Badlands Brief
Illegal Psychological Warfare Campaigns & Misprision of Treason
The Badlands Brief is your daily drop of Badlands’ takes on the narratives dominating the info war. Read on, and join the conversation in the comments section.
The Intelligence Community Withheld Foreign Threat Intelligence to Mislead the President of the United States
The White House launched a new election integrity portal Thursday, containing declassified intelligence assessments, investigative materials, and other documents related to election security, voter registration, and foreign threats.
The documents reveal that Intelligence Community officials knew of significant vulnerabilities in electronic voting infrastructure, foreign cyber capabilities targeting election systems, blackmail schemes, and more; but intelligence agencies hid the information from both President Trump and the People.
Among the released materials are documents concerning China’s acquisition of large amounts of US voter data, alleged foreign cyber threats to election infrastructure, and FBI materials relating to a Michigan voter-registration investigation.
President Trump announced the declassification effort during his much-anticipated televised address, which network television refused to air. The President argued the documents demonstrate a broader pattern of intelligence suppression surrounding election security issues.
Administration officials, including previous statements from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence under Tulsi Gabbard, have separately alleged that prior Intelligence Community processes were influenced by politicized or flawed intelligence products in other matters, including the 2019 impeachment inquiry and earlier intelligence assessments.
Critics dispute the White House’s interpretation, arguing the released material does not establish that foreign actors altered vote totals or changed the outcome of the 2020 election.
Ashe in America: The Prime Time presidential address likely felt like reruns for this audience, but I’m extremely encouraged. And Jon is posting findings from his document review to his socials:
Jon’s summation from his first glance: “Here is some of the intelligence the CIA had detailing how China tried to defeat President Trump: Paid U.S. journalists to write more negative stories about President Trump. (WE NEED NAMES); Inflicted negative financial consequences against states who voted for President Trump by levying tariffs on exports to China; Invited all sorts of people with all expense paid trips to China to get them ‘hooked on China’ so they could later hit them ‘in the wallet’ to force them to talk with President Trump about tariffs; Applied pressure to financial supporters of President Trump’s re-election campaign.”
As I said on stream last night, the Chinese influence on the business community was new information to me, and it instantly reminded me of this:
“A second odd thing happened amid Trump’s attempts to reverse the result: corporate America turned on him. Hundreds of major business leaders, many of whom had backed Trump’s candidacy and supported his policies, called on him to concede. To the President, something felt amiss.' ‘It was all very, very strange,’ Trump said on Dec. 2. ‘Within days after the election, we witnessed an orchestrated effort to anoint the winner, even while many key states were still being counted.’ In a way, Trump was right.”
Molly Ball and TIME want you to believe the public-private campaign after 2020 — the narratives and networks and corporations and NGOs and government officials — was virtuous and just, and that it was natural and organic in how it came to be.
It wasn’t.
“Come to China Town!”
What are the implications of the IC withholding foreign threat information from the President of the United States, during a hyper-political global crisis that the President described as worse than Pearl Harbor and 9/11, and involving that same foreign threat?
The record is thick.
And, as the President said, “The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action.”
We can’t have real elections until there is honesty and accountability for how fake they’ve been. And they’ve been very, very fake.
Accelerate.
Trump Admin Accuses Netanyahu of Trying to “Will” Meeting With Trump Into Existence
Reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would visit Washington next week for a meeting with President Trump ran into confusion after senior White House officials told Axios no such meeting had been scheduled. One official described Israeli reports as an apparent effort to “will the meeting into existence.”
According to Axios, Netanyahu has sought a meeting with Trump for more than two weeks, a departure from the quick access he enjoyed earlier this year. The uncertainty comes amid reported policy disagreements over Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and proposed US arms sales to Turkey.
Netanyahu’s office later canceled the planned Washington trip, citing changes to Senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral schedule. The White House has not announced any rescheduled meeting between the two leaders.
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: The world is finally catching up to what we have been discussing in this News Brief for the past several years: That President Trump and Netanyahu’s friendship is a charade, and that Trump has been baiting Netanyahu into a position that he cannot defend.
Bibi’s subversion against Trump became clear last week, when he went on Fox News the day before Trump was set to fly to Turkey for the NATO Summit, and rebuked Trump’s decision to sell Turkey F-35 fighter jets.
According to Barak Ravid’s White House sources, Trump was “pissed off” that Netanyahu had weighed in on the issue. It seems that a line was crossed, and now Netanyahu has lost his clout with the White House.
And that leads us to a replay of something that happened last year, when Netanyahu visited the UN General Assembly in NYC. He seemed to publicly invite himself to the White House, declaring that the Israeli delegation would visit the White House during the trip.
It was a crafty move by Bibi, but he was humiliated when Trump subsequently announced that Turkish President Erdogan would visit the White House the day before Netanyahu was scheduled to address the General Assembly.
