Slingshot News: ‘I Haven’t Learned His Language Yet’: Trump Claims That He’s Going To Learn To Speak Turkish During Nonsensical Remarks At The White House [Video]
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Tag Archives: Joe Biden
New Republic: Trump’s Biggest Corruption Scandal Isn’t Getting Enough Attention
Donald Trump cashed in on a massively corrupt foreign crypto deal—and no one blinked.
A New York Times exposé published Monday tells the tale of two back-to-back deals that enriched three powerful families: the Trumps, the Witkoffs (as in Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff), and the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates.
In one deal, announced in May, a firm of Emirati royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan invested $2 billion in World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company owned by the Trump and Witkoff families—which consequently became among the most prominent crypto firms overnight.
In the other, negotiated “at the same time and by some of the same people,” the White House two weeks later agreed to sell the UAE hundreds of thousands of the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence chips, despite national security concerns.
The Times revealed that some officials in the Trump administration were wary about the chip deal due to UAE-China ties. But a key dissenter at the National Security Council, David Feith, was taken out of the equation when MAGA provocateur Laura Loomer questioned his (and five other NSC members’) loyalty, leading to their removal by the president. Silicon Valley investor David Sacks, Trump’s AI and crypto czar, then took a leading role in the negotiations—and received a White House ethics waiver in order to do so.
While the Times reports that there is no evidence that the two deals constituted an explicit quid pro quo—and the White House, and those involved, maintains they were not linked—they do “violate longstanding norms in the United States for political, diplomatic and private deal-making among senior officials and their children,” according to ethics lawyers cited in the report.
On Bluesky, economist Ryan Cummings, who served on President Joe Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers, wrote that the deals, if linked, would represent, by far, “the largest public corruption scandal in the history of the United States”—amounting to a $2 billion bribe, whereas the most comparable incident, the Harding administration’s Teapot Dome scandal, involved bribes amounting to about $10 million in today’s dollars, he said.
Dan Nexon, a political scientist at Georgetown University, observed that the report reveals how “U.S. foreign policy is much easier to understand once you accept that the main ‘grand strategy’ of the Trump administration is straight-up kleptocracy.”
“The Trump Administration is cashing in on foreign crypto deals—and weakening guardrails that protect our advanced technology,” wrote Senator Elizabeth Warren on X. “We should not pass any crypto legislation without shutting this down.”
Trump’s Biggest Corruption Scandal Isn’t Getting Enough Attention
Donald Trump cashed in on a massively corrupt foreign crypto deal—and no one blinked.
https://newrepublic.com/post/200486/trump-corruption-scandal-crypto-uae-deal
Slingshot News: ‘300 Million People Died Last Year’: Trump Embarrasses Himself, Claims Most Of The Country Died To Illicit Drugs In Press Gaggle [Video]
During a gaggle with the press several days ago, Donald Trump made the absurd claim that “300 million people died last year” to illicit drugs pouring into the country. The U.S. population was estimated to be 342 million in 2024.
’300 Million People Died Last Year’: Trump Embarrasses Himself, Claims Most Of The Country Died To Illicit Drugs In Press Gaggle
During a gaggle with the press several days ago, Donald Trump made the absurd claim that “300 million people died last year” to illicit drugs pouring into the country. The U.S. population was estimated to be 342 million in 2024.
Slingshot News: ‘China, Where’s Your Wind Farm?’: Trump Ignorantly Claims China Doesn’t Produce Wind Energy In Failed Attempt To Discredit Renewables [Video]
During his remarks at the Energy and Innovation Summit in Pennsylvania several weeks ago, Donald Trump ignorantly made the implication that China doesn’t produce wind energy. A quick search on the internet shows that China is the global leader in wind energy production.
‘China, Where’s Your Wind Farm?’: Trump Ignorantly Claims China Doesn’t Produce Wind Energy In Failed Attempt To Discredit Renewables
During his remarks at the Energy and Innovation Summit in Pennsylvania several weeks ago, Donald Trump ignorantly made the implication that China doesn’t produce wind energy. A quick search on the internet shows that China is the global leader in wind energy production.
The same fool, who criticizes European leaders for their reliance on wind power, is now chiding China for not generating enough wind energy.
Guardian: Tulsi Gabbard did not alert White House before revoking 37 security clearances
Exclusive: White House only realized afterwards that clearances at the CIA and in Congress had been rescinded
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, did not inform the White House that her office was revoking the security clearances of 37 people – including top deputies to the CIA director, John Ratcliffe – before it happened last month, according to three people familiar with matter.
