Tag: donald trump

Pentagon’s Iran war costs hit $38 billion in five months – budget office

The US war with Iran cost the Pentagon approximately $38 billion in its first five months, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The bill could rise by another $2 billion to $3 billion for every additional month of fighting – and by more if hostilities intensify.

In a report released on Tuesday, the CBO estimated Defense Department expenses from the start of US combat operations on February 28 through August 1. The figure includes the estimated cost of replacing expended munitions and equipment lost in battle, as well as additional flying hours, military operations, and higher fuel costs.

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Mapped: The U.S. States Hit Hardest by Canada’s Tariffs

Trade talks between the U.S. and Canada have broken down, with Canada responding to broad U.S. duties with dollar-for-dollar tariffs on key American products.

This map shows the value of exports in each U.S. state covered by Canadian counter-tariffs, using the latest data from BBC for September 2026 from Scotiabank and Statistics Canada. Figures are in U.S. dollars.

States are shaded according to the value of their exports to Canada that are subject to Canadian duties.

Tariff Blues in the Midwest

The Great Lakes region stands out on the map, reflecting its central role in the roughly $870 billion bilateral trading relationship.

Ohio and Illinois have more exports covered by Canadian tariffs than any other states, at $2.3 billion and $2.1 billion, respectively. They are followed by Pennsylvania at $1.8 billion.

The table below lists each state alongside the value of its exports covered by the new Canadian tariffs.

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Todd Blanche Says It’s “Not Clear” What Biden FBI Did to Protect Trump Before Assassination Attempt After Trump Reveals Chris Wray Destroyed Files

Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday told reporters that “new information” about the assassination attempt against President Trump has been provided to the Senate and that the FBI didn’t do much to protect the President before the incident.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, President Trump went off on former FBI Director Chris Wray earlier, revealing that “most of the information” from the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024 “was missing, altered, corrupted, or gone.”

“Everybody knows the Crooked Joe Biden FBI didn’t do what they should have with respect to the Lunatic who shot me in Butler, PA,” Trump said. “This was all a Democrat Plot, to get me out of the Election, that failed. Dirty Cop Christopher Wray should pay a price for the way he handled this assassination attempt, and certainly for the things he said.”

Asked on Tuesday, as the reporter framed it, about “new evidence” and Trump saying that “Wray should be punished for his lack of oversight during this investigation,” Blanche told reporters that “new information” had been provided to the Senate regarding “the shooter and about his background, about his history, and that’s stuff that we didn’t know before.”

“It’s not really clear what the leadership of the FBI were doing in the weeks and months ahead of the attempted assassination to protect President Trump,” he added.

“That’s the same organization that was simultaneously trying to put him in prison till he dies. So, his frustration and concern about what the former director was doing is something that is not new.”

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Tucker Carlson Sounds Alarm Over Trump’s Planned ‘Largest Transfer Of Ordinance In Modern History’

After the US was essentially forced to conduct a major and rapid draw down of forces from the Gulf and Mideast region in the wake of Iran’s ‘unexpectedly’ large retaliation for Operation Epic Fury, it seems all that Washington is left to do is arm regional allies to the teeth and wish them the best.

Early this month the US approved two potential Saudi defense packages valued at a whopping $5.75 billion. The forthcoming deals will reportedly focus on transferring extended-range precision bombs and bolstering Abrams tanks in the kingdom.

Ironically this comes at a moment that Saudi-backed coalition forces in Yemen – with all its military tech – are getting rolled back by Ansar Allah fighters in sandals.

Naturally, next on the list comes Israel.

On Tuesday, over a week since the planned Saudi sale was reported, The Washington Post reveals the following:

President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to sell to Israel a munitions package worth $2.8 billion, which will include tens of thousands of highly destructive 2,000-pound bombs, according to a U.S. official familiar with the sale.

The planned sale, which has been informally communicated to relevant congressional committees who weigh in on large arms sales, includes 20,000 MK 84s and 20,000 BLU-117s, the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said.

WaPo calls the package “the largest” planned sale of 2,000 pound bombs to Israel in years.

