Birther and talk radio host Frank Wuco is now the public face of President Donald Trump's "multibillion-dollar attempt to rebuild its flailing self-deportation program," The Daily Beast reported on Monday. Now it appears there's a problem with figuring out how to replace the contractor after it received over $1 billion

The company, which didn't exist until two years before the contract, is the source of concerns about contracting, spending, performance, and the people overseeing its redesign.

At the center of the story is Wuco, a senior adviser to the Department of Homeland Security’s undersecretary for management, Brian Cavanaugh, the Beast explained. Wuco led an August 12 briefing for companies interested in bidding on a new contract worth up to $2.34 billion.

Wuco's beliefs include the racist claim that the U.S. was promoting the “Zimbabwe-fication of America and that's why he believes so strongly in the mass deportation campaign. He also falsely alleged that former CIA Director John Brennan had converted to Islam and that former Attorney General Eric Holder had been a Black Panther. In a 2016 broadcast, Wuco said the United States should have used low-yield nuclear weapons in Afghanistan after 9/11. He also reportedly adopted a fictional former-jihadist identity for presentations on Islamist extremism.

The Beast reported that "in May 2025, DHS awarded the existing $915 million contract to Salus Worldwide Solutions—a company founded and led by Trump crony and former State Department surgeon William Walters III—despite its having existed for only two years and never having led a government contract."

The company then got an additional $200 million "extension" after blowing through all of the money it was given for the initial contract. So, the Salus isn't likely to win the next contract worth about $2.34 billion.

The new competition for the cash has drawn scrutiny because of its compressed schedule. DHS issued its final request for proposals on August 19, gave bidders until August 21 to submit questions, set September 2 as the deadline for bids, and planned to select a winner by September 29. Bidders had complained that the request for proposals was vague and didn't have much detail about operations. So, bidders ultimately had just two business days to prepare the proposal and submit it

A competing company alleged that the initial award was unlawful and noncompetitive, while DHS lawyers reportedly warned that the process created an “appearance of impropriety.” The Court of Federal Claims ultimately rejected that challenge, finding no evidence of bad faith or unfair treatment.

Wuco’s involvement in finding a new company was attacked by New York Magazine as one of “Trump’s Greatest Worst Hits” of his early first term appointments. The Beast said that it "added another bizarre twist to the ongoing saga."

The successful bidder will inherit the program’s existing caseload, potentially leading operations inside up to 35 ICE detention centers, and promote the self-deportation funding options for migrants.

Although Salus initially projected 276,000 relocations in its first year, it then lowered the expectations to 108,000. Ultimately, they didn't even reach that. Company records reportedly showed 76,881 completed relocations as of March 25, 2026. Salus has also claimed that 138,000 people chose the program’s “Assisted Voluntary Departure pathway,” but has not clearly explained where that number comes from.

DHS defended Wuco’s role and said that the upcoming selection will be ethical and legal and that they won't favor a specific company.

"DHS will evaluate proposals based on the criteria set forth in the solicitation, and any award decision will be made in accordance with those criteria and all applicable acquisition statutes and regulations," a DHS spokesperson told the Beast. It added that any contractor selected would be “required to perform in accordance with the terms of the contract, applicable law, and Department oversight.”

The Beast questioned that claim, implying it was just another effort by Trump's administration to prop up another costly, underperforming program

Retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson said that it's clear to him that President Donald Trump appears intent on full-fledged war in Iran.

Speaking to CNN on Wednesday, Anderson said that sending 1,000 troops to the Middle East tells him that "they're serious about conducting some kind of a ground operation in Iran."

"Why else would you be sending the immediate ready brigade from the 82nd airborne?" he asked. "And of course, that would be a tremendous logistics operation. I mean, it would probably take 22 hours or so to actually deploy over there to some sort of a staging area."

He explained they would likely be housed in Qatar and "have a couple squadrons of C-130s in order to conduct some kind of an air assault into Kharg Island or one of the other islands in the Strait of Hormuz."

There are also two Marine Expeditionary Units (MEU) en route, with one that may already be "at the mouth of the Persian Gulf." MEU's are described by the Marine website as a kind of rapid-reaction force of roughly "2,200 Marines and Sailors."

"But, you know, this tells me that they're very serious about conducting ground operations," he continued. "And all I can say is, if you like Iraq and Afghanistan, you're going to love Iran."