The move caused consternation because it resulted in the White House not having an opportunity to closely vet the list before it became public and there appeared to be no paper trail from the president directing the effort, the people said.
As a result, officials only realized after the fact that Gabbard had managed to pull the security clearances of career CIA officials, at least one of whom was a top adviser to Ratcliffe and had worked on some of the US’s most sensitive military operations, the people said.
The list also included two Democratic congressional staffers – Maher Bitar, the national security adviser to senator Adam Schiff, and Thomas West, an aide on the Senate foreign relations committee – prompting fears the administration would be thrust into a messy separation-of-powers issue.
Weeks later, several of Trump’s top advisers remain deeply frustrated with Gabbard and view the episode as a blunder that comes as Trump is skeptical of the intelligence community and has suggested dismantling the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI).
It also appears to have deepened existing animosity between Gabbard, whose most important job as the director of national intelligence is delivering the president’s daily briefing and overseeing the intelligence agencies, and the CIA, whose officers actually produce the brief.
Trump advisers inside and outside of the administration have complained that Gabbard’s deputy chief of staff, Alexa Henning, did not explain to them how the list was compiled and the underlying evidence to warrant pulling the security clearances, the people said.
A senior intelligence official disputed this account and said Gabbard told Trump in the Oval Office that she had compiled names of officers who had worked on the intelligence assessments on Russia’s malign influence operations during the 2016 election who should be fired.
Trump replied to Gabbard that if those people had worked on the Russia intelligence assessments and they were still employed in the federal government, they should be removed, and Gabbard was merely executing the president’s agenda, the intelligence official said.
The intelligence official also claimed the list was emailed to the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles; the White House counsel, David Warrington; communications chiefs Steven Cheung and Taylor Budowich; the national security council; and the chiefs of staff at every major intelligence agency.
“The CIA just wants to blame ODNI all the time,” the official said.
A White House spokesperson did not address whether there had been advance notice or when the emails were sent but said in a statement: “Director Gabbard is doing a phenomenal job and the White House has worked closely with her on implementing the President’s objectives.
“The entire administration is aligned on ensuring those who have weaponized their clearances to manipulate intelligence, leak classified intelligence without authorization, and many other egregious acts are held to account,” the spokesperson said.
Rescinding security clearances was supposed to be part of an effort to correct what Trump’s advisers view as flaws in intelligence assessments and to punish Trump’s political enemies for allegedly mischaracterizing intelligence about Russian malign influence operations during the 2016 election.
Gabbard said in the memo announcing the revocations last month that her actions were at Trump’s direction and claimed that the people targeted were involved in the “politicization or weaponization of intelligence” to advance partisan agendas, or had leaked classified information.
“Being entrusted with a security clearance is a privilege, not a right,” Gabbard wrote. “Those in the Intelligence Community who betray their oath to the Constitution and put their own interests ahead of the interests of the American people have broken the sacred trust they promised to uphold.”
It was also in keeping with an executive order and followed the administration pulling security clearances for dozens of Trump’s political adversaries including Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, as well as other figures from Trump’s first impeachment.
Gabbard is not expected to face significant ramifications over the episode, in large part because she has emerged relatively unscathed from other fraught moments, including when Trump in June publicly contradicted her assessment that Iran was far from acquiring nuclear weapons.
“I don’t care what she said,” Trump said in response to a question about Gabbard’s testimony that Iran had decided not to make a nuclear bomb, shortly after she was notably absent from a key meeting at Camp David on the matter. “I think they were very close to having it.”
Gabbard also drew Trump’s ire when she posted a video in June warning of nuclear annihilation. Trump harangued Gabbard, saying it would scare people and that she appeared more engaged in self-promotion in order to set herself up for higher office, a person familiar with the matter said.
Tulsi Gabbard did not alert White House before revoking 37 security clearances
Exclusive: White House only realized afterwards that clearances at the CIA and in Congress had been rescinded
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/20/tulsi-gabbard-white-house-security-clearances
Fox News: Trump warns Afghanistan over return of strategic Bagram Air Base to US control [Video]
The Taliban has controlled the airbase since 2021 and the US withdrew troops from the country
President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened Afghanistan, which is governed by the Taliban, if Bagram Air Base isn’t returned to the United States.
“If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!” he wrote on Truth Social.
The president didn’t elaborate on what consequences the country might face.
On Thursday, the president said the administration is “trying” to get the former U.S. Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan “back” from the Taliban.
