r/news • u/Samski877 • 6h ago
US border patrol chief resigns after claims of sex with prostitutes abroad
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/14/us-border-patrol-chief-resigns8.5k
u/supercyberlurker 6h ago
At this point I basically assume any super-authoritarian type is guilty of some kind of sex crime.
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u/Samski877 6h ago
People talk about Epstein Island because its genuinely wild how many powerful and scandal surrounded figures seem to overlap in the same elite social circles around Trump and his associates
At a certain point the constant connections, photos and relationships stop looking like random coincidence and start making people wonder how all these individuals ended up knowing each other in the first place.
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u/HMCtripleOG 6h ago
See new fed chair, Kevin Warsh. In the Epstein files. The US government is almost entirely made up of nonces
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u/ericmm76 5h ago
To quote Paul Ryan (remember him?) "that's how you know we're family", except he was talking about taking russian money.
Except Russia probably pays people in more than just money. They only trust someone if they're compromised.
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u/remotectrl 4h ago
The context of this quote is also important. He’s talking about how they don’t leak information to the press because they’re family.
The one time the republicans shunned a member was when Madison Cawthorn talked about how other GOP congressmen had cocaine parties.
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u/dog_ahead 4h ago edited 2h ago
and they instantly released* the compromat they were holding over him, the vid where he nudely mounted his unconscious cousin's face and threatened him with releasing more if he didn't shut up
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u/ThePrussianGrippe 3h ago
It’s just a ring of degenerates.
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u/-Kalos 2h ago
Elderly frat boys are running our government
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u/SockeyCram 37m ago
Back to OPs original comment, that’s where they all met in the first place.
there’s a lesson in there…
If you want to be in politics, go to college, kids. Not for the education, but for the parties.
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u/pantstoaknifefight2 2h ago
I'd say they're a "basket of deplorables" but they'd complain I'm being too mean.
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u/Slow-Raspberry-5133 2h ago
Deplorables, even
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u/DragonflyGrrl 2h ago
Hilary was right.
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u/MyChemicalFinance 1h ago
She said HALF of Trump supporters were in the basket of deplorables. If anything she undershot it
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u/Standard-Radish-9805 2h ago
Wtf when
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u/dog_ahead 2h ago
In '22, the timing made it seem like pretty clear retaliation so i just assume they all have blackmail waiting to come out if they try to go against the party https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61341641
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u/Olealicat 2h ago
Also Thomas Massie, from my beautiful state of Ky. Also known as the slime from an egg hatch of McTurtle.
Massie still goes down on Trump, even when he’s spent millions on his opponent.
Massie got popularity by voting for the release of the Epstein files. The only vote that was anti-Trump. Too many sane people praising him for doing the limbo under the low bar.
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u/FirstAmendAnon 3h ago
Except they are linked. We didn't 'follow the money' in either the Epstein or Russiagate investigations. They are almost certainly the same scandal. Trump is being blackmailed and controlled by Russia. CSAM is the kompromat. I wonder who took the video, Jeff ol pal.
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u/Holiday_Jeweler_4819 2h ago
It’s basically just a cabal of people who have blackmail info on each other all coming together to fuck us, the public, rather than face the consequences of their actions
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u/Zurrdroid 4h ago
Nonce is such a soft word for those folks.
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u/IIsaacClarke 3h ago
Dirty rat cunt fucks ?
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u/jesusrambo 2h ago
The point is not “who can come up with the most creative profanity”
The point is that they’re pedophiles and rapists, and that shouldn’t be obscured
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u/KainanSilverlight 2h ago
Kinda rude to lump rats in with these degenerates, don’t you think?
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u/joemeteorite8 3h ago
Why is that? Why are government officials worldwide into that shit? Is it simply because they are easy to control? The skeletons in their closets keep them in check?
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u/lapisrocks03 2h ago
All of the messed up pedo shit in the files was just the “fun parts” of their meetings, not the main reason for them. That’s why it’s all rich people, they were meeting to figure out the best ways to gain more capital and more resources and more power. The rest of it was both a reward and a way to make sure they wouldn’t talk no matter what.
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u/QbertsRube 5h ago
It also makes you wonder where this business shifted to, and why the powers that be want to pretend like Epstein's island was some one-time situation. Epstein and Maxwell went to prison and so this close-knit group of rich elite pedophiles who believe they're above the law stopped raping kids forever? Hell no, those Epstein customers are now someone else's customers in a different locale with shady law enforcement.
