two months of fighting with congressional Democrats, the shutdown back and forth has now evolved into infighting among the GOP across both chambers. That development, and differing views on how to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, threaten to prolong the shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said shortly after the Senate again passed its Department of Homeland Security funding bill in early April that there are “limited options” for ending the shutdown, given Senate Democrats’ blockade against funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) without stringent reforms.

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“My question for anybody who doesn’t like what we did is: give me a better idea. Give me another option,” Thune said. “We’ll see, ultimately, what the House does with it.”

When the House returns Tuesday, the shutdown will have reached 59 days.

The Senate has its spending bill, which would fund the Department of Homeland Security while carving out funding for ICE and parts of CBP, with the end goal of funding immigration enforcement through the party-line budget reconciliation process.

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House Republicans previously rejected that plan. But after President Donald Trump demanded a reconciliation package with ICE and CBP funding on his desk by June 1, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., ceded to the Senate.

Still, Republicans in the lower chamber are furious that they again have to consider the Senate’s compromise deal and are threatening to further prolong the shutdown.

The House had an opportunity in recent days to pass the bill, but Republicans opted against it. Instead, they held a conference call where lawmakers said they would not vote for the Senate plan until there was meaningful progress on a reconciliation package.

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The conservative House Freedom Caucus took that a step further Tuesday, throwing a wrench into those plans. The group wants to fund the entire department through a single budget reconciliation bill.

“We cannot leave ICE and CBP hanging with nothing but hopes and prayers that reconciliation 2.0 comes together,” the group wrote on social media. “That’s why we must use reconciliation to fully fund all of the Department of Homeland Security.”

Whether House Republicans coalesce behind that demand when they return remains to be seen, but it has given congressional Democrats ammunition in the ongoing shutdown messaging war.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., dubbed the closure the “Johnson shutdown.”

“It’s a Republican shutdown,” Schumer told CNN. “All he had to do was put that bill on the floor, and it would have passed overwhelmingly. So Republicans are hardly unified. They’re squirming about.”

Some pressure has eased on Congress to act after Trump in March moved to pay all Department of Homeland Security employees using existing funds. However, it is unclear whether that arrangement can last for several months without new appropriations from Congress.

Meanwhile, leapfrogging the typical government funding process could establish a new precedent.

Normally, appropriators craft spending bills to fund the dozen agencies that make up the federal government. It’s a bipartisan process in which both sides typically walk away with a win. 

But using budget reconciliation shifts that power away from appropriators and sidelines the bipartisan process.

“Republicans have decided to take that route, so they should be very wary about the precedent,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. blasted President Donald Trump as “a military moron” in a Wednesday post on X, asserting that the nation is “worse off” now compared to when the commander in chief first launched the Iran war effort.

“Trump is a military moron. His war, with a price tag of $44 billion and $4+ gas, made us worse off today than we were when he started it,” Schumer asserted in the post.

“And if he restarts this war we will be in even worse shape. We must pass our War Powers Resolution to end this war for good,” the senator added.

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In a statement provided to Fox News Digital on Wednesday, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly declared, “Like many Democrats, Chuck Schumer has spent decades talking about the threat posed by Iran, but doing nothing about it. President Trump took courageous action to ensure Iran can never use a nuclear weapon against our homeland, and as he said, we are far along with a definitive agreement to deliver lasting peace.”

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After warning on Tuesday morning that an entire “civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Trump later announced a two-week ceasefire agreement was reached with Iran on Tuesday evening.

Responding to Trump’s threat on Tuesday morning before the ceasefire announcement later that day, Schumer slammed the president as “an extremely sick person,” adding, “Each Republican who refuses to join us in voting against this wanton war of choice owns every consequence of whatever the hell this is.”

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After the ceasefire announcement, Schumer said in a Tuesday post on X, “I’m glad Trump backed off and is desperately searching for any sort of exit ramp from his ridiculous bluster.”

Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., asserted in a post on X that deporting all illegal immigrants would be the best way to make the U.S. affordable.

