Badlands Brief
13 Germans, A Seized Smartwatch, & An American Tithe's Worth of Fraud
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.
Bessent Says 10% of US Budget Lost to Fraud
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that roughly 10% of the US federal budget is lost to fraud, during a recent interview with Chris Rufo during a discussion about the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its status.
According to the DOGE Website, which Jon Herold tracks every day on The Daily Herold, DOGE has delivered $215B in estimated savings, through a “a combination of asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions.”
In a post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump commented publicly on DOGE and government efficiency efforts. The post did not announce the dissolution of DOGE or formally end the initiative.
“Does anybody believe that in Minneapolis, these are the Food Stamp Businesses? There’s no Food, there’s no cleanliness, there’s no service, there’s no nothing, except FRAUD. They get sent Millions of Dollars of Taxpayer Money, and laugh at how STUPID the Americans are, but not anymore. These people should be sent back to Somalia, or any other Country from where they came. California, Illinois, New York, and so many other places are equally as bad. It’s all a giant Democrat SCAM, with protection from the Fake News Media but, it will end, as we, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Burning Bright: The reports of the Department of Government Efficiency’s demise—like so many premature obituaries penned by the collapsing System of Systems and repeated by black pill addicts in this endless War of Stories—have been greatly exaggerated.
What the Collective Mind briefly perceived as a scaling back, a dilution or even a quiet burial of the DOGE deployment in the turbulent transition from 2025 to 2026 was never a retreat, but rather a deliberate Narrative pivot: a translation layer carefully overlaid upon silent Actual rails, where the true excision work continued apace while the American people were seeded with the psychological catalysts required to awaken, rage and ultimately demand the full harvest we’re rapidly approaching.
From the very inception of the Trump 2.0 era, some of us asserted that DOGE was never destined to be a bureaucratic deployment, but a dual-front mission statement that runs along Actual and Narrative rails.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week signaled the launch of comprehensive probes into dark-money NGOs, framing it explicitly as a mafia-style “follow the money” operation (direct language employed by Trump the same week) amid rising color revolution threats.
He disclosed estimates that 10% of the entire federal budget (that’s our cash) has been lost annually to fraud—trillions cumulatively—while pledging accelerated whistleblower (read: disclosure) pipelines and the nationwide expansion of the Minnesota-seeded investigations, which is being mirrored in Trump’s own statements and actuals, such as his move to cut off funding to sanctuary (read: traitorous) cities and states.
This is not reactive policy, but harvested mandate in motion, with public fury transmuted into administrative will, accelerating the reclamation on the scale DOGE always envisioned.
To wit, while the surface Narrative briefly suggested DOGE had been sidelined, ongoing disclosures tell a different story.
In just one recent five-day surge, federal agencies—under DOGE coordination—terminated or descoped 42 contracts totaling $1.5 billion in ceiling value, yielding hundreds of millions in immediate savings as part of a broader $215 billion reportedly reclaimed to date.
That seems like small potatoes in light of the true scope of the waste, fraud and abuse, but what happens when the 2026 acceleration reaches escape velocity?
Renewed calls to supercharge DOGE’s mandate are now rising ‘organically,’ perfectly timed as the American people awaken to the true scale of the theft this community has known about for seeming ages.
And it’s all capped off by the resurfacing of a translation layer I first projected in 2023, and that I had no fear we had lost on the back of its Kayfabian turn in 2025.
The Trump-Musk ‘feud’—punctuated by public resignations, pointed posts and short-lived distance—was always a Narrative Pincer: designed to provoke enemy overreach, seed controlled tension and ultimately amplify the deployment that defined their convergence in the first place with the added power of the aforementioned Reverse Hegelian Dialectic amidst the catharsis of performative reconciliation.
This re-convergence is now unfolding in plain sight: Mar-a-Lago dinners, viral photo ops, Elon’s declaration of a “lovely evening” with POTUS and FLOTUS, capped by his proclamation that “2026 is going to be amazing.”
