Tag: donald trump

Trump Energy Chief Invokes Emergency Powers To Boost Fossil Fuel Use in Blackout-Plagued Puerto Rico

Energy Secretary Chris Wright is invoking emergency powers to empower Puerto Rico to boost fossil fuel power generation in the wake of a recent island-wide blackout and ahead of the summer, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Wright issued two orders Friday afternoon: The first directs the government-owned Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to increase electric power production on the island to maintain grid reliability while the second orders the agency to immediately clear overgrown vegetation that presents risk of shortages and fire. Both orders invoked emergency powers conferred on the energy secretary under the Federal Power Act.

In addition, as part of the announcement, the Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office will conduct a review of $365 million in funding the Biden administration granted to third party organizations and companies in December to develop new solar power installations across the island.

Wright’s actions Friday represent an abrupt recalibration of how the federal government will address Puerto Rico’s ongoing power generation crisis, shifting from a focus on boosting green energy like solar power to expanding existing fossil fuel infrastructure. And it comes just a month after after Puerto Rico suffered a devastating blackout that impacted 1.4 million residents and left hundreds of thousands without water, the Associated Press reported.

That blackout was the second of its kind in less than four months on the island and underscored the power supply issues Puerto Rico has faced for the better part of a decade. Both blackouts are particularly alarming considering they occurred outside of the peak summer demand season.

“Access to energy is essential for all modern life, yet the current energy emergency jeopardizes Puerto Ricans’ access to basic necessities,” Wright said in a statement. “This system is unsustainable, and our fellow citizens should not be forced to suffer the constant instability and dangerous consequences of an unreliable power grid.”

“With President Trump’s leadership, we are prioritizing immediate and comprehensive actions that will mitigate the greatest threats to the grid and benefit a vastly larger portion of the population, including critical facilities like hospitals and community centers,” he continued.

The Department of Energy said Wright’s actions were taken in coordination with the Puerto Rican energy industry and power experts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The actions received support from Puerto Rico’s governor Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon (R.) and energy czar Josue Colon-Ortiz.

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Trump Fumes After Supreme Court Rules Venezuelan Illegals Can’t Be Deported (For Now)

The Supreme Court ruled this afternoon to keep in place its block on President Trump’s deportations of (alleged) Venezuelan gang members under a 1798 law historically used only in wartime after their ACLU lawyers said the government was set to remove the men without judicial review in violation of a prior order by the justices.

The Supreme Court has previously issued two orders stemming from those cases.

Justices agreed that the president could rely on the centuries-old wartime law to remove immigrants from the country – provided they first have an opportunity to challenge those claims in court – and then temporarily blocked the government from deporting another group of Venezuelans in Texas while their lawyers scrambled to challenge the allegations against them.

In his proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act, Trump stated that “all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of [Tren de Aragua], are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies.”

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US official admits misleading Trump on US troop numbers in Syria

Outgoing Ambassador Jim Jeffrey, the U.S. special envoy for Syria, admitted in an interview with Defense One to misleading President Donald Trump about the true number of U.S. troops deployed in Syria and convincing the president not to withdraw troops.

Jeffrey said, “We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there.” Jeffrey said the actual number of troops in northeast Syria is “a lot more than” the approximately 200 troops Trump agreed to keep in the country in 2019.

According to anonymous sources who spoke with Defense One, the true number of U.S. troops in Syria is said to be around 900, though the precise number is classified and reportedly remains unknown even to Trump and other members of his administration hoping to bring U.S. troops out of foreign engagements.

Trump called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria at the end of 2018 and again in October 2019, both times receiving pushback. Despite calling for the withdrawals, both times Trump was convinced to leave a contingent of U.S. troops in the county.

“What Syria withdrawal? There was never a Syria withdrawal,” Jeffrey told Defense One. “When the situation in northeast Syria had been fairly stable after we defeated ISIS, [Trump] was inclined to pull out. In each case, we then decided to come up with five better arguments for why we needed to stay. And we succeeded both times. That’s the story.”

After his October 2019 call for the withdrawal of troops from Syria, Trump was convinced last year to agree to keep between 200 and 400 U.S. troops in the country to maintain control of oil fields. The actual number of troops in the country is said to be much higher than Trump was led to believe.

CNN national security correspondent Jim Sciutto similarly tweeted hearing claims that Department of Defense officials deceived Trump about the true U.S. presence in Syria.

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Trump administration working on plan to move 1 million Palestinians to Libya

The Trump administration is working on a plan to permanently relocate up to 1 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya, five people with knowledge of the effort told NBC News.

The plan is under serious enough consideration that the administration has discussed it with Libya’s leadership, two people with direct knowledge of the plans and a former U.S. official said. 

In exchange for the resettling of Palestinians, the administration would potentially release to Libya billions of dollars of funds that the U.S. froze more than a decade ago, those three people said.

No final agreement has been reached, and Israel has been kept informed of the administration’s discussions, the same three sources said.

The State Department and the National Security Council did not respond to multiple requests for comment.  

Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, said that Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group that has run Gaza, was not aware of any discussions about moving Palestinians to Libya.

