Vice President JD Vance said he worries about how emerging AI will be used in warfare, urging graduating Air Force cadets to not allow technology to supersede their judgment.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed Thursday that 6 million American children are enrolled in the about-to-launch "Trump Accounts" while brushing off what he called "short-term challenges" to the economy.
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US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Thursday reiterated his threat to remove Customs and Border Protection agents from airports at so-called “sanctuary cities” that bar local police from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement operations.During a Fox News interview, co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Mullin whether this plan would essentially halt all international flights to major US airports in travel hubs such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York.Mullin responded by saying DHS wasn’t “going to halt the flights,” but rather “won’t be able to process them because we won’t have officers there.”The DHS secretary said that the CBP officers needed to be sent to protect DHS employees at the Delaney Hall migrant detention center in Newark, New Jersey, which has been targeted in recent days by protesters demanding humane treatment of immigrants.“If things don’t change, we’re going to have to make this step pretty quick,” Mullin emphasized. “I’m not going to put my employees and my [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents at risk going to and from this [facility].”Critics were quick to point out that Mullin’s plan would lead to massive chaos at major international airports and would be a significant economic disruption at a time when Americans are already under financial pressure from the rising price of food and energy.“This would be deliberately stabbing the US economy in the back,” argued Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. “It would cause enormous economic damage and disrupt air travel nationwide, as airlines would be forced to cancel flights en masse. That he’s even contemplating this publicly is a sign of madness.”Minneapolis-based attorney Will Stancil questioned whether Mullin had fully gamed out how his plan would play out politically for his boss, President Donald Trump, whom polls show is historically unpopular.“If I’m sitting at 35% approval,” Stancil mused, “the thing I definitely want to do is to cause apocalyptic levels of chaos at all of America’s largest airports.”Retired air traffic controller Vivian Lumbard similarly marveled at the self-destructive consequences that would come from enacting Mullin’s plan.“If customs isn’t there processing international flights, US citizens won’t be permitted to re-enter the United States either,” she wrote. “Do any of these people have a working brain or understand how life works in the real world?”Mullin’s threats appear to be more than bluster, however. The Atlantic reported last week that the DHS chief recently “convened a small group of airline and travel-industry executives at DHS headquarters in Washington and told them he may reduce [CBP] staffing at major airports that serve sanctuary jurisdictions,” including airports in New York, Washington, DC, and Portland, Oregon.
The Trump administration's supposed "war on fraud" is benefiting from the support of a group of alleged fraudsters, according to new reporting. Cuts to Medicaid and raids on daycare centers are part of the president's stated crackdown on fraud, which has been backed by a nonprofit called the State Financial Officers Foundation, according to reporting by The Lever. State auditors and treasurers are part of the State Financial Officers Foundation, which throws its support behind Trump with reports and statements touting the war on fraud's success, The Lever reported. However, the nonprofit's board president, Seth Metcalf, is facing corruption allegations, according to The Lever. Metcalf, a former Ohio deputy treasurer, allegedly colluded with board members of the state's teachers' pension fund to direct $65 billion to his investment firm, according to whistleblowers. An Ohio judge wrote in a February ruling that the pension board members were "mere puppets" of Metcalf, The Lever noted. He reportedly penned documents accusing the pension board of "committing fraud" to pressure them, The Lever added. Metcalf is also being sued for fraud and mismanagement related to an AI start-up's money, according to The Lever. Meanwhile, the State Financial Officers Foundation's vice chair, Adam Crum, allegedly misused state funds while working as Alaska's revenue commissioner. Crum allegedly tried to take $75 million from state reserve funds and invest it in a private equity fund, which a lawmaker described as "gross incompetence" because of the move's high risk, according to The Lever. He also reportedly gave $8.5 million worth of contracts to a consulting firm that sponsored a glacier cruise for the State Financial Officers Foundation, according to reporting by the Juneau Independent. Red states have called out the group for exaggerating fraud numbers, too. An independent auditor found that one of the nonprofit's members, who was Florida's chief financial officer, used a DOGE formula to misrepresent hurricane recovery efforts as massive misspending. Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said one of the nonprofit's claims of fraud was "wildly inflated."
'Both your minds, but also your hearts, are the opposite of artificial.'
WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Thursday, readers! The America’s Future Gala and Award Showcase will be taking place in Washington, D.C. later tonight. Several folks from the Washington Examiner will be in attendance, including Callie, so be sure to say hello if you are there! 💃🥂 With the help of our editor Joe […]
Legal experts Katie Phang, Norm Eisen and Adam Klasfeld appeared on Thursday for a discussion about the new taxpayer-funded lawsuit against foe E. Jean Carroll by President Donald Trump's Justice Department. Trump, who lost two lawsuits for defamation, was accused of sexual assault by Carroll, and when Trump spoke out against her, she sued. Two juries awarded her $88 million and declared him liable for defamation while also agreeing that he committed an act of sexual abuse. The DOJ now claims that she lied under oath when she was asked whether someone was funding her legal fees. In reality, Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman was footing some of the costs, though it's unclear whether she knew that when she was asked. Carroll's lawyer later told the judge that Hoffman was funding some of the legal expenses. The DOJ says she lied under oath. In the latest conversation with "The Contrarian," Klasfeld called it ironic because there were acts of perjury on Trump's part. "I was in federal court when the deposition of Donald Trump was unspooled and he famously, and one might say wretchedly, claimed she's not my type," he recalled. Trump claimed to the lawyers that he could not have sexually assaulted Carroll because she wasn't attractive enough. "That was his defense to sexual abuse. She's not my type," Klasfeld continued. "And in this deposition, he was shown a picture that he was not aware included E. Jean Carroll, pointed to that picture, and confused her with Marla Maples. So clearly, she was his type. He confused her with his second wife."Eisen began laughing. "What an a——." "And so that was just one example of the demonstrable lies that led a unanimous federal jury to find him liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll," continued Klasfeld. "And what is inspiring this new leg of the retaliation tour, in the very district where they just failed to prosecute six local activists and politicians known as the Broadview Six. They were supposed to be on trial right now, but evidence of shocking grand jury misconduct came to light."Klasfeld said it was the "perfect place" for the DOJ to pick a jurisdiction in which to "persecute" Carroll. Phang said that she wasn't surprised because FBI Director Kash Patel and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche spent a year investigating seashells on the beach in North Carolina. "But here's the thing: you notice how they're not going after her about the substantive testimony she provided about the sexual assault that she was victimized by Trump, right?" Phang added. "They're not going after that. They're not going after the underlying facts of what she has alleged happened to her at the hands of Donald Trump. That is the tell."Instead, Trump is going after a Reid Hoffman-related question, claiming it was perjury. But they're not disputing the facts of the case and the jury's verdict.Coffee with the Contrarians, with Norman Eisen and Katie Phang by All Rise NewsA recording from Adam Klasfeld and Norman Eisen's live videoRead on Substack
When Benjamin Pennington was a kid, he liked to play Army with friends, and his room was filled with Army prints and model military planes. “Ben’s dream and life calling from an early age was to be an American soldier,” his obituary says.And that he was. A Kentucky native, Pennington enlisted at 18 and was later stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, where he fell in love with his new state. He hiked 14ers, snowboarded and pursued a life of faith. In January, he was baptized at Zeal Church in Colorado Springs.Two months later he was dead.The 26-year-old staff sergeant is one of 13 Americans who have been killed as part of the so-called Operation Epic Fury, a war of choice started by President Donald Trump that has injured more than 400 Americans, pummeled the economy, destabilized the Middle East, and left the United States the conflict’s humiliated loser.Pennington’s death is just one grievance that will meet Vice President JD Vance when he arrives in Colorado Springs on Thursday to deliver the commencement address at the Air Force Academy. Vance will be visiting a city that has suffered direct attacks from the administration. He will be showing his face in a state that has been a repeated target of vindictive and damaging acts of petty retaliation by the White House.Vance owes Coloradans an explanation.The Iran war has distressed Colorado Springs in many ways. Home to five military installations, the city instantly was put at risk by Trump’s attack on Iran. “Colorado Springs is a massive target, much like Huntsville, much like Tampa, other centers of gravity for defense technology,” cybersecurity expert Scott Edwards told KOAA News.Worse, the administration has intentionally wounded the city. Last year it announced it would move U.S. Space Command from Peterson Space Force Base to Alabama. Trump didn’t even pretend that this was a strategic or practical move. It was pure punishment. He dislikes how Colorado runs its elections, which experts across the board laud as safe and secure.The Space Command spite exemplifies the administration’s posture toward Colorado in general. Having singled out the state as a political opponent, the administration Vance represents treats Colorado like a foreign enemy to be harassed and abused with no fidelity to its constitutional duty to act in the interest of all Americans. It is breaking up the renowned atmospheric science hub NCAR in Boulder, it has denied disaster recovery funds for wildfire and flooding emergencies, it has withheld money for food and childcare in the state, and it has tried to undermine the state’s election systems.This is all so destructive. But it’s also outrageously immoral. U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse of Lafayette put it succinctly when he said, “The president has declared war on our state.”Vance was the source of perhaps the administration’s biggest recent insult to the state when he named Tina Peters as a prime example of a person who could receive a payout from a corrupt new pool of taxpayer money that Trump created. Peters, an election denier and Trump ally who was convicted of felonies for helping to breach her own election equipment when she was Mesa County clerk, caused incalculable harm to trust in Colorado elections. But Vance claims she’s “innocent,” and, solely to indulge his lying boss, he wants to take money out of your pocket to put in hers.What does Vance have to say for himself? How does he expect to visit Colorado and just ignore what his administration is doing to the state? Where does he get the nerve to stand in front of 900 graduating cadets of the academy when the administration has so recklessly misused America’s brave fighting men and women? How does he explain why Pennington had to die?Pennington’s family remembered him as having lived “servant-hearted and in sacrifice to others.” That’s the kind of character that makes Americans proud of their armed forces.But the man who will step to a podium at Falcon Stadium on Thursday serves an administration that exhibits no evidence of those traits.