{"id":1439,"date":"2026-07-25T10:00:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T10:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1439"},"modified":"2026-07-25T10:00:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T10:00:26","slug":"protecting-war-criminals-is-as-american-as-apple-pie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1439","title":{"rendered":"Protecting War Criminals Is As American as Apple Pie"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2253959925.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Protecting War Criminals Is As American as Apple Pie\" title=\"Protecting War Criminals Is As American as Apple Pie\" \/><\/div><p><\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" id=\"\">\n<div id=\"article-title-block_ed481709f55e768ad4ad2db5501020e2\" class=\"article-title \">\n<div class=\"article-title__container\">\n<div class=\"acf-innerblocks-container\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-nation-dek article-title__dek\">\n<p>In this week\u2019s\u00a0<em>Elie v. US,<\/em>\u00a0our justice correspondent bemoans our long failure to prosecute war criminals. Plus: the death of Nolan wells and the nightmare so many Black parents fear.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<aside aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"ad-block ad siderail-ad float-r-w-3 break-r-4\">\n<p>                                    <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/advertising-policy\" class=\"ad-policy\" target=\"_blank\">Ad Policy<\/a><br \/>\n                                    <\/aside>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Mar-a-Lago on December 29, 2025.<span class=\"credits\">(Joe Raedlea Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside id=\"aside-block-block_b7803643964c1c24e6eab7b36e64e2f9\" class=\"aside-block  float-l-w-2\">\n    This is a preview of <em>Nation<\/em> Justice Correspondent Elie Mystal\u2019s weekly newsletter. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/elie\/\" target=\"_blank\">Click here<\/a> to receive this newsletter in your inbox each Friday.<br \/>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"is-style-dropcap\">New Jersey made a mistake. Well, more accurately, software used by New Jersey\u2019s Department of Motor Vehicles made a mistake. The state learned this week that a computer malfunction at the DMV led to approximately 6,600 individuals who indicated that they were <em>not<\/em> US citizens being registered to vote between June 2023 and June 2024. Around 400 of these people who were registered incorrectly voted in a New Jersey election.<\/p>\n<p>New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill apologized for the error, which occurred before she was in office. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.gov\/governor\/news\/2026\/approved\/20260721a.shtml\">She released a statement<\/a> expressing how seriously she takes the problem and assuring the public that the glitch has been fixed and the registrations revoked.<\/p>\n<p>You can imagine how this all went over with the Trump administration. Even before this revelation, the Republican National Committee was working to subpoena voter registration records in New Jersey as part of their endless fishing expedition for alleged voter fraud. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/rnc-denied-access-to-new-jersey-voter-rolls\/\">That request was soundly rejected<\/a> in court. But we can expect the RNC to try again based on this DMV error.<\/p>\n<p>And they\u2019ll be joined by the Trump Department of Justice. The DOJ has now requested the full names, addresses, and voter information of the noncitizens incorrectly registered in New Jersey. There\u2019s no reason for the DOJ to have this data; if anything, the DOJ should be investigating the software company that produced the error, not harassing the people who answered truthfully and were accidently registered anyway.<\/p>\n<p>But something worse than harassment will probably happen to the nearly 400 noncitizens who voted. The DOJ will come down on them like a hammer and, most likely, attempt to detain and deport them.<\/p>\n<p>Since nobody in power in the Democratic Party will have the courage to say this, I will stand on a hill and shout that 400 people voting illegally <em>doesn\u2019t matter<\/em>. Approximately 6,600 people accidentally being registered <em>doesn\u2019t matter<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>New Jersey has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.gov\/state\/elections\/assets\/pdf\/election-results\/2024\/2024-official-general-voter-turnout.pdf\">6,682,699 registered voters<\/a>. The DMV error meant that 0.0988 percent of those voters shouldn\u2019t have been registered. In the 2024 presidential election, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2024_United_States_presidential_election_in_New_Jersey\">4,272,725 people cast a ballot<\/a> in New Jersey. If 400 people did vote illegally, that works out to 0.00936 percent of total ballots cast.