Salem News Channel

This is a Necessary War

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A Tragedy Caused by an Illegal Immigrant

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The U.S. Army has suspended the aircrew of two Apache attack helicopters that flew near the house of singer Kid Rock, seemingly in support of the vocal backer of U.S. President Donald Trump, a U.S. official said on Tuesday. Over the weekend, Rock posted a video on X showing two Army Apache helicopters flying next to his house in Nashville, Tennessee. The singer, standing in front of his swimming pool, can be seen saluting one of the helicopters. Military helicopters were also seen flying close to demonstrators in the city, who were taking part in organized protests decrying Trump's aggressive deportation efforts, war in Iran and other policies. The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not provide further details on the suspension. Reuters reported on Monday that the Army was investigating the incident and an Army spokesman declined further comment when contacted by Reuters on Tuesday. "Army aviators must adhere to strict safety standards, professionalism, and established flight regulations. An administrative review is underway to assess the mission and verify compliance with regulations and airspace requirements," U.S. Army spokesperson Major Montrell Russell said on Monday. "Appropriate action will be taken if any violations are found. Until the review is complete, there will be no further comment," Russell added. The U.S. military is supposed to be apolitical, loyal to the U.S. Constitution and independent of any party or political movement. Since being sworn in last year, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has moved quickly to reshape the military, firing top generals and admirals as he seeks to implement Trump's national security agenda and root out diversity initiatives he calls discriminatory. Democratic lawmakers have warned the Trump administration is increasingly trying to use the military for political gain. In his post about the helicopters, Rock took a swipe at Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom, adding: "God Bless America and all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend her." Over the weekend, as part of the anti-Trump "No Kings" protests, more than 3,200 events were planned in ?all 50 states. Two previous nationwide events attracted millions of participants. Local news said thousands took part in the weekend's protests in Nashville.

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A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to suspend construction of a $400 million ballroom after it demolished the East Wing of the White House. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington granted a preservationist group’s request for a preliminary injunction that temporarily halts President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project. Leon wrote that the president is a steward of the White House, not its owner. The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued to obtain an order pausing the ballroom project until it undergoes multiple independent reviews and receives congressional approval.

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A three-judge panel in Wisconsin on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by Democratic voters that sought to redraw the battleground state's Republican-friendly congressional boundary lines ahead of the November midterm election. The decision can be appealed to the liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court, but it's unclear whether it could rule in time to affect the election this year. There is a second lawsuit pending that also seeks to redraw the state's congressional districts, but it isn't slated to go to trial until April 2027. Both lawsuits were filed as President Donald Trump wages a national redistricting battle in an effort to preserve the Republicans' slim House majority in November. The three-judge panel said in its ruling that it has “no basis to find the current congressional map invalid.” The case must be dismissed, the judges said, because only the Wisconsin Supreme Court can determine whether the maps should be redrawn. But in dismissing the lawsuit, the panel made clear that it was “not endorsing the current congressional map.” “Rather, we, as circuit court judges, do not have the authority to read into a Wisconsin Supreme Court case an analysis that it does not contain,” the judges ruled. Republicans praised the ruling. “This is a significant win for Republicans and a yet another blow to desperate Democrats who wanted to reshape the electoral landscape,” said Zach Bannon, spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “By keeping Wisconsin’s current district lines in place for 2026, Republicans are in a strong position to build on our momentum to retain and grow our House majority.” The Wisconsin Supreme Court in November ordered that the redistricting cases be first heard by the three-judge panel over objections from Republicans. It marked the first time that process has been used under a 2011 law enacted by Republicans. The lawsuit that was dismissed argued that the current maps discriminate against Democrats. They do so by packing a substantial number of Democrats into two districts while breaking up other Democratic areas into six Republican-favorable districts, the lawsuit argued. In 2010, the year before Republicans redrew the congressional maps, Democrats held five seats compared with three for Republicans. Republicans hold six of the state’s eight House seats, but only two are considered competitive. The current congressional maps, which were based on the ones drawn in 2010, were approved by the state Supreme Court when it was controlled by conservative judges. The U.S. Supreme Court in March 2022 declined to block the maps from taking effect. A top target for Democrats is the western Wisconsin seat held by Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a vocal Trump supporter. He won in 2022 after longtime Democratic Rep. Ron Kind retired. Van Orden won reelection in the 3rd District in 2024. The other seat Democrats hope to make more competitive is southeastern Wisconsin’s 1st District, which Republican Rep. Bryan Steil has held since 2019. The latest maps made that district more competitive while still favoring Republicans. The lawsuit scheduled to go to trial next year was brought by a bipartisan coalition of business leaders. There is also a pending motion to dismiss that case. The Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy argues in its lawsuit that Wisconsin’s congressional maps are unconstitutional because they are an anti-competitive gerrymander. The lawsuit notes that the median margin of victory for candidates in the eight districts since the maps were enacted is close to 30 percentage points.

