Tag: donald trump

Supreme Court hands Trump a win in bid to prevent ineligible voters voting in midterm elections

The Supreme Court on Monday opened the door for President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at securing the upcoming midterm elections from ineligible voters and implementing verification standards for mail-in ballots. 

The high court halted a lower court ruling that was blocking the president’s March 31 executive order establishing a whole-of-government approach to prevent noncitizens from registering to vote or voting in federal elections. A coalition of 23 Democratic states and Washington, D.C., sued the administration in Massachusetts to block the order. 

The lower court’s ruling by District Court Judge Indira Talwani in June specifically blocked parts of the executive order directing federal prosecutors to focus on prosecuting any state and local officials who facilitate ineligible voting and instructing the U.S. Postal Service to establish verification standards for mail-in ballots, including a unique barcode. 

While the Supreme Court’s August 24 decision lifts the injunction in California v. Trump, the lawsuit brought by a coalition of 23 states and D.C., the administration still faces a separate nationwide legal barrier. 

A second, active preliminary injunction issued by Judge Talwani in August in League of Women Voters of Massachusetts v. Trump continues to block the Postal Service from implementing the changes mandated by the executive order for the upcoming election. 

So, while the Supreme Court has cleared the path for the administration to proceed with certain aspects of the order, significant legal hurdles remain regarding the Postal Service’s implementation before the November midterm elections.

The executive order directed the Department of Homeland Security to create a nationwide list of adult U.S. citizens and the USPS to obtain lists of registered voters. The USPS, an independent agency of the executive branch, would then be required to send mail-in ballots only to individuals on both of those lists.  

The Supreme Court’s conservative justices determined, however, that the District Court “lacked jurisdiction to enter the judgment” and that the stay on the executive order does harm to the government’s legitimate functions of rulemaking and executive prosecutorial discretion, according to the high court’s per curiam opinion published Monday.   

The ruling allows the Trump administration to proceed with its two-pronged effort, through the Postal Service, to ensure that no non-eligible voters cast votes in the upcoming midterms and, through the Justice Department, that those who facilitate such alleged illegal voting will be pursued by prosecutors. 

Since early absentee voting in many states is just weeks away, the Trump administration would have to move quickly to implement the order’s provisions, which could still face further legal challenges. 

As the midterms approach, President Trump has aimed to ensure that no ineligible voters cast votes. In recent months, emerging evidence shows that potentially hundreds of thousands of noncitizens are registered to vote across the country and some have voted in recent elections. 

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Big Oil Is Seeing Windfall Profits as Trump’s War on Iran Drives Up Prices

While the U.S. war on Iran is broadly unpopular in the U.S, including among a growing number of Donald Trump voters, at least one of the president’s core constituencies is happy: Big Oil.

The war’s straining of the global oil supply chain has delivered windfall profits to major fossil fuel corporations. The top two U.S. oil companies, ExxonMobil and Chevron, recently disclosed an astounding $26.5 billion in net income during the second quarter of 2026. Top independent U.S. oil refiners like Marathon, Valero, and Phillips 66 are seeing similar explosions in profits. Globally, a Guardian study found that eight of the world’s top oil companies took in more than $90 billion, or “more than $700,000 of profit every minute over the spring quarter.”

The word “oil company” might evoke generic imagery of rigs and refineries. But behind these entities are executives, board members, and top investors who are primary beneficiaries of Big Oil’s war profiteering and who hold commanding power within a fossil fuel power structure that stretches well beyond oil company boardrooms and into Wall Street and the corporate establishment more widely.

Big Oil’s War Profits

ExxonMobil and Chevron are the two largest U.S. oil corporations, together worth around $1 trillion. They are massive integrated fossil fuel companies whose operations span the entire chain of oil and gas production, and who have a presence across virtually the entire world.

In July, the two oil juggernauts together reported $26.5 billion in net income during the second quarter of 2026 — April through June of this year — as “they cashed in on surging crude and petrol prices caused by Donald Trump’s Iran war,” wrote the Financial Times.

