Happy Sunday, and welcome to the RedState Weekly Briefing — where we take a quick look at the week’s most viewed stories in case you missed any of them. What do you suppose caught people's attention as we roll into late August? Grab a cup of coffee (or something stronger if you're so inclined) and sit down with this 21st-century Weekend Edition of your favorite (online) publication.
#1 - Trump Has a Nasty Surprise Waiting for Mexican Illegal Aliens – and 'Mexico Is Not Happy' — by Teri Christoph
Two unnamed administration officials reportedly confirmed that the anywhere-but-Mexico deportations have been happening for months now. And Mexico isn't one bit pleased about the whole thing.
CBS News exclusive: The Trump administration has been quietly deporting migrants from Mexico to Honduras and Guatemala, despite the Mexican government’s willingness to accept the return of all its citizens, DHS officials tell me.
— Camilo Montoya-Galvez (@camiloreports) August 18, 2026
Mexico is not happy.https://t.co/HiuEiNzoTfMexico's Foreign Ministry commented, "The Government of Mexico accepts the return of all its nationals. It therefore rejects the deportation of Mexican nationals to third countries and has no such agreement in place. Mexico consistently takes the steps necessary to ensure the safe and dignified return of all its nationals to national territory."
As a reminder, Mexico provides its citizens with a handy-dandy list on how to enter the U.S. illegally and take full advantage of our welfare and education systems. They don't want their citizens back, of course, but they do want to complain about President Trump's plan for those "citizens."
#2 - Field Trip to Mamdani's Socialist Supermarket Goes Hilariously Wrong — by Teri Christoph
The mayor's office is trying to ease the fears of Big Apple grocers by promising them – via the "lead official for Mayor Mamdani's NYC Groceries" – that there will be taxpayer money and free stuff for them, too. Everyone gets a handout!
Lead official for Mayor Mamdani's NYC Groceries tells me city may give grants to local grocers fearing competition from city-run stores
— Dan Rivoli (@danrivoli) August 19, 2026
"policies and programs, grants, incentives that can come alongside these grocery stores to support other local independent businesses" pic.twitter.com/S57e8Ne13BThis vow by the city to "come alongside" them doesn't seem to be easing the minds of immigrant-owned grocery stores. A coalition of them plan to sue to stop the city from using taxpayer dollars to bankroll competitors that can offer artificially low prices while avoiding the costs private grocers have to absorb to keep their doors open.
#3 - Ouch: Trump Humiliates Obnoxious CNN Reporter After Oval Office Outburst — by Teri Christoph
To his credit, the president responded calmly, saying they were making much-needed changes to the White House after years of neglect. If Holmes was expecting to provoke an outburst, she was sorely disappointed.
However, to her everlasting discredit, Holmes proceeded to scream like a maniac over the other press members trying to get in a question. Her obnoxious behavior in front of the lifeguard and the boy he rescued prompted the president to completely and brutally shut her down with a few cutting remarks.
...
It's sad that a grown woman needs to be reminded how to behave in front of young people, not to mention in her role as a reporter given the immense privilege of personal access to the president of the United States.
#4 - Wounded Vet Joey Jones Gives Tongue Lashing for the Ages to USS Lincoln Sailors Complaining to CNN — by Bob Hogue
Jones said if this is the attitude of a majority of our service members, we’re doomed. Here’s what so thoroughly ticked him off:
Jones skewered the unnamed troop in a Saturday segment on The Big Weekend Show. The show played a clip of the troop griping to CNN’s Pamela Brown about conditions on the aircraft carrier, which was filmed on July 10 and aired on CNN on Thursday.
“I would say morale’s pretty low, and not just in the division, like in the ship entirely,” the troop told CNN. “We’re running pretty low on rations, I mean at some points in the day it would just be about noodles and tuna mixed in together, and that was it… sometimes you get a corndog, sometimes you get a hot dog.”
And here was his thunderous response:
“That little… you know what I ate in Afghanistan for six months using a little burner? I ate Ramen noodles… that’s what I ate, and I was happy to have it, because the alternative was an MRE or something cooked by the Afghan guy who was too stupid to be given a gun and they let him be the cook,” Jones started off by saying.
He then turned it up a notch or three.
“How weak are you?! On TV, complaining about tuna and noodles?” Jones continued. “I’m sorry, you volunteered to serve your country. You can come back, get out of the military, and do like all these Democrat veterans and complain about it and make commercials and be a sellout if you want to.”
#5 - Grab the Popcorn: Dan Scavino Drops the Boom - Sounds Like He Knows Who's Leaking — by Nick Arama
That's one heck of a smackdown — "the full 'you're dead to us' package"? That's lowering the boom. Sounds like they know exactly who is leaking/telling tales to the media, and Scavino is putting that person on blast to let him/her know they know.
That immediately sparked speculation about whom he was talking about. Who fits the description and has been attacking the Presidential Personnel Office (Scavino's team that is responsible for political appointments)? One would think it's also about a current comment/attack.
The most common guess from people on X was Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center from 2025 to 2026. But he doesn't appear to fit all the parameters.
If you enjoy the Weekly Briefing, be sure to check out RedState Radio, our weekly podcast. It features a rundown of our top stories of the week, along with chats with a couple of our contributors about what they've been covering. If you like RedState, we think you'll like this added feature. This week, Teri Christoph and I talked Mamdani's Socialist Safeways, Fairfax's insane soft-on-crime policies, and pharmacy lunch hour quandary. You can always find RedState Radio and our other featured podcasts by clicking on the Podcast tab at the top of the page. Liking, subscribing, and following are much appreciated.
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