The Philip DeFranco Show - IT'S ABOUT TO GET WORSE! Trump Charlotte Subway Stabbing Fallout, Chicago War Threats, & Bad Polling

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

Charlotte Stabbing Reactions & Trump’s Department of War Threats on Chicago & Bad Polling Expose What is Coming Next… You’re 30 seconds away from being debt free with PDS Debt. Get your free assessment and find the best option for you at https://PDSDebt.com/defranco   https://BeautifulBastard.com Grab your new Tees, crewnecks, and tanks rn! LISTEN TO THE SHOW iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-philip-defranco-show/id1278424954 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ESemquRbz6f8XLVywdZ2V WATCH/LISTEN TO MY NEW PODCAST w/ Ari Cohn Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2CePXwDrvdQTes844wflKp?si=55a6b6049c4841ed Youtube: https://youtube.com/acw?sub_confirmation=1 iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-good-faith-with-philip-defranco/id1827016835 JOIN OUR COMMUNITY 📸Instagram: https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco  🐦Twitter: https://twitter.com/phillyd  🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipdefranco  TODAY’S STORIES 00:00 - Ukrainian Refugee Stabbed on North Carolina Bus 07:07 - Trump Walks Back Threat to Deploy Newly Named “Dept. of War” in Chicago  13:07 - Sponsored by PDS Debt 14:10 - Russian Strike Hits Ukraine’s Primary Government Building 19:08 - NEW Beautiful Bastard Drop! 19:43 - Navy SEALs Reportedly Killed North Korean Civilians in Botched Mission THE TEAM Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle, Jared Paolino   ———————————— #DeFranco #DonaldTrump #NorthCarolina Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And ask your family eye care professional For SLR Stellist Lenses at your child's next visit This horrific stabbing of a young woman in Charlotte Has shocked the nation, sparked backlash And is already being used by some To justify Donald Trump's threats To unleash his newly crowned Department of War On Democrat cities, starting with Chicago.

The secret details we're now learning about a botch Seal Team 6 rate at North Korea are wild. And what's really happening with Russia, Ukraine, and the United States because the words aren't matching the actions on several fronts. We're talking about all of that on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show you daily dive into the news, starting with this. This woman was stabbed to death on a train by this man in Charlotte, North Carolina, and it has sparked national outrage and very, very big conversations. Because while this actually happened last month, the video showing the moments before the attack, they were just released, and it's now tying

into a lot of what else we're seeing in the country. Before we get into that part, we need to break down what exactly we know about what happened. Right, so the woman here is a Ukrainian refugee named Irina Zorutska. She reportedly fled Kiev in 2022, and on August 22nd, a little before 10 p.m., she boarded the Charlotte Area Transit System's blue line. She ended up sitting down right in front of the man who would end up taking her life. And you had a detective explaining in an affidavit what happened next, saying the train travels for approximately four and a half minutes before the suspect pulls knife from his

pocket, unfolds the knife, pauses, then stands up and strikes at the victim three times. With them adding, blood visibly drips on the floor as the defendant walks away from. the victim. The victim goes unresponsive shortly after the attack. There appears to be no interaction between the victim and defendant. And then as far as the killer, he is 34-year-old De Carlos Brown. And a very big thing that's been highlighted here is that, according to reports, he has 14 previous court cases in just Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. And with those, you see things like in 2015, for example, he was sentenced to six years in prison for a robbery with a dangerous weapon, breaking and entering, and larceny. You also have his mom telling

reporters that he changed when he got home from prison saying he started saying weird things, he started saying that he wasn't in his body, saying he became aggressive, and she was actually able to get an involuntary commitment order from the courts and saying that when he underwent psychiatric monitoring for two weeks, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. But then ultimately, he ended up getting released and he became so aggressive that she said she had no choice but to kick him out, leaving him homeless. And then as far as his most recent arrest, it was for misusing 911, where according to a January arrest record, he told responding officers that he believed someone gave him man-made material that was inside his body, controlling when he ate, walked, and