Comparisons with last year provide a metric for measuring these enormous returns. In 2025, ExxonMobil reported second-quarter total earnings of $7.08 billion. In 2026, by comparison, that number leapt to $14.53 billion — more than a 105 percent increase, and “its best quarterly profit since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine caused a surge in oil prices,” according to the Financial Times.

In 2025, Chevron reported second-quarter earnings of $2.49 billion. In 2026, that number skyrocketed nearly four times — 384.7 percent — to $12.07 billion, which is Chevron’s largest quarterly haul ever.

The two corporations’ share prices have also soared compared to last year. On August 10, 2026, ExxonMobil’s share price closed at $159.79 — a 51 percent increase from its closing price of $105.83 on August 11, 2025. Similarly, Chevron’s share price closed at $194.91 on August 10, 2026 — a 27 percent increase from its closing of $153.45 on August 11, 2025.

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BOMBSHELL: Trump Confirms ICE Enforcement Proceedings Underway Against Ilhan Omar Over Immigration Fraud

President Donald Trump on Sunday night appeared to confirm that federal immigration authorities have active or contemplated enforcement proceedings against radical “Squad” Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota over long-standing allegations of immigration fraud.

Trump shared a bombshell report from Just the News revealing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement refused to release records concerning its investigation into the Minnesota Democrat.

ICE claimed that disclosing the records could interfere with “enforcement proceedings.”

Trump posted the report to Truth Social Sunday evening without adding further commentary.

The explosive development concerns allegations that Omar entered into a fraudulent marriage with Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, who is alleged to be her biological brother, to help him remain in the United States.

Omar has repeatedly denied the accusation.

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US set for largest mass visa revocation in history targeting up to 200,000 foreigners, officials say

The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States. If it happens, the move would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in U.S. history and would likely face legal challenges.

Unless challenged or revised, the State Department is expected to announce in the coming weeks the revocation of so-called B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 whose holders have sought asylum or are now seeking asylum, according to State Department documents obtained by The Associated Press and two U.S. officials. The action will be taken in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.

“We are coordinating with DHS to identify and revoke the nonimmigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently,” said State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.

He declined to comment on the number of visas that might be revoked, saying “as the process will be ongoing, the number of revocations remains dynamic and will be done on a rolling basis.”

The revocations would not necessarily result in their immediate deportation, the officials said. Most of those with asylum cases currently pending would be recategorized but would lose their status as business or tourism travelers, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the revocations are not final yet.

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Ontario Premier Threatens to Cut Electricity to U.S. — Trump Warns Consequences for Canada Will Be ‘Far WORSE’

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is threatening to cut electricity supplies to the U.S. amid the ongoing trade war with President Donald Trump.

Ford said Monday that “everything is on the table” after Washington imposed 50 percent tariffs on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods.

Ontario currently supplies enough electricity to power approximately 1.5 million American homes and businesses, particularly in neighboring states including Michigan, Minnesota and New York.

“We power 1.5 million homes and businesses,” Ford said. “Everything’s on the table. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

He also threatened to completely halt exports of critical minerals from Ontario.

“I’ll cut them off,” he said. “You won’t get a grain of sand out of Ontario.”

Among the resources flowing south are high-grade nickel and uranium refined in Ontario, materials with significant importance to American manufacturing, energy production and national security.

“What would they do without the high-grade nickel that we ship down to the U.S.?” Ford asked.

Ford suggested Canada could eventually go even further by using its enormous supplies of oil and potash as leverage against Washington.

The threats come after trade negotiations between the two countries collapsed Friday.

Prime Minister Mark Carney walked away from negotiations after deciding that Trump’s demands were unacceptable.

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While Trump sharply cuts foreign aid, past abuses from the Obama-Biden era keep piling up

Ahalf billion dollar fraud and bribery scheme conducted by a USAID contract officer and three conspirators that went undetected for a decade. American-bought equipment stolen by a terror group. Millions of dollars in food that spoiled in warehouses. These are but a few of the wasteful — if not corrupt ways — millions of USAID dollars have been lost.