Almost like it was planned that way.
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FBI Raids Home of Washington Post Reporter in Classified Leak Investigation
On January 14, 2026, FBI agents executed a search warrant at the Virginia home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, seizing her phone, two laptops (one personal, one Post-issued), and a smartwatch.
The action was part of a federal investigation into a Pentagon contractor, identified in court documents as Aurelio Perez-Lugones, who is accused of unlawfully retaining classified national defense information—including allegedly taking home and printing sensitive intelligence. Authorities say that classified information appeared in communications between Natanson and the contractor.
Attorney General Pam Bondi (Trump administration) said the raid was done at the Pentagon’s request and stressed a zero-tolerance approach to leaks of classified info, claiming the individual suspected of the leak is “behind bars.” FBI Director Kash Patel echoed the national security rationale on social media.
Press freedom groups and journalists have widely condemned the search as “highly unusual,” “aggressive,” and a potential threat to press freedom, arguing it could chill investigative journalism and undermine First Amendment protections.
The Washington Post editorial board framed the raid as a serious threat to constitutional press protections and emphasized the ongoing importance of robust reporting despite government pressure.
Ashe in America: I don’t love this. I place First Amendment freedoms at the top of the list of rights to protect, so violating the rights and protections of journalists for “national security” is something to which I am genuinely and vehemently opposed.
Often, during this transformation program and ostensible justice phase, I wonder about the oath of office.
“...all enemies, foreign and domestic…”
It doesn’t say, “all enemies, foreign and domestic, unless they’re holding press credentials in which case there is nothing you can do, really, and you have to let them undermine the nation for foreign (or domestic) nefarious agendas…”
It doesn’t say that, but that’s what we’ve been conditioned to believe is the law and standard for journalists.
That’s very silly. No one is above the law.
The constitution says “all enemies.”
Legally, “all means all,” and I was reminded of this yesterday during the Tina Peters Oral Arguments when one of the judges rejected the State’s argument that destroying election records was okay as long as you have a backup of the records somewhere.
“All means all.”
All, in statute, means all.
It’s true for records. And it’s true for enemies.
I will have a detailed take on Tina Peters’ hearing in tomorrow’s Brief – there is a lot there – but I’m joining Jon Herold today on The Daily Herold at 1pET. Tune in, and learn more between now and then on CannCon’s X feed.
Witkoff Says Phase Two of Trump’s Gaza Plan Has Begun
Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff announced the start of Phase Two of a Gaza ceasefire framework, according to regional media reporting.
“Today, on behalf of President Trump, we are announcing the launch of Phase Two of the President’s 20-Point Plan to End the Gaza Conflict, moving from ceasefire to demilitarization, technocratic governance, and reconstruction.”
The announcement followed days of heightened regional tension and diplomatic activity involving Israel, Iran, and the United States. Amid that backdrop, Iran temporarily closed its airspace for approximately five hours before reopening it, according to Israeli media. Iranian authorities did not publicly provide details on the reason for the closure.
Reports circulated in regional and Russian state media citing unnamed sources who claimed that a US military strike on Iran was imminent, though no such action occurred. The US government did not announce any military operation against Iran, and no official confirmation of an impending strike was issued. President Donald Trump publicly questioned whether Reza Pahlavi could unify opposition support inside Iran, according to Reuters.
“He seems very nice, but I don’t know how he’d play within his own country,” Trump said. “And we really aren’t up to that point yet… I don’t know whether or not his country would accept his leadership, and certainly if they would, that would be fine with me.”
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: So after spending months teasing a war with Venezuela, only to rugpull it, President Trump has spent the past week escalating the narrative of an impending war with Iran.
And despite the countless times that Trump has rugpulled a kinetic conflict he promised to deliver, people continue to get themselves all hot and bothered, excited for when the violence begins.
Here is the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, telling Bret Baier that operatives masquerading protesters are shooting people in order to provoke the US into getting involved.
