BREAKING: Hegseth Chief of Staff Joe Kasper OUT at Pentagon
April 24, 2025
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth/Image: Video screenshot
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Chief of Staff Joe Kasper will leave his position at the Pentagon after three other Hegseth aides were fired last week.
Last week it was reported that Joe Kasper was going to take another job at the Defense Department amid a shakeup at the Pentagon after a probe into leaks.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s controversial chief of staff, who played a central role in a power struggle that gripped the Pentagon, will exit the agency today.
Joe Kasper was originally expected to transition to another role within the Defense Department, but is now planning to go back to government relations and consulting, he said in an interview.
He will continue to support and advise the Pentagon, he said, but as a special government employee. This will limit him to performing temporary jobs for just 130 days a year.
Panama Port Deal Drama Reveals the New Great Game of Ports and Chokepoints
April 24, 2025
After decades of being a forgotten relic of U.S. history, Panama and its canal are front and center as President Donald Trump defines a new era of America First involvement in the world.
At his joint session of Congress on March 4, Trump said, “Just today, a large American company announced they are buying both ports around the Panama Canal and lots of other things having to do with the Panama Canal and a couple of other canals.
“The Panama Canal was built by Americans for Americans, not for others, but others could use it. But it was built at tremendous cost of American blood and treasure.
“Thirty-eight thousand workers died building the Panama Canal. They died of malaria. They died of snake bites and mosquitoes. Not a nice place to work.
“They paid them very highly to go there, knowing there was a 25 percent chance that they would die. The most expensive project, also, that was ever built in our country’s history, if you bring it up to modern-day costs.”
Trump’s closing remarks on the topic explained this administration’s future plans.
“It was given away by the Carter administration for $1, but that agreement has been violated very severely. We didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back,” he said.
BlackRock Makes Port Offer
The company that Trump was referring to was BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, with about $11.5 trillion under management. The timing of the announcement was likely not coincidental.
According to The Wall Street Journal, there was communication and interaction between BlackRock and the Trump administration about the deal; hence, the administration appeared to have some advanced knowledge that a deal was in play.
The current port company with a multi-year concession from Panama to operate container terminals at each end of the canal is CK Hutchison Holdings, which was known as Hutchison Whampoa until 2015. This company traces its roots to Hong Kong in 1863 and was sold to billionaire Li Ka-shing of Hong Kong.
When asked about the planned sale at a news briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, CNN reported that she said, “I would like to emphasize that China has always firmly opposed the use of economic coercion, hegemonism, and bullying to infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of other countries.”
It is interesting that this comment cannot be found in the transcript of the press briefing on the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.
The Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation’s anti-monopoly division stated that they are now reviewing the sale.
“We are aware of the comments made by China,“ U.S. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said. ”It’s also no surprise that the CCP is upset at this acquisition, which will reduce their control over the Panama Canal area.
“We are also glad to see U.S. investors acquire a controlling stake in the Panama Ports Company, which owns and operates the ports at Balboa and Cristóbal at either end of the Panama Canal.”
The New Great Game
It is important to note that the proposed CK Hutchison sale to BlackRock for $22 billion was not only for its two Panama ports but also its worldwide array of ports.
The Epoch Times talked to Ann Vandersteel and Michael Yon, two journalists who have spent extensive time in Panama. The author of this article also spent several days in Panama in late 2023 with these two journalists, conducting a comprehensive survey of the Panama Canal, and did live reporting from the canal for NTD News, the sister media outlet of The Epoch Times.
Vandersteel pointed to her recent article on the port sale drama and noted: “The deal would have given BlackRock operational control over 43 ports in 23 countries, including 199 berths across key maritime chokepoints. This would have instantly wiped out about one-third of the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] global port reach, dealing a colossal blow to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure.”
Yon said the Port of Balboa on the Pacific end of the Panama Canal was at an extremely constrained point on the canal, which is little more than a ship’s length across.
He said that this exact point at the Port of Balboa that Hutchison is under long-term concession to operate “is quite a chokepoint” that could very quickly block the canal if there was a similar incident to the 2024 Baltimore Bridge ship allision or the 2021 Suez Canal incident in which a Taiwanese super-size container ship, the Ever Given, unexplainedly wedged itself in the Suez, totally blocking traffic for six days.
There have been past incidents, Yon noted, such as the 2020 ship collision in the Panama Canal that destroyed the railway bridge across the canal.
All viewpoints are personal and do not reflect the viewpoints of any organization.
This article first appeared in Epoch Times and was reprinted with permission, with minor editorial adjustments for clarity and formatting.
ANOTHER LEAK: Latest Attack ‘Exposes’ Pete Hegseth’s Use of Signal App at Pentagon – Hegseth Spox Responds
April 24, 2025
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth participates in a live virtual interview with “Fox and Friends” from the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. (DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitza)
Another day, another leak.
Anonymous sources have once again leaked information about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the double-encrypted app Signal to the fake news media.
The attacks against Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal began last month after Jeffrey Goldberg, the anti-Trump editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, claimed he was accidentally added to a secure Signal group chat where top Trump administration officials discussed sensitive military operations against Iran-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen.
Three Hegseth aides placed on leave amid a probe into leaks were officially fired last Friday.
Following the terminations, contents of another Signal group chat with Pete Hegseth were leaked to The Wall Street Journal.
And the leaks keep coming.
According to the latest leak to the Washington Post, Pete Hegseth installed Signal on his desktop at the Pentagon as a way to circumvent ‘the lack of cellphone service’ in the Pentagon.
