Truthout
Utah Senate President Calls for Major Reduction in Scale of Planned Data Center
The project, backed by celebrity investor Kevin O'Leary, has spurred major controversy amid Utah's water challenges.
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Politics - CBSNews.com
6/1: The Takeout with Major Garrett
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Trump says Iran talks are continuing, Iran says otherwise; Graham Platner's wife addresses sexting scandal.
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The New Republic
Trump Plans to Drop $1.8 Billion Slush Fund After Major Court Loss
The Trump administration is suspending its $1.776 billion slush fund for alleged MAGA victims of political targeting after internal disagreement. “The Department of Justice disagrees strongly with the decision on the Anti-Weaponization Fund put forth by the United States District Court Judge in the Eastern District of Virginia, wherein the Court stated that, under no circumstances, may the Department of Justice proceed with the Anti-Weaponization Fund recently established in order to make up for the tremendous abuse, harm, and hate unfairly shown to so many people,” the Justice Department wrote on X Monday afternoon, referring to the fund’s temporary ban last Friday. “This Fund was open to anybody who was so weaponized, targeted, or persecuted, whether they were Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Independent, or otherwise. The Department will abide by the Court’s ruling.”Last week, a federal judge suspended the administration from proceeding with its slush fund for at least two weeks, scheduling a June 12 hearing to hear arguments. If Trump has truly given up on his plans, this would be a quick life and death for an enrichment fund that drew criticism from both Democrats and even some Republicans, as both sides decried it as a problematic conflict of interests at best and blatant taxpayer theft at worst. Outrage grew as the administration refused to exclude January 6 rioters convicted of assaulting police officers from getting a payout.“This has become a distraction,” an administration source told Axios. “The president believes government was weaponized against people—it wasn’t just him. But this isn’t the time and vehicle for it.”
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Raw Story
Top Trump DOJ revenge case hits major snag after crucial ruling in unrelated case
The Trump Justice Department's criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey got a worrisome sign on Monday — and it wasn't a development in that case itself, but one in an unrelated case involving the National Park Service.According to Politico, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss has issued a two-week restraining order prohibiting the park service from doing anything to interfere with a protest by the liberal group Accountability Now USA, which has for months been protesting President Donald Trump outside a federal courthouse near the National Mall — by flying a huge banner that says "86-47," with "47" being a reference to Trump and "86" a common slang term for getting rid of something.The group has been harassed by the Secret Service, and more recently, a National Park Service official issued an email ordering the group to remove it as it is "obscenity" not protected by the First Amendment. This is in line with a number of Trump officials and allies who have claimed "86-47" is a call for violence against the president."Moss, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, disagreed in his ruling.“The Court does not doubt that political violence is on the rise and that it poses a grave threat not just to the targets of the threats but to the country as a whole," wrote Moss. "But the enormity of that problem does not change the meaning of Plaintiff’s speech, which by any reasonable measure merely advocated for the President’s impeachment and removal from office — that is, ‘to throw [him] out.’”This could have grave implications for the administration's separate efforts to prosecute Comey, who was charged with violent threats for a social media post from last year depicting seashells arranged to spell out "8647." Comey deleted the post and apologized, but has made clear he was never advocating violence.All of this comes as the DOJ quietly reassigned a prosecutor in charge of the Comey case.
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The New Republic
Doctors Expose Major Holes in Trump’s Medical Report
Physicians have noted large omissions from a medical report on President Trump’s most recent visit to Walter Reed Medical Center, his third in a little over a year.In a three-page memorandum released by the White House late Friday, Trump’s physician, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, told the public that the president “remains in excellent health, demonstrating strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological and overall physical function.” But as medical experts told The Wall Street Journal, the report lacked specificity where it mattered.Barbabella’s report noted that there was “no arterial obstruction or structural abnormalities” in Trump’s heart or important blood vessels—which only meant there isn’t a blockage at the moment. There was also no mention of what his internal plaque buildup looked like.“If I was creating a report to send to another physician, I would have mentioned a little bit more about the carotid ultrasound,” Texas surgeon Dr. William Shutze told the Journal. “What amount of plaque there is going to be—because almost all of us are going to have some buildup there.”The report also noted that Trump’s swollen legs had improved, with no mention of what happened to trigger said improvement. His cholesterol was also nearly perfect—raising eyes given his age, visible bruising and swelling, his frequent on-camera naps, and the fact that he is an 80-year-old man who insists that he’s the healthiest person alive.“That report is almost too good to be true for somebody of his age,” Shutze continued. “This seems to be a filtered narrative.”
