{"id":13251,"date":"2026-05-29T00:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T00:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/29\/jd-vance-says-trump-pushing-forward-with-golden-dome-as-he-addresses-air-force-academy-us-politics-live-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T00:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T00:12:10","slug":"jd-vance-says-trump-pushing-forward-with-golden-dome-as-he-addresses-air-force-academy-us-politics-live-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/29\/jd-vance-says-trump-pushing-forward-with-golden-dome-as-he-addresses-air-force-academy-us-politics-live-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"JD Vance says Trump \u2018pushing forward\u2019 with Golden Dome as he addresses Air Force Academy \u2013 US politics live – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Support for the military is why Trump ‘is insistent on increasing defense budget to $1.5tn’, says JD Vance<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n

Vance also brought up Trump\u2019s golden dome during his speech.<\/p>\n

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double quotation mark<\/title><\/svg>You should expect some things out of your civilian leadership, out of the president, the Vice president, the Secretary of war. This is why we\u2019ve pushed forward with Agenda 47 and the Golden Dome, and any number of new and advanced technologies. It\u2019s why the president has made improving military quality of life such a central focus, why he\u2019s insistent on increasing the defense budget to $1.5 trillion, and why he\u2019s proud to support pay raises, new barracks, new hospitals and new schools on base.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

A jury in Spokane, Washington found an Afghanistan War veteran and two others guilty of federal conspiracy charges on Thursday for their part in a protest last June outside the city\u2019s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.<\/p>\n

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The US military veteran, Bajun Mavalwalla, told the Guardian in March<\/a> that he had refused to plead guilty and was ready to face justice.<\/p>\n

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The right to protest is \u201csupposed to be fundamentally American\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s among the rights that when I joined the military, I thought I was joining to protect,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t do it violently. You can\u2019t do it in a way that harms other people, but you have a right to stand up for what you believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mavalwalla, 36, now faces six years in prison, three years supervised release and a $250,000 fine for conspiring to \u201cimpede or injure a federal officer\u201d when he joined other demonstrators who sought to block the transport of two Venezuelan immigrants who had been arrested by ICE at a routine immigration hearing in Spokane in June 2025.<\/p>\n

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At least five of the nine featured musical acts recruited to play on the National Mall in Washington DC this summer, in a concert series planned by the Trump administration to mark the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary, have dropped out of the concert series, just one day after the lineup was announced<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The first to drop out, hours after the announcement, was Morris Day<\/strong>, who called his scheduled participation a baseless \u201crumor\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Later on Wednesday, Young MC<\/strong> posted<\/a> a message that began: \u201cI have informed my agents that I will not be performing at the Freedom 250 event\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe artists were never told about any political involvement with the event,\u201d he added, before casting doubt on the claim from the Trump-appointed organizer that the series was nonpartisan.<\/p>\n

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MC performs during the \u201cI Love The 90\u2019s\u201d tour in August 2022 at RiverEdge Park in Aurora, Ill.”,”caption”:”Young MC performs during the \u201cI Love The 90\u2019s\u201d tour in August 2022 at RiverEdge Park in Aurora, Ill.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Rob Grabowski\/AP”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”<\/p>\n

So far on Thursday, the Commodores, C+C Music Factory and Milli Vanilli have all either dropped out or expressed surprise that they were ever booked.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Commodores will not be performing\u201d, the group said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cOur music has always been our voice and we choose not to publicly affiliate with any single political party.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Freedom Williams<\/strong>, C + C Music Factory\u2019s lead rapper, said in a video statement<\/a> <\/a>apparently recorded in a bathroom that he had been blindsided by texts from friends and fellow celebrities horrified that he was \u201cdoing the Trump Freedom show\u201d and \u201cfucking with Trump\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018What? What are you talking about?\u2019\u201d Williams said he replied to people \u201cI\u2019ve know for years, who know I don\u2019t fuck with Trump\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m God Cipher Divine, I know where I stand. I know who the fuck I am,\u201d he added, before explaining that his agent had not mentioned any connection with Donald Trump<\/strong> when he pitched the show.<\/p>\n

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After going online to research the series on Wednesday, Williams said, he told his agent he was out.<\/p>\n