talked. But despite all that, he was reportedly never hospitalized or jailed following that call, and his mom has actually blamed the court for allowing her son to be out in the community, knowing his previous arrests and mental health issues and saying that Zerutska's death could have been prevented. But with all that said, as far as this guy, he's been charged with first-degree murder, and his lawyer said that he'll file a motion for an evaluation of his competency to stand trial because of his long history of mental health issues. And in the meantime, he's being held without bond and his next court appearances reportedly scheduled for September 19. You know, while we wait to see how this case progresses, including if he's deemed

fit to stand trial, I mean, we also have to talk about how this case has been covered or rather They're not covered, and how that's part of the backlash that we're seeing. Because you're seeing places like ground news saying that as a recording, the killing has been covered far more by right-wing media outlets. Right, and then with that, you're seeing big social media accounts, specifically accusing major national news outlets of not covering the situation because of the racial dynamics of the whole thing. Some, then also contrasting it to the case of Daniel Penny.

Right, Penny was that white guy who ended up choking to death, a homeless man who was threatening passengers on a subway car in Manhattan in 2023. And that ended up being a super high-profile case where a jury ultimately found him not guilty. So now you've got the situation where you have a black man. killing a white woman and you have accounts sharing lists of news outlets who hadn't yet covered the killing and one adding every single one of them wrote stories on daniel penny do you get it yet also had the likes of bennie johnson writing she ran from war in ukraine she came here for safety and america failed her the adding this wasn't random this was preventable there is a war on white people her blood is on the hands of a system that lets

violent criminals roam while innocent people pay the price if she were black and her killer white the media would be rioting non-stop but because she's white they stay silent this is evil and it's deliberate With all that, one, you had some pushing back that he was actually concerned about a Ukrainian refugee, noting that he'd been previously revealed to have been paid indirectly by Russia as part of a secret political influence operation. In that, in addition to a number of his other opinions that he shared. Two, you have many noting that right now, police have so far only said that the attack appeared to be random. Noting that the authorities haven't given any evidence to suggest that this was racially motivated. Also, I'll say with that, not all of the backlash has been about race.

A lot of the focus has been on the fact that the killer had been arrested so many times, reportedly had a known mental illness and was still out on the street. So then with that, you had people like Elon Musk calling on his followers to name and shame the DAs and judges who enable murder, rape and robbery, but especially shame those who funded the campaigns of the DAs and judges. You then had Congressman Randy Fine taking it even further, saying he has plans to introduce legislation to hold judges accountable if they release violent offenders who go on to later re-offend and adding, those 12-plus judges that released to Carlos Brown Jr. should have their day in court too. And then finally, you had some really explicitly making this an attack on the Democratic Party or just Democrats in general. And some of those attacks came from the very top with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who already recently called the Democratic Party a domestic extremist organization now writing. The Democrat Party, at every level, judges, politicians, academics, non-profits,

is organized around the defense and protection of the criminal, the monstrous and the depraved. You then also had the Republican representing the area blaming what happened on decades of Democrat DAs and sheriffs, putting their woke agendas above public safety and adding, violent criminals commit crimes with impunity while families live in fear. And then finally, you had North Carolina Senate candidate, Wotley, using the case to accuse his Democratic opponent, Roy Cooper, of being soft on crime. With him pointing to an executive order that Cooper signed in 2020 when he was governor that established a racial profiling task force and sought to reduce systemic racism, though

it didn't call for the release of suspects. But then also, in addition to all that, this has raised some real questions, not only about Charlotte, but even, I would say, the nation's judicial system and the mechanisms in place for addressing mental health. Even this guy's mom said he should not have been out on the street, and maybe there are others. Last month, in fact, Charlotte police got into a shootout with a man described as acting erratically. And notably, the family had tried to get an involuntary commitment for that guy the day before, but a magistrate denied the request. And so then with all of that said, there is this question. We as a country move forward in a way where we address the issue, but also understand the number realities. Because