“The number one thing we can do to make America affordable is to deport EVERY illegal immigrant,” he wrote in the Wednesday post on X

He specifically suggested that ousting illegal immigrants helps decrease costs for housing, healthcare, education and vehicle insurance.

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“Deportations lower housing and rent prices because there are millions fewer who need them. Health care costs fall because uninsured illegals aren’t filling emergency rooms. Education costs fall because uninsured minors aren’t costing $10k-$20k per year. Car insurance costs fall because uninsured illegals aren’t driving up ‘uninsured and underinsured’ insurance,” Fine asserted.

Fine also expressed staunch opposition to the prospect of amnesty.

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“DEPORTATIONS = AFFORDABILITY,” he said. “No amnesty. For anyone. Ever. GO HOME.”

In a Tuesday post on X, he wrote: “I’m not a no on amnesty. I’m a hell no. Deport them ALL.”

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“Let me be clear. I will never, ever, ever, ever vote for amnesty. For anyone. Ever,” he declared in another post on Tuesday.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche revealed that the Justice Department is investigating more than 8,000 fraud cases, which he said represent over $1 trillion in taxpayer funds potentially stolen each year by “increasingly sophisticated and opportunistic fraudsters.”

Blanche, who is filling in for the role after former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s sudden ouster last week, said just a few of the fraud schemes being investigated by the DOJ recently resulted in a guilty plea by fraudsters for “stealing over half a billion dollars from taxpayers.” He noted that the 8,000 cases “represent a fraction of the fraud ripping off our country every day.”

He said the recently launched DOJ National Fraud Enforcement Division will “work closely” with the Vice President JD Vance-led Task Force to Eliminate Fraud to pursue a “comprehensive and coordinated approach” to investigating fraud.

“Because of this administration’s leadership, fraudsters, scammers, tax cheats or anyone who lies to get rich off the generosity of the American people should be on notice,” he said, noting, “Our goal is to prevent this from ever happening again.”

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Blanche delivered the remarks Tuesday in what was his first press conference as acting head of the DOJ. The conference came days after Bondi was abruptly removed from her role as attorney general by President Donald Trump. Blanche refused to speculate on the reason for Bondi’s removal, saying, “Nobody has any idea … except for the president.”

Though Bondi’s leadership of the DOJ has been heavily criticized, especially by Democrats, Blanche praised her “vision and her commitment to justice.” He signaled continuity between her leadership and his, particularly on fraud investigations.

The Trump administration has made such investigations a priority following revelations about rampant Medicaid and childcare fraud in Minnesota involving the state’s Somali immigrant community. Just last week, Trump named Vance fraud czar and tasked him with tackling fraud schemes, which he said are most rampant in blue states.

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Blanche said, “Every day, Department of Justice investigators and prosecutors work to punish those who commit fraud.”

“For example, just this week, and it’s only Tuesday, a criminal defendant was sentenced, and the department obtained two additional guilty pleas and matters totaling over half 1 billion dollars in health care and COVID fraud,” he said. “If you think about that, just since yesterday, we had a guilty plea in a $160 million health care enrollment fraud scheme, a sentencing in a $100 million COVID-19 fraud case, and a guilty plea in a $160 million health care fraud scheme as well.”

He said the DOJ is “supercharging” its efforts through the new division, involving every U.S. attorney across the country in efforts to “take down every fraudster and bring them to justice.”

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“With over $1 trillion at stake every single year, threatened by increasingly sophisticated and opportunistic fraudsters, the time for this comprehensive and coordinated approach is now,” he said, adding, “So, to the fraudsters who seek to take advantage of our nation, let this be a warning.”

For voters feeling the sting of rising gas prices, a trip to the gas pump is becoming a daily flash point as midterm elections loom.

President Donald Trump touted low gas prices during his February State of the Union address, saying they had fallen “below $2.30 a gallon in most states and in some places, $1.99.”