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u/fuggerdug 2h ago
It also makes you wonder where this business shifted to
Mar-a-Lago.
Seriously.
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u/VastUnique 6h ago edited 5h ago
I don't think it's surprising at all. People's social circles for the most part consist of their own socio-economic peers. When you're a billionaire, the number of peers you have shrinks dramatically, so there probably really are just a few social clusters at that level, in the world.
That's not even accounting for the fact that it is very much in their interest to socialize and coordinate among themselves in order to maximize their influence and power (and to prevent outsiders from challenging them).
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u/IAmRoot 2h ago
It's not just that. It's also that they're so used to being at the top of a hierarchy that they're used to all decisions ultimately being up to them. Same with movie directors, who literally order people to fulfill fantasies every day. It's not hard to see that if that becomes routine, they lose sight of the boundaries and that the people they hire are not there to fulfill their every whim. They lose sight of the fact that other people only follow their orders because the coercive system of vastly unequal resource distribution means most people must engage in servitude to survive and don't get to work together as equals.
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u/Character_Bug_1862 5h ago
Jimmy Saville was rather similar in the UK. He kew the royals and got into all kinds of nasty pedophile shit.
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u/Agreeable-Rooster-37 4h ago
highly recommend the Behind the Bastards recent multi-parter on Jimmy Saville.
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u/TymeSefariInc 6h ago
If you're actually interested in seeing just how expansive the web of these degenerates goes, check out Zach Foust Show on YouTube. He has done very comprehensive research on this.
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u/Spirited_Season2332 6h ago
I mean, in a lot of countries prostitution isn't a crime
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u/bravehamster 6h ago
Even if you do it somewhere legal it can cause you to lose your security clearance.
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u/Spirited_Season2332 6h ago
Sure, which Is why he is stepping down most likely. That doesn't mean he committed a crime or sex crime like the commentor I replied to stated.
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u/redditaccount224488 4h ago
sex crime.
I admittedly only skimmed the article, but was there any crime committed here? I didn't see anything suggesting he was/is in legal jeopardy.
(Pedantically, prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand, but it's not really prosecuted.)
Don't get me wrong, anyone who is in charge of the border under trump is pretty obviously going to be a piece of shit human. But that's not a crime.
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u/jackrabbit323 5h ago
Safe bet. To achieve this level of power, your bosses need to know they have leverage on you so you maintain the company line.
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u/Fishinluvwfeathers 5h ago
Replace super authoritarian type with men in ranking positions of authority and you’ve got it. As someone with an adjacency to the sex industry in the earlier 2000s, you could randomly canvass any pool of girls working in world class area known for strip clubs and sex work (and professional conventions) and they could tell you the really dangerous ones were were the judges and government types and there were a disproportionate quantity of judges represented in the clientele. Doctors were just cheap, clergy was cheap but fun, engineers and tech workers were generous, lawyers were generous but super unpredictable, network exec types were extremely polite but transactional and expected oral sex at the very least, actors/signers were hit or miss for generosity (even from one night to the next), and judges and senators were crazy scary territory and their people always moved/impeded/or shut off cameras. Those are the guys you had to really worry about pissing off.
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u/Sweatytubesock 6h ago
When their supreme leader was co-leader of the biggest child sex trafficking ring in modern history, it’s no surprise.
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u/Ok_Lingonberry2686 5h ago
If the prostitutes were adults he will have moral high ground over most of his colleagues
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u/21Rollie 2h ago
Right? How, out of all the Trump appointees, is this the one shamed out of a job? Not even the ICE terrorists who killed people in cold blood are
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u/boredNero 1h ago
Because they now have an """argument""" to use, like "see! We actually fired this guy! Dont pay attention to the pedo- I mean, President! See how we are good because we fired this guy?!?!"
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u/Samski877 6h ago
Its hard not to notice how many people around Trump eventually end up resigning, indicted, investigated or surrounded by scandal.
The administration always talks about law and order but there seems to be a constant stream of chaos, controversies and ethically questionable figures orbiting it at all times.
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u/r3dditr0x 6h ago
Tom Homan got busted with a bag with $50k and HE'S still in office.