one of the things we know is, just like nationwide, violent crime rates in Charlotte have actually been decreasing, at least as of July, when violent crime had decreased 25 percent compared to last year, and that was according to police. But that's also not to say that we can just dismiss the violent crimes that we just talked about. And while you have many experts saying there is no real evidence linking crime trends to leadership by either political party. That in no way means you shouldn't expect Trump to try to use this incident as a way to justify cleaning up the streets across the country, potentially by using the military. Right, because, well, it still doesn't seem to have a firm grasp on all the details,

saying the stabbing happened this morning or last night. He has suggested something needs to be done. I just give my love and hope to the family of the young woman who was stabbed this morning or last night in Charlotte by a madman, a lunatic, just got up and started. It's right on the tape, not really watchable because it's so horrible. But just viciously stab, she's just sitting there. So they're evil people. We have to be able to handle that.

If we don't handle that, we don't have a country. And then with all that, you also had an advisor telling Axios, this is exactly what he's talking about, and it's going to be an issue he's going to highlight. This is not just about North Carolina. Other campaigns will deal with this. With a madding, crime is not a data thing. It's a feeling thing.

It's not about whether you're a victim. it's about whether you feel you're a victim or not. But then next up in the news from that, we've got to talk about Trump's threats against the city of Chicago and his executive order to rename the Department of Defense, the Department of War. And you had Trump saying that this new name

demonstrates our ability and willingness to fight and win wars on behalf of our nation at a moment's notice, not just to defend. Now a big note here is that Trump, like, he didn't come up with his name on his own. The Department of Defense actually used to be called that until after World War II when the name was officially changed by Congress,

which is actually a sticking point here. This name change or so-called name restoration, it doesn't have congressional approval, which means it isn't official yet. In fact, Trump's executive order even acknowledges that, saying that the new name will be used as a secondary title to the current one. All of which then brings us to the reactions, and as you can imagine, there have been many, both positive and negative. But probably some of the most important ones were from those within the department itself,

with former and current Pentagon officials telling Politico that this rebrand will cost ridiculous amounts of money for what they call a cosmetic change that isn't going to do much to address the big issues that the military is dealing with right now. For things like countering an aggressive alliance of authoritarian nations with one former defense official saying, this is purely for domestic political audiences. Not only will this cost millions of dollars, it will have absolutely zero impact on Chinese or Russian calculations. Worse, it will be used by our enemies to portray the United States as war mongering and a threat to international stability. But hey, regardless, we're starting to see some changes already, like the rebranding on the department, social media.

The website was changed from defense.gov to word.gov, and the word defense was actually scraped from the walls within the Pentagon. Even at Defense Secretary Pete Heggseth's title being changed, war secretary, and several photos and videos a new signage outside of his office gaining traction online, though that's really just the beginning. With all that, you've got officials saying they're expecting a long-term headache from all this. And I mean, there's so many different things that you might not even think of. Because while the details of the order are still vague, right, you have to think about things like there's a chance that the department's going to have to change defense department seals on more than 700,000 facilities and 40 countries in all 50 states. And that, it includes everything from

letterhead for six military branches and dozens more. agencies down to emboss napkins and feast halls, embroidered jackets for Senate-confirmed officials, and even knick-knacks of the Pentagon gift shop. And so at the very least, it is not expected to be cheap, which has prompted its own backlash, even from supporters of the U.S. military. With some saying things like perhaps a significant amount of money spent making new signs, office placards, and letterhead would be better used ensuring our warfighters of the training and weapons they need to accomplish the missions they are given and to return home to their families. And all of this, I think it is worth noting, even though it is very likely falling on deaf ears.

move and Trump's justification for it are directly contradictory to the promises that he made of peace and ending all wars when he was on the campaign trail. Like I know we live in an age of two second memories, but he was on the campaign trail saying he was the anti-war option that the White House just branded him as the president of peace last month. All of which had Pete Buttigieg saying it's an odd move from the president who worked so hard to convince his base that he was anti-war, though he then added no doubt he'd rather have folks puzzling over this than thinking about his deep bond with Jeffrey Epstein. Which actually, I was a even going to talk about this today because it was just so ridiculous. Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson over the weekend, claimed that President Trump was an anti-Ebstein FBI informant. I'll just show you the clip. He's not saying that what Epstein did as a hoax. It's a terrible, unspeakable evil. He believes that himself.