In remarks to the press while standing alongside U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the president criticized the handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan under President Joe Biden and said he had “a little breaking news.”
“We’re trying to get it back,” Trump said. “We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us.”
Trump did not expand on whom he was referring to or, if referring to the Taliban, the terrorist organization that took over the country in 2021, what they “need” from the U.S.
“We want that base back, but one of the reasons we want the base is, as you know, it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons,” Trump added.
On Saturday evening, Trump told reporters the administration wants Bagram back “right away,” and “if they don’t do it, you’re going to find out what I’m going to do.”
The Taliban took over the country after the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021.
The U.S. claimed Bagram Air Base, which was built by the Soviets in the 1950s, in 2001 when the military went into Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks.
In 2021, when the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan, it secretly left the base in the middle of the night on July 1, leaving it to the Afghan government.
The Taliban captured the base six weeks later in August of 2021, on the same day Kabul fell.
Earlier this year, White House hostage envoy Adam Boehler met with Taliban officials in Kabul while working to get hostage George Glezmann released, the first direct meeting since the pullout in 2021.
Boehler, along with another U.S. envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, met with the Taliban’s foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, and reportedly discussed ways to “develop bilateral relations between the two countries, issues related to citizens, and investment opportunities in Afghanistan,” according to a Taliban statement.
The removal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan began during the first Trump administration in March 2020, and open-source intelligence showed that the Taliban had been making gains across Afghanistan in the year leading up to the August 2021 withdrawal.
Under the deal forged by the first Trump administration, the U.S. agreed to withdraw all U.S. forces by May 1, 2021, but Biden extended the withdrawal date to August 2021.
Newsweek: Trump administration asks Supreme Court for new emergency order
The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to let it move forward with ending protections for more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants. The Justice Department is seeking to block a San Francisco judge’s ruling that found the administration acted unlawfully when it terminated Temporary Protected Status for the group.
A federal appeals court declined to halt U.S. District Judge Edward Chen’s decision while the case proceeds.
In May, the Supreme Court had already overturned another Chen order affecting about 350,000 Venezuelans, without explanation, as is typical for emergency appeals. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices the earlier ruling should guide them again.
Why It Matters
The Trump administration has taken a hardline stance on Temporary Protected Status, arguing that the protections are meant to be temporary but have been abused by consecutive administrations. Immigration advocates have countered, saying that conditions in Venezuela and other countries have not improved enough to send people home.
What To Know
Friday’s plea by the Trump administration continues a cycle of court orders and challenges around the attempts by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to end TPS for two groups of Venezuelans.
“This case is familiar to the Court and involves the increasingly familiar and
untenable phenomenon of lower courts disregarding this Court’s orders on the emergency docket,” the administration wrote in its submission to the Supreme Court.The argument is that Chen’s final order in the case rested on the same legal basis that had been stayed by the Supreme Court just months earlier.
This back-and-forth has left around 300,000 Venezuelans in limbo, alongside thousands more in a second group also facing the potential loss of their legal status.
Under TPS, immigrants from designated countries are allowed to remain in the United States without fear of deportation. They are granted permission to work while in the U.S., and can sometimes travel out of the country.
Noem and her predecessors hold the power to grant and revoke TPS per country. Status is renewed every 18 months, and the first Trump administration made similar attempts to revoke it but also faced legal challenges, which continued until President Joe Biden took office in 2021.
Part of Noem’s reasoning is that conditions in Venezuela have improved significantly, meaning it is safe for immigrants to return home. This has not necessarily aligned with the broader Trump administration’s views on the South American nation and its leader, Nicolas Maduro.
Trump Admin Moves to Revoke TPS for Syria
Also on Friday, the DHS moved to revoke TPS for another country: Syria.
In a Federal Register notice, the DHS reiterated that conditions had improved in the country, indicating that TPS was no longer necessary. Protections are set to lapse on September 30, 2025.
Protections were first introduced in 2012, at the height of the unrest in the Middle East at the time.
What People Are Saying
The Trump administration, in its filing to the Supreme Court Friday: “Since the statute was enacted, every administration has designated countries for TPS or extended those designations in extraordinary circumstances. But Secretaries across administrations have also terminated designations when the conditions
were no longer met.”Adelys Ferro, co-founder and executive director of the Venezuelan American Caucus, told Newsweek on August 29: “We, more than 8 million Venezuelans, just didn’t leave the country just because it’s fun, it’s because we had no choice…Venezuelans with TPS are not a threat to the United States.”
