On Sunday night, the official Facebook page for Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller shared a photo of an atomic mushroom cloud bookended by the following text: "Japan has been at peace with the U.S. since August 9, 1945. It's time we made peace with the Muslim world." The post was erased early Monday, but not before people noticed. Miller, in his first year on the job, is on a business trip to China, but his campaign spokesman, Todd Smith, blamed Miller's staff for the post.

Not that Smith, or Miller, is apologizing for appearing to endorse the nuclear annihilation of "the Muslim world" — or punishing the staff member who posted the photo. "We're not going to apologize for the posts that show up on our Facebook page," Smith told The Texas Tribune. "I don’t know who did it, but I'm not going to start a witch hunt to find out who did." In fact, Smith added, he found the post "thought provoking."

"I read the post this morning, and we're at the 60th anniversary of dropping the atom bomb in order to destroy an insidious enemy that was intent on destroying American lives, and we face a similar enemy who has vowed to destroy American lives, and I think that's the topic that the American people are focused on," said Smith, who, again, works for the Texas ag commissioner. Miller has made his own remarks about staying awake at night worrying the U.S. will become "a Muslim country," The Dallas Morning News notes, and before the post was erased, it had 3,000 likes and 300 comments. Peter Weber

The $5 billion President Trump wants for border wall funding would pay for a high-tech structure, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said on ABC's This Week Sunday.

"What we're talking about is not just a dumb barrier," McAleenan told host Martha Raddatz. "We're talking about sensors, cameras, lighting, access roads for our agents, a system that helps us secure that area of the border. That's what we were asking [from] Congress."

McAleenan also responded to the deaths of two migrant children in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody this month, for which President Trump has blamed congressional Democrats. The deaths are "absolutely devastating for us on every level. It's been over a decade since we've had a child die anywhere in our processes," he said, arguing that current U.S. immigration policies encourage families to make the dangerous journey to the United States.

Watch the full interview below. Bonnie Kristian

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and CNN host Dana Bash had a lengthy exchange over the Trump administration's immigration policies on State of the Union Sunday.

They particularly focused on President Trump's tweeted response to the deaths of two migrant children in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody this month. While administration staff "have said that they have empathy for the deaths of children who are coming across the border with their parents," Bash noted, Trump himself has not. "The only thing he has said is something that is very political and, frankly, misleading, with regard to Democrats being culpable for the deaths of children."

Conway pushed back, arguing Trump's proposed changes in U.S. immigration policy and enforcement would prevent similar deaths in the future, and commenting that she doesn't "like some of the Democrats using these deaths as political pawns."

"But," Bash shot back, "isn't that exactly what the president just did?" Watch the full interview below. The "pawns" exchange occurs around the 3:30 mark. Bonnie Kristian

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly formally leaves his post this Wednesday, Jan. 2, and he discussed his time with President Trump in an exit interview with the Los Angeles Times published Sunday.

Kelly described an administration in chaos on his arrival to the White House last summer. For example, Trump wanted to withdraw the United States from the war in Afghanistan, Kelly said, which "was a huge decision to make ... and frankly there was no system at all for a lot of reasons — palace intrigue and the rest of it." Pushing back on perceptions that Trump's decision-making is emotional and divorced from fact, Kelly said he kept Trump "fully informed" of the consequences of his choices.

He also spoke at length about immigration policy, faulting former Attorney General Jeff Sessions for the administration's court-halted policy of separating migrant children from their families at the border. "What happened was Jeff Sessions, he was the one that instituted the zero-tolerance process on the border that resulted in both people being detained and the family separation," Kelly said. "He surprised us."

As for Trump's promise to wall off the southern border, Kelly quibbled about terminology — "To be honest, it's not a wall" — but insisted a physical barrier is the recommendation of "salt-of-the-earth, Joe-Six-Pack" border patrol agents.

Working as Trump's chief of staff has been a "bone-crushing hard job," Kelly mused, "but you do it." Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney will do it next as acting chief of staff.

Read the full interview at the Los Angeles Times here. Bonnie Kristian

A DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday announced it has fired two employees who called the police on a black guest who was talking on his cell phone in the hotel lobby.

The guest, Jermaine Massey, said he on the phone with his mother when the employees reported him for trespassing. Massey filmed much of the interaction and posted it to Instagram.

"Our hotel is a place of hospitality, and [the employees'] actions were inconsistent with our standards and values," Hilton said in a statement. Watch excerpts of Massey's video below via CBS News. Bonnie Kristian

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants to meet frequently with South Korean President Moon Jae-in next year, South Korea's Blue House reported Sunday, citing a new letter from Kim.

"Chairman Kim said he is willing to meet often with President Moon next year to move forward discussions on peace and prosperity and resolve the issue of denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," said a statement from Moon's office. Kim expressed regret he has not yet visited Seoul after Moon came to Pyongyang in September, pledging to travel to South Korea soon.

Though the two Koreas are technically still at war, this is but the latest in a series of steps toward normalizing relations between North and South. This past fall, the two Koreas agreed to reconnect some roads and railways; removed weapons and guards from some parts of the demilitarized zone; and held talks on topics including fielding a joint Olympic team in 2020, making a bid to cohost the Olympics in 2032, and reuniting elderly people with family members they have not seen in half a century because of Korea's division. Bonnie Kristian

A malware attack on software used by Tribune Publishing prevented a number of major newspapers from printing their weekend editions. The affected papers are current and former Tribune properties including the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, The Baltimore Sun, and the Los Angeles Times.

The virus was discovered Friday after it "impacted some back-office systems which are primarily used to publish and produce newspapers across our properties," said a statement from Tribune. "This issue has affected the timeliness and in some cases the completeness of our printed newspapers. Our websites and mobile applications however, have not been impacted."

The Los Angeles Times reported a "foreign entity" was responsible, but noted "officials said it was too soon to say whether it was carried out by a foreign state or some other entity, said a source with knowledge of the situation."

The Department of Homeland Security is investigating. "We are aware of reports of a potential cyber incident effecting several news outlets," the agency said, "and are working with our government and industry partners to better understand the situation." Bonnie Kristian