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Golf Tiger Woods entered a not guilty plea in his DUI case. Florida's Martin County Sheriff's Office reports that Woods said he took prescription medication ahead of Friday's car crash and said he had been looking at his phone while driving.

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U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday the next few days in the war against Iran would be decisive and warned Tehran that the conflict would intensify if it did not make a deal. Iran's Revolutionary Guards hit back with a new threat, saying that they will target U.S. companies in the region in retaliation for attacks on Iran from Wednesday, listing 18 groups including Microsoft, Google, Apple, Intel, IBM, Tesla and Boeing. Iran earlier set ablaze a fully loaded oil tanker off Dubai, its latest attack on merchant vessels in the Gulf or in the Strait of Hormuz since the United States and Israel attacked on February 28. U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to obliterate Iran's energy plants if it does not agree to a peace deal and open the strait, a vital waterway for global oil shipments that has effectively been blocked by Iran. On Tuesday, Trump criticized countries that have not helped in the war, including France and Britain, saying they should find "some delayed courage" to take the strait and get their own oil. France and Italy have pushed back against some U.S.-Israeli military operations, sources said, highlighting how divisions between NATO allies have been exposed by the war. Hegseth, who said he visited U.S. troops in the Middle East on Saturday, said Trump was willing to make a deal and talks were ongoing and gaining strength, but that the U.S. was prepared to continue the war if Iran did not comply. "We have more and more options, and they have less ... in only one month we set the terms, the upcoming days will be decisive," Hegseth said in Washington. "Iran knows that, and there's almost nothing they can militarily do about it." The month-long conflict has spread across the region, killing thousands, disrupting energy supplies and threatening to send the global economy into a tailspin. Crude oil prices briefly spiked again after the attack on the tanker, which can carry around 2 million barrels of oil worth more than $200 million at current prices. Higher oil and fuel prices have also started to weigh on U.S. household finances and are a political headache for Trump and his Republican Party before November midterm elections. The U.S. national average retail price of gasoline crossed $4 a gallon for the first time in over three years on Monday, data from price-tracking service GasBuddy showed. Tight global supplies pushed Brent crude futures up 5.5% to $119 per barrel, on course for a record monthly gain of 64%. The European Union is considering reviving crisis measures it used in 2022 when Russia slashed gas deliveries to address the unfolding disruption to energy markets caused by the war, the bloc's energy chief said on Tuesday. Authorities in Dubai said the fire on the Kuwait-flagged Al-Salmi had been brought under control following a drone attack, with no oil leak and no injuries to the crew. Kuwait Petroleum Corp, the ship's owner, said the vessel's hull was damaged, and photos of the Al-Salmi confirmed this. LSEG data showed the vessel was heading to Qingdao in China, and was carrying 1.2 million barrels of Saudi crude oil and 800,000 barrels of Kuwaiti crude, according to monitoring service TankerTrackers.com. U.S. General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Washington that the U.S. was continuing to degrade and destroy Iran's capabilities. He said the U.S. military was continuing to strike key manufacturing and research sites and had taken out over 150 Iranian naval vessels. Hegseth said U.S. strikes were causing widespread desertions in Iran. Thousands of soldiers from the U.S. Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division have started arriving in the Middle East, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday, reinforcements that could expand Trump's options to include a ground assault in Iran. With attacks showing no sign of easing, Pakistan is seeking to mediate in the war. The foreign ministers of China and Pakistan on Tuesday called for an immediate ceasefire, urging peace talks to be held as soon as possible after they met in Beijing. Iran has remained defiant despite heavy U.S. and Israeli attacks for the past month. It has received U.S. peace proposals via intermediaries, but its foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday they were "unrealistic, illogical and excessive". The Israeli military said on Tuesday it completed a wave of strikes targeting 20 weapons manufacturing sites and a research and development site in Iran. The war has continued to spread, with Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen entering the war by firing at Israel, and Turkey reporting on Monday that a ballistic missile launched from Iran had entered Turkish airspace before being shot down. The war has also revived conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, while Iran, which has the highest casualty toll in the war, has fired at targets in Gulf Arab states, where the U.S. has military bases.

