People really seem to like our Trump drug war cover

It was supposed to be an innocent magazine promotion, announcing how The Spectator was going from printing monthly to twice-monthly in the US.

So imagine our editor’s horror when he checked his phone late Friday night and discovered he’d been impounded on X by the Department of Homeland Security.

“We have just sent our first fortnightly edition of The Spectator for the US market. And it’s a gem,” US editor Freddy Gray posted earlier that day. “The cover piece, by @bdomenech, is on the military conflict that MAGA wants. It could not be more timely.”

The artwork by Pep Boatella depicts President Trump rolling through the desert with masked government officials, headed to crack down on the Mexican drug cartel. The cover story by Ben Domenech, if you care to read it, discusses how “for this White House, success is defined as forcing the Mexican government to do what it doesn’t want to” and examines how hemispheric influence is a priority for top Trump officials such as Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretaries Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio.

Yet the cover image caused something of a stir over the weekend, with a number of folk online seeming to think the art was intended as a leftist critique of Trump.

“Absolute gem by Freddy Gay,” wrote one user. “You can like this post instead of his if you think the cover art is a banger.”

“The left are so good at accidentally making pro Trump stuff that it’s hilarious!” tweeted another. “This goes HARD!”

“Can these libtards make Trump any cooler,” a third asked rhetorically.

The jewel in the crown, though, was the Department of Homeland Security making their own version of the cover as an ICE recruitment ad, changing the masthead to read “JOIN.ICE.GOV,” the dateline to “LITERALLY THE MOST BASED THING EVER” and the cover line to “Media makes Trump look badass again. (many such cases)”

Cockburn is delighted by the reaction to the art, which was hand-selected by “Freddy Gay” (“Glorious,” the editor responded late Friday night). Your correspondent is also surprised to learn that, after all this time, he’s been working for a “libtard” magazine for several years. He must have been thrown off by the past contributions from G.K. Chesterton, Evelyn Waugh and the like – and by Domenech’s piece quoting the presidents of the Claremont Institute and Heritage Foundation regarding Trump’s actions in Mexico, the Caribbean and Venezuela.

A number of posts also asked where they could buy the cover – either as artwork or part of the magazine. The answer: at Barnes & Noble from Thursday and on newsstands in major cities from next Monday.

You could also have received it before anyone else by subscribing…

Congress’s UAP probe

Congress is sending a probe out into the universe today, as it hosts another hearing for testimony from people who have had “experiences” with UFOs, or, as they’re more commonly known as now, UAPs (Unidentified Arial Phenomena).

Out-of-this-world Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida hosts the task force, saying, in a statement, “American people deserve maximum transparency from the federal government on sightings, acquisitions, and examinations of UAPs and whether they pose a potential threat to Americans’ safety.”

Cockburn’s “friend” is a strong believer in UAPs, and keeps him well-informed of their visits to earth. Cockburn is more of an early-season Scully-style agnostic on the matter, but acknowledges that there’s more in the universe than is dreamt of in our philosophy. The mainstreaming of UAP knowledge, and the serious attention that legitimate political and military figures are paying to the topic, is one of the most significant, if niche, developments of our time.

Whatever lurks just outside our view – whether it be extraterrestrial, extra-dimensional, or some sort of advanced military experiment – is definitely going to want to know one thing when it finally reveals itself to us: what’s in the Epstein Files?

On our radar

GULF STRIKE Israel attacked senior Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar on Tuesday morning. Israel informed the US that the attack was coming; the US in turn alerted Qatar.

I’M LEARNDING High-school math and reading scores have fallen to their lowest level on record, according to the Department of Education.

JOHN HANCOCKED President Trump is denying that a drawing of a female torso bearing his signature, released by the House Oversight Committee, was done by him. The drawing purportedly formed part of Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday book, compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell.

Handbags at dawn for Rand and J.D.

“The GOP’s Elizabeth Warren” is what a person “close” to Vice President J.D. Vance has called Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. What a low blow! This came after Paul had the temerity to criticize the Trump administration’s decision to blow a Venezuelan boat out of the water on suspicion that it was full of gun-running Tren de Aragua members. The Vice President tweeted that this was the “highest and best use of our military.”

Over the weekend, when someone referred to the incident as a “war crime,” Vance responded, “I don’t give a shit what you think about it.” This prompted Senator Paul to tweet “JD “I don’t give a shit” Vance says killing people he accuses of a crime is the “highest and best use of the military.” Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird?”

The reference is a little obtuse to Cockburn. Was Boo Radley on that boat? But even though the contours of this particular incident aren’t clear-cut, the difference between Vance and Paul certainly is. Whatever you might want to say about Rand Paul, he’s largely consistent in his ideas and principles. Perhaps that’s why Vance dredged up a Paul deepcut from a decade ago, calling him a “hypocrite” for defending “Obama droning American citizens without due process.”

“I don’t think the Constitution is divided into teams,” Paul said. But politics is, and Vance has shown that he’s more than willing to throw high inside and tight in order to protect his interests, and those of his boss.

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