<\/p>\n<p>This error is <em>negligible<\/em>. It had no effect\u2014and unlike Governor Sherrill, I don\u2019t take it seriously. Caring about this is like caring that somebody is going (pulls out the calculator) 55.005148 miles per hour in a 55mph zone. This entire \u201cissue\u201d is stupid.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Bad and the Ugly<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"current-issue-block_23474827393027a01fdd9ec899b5ba32\" class=\"current-issue  float-l-w-2\">\n<h4 class=\"current-issue__title\">\n                    Current Issue<br \/>\n            <\/h4>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/issue\/july-august-2026-issue\/\" class=\"current-issue__cover\"><br \/>\n        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/cover0726-1.jpg\" alt=\"Cover of July\/August 2026 Issue\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Trump\u2019s army of election deniers took all the big prizes in Arizona\u2019s Republican primaries this week. Andy Biggs won the GOP primary for governor. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/news-alerts\/trump-backed-election-denier-andy-biggs-wins-arizona-gop-governor-primary\/\">That\u2019s the same Andy Biggs<\/a> who, as a representative in the House, voted against counting his own state\u2019s electoral votes in 2020. Meanwhile, Alex Kolodin won the primary for secretary of state. Kolodin is a longtime election denier <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/news-alerts\/election-denier-alex-kolodin-advances-in-bid-to-oversee-arizona-elections\/\">who helped file the \u201cKraken\u201d lawsuit<\/a> after the 2020 election. Let us hope voters in Arizona actually want their votes counted.<\/li>\n<li>In May, a federal judge ruled that ICE has no authority to make immigration arrests inside New York City immigration courts. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/ice-makes-arrests-at-nyc-immigration-court-despite-court-ban\/\">ICE has made at least six arrests<\/a> inside Manhattan courthouses since being explicitly told it couldn\u2019t.<\/li>\n<li>Workers who say they were laid off from Meta based on metrics gathered by AI were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/no-immediate-relief-for-meta-workers-claiming-ai-fired-them\/\">denied<\/a> a temporary restraining order that would have prevented the company from firing them. The judge ruled that the workers suffered no \u201cimmediate harm\u201d because they can always sue after they\u2019ve been fired if their terminations were legally bogus. I\u2019m starting to wonder if all federal judges were just the kids in middle school who got right up in your face and shouted, \u201cI\u2019m not touching you. You can\u2019t be mad because I\u2019m not touching you.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Trump has rejected nearly 6,000 clemency applications from people who <em>weren\u2019t<\/em> part of the mob he sent to overthrow the government on January 6. While \u201cremoving the presidential pardon power\u201d isn\u2019t at the top of my list of \u201cconstitutional amendments we need right now,\u201d it\u2019s for sure <em>on<\/em> the list.<\/li>\n<li>This won\u2019t technically go down as another ICE murder when the truth and reconciliation commission finally gets going, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/mexican-man-killed-ice-encounter-florida-was-vacation-officials-say-rcna588679\">a Mexican man was killed<\/a> when he was hit by a truck as he tried to run across a busy road to flee ICE. The man was a tourist, just here on vacation, with a valid travel visa. Some might ask, \u201cWell then, why did he run?\u201d The answer is that ICE is terrifying, regularly kidnaps people, and appears to be subject to no law or regulation. Running away from jackboot thugs empowered to violate your body and your rights is the rational play. ICE didn\u2019t hit him with the truck, but it was the ultimate cause of his death.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<section aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"ad fullwidth-ad contained row position-relative ad-block alignfull \">\n    <!--Ad policy starts here--><br \/>\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/advertising-policy\" class=\"mid-ad-policy\">Ad Policy<\/a><br \/>\n        <!