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‘Obviously a Lie’: Trump Admin Slammed for Conflicting Claims in ‘Party Balloon’ Shutdown

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The Trump administration is facing blowback after putting out conflicting reports from top officials at multiple agencies — and after offering no explanation initially — as it closed a U.S. airport, initially for ten days, only to reopen it hours later. Reports revealed communications snafus between the Department of Defense and the FAA, and alleged causes being foreign drones or a “party balloon.”

“A U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that the U.S. military earlier this week shot down what was later determined to be a party balloon near El Paso, Texas, after initially assessing it as a possible foreign drone,” the news outlet reported. “The misidentification eventually led to a total shutdown of airspace around the El Paso, Texas, airport.”

“A separate U.S. administration official had told Fox News that Mexican cartel drones breached U.S. airspace near El Paso, Texas, and that counter-drone measures were taken to disable them,” Fox added.

CNN reported that a “Pentagon plan to use a high-energy, counter-drone laser without having coordinated with the Federal Aviation Administration about potential risks to civilian flights prompted Wednesday’s unprecedented airspace shutdown over El Paso, Texas.”

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CBS News reported that the “unexpected but brief airspace closure” had “stemmed from disagreements” between FAA and Pentagon officials over drone-related tests.

“Two sources identified the technology as a high-energy laser,” CBS added.

The FAA Administrator, Bryan Bedford, “on Tuesday night decided to close the airspace — without alerting White House, Pentagon or Homeland Security officials, sources said.”

But Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth offered a different explanation, saying that the FAA and the Pentagon “acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion. The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region. The restrictions have been lifted and normal flights are resuming.”

Critics blasted the administration.

Pointing to one administration official’s claim about “Mexican cartel drones,” Aaron Fritschner, deputy chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) wrote: “As everyone knows, the standard response to an incursion by ‘Mexican cartel drones’ is a sudden unexplained and poorly communicated 9/11 esque shutdown of all air traffic for ten days that is clumsily revoked a few hours later.”

“This is so obviously a lie,” he charged.

READ MORE: Carville Predicts Trump Will Get a Complete and Total ‘Whipping’

Veteran journalist Kevin Baron, who has a background in global security, defense, intelligence, and foreign policy, called the closure and rapid re-opening, “unnecessarily alarming.”

Astrophysicist and associate professor Robert Rutledge remarked, “We are being lied to by @SeanDuffyWI [Secretary Sean Duffy] and the FAA. This is obviously b — —.”

“There have now been three different explanations given by government sources to reporters for the shut-down of the El Paso airport,” he continued. “If any one of them were correct, the shut down would still be a completely bonkers, unacceptable situation.”

CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem slammed the Defense Department.

“The Pentagon is dangerous,” she wrote. “This is totally outrageous and risky. The American public’s safety is not a pawn in Hegseth and Duffy’s fighting over DOD and DOT control of skies. Hegseth totally at fault here, it seems.”

Responding to an FAA statement, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance asked, “Who is running this clown show?”

Meteorologist Justin Stapleton remarked, “y’all need to get your story straight. This isn’t ok.”

READ MORE: ‘Toast’: Latino GOP Strategist Warns ‘Republicans Are Gonna Lose So Big in November’

 

Image via Reuters 

This article has been updated to include Kayyem’s remarks. 

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‘He Was the Only One’: Trump Mocked for Declaring Iran’s Moves ‘Shocked’ Him

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5 hours ago

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March 16, 2026

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President Donald Trump is facing criticism and mockery after admitting he was “shocked” that Iran fought back against Operation Epic Fury.

“Trump just admitted publicly that his administration underestimated the Iranian response to his attack,” The Washington Post’s Josh Rogin reported.

During a meeting of the board governing the Kennedy Center, Trump said, “look what happened. In the last two weeks, they weren’t supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East. Those missiles were set to go after them. So they hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait. Nobody expected that. We were shocked.”

Focusing on Trump’s “shocked” remark, some critics blasted the president, once again, for what many have previously said is a Commander-in-Chief who was unprepared to go to war against Iran.

The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser called Trump’s comments a “Remarkable admission.”

READ MORE: ‘Lazy and Unstrategic’: GOP Senator Slams ‘Republican on Republican Violence’

Former Republican U.S. Rep. Justin Amash declared, “We are governed by complete morons.”