Just prior to initial reporting of this dropping at around midday Tuesday, Tucker Carlson revealed on X: “According to an informed federal official, in the coming months the Trump administration plans to send a total of 40,000 Mark 84 and Blu-117 bombs to the government of Israel. Each bomb weighs 2,000 pounds. This appears to be the largest transfer of conventional explosive ordnance from the United States in modern history.”

Carlson put it in perspective in the following commentary:

How big is this shipment? It amounts to 40,000 tons of bombs. For perspective, the largest American air raid of World War Two was the Eighth Air Force’s attack on Berlin in March of 1945. Combined, the 2,023 Allied aircraft involved dropped about 3,000 tons of bombs. That’s 7.5 percent of what Trump is sending to Israel. That same month, March of 1945, the US Army Air Forces began the single most destructive bombing raid in human history, Operation Meetinghouse over Tokyo. More than 100,000 Japanese civilians were killed. By the end of that operation, the US had dropped 1,600 tons of bombs. That’s four percent of what Trump is sending to Israel. World War Two ended five months later, when the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. The shipment Trump is sending to Israel amounts to more than three times the destructive power of that nuclear explosion. There is no precedent for what the Trump administration is doing. Nor is there a justification. The government of Israel is not fighting World War Two, or even a war. It is engaged in periodic skirmishes with a guerrilla force in Lebanon, and it is working to exterminate an unarmed civilian population in Gaza. Neither front requires modern 2,000-pound bombs.

The former Fox host further warned this portends Israel could soon go even more ‘gloves off’ and unleash further hell on Gaza and Lebanon, or possibly even Iran – at a moment the US seems to be trying to find an exit from the hot phase of the conflict.

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Anonymous Donor Paid to Cremate Thomas Crooks Just 10 Days After He Tried to Assassinate President Trump in Butler

The family couldn’t pay. Someone else did. And two years later, nobody will say who.

An anonymous donor paid to cremate Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old who climbed a rooftop in Butler, Pennsylvania, and tried to murder Donald Trump, just ten days after the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt.

The New York Post reviewed documents turned over to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) as part of his ongoing probe into the Butler attack. Buried at the end of an FBI interview summary with the gunman’s father, Matthew Crooks, is a short, stunning note:

“Anonymous donor paid for cremation.”

The information, according to the records, came from a lawyer for the Crooks family.

There is currently no public evidence that the anonymous donor had any connection to Crooks’ attack, and the identity of the individual or organization reportedly footing the bill remains unknown.

But the revelation is especially striking because the rapid disposal of Crooks’ remains was already the subject of controversy on Capitol Hill.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported in August 2024, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), who served on the House task force investigating the assassination attempt, revealed that Crooks’ body had been cremated only ten days after the shooting.

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Federal Records Reveal Major New Details About Trump’s Would-Be Assassin Thomas Crooks, Including a Very Surprising Alias He Used While Buying Gun Parts

Stunning new details have emerged regarding Thomas Crooks, President Trump’s would-be assassin in Butler, Pennsylvania, two years ago.

On Tuesday, Fox News reviewed federal records turned over to the Senate, which will raise questions about why such information regarding Crooks has not come out before.

For instance, Thomas Crooks’s father, Matthew Crooks, then took an early retirement shortly after the shooting, while his mother, Mary Crooks, went on leave from work to “process the situation.”

This did not seem to be a family with significant financial means, especially since they could not afford a funeral for their son. So, something appears to be missing.

The New York Post also reviewed records which show Crooks adopted the pseudonym “Bob Dole” while ordering large numbers of Amazon packages, including “parts, tools, and items to increase the capacity of his rifle.”

He started doing this due to paranoia he picked up after his father’s Citizens Bank checking account was hacked and multiple fraudulent BetMGM charges were made on his account. It’s unclear why Thomas Crooks chose “Bob Dole” as his go-to online disguise.

Thomas Crooks also ignored his dad’s warning that simply using a pseudonym would not necessarily protect the buyer from being hacked. The charge, after all, is still being made to a bank account under his name.

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Trump calls AI risks a ‘hoax,’ says there is a ‘SICK conspiracy’ against AI and data centers

President Donald Trump said Monday that he would be a sufficient guardrail against rogue artificial intelligence, claiming that any efforts to limit the technology is part of a “SICK conspiracy.”