When he first heard the rumor, he kicked him out of Marilago. Who's an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down? The president knows and has great sympathy for the women who have suffered these unspeakable harm. It's detestable to him. He and I've spoken about this as recently as 24 hours ago. Such a crazy statement. So crazy.

It even looks like he looks. directly, like it's a sitcom over to the camera like, is anyone believing what I'm saying right now? I mean, it was such a crazy statement. Even the White House was like, we don't know what this man's talking about. Johnson ended up as much as he can walking back that statement on Sunday. But back onto the topic of our war president Trump, something else that many say flies in the face of his president of peace branding is that one of his first actions after the name change was threatening to bring his department of war down on Chicago. Because on Saturday, Trump shared yet another bad AI generated image of his face on someone else's body. But it appeared not be a

reference to the 1979 film Apocalypse now, except the title read Chypocalypse now. With Trump batting, I love the smell of deportations in the morning. Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of War. And as you might imagine, that wasn't received well by many, including officials within Illinois, including Governor J.B. Pritzker. With him responding on X, the President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn't a strong man. He's a scared man.

Illinois won't be intimidated by a wannabe dictator. And you had that sentiment being echoed by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, as well as Illinois, Senator Dick Durbin, and all of this is made worse because this threat, it follows weeks of comments from Trump about sending troops into cities led by Democrats across the country. Similar to what he's done in D.C., with Chicago being one of the most talked about targets. And that's also his immigration enforcement operations are set to ramp up within the city, which then led to thousands of protesters gathering to the streets of Chicago on Saturday, and a couple hundred even blocked an ice processing center at one point. But then all of that, it brings us to yesterday when, for whatever reason,

you saw Trump walking back his threat of war in Chicago. That's fake news. I don't go to war. Listen. Be quiet. Listen. You don't listen. You never listen.

That's why you're second race. We're not going to war. We're going to clean up our cities. We're going to clean them up so they don't kill five people every weekend. That's not war. That's common sense. The that, of course, flies in the face of everyone saying when the president says he's going to crack down on someone, believe him.

Noting that he has a tendency to say what he means, even if it's extreme, then pulling back. And then slowly, whatever the norm is, shit. to the more extreme. Right, in this angle of Trump declaring war on democratic cities or whatever way he kind of frames it, you should definitely expect and prepare for more of it because him being tough on crime is the thing he's least worst being polled on right now. According to an aggregate of polls about Trump's approval on major issues, very down on trade, very down on the economy, very down on foreign policy, but only a little down when it comes to crime and immigration. He is still in the negatives there, but only by a little, and it looks like they're seeing that as a place of opportunity. far as if that's going to be successful or not, or he's going to alienate even more people.

We'll have to wait to see. But then in a one-minute break that helps keep the show free, let me say, have you ever noticed how paying off debt, it feels like running on a treadmill that somehow speeds up every time you step on it? You pay a bill, feel good, and then, bam, interest, late fees, surprise charges. And while it's not luck, the system is built to keep you stuck. Credit card companies, banks, lenders, they profit while you stress. But today's sponsor, PDS debt, they flipped a script. Credit cards, handled, personal loans, covered medical bills, Yeah, they help people actually escape the debt trap. No credit score hoops, no shame, just a plan design for your situations by humans who actually care. And hundreds of thousands of people

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in the news from that, we've got to talk about how Russia just hit Ukraine with its largest aerial attack of the war hitting the main government building in Kiev and reportedly killing at least five people across the country, including a mom and her baby. As far as the United States of it all, Trump, he possibly might maybe consider doing something to ramp up the pressure on Putin, especially as it appears he's grown more and more frustrated with the Russian leader. Last week, he even accused Putin as well as Chinese President Xi Jinping of joining with North Korea to, quote, conspire against the United States. Though, for all of that, his threats to punish Russia have so far been empty.