Now, an escalating conflict with Iran is sending prices sharply higher — particularly in battleground states like Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Ohio. That surge is undercutting a central economic message that helped power Trump’s return to office and could reshape the political landscape as fuel costs rise in key states.

“I used to put $30 worth of gas in my car for the week — now it’s $45,” said Zafar, an Uber driver who typically fills up in Virginia, where gas prices are more than $1 higher than a year ago.

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“I have no choice — I have to support my family,” he said, adding that he can’t afford to cut back on driving despite rising gas prices.

Just weeks ago, the outlook looked very different.

The national average has climbed to $4.16 per gallon, up about 91 cents from a year ago, according to AAA, with prices rising across nearly every region.

West Coast drivers are seeing the highest costs, with prices reaching $5.93 per gallon in California and $5.39 in Washington. Meanwhile, on the East Coast, gas prices have surpassed $4 in several areas, including $4.29 in Washington, D.C., and $4.18 in Pennsylvania. 

Meanwhile, in the Midwest, Illinois stands out at $4.36 per gallon, while much of the region remains in the mid-$3 range. While Southern states remain comparatively cheaper, prices are climbing there as well, with Georgia at $3.73, Texas and Alabama at $3.84, and Florida higher at $4.18.

Oklahoma and Kansas have the lowest gas prices in the nation, at $3.34 and $3.39, respectively.

Beyond gasoline, other fuel costs are rising even faster. Diesel has climbed to $5.66, up about $1.15 over the past month. As a key fuel for freight, shipping and public transportation, it is especially sensitive to supply disruptions — and its rising cost can quickly ripple through the broader economy, pushing up prices on everything from groceries to goods.

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That kind of pocketbook pressure is exactly what Democrats have been eager to exploit. Last fall, Democrats leaned heavily on affordability themes in state and local elections, and it paid off.

In places like Virginia, New York and New Jersey, where voters have been squeezed by high housing costs and utility bills, Democratic candidates seized on Trump’s early economic moves, including his trade policy, to argue that the Republican agenda was worsening the affordability crisis rather than easing it.

That same playbook is now reemerging on a national scale, as rising fuel costs tied to the Iran war give Democrats a fresh opening to hammer Republicans on kitchen-table costs.

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Campaigns are leaning in, tying higher fuel costs to Republican policies in ads, speeches and appearances across key battleground states.

In central Pennsylvania, Janelle Stelson, a Democrat challenging Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., campaigned Monday at a Mobil gas station where prices were $4.24 for regular unleaded and more than $6 for diesel. She argued Perry, a Trump ally, bears some responsibility for worsening the cost-of-living crisis, according to The Washington Post.

In Iowa, the left-leaning veterans group VoteVets is running a new $825,000 ad campaign backing state Rep. Joshua Turek’s Senate bid that highlights rising gas prices.

The message is also playing out in Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed, a liberal Democrat in a competitive Senate primary, is airing ads focused on rising gas prices. “You know why gas is so expensive? Donald Trump’s $200 billion war with Iran,” he says in one ad.

With prices rising, the cost of gas is quickly becoming a central political battleground — and a potential liability for Trump and his allies in the months leading up to the midterms.

The U.S. and Iran have agreed to a two-week ceasefire as both sides engage in talks to secure a wider peace agreement Wednesday.

Iran has proposed a 10-point plan and shared it with President Donald Trump, who said it represents a “workable basis on which to negotiate.” The White House, however, says that plan differs with the one Iranian officials released to the public on Wednesday, according to the New York Times.

The publicly available plan demands that the U.S. end all primary and secondary sanctions against Tehran, as well as that Iran receive full control over the Strait of Hormuz. The plan also demands an end to U.S. attacks on Iran and its allies, a withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Middle East, the release of frozen Iranian assets and a United Nations resolution stating that the agreement will be binding.

The U.S. would also have to compensate Iran for damage incurred during the war and accept Iran’s right to enrich uranium, according to the plan.

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In exchange, Iran would commit not to build nuclear weapons and enter into peace agreements with its regional neighbors.

