Hegseth is CRIPPLING Ukraine's defense

Ukraine is running low on Patriot interceptors, and the Trump administration is sitting on the ones its allies already paid for.

The Washington Post reported Monday that the administration still hasn’t approved Patriot transfers to Ukraine from friendly countries. Some of them need sign-off from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, because the U.S. makes the missiles and decides who gets them.

Officials said Hegseth hasn’t rejected the transfers. He just hasn’t finished approving them. A Ukrainian official said last week that “only a few” interceptors are left.

Zelensky met Monday with a bipartisan group of senators led by Republican Thom Tillis and Democrat Richard Blumenthal. He told them Hegseth isn’t signing off on Patriots and other air-defense missiles that NATO countries have already bought.

Tillis came out of it furious. “I want to know who in the government is saying no to those transfers,” he said. “This is not even taking it from our inventories.”

“Whoever that person is has the blood on their hands.”

At the White House the same day, Trump said Zelensky “doesn’t know what he’s talking about” and that it was “time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine.”

“We’ve given a lot to Ukraine. They’ve given nothing to us. Remember that!” he said.

Meanwhile, the Polish foreign minister told Al-Jazeera that “since January of last year, the U.S. has not contributed a single cent to the defense of Ukraine.”

Overnight, Russia hit Ukraine with ballistic missiles. Zelensky said there was “no warning from our partners.”

The missiles are paid for. All they need is a signature from Pete Hegseth.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll out Monday put Trump’s approval at 31%, the lowest of his career.

Nate Silver raised Democrats’ odds of winning the Senate to 75%, moving the race from “Lean D” to “Likely D.”

An NBC News poll found 71% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track, the highest share of his second term.

And over on Fox News, Brit Hume had seen enough. “The president has been out campaigning vigorously, but I’m not sure it’s making any difference,” he said.

“I don’t see this White House and this campaigning by the president as having made much headway so far.”

It’s showing. In deep red Kansais last night, Trump told the crowd to “pretend” he’s on the ballot when the first protester cut him off.

At least five more followed. One yelled, “I f***ing hate you!”

Trump called them “paid protesters.”

JD Vance got his own heckler in Hendersonville, North Carolina, the same night, shouting “Release the Epstein files!” Vance tried to turn it into a joke.

Before Michigan’s August Senate primary, social feeds filled up with “man on the street” videos of voters praising Rep. Haley Stevens.

A lot of them didn’t come from Michigan.

The New York Times reported Monday that at least three dozen pro-Stevens videos came from accounts based mostly in India, according to disinformation-tracking groups. Posters were paid $1 to $5 per 1,000 views, and the videos were passed off as organic. Together they reached millions of people.

Who paid for them is still unclear.

This isn’t the first time. Back in July, MS NOW reported a secret paid influencer campaign boosting Stevens. Her campaign said it wasn’t involved.

Abdul El-Sayed won the primary anyway, and Stevens has since endorsed him.

We’d like to know who was paying accounts in India to tell Michigan how to vote. We suspect Michigan would too.

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Christiane Amanpour announced Monday she’s leaving CNN. She’ll cut her show to once a week early next year and leave for good at the end of June.

“I have decided to separate from CNN, my partner of 43 fantastic years!” she wrote. CNN chief Mark Thompson called her “one of the most trusted and beloved journalists anywhere.”

Earlier this month, Trump ally David Ellison’s Paramount took over Warner Bros. Discovery, putting CNN under the same owner as CBS News.

Back in May, Amanpour said she was “concerned” about CNN’s future, “based on what’s happened to the other things that he’s taken over already like CBS News.”

She has company. Judd Apatow said Monday that under Ellison, “the idea of doing political satire, for the most part, is gone.”

“Always be truthful, not neutral,” she reminded everyone.

“Remember: always be truthful, not neutral.”

We couldn’t have said it better.

On Monday, Trump posted that “New Mexico should immediately change its name to New America.”

The new name, he wrote, would add “great value and prestige.” He also accused the state, without evidence, of “Crooked Elections.”

New Mexico has voted Democratic in eight of the last nine presidential elections. Trump has already given us the Gulf of America and Lake America.

Then he headed to the Rose Garden, where he and Melania signed a women’s health executive order she had pushed for. He handed her his Sharpie and told the crowd, “I don’t know if her signature means anything.”

Later, a reporter asked about French President Emmanuel Macron blaming the Iran war for the riots in France. Trump called it “fake news” and asked who she worked for. She said the Daily Wire, and he backed right off.

“Oh, Daily Wire’s good. Sorry, Daily Wire’s good.”

All things considered, a pretty normal Monday.