Hegseth’s spox Sean Parnell hit back and told WaPo the Defense Secretary “has never used and does not currently use Signal on his government computer.”
The defense secretary installed the encrypted-but-unclassified messaging app on a desktop computer in his Pentagon office to work around restrictions that prevent him from using personal devices to communicate with people outside headquarters.
Three sources told The Washington Post that Hegseth effectively “cloned” the Signal app from his personal phone, following a discussion with his aides about how they could circumvent the lack of cellphone service in most parts of the Pentagon so that they could coordinate with the White House and other Trump officials quicker.
Hegseth also reportedly had Signal installed on a second computer in his Pentagon office, and expressed an interest in installing a program that would allow him to send conventional texts from his perch.
Other Hegseth aides, including his recently-resigned chief of staff Joe Kasper, were also keen on using Signal on Pentagon computers, though The Post’s sources were unclear on how widespread the practice became across Hegseth’s team.
Hegseth spokesperson Sean Parnell said the defense secretary “has never used and does not currently use Signal on his government computer.”
On Tuesday, additional information on Hegseth’s Signal chat group was leaked to NBC News after Hegseth attacked the leakers while attending the White House Easter Egg Roll earlier this week.
According to the leak, the information Hegseth shared in the Signal chat group came from a top general who leads US Central Command.
Army Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla sent Hegseth the ‘sensitive’ information over secure system. According to the latest leak, Hegseth shared some of the information in the Signal chat group.
Hegseth went on Fox & Friends on Tuesday and attacked the leakers.
“I’m here because President Trump asked me to bring war-fighting back to the Pentagon every single day,” Hegseth said on Fox & Friends on Tuesday.
“If people don’t like it, come after me, no worries. I’m standing here, the warfighters are behind us, our enemies know they’re on notice, our allies know we are behind them, and that in this dangerous world, for the American people, is what it is all about.”
“What was shared over Signal, then and now, however you characterize it, was informal, unclassified coordinations for media coordination, other things. That’s what I’ve said from the beginning,” Hegseth said.
WATCH:
MUST WATCH: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth IS ON FIRE
“I’m here because President Trump asked me to bring war-fighting back to the Pentagon every single day.
If people don’t like it, come after me, no worries. I’m standing here, the WARFIGHTERS are behind us, our enemies… pic.twitter.com/AN5WaSwExc
DESPICABLE: Deranged Leftist Thug Violently Assaults and Spits On TPUSA Student Activist Just Before Event at a Pennsylvania College
April 24, 2025
Pictured: Left-wing suspect on left/ Conservative victim on right. Credit: Charlie Kirk X
The greatest threat America faces is from radical leftists within our nation determined to shut down conservatives by any means necessary. Just ask a young right-wing activist who was viciously assaulted at a Turning Point USA event at a Pennsylvania college today.
TPUSA founder and executive director Charlie Kirk revealed that just before an event featuring conservative activist Chloe Cole at West Chester University, an unnamed lunatic assaulted a TPUSA chapter leader. Kirk revealed that the leftist ran up to the young man, spat on him, and then slugged him multiple times in the face.
Campus police quickly chased after the thug and were able to apprehend him.
While video footage of the assault was not captured, the police running after the perp and then arresting him was.
WATCH:
BREAKING: One of our chapter leaders at West Chester University was just assaulted on campus in advance of an event featuring Chloe Cole.
The individual ran up to him, spit on him, and then punched him multiple times in the face.
Kirk said the innocent student leader is okay following the attack and will be pressing charges against his tormentor. He also urged Americans to pray for the TPUSA students and to reach out to them.
This is far from the first attack targeting conservative college students on campus. As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, a transgender loon beat the tar out of a female TPUSA Chapter President with a bike lock at the University of Texas at Dallas last month.
The attacker was later identified as Liam Thanh Tam Nguyen—an Asian male who reportedly goes by the alias “Alyssa.” Nguyen now faces a laundry list of charges that expose the true nature of this deranged individual.
Earlier this month, masked Antifa vandals violently attacked TPUSA staff at a tabling event at UC Davis on Thursday while police did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING as the students were beaten to a pulp.
Wounded Veteran Asks President to Sign his Prosthetic Leg, When Trump Asks Him What One of His Stickers Says, the Oval Office Fills with Laughter (Video)
April 24, 2025
Image: @RapidResponse47/X
Wounded veterans visited President Donald Trump in the Oval Office and an funny incident had those in attendence in hysterics.
The President meets with the veterans for the signing of Executive Orders signings.
Trump told the group, “There’s no group of people more important than the people in this room… and they’re going to be taken really well cared of — It’s really important to me.”
Trump was asked to sign one of the men’s prosthetic leg, when a sticker caught his eye.
He asked, “Who’s that picture?”
The veteran answered, “That is Joe Biden — and it says ‘Let’s Go Brandon.’”
The room erupted in laughter.
President Trump took out his pen to sign over the image, saying, “I can’t stand this guy. You know why? Because he did a rotten job. He should have never been president.”
After he signed it, he quipped, “With this pen, it will never, ever, come off.”
“I put it right over his mouth, which he didn’t use very much.”
When a wounded vet asked Trump to sign
his prosthetic leg… he didn’t just sign it. He sealed it — right over a ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ sticker. ‘That’s never coming off.’
GOD BLESS OUR MILITARY
GOD BLESS PRESIDENT TRUMP pic.twitter.com/JQB6ViJFM6
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