“Palestinians are very rooted in their homeland, very strongly committed to the homeland and they are ready to fight up to the end and to sacrifice anything to defend their land, their homeland, their families, and the future of their children,” Naim said in response to questions from NBC News. “[Palestinians] are exclusively the only party who have the right to decide for the Palestinians, including Gaza and Gazans, what to do and what not to do.”

Representatives of the Israeli government declined to comment. 

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President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful” Bill FAILS in Committee After Five House Republicans Vote NO – Largest Tax Increase in American History Looms

The Trump agenda suffered a major setback today after a handful of Republicans voted a key bill delivering it down in committee. Now, the largest tax increase in American history looms unless the GOP does an about-face.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, the House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee—led by Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO)—previously released the text of a monumental new tax reform package titled “The One, Big, Beautiful Bill.”

The bill, strongly backed by President Donald Trump, is aimed at delivering historic cuts to American families, workers, and small businesses.

The 389-page bill includes a long list of pro-growth, America-First provisions that echo many of the successful features of the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts—this time with added firepower. This includes no taxes on tips and overtime.

But five GOPers in the House Budget Committee shot it down primarily over cost concerns. One particular gripe was the Medicaid “cuts” and the expiration of several wasteful ‘green’ energy tax credits were pushed back several years, while most of the “goodies” were delivered up front.

The final vote was 16-21 against. Here were the Republicans who voted against the President’s agenda:

Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia

Rep. Chip Roy of Texas

Rep. Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma

Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina

Rep. Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania

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Trump administration fires almost 600 Voice of America employees

President Trump has fired hundreds of employees at Voice of America (VOA) as his government aims to trim down the size of the federal broadcaster and retool its editorial strategy.

The nearly 600 employees who were first from VOA this week include mostly contractors, The New York Times reported, noting that figure represents about a third of the broadcaster’s staff.

A copy of a notification to effected employees, which was reviewed by The Hill, informed the staffers they will be terminated as of May 30 and instructs them to return badges, credentials and other VOA property by that time.

The news comes just days after Kari Lake, who serves as the senior adviser at the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), said VOA would partner with conservative media outlet One America News to provide news feed services to USAGM networks.

Lake, a longtime supporter of Trump, has vowed to ensure the agency “chronicles America’s achievements worldwide.”

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President Trump Speaks Out on James Comey’s Chilling Message Calling for Trump’s Assassination and On Comey Making Up an Outrageous Lie Afterward

President Trump has now spoken out about wicked former FBI Director James Comey calling for his assassination via a chilling social media post.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, Comey created a media firestorm after he posted a cryptic message to his Instagram account on Thursday that spelled out in seashells: “86 47”

“Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” Comey said in his caption.

The “86” is, of course, slang for killing someone, while “47” refers to Trump, who is America’s 47th President. Yes, the former director of the FBI actually posted a message calling for someone to KILL President Trump!

And Comey’s subsequent response after finally deleting his disturbing post was also outrageous and insulting.

“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message, Comey wrote. “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down.”

What a horrible and wicked liar. Comey knew EXACTLY what he was doing!

During an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier, which will air in full tonight, Trump was asked about Comey’s sick behavior and did not mince words.

Of course, Trump was not fooled by Comey’s excuse for the post. Like most intelligent Americans, he knew what Comey wanted to see happen to him.

“He knew exactly what that meant,” Trump replied. “A child knows what that meant.”

“If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant?” Trump added. “That meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear.”

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Trump’s VA Secretary Touts Being ‘One Of The First’ In His Role To Support Psychedelic Medicine For Veterans

The head of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) is touting the fact that he’s “one of the first” secretaries of the agency with a commitment to exploring psychedelics as a potential therapy option for veterans.

During a pair of hearings before the House Veterans’ Affairs and Appropriations Committees on Thursday, VA Secretary Doug Collins was asked about psychedelics issues by multiple GOP lawmakers, fielding questions about his intent to facilitate research in hopes of securing access for the veteran community.

At the Veterans Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI)—co-chair of the Congressional Psychedelic Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus—asked whether Collins had “any visibility” about the status of VA-supported psychedelics studies.

“We’re getting there,” Collins said. “I’m also probably one of the first of the [VA] secretaries who’ve actually decided that we will take a look at it. We’re not simply putting it off, and we’re going to do everything we possibly can, under the rules given to us by Congress, to actually continue that look. What we’re seeing so far is positive.”

“What we’re seeing so far in some of the studies that are related to VA, and also outside of VA as well,” he said, “is that there has been—especially when it comes to [post-traumatic stress disorder], and also traumatic brain injury and others—we’re seeing some actual positive outcomes there, especially when it is coupled with intense counseling. And I think that’s the one of the keys that we look forward to.”

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Trump’s Latest Order Could Keep You Out Of Prison For Crimes You Didn’t Even Know You Committed

On May 9, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Fighting Overcriminalization in Federal Regulations,” addressing one of the most insidious threats to American liberty: the unchecked expansion of criminal penalties through regulatory sprawl. For decades, this trend has eroded the separation of powers, undermined due process, and transformed the federal legal system into a maze where ordinary Americans risk criminal liability for unknowable infractions.

