IRGC leaders try to calm fears after Israeli strikes target Basij checkpoints
Source: Washington Examiner · Bias: Center Right
Summary
Leaders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sought to reassure the public after Israeli strikes targeting Basij checkpoints and security facilities across Iran, raising concerns about the regime’s ability to maintain internal control during the widening conflict. Iranian state media and IRGC officials said security forces remain in control following the strikes, which reportedly hit […]
IRGC leaders try to calm fears after Israeli strikes target Basij checkpoints
Center Right
Leaders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sought to reassure the public after Israeli strikes targeting Basij checkpoints and security facilities across Iran, raising concerns about the regime’s ability to maintain internal control during the widening conflict. Iranian state media and IRGC officials said security forces remain in control following the strikes, which reportedly hit […]
Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder of hedge fund Citadel, urged business leaders to resist the socialism of New York City Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani, warning that the Big Apple's business environment will otherwise be destroyed.
The post Business Leader Calls on New York City to Resist Mamdani appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Friday criticized President Trump’s decision to hold a July Fourth rally on the National Mall during a heat wave in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. “I think that we should never ask our people to sacrifice in order to hear a speech,” he told The Hill’s Judy Kurtz and Hillary…
Stop slacking, allies.
The post NATO Leaders Will Meet for Key Summit in Turkey After Trump Puts Freeloading Allies on Blast appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Iran's entire regime made a red carpet entrance to the first of three funeral ceremonies for late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — except the dead ayatollah's own son and successor.
The Trump administration concluded a recent mineral deal with Kazakhstan that, not surprisingly, enriches not only President Donald Trump’s own family but that of his secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick. Trump’s two eldest sons, part owners of Dominari Securities, are set to profit from the Kazakh tungsten deal. So is Cantor Fitzgerald, the investment firm run by Lutnick’s two sons.As The New York Times pointed out in its investigation of the scheme, “Their sons were soon doing business with partners in a deal that their fathers were negotiating, continuing a pattern of self-enrichment in the second Trump administration that has few precedents in American history.”The phrases “self-enrichment” and “few precedents” are interesting ways of characterizing this latest instance of the administration’s corruption. Isn’t self-enrichment a good thing, in the sense of profiting from your own hard work? By contrast, the article doesn’t mention the word “corruption” at all. Perhaps the Times is worried about getting hit by yet another Trump legal challenge (in October last year, Trump refiled a $15 billion defamation suit against the paper for its coverage of his 2024 presidential campaign).There are indeed several precedents in American history for what Trump is doing. These previous corruption scandals—Credit Mobilier, Whiskey Ring, Teapot Dome—wrecked the reputations of presidents and cast long shadows over American politics. They also helped to produce the kind of safeguards that Trump is now destroying.Foreign policy is a tool by which the administration levies a toll on any entity that has the temerity to be a country other than the United States. As with much of Trump’s disrespect for norms, his corruption has been massive and largely in full view. The two outstanding questions are: Will Trump and company ever be held accountable for their graft and will this corruption have an enduring impact on political institutions in the United States?Tracking the DamageIf scandalous behavior unfolds in full view of everyone, is it still a scandal? “Scandal” suggests something hidden, something whispered about, something revealed. Trump’s actions are full frontal. They are both brazen and matter-of-fact.According to the Trump administration and its extended family, the money skimmed off the top of economic transactions is just smart politics. The administration has endeavored to negotiate every peace deal, trade agreement, investment arrangement, and mineral pact in such a way as to deliver Trump, his family, and their circle of close supporters a good chunk of change.This is Trump’s interpretation of the American dream: Folks would be downright foolish not to profit from their position. All the great tycoons made their money, from railroads to AI, by being in the right place at the right time with the right amount of ruthlessness. In Trump’s case, however, he is using taxpayer money to cover the risk. And most the time, given the terms of the arrangement, there is hardly any risk because Trump is using his presidential power to game the system. That’s what he really means by the “art of the deal.” Trump only deals from a marked deck of cards.The Center for American Progress runs Trump’s Take, which estimates that the president has received a little over $2.6 billion in cash and gifts since he took office in January 2025.The graft is not secret, though sometimes the actual amounts involved are obscured by layers of complex finance. Trump’s recent mandatory financial disclosure offers some details. But thanks to a number of websites, it’s become quite easy to track in real time the growing amount of Trump’s slice of the pie.The Center for American Progress runs Trump’s Take, which estimates that the president has received a little over $2.6 billion in cash and gifts since he took office in January 2025. Much of this money has come from various crypto schemes, including the Trump meme coin, but also such dubious ventures as the documentary about Melania Trump and a number of legal settlements (more colloquially known as shakedowns). Corruption Counter puts the value at $2.2 billion and includes such recent items as the $100 million savings for Trump from the recent effort to bar the Internal Revenue Service from auditing the president. (Courts blocked the overall $1.8 billion “settlement fund,” but the Justice Department is upholding the IRS amnesty.)If you want to keep track just of the crypto deals, the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee maintain the Trump Family Digital Grift Wealth Tracker. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) keeps his own list, which highlights the insider trading around the Iran War and a defense contract with Dell after the president invested in the company. David Kirkpatrick, at The New Yorker, has been keeping a running total of Trump’s ballooning assets. In January, he updated his total to $4 billion, which details, among other things, the Gulf money flowing into Trump pockets.
July 4th events for America's milestone birthday are being threatened by a brutal heat wave. And, Russia has struck Ukraine's capital, killing several people in what it calls retaliatory attacks.
A stream of foreign dignitaries, officials and mourners gathered in Tehran on Friday to pay their respects to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Feb. 28 that triggered the war. Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, a key mediator in the U.S.-Iran talks to end the war, joined mourners…