While President Donald Trump has sharply cut foreign aid from the auspices of USAID and shifted what remains to the State Department, the massive abuse of America’s generosity to foreign countries over a decade of Obama-Biden governance is coming into clearer focus. 

A Just the News review of audits and investigations of the USAID and State Department inspectors general over the last year chronicles billions of dollars lost, stolen, defrauded, or wasted because of mismanagement or years of neglect.

In many cases, tax money was given away without regard to whether the recipients could responsibly spend it or could keep it out of the hands of terrorists or other enemies, the audits show.

For instance, the USAID inspector general recently revealed that the federal government kept funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) despite evidence that 101 of its employees or associates had ties to terror groups like Hamas, including: 

  •  A deputy school principal serving as an al-Qassam deputy company commander in the Ain Gallout/5th infantry battalion.
  • A deputy school principal serving as squad leader for the Khan Younis Brigade/2nd infantry battalion. 
  • A teacher serving as squad leader in Hamas’ military security department/intelligence unit who tracked assignment of explosive devices.
  • A teacher serving as a platoon commander of the Central Brigade/Al Quds 2nd Battalion.
  • A math & computer teacher with ties to an al-Qassam intelligence squad.
  • A teacher with expertise as a sniper for Hamas.
  • A teacher and Hamas soldier with orders to bring two anti-tank missiles to a prescribed location during the October 7 terror attacks
  • A school principal who served as an operative of the Hamas East Jabaliya Battalion, and coordinated communications with other suspected Hamas members during the October 7, 2023 atrocities committed against Israel 

Similarly, the same USAID watchdog revealed that the Yemen-based terror Ansar Allah — also known as the Houthis—walked away with about $122,000 worth of U.S. government-funded equipment from a USAID-funded aid organization.

$17 million of the $21 million of food aid stored in warehouses was not distributed to emergency food providers. Some good-intentioned aid also was wasted by bad management and logistics, the audits show.

For instance, about $17 million of the $21 million of food aid stored in Djibouti warehouses was not distributed to emergency food providers.

That included $10 million of goods at risk of reaching its best-used-by date prior to arriving at its intended destination. About $2.9 million of food aid had already spoiled due to significant packaging defects by the vendor, investigators reported.

To make matters worse, taxpayers incurred at least nearly $500,000 in storage costs for spoiled, unusable food. And another $1.5 million in food became infested because USAID “did not enforce temperature control requirements,” eventually requiring additional fumigation costs, the memos stated.

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“A War On Nature Is A War On All Of Us”: Trump Admin Slashing Environmental Protections At Record Pace

While most headlines regarding the assaults of the Trump administration on everyday life center around attacks on constitutional protections, civil liberties, and human rights, behind these prominent headlines lies a quieter but just as pervasive onslaught.

From his very first day back in office in January of 2025, President Donald Trump has made rescinding environmental protections a key part of his administration. From the very outset, this corporate kleptocracy has served in the interests of oligarchs, whether they be the Silicon Valley technocrats, or Trump’s deep ties with Big Oil unleashing the fossil fuel industry at their behest, the maximized profits of modern day robber barons has taken precedent over people and the planet.

Promoting Pesticides

First reported by TFTP colleague Derrick Broze, under Trump’s second term biotech and pesticide corporations are experiencing a major boon as the Trump administration promoted the excessive production of the carcinogenic herbicide glyphosate. As Broze reports:

On February 18, 2026, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) titled “Promoting the National Defense by Ensuring an Adequate Supply of Elemental Phosphorus and Glyphosate-Based Herbicides.” The order invokes the Defense Production Act (DPA) and states that the production of glyphosate-based herbicides is essential to US national security.

Bayer, the parent company of major glyphosate producer Monsanto, has significant ties to the Trump White House, having lobbied extensively to protect its pesticide empire and leverage its influence in Washington DC to wreak havoc with its hazardous chemicals.