And before you jump down my throat and accuse me of taking the word of a super scary terrorist leader (Araghchi and President Pezeshkian are actually considered moderates and represent a major shift away from the zealotry of the Ayatollah), here is a video of President making a similar assertion.
The we got a bunch of signals that made it appear as if kinetic action was imminent. The US withdrew personnel from the Al Udeid Air Base, and Iran closed its airspace—only to reopen it five hours later.
President Trump then threw cold water on the NeoCons’ blood orgy, as they shrieked for war like a bunch of demons in heat. (Many MAGA personalities were also caught indulging their bloodlust, and they should all be deeply ashamed of surrendering their hearts to Satan.)
And just like with Maria Hakuna Matata, President Trump dismissed the idea of installing Deep-State-darling Reza Pahlavi as the leader of Iran.
(Oh boy, are the Zionists angry with Trump right now.)
To be clear: There isn’t going to be a war. President Trump always said on the campaign trail in 2016 that he will never telegraph his actual war plans to public in advance, so any time you see him saying such things, understand that it is mere posturing.
Furthermore, advocating for unprovoked violence against any civilian population–which is what “regime change” requires–is the essence of evil. There are no exceptions to this rule, despite what the millionaire televangelists and pastors may tell you. Those who invoke the name of Christ for the purpose of killing innocents is an agent of Satan, witting or unwitting.
It appears that the whole Iran narrative was a distraction op to take attention away from Gaza, as the Arabs and Steve Witkoff finalized the plan to implement Phase Two of the 20-Point Peace Plan. Witkoff credits Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey for getting the plan finalized with all the necessary particulars.
Phase Two is the critical step, as it is when the Arabs take control of Gaza from the IDF, per the terms of the agreement. This is the moment that I would expect the Israelis to do something reckless, especially considering that most (if not all) of the Israeli political establishment are hellbent against allowing Turkey or Qatar to maintain a leadership role in the International Stabilization Force. But President Trump has made it clear that he specifically wants Turkey and Qatar involved–both of which having recently demonstrated an intimate friendship with the President.
Qatar triggers Israel because it is currently at the center of a massive internal political scandal inside Israel concerning the funding of Hamas leading up to October 7th and to what extent the Netanyahu regime was involved.
Turkey triggers Israel because the two countries have spent the past two and a half years exchanging public threats, with each side making dubious inferences about sending special forces to either capture or kill the other country’s leader. Turkey is also a key member of NATO, meaning that if the IDF does fuck around, they will most certainly find out by triggering Article 5 and finding themselves at war with the entire European continent, as well as the United States.
Accelerate.
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Trump Renews Greenland Remarks; Vance Holds Talks With Denmark
President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social stating that US control of Greenland is necessary for American national security.
Following those remarks, JD Vance met with Danish officials in Washington. According to reports, Greenland was discussed, and Danish officials reiterated that Greenland is not for sale. They’ve also claimed in recent days that they want to remain with Denmark. The territory’s status is determined officially by Denmark; Denmark refers to Greenland’s self-governing authorities.
Denmark is reportedly sending military resources into Greenland as tensions continue to escalate.
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: Things are really getting memetic. First, President Trump posted this to his Truth Social page.
Then the White House posted this to their X account.
The meme is a play on something President Trump said the other day, when that ragin’ Cajun governor from Louisiana came to visit the White House, and Trump said that Greenland was being defended by “two dog sleds.”
The Danes and Greenlanders came to the White House to meet with the emissaries of the Great Pirate King, Donald J Trump.
The meeting obviously did not go well for the Scandinavians, as the Danish Foreign Minister said in the post-game press conference, “It’s clear the president has a wish to conquer Greenland.”
Kek.
The day before the meeting, President Trump revealed a new reason to acquire Greenland: to serve as a strategic outpost for the Golden Dome missile defense array. While I don’t find that to be a realistic priority, assuming the Sovereign Alliance is real and the Golden Age is at hand, I do see the value in deploying that argument to the gaggles of bloodthirsty NeoCons who occupy the inner sanctums of the hellscape known as Washington DC.