Trump rolled out the red carpet for Erdogan, a move that was reciprocated when Trump visited Turkey last week. It was a stark contrast to the treatment Netanyahu received when he arrived at the White House the following Monday. There was no band. No diplomats. Not even a color guard present. Instead, Trump humiliated Bibi by signing a nuclear trade deal with Turkey the day before Bibi spoke at the UN, and then announcing during Netanyahu’s visit a major breakthrough in the Israel-Palestine process, unveiling the 20-point Gaza Peace Plan.
I suspected at the time that Netanyahu had effectively invited himself to the White House, with the supporting evidence being that no announcement of a meeting with Bibi was announce until Israel published it.
Frankly, it felt very subversive and dishonest to do that to President Trump. Bibi did get his meeting, but at a price.
Now Bibi has attempted to pull that same stunt again, except this time it didn’t pan out so well. The White House staff made sure that the press knew of his second attempt to force a meeting, while claiming that no such meeting ever existed on POTUS’s schedule.
The question now remains: what happens next?
Rubio, Miller and Bessent Signal Action Phase on Subversive Marxist and Communist Ideology
Secretary of State Marco Rubio convened officials from more than 65 countries in Washington launched a new international initiative focused on combating transnational far-left political terrorism. The Trump administration alleges that violent left-wing extremist networks have become a growing global security threat, and they announced plans to expand international cooperation, terrorist designations, sanctions, and visa restrictions.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said the administration is entering an “action phase” that will pair diplomatic, law enforcement, and financial tools to target organizations that use violence or intimidation to advance political objectives. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Treasury will intensify efforts to investigate and disrupt funding networks supporting such groups.
Administration officials said the initiative targets violent transnational organizations rather than lawful political activity. Critics argue the administration risks conflating extremist violence with broader political movements, while the White House maintains the focus is on groups engaged in criminal or terrorist conduct.
Burning Bright: Well, this one served as a nice little appetizer to Donald Trump’s address to the nation on Thursday night, and I’m writing this take before we know the full substance and tenor of Trump’s speech.
Three of the more interesting members of the Trump administration on Thursday addressed a delegation representing more than 65 countries on the rise of far-left terrorism, which made up the bulk of the headlines, but I believe such partisan framing ignores the deeper reality the men and the administration are clearly in the midst of simultaneously combatting and disclosing in real time.
This audience knows full well that infiltration is the preferred method of asymmetric warfare being launched at the United States, since we are as a republic essentially impervious to defeat on the conventional battlefield.
And while this subversion has been most effective and widespread on the left side of the ledger, this audience also knows such infiltration has been ubiquitous within the American government and society writ large, from the proliferation and siloing of non-governmental organizations to the fomenting of anti-American rhetoric and policy within the Judicial and Legislative branches themselves, which is to say nothing of the fact that we’ve very likely suffered under the yoke of communist manchurian candidates occupying the highest office in the land for the bulk of the current century, with only a pair of Trumpian reprieves in the interim.
As such, while much of the commentary will and probably should be dedicated to the Trump administration’s stance on the US election system, it is important to follow the signal Marco Rubio, Scott Bessent and Stephen Miller are putting out regarding the foundational bedrock of the insurgency, and make no mistake, it IS an insurgency.
Fixing the election system is a MUST for the future of our republic, but rooting out, exposing and then punishing (very publicly) the cultivation of the very anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-human philosophies and governing principles we have been warring against is the true endgame.
The wars on election fraud and foreign interference and the war on the terrestrial Marxist, Communist Deep State are not separate.
They are twin fronts of the same existential conflict.
One that appears set to enter a new phase in the second half of 2026, and one that should be a LOT of fun to watch unfold, and to help along wherever we can.
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Ukrainian Parliament Approves New Prime Minister Amid Government Reshuffle
Ukraine’s parliament voted 289-22 to confirm former Naftogaz CEO Sergii Koretskyi as prime minister, replacing Yulia Svyrydenko as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reshapes his wartime government. Zelenskyy said Koretskyi’s experience in the energy sector made him the best choice as Ukraine prepares for another winter under continued Russian attacks.
Russian outlet RT and some Ukrainian critics have highlighted reports linking businessman Timur Mindich — sometimes described by critics as being close to Zelenskyy — to members of the new government. Those allegations have circulated in political commentary but have not been substantiated by evidence presented by the Ukrainian government or Reuters’ reporting on the cabinet changes.
The reshuffle also includes planned changes at the Defense Ministry and other senior posts. Zelenskyy has described the overhaul as a leadership “renewal,” while opposition lawmakers have questioned the purpose of replacing officials without broader structural reforms.
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: The sub-heading really tells the full story:
Israel, huh? You don’t say?