--Ad policy ends here--><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"popular-block_849848ca45e0b247d7b01c730ebad728\" class=\"popular-articles\">\n<div class=\"swiper\">\n<p><h2>Popular<\/h2>\n<p>            <span class=\"swipe-msg\"><span class=\"sr-only\">\u201cswipe left below to view more authors\u201d<\/span>Swipe \u2192<\/span>\n        <\/p>\n<ol class=\"popular-articles__list\">\n<li class=\"popular-articles__list-item swiper-slide\">\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"popular-articles__list-item swiper-slide\">\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"popular-articles__list-item swiper-slide\">\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"popular-articles__list-item swiper-slide\">\n<\/li>\n<\/ol><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><strong>Inspired Takes<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I hate that I am aware that Andrew Tate exists. But Jeet Heer explains in <em>The Nation<\/em> why <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/society\/andrew-tate-arrest-maga-connection\/\">I kind of have to be aware of him<\/a>. Among other things, he has the ear of the Trump boys, especially Barron.<\/li>\n<li>I have spent a lot of time thinking about emigrating from this fascist nation. But I always run into the same roadblock: <em>Where the fuck else is measurably better<\/em>? I\u2019m a Black man raising two Black children. Where the hell am I supposed to go? In <em>The Nation<\/em>, Edna Bonhomme tells me \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/world\/germany-racism\/\">not Germany<\/a>.\u201d In fairness, I could have guessed that. Still, the piece is confirmation that, as much as it sucks to be Black here, it sucks to be Black anywhere. Best thing I can say about America is that it is the devil I know.<\/li>\n<li>Journalist Radley Balko <a href=\"https:\/\/radleybalko.substack.com\/p\/suing-stephen-miller?utm_source=post-email-title&amp;publication_id=668365&amp;post_id=207426257&amp;utm_campaign=email-post-title&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=8ivgy&amp;triedRedirect=true&amp;utm_medium=email\">lays out the case<\/a> for suing Stephen Miller. It absolutely needs to happen: Miller needs to go to jail to tell future Stephen Millers that they too might go to jail. But\u2026 I don\u2019t think it will ever happen.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Worst Argument of the Week<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the reasons I have little hope that Miller or any of Trump\u2019s odious henchmen will ever face accountability for their fascist actions is that law professor John Yoo is still out there, free and spreading evil. This is the guy who wrote the torture memos during the George W. Bush administration. He\u2019s literally the legal architect of war crimes. And yet, he\u2019s still a \u201crespected\u201d law professor, at Berkeley no less, who regularly goes on television and is allowed to live a life of freedom, despite being the guy who gave Dick Cheney the legal cover for waterboarding. Justice never comes for these people.<\/p>\n<p>Yoo is back in the news because he has the ear of the current administration, and he\u2019s arguing for lawfare against the guy who scares Republicans the most: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s visit to the UN General Assembly this fall, Mamdani said he\u2019d \u201clook into\u201d what his options were to arrest the man. Netanyahu is on the lam from the International Criminal Court, which has issued a warrant for his arrest. Mamdani said he\u2019d ask his lawyers if there is anything he can do about that.<\/p>\n<p>He could have asked me (though I\u2019d like to think I\u2019ve priced myself out of a city government salary). The answer is \u201cno.\u201d Netanyahu is protected by diplomatic immunity while traveling to the United Nations. Mamdani literally can\u2019t even give him a parking ticket. And that [<em>deep existential sigh<\/em>] is as it should be. Leaders from all over the world must be able to travel freely to the UN for the UN to function, and those leaders include strongmen and dictators and people some countries perceive as \u201cevil.\u201d Diplomatic immunity must exist, and must be respected. New Yorkers are not uncivilized thugs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=72CGIoS_EDU\">like the Spartans<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also a law, the American Service-Members\u2019 Protection Act, that prevents Mamdani from doing anything. This is a Bush era law that prevents US officials from working with the International Criminal Court in any capacity. The Bush regime was particularly interested in not being held accountable for war crimes.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the law Yoo invoked on Fox News while declaring that Mamdani should be investigated by the Justice Department. But, as Joe Patrice explained at <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2026\/07\/john-yoo-wants-doj-to-investigate-mamdani-for-crime-he-literally-did-not-commit\/\"><em>Above the Law<\/em><\/a>, Yoo overplayed his hand. You can\u2019t investigate a guy for talking to a lawyer. You can\u2019t charge a guy for breaking the law when he hasn\u2019t broken it. Mamdani called around, asked a few experts; they ultimately told him that Netanyahu is untouchable, and\u2014as Mamdani <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/07\/22\/nyregion\/mamdani-netanyahu-speech.html\">acknowledged<\/a>\u2014that\u2019s that. Yoo\u2019s attempt to threaten Mamdani is just another case of MAGA trying to gin up some reason to go after the popular lefty mayor.