More than one deadline that he's set for Putin has come and gone without consequence. And, I mean, his most aggressive measure so far was instead directed towards India. He slapped imports from India with 50% tariffs in response to the country's continued purchase of Russian oil. And there all of Trump's back and forth words on this, Putin, I mean, he's acted like he's getting ready for this war to last a lot longer. He's reportedly opened two new drone factories and at least two cities over the past year, and according to Ukraine's military intelligence agency, Russia now produces

2,700 Iranian-designed Shahad drones every month, which then makes it not that much of a surprise to learn that Russia has been setting new records nearly every month for the number of weapons launch, including, of course, yesterday. And with all that, you had Ukrainian President Zelensky saying that attack involved more than 800 drones and 13 missiles, and adding, such killings now and real diplomacy could have already begun long ago are a deliberate crime and a prolongation of the war. It has been repeatedly said in Washington that sanctions will follow a refusal to talk and then adding, we must implement everything that was agreed in Paris. Right, and what he's referring to there is the meeting of the so-called coalition of the

willing last week, where you had the French president Emmanuel Macron announcing that 26 nations formerly committed to be present on the ground and the sea or in the air as a reassurance force in Ukraine the day after a ceasefire or peace. So that is one, Macron claimed that some of the remaining coalition members had not yet taken a position. And two, with that, major countries like Poland, Germany and Italy, along with the U.S., of course, are among those who have declared they will not put troops on the ground in Ukraine, even if a deal is reached. Though you have France, the UK, and the tiny Baltic states of Estonia and Lithuania suggesting they might actually deploy troops in a post-war Ukraine.

And with that, Macron later clarified that some of the countries involved in providing security guarantees would do so while remaining in NATO member countries or by making their bases available. Though I will say from some of the reporting that we've seen so far, the overall number of troops on the ground in Ukraine would reportedly be more than 10,000, and they'd be split into two main groups. One would provide training and assistance to the Ukrainian military, and the second would act as a separate reassurance force meant to discourage a future Russian invasion. And so with all that, you had Zelensky obviously praising the plan, though notably we're

still waiting for a clear statement from Trump on whether the plan has his support and what, if any kind of backup, could be expected from the U.S. military. Because Trump, I mean, he is seemingly warm to the idea of the U.S. providing some form of security guarantee to Ukraine, though not boots on the ground, but possibly in the form of air power. As you have that, and you also have U.S. officials reportedly telling their European counterparts that the U.S. could provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. But again, it's ultimately going to be up to Trump, and we really haven't heard anything solid from him. And in fact, last week, you had the U.S. ending support for programs that were all about helping our armies in Eastern Europe prepare for a potential Russian offensive.

And so it's not surprising that you've got people like the head of the Paris office of the German Marshall Fund saying, the questions we had before remain the same. And we still don't know whether the United States is ready to provide a backstop that many of the contributors expect. And as a now, the situation is similar when it comes to talks about sanctions. Because, you know, after the attack this weekend, you had U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson saying that the U.S. is prepared to increase. pressure on Russia, but that we need our European partners to follow us. We're in a race now between, how long can the Ukrainian military hold up? And if the U.S. and the EU can come in do more sanctions, secondary tariffs on the countries that buy Russian oil, the Russian economy will be in full collapse, and that will bring