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An American journalist was kidnapped Tuesday in Baghdad and Iraqi security forces are pursuing her captors, Iraqi officials said. The Iraqi interior ministry said in a statement that a foreign journalist had been kidnapped, without giving more details about the journalist. Two Iraqi security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said the kidnapped journalist was a woman with U.S. citizenship. They said that two cars were involved in the kidnapping, one of which crashed and was apprehended while being pursued by authorities near the town of Al-Haswa in Babil province southwest of Baghdad, and the journalist was transferred to a second car that fled the scene. The interior ministry said that security forces had launched an operation to track down the kidnappers, “acting on precise intelligence and through intensive field operations” after intercepting a vehicle belonging to the kidnappers that overturned as they tried to flee. One suspect was arrested and one of the vehicles used in the kidnapping was seized, but others remain on the loose, the statement said. Two security sources said that a journalist holding U.S. citizenship was kidnapped from central Baghdad, on Saadoun Street. They added that an alert was circulated to all checkpoints, leading to a pursuit of the kidnappers as they headed southwest of Baghdad toward Babil province. The sources said the kidnappers’ vehicle, with the journalist inside, was involved in a crash near the town of Al-Haswa in Babil province. A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad declined to comment. The U.S. State Department said in a statement, “The Trump Administration has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans. We are closing tracking these reports. Due to privacy and other considerations, we have nothing further to share at this time.” It was not immediately clear if the kidnapping was related to the ongoing regional war, but Iran-backed militias in Iraq have launched regular attacks on U.S. facilities in the country since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Since the start of the war, the U.S. embassy has warned of kidnapping risks and urged citizens in the country to leave. Iraqi militias had also kidnapped foreigners before the war. Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton graduate student with Israeli and Russian citizenship, disappeared in Baghdad in 2023. After she was freed and handed over to U.S. authorities in September 2025, she said that she had been held by the Iran-allied Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah. The group never officially claimed responsibility for kidnapping her.

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A federal judge has agreed to permanently block the Trump administration from implementing a presidential directive to end federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service. U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in Washington ruled Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s executive order to cease funding for NPR and PBS is unlawful and unenforceable. The judge says the First Amendment right to free speech “does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type.” Last year, Trump said at a news conference he would “love to” defund NPR and PBS because he believes they’re biased in favor of Democrats. NPR claims the Republican president wants to punish it for the content of its journalism.

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The Fog of Trump

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How Are Things with the Catholic Church and Easter?

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The Supreme Court has ruled against a law banning “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ kids in Colorado, one of about two dozen states that banned the discredited practice. The high court majority sided Tuesday with a Christian counselor who argues the law banning talk therapy violates the First Amendment. The justices agreed the law raises free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court to decide if it meets a legal standard few laws pass. President Donald Trump’s Republican administration supported the counselor. Colorado said the measure simply bars a practice of using therapy to try to “convert” LGBTQ+ people to heterosexuality, a practice that’s been scientifically discredited and linked to serious harm.

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Three fired FBI agents have sued to try to get their jobs back, saying in a class action lawsuit they were illegally punished for their participation in an investigation into President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat. The Washington federal court lawsuit adds to the mounting list of court challenges to a personnel purge by FBI Director Kash Patel. Over the last year, dozens of agents have been ousted because of their involvement in investigations related to Trump or because they were perceived as insufficiently loyal to the Republican president’s agenda. Patel has said the fired agents were responsible for weaponizing law enforcement, which they deny.