Trump was pushing back against calls by tech leaders such as Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Elon Musk to have greater government oversight of AI. Many tech leaders generally say their goal is to develop the technology in ways that promote safety, address legal liability, feed economic growth, advance science and preserve national security.

The president maintained that his presence in the Oval Office should assuage any fears about AI, which has become a source of controversy after a series of hacks in recent months that showed AI agents could be working to deceive humans.

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump posted on social media.

Trump specifically said that the administration has already stopped the AI company Anthropic “from doing bad, or potentially bad” things. Anthropic has endured an uncomfortable relationship with the Trump administration, with the Pentagon trying to label the company a security risk and the government issuing a temporary ban of one of its more advanced models.

The president went even further in a Monday afternoon post that asked “when, in the History of Business, did anyone see the Leaders of an Industry call for Regulation that, if strongly implemented, will drive them into oblivion and bankruptcy?”

The president then added that the potential threat that AI could pose to humanity was a hoax, despite clear warnings by many of the experts closest to the most advanced models.

“AI taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad, is a HOAX,” posted Trump.

Trump’s refusal to regulate comes as AI execs warn of threats

Amodei, the Anthropic CEO, published a 3,800-word essay on Saturday that called for slower development of AI. Microsoft on Monday published its own code of conduct to ensure that humans control AI. The actions come after a series of warnings by AI experts about the technologies’ capabilities and the July 2026 cyberattack by OpenAI models on the AI company Hugging Face.

Amodei cited “AI’s growing ability to build the next generation of AI” and the cyberattack by the swarm of OpenAI agents as reasons to slow the pace of development.

“Given the accelerating rate of AI capability development, it’s my worry that in 6–12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet,” Amodei wrote, adding that the damages could be in the hundreds of billions of dollars or more “without the necessary guardrails.”

Altman of OpenAI seconded that perspective in a weekend post on social media.

“Pacing will be well worth this cost; no amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness, or let capabilities get ahead of alignment and monitoring,” Altman said. “Where we will need the help of our government is for international coordination.”

Trump sees AI regulation as helping China

The president has opposed such efforts to constrain AI and claims that doing so could cause China to eclipse America on AI.

“There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China,” Trump said.

The president has long resisted efforts for greater government oversight of AI, embracing his philosophy going back to 2016 of “I alone can fix it.” He returned to the White House last year by revoking a Biden administration executive order on AI oversight and only providing a fuller order of his own more than 16 months later this past June.

The prospect of slower AI buildout led stocks to slip in Monday morning trading, as demand for advanced computer chips and construction materials for data centers could fall. But Trump’s frustration comes as AI has also emerged as a political liability ahead of November’s midterm elections, with many voters opposing the construction of additional data centers and expressing worries that AI could lead to job losses and undermine the education of children.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters on Monday that he expects Trump will have the AI companies potentially meet at the White House this week or next week, saying that the sit-down has yet to be scheduled.

“There will be a deliberate discussion about the responsibility of the companies to maintain safety, and what role, if any, the government has to play in that,” said Johnson, adding that legislatures can tend to respond problematically with “red tape and hyper regulation” and that the loss of competitive edge on AI would be a national security concern.

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“I’d Be Okay With That”: Trump Says He’s Open To Chinese Automakers Building Cars In US

In comments that most people missed on Friday, President Donald Trump suggested that he’s open to letting Chinese automakers build cars on US soil. 

Speaking with Fox News, Trump said that while he wouldn’t allow Chinese cars to operate in the United States because the US market would be overrun – he might be open to manufacturing them here. 

“We don’t allow his cars into the United States, and I never did,” he said, referring to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, noting that then-President Joe Biden had kept his policies on Chinese cars. 

“If China wanted to come in and open a plant to build their cars here, I’d be okay with that. Japan does it, but they hire our people. The big thing is they hire our people,” he continued, adding “What I don’t want is them to build in Mexico and just … build it inexpensively and ship it across the border.”

As The Epoch Times notes further, a regulation imposed by the Biden administration in early 2025 effectively bans all Chinese automakers from selling or building passenger vehicles in the United States. Washington also maintains more than 100 percent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.