Brown University's Washington School of International and Public Affairs charted the full cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, showing that 7,052 U.S. soldiers died in the wars, 21 Defense Department civilians also died, along with 8,189 U.S. contractors, 680 journalists or media workers, and 892 humanitarian aid workers were killed in the wars that took place from 2001 to 2024. It doesn't count the civilian death count, which is somewhere between 363,939 and 387,072. In economic terms, it will ultimately cost the U.S. about $8 trillion, including veterans' care, over the next 30 years.

Thus far, Trump has already asked Congress for an additional $200 billion to fund the war. This does not include the over $12.7 billion the U.S. spent in the first six days of the war, The Guardian outlined last week.

National security analyst David Sanger, who also serves as the correspondent for the New York Times, reported Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud is pushing the U.S. to go "all-in" and "defeat the Iranians."

President Donald Trump's own inner circle was shocked by the news that he had signed off on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's order of public execution against Nidal Malik Hassan. It's America's first public execution in nearly a century.

"The idea seemed to shock even some of his colleagues in the administration," reported The New York Times' Peter Baker on Friday. "Vice President JD Vance cast doubt that it would be livestreamed, telling reporters that “I don’t know that that’s going to happen” and adding that he would not watch if it does."

Baker added, "But Mr. Trump said he signed off on it. 'Did I approve' he said. 'Absolutely I did.'" He pointed out that "no public execution has been conducted in the United States in 90 years, and the decision to conduct this one in front of an audience would put the country in the company of Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea and Somalia."

Baker also quoted a Republican lawmaker who, though outgoing, retains influence within the president's party in the Senate.

"Even some supporters of capital punishment flinched at the idea of livestreaming Mr. Hasan’s execution, calling it medieval and barbaric," Baker reported. "'Hasan should face the death penalty, but making his execution public and streaming it? Beyond disgusting,' said Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina. 'Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America.'"

Hasan murdered 13 people and injured 32 others at a military base in Fort Hood in Texas in 2009.

The outrage also came from conservatives and military professionals outside of the administration. On Thursday Billy Binion, reporter for the libertarian magazine Reason Magazine, wrote on X that “this is sick. You can support justice for Nidal Hasan’s victims without making his execution a source of entertainment. This administration so often governs for the online mob. It’s depraved.”

Glenn Greenwald, formerly of The Intercept and sometimes sympathetic to Trump, declared that “there are a very small number of countries that still carry out public executions. Those are the countries we are constantly told are uniquely primitive, barbaric, sick and evil. It’s revealing that Pete Hegseth wants the US to join that group but also entirely unsurprising.”

A retired intelligence officer, Travis Akers, argued that "this is vile. Does he deserve the death penalty? One million times yes and may he rot in h - - -. Should this be streamed for entertainment like the Romans throwing Christians to lions? Absolutely not." Other mental health experts who spoke with AlterNet described Trump as a "maniac" who appeals to racism and sexism.

Rumors have been circulating for weeks about the United States imposing tougher sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), because of what US President Donald Trump sees as unfair targeting of Americans and Israelis for prosecution.

The U.S. benefited from a major sociocultural "superpower" for decades, but now, President Donald Trump's "cruelty and lawlessness" have that power "crumbling before our eyes," per a new analysis from The i Paper.

Writing for the outlet on Saturday, special correspondent and columnist Patrick Cockburn highlighted the now "grossly out of date" sentiments from the beloved 1942 film, Casablanca, in which would-be refugees desperately tried to reach the U.S. in order to escape "fascism, violence and corruption." This image of the country, he argued, "had at least some substance" at the time, and until very recently.

"This benign perception was the basis of American 'soft power,' the belief that the U.S. was – with many reservations – a force for good in the world, a view which made it a cultural and political superpower," Cockburn explained. "This image was reinforced by the extraordinary cultural dominance achieved by American films (of which Casablanca is a prime example) as well as television and popular music. The U.S. was seen as a country where most people in the world felt they would be happy to live, even if they did not take practical measures to go there."

He added: "But two years into Donald Trump’s second term this once huge American advantage in 'soft power' is swiftly disappearing like an iceberg melting in warm water. Trump and his lieutenants are furiously attacking all that was best in American government and society, replacing it with a cruelty and lawlessness."