President Putin to the table. Right. And then you also had Trump saying yesterday that he was ready to move to the second phase of sanctions targeting Russia, but you'll stop short as saying what exactly he meant by that. Though I will say perhaps we might know soon if there is something real here because the EU's most senior sanctions on where we reportedly met with the Trump administration yesterday. So we're going to have to see what comes from that, especially because you had Trump saying that he'd speak with Putin in the next couple of days. Though a very big note to remember there is that the last time that happened in Alaska, he walked

away talking about Ukraine giving up massive chunks of its territory. And all of that, it led to Zelensky doing an ABC News interview that aired just yesterday saying that he thinks that Trump gave Putin what he wanted, essentially a photo op with the president. of the United States. All while, Putin really hasn't shown any sign of being intimidated or really willing to work with anyone. He responded to the idea of foreign troops in Ukraine to provide security guarantees by claiming that if that happened, especially now during military operations, they would be

legitimate targets for destruction. And adding, if decisions are reached that lead to long-term peace, then I simply see no reason for their presence on Ukrainian territory. The one that completely disregards Russia and Putin's history of just not honoring agreements of this type. And two, you had the NATO Secretary General clapping back saying, why are we interested? did in what Russia thinks about troops in Ukraine. It's a sovereign country. It's not for them to decide. And then with that, you had him pointing to European military and intelligence officials

who have warned of Russian plans to strike other European countries and adding, we have to make sure that our deterrence is such that they will never try, knowing that our reaction will be devastated. But then from that, finally today, a little self-promo with an also just this crazy story. For the promo, if you haven't gotten in yet on the Beautifulbastor.com drop we just had, it's fantastic. Stride for better times. Don't let dread and move with serenity. My personal favorites are better times in black or cream. Don't let dread it in maroon and black. And move with serenity in forest green and cream.

And that's for the shirts and the crude eggs. And right now, as we're doing a restock of our other blanks, these are on our BB-28 teeth, so they're only $28 and just lower cost in general. A while, of course, still feeling and looking fantastic. Whether you get in on that or not, brace yourself for this final story. Because then there's no clean way to do a transition from this. We got to talk about how Navy SEAL shot up a boat full of North Korean civilians back in 2019 and how we're just now learning about it.

Right, because the New York Times interviewed dozens of people for this, including civilians, government officials, members of the first Trump administration, and current and former military personnel with knowledge of the mission, and they even kept stuff out of this craziness because it might endanger future missions. And all of this, it starts back in 2018, where the whole North Korea situation, it sort of seemed to be improving. Kim Jong-un suspended all nuclear and missile tests. He started negotiating with the U.S. and South Korea, with the North even saying, hey, maybe we're open to ending the nuclear program. You know, the United States, they were like, I doubt that. And so American intelligence agencies spoke to the White House,

and they're like, hey, we got a plan. We've got this device that can intercept Kim Jong-un's communications, but there is a small catch. You're going to have to sneak into North Korea and plant the device. And ideally, you do it without getting detected because, you know, that could collapse the peace talks. Or worse, you could have a hostage situation on your hands.

Or even worse, you'd escalate things with a nuclear arm nation. And in fact, during Trump's first term, you had top leaders in the Pentagon believing that even minor military action against North Korea could spiral into what they called the worst kind of fighting. I mean, possibly even involving the 28,000 American troops stationed in South Korea. But ultimately, it was decided that it was worse, the risk in the military pick SEAL Team 6's Red Squadron, the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden,

to do the job. And actually, part of the reason they were like, yeah, they can do this job is because they had done something like it before. But according to Times reporting, in 2005, the SEALs used a minisub to go ashore, North Korea, and they left unnoticed. And so yeah, in 2018, Donald Trump gives approval to joint special operations to at least start preparing. And so the SEALs, they practiced for months in U.S. waters all the way into the first weeks of 2019. And then in February, Trump announces he is going to meet Kim Jong-un and Vietnam at the end of the month. And so the mission, it finally goes ahead. And the plan reportedly called for the Navy to sneak a nuclear-powered submarine off the coast to North Korea. And from there, you had a small team of

of seals and two mini-subs, each about the size of a killer whale, with those meant to bring them about 100 yards from shore, and from there they would swim. And these mini-subs, they're known as wet subs, meaning that the seals had to spend the two hours getting there immersed in 40-degree ocean water using scuba gear and heated suits to survive. Right. And a huge thing here is that they were going in pretty much blind. Their communications were limited, and that's because a drone flying overhead or even an intercepted encrypted transmission could give the whole mission away. And then, well, in the months prior, they had satellites and high altitude spy planes surveilling the missionary or from Munch trying to find out when people wouldn't be there.