Last night the story broke that Denmark (and potentially other European NATO allies) is sending troops to Greenland to shore up its defenses.
President Trump applauded the move, and now I see the game he is playing. He’s using the threat of Russia and China to get NATO to divert resources away from Eastern Europe (Ukraine) and to Greenland, where they will be utterly useless.
NATO is already running on fumes, as Germany announces the highest number of commercial bankruptcies in over a decade.
These bankruptcies are in key sectors (transportation, storage, hospitality, construction) that signal that the German economy could be entering a severe recession. The fact that the price of natural gas went up 74% from 2022 to 2025 would indicate that they are in a severe recession, which means that Germany is not winning any wars anytime soon, which means Europe as a continental military is not winning any war anytime soon. Without the German economy, Europe is basically a tourism economy, which would put it on par with much of the third world.
Trump-a-Mania is bringing the globalist political establishment to its knees, as they have no idea how to counter or even engage with the cult of personality that The Donald represents.
***
Ashe in America: As I was pulling facts on this conflict, I was struck by the power projection of an America-less NATO. It’s not great. NATO is preparing for war with the US and sending…
**checks notes**
13 Germans for reconnaissance, two Norwegians, one Brit, and an unknown number of Swedes.
I feel like every local Badlander group would be competitive in this contest…
The French also announced that they’re sending some “units” for “Operation Arctic Endurance.” Finland, Canada, and the Netherlands are also considering sending some… something. They seem like they’re waiting to see which way this thing goes.
Of course the French would name their Alamo something globalist. I am instantly reminded of “Operation Enduring Freedom.”
Endurance is an interesting word. Sounds like it’s going to take a while and cost a lot. Many such cases.
BONUS ITEMS
Feds Move to Disrupt Networks Interfering With ICE in Minnesota
President Trump released a statement on Truth Social Tuesday, saying: “FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched a large-scale deployment of federal agents to Minneapolis and St. Paul in early January 2026, deploying approximately 2,000 federal agents from ICE, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) under an operation dubbed “Operation Metro Surge.”
President Trump ordered an additional 1,000 CBP agents to deploy to the Twin cities, potentially bringing the total to approximately 3,000 federal personnel there to conduct immigration enforcement operations amidst the violent left-wing insurgency.
White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller appeared on Fox News’ Will Cain Show, Tuesday evening and addressed the officers directly:
“You have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties. Anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to stop you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony…You have immunity to perform your duties, and no one—no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist—can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties. The Department of Justice has made clear that if officials cross that line into obstruction, into criminal conspiracy against the United States or against ICE officers, then they will face justice.”
Senate Blocks Venezuela War Powers Resolution After Vance Casts Tie-Breaking Vote
The US Senate blocked a bipartisan war powers resolution that would have required President Donald Trump to obtain congressional approval before further military action in or against Venezuela. The measure, led by Sen. Tim Kaine, advanced on January 8, 2026, by a 52–47 procedural vote with support from several Republicans.
On January 14, 2026, the Senate voted 51–50 to block the resolution, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. Senators Josh Hawley and Todd Young voted against the measure after previously supporting its advancement. The resolution did not become law. Democrats decried the outcome.
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WOW another "nothing is happening" day here in Trump-A-Mania land :-) Thanks for sharing.
My wife and I are off to Portland, OR for the weekend to visit our 1 yr old granddaughter today. Praying our travel goes smoothly and Portland behaves.
God Wins!
God Bless!!!
Interesting to tie the 10% fraud thing to the prescribed rate for tithing. I suspect that many Americans, our family included, have not always given as much to local charitable organizations because we were told that our tax dollars were going to numerous aid programs worldwide. Now that we know better, imagine what might happen with our charity (which also means the gift of love) if we no longer had to pay taxes. Money NOT going for harm and fear but ACTUALLY going for help and love. EXPONENTIAL