Trump’s remarks came ahead of Xi’s planned visit to the United States later this month. The president said on July 23 that he would discuss artificial intelligence with the Chinese leader during the visit. The two leaders last met during Trump’s visit to Beijing in May, where Trump formally invited Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to the White House.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a Washington-based group representing major U.S. automakers, on Sept. 3 urged Congress to permanently ban the sale, import, and manufacture of Chinese-connected vehicles, hardware, and software before the current congressional session ends.

“Right now, Chinese automakers are dumping subsidized vehicles with connected software and hardware around the world,” John Bozzella, the group’s president and CEO, said in a letter to the congressional leadership.

Bozzella warned that China is gaining market share in Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, Mexico, and South America with vehicles that can collect, process, and transmit “sensitive vehicle and consumer data to the Chinese Communist Party.”

It hasn’t happened yet inside the United States, he said. He urged lawmakers to act quickly, given the scale and urgency of the threat.

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NYC and 21 states file federal suit over proposed changes to green card eligibility

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a pair of federal lawsuits attempting to block the Trump administration’s efforts to enforce self-sufficiency requirements for immigrants seeking permanent residency.

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Those applying for a Green Card or Visa – Primary Target

The public charge rule directly affects non-citizens who are currently in the U.S. legally on temporary visas (work visas, student visas, temporary statuses) or applying for green cards/visa adjustments from abroad.

If federal officers determine they are likely to rely on government benefits, their green card or visa application can be denied.

Current Green Card Holders – Secondary Target

Once a person already has a green card, utilizing public benefits generally does not jeopardize their status or lead to deportation. However, the rule can impact them if they leave the U.S. for more than 180 consecutive days and try to re-enter, as they are treated like new applicants subject to admissibility checks upon return.

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The legal challenges target the GOP administration’s updated “public charge” rule — a policy taking effect September 18th that directs immigration officials to evaluate whether non-citizen visa and green card applicants are likely to become dependent on taxpayer-funded government aid, including Medicaid, food stamps and housing assistance.

Joined by local officials from liberal jurisdictions including Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle, alongside a coalition of 21 Democrat state attorneys general (AGs), the lawsuits argue that the administration “exceeded its authority” by broadening the criteria used to evaluate financial independence.

The left-wing plaintiffs allege that assessing non-cash benefit usage creates unnecessary confusion. During a press conference, Mayor Mamdani criticized the Trump administration’s policy, arguing it would deter immigrant families from utilizing city-provided services and lead to higher long-term healthcare costs for municipal governments.

However, the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) firmly defended the measure as a lawful, common-sense enforcement of longstanding immigration principles designed to safeguard federal resources.

Federal officials dismissed the local and state lawsuits as politically motivated attempts by sanctuary city leaders to preserve non-citizen access to costly public entitlement programs.

Defending the policy, a DHS spokesperson stressed that the GOP administration is committed to safeguarding taxpayer dollars, asserting that U.S. immigration laws must prioritize self-reliant applicants rather than foreign nationals seeking to live off government assistance.

Ensuring that immigrants remain self-reliant has been a fundamental tenet of U.S. immigration law for generations, they added, expressing confidence that federal courts will uphold the rule against the state and municipal challenges.

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Trump Says He Might Release More 9/11 Records

President Donald Trump said on Sept. 13 he might release records related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

“I’m going to look at it when I get back,” he told reporters in Ireland, after being asked about recent requests from families of people who perished in the attacks.

A nephew of Lisa Marie Terry, who was in the North Tower at the World Trade Center when it was struck by one of the planes hijacked by Islamic terrorists, was among those who recently called on Trump to declassify records related to the attacks on the center and the Pentagon.

“For 25 years, the deep state has hidden the truth about what happened that day 25 years ago,” he said during a reading of the names of the victims in New York City on Sept. 11. “President Trump, you are our last hope. Release the unredacted files that implicate Saudi Arabia while what’s left of the victims’ families are still alive to see it.”

Terry Strada, whose husband, Tom Strada, died in the attacks, said during the same event that past administrations have chosen “to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families” and urged Trump to take action.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, according to the FBI. Some of the families have sued Saudi Arabia, alleging it is liable because officials supported Al Qaeda in the time leading up to the attacks.

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