As reported by US Right to Know,

Bayer’s big wins with the Trump administration come as the company seeks sweeping legal protections from cancer lawsuits – at a time when a growing body of scientific research links glyphosate to cancer and other chronic diseases, and cancer rates are rising among young people across the U.S. Corn Belt.

Furthermore, the administration has carried out notable betrayals of the Make America Healthy Again movement by withdrawing proposed limits on the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) chemicals which cause significant damage to ecosystems as well as the people exposed to them.

National Forests On The Chopping Block

One of the most devastating assaults on the American wilderness comes in the form of the administration’s targeting of national forests, once considered to be protected but now in the crosshairs of opportunists seeking to extract resources at the expense of destabilizing some of the United States’ most pristine ecosystems.

Along the US-Mexico border in Texas, bulldozers and excavators arrived in early August to begin clearing sections of Big Bend National Park to make way for the construction of a portion of Trump’s border wall following the Department of Homeland Security waiving several key environmental protection laws in June, despite a statistically insignificant (0.045%) percentage of unauthorized crossings in the region. The project, which has been characterized as “inflicting an irreversible scar on the national park”, is anticipated to also utilize heavy dynamite blasting in areas such as Mariscal Mountain.

Due to recent backlash, the construction of the section of the border wall in Texas has been paused, although a similar project in Arizona which also decimates sections of Big Bend National Park as well as sacred indigenous sites is still ongoing.

Elsewhere, the administration is rolling back protections of national forests for logging operations. The Associated Press has reported on the recent roll back of a 25 year old U.S. Forest Service regulation, the roadless rule, which prohibited road construction and large scale timber harvesting in over 58 million acres of the national forest system, approximately 30% of national forest lands nationwide.

Politicians that support rescinding the rule, such as Utah Governor Spencer Cox, have attempted to capitalize on the latest wildfire fearmongering craze to justify the move, despite data consistently indicating wildfire activity has continued to decrease over the years. 

“The roadless rule protects some of the most valuable public lands that belong to all Americans,” said Drew Caputo, a senior attorney with the environmental group, Earthjustice. “It is the most important land protection measure of the last 60 years.”

From Land To Sea

The Trump administration’s attacks against environmental protections have also expanded to affecting the oceans off the coasts of America’s shores. 

A recent order signed by Trump has opened nearly 500,000 square miles of previously protected federal waters to commercial fishing, removing conservation measures across three marine national monuments in the Pacific.

According to Oceanographic, “the move revokes protections in the Mau and Ho’omalu Zones of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, the Islands Unit of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, and the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument – areas established to safeguard some of the most ecologically sensitive and culturally significant ocean habitats under US jurisdiction.”

The recent proclamation is the third such action in Trump’s second term. In February, President Trump issued an order which opened the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts monument, the only US Marine National Monument in the Atlantic, to commercial fishing operations.

In April of 2025, a similar executive order removed protections for the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, which covers 490,000 square miles of ocean southwest of Hawaii.

“The Trump administration is dismantling our marine national monuments without public debate,” … “These marine monuments are the ocean’s equivalent of our national parks – places that benefit marine life and cultural heritage and are too important to risk for short-term gain. When we treat protected areas as just another place for industrial activity, we risk undermining those benefits for future generations.” said Dr Miriam Goldstein, Executive Director of the National Ocean Protection Coalition.

Ocean conservationists have characterized the move as selling out America’s natural resources for industry profit.

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The ’34 Felony Convictions’ Mantra Just Disintegrated

I note over at Townhall the always-worthwhile Matt Vespa’s latest, wherein we read:

President Trump was interviewed by his former attorney, Michael Cohen, the star witness in the hush money case, which verdict is under appeal. Trump said Cohen was weaponized against him by the Justice Department. Cohen agrees, adding that he felt coerced by the Feds. The case stems from the president’s effort to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 during the 2016 election.