<\/p>\n<p>The American Service-Members\u2019 Protection Act<em> <\/em>is, by the way, a shit law. It\u2019s something that either Obama or Biden should have repealed the first chance they got. It\u2019s sometimes called the \u201cHague Invasion Act\u201d because it preposterously argues that the United States can send military forces to the Hague to stage a prison break should one of our people be held there for, let\u2019s not forget, <em>war crimes<\/em> or <em>crimes against humanity<\/em>. Any American president should be willing to abide by the rules of the International Criminal Court, and the fact that none of them do\u2014not Republican presidents nor Democratic presidents\u2014is a stain on our country and one of the (many) reasons we\u2019re viewed as global thugs.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, neither Benjamin Netanyahu nor John Yoo should be able to travel to any country that respects international law. Fortunately for both of them, our country protects war criminals.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What I Wrote<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t put anything on the board this week, but, in fairness to me, it\u2019s the middle of the summer, and my kids are done with camp. Also, Jay Willis on <em>Balls and Strikes<\/em> wrote everything I was going to say about the Supreme Court\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/ballsandstrikes.org\/court-reform\/supreme-court-polling-2026-midterms\/\">declining poll numbers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In News Unrelated to the Current Chaos<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I haven\u2019t written about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/jul\/19\/nolan-wells-mississippi-investigation\">the Nolan Wells situation<\/a>. Wells was an 18-year-old college football player who disappeared over Fourth of July weekend after a boat trip with friends to Horn Island, off the Mississippi Gulf coast. Wells and a bunch of friends went out, but Wells never came back. His body was found six days later. Mississippi officials have not released the autopsy, although the family ordered a private autopsy that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/nolan-wells-independent-autopsy-results-undetermined-cause-manner-deat-rcna588578\">came back inconclusive<\/a> as to the cause of death.<\/p>\n<p>I haven\u2019t written about it because, even though Wells\u2019s family has hired high-powered lawyer Benjamin Crump, there\u2019s nothing for me to say about the legal, or potentially criminal, circumstances surrounding his death. We don\u2019t know how he died, we don\u2019t know why he died, and while the Mississippi officials appear incredibly unconcerned about his death, there\u2019s not as of yet a cause of action against the state that I can see.<\/p>\n<p>I can only speak about Wells as a parent, and the Wells situation strikes at an acute fear I think is shared, in full, only by other Black parents. Wells happens to be Black, but most of the friends he went on the trip with are white. I can tell you that sending your Black child to any kind of party with predominantly white friends is its own special kind of terror.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re not worried that the white friends are going to kill or lynch your child, not exactly anyway. You\u2019re more worried that, <em>should others decide it\u2019s time for a lynching<\/em>, the white friends will be of no help. You\u2019re not exactly worried that the white friends are going to <em>do<\/em> something; you\u2019re worried that they <em>won\u2019t do anything<\/em> when something needs to be done. You\u2019re worried that, in an all-white crowd, your kid is alone, even if the kid thinks they\u2019re with a bunch of friends.<\/p>\n<p>Wells\u2019s white friends <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/nolan-wells-close-friend-breaks-silence-on-what-he-saw-hours-before-teen-died-12024222\">all claim<\/a> that they have no idea what happened to him. I believe them. I have no reason not to believe them. But that\u2019s kind of the point: a whole group of friends, and nobody knows what happened to the Black one. A whole group of buddies, and nobody was looking out for the Black one\u2014on an island in Mississippi, of all places.<\/p>\n<p>And don\u2019t even get me started on how this situation would play out if the races were reversed. If a bunch of Black kids with one white friend went out to an island, and the white one didn\u2019t come home, the Black kids would be <em>under the jail<\/em> until somebody \u201cremembered\u201d something.