What Happens Next
The Supreme Court must now decide whether to take up the appeal.
Slingshot News: ‘I Haven’t Heard’: Trump Weasels His Way Out Of Accountability When Pressed On The Russia-Ukraine War During Signing Event [Video]
President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order for the 2028 Olympics Task Force last month at the White House. During his gaggle with the press, Trump dismissed a reporter’s concerns that Ukraine is allegedly conscripting elderly to fight in the war against Russia, claiming he doesn’t know about it. As usual, Trump was also quick to blame the war on former President Joe Biden.
‘I Haven’t Heard’: Trump Weasels His Way Out Of Accountability When Pressed On The Russia-Ukraine War During Signing Event
President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order for the 2028 Olympics Task Force last month at the White House. During his gaggle with the press, Trump dismissed a reporter’s concerns that Ukraine is allegedly conscripting elderly to fight in the war against Russia, claiming he doesn’t know about it. As usual, Trump was also quick to blame the war on former President Joe Biden.
Alternet: Trump sold Americans a ‘fantasy’ — and it’s now unraveling
In the 2024 election, the fact that Donald Trump’s hardcore MAGA base aggressively supported him came as no surprise. But it was independents and swing voters who ultimately got Trump past the finish line and gave him a narrow victory in a close election.
Trump won the popular vote for the first time in 2024, defeating Democratic nominee Kamala Harris by roughly 1.5 percent — and the economy, according to polls, played a key role in that victory. Although the United States enjoyed record-low unemployment during Joe Biden’s presidency, frustration over inflation worked to Trump’s advantage.
But The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie, in his September 17 column, argues that Trump sold U.S. voters a “fantasy” that is now unravelling.
Trump, according to Bouie, told 2024 voters that “that there were no trade-offs” with the economy — and that Americans “could have their cake and eat it, too” when, “in reality,” it “was a binary choice.”
“The essence of President Trump’s pitch to the American people last year was simple: They could have it both ways,” Bouie explains. “They could have a powerful, revitalized economy and ‘mass deportations now.’ They could build new factories and take manufacturing jobs back from foreign competitors as well as expel every person who, in their view, didn’t belong in the United States. They could live in a ‘golden age’ of plenty — and seal it away from others outside the country with a closed, hardened border.”
One “binary choice,” according to Bouie, was that “Americans could have a strong, growing economy, which requires immigration to bring in new people and fill demand for labor, or they could finance a deportation force and close the border to everyone but a small, select few.”
“Millions of Americans embraced the fantasy,” Bouie laments. “Now, about eight months into Trump’s second term, the reality of the situation is inescapable. As promised, Trump launched a campaign of mass deportation. Our cities are crawling with masked federal agents, snatching anyone who looks ‘illegal’ to them — a bit of racial profiling that has, for now, been sanctioned by the Supreme Court. The jobs, however, haven’t arrived.”
The New York Times columnist continues, “There are fewer manufacturing jobs than there were in 2024, thanks in part to the president’s tariffs and, well, his immigration policies…. To embrace nativism in a global, connected economic world is to sacrifice prosperity for the sake of exclusion, just as the main effect of racial segregation in the American South was to leave the region impoverished and underdeveloped.”
Reuters: Former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey sues Trump administration over firing
Maurene Comey, a former federal prosecutor who brought criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, has sued President Donald Trump’s administration over her abrupt July firing, court records showed on Monday.
Comey, the eldest daughter of former FBI director and longtime Trump adversary James Comey, said in a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court against the Justice Department and the Executive Office of the President that she was not provided any cause for her removal.
“Defendants fired Ms. Comey solely or substantially because her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey,” Maurene Comey’s lawyers wrote in the lawsuit.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Comey’s lawsuit could test the administration’s ability to swiftly fire line prosecutors, as the Republican president’s critics warn that he is seeking to politicize the Justice Department.
The Justice Department has been firing prosecutors who have worked on cases involving Trump or his political allies. Trump and his allies say the Justice Department was “weaponized” against conservatives during Democratic former President Joe Biden’s administration.
It could also test whether the administration can take action against line prosecutors who are not politically appointed and whose careers with the Justice Department frequently span both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Comey is asking a judge to reinstate her into her former role as a prosecutor with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office, which has long enjoyed an unusual degree of independence from Justice Department officials in D.C.
Former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey sues Trump administration over firing
Maurene Comey, a former federal prosecutor who brought criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, has sued President Donald Trump’s administration over her abrupt July firing, court records showed on Monday.