While largely ignored by the corporate press, civil liberties advocates should see this order as a long-overdue corrective. It tackles the explosion of hidden criminal penalties, reaffirms the necessity of criminal intent, and forces long-overdue accountability onto the administrative state.

The order accomplishes two key reforms. First, it limits criminal enforcement to cases in which a person knowingly violates a regulation, discouraging the use of “strict liability,” which bypasses the traditional requirement of criminal intent. Second, it compels federal agencies to publicly identify every regulation they enforce with criminal penalties, along with the statutory authority and mental state required for conviction. That such basic transparency has never been required is an indictment of how far the system has drifted from constitutional norms.

To appreciate how far we’ve strayed, consider the founding era. Originally, Congress held exclusive authority to define federal crimes, and those crimes were few in number, targeting only existential threats to the republic, such as treason, piracy, and counterfeiting. These laws were clear, deliberate, and rooted in the principle that punishment required both wrongful conduct and a guilty mind.

Today, by contrast, legal scholars cannot even agree on how many federal crimes exist. The Code of Federal Regulations spans more than 175,000 pages, burying countless criminal provisions deep within bureaucratic text. A 2022 algorithmic study estimated that the U.S. Code alone contains more than 5,000 federal crimes, and when regulatory offenses are included, the number may reach into the hundreds of thousands. As law professor Jonathan Turley recently testified before Congress, we may now need artificial intelligence just to identify all the crimes on the books. That is not hyperbole — it is a measure of how disconnected federal criminal law has become from the rule of law.

The result is a dystopia in which nearly every American adult is a potential felon. “There is no one in the United States over the age of 18 who cannot be indicted for some federal crime,” retired law professor John Baker once observed. “That is not an exaggeration.” If everything is a crime, everyone becomes a criminal, empowering prosecutors to target individuals first and search for crimes later. This selective enforcement invites abuse, especially when legal ambiguities intersect with political incentives.

The longstanding legal principle that “ignorance of the law is no excuse” only makes sense if the law is reasonably knowable. Everyone understands murder is wrong. But when it comes to regulatory offenses buried in obscure agency publications, fair notice disappears. As Justice Neil Gorsuch and legal scholar Janie Nitze recently wrote, the Roman emperor Caligula would post laws in tiny print and in inaccessible locations so no one could read them. “The whole point was to ensure that people lived in fear — the most powerful of a tyrant’s weapons.” America’s current regulatory state, with its thousands of hidden crimes, mirrors this tyranny of uncertainty.

Many of these crimes defy common sense. The A Crime a Day account on X and its companion book, How to Become a Federal Criminal, document the absurdities: It’s a federal crime to mail a mongoose or to leave the country with more than $5 in nickels or pennies. These aren’t just punchlines; real Americans have been prosecuted under similarly obscure statutes, often for conduct no reasonable person would recognize as criminal. Mislabeling imported goods, disturbing protected wildlife by accident, or violating esoteric shipping rules has led to life-altering penalties.

In principle, the criminal justice system is supposed to require mens rea, meaning “a guilty mind.” Strict liability, where no proof of intent is needed, might be defensible for minor infractions like parking tickets. But where liberty is at stake, intent matters. Prosecuting someone for conduct they didn’t know was illegal, and that no reasonable person would assume was criminal, violates our most basic notions of justice.

Trump’s executive order strikes a blow to this Kafkaesque regime. It mandates that federal agencies publish clear, accessible lists of all criminally enforceable regulations, identify the legal authority for each, and define the mental state required for conviction. This reasserts a fundamental truth: Criminal punishment should apply only to knowing wrongdoing, not bureaucratic mistakes or obscure technicalities.

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Trump’s DEA Pick Refuses To Detail Marijuana Rescheduling Stance In Response To Senator’s Questions

In written responses to questions from two Democratic senators as part of his confirmation, the nominee for DEA administrator, Terrance Cole, largely demurred on multiple questions around marijuana policy issues, including a pending proposal to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III that was initiated under the Biden administration.

Asked by Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Alex Padilla (D-CA) about his position on that proposal, Cole—who has previously voiced concerns about the dangers of marijuana and linked its use to higher suicide risk among youth—simply said that, if confirmed, he will “give the matter careful consideration after consulting with appropriate personnel within the Drug Enforcement Administration, familiarizing myself with the current status of the regulatory process, and reviewing all relevant information.”

While he gave noncommittal answers when asked about rescheduling in the written questions, Cole said during an in-person hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that examining the rescheduling proposal will be “one of my first priorities” if he’s confirmed for the role, saying it’s “time to move forward” on the stalled process—but again without clarifying what end result he would like to see.

“I’m not familiar exactly where we are, but I know the process has been delayed numerous times—and it’s time to move forward,” he told Padilla at the time. “I need to understand more where [agencies] are and look at the science behind it and listen to the experts and really understand where they are in the process.”

In the newly released written questions, Booker further asked the nominee whether he felt DEA is “bound” by the scheduling process as articulated under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

“As in all matters, if confirmed, I would look at the individualized facts and circumstances and follow the law and any policies of the Department,” Cole said.

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