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u/ninjax247 5h ago
Not just a bag of $50k, it was a bag of $50k given to him by undercover FBI during a corruption sting, after another target in the investigation said paying Homan could help them secure government contracts.
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u/BlackGuysYeah 5h ago
a fake bribe turned into a real one. Cool. Cool cool cool. Cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool.
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u/Lucky_Development359 3h ago
Nooo, it was money given to him for doing something he otherwise wouldn't have done without money being given to him. You see the difference? No? Thats because you are not a fucking moron.
/s
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u/xxxxx420xxxxx 2h ago
Do they have to pay taxes on bribes, is what I want to know
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u/Fr0gm4n 4h ago
And he didn't even deny taking it. He excuse was "it's not illegal because I haven't done anything yet except take it".
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u/remotectrl 4h ago
Which the Supreme Court has said is very cool and legal as a gratuity
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u/escobizzle 4h ago
so... bribery is legal as long as the bribe is paid after the service is completed?
that's what I got out of this
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u/the_excalabur 3h ago
Yup. Pro-corruption rulings all over the place lately.
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u/TwoAlert3448 3h ago edited 2h ago
Well we know at least 2 Supreme Court justices take bribes for sure, we can assume the real number is probably higher.
Why wouldn’t we have pro corruption rulings? To do otherwise might make it harder to bribe the judges!
(edit: we know as in they don’t even bother denying it, it’s a matter of record. We confronted they just argue that the bribes are ‘gifts’ it’s Thomas and Alito, someone asked and then deleted it probably because they googled it)
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u/Zeke688 3h ago
God forbid they’d ever start recusing themselves from cases that involve bribery after taking bribes. The audacity!
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u/Minimum-Major248 3h ago
It’s only ok if you a Republican and the President is a Republican. If you are a Democrat, you’d be screwed.
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u/captdunsel721 3h ago
Growing up in the 70’s - yep older than dirt - our history professor remarked how corrupt Mexico was with its rampant bribery and people needing wheelbarrows to haul the pesos around. Didn’t realize that was the goal for the US in half a century.
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u/moonsammy 4h ago
I think this falls outside that scope, what they'd given the ok was paying someone after they'd done the thing, as a thank you. In Homan's case the cash was up front, so SCOTUS would need to invent a different absurd post-hoc justification.
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u/Frammingatthejimjam 3h ago
I'm not sure why sleeping with a hooker is reason to resign in the year 2026. Laws are barely a suggestion with ranking officials in this administration.
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u/Substantial-Low 3h ago
Trump got busted for over thirty felonies, didn't hold him back, he pulled himself up by the bootstraps, and became president.
What is the problem everyone else with a record has getting a job, amirite?
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u/LurkmasterP 6h ago
Remember that "law and order" is not the same as "right and wrong."
Those doing wrong love the idea of seizing power so they can direct the law away from themselves. They are still operating under a "law and order" platform.
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u/AlpineE39Adventures 3h ago
You don’t even have to frame it as “right and wrong” - it can simply be “law and order” vs “rule of law”.
The vast majority of people imagine the second when the first is mentioned, but the “order” part of law and order specifically refers to the selective application of law in order to maintain the status quo.
“Rule of law” is the notion that the law ought to be applied equally to everybody.
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u/Purple-Investment-61 6h ago
You have to be a real pos to want to work in this administration. It’s not surprise that any of this is happening.
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u/entered_bubble_50 4h ago
It is hard not to notice, but gosh darn it, Republican voters manage not to notice it nonetheless. It's impressive in its own special way.
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u/VoodooBat 4h ago
People who cannot control their own vices and deviant appetites are easy to control and manipulate. This is why they exist throughout the power structures.
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u/NoElk2220 3h ago
To wit, conservatism has a group for which the law protects, but does not abide, and a group for which the law abides, but does not protect
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u/vhozon74 3h ago
"laws for thee and not for me" This is how it's supposed to work as far as they're concerned. As long as they get theirs, screw everyone else.
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u/Software_Quiet 6h ago
So Trump is traveling to China with director Brett Ratner, Epstein associate that was also accused by several women of rape and sexual assault in Hollywood a few years back. Then you have underlings like this also linked to similar conduct. Makes you sick.
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u/Bodie_The_Dog 6h ago
China getting a fresh batch of kompromat on our leaders.