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Raw Story
Trump announces major breakthrough in Iran war negotiations: 'All shooting will stop'
President Donald Trump announced Monday that a key obstacle standing in the way of his administration’s negotiations with Tehran to end the U.S. war against Iran had apparently been addressed, potentially clearing the path to an end to the conflict.“I had a very productive call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, and there will be no Troops going to Beirut, [Lebanon], and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “Likewise, through highly placed Representatives, I had a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop – That Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel.”Trump’s inability to pressure Israel to halt its bombardment and invasion of Lebanon – which he explicitly demanded in April – has been a key factor in the negotiation stalemate between Washington and Tehran. Iranian officials have demanded that any agreement to end the conflict include Israel halting its bombardment of Lebanon, which since early March has killed more than 3,100 Lebanese and injured nearly 10,000.Whether Israel abides by Trump’s latest request to cease hostilities remains to be seen, with the Middle East nation having flagrantly disregarded the president’s demands in the past.
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Alternet.org
Trump may have made a major strategic blunder in the run-up to the midterms
President Donald Trump has solidified his control over the Republican Party by successfully pushing out GOPers who criticize him in party primaries. Yet in the process, according to a recent analysis, he may cost himself the 2026 midterm elections.“It’s far from clear that Mr. Trump’s winning streak in the Republican primaries will translate into victory in November, when the party will need the support of voters outside of Mr. Trump’s base — many of whom are deeply dissatisfied with the economy and the Iran war,” reported The New York Times’ Zolan Kanno-Youngs on Sunday. “Already, there are signs that his hold over Republicans in Washington may be slipping.”Kanno-Youngs reported that Senate Republicans blocked both Trump’s proposed $1 billion ballroom and his proposed $1.8 billion fund for Trump supporters and Trump-linked institutions that claim to have been persecuted by Democrats.“The split-screen illustrates an emerging paradox of the Trump presidency,” Kanno-Youngs added, after mentioning Trump’s recent string of legal defeats. “He has an iron grip on his most loyal supporters, even as his overall popularity slips.”One former GOP party official warned that Trump’s ability to control the Republican Party and then steer it in any direction he chooses is endangering their long-time political prospects.“The challenge of the administration right now, is the issues that they bring up, that Trump brings up, are not where voters are,” Douglas Heye, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee, told Kanno-Youngs. “They don’t need a ballroom, they don’t need a weaponization fund, they need lettuce to be affordable.”Despite Trump traditionally having near-unanimous support among Republican voters, a recent Quinnipiac survey found that only 73 percent of Republican voters still widely approve of the job Mr. Trump is doing. His overall approval rating has been stuck in the 30s, with most voters opposing Trump’s war with Iran and blaming him for America’s ongoing economic woes. Even worse, Trump has publicly expressed indifference to voters’ concerns.“When it comes to Iran, he said he does not think about the economic hardship of Americans — ‘not even a little bit’ — and that he does not care about the midterms,” Kanno-Youngs reported.Since the start of his second term, Trump has successfully primaried out Republicans considered to be stronger in the general election in favor of potentially weaker ones who he perceived as more supportive of him. The targeted incumbents include Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Rep. Thomas Masie (R-KY) and a group of Indiana state legislators who opposed his gerrymandering plans."He is one of the least popular presidents in modern polling history, and simultaneously, the most dominant force in the Republican Party,” journalist Colby Hall, the founder of Mediaite, recently wrote in a column for his ColbyHall.com website. “Neither fact is canceling out the other. His approval numbers are collapsing again. Depending on the poll, they are now approaching the lows he hit after January 6. He is underwater on inflation, cost of living, immigration, and now Iran. The broader electorate is plainly exhausted by him, the still very high price of a gallon of gas, and the bread and eggs he promised to make cheaper on Day 1 of his second term."Hall added, "At the exact same moment, Trump casually ended Sen. John Cornyn's political career with a single endorsement of the far more MAGA-coded Attorney General Ken Paxton in Texas. Ironically, Trump helping Paxton win the primary delivers his MAGA faithful a short-term win while putting the seat itself in real jeopardy. Democratic nominee James Talarico is a much more plausible threat to Paxton than he would have been to Cornyn, and a Republican Senate majority that looked safe a week ago no longer does."
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New York Post
California governor candidate Steve Hilton reveals his first major move if he wins election — and Dems will hate it
With the California’s primary election just days away, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is making his final pitch to voters for why he’s the man for the job — outlining how he intends to bring down the state’s cost of living, while putting more money in people’s pockets.
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NPR Topics: News
Israel seizes medieval castle as it expands major offensive in southern Lebanon
Israel has captured the 12th-century Beaufort castle that overlooks southern Lebanon and northern Israel. The move suggests Israel is planning an extended military presence in Lebanon.
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