Podcaster Clint Russell noted, “Just FYI, this is the EXACT reason our generals have consistently advised against a war with Iran. Even Charlie Kirk had laid this all out on his show a couple years ago. Iran was no threat to America but they were fully capable of destroying the global economy by striking oil facilities and transit throughout the region.”

Robert Manning, a Distinguished Fellow in Global Foresight at the nonpartisan Stimson Center, wrote: “If so, he was the only one surprised. Strategic planners have war games this for 40 years. Hard to believe JCS [Joint Chiefs of Staff] didn’t advise Trump this was likely.”

“I’m pretty confident every war plan US has ever done in last 30 years gaming out this conflict was based on expectation that Iran could in fact [and] would in fact do this,” noted The Nation’s Jeet Heer.

“Every institution built to prevent exactly this outcome existed, was bypassed, and we are now watching the president express shock at conclusions that were already written in the classified assessments he didn’t read,” observed Christine Villaverde, the chairwoman of Anchoring Democracy.

READ MORE: Kristi Noem at Center of Push for DOJ Perjury Probe: Report

 

Image via Reuters 

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‘Lazy and Unstrategic’: GOP Senator Slams ‘Republican on Republican Violence’

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6 hours ago

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March 16, 2026

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A prominent Republican senator is denouncing his own party while lamenting the lack of an official presidential endorsement in the highly contentious Texas Republican Senate runoff election.

Agreeing that it is a mistake for President Donald Trump to withhold his endorsement of either Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton or U.S. Senator John Cornyn, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) warned, “I think the more time we spend millions of dollars with Republican-on-Republican violence, Democrats are in the marketing department, loving the idea of a competitive runoff.”

“I get tired of Republicans being lazy and unstrategic,” he told CNN’s Manu Raju, appearing to suggest there are other ways for one of the candidates to pull ahead.

“People on my side of the aisle, and people at the far right of the political spectrum, are trying to swing for the fences, and they’re not gonna succeed,” he warned.

READ MORE: Kristi Noem at Center of Push for DOJ Perjury Probe: Report

A runoff election between Cornyn and Paxton will take place on May 26, and the president has yet to endorse either contender.

Reports suggest a Cornyn endorsement is more likely, although Paxton has been a reliable MAGA supporter. Trump has even suggested that whichever candidate does not get his backing should quit the race entirely, clearing the way for the presumptive nominee to battle the Democratic nominee, James Talarico.

“The Republican Primary Race for the United States Senate in the Great State of Texas,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, on March 4, “cannot, for the good of the Party, and our Country, itself, be allowed to go on any longer. IT MUST STOP NOW! We have an easy to beat, Radical Left Opponent, and we have to TOTALLY FOCUS on putting him away, quickly and decisively!”

He vowed to make his endorsement “soon,” but has yet to do so.

Each passing day gives Talarico more time to campaign and build his war chest as the two GOP contenders spend their time and money battling each other.

READ MORE: Gas Prices Near $4 in These Five States

 

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Gas Prices Near $4 in These Five States

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10 hours ago

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March 16, 2026

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Gas prices are continuing to substantially increase, with five states now hovering near $4 a gallon and several others seeing sharp increases as President Donald Trump’s war in Iran enters its 17th day.

“Big gas price hikes just now starting to happen in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Missouri today, which will likely push the national average to $3.75-$3.80 by mid-week,” reports Patrick De Haan, the head of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy.

But, he also notes that Michigan and the Chicago area are already seeing $3.99 per gallon as of Monday. Indiana drivers are seeing $3.89, and Ohio and Kentucky are seeing $3.79 per gallon.

De Haan directly attributes the increases to the summer gasoline changeover and the ongoing Iran situation.

“The national average is up 80.0 cents from a month ago and is 66.1 cents per gallon higher than a year ago,” WANE reports, citing GasBuddy’s data.

Drivers should not expect to see prices come down significantly anytime soon.

“Until we see a meaningful resumption of oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, upward pressure on fuel prices is likely to persist,” De Haan said. “At the same time, seasonal forces are beginning to intensify as several regions complete the transition to summer gasoline, creating a double headwind that could continue driving pump prices higher in the weeks ahead.”

READ MORE: Kristi Noem at Center of Push for DOJ Perjury Probe: Report

 

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