Tag Archives: Sen. Josh Hawley

Associated Press: Trump will host top tech CEOs except Musk at a White House dinner

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President Donald Trump will host a high-powered list of tech CEOs for a dinner at the White House on Thursday night.

The guest list is set to include Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a dozen other executives from the biggest artificial intelligence and tech firms, according to the White House.

One notable absence from the guest list is Elon Musk, once a close ally of Trump, whom the Republican president tasked with running the government-slashing Department of Government Efficiency. Musk had a public breakup with Trump earlier this year.

The dinner will be held in the Rose Garden, where Trump recently paved over the grassy lawn and set up tables, chairs and umbrellas that look strikingly similar to the outdoor setup at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

“The Rose Garden Club at the White House is the hottest place to be in Washington, or perhaps the world,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement. “The president looks forward to welcoming top business, political, and tech leaders for this dinner and the many dinners to come on the new, beautiful Rose Garden patio.”

The event will follow a meeting of the White House’s new Artificial Intelligence Education task force, which first lady Melania Trump will chair.

“During this primitive stage, it is our duty to treat AI as we would our own children — empowering, but with watchful guidance,” she said in a statement. “We are living in a moment of wonder, and it is our responsibility to prepare America’s children.”

At least some of the attendees at the president’s Thursday’s dinner are expected to participate in the task force meeting, which aims to develop AI education for American youths.

The White House confirmed that the guest list for the dinner is also set to include Google founder Sergey Brin and CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and founder Greg Brockman, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, Blue Origin CEO David Limp, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, TIBCO Software chairman Vivek Ranadive, Palantir executive Shyam Sankar, Scale AI founder and CEO Alexandr Wang and Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman.

Isaacman was an associate of Musk whom Trump nominated to lead NASA, only to revoke the nomination around the time of his breakup with Musk. Trump cited the revocation of the nomination as one of the reasons Musk was upset with him and called Isaacman “totally a Democrat.”

The dinner was first reported Wednesday by The Hill.

As my little brother would have said many years ago, “Musk is cut!”

Trump will host top tech CEOs at a White House dinner. Musk won’t be there
President Donald Trump will host a high-powered list of tech CEOs for a dinner at the White House. The White House says Thursday’s guest list includes Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a dozen other executives from the biggest artificial intelligence a

https://apnews.com/article/trump-tech-ceos-white-house-rose-garden-e234e719d96d299d2f670037f9505a9f

Forbes: Trump Says His Tariffs Collected ‘Trillions’ In Revenue—Here’s The Real Figure

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  • “Without tariffs, and all of the TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS we have already taken in, our Country would be completely destroyed, and our military power would be instantly obliterated,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
  • Trump claimed earlier this month that “trillions of dollars are being taken in on tariffs” and his levies have “not caused inflation, or any other problems for America, other than massive amounts of CASH pouring into our Treasury’s coffers.”
  • Trump leaves out that tariffs are paid by U.S. companies to import foreign goods, with those costs eventually paid by U.S. consumers.
  • Trump’s latest comments on his tariffs follow a ruling late Friday by the U.S. Court of Appeals, as the court wrote Trump overstepped his authority by issuing his reciprocal tariffs, a power the majority opinion said was “vested exclusively” as a “core Congressional power.”
  • The ruling prohibiting Trump’s tariffs won’t take effect until Oct. 14, allowing the Trump administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The truth: Trump’s tariffs have only “generated about $96 billion in revenue”.

Trump Claims Tariffs Earned U.S. ‘Trillions Of Dollars.’ Federal Data Says Otherwise.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has projected tariff revenue would reach $300 billion per year.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2025/08/31/trump-says-his-tariffs-collected-trillions-in-revenue-heres-the-real-figure

Talking Points Memo: GAO Makes Official What’s Been Obvious: Trump Admin Is Breaking Impoundment Control Act

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The independent agency embedded within the legislative branch that is designed to review federal spending and make recommendations to Congress on cost savings and waste, as well as investigate policy implementation (the real one, not DOGE), has released a new finding that none of us will find surprising.

As part of its 39 different investigations into various actions the Trump administration has taken in the last four months that could qualify as Impoundment Control Act violations, the Government Accountability Office determined this afternoon that the Trump administration has, in fact, done just that.

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Big picture, the non-partisan congressional watchdog is expected to issue more rulings in coming months as it works its way through nearly 40 other similar investigations into whether the Trump administration has violated the 51-year-old law in other ways. The Trump White House has already called the GAO finding “wrong” and GAO opinions are, in general, considered nonbinding recommendations to Congress. Such a finding might matter more in an era where congressional Republicans were not already so willing to choke down all of Trump’s DOGE cuts.

GAO Makes Official What’s Been Obvious: Trump Admin Is Breaking Impoundment Control Act
The independent agency embedded within the legislative branch that is designed to…

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/where-things-stand/gao-makes-official-whats-been-obvious-trump-admin-is-breaking-impoundment-control-act

Associated Press: Trump’s plan to accept free Air Force One replacement from Qatar raises ethical and security worries

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For President Donald Trump, accepting a free Air Force One replacement from Qatar is a no-brainer.

“I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer,” the Republican told reporters on Monday. “I could be a stupid person and say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’”

Critics of the plan worry that the move threatens to turn a global symbol of American power into an airborne collection of ethical, legal, security and counterintelligence concerns.

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But security is the primary concern when it comes to presidential travel. The current Air Force One planes were built from scratch near the end of the Cold War. They are hardened against the effects of a nuclear blast and include a range of security features, such as anti-missile countermeasures and an onboard operating room. They are also equipped with air-to-air refueling capabilities for contingencies, though it has never been utilized with a president on board.

A former U.S. official briefed on the Air Force One replacement project said that while it would be possible to add some features to the Qatari jet, there was no way to add the full suite of capabilities to the plane on a tight timetable.

Trump’s plan to accept free Air Force One replacement from Qatar raises ethical and security worries
For President Donald Trump, accepting a free Air Force One replacement from Qatar is a no-brainer. But Trump’s plan threatens to turn a global symbol of American power into an airborne collection of ethical, legal, security and counterintelligence concerns.

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-qatar-air-force-one-2ef13d87b71185bde547abe6840b098c

Roll Call: Pardons for friends, retribution for foes

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Critics say Trump has Used the Powers of the President in Ways That Raise Alarms

President Donald Trump spent much of the last four years decrying Justice Department prosecutions against him and his supporters, and one of his first executive orders in January said it sought to end the “weaponization of prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process.”

But since then, Trump has used the power of his office for actions that critics and experts say inject politics into federal investigations and prosecutions, such as memorandums last month initiating government investigations into actions of two former officials who have been critical of him.

Trump wiped away the criminal cases of his supporters for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and has given pardons for supporters and erstwhile allies. The Justice Department since January has dropped a high-profile criminal case against New York Mayor Eric Adams, and made personnel moves that target employees involved in the investigations of Trump and the criminal probes of rioters.

Pardons for friends, retribution for foes – Roll Call
President Donald Trump has used the power of his office in ways critics and experts say inject politics into the criminal justice system.

https://rollcall.com/2025/05/07/pardons-for-friends-retribution-for-foes