Trump Corruption

The Guardian reports: A group of barren, uninhabited volcanic islands near Antarctica, covered in glaciers and home to penguins, have been swept up in Donald Trump’s trade war, as the US president hit them with a 10% tariff on goods. Heard Island and McDonald Islands, which form an external territory of Australia, are among the remotest places on earth, accessible …

Mediaite reports: President Donald Trump announced a long list of new tariffs on Wednesday, and observers swiftly noticed a rather glaring omission. Numerous commentators have criticized the new tariffs for not just the economic havoc they were poised to spark, but for falsely categorizing value-added taxes and other sales or corporate taxes as tariffs. Not on the list? Russia. Also …

The New York Times reports: Calling his announcement a “declaration of economic independence,” President Trump imposed sweeping retaliatory tariffs at a Rose Garden ceremony. He said he would establish a universal baseline tariff of 10 percent, and additional rates that apply to certain countries. Some of the rates he announced — 34 percent for China, 26 percent for India, 24 …

The Washington Post reports: Senate Republicans — like investors and foreign governments — are nervously waiting for President Donald Trump to detail a new round of tariffs in a 4 p.m. speech at the White House. Trump has described the announcement for weeks as “Liberation Day,” but many Republican senators have expressed at least some concern about the tariffs’ impact …

Politico reports: Trump has told his inner circle, including members of his Cabinet, that Elon Musk will be stepping back in the coming weeks from his current role as governing partner, ubiquitous cheerleader and Washington hatchet man. The president remains pleased with Musk and DOGE, but both men have decided in recent days that it will soon be time for Musk …

Politico reports: Musk catapulted the state Supreme Court election into national view, vocally backing conservative candidate Brad Schimel — who also clinched President Donald Trump’s endorsement — and pouring millions into the efforts to get him elected. The Wisconsin election, Musk claimed, would decide the trajectory of not only the whole country, but perhaps all of “Western civilization” and “the …

Elektrek reports: Tesla has about $200 million worth of Cybertrucks in inventory in the US, as the truck is extremely difficult to sell. With Tesla having issues selling new Cybertrucks, the automaker is reportedly not taking any as trade-ins. Many Cybertruck owners reported trying to trade-in the truck for a new vehicle and they were told that the automaker currently …

ABC News reports: Donald Trump’s social media company on Monday filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange commission that could allow the president’s trust to sell more than $2 billion of shares. Trump Media and Technology Group filed a registration with the SEC that would open the door for the president’s trust to sell up to nearly 115 million shares, …

From the Wall Street Journal editorial board: Democrats solidified their 4-3 progressive majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday, and the ramifications are nationwide. The comfortable win by Democratic Judge Susan Crawford is the second sign in two weeks of a political backlash against the Trump Presidency. That’s a warning to the GOP that the Trump-Musk governing style is …

Mediaite reports: President Donald Trump’s claims that there are “methods” by which he could run for a third term are not being taken lightly by the electorate. A majority of Americans believe the president will ultimately try for a third term in office, according to a new poll by YouGov. In all, 56 percent of respondents think Trump will either …

Reuters reports: Former Costa Rican President and Nobel Prize winner Oscar Arias said on Tuesday that the U.S. had revoked his visa to enter the country, weeks after he criticized U.S. President Donald Trump on social media saying he was behaving like “a Roman emperor.” Arias, 84, was president between 1986 and 1990 and again between 2006 and 2010. A …

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports: Just how nervous is billionaire Elon Musk about allegations that he may be violating the state’s bribery statute by paying people to vote? On Tuesday, Musk’s super PAC, America PAC, pulled a video from X featuring $1 million giveaway winner Ekaterina Deistler in which she said she received the money, in part, to “vote.” “My name’s …

Axios reports: Democrats on the House Oversight Committee sent letters on Tuesday to members of the Trump administration’s Houthi air strike Signal group chat, requesting they sit for transcribed interviews about the national security breach. The White House has remained defiant despite the bipartisan backlash and growing calls from members of both parties to investigate the breach. Ranking member Gerry …

The Washington Post reports: Members of President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, including White House national security adviser Michael Waltz, have conducted government business over personal Gmail accounts, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post and interviews with three U.S. officials. The use of Gmail, a far less secure method of communication than the encrypted messaging app Signal, is …

The New York Times reports: In a state where campaign season can feel year-round, voters in Wisconsin returned to the polls once again on Tuesday, casting their ballots in a nearly $100 million race for control of the State Supreme Court. Election officials said that early voting turnout had surpassed 600,000 votes, suggesting total turnout could surpass two million. About …

“If you just saw the headline from the insane, failing Atlantic magazine this morning, you would think this individual was ‘Father of the Year,’ living in Maryland, living a peaceful life, when that couldn’t be further from the truth. They didn’t even mention in the title of that article, or even in the first paragraph, that this individual is an …

“Senator Tim Kaine, who ran against me with Crooked Hillary in 2016, is trying to halt our critical Tariffs on deadly Fentanyl coming in from Canada. We are making progress to end this terrible Fentanyl Crisis, but Republicans in the Senate MUST vote to keep the National Emergency in place, so we can finish the job, and end the scourge. …

The New York Times reports: The law firm that employs Doug Emhoff, former Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband, has learned that it is among the next firms that Mr. Trump plans to use his power to punish. The firm, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, also employs a top investigator for the congressional committee that documented Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, …

The Daily Beast reports: Trump’s pick to be chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff refused to lie for the president and instead threw his prospective boss under the bus at a confirmation hearing. Retired Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine told a Senate committee on Tuesday morning that he was not wearing a red MAGA hat when he first met …

Wired reports: The DOGE-affiliated acting president of the United States Institute of Peace, a Congressionally funded, independent think tank, has moved to transfer the agency’s $500 million headquarters building to the General Services Administration free of charge, according to court documents revealed in a recently filed lawsuit. Tensions at USIP have been escalating for weeks, starting when the Trump administration …