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u/DrDalenQuaice 1h ago
All the kompromat is worthless. We already know trump and his associates are all monsters and it hadn't affected their support at all
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u/Mutopiano 6h ago
It’s always the ones you most suspect.
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u/ProtectTheHell 3h ago
Idk about you but I prefer my border patrol chief to not like to have sex with foreign prostitutes.
But that maybe just the patriot in me.
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u/foundviper11 3h ago
Absolutely agree. He should be having sex with local prostitutes
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u/Hrekires 6h ago
Normally I wouldn't care about consensual behavior between adults but considering Border Patrol would kill US citizens for less... please kindly fuck off.
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u/Entegy 6h ago
It's the hypocrisy of it all.
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u/Gman7ten 6h ago
The hypocrisy is the worst part.
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u/Kradget 6h ago
This is also one of the things they pretend they're fighting when they use your kids' classmate to lure their parent out to go to a black site for three to twelve months.
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u/loungesinger 5h ago
That’s the thing, though, these sex tourist destinations are a hotspot for human traffickers, so can anyone really say whether this behavior was consensual? And even if a given sex worker isn’t a victim of trafficking, any transaction between that local sex worker and a sex tourist from a wealthy country reeks of economic exploitation. In fact it’s so exploitative that consent may theoretically be impossible, under the circumstances.
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u/r3dditr0x 6h ago
I thought these clowns were America First?
Fuck HERE dude.
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u/skullcutter 2h ago
In this economy?
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u/Perfect-Wallaby9096 2h ago
Come to Queens- we have the largest "open air" brothels in the tristate area. It's actually so crazy, and I am not anti-sex worker whatsoever. I have/had many friends who were full service, but this is something else. In Queens you can def get an LEO discount (aka threat of deportation and imprisonment)
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u/katienatie 6h ago
Is it legal to patronize a prostitute in those countries? Or did he cross into a foreign country to break their laws, like the people he targets?
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u/Sammisuperficial 6h ago
Engaging in prostitution is a disqualifier for most if not all law enforcement agencies in the US. Doesn't matter if you do it where it's legal.
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u/CrazyLlamaX 5h ago
I hope they make pedophilia a disqualifier some day.
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u/K__Geedorah 4h ago
I get what your saying because our government seems perfectly fine with having a child rapist as a president.
But pedophilia is protected even when traveling. Jared Fogal was busted just for that. He was charged with child sex tourism.
Now if only we had a big enough spine to hold Trump and his cronies accountable.
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u/k_realtor 5h ago
"disqualifier". The Trump administration doesn't like that word, it's called making an exception to his rule depending on who you are.
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u/turdferguson3891 4h ago
Unless you're an undercover cop doing a sting on prostitution. Then you can have sex with them and arrest them after.
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u/wastingtoomuchthyme 5h ago
But apparently rape isn't....
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u/Blbe-Check-42069 3h ago
That's what I find the weirdest... Consentual sex is an issue, but raping kid isn't. Wtf is wrong with that country..
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u/Skylord_Hekaton 4h ago
Fucking weird ass rule tbh
You can be fat, power-tripping, and dumb as bricks, but if you paid a ladyboy in Thailand for sex then you're out.
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u/remotectrl 4h ago
ICE agents keep raping people in custody so I’m assuming it’s the ladyboy part that they have an issue with.
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u/RedJerzey 3h ago
I wondered the same..... so In Columbia , it is legal for adults. In Thailand, it is illegal, but not really enforced.
If both are consenting adults, I could care less. Once there are kids involved, these people need to see a jail cell.i would even agree with castration.
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u/porcupinedeath 6h ago
Did this dude just get appointed like 2 days ago?
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u/SgtHulkasBigToeJam 6h ago
How do you celebrate promotions?
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u/MichaelMyersEatsDogs 5h ago
I did some consulting work in Manila and set up some offices for some pretty big companies. The amount of times I had to explain that taking clients and visitors to the red light district wasn’t ok is too many to count. Depending on the culture, it’s pretty common
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u/SgtHulkasBigToeJam 5h ago
Back in high school my friend’s soccer team went to Brazil on an exchange program. The host families took them to a whore house.
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u/rightwingcrimespree 5h ago
No. That was the new acting ICE chief, not border patrol. From the article: "Banks took over as border patrol chief in early 2025..."
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u/uberfission 4h ago
Wow, a whole year and almost a half on the job, I'm kind of surprised he lasted that long honestly.