The latest "grotesque" example of this decay, Cockburn argued, was the announcement that the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan would be livestreamed for the public to view, a revival of the practice of public executions which "brings the U.S. into line with Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea, and it is only a step behind Islamic State which filmed decapitations and dowsing victims with fuel before setting them ablaze." This sort of highly visible state-backed violence, he added, has become commonplace under Trump's second term, be it from the treatment of immigrants by ICE, or from the bombing of boats in the Caribbean Sea.

"U.S. 'soft power' was cumulatively built up over the past century, but is now dissolving by the hour," Cockburn wrote. "Some might argue that America was never as good as it purported to be, but there was much goodness there all the same."

He later concluded: "In my experience, even those Europeans familiar with the U.S. seldom have an accurate idea of what made it tick. They ignore the impact of its diversity and internal conflicts, which have obvious negative consequences, but they also provide the friction that generates immense political and cultural energy. This creativity and resilience might just be enough to defeat Trumpism, which truly embodies the dark side of America past and present."

Much of the criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump's foreign policy is focused on his war against Iran, and quite a few Trump critics are arguing he is hurting the United States militarily by undermining its relationships with longtime allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). But according to author Robert D. Kaplan, known for his military and foreign policy analysis, another geopolitical crisis is brewing under Trump with Mainland China.

Kaplan, in an op-ed for The New York Times, argues, "Before Iran, before Iraq, before Afghanistan, there is no country that America has gotten as wrong as China. If this is mystifying, it is only because historical memories are short. America struggled through the previous fiascos. Getting it wrong again would be catastrophic. This is why it is crucial that President Trump strike the right balance in his summit this week with China's leader, Xi Jinping."

The U.S., Kaplan argues, has a long history of misunderstanding Mainland China and was taken aback when the country, under Mao Tse Tung, became communist in 1949. And in 2026, according to Kaplan, Trump is the one dropping the ball with China.

"For the first time since 1972," Kaplan writes, "the Shanghai Communiqué may be in particularly serious danger. There have been slip-ups, as when President Joe Biden declared he would defend Taiwan, thus abandoning the Nixon formula of ambiguity. But generally, presidents exercised rhetorical restraint. That is no longer the case in the Trump administration, with the president's stated position on Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific forever volatile. As for China, it is no longer governed by a mandarinate of enlightened communist leaders, but by Mr. Xi, a Leninist totalitarian with openly aggressive designs on Taiwan. The guideposts are wobbling."

Kaplan continues, "Despite the happy talk at summits, we are back to the Who Lost China era, when fundamental mistakes are possible, this time with incalculable consequences. In addition, because neither China nor the United States seems interested in cooperating to regulate AI, competition over the technology is poised to further destabilize the relationship."

According to Kaplan, the "ultimate geopolitical catastrophe" for the U.S. "would be a military conflict over Taiwan and the South China Sea."

"Wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran have led to severe differences of opinion among both the public and the elites, but have not fundamentally changed our lives," Kaplan notes. "A high-end military conflict in the Western Pacific fought between the world's largest economies would disrupt the most vital supply chains and change our world profoundly. The comparison with World War I is not an exaggeration … No geopolitical conflict in the world today has the capacity, if miscalculated, of bringing ruin upon us all like the one between the United States and China. China tore through our domestic politics three-quarters of a century ago. It could be worse this time."

President Donald Trump's popularity and power are crumbling, meaning that "the worst may be yet to come" as he becomes even more dangerous, according to a new piece from The i Paper, which also warned that "a desperate man is a dangerous man."

Writing for the outlet on Monday, columnist Ian Birrell warned readers to "brace" themselves for Trump's "dismal reign" in the White House to get even worse as his toxic approval ratings cause his grip on power to loosen, leading him to scramble for increasingly depraved ways to try and save face.

"Prepare for fresh depravities as this arrogant, corrupt and stunningly inept character delves deeper into the darkness engulfing his country – cheered on by his dwindling army of fans and his team of sordid sycophants as he shreds decency, democracy and his nation’s dignity," Birrell wrote.

He added: "For there is a thread that connects the grotesque decision to livestream a federal execution by army firing squad – placing the US on a par with hideous regimes in Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea – with Trump’s latest pandering to Vladimir Putin, freeing up the diesel that helps fund Russia’s war machine and then launching another disgusting attack on Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. Of course, they demean the US and undermine democracy a bit further. But the backdrop is the Republicans’ struggle to cling on to power in Washington. So hey, why would Trump be bothered if he plays into the hands of an Islamist death cult or if hundreds more Ukrainians die in their fight for freedom if he can boost his poll ratings a little?"