<\/p>\n<p>In college, I had a couple of white friends I could trust. On campus, it was whatever, but if we ever went into Boston, they wouldn\u2019t leave me. They knew they <em>couldn\u2019t<\/em> leave me. They couldn\u2019t let me be the lone Black guy trying to drunkenly get home on the train out of Southie. They had to be around to hail the cab I couldn\u2019t otherwise get.<\/p>\n<p>I survived college. And I\u2019m still friends with them to this day. When I watch my children interact with their white friends in and around school\u2026 this is literally the only quality I\u2019m looking for.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">***<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>If you enjoyed this installment of\u00a0<\/em>Elie v. U.S<em>.,\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/elie\/\"><em>click here<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" id=\"article-end-\" class=\"article-end \">\n<div class=\"article-end__authors\">\n<div class=\"article-end__author\">\n<h5 class=\"article-end__author-name\">\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/elie-mystal\/\">Elie Mystal<\/a><br \/>\n                    <\/h5>\n<p>                                            <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ElieNYC\" class=\"article-end__author-twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><br \/>\n                            <default:svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"17\" height=\"14\" viewbox=\"0 0 17 14\" fill=\"none\"><br \/>\n\t<default:path fill-rule=\"evenodd\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M15.2054 3.54558C15.2122 3.6951 15.215 3.84463 15.215 3.99527C15.215 8.58792 11.7194 13.8834 5.32683 13.8834C3.36455 13.8834 1.53779 13.3083 0 12.3221C0.271606 12.354 0.548252 12.3702 0.828257 12.3702C2.45677 12.3702 3.95536 11.8147 5.14483 10.8829C3.62384 10.8543 2.34085 9.84963 1.89844 8.4692C2.11068 8.51008 2.32797 8.53136 2.55253 8.53136C2.87006 8.53136 3.17695 8.48936 3.46815 8.40984C1.87772 8.09008 0.680414 6.68501 0.680414 5.00273C0.680414 4.98705 0.680414 4.97305 0.680414 4.95793C1.14858 5.21833 1.68452 5.37514 2.25461 5.39362C1.32219 4.76921 0.708415 3.7063 0.708415 2.5006C0.708415 1.8633 0.879778 1.26633 1.17882 0.753361C2.89302 2.85621 5.45395 4.23887 8.34249 4.38392C8.28313 4.12967 8.25233 3.86423 8.25233 3.59206C8.25233 1.6729 9.80861 0.117188 11.7278 0.117188C12.7274 0.117188 13.6301 0.539436 14.2641 1.21425C15.0559 1.05913 15.8002 0.769041 16.4716 0.370873C16.2118 1.18289 15.6602 1.86386 14.9428 2.29395C15.6462 2.20939 16.3159 2.02235 16.9392 1.74626C16.4739 2.44292 15.8842 3.05557 15.2054 3.54558Z\" fill=\"#666666\"\/><br \/>\n<\/default:svg><br \/>\n                        <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-end__author-bio\">\n<p>Elie Mystal is\u00a0<em>The Nation<\/em>\u2019s justice correspondent and a columnist. He is also an Alfred Knobler Fellow at the Type Media Center. He is the author of two books: the <em>New York Times<\/em> bestseller <a href=\"https:\/\/thenewpress.com\/books\/allow-me-retort\"><em>Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy\u2019s Guide to the Constitution<\/em><\/a> and <em>Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America<\/em>, both published by The New Press. You can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/elie\/\">subscribe to his <em>Nation<\/em> newsletter <em>Elie v. U.S.<\/em>\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script type=\"e1aafd0b62f25922836c3c43-text\/javascript\">\n\t\t!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n\t\t{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n\t\tn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n\t\tif(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n\t\tn.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n\t\tt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n\t\ts.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script', 'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n\t\tfbq('init', '233793277040432');\n\t\tfbq('track', 'PageView');\n\t\t\t\t<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this week\u2019s\u00a0Elie v. US,\u00a0our justice correspondent bemoans our long failure to prosecute war criminals. Plus: the death of Nolan wells and the nightmare so many Black parents fear. Ad Policy U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Mar-a-Lago on December 29, 2025.(Joe Raedlea Getty Images) This is a preview of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2253959925.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[2135,2097,2842,2843,1397,1556],"class_list":["post-1439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-american","tag-apple","tag-criminals","tag-pie","tag-protecting","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}