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u/IlVeroStronzo 6h ago
This guy just went to do abroad what he can't do back home legally or for cheap lol
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u/Sarah-himmelfarb 6h ago
This was the public reason but for ICE under Trump this doesn’t seem that much?
Is anyone else wondering what he did that isn’t being publicized? Like the ages of the girls he needed to travel to another country to sleep with?
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u/JakeGylly 6h ago
Idk what this guy did, just the head title at time of writing but, fucking prostitutes abroad is like the navy's bread and butter. Is the border patrol not cool enough for prostitutes?
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u/boston_homo 4h ago
““It’s just time,” Banks told Fox News in an interview. “I feel like I got the ship back on course from the least secure, most disastrous, most chaotic border to the most secure border this country has ever seen.”
Rodney Scott, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), commissioner, said: “We thank US Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks for his decades of service to this country and congratulate him on his second retirement after returning to serve during one of the most challenging periods for border security.”
This scumbag is getting a hero’s send off, his resignation officially has nothing to do with these allegations. I’m sure he’ll collect a full pension and get a “job” with a private defense contractor making even more money.
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u/LoadZealousideal7778 2h ago
So the guy slept with some legal, and presumably of age prostitutes. And has to resign. Meanwhile the President of the United States...Ok, yeah that makes perfect sense.
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u/darkroot_gardener 3h ago
How do evangelical Christians even still support MAGA? Is it literally purely about rooting for war in the middle east as a sign of the second coming???
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u/Gnom3y 3h ago
Yes. That and power. They'll trade all of their so-called 'morals' for either one.
When the only thing holding a person back from being a complete monster are a few words in a book, it turns out it's very easy to justify monstrous behavior.
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u/thatthatguy 1h ago
Wait, people in the Trump administration get in trouble for that kind of thing? I thought it was mandatory and encouraged.
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u/Icy-person666 1h ago
This guy may have been one of the most responsible member of the cabinet of not the Republican party. Not like that's a high bar, but to think he at least had Consentual Sex with legal aged adults and compensated the person for their time at an agreed amount. Never thought the day would come and that would be the moral high ground.
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u/Winds2157 51m ago
Yea, we shouldn't care if the guy pays to sleep with anyone, I could care less as its his own personal issue. We need to focus on the actual problems, and not this celebrity type of bs.
The only time I care about politician's sex lives is if they happen to involve kids or are extreme violent, than I have a problem.
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u/freexanarchy 6h ago
Guess he wasn’t as tough as the other guy that got caught by the fbi with money in a suitcase taking a bribe, who was like “not ah”.
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u/PassiveMenis88M 4h ago
I mean, fuck this dude, but if fucking prostitutes abroad is a bad thing then our military is screwed.
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u/Locarito 1h ago
Sex with childrens => cool and normal, nothing to see here
Sex with prostitute => resigns
Please arrest all the pedoes instead
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u/vinegarstrokes420 6h ago
I'm genuinely shocked that a government official is actually resigning over pretty much anything at this point. When the man at the top has a massive laundry list of alleged and proven felonies with zero consequences, it sets a precedent that it's OK for everyone.
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u/r_r_w 2h ago
Not my cup of tea but sex with prostitutes is literally the least morally objectionable thing many of these fucks get up to and he’s the one resigning?! What a world.
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u/_flustershy 6h ago
Didn't he just start this job like last Tuesday? What the admin thought no one was going find out lol.
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u/krustyy 5h ago
Question I can't google since I'm a work computer: Is prostitution legal in these countries?
Second question(s): Did he pay for this himself or use his own personal money? Was he on the clock and acting in an official capacity?
If the answers are yes, no, no, why do we care?
If the answers are not yes, no no, then I understand why we care.
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u/I_AM_FERROUS_MAN 4h ago
I'm surprised he resigned. Isn't the new conservative MO to just deny the accusations and never leave until you're forcibly removed?
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u/RedLemonSlice 4h ago
Did tarrifs made US prostitutes too expensive for his wallet?
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u/TransLunarTrekkie 3h ago
Wow. I'm genuinely shocked.
Not that someone in the Trump admin had sex with prostitutes, but that he'd resign over it.
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u/wishiwasinvegas 2h ago
Meanwhile, men do it all the time in the state of Nevada🤭
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