The connections at this point between the Israeli elite and the Ukrainian elite are overwhelming. There is clearly a transnational cartel that is laundering money from Congress into Ukraine, using the war with Russia as the cover, then fleeing to Israel for sanctuary when they are caught.
Timur Mindich is allegedly connected to Fire Point, the now notorious drone company that once produced drones for scouting filming locations but now produces them for warfare.
Mindich is also a co-owner of Kvartal 95 Studio, the film production company started by Zelensky in 2003, and responsible for producing the television show Servant of the People, in which Zelensky starred as the lead character: a high school history teacher who ran for president of Ukraine and won.
According to disgraced oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, Mindich is also the former fiancé of Kolomoisky’s daughter.
What is notable in this situation is that it was the Parliament that appointed this guy as PM, not Zelensky.
Why would Mindich flee the country if he is Zelensky’s guy? Why doesn’t he feel safe in Ukraine? Why is Israel protecting him?
At what point will Israel be held accountable for harboring pedophiles and other sinister criminals?
Former Obama White House Counsel Questioned Over Epstein Relationship in House Oversight Probe
House lawmakers from both parties pressed former Obama White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler on Wednesday over her years-long relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, challenging her claim that the association was limited during a closed-door Oversight Committee interview.
The questioning came after Justice Department emails showed Ruemmler met with Epstein several times and exchanged emails and gifts years after his 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor. The records indicate the relationship began in 2014 while she was a partner at Latham & Watkins and continued through 2019. Ruemmler recently resigned as Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer amid scrutiny over the relationship.
Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said the communications suggested Ruemmler tried to rehabilitate Epstein’s public image after his conviction, while Ranking Member Robert Garcia, D-Calif., questioned the credibility of her testimony and said she failed to explain why she maintained the relationship.
Ashe in America: Glad to see another Epstein associate is getting grilled, but this part of this story caught my eye:
“She knew that this wasn’t a man of good character, certainly, and someone who is a sex offender and registered as such,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va told Fox News Digital. “But she saw dollar signs, and she decided that she would overlook all that because he was rich and powerful.” [Fox Digital]
At the risk of sounding like I’m defending Jeffrey Epstein — which I categorically am not — why is knowingly associating with a man that she “knew wasn’t a man of good character” any business of a Virginian Congressman? That dude’s quotes to Fox are super triggering. It’s like he’s never read the first amendment.
To be clear, Epstein, his network, his alleged crimes — all terrible. I completely condemn them. Those people broke the world and then monetized its demise.
But we cannot allow the government to regulate with whom we can or cannot associate. This social shaming of Ruemmler might be a test to see where the people currently are with this level of government overreach. As someone that is currently, literally, defending my freedom of association in federal court, please recognize that this should be a red line.
“Ranking Member Robert Garcia, D-Calif., questioned the credibility of her testimony and said she failed to explain why she maintained the relationship.”
Are we all cool with guilt by association now?
Law enforcement should roll up every single person that allegedly helped Epstein hurt kids, and prosecutors should secure convictions that stick… Congress people violating protected rights to make campaign ads are another matter entirely.
BONUS ITEM
Trump Administration Imposes 25% Tariff On Certain Brazilian Goods Over Trade Disputes
The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it is imposing a 25% tariff on certain imports from Brazil following a yearlong investigation into unfair trade practices.
US Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer said the action was taken at President Trump’s direction under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 after officials determined that several Brazilian policies were harming American businesses, workers, and farmers.
The investigation examined Brazil’s policies involving digital trade, electronic payment services, preferential tariffs, anti-corruption enforcement, intellectual property protections, ethanol market access, and illegal deforestation.
In June, USTR determined that certain Brazilian practices were unreasonable and restricted US commerce, leading officials to propose tariff action. The agency later reviewed more than 360 public comments and held a July hearing where 77 witnesses testified before finalizing the tariffs.
Greer said the tariffs are part of the administration’s “America First” trade policies, arguing that Brazil’s practices have limited American access to a market of more than 210 million consumers. The US said it spent months negotiating with Brazilian officials, including formal consultations in April, but the disputes remained unresolved. [Read the USTR Press Release]
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As a persecuted, convicted and pardoned J6er, who was sent to Federal prison for a single, bogus misdemeanor charge, I pray that all involved in the theft of a duly elected President, are given every Right, unlike us J6ers, to a fair and speedy trial and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Constitution. God Bless our Republic and God Bless PDJT!❤️🇺🇸💪🏻
It was very disappointing last night after the speech to hear a Fox Radio commentator practically falling over himself to defend everything from non-citizen voting to inaccurate registration rolls. With zealots on one side defending the crooks, and zealots on the other demanding shortcuts to the justice system, our best hope - and we've seen it demonstrated repeatedly - is in God.
"𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘴,
𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘎𝘰𝘥." [Psalm 20:7]