Birrell noted that predictions about how badly Republicans might get wiped out in the coming midterms could end up overstated, but based on his own reporting on the ground across the U.S., the sense that voters are beyond upset with their government is palpable, "due to disenchantment, not simply shifting demographics."

"Yet, the day after [the execution livestream] was announced, I talked at the Texas state fair to a black former marine and one-time Trump voter who bemoaned Hegseth’s attacks on diversity for driving out good military officers while his middle-aged partner expressed her dismay at seeing their nation shed friends around the world," Birrell detailed. "Trump has visited this state four times in six weeks. The Democrats remain marginally ahead in polls, however – with one top activist in a supposed Republican stronghold telling me she saw it as 'a badge of honor' that they panicked their President into campaigning on her patch."

He concluded later: "Perhaps most frightening is fear that the barbaric livestreaming of an execution and trading in bloodstained Russian diesel are portents for the next two years, as an ageing, wounded sociopath in the White House grows even more desperate as his ego is punctured, his enemies circle and his power drains."

The Trump Pentagon's grisly new plan to livestream an execution by firing squad has generated no shortage of controversy, and as a Marine Corps veteran argued for The Hill, the mere idea behind this plan would make the U.S. "no different than the terrorists we hate."

The Department of Defense announced last week that it planned to livestream the forthcoming execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, the man who opened fire at Fort Hood in 2009, killing 13 people. Hasan is set to be executed via firing squad, in what would mark the first public execution in the U.S. since the 1930s.

Writing for The Hill about his reaction to this news, Joslin Joseph, a reporter and veteran of the Iraq War, shared a story about his time as a Marine recruit in the early 2000s.

"In 2004, when I was a Marine recruit in Parris Island, our drill instructors bought out a laptop and made us sit in a school circle around it on the quarterdeck," he wrote. "They showed us a video of a man in an orange jumpsuit who was kneeling in front of hooded men wearing black. One of them read out a statement and then proceeded to cut the head off of the prisoner. The prisoner’s name was Nick Berg, and his executioner was terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi. It was horrific to watch."

He added: "I wondered why in God’s name would they show us this. Our senior drill instructor told us it was revenge for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, and that we should expect more such videos. He also said that this is what separates us from them. We are in the business of killing, but we would never be so barbaric."

Looking back now, Joseph argued, his instructor "was wrong," adding that "Since 9/11 and because of 9/11 we have regressed our society because of a fear of terrorism — a fear that our politicians really want us to feel at all times... The end result? We have seen terrorism flourish around the world. The Taliban rules Afghanistan, Iran has proxies surrounding Israel, Syria and Iraq had to deal with (and still deal with the Islamic State organization), and terror cells exist in North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Here in the U.S., we see disaffected youths embrace extremism, which leads to acts of terror."

Joseph further argued that the decision to livestream Hasan's execution is "yet another way we have caved in and given up our values because of our fears," adding that "We have 'othered' Muslims so badly and vilified them to the point that we are now acting the way we accuse them of acting." He also dismissed the justification given by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that this plan was needed to "send a message."

"Hegseth’s fantasy of public revenge is no different than Abu Musab Zarqawi’s heinous acts and the Islamic State organization‘s executions that followed," Joseph argued. "Just this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave a tremendous speech about Western Civilization. How insane that the administration he works for thinks public executions go hand in hand with what Western Civilization or Christianity represent."

A retired Air Force brigadier general is warning Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that removing top military officers and pushing cultural changes at the Pentagon has become a distraction that could weaken the military.

John Teichert, who previously served as the head of Joint Base Andrews and Edwards Air Force Base, expressed his opinions in an opinion article for the Washington Post on Thursday. Although he previously criticized the military policies of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, he now claims Hegseth has gone too far in the other direction.

“Secretary Hegseth’s actions have taken ideological cleansing to the next level,” Teichert wrote. He added that the atmosphere inside the Pentagon is now “rife with groupthink” and argued that officers may increasingly see silence as safer for their careers than challenging senior leaders.