A White House official declined to say how the plan Trump received differs from the public version, but said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt would offer further details at a press conference later Wednesday, the Times reported.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian claimed on Tuesday that the U.S. had accepted the “general principles desired by Iran.”

The public plan already has critics within the U.S., however, and some of Trump’s allies have voiced opposition to key portions.

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“The supposed negotiating document, in my view, has some troubling aspects, but time will tell. I look forward to the architects of this proposal, the vice president and others, coming forward to Congress and explaining how a negotiated deal meets our national security objectives in Iran,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

“Allowing this regime to enrich in the future would be an affront to all those murdered by the regime since this war started and would be inconsistent with denying Iran a pathway toward a bomb in the future,” he added.

Trump has already confirmed that the U.S. will not agree to certain parts of Iran’s proposed deal, referencing the country’s nuclear program in particular on Wednesday.

Trump said Iran has agreed to allow the U.S. to “dig up and remove” the country’s enriched uranium at the site where Operation Midnight Hammer struck last year.

“The United States will work closely with Iran, which we have determined has gone through what will be a very productive Regime Change! There will be no enrichment of Uranium,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“It is now, and has been, under very exacting Satellite Surveillance (Space Force!). Nothing has been touched from the date of attack. We are, and will be, talking Tariff and Sanctions relief with Iran,” Trump wrote.

Even as Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth declares a “historic and decisive victory” against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the U.S. still faces foot soldiers on another front: on America’s streets.

There, a network of pro-communist groups funded by Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech tycoon living in China, supporting the Chinese Communist Party and allies, like Iran, are flying the Iranian flag and declaring “Trump failed in his criminal war against Iran.”

The rapid mobilization and quick narrative pivot illustrate how an interconnected protest infrastructure, spanning pro-communist political groups, pro-Palestinian advocacy networks and far-left activist organizations tied to international propaganda ecosystems, can coordinate demonstrations in U.S. cities within hours in a dynamic that national security experts call cognitive warfare, or a “smokeless war.”

In the nation’s capital Tuesday evening, activists from the professional network of well-funded far-left anti-American groups pulled up to the curb at the corner of 16th Street NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, unloading wagons with megaphones, pre-printed signs and protest-friendly arts-and-craft. Within minutes, they painted their hands blood-red and launched familiar chants, blurring one cause into the next, including a condemnation of “Trump’s war on Iran.”

A few hours later, writers at the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a self-declared pro-China communist group in the Singham network, banged out a missive on their propaganda platform, “Liberation News,” headlined, “Why Trump failed in his criminal war against Iran – and why we need to keep up the pressure.”

The next morning, as Hegseth declared victory over Iran, officials in the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s busy Atlanta chapter issued a call for members to meet at Marietta Street NW and Centennial Olympic Park Drive NW at 5:30 p.m. for a “National Day of Action” against the U.S., declaring the Trump administration “was compelled to temporarily step back from its genocidal threats,” but its members have to “KEEP THE PRESSURE UP!”

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“U.S. out of everywhere!” shouted Olivia DiNucci, a regular on the protest circuit and Washington, D.C., coordinator for CodePink, a theatrical protest group that just sent a “caravan” to Cuba to support the communist party there. DiNucci pressed her hands into the red paint and smeared them across a banner, then raised her paint-covered hands in the air as she stood beside a smiling Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink.

DiNucci moved through the crowd with a wagon, handing out stickers, chatting with demonstrators and pausing with Benjamin to pose for photos.

Nearby, members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation handed out their trademark signs with the group’s brand along the bottom and messages in bold sans-serif font, this time reading, “STOP THE WAR ON IRAN!”

“Free, free Palestine!” shouted members of the Palestinian Youth Movement, as flags of the Islamic Republic of Iran flew overhead, beside Palestinian flags.

“Zionism will fall, brick by brick, wall by wall,” another chant began.

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Nearby, Nadine Seiler, a regular on the protest circuit who sometimes dresses in costumes, including as a pink frog, stood with her spray-painted banner, raising a question about U.S. “war crimes.” Recently, she acknowledged the performative nature of the protests. 

