- President Donald Trump’s directive to accelerate data center development on federal lands is facing public backlash and legal hurdles. Behind the scenes, the Trump administration is pushing full steam ahead and sparking concerns it is prioritizing corporate needs over the public good. The Bureau of Land Management has asked its state directors to identify public land ripe for data center development, according to two people familiar with the request, and those leaders have compiled lists for Interior Department leadership. Interior leadership gave state leaders just three days to produce the lists and told its directors the issue was a top […]
- National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett’s new financial disclosure shows he still held $1 million to $5 million in vested Coinbase shares at the end of 2025. Hassett said last year he had recused himself from crypto matters while ethics officials determined how to handle the investment. Trump’s digital-assets working group was housed within the NEC, and its final report named Hassett’s deputy as the council’s representative. Former White House ethics lawyer Virginia Canter told CNBC the holding raised a “major conflict of interest” concern and questioned whether a broad recusal could have kept Hassett from participating in a significant […]
- President Donald Trump snapped at yet another female reporter for ABC News, telling her she’s “the worst” while she pressed him on his promise of $5,000 checks for all American adults. Trump spoke with reporters on Thursday night as he was leaving Dallas following his GOP midterm convention, where he revealed a vague plan to hand out $5,000 checks to Americans if Republicans win the midterms. Trump has said he can somehow get this accomplished without congressional approval, but critics have noted it’s just the latest promise of direct payments to Americans that the president has made. “Mr. President, on […]
- Inflation held steady in August, extending a stretch of high year-over-year price increases that have soured Americans on the economy heading into November’s midterm elections. The Labor Department’s consumer price index rose at a 3.4 percent annual pace for the year ending in August, the same as in July, with energy prices making up more than a third of all increases. Drivers were paying an average of $4.28 per gallon for gas on Thursday, according to AAA. That’s down nearly 30 cents from this year’s peak, but still more than a dollar higher than Americans were paying a year ago, […]
- Donald Trump asked his supporters to “cheat like hell” during the midterms to avoid a GOP electoral wipeout. While giving a speech on the second night of the 80-year-old president’s midterm convention flop in Dallas, Trump called on his MAGA base to raise their hands and recite an unhinged pledge that amounted to demanding that they commit voter fraud. “I pledge, to the greatest president in the history of the United States, that loves us so much he can’t even breathe,” Trump began the pledge, which his supporters enthusiastically recited back to him. “That I will go out with my […]
- Donald Trump rounded out the final night of his two-day Republican midterm convention in Dallas by leading his audience in a mock version of the Pledge of Allegiance in which he made his followers promise to vote for his allies in the upcoming elections. The president urged his followers to raise their right hand, as if they were swearing an oath of public service, before directing them to repeat: “I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States that loves us so much he can't even breathe, that I will go out with my family, my […]
- President Donald Trump’s lengthy speech during the opening night of the Republican Midterm Convention proved to be a ratings dud. According to data from Nielsen, an audience of 2.5 million viewers tuned in to Fox News from 9-11 p.m. ET Wednesday night, when the president’s address aired. Fox News carried the speech while competitors CNN and MS NOW did not. The good news for Fox was that they trounced the competition in those time slots — with their 2.5 million towering over MS NOW’s 1 million and CNN’s 441,000. The bad news? They might have run up the score even […]
- The Trump administration will lend nearly $100 million to Africell, Africa's only American-owned telecoms firm, as it seeks to counter the expansion of China's Huawei in Africa, according to a person familiar with the matter and a draft press release reviewed by Reuters. The loan from the Export-Import Bank to Africell will "enable Africell to invest in the latest mobile network technology from American and allied suppliers," according to the draft release, which is due to be issued later on Friday. “We are pleased to be working with EXIM to introduce more trusted and secure communications infrastructure to our operating […]
- Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly called US President Trump twice yesterday and urged him to launch strikes against the Houthis, Axios reports, citing two US officials. Trump rejected the request, and US officials say the administration does not intend to take direct military action against the Houthis at this time, the report says. Yesterday, CNN reported that around 100 US military advisers were present in Saudi Arabia providing them with intel and advice on Houthi targets, but stopping short of actively taking part in any strikes. submitted by /u/John3262005 [link] [comments]
- submitted by /u/drummmmmer [link] [comments]
- Three years ago, the Defense Department led an ambitious international effort to better protect civilians during combat, a movement built on the bloody lessons of Afghanistan and Iraq. The Pentagon created a network with European partners, driving the creation of shared standards. Civilian harm experts described the moment as a “unique opportunity” for American leadership by example. Today, those efforts continue — without the United States, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismantled the civilian protection mission. And Thursday, no U.S. delegation will be in the room when the international forum the U.S. cofounded meets at NATO headquarters in Belgium. The […]
- The U.S. attempted to enlist its NATO allies in a campaign to “systematically dismantle” the International Criminal Court, straining already fraught transatlantic relations. During a closed-door meeting of NATO’s 32 ambassadors in Brussels in mid-July, U.S. envoy Matthew Whitaker asked NATO countries for help in disassembling the international body, and urged them to leave the ICC’s founding document, the Rome Statute, according to three NATO diplomats who were granted anonymity to speak freely. Whitaker ended his intervention by saying: “We will be watching closely who stands with America,” the three diplomats said. The pressure on allies to quit the court […]
- submitted by /u/drummmmmer [link] [comments]
- While Trump officials are installing a historically high number of political appointees in the federal government, those individuals are leaving their positions at higher rates than other recent presidential administrations, according to an analysis published Wednesday. “The turnover among non-Senate-confirmed appointees stands out across every measure — in its scale, in its spread across agencies and in the speed with which appointees have left,” wrote Chris Piper, a researcher for the Partnership for Public Service nonprofit, which has been critical of the Trump administration’s cuts to the civil service. During the first 18 months of Trump’s second term, more than […]
- The Trump administration’s decision to expand the number of foreign academic and research institutions that are considered off-limits for research partnerships has ended at least one study abroad program and triggered reviews at more than two dozen universities. The Department of Defense can’t use “any funds for fundamental research that involves collaboration” with the entities included on what’s known as the Section 1286 list, which identifies institutions “confirmed to be engaging in activities that threaten U.S. national security interests,” according to the agency. That ban also extends to colleges that receive federal funding, according to DOD, and failure to comply […]