Teichert comes following Hegseth's latest purge of the military's highest ranks. In a speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Wednesday, Hegseth said the Pentagon would reduce the number of generals and admirals by 20 percent and described these reductions as a way to cut bureaucracy and improve accountability.

Hegseth stated that the department has already got rid of about 10 percent of its generals and admirals and has also reduced the number of general officer positions by 10 percent. “The media calls that a purge. I call it accountability,” Hegseth said.

According to the Associated Press, Hegseth has been focusing on getting rid of what he calls "woke" culture at the Pentagon; this includes reversing diversity initiatives, examining ground combat units that include female troops, and launching a screening program for testosterone deficiency among male service members.

Teichert said he agrees with some of Hegseth's criticisms of previous Pentagon priorities, believing the military lost its focus under Democratic administrations, and he strongly criticized the Biden administration's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2021.

On the other hand, he said Hegseth is creating a new problem by emphasizing ideological loyalty and the image of a physical warrior over other qualities needed for military readiness.

Teichert said experienced officers are being displaced when the military needs leaders who can think for themselves and challenge established ideas; he cited a leadership principle from former Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell, who cautions against senior officials being surrounded by people who will not disagree.

The general, now retired, also objected to the notion that physical toughness alone determines military readiness. He said effective commanders must also be creative, disciplined, experienced, and able to make tough decisions.

This warning comes as Hegseth carries out a major reshuffle of the Pentagon's leadership. The most recent cutbacks are expected to lead to further changes in the military's senior ranks, even as U.S. operations continue overseas.

Even though Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is mired in waging an unpopular and unsuccessful war against Iran, on Wednesday he demonstrated his ongoing fixation on culture wars by announcing that he would not allow civilian professors at military academies to receive tenure.

Now an expert is calling him out for this, characterizing it as evidence of an anti-education philosophy — including Hegseth literally banishing the word "educate."

"The supersize black Sharpie is what gives it away," wrote The Atlantic contributor Eliot A. Cohen, a professor emeritus at Johns Hopkins University, on Wednesday. "Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s order to stop awarding tenure to civilian professors at the military academies ends with a huge, jagged signature—an homage, perhaps, to that of the president—the size of two of the paragraphs above."

Cohen continued, "Military education is still education—a point that Hegseth fails to understand. It seeks to develop disciplined, curious, insightful thinkers. The service academies do not, in any meaningful way, teach tactics. They are there to educate young officers, admittedly emphasizing some qualities that get a lighter touch in civilian institutions."

Civilian professors are essential to this process, Cohen pointed out.

"The best anthology of writing about leadership I know of was produced by a West Point professor—someone with nary a day of military service—who also edited a fantastic edition of the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant," Cohen said. "Men and women who are going to be officers will learn as much about what leadership entails from Shakespeare, or classes in cognitive psychology or ancient history, as they will from a perusal of field manuals."

The Johns Hopkins scholar then drew attention to an on-the-nose manifestation of Hegseth's war on education.

"Hegsethian thinking, if that is the right word, has permeated the senior ranks of officers and officials in some of these institutions," Cohen explained. "In a particularly egregious act, the Air Force Academy has removed the word educate from its mission. This is a step backward worthy of a caveman in a G suit—someone who thinks that fancy weapons and aggressiveness guarantee victory. It is the mindset of someone who has learned nothing from the American military failures that now stretch back to Vietnam, and will produce more such in the future."

Despite Hegseth's outwardly confident makeover of the Pentagon, President Donald Trump may fire Hegseth if Republicans suffer losses in the 2026 midterm elections, with retired naval officer Theodore R. Johnson writing for The Washington Post on Wednesday that Hegseth would be a logical scapegoat given his prosecution of the controversial Iran war. Twenty years earlier, after President George W. Bush's Republicans were shellacked in the 2006 midterms, the president fired Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

In addition to the Iran war, Hegseth has provoked harsh criticism for focusing on culture wars in the military, particularly by trying to purge references to "woke" information such as climate change and targeting racial minorities and women in terms of ending careers and denying earned promotions.

"Welcome to the cold open for 'Saturday Night Live' this week, right?" executive director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Paul Reickhoff said on Wednesday. "But it is our reality. And I've always said that Pete Hegseth is the acting secretary of 'Culture War.' His job has been to wage culture war on the Pentagon. And this is the latest extension of that."