“It is political theater,” she told Fox News Digital, “and we need more of it!”

Experts say scenes like this are not simple expressions of dissent, but part of a broader geopolitical contest played out in cognitive warfare, where adversaries use narratives, imagery and street theater to shape how Americans perceive conflicts unfolding far beyond their borders, even after bombs stop dropping.

In cognitive warfare, experts note, the battlefield isn’t territory, like the Strait of Hormuz, but the public mind, where propaganda, protests, social media messaging and ideological narratives are used to influence how citizens interpret events and pressure governments to change policy. 

In this case, proxies for U.S. adversaries, including Iran and China, are pivoting to declare the ceasefire a “victory” for Iran.

Many of the groups, including CodePink, are part of the broader protest network funded by Singham, who has financed a global constellation of activist groups and media projects promoting narratives sympathetic to the Chinese Communist Party, while depicting the United States as a “fascist” and “rogue” nation.

In 2017, as reported in a Fox News Digital investigation, Singham married a co-founder of CodePink, Jodie Evans, and started pouring a documented $278 million into a network of groups that fuel anti-American protests in the United States, support the People’s Republic of China and now back the Islamic Republic of Iran, a strategic partner of China and a major source of its oil imports. Code Pink has waged a pro-China campaign for years under the slogan “China Is Not Our Enemy.”

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U.S. Justice, State and Treasury officials, the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Oversight Committee are investigating several of these groups for possible violations of federal laws, including statutes that require individuals and groups acting on behalf of foreign interests to register as foreign agents with the Justice Department.

Gordon Chang, an expert on China’s global influence, has warned about an expanding anti-American campaign emanating from China, writing, “Now, the Chinese regime has help funding propaganda and protests in America. After all, it has Singham’s cash and world-spanning network.”

In their call to action, organizers criticized Trump‘s Tuesday night deadline for Iran, writing: “Trump has given a deadline for genocide — either Iran surrender by 8 p.m. ET or the country’s ‘whole civilization will die tonight.’”

They added: “This is the criminal threat of a madman, but a madman who controls the deadly might of the Pentagon war machine.”

Within hours, the same messaging began circulating across the network as additional organizations promoted similar protests nationwide.

Soon afterward, another cluster of organizations, including CodePink, joined forces with the Chicago chapters of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Palestinian Youth Movement, American Muslims for Palestine and Students for Justice, to announce an emergency protest at Federal Plaza in Chicago at 6 p.m. today.

Even as news emerged of the ceasefire, the protests remained scheduled because for these foot soldiers the war continued.

OVERSIGHT DEMANDS DOJ ANSWERS ON FOREIGN FUNDING OF AGITATOR GROUPS AS IRAN, ANTI-ICE PROTESTS CONTINUE

Outside the White House, several self-described communist organizations, including “Refuse Fascism,” the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, were among the crowd at the corner of 16th Street NW, unfurling their banners and unpacking their pre-made signs.

The coalition also included Muslim advocacy organizations such as Emgage Action and the National Iranian American Council, a pro-regime Iranian-American lobbying group.

By 8:02 p.m., the CodePink crew posted a fast film from its protest at the White House with the headline, “PROTESTING US WAR ON IRAN AT THE WHITE HOUSE.”

Minutes later, at 8:09 p.m., the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s D.C. chapter published a hyperbolic message of success, declaring, “TONIGHT: While Trump threatens people with war and genocide abroad, the people of the U.S. call for a total end to endless imperialist wars!”

The political theater accomplished, most of the crowd, including DiNucci, with her hands still painted red, dispersed to ready for today’s “EMERGENCY NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION.”

Sure enough, this morning, on cue, at about 6:53 a.m., allies of the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Florida chapter summoned their foot soldiers to the corner of East Colonial Drive and North Bumby Avenue in Orlando, to support the regime in Iran, issuing an urgent dispatch for “RAPID RESPONSE MASS MOBILIZATIONS.”