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Williams went on to attack Trump, saying, as a New Yorker, \u201cI know the type of fucking anarchy he creates\u201d and brought up the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis by an ICE officer. But Williams reserved his most intense anger for Democrats who threatened to cancel him if he did not drop out of the series. He went on to also attack Barack Obama<\/strong> and covid vaccines, before suggesting that he might still change his mind and perform with the \u201cMaga crew\u201d out of spite, even though the event was in honor of \u201c250 years of motherfucking capitalism and death; it\u2019s 250 years of straight murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Milli Vanilli singer Jodie<\/strong> Rocco<\/strong> told the Associated Press that no one had even asked her or her sister Linda Rocco or anyone else in the current group to perform. \u201cMy sister and I were shocked to see our name, \u2018Milli Vanilli\u2019, as one of the performers\u201d, Rocco wrote to the AP in an email.<\/p>\n

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The poster for the Freedom 250 series included an image of Milli Vanilli\u2019s former frontman, Fab Morvan<\/strong>, who just lip-synched the band\u2019s hits and has been performing apart from the group.<\/p>\n

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At least one of the featured performers, Vanilla Ice<\/strong>, said in an Instagram video<\/a> that he was still in. \u201cI\u2019m super honored to do this concert with everybody\u201d, he said, on the apparent assumption that he will not, in the end, be performing alone. The rapper has performed at multiple New Year\u2019s Eve shows at Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago beach club.<\/p>\n

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Last December, as the deadly immigration crackdown by federal ICE agents ramped up, the two leaders of the effort, Stephen Miller<\/strong> and Kristi Noem<\/strong>, were filmed singing along<\/a> with the rapper to his hit 1990 \u201cIce, Ice Baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

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New Jersey\u2019s governor, Mikie Sherrill<\/strong>, said that state health inspectors were denied full access to the privately run Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark, where detainees are staging a hunger and labor strike over health and sanitary conditions, and protesters rallying outside<\/a> have been tased, pepper-sprayed and detained.<\/p>\n

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immigration agents detained a protester outside the immigration detention center at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey on Thursday.”,”caption”:”Federal immigration agents detained a protester outside the immigration detention center at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey on Thursday.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Spencer Platt\/Getty Images”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe New Jersey Department of Health today sought to conduct a health inspection of Delaney Hall, but it was denied full access and was allowed to inspect only a limited part of the facility,\u201d Sherrill, a Democrat elected last year in a landslide said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs I\u2019ve said repeatedly, refusing to provide full access raises serious questions about what ICE is trying to hide from public view,\u201d she continued. \u201cNew Jersey believes in the rule of law, will uphold the Constitution, and Delaney Hall should be closed down. I am calling for ICE to immediately de-escalate the situation as I continue working to keep New Jersey residents safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Department of Homeland Security tried to push back on reports, like one this week<\/a> from our Guardian colleagues Jos\u00e9 Olivares and Julius Constantine Motal, that document complaints<\/a> from 300-400 Delaney Hall strikers over inedible food containing worms, a lack of air conditioning and proper ventilation, a persistent flu and other viruses spreading throughout the facility, delayed medical care and lags in their immigration cases.<\/p>\n

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In privately-run ICE detention centers nationwide, detainees perform cooking, cleaning and laundry work, getting paid as little as $1 an hour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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In response to reports about harsh conditions at the center, Markwayne Mullin<\/strong>, the DHS secretary, recorded a social media video<\/a> in which he scoffed at the concerns of Democratic elected officials, including the governor and senator Andy Kim, who was pepper-sprayed<\/a> by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE<\/a>) personnel outside the facility this week.<\/p>\n

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In the video, Mullin claimed that the detentions were necessary because of the alleged violent crimes committed by a list of eight foreign nationals the department has arrested \u201crecently\u201d.<\/p>\n

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The secretary appeared to have some trouble making it through his prepared text in the video, however. There were 21 edits in the first 35 seconds of the published video, to cover apparent flubs in delivery, and Mullin so badly mispronounced the name of one country he said a detained man came from, \u201cWallamala\u201d, that it was only possible to parse his meaning by consulting the on-screen text, which read: Guatemala.<\/p>\n

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