There ended up being a small boat there. So when the seals reached ashore, thinking that they were alone, but then looking back and seeing, that was not the case, they opened fire. And when they went back to the boat to make sure that everyone was dead, they found the bodies of two or three people who appear to be civilians diving for shellfish. So the seals then pulled the bodies into the water to hide them from the North Korean authorities, but one source telling the times that they had punctured the boat cruise lungs with knives to make sure that the bodies would sink. And ultimately, of course,

they abandoned the mission and got the hell out of there immediately afterward. And while U.S. spy satellites immediately afterward picked up a surge of North Korean military activity in the area, North Korea didn't make any public statements about the deaths, and it was reportedly never clear whether they ever pieced everything together about what happened and who was responsible. So ultimately, the nuclear summit in Vietnam, it went ahead as planned, though it didn't end in a deal. And in May, you had North Korea resuming missile tests. And actually, in the months that followed, North Korea fired more missiles than in any previous year, including some capable of reaching the United States, which I will say, in fact, the U.S. government now reportedly estimates that

North Korea has around 50 nuclear weapons and missiles that can reach the West Coast. All while, Kim Jong-un is pledged to keep expanding his nuclear program exponentially to deter what he calls U.S. provocations, which I'll say regarding the mission or provocation that we're talking about today, the U.S. military reportedly determined that the killing of the civilians was justified under the rules of engagement. And all of this is the Trump administration reportedly never told top leaders of the committees and Congress overseeing military and intelligence activities about the operation or the findings, which notably may have violated federal law. But then also, beyond that, what we're learning now is also raising questions about the stuff that the military is doing that

we're not seeing. Because the SEALs, they've had some huge and high-profile successes, but they've also had a lot of missions that go badly. It actually led to Obama cutting Blackspeck op missions late in the second term and increased oversight, reserving complex seal-style raids for special situations like hostage rescues. But then the first Trump administration got rid of many of those restrictions and reduced the amount of high-level deliberation for sensitive missions. And in fact, a few days after taking office in 2017, Trump reportedly skipped over much of the normal decision-making process to authorize a SEAL Team 6 rate on a village in Yemen. And actually, that was a mission that left 30 villagers dead, a seal dead, and destroyed a $75 million stealth aircraft. Right, and all of this, it's standout news on its own.

But you also have people saying that it is important to keep this in mind, as we're also now seeing this version of Trump openly taking military action in several ways. Whether it be, one, the threats to U.S. cities descend in the military. But also, too, I mean, we're seeing things like last week, the U.S. military killed 11 people in international waters, and, They claim they did this because they were drug smugglers, though they did it without presenting evidence. So to be clear, according to most experts who understand the law, even if there was evidence, even if it was in international waters, you can't just go around killing people with an NYU law professor saying, it's difficult to imagine how any lawyers inside the Pentagon could have arrived at a conclusion that this was legal rather than the very definition of murder under international law rules that the Defense Department has long accepted.

Hey, that is where I'm going to end today's show today. If you have thoughts, opinions, reactions to this last story or anything else that stood out to you today, I'd love to hear from you in those comments down below. Of course, remember, yes, this is a daily news show, but I also wanted to be a conversation. One, of course, that we will continue to have tomorrow. For now, you can watch the newest episode of my podcast right here. You can click or tap. Or you can watch the newest Philip DeFranco show that's not this one right here right here right here. I've even got links for both of those in the description where you can get filled in on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or YouTube. Thanks for watching. I love yo faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.