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King Charles III is going ahead with a state visit to the United States next month, despite calls for the ceremonial event to be called off due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated criticism of the British government for failing to support the war in Iran. Buckingham Palace said Tuesday that the king and Queen Camilla would travel to the U.S. in late April to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American Independence. Trump put the dates as April 27-30. “I look forward to spending time with the King, whom I greatly respect,” Trump said on Truth Social. ”It will be TERRIFIC!” The visit follows Trump’s state visit to the U.K. in September, a glittering occasion that was seen as part of Britain’s effort to shore up the so-called special relationship between the two countries as the president’s America First policies threatened the established global order. But that hasn’t stopped Trump from chiding the U.K. for refusing to allow U.S. aircraft to use British bases for offensive operations against Iran. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that countries who can’t get jet fuel because of restrictions around the Strait of Hormuz should “build up some delayed courage, go the Strait and just TAKE IT.’’ He has repeatedly lashed out at Prime Minister Keir Starmer, saying at one point that he is “not Winston Churchill.” That had led some members of Parliament to demand that Starmer call off the state visit to show Britain’s disapproval and avoid any embarrassment for the king during a time of tension between the two countries. Ed Davey, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, on Tuesday said Starmer had shown “a staggering lack of backbone” by allowing the state visit to go ahead. “To send the king on a state visit to the U.S. after Trump dismissed our Royal Navy as toys is a humiliation and a sign of a government too weak to stand up to bullies,” Davey said. “What appalling thing does Trump have to do next to make the government see sense and cancel the state visit?” The monarch hosts state visits at home and travels abroad at the request of the elected government, which uses the pomp and circumstance of such occasions to bolster relations with countries around the world. The decision to proceed with the long-discussed visit may be seen as an effort by Starmer’s government to ease the tensions caused by the war, or at least not enflame them. Trump is known to be fond of the royal family and reveled in last year’s visit to Windsor Castle, where he was welcomed by a military band. The king hosted a banquet for him in a hall dripping with flowers and gold leaf. The visit came about after Starmer hurried to Washington in February 2025, just five weeks after Trump began his second term, and hand-delivered the king’s invitation to the president. It was the first time any world leader received the honor of a second state visit, and the first time the invitation was delivered in a personal letter from the king, which Trump proudly displayed for TV cameras. “It’s a great, great honor,” Trump said at the time, noting that the letter included an invitation to Windsor Castle. “That’s really something.” Now the king is heading to Washington for the return engagement. Charles has visited the U.S. 19 times, but this will be his first state visit to the country since becoming king. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, made four state visits to the U.S. The king also will travel to Bermuda in conjunction with the U.S. trip, his first visit to the overseas territory as monarch.

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President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with allies who have been unwilling to help the U.S. war effort, telling them to “go get your own oil” as the conflict with Iran and its closure of the Strait of Hormuz sent average U.S. gas prices past $4 a gallon. He made the comments on social media after U.S. strikes hit a city that is home to one of Iran’s main nuclear sites. Tehran meanwhile attacked a fully loaded Kuwaiti oil tanker in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday. The attacks showed the intensity of the war more than a month after the U.S. and Israel launched their first strikes. The conflict has left more than 3,000 dead.

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Is the Iran War Confusing?

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On today’s show, Josh opens by discussing how Tyler Robinson’s defense team is attempting to sow doubt in the case—and how the usual bad actors on the Right are seizing on that effort to fuel conspiracy theories. Josh then turns to the Supreme Court, where free speech once again prevailed and Colorado once again came up short in a major ruling. Later, Josh breaks down the latest developments involving Iran and reacts to comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth about the current situation. And finally, Josh reflects on the rise and fall of Tiger Woods, and what we can all learn from the lessons surrounding his most recent DUI.

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Police in California say a U.S. Marine has been detained at Palm Springs International Airport after Transportation Security Administration personnel found a live explosive round in his checked bag. It happened Monday during routine baggage screening. The Palm Springs Police Department says the Marine told investigators he picked up the 25 mm round about a year ago. He said he thought it was not live. Police say rust and corrosion hid the markings. Authorities confirmed it was live and destroyed it in a desert area. No one was hurt and authorities are reviewing the case for potential criminal and civil penalties.

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400K To Raise Children?!

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Tiger Woods told authorities he was looking down at his phone and did not realize the truck in front of him had slowed down before his rollover crash in Florida last week, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained on Tuesday. According to the report, Woods had two hydrocodone pills in his pocket and officers observed him to be lethargic, slow, "sweating profusely" with eyes that were bloodshot, glassy and pupils that were "extremely dilated". When asked during the criminal DUI investigation if he took any prescription medication, the report said the 50-year-old golfer replied "I take a few" while adding he had done so earlier in the morning. Woods' manager did not immediately respond when asked to comment on details of the probable cause affidavit. A Martin County Sheriff's deputy wrote in the report that Woods, when asked about the collision, said he was looking at his cell phone and changing the radio station which caused him not to see a truck slowing down before the crash. The officer said in the report he observed Woods "limping and stumbling" and added that the golfer told him he has had seven back surgeries and over 20 operations on his leg. Woods, a 15-time major champion and the greatest golfer of his generation, was arrested last Friday afternoon on a charge of driving under the influence after his Land Rover rolled over on a two-lane road near his Jupiter Island home. He was released on bail later that night. No one was injured in the crash. The officer also noted in the report that Woods was "extremely alert and talkative" and had "hiccups during the entire investigation." Woods, who said last Tuesday he was hoping to be ready to compete in the April 9-12 Masters, told the officer he has a limp and that his ankle seizes while walking. The deputy who walked Woods through a series of field sobriety tests said in the report that based on his training: "I believed that Woods normal faculties were impaired, and he was unable to safely operate the motor vehicle."

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