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig effectively pronounced the case dead, leaving its former cheerleaders with nothing but a pile of sad confetti. There’s a reason federal prosecutors originally passed on this nuclear hot potato while Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg sprinted to pick it up: the Feds knew Michael Cohen’s credibility was a nuclear biohazard. As Honig pointed out, if Cohen is a liar, the entire foundation crumbles. If he was coerced, the trial was a farce. Take your pick — either way, the shell of a case is empty.

Yeah, about that… 

While I’ve never fully trusted a word out of Michael Cohen’s mouth in either direction, I lean toward believing his coercion claim here. It fits the pattern too cleanly not to. (Cohen is pictured above, by the way.)

Be honest, now. If Bragg was willing to weld together the legal Frankenstein’s monster he actually built to get this conviction in the first place, there’s no particular reason to think he’d suddenly develop scruples about how hard he leaned on his own star witness to get there.

Mind you, none of this is coming from some late-night outrage merchant on conservative talk radio, howling into a ring light. This is CNN’s own senior legal analyst, standing on CNN’s own soundstage, calmly dismantling the exact legal drama CNN itself spent two solid years treating as if it were holy scripture handed down from Sinai. Honig didn’t bury this in an obscure Substack nobody reads. He dropped it directly into Jake Tapper’s lap, on live television, and let the silence that followed do the talking. I’d genuinely have paid money to watch Tapper’s face in that exact moment.

Vespa adds:

Honig has long said this case was being overblown, the process a mess, and has heavily criticized how the law was twisted to achieve liberal America’s desired outcome.

Let’s be clear about the timeline here: 

Honig didn’t have some sudden road-to-Damascus epiphany this week. Indeed, he’s been saying this since before the ink on the original verdict had even finished drying. Back in May 2024, writing for New York Magazine, he was already warning that the prosecution’s legal theory was held together with little more than Scotch tape and wishful thinking, writing plainly that prosecutors “contorted the law in an unprecedented manner in their quest to snare their prey.” He doubled right back down the following day, torching the entire proceeding as an “unjustified mess.” That earned him a live on-air scrap with Democrat strategist James Carville, who called the criticism “downright awful” — to which Honig calmly pointed out that Carville himself would hardly be defending a judge who’d donated to a “Re-elect Trump, MAGA forever” fund with the same enthusiasm. 

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Appeals Court Rules Trump Didn’t Have Authority to Appoint Federal Prosecutor Who Subpoenaed Letitia James

A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that President Trump did not have the authority to appoint Acting US Attorney for the Northern District of New York, John Sarcone.

A three-judge panel in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 vote, said John Sarcone was unlawfully appointed when he subpoenaed New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The three-judge panel included: Judge Guido Calabresi (Clinton), Judge Michael Park (Trump), and Judge Maria Kahn (Biden).

Earlier this year, a federal judge disqualified the Trump-appointed US Attorney for the Northern District of New York overseeing investigations into New York Attorney General Letitia James.

US District Judge Lorna Schofield, an Obama appointee, disqualified acting US Attorney John Sarcone and quashed two subpoenas issued to Letitia James.

John Sarcone was investigating Letitia James’s lawfare civil suit against President Trump and her lawsuit against the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Letitia James asked the judge to quash two subpoenas, arguing that Sarcone was unlawfully appointed and given a “special attorney” status.

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US Set to Impose 50% Tariffs on $20 billion Worth of Canadian Products

The United States is set to impose 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian products early Saturday after last-ditch negotiations failed to resolve the latest strain in already tense relations between the historic allies.

President Donald Trump’s import taxes will hit about 5% of what Canada ships to the United States every year, including products ranging from hockey sticks to tongue depressors.

“Tonight, Canada declined to finalize the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week. Despite the U.S. offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market, new demands and walk backs of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance reached in the past days,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement read to reporters on a press call shortly before midnight.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded, “Last-minute changes in the U.S. proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal.”

Carney said his government would announce additional support for Canadian workers and businesses in the coming days.

Greer said the U.S. offer was “forward-looking” and included “a historic economic and national security partnership.”

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