Tag: donald trump

White House Posts Cryptic Messages to X

The White House on Thursday posted a series of cryptic photos on X after posting and deleting a cryptic video.

Late Wednesday night the White House posted a mysterious video – then quickly deleted it, sparking a buzz.

X users pointed out that it sounded like White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt saying, “It’s launching soon, right?”

A male voices responds, “Yes.”

The White House posted another video later Wednesday night with a phone ping notification sound.

On Thursday afternoon, the White House posted a pixilated photo.

Later Thursday, the White House two more pixilated photos.

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Report Alleges Trump’s Daily Military Briefing Scrubs Out Iran War Setbacks

A fresh NBC report has alleged that President Trump is being presented with a very incomplete picture of how the Iran war is going, with the conflict now approaching its first month, and as Washington struggles to find an offramp amid global oil market disruptions.

The report says that his daily military briefing provided by the Pentagon features a roughly 2-minute long video update for President Trump that shows the biggest, most successful strikes on Iranian targets of the prior 48 hours. Negative developments frequently get omitted or glossed over.

Anonymous US officials have voiced fears that the video briefings, which the president tends to respond positively to, fail to represent the full scope of what’s going on. Also, Trump’s aides have reportedly voiced greater approval for the briefings, which feature Iranian military equipment and bases and sites getting blown up.

The NBC report, which has been rejected by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in essence suggests Trump is not getting properly briefed on major negative developments.

Or in other words, the fear is that briefers are simply favoring information that he wants to hear, and too afraid to deliver bad news. According to NBC:

They said the videos are also driving Trump’s increasing frustration with news coverage of the war. Trump has pointed to the success depicted in the daily videos to privately question why his administration can’t better influence the public narrative, asking aides why the news media doesn’t emphasize what he’s seeing, one of the current U.S. officials and the former U.S. official said.

Again, Leavitt has called all of this “an absolutely false assertion” from people who aren’t in the briefing room; however NBC does offer the following example which seems consistent with its reporting:

One example came this month when five U.S. Air Force refueling planes were hit in an Iranian strike at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, according to one of the current U.S. officials. Trump wasn’t briefed about the strikes, and he learned what had happened from media reports, the official said. When Trump inquired, he was told the planes weren’t badly damaged, the official said.

The official said Trump reacted angrily behind the scenes to the news coverage. Publicly he posted on Truth Social calling coverage of the strike misleading and accusing media organizations of wanting the U.S. “to lose the War.”

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Trump’s FTC Wages a War on Media Criticism

NewsGuard, a company that rates news outlets’ accuracy using what it calls “apolitical journalistic criteria…to identify reliable sources of information,” has filed a lawsuit to block the Federal Trade Commission’s demand for a list of all its customers.

The FTC in May 2025 launched a wide-ranging probe into NewsGuard and 16 other groups—including left-leaning watch group Media Matters for America, and the Global Disinformation Index, a nonprofit media ratings service. The agency alleged the groups were part of “a conspiracy to boycott conservative and independent media.”

Deadline (2/6/26) reported that FTC chair Andrew “Ferguson has targeted NewsGuard, suggesting that it violated antitrust laws and that it was biased, as NewsGuard had given a low score to Newsmax, the conservative news site.”

NewsGuard’s lawsuit accuses the FTC of “brazenly using its power not for any issue concerning trade or commerce, but rather to censor speech simply because it disagreed with NewsGuard’s judgments about the reliability of news sources” (AP, 3/23/26).

NewsGuard also accused the FTC of holding up a $13 billion merger of advertising heavyweights Omnicom Group and IPG unless the merged company agreed not to use NewsGuard’s services.

Media Matters filed a similar lawsuit last summer to block sweeping FTC demands for documents; a federal judge ruled in the group’s favor, calling that FTC probe “a straightforward First Amendment violation” (Bloomberg, 1/22/26). The FTC has appealed the ruling against it.

Ferguson is yet another representative of the Trump regime trying to silence any criticism of the government or its right-wing support network. For regime apologists, of course, the FTC chief is a sacred warrior against liberals, protecting conservatives from insults and disagreement.

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$580 million in oil bets placed moments before Trump’s Iran post – FT 

Oil traders placed more than half a billion dollars in bets minutes before US President Donald Trump announced “productive” talks with Iran on Monday, the Financial Times has reported.

A burst of activity followed by a sharp price drop has raised questions about possible advance knowledge among market participants.

About 6,200 Brent and WTI futures contracts changed hands between 6:49 AM and 6:50 AM in New York – a one-minute flurry worth $580 million, based on FT calculations using Bloomberg data. Volumes in both benchmarks – Brent and US West Texas Intermediate – spiked simultaneously, about 27 seconds before 6:50 AM, while S&P 500 futures surged shortly after.

The trades came roughly 15 minutes before Trump said on Truth Social there had been “productive conversations” with Tehran to end the war in Iran.

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Senate Confirms First Ever Assistant Attorney General to Investigate Fraud Nationwide

The US Senate on Tuesday confirmed the first ever Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald to investigate fraud nationwide in a 52-47 vote.

In January, President Trump announced he nominated Colin McDonald to serve as the Assistant Attorney General for National Fraud Enforcement.

“I am pleased to nominate Colin McDonald to serve as the first ever Assistant Attorney General for National FRAUD Enforcement, a new Division at the Department of Justice, which I created to catch and stop FRAUDSTERS that have been STEALING from the American People,” Trump said.

“My Administration has uncovered Fraud schemes in States like Minnesota and California, where these thieves have stolen Hundreds of Billions of Taxpayer Dollars. Colin McDonald is a very Smart, Tough, and Highly Respected AMERICA FIRST Federal Prosecutor who has successfully delivered Justice in some of the most difficult and high stakes cases our Country has ever seen. Together, we will END THE FRAUD, and RESTORE INTEGRITY to our Federal Programs. Congratulations Colin — STOP THE SCAMS!” Trump said.

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UNHINGED: Former Minnesota Governor and WWE Fighter Jesse Ventura Goes Full Conspiracy Theorist — Implies President Trump’s Assassination Attempt Was ‘FAKE’

Former Minnesota Governor and ex-professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is now openly suggesting that President Donald Trump somehow faked the assassination attempt that nearly took his life in Butler, Pennsylvania just so he could look like a hero.

In a disgusting display of disrespect toward the victims of the Butler, Pennsylvania tragedy, Ventura appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored to suggest that the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump was nothing more than a scripted wrestling “blade job.”

In pro wrestling, a blade job (also known as “blading,” “juicing,” or “getting color”) is the intentional act of a wrestler cutting themselves, usually on the forehead, to provoke bleeding during a match.

During the heated exchange, Morgan rightfully pushed back, noting that Trump stood up and shouted “Fight!” after being struck. Ventura’s response was pure, unadulterated derangement.

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Huh? Who On Earth Is Trump Talking To?

President Donald Trump says he has paused strikes on Iran, claiming to have had significant direct communications with Iranian figures amid the ongoing military escalation, describing the exchanges as productive, yet Israel appears to be continuing airstrikes at the same time.

Trump framed the talks as a potential path to de-escalation through verifiable compliance rather than prolonged conflict, and characterized the negotiations positively during recent comments.

“We have had very, very strong talks,” he said. “We’ll see where they lead. We have major points of agreement… They went, I would say perfectly.”

He specified the involvement of U.S. representatives. “Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner had them.”

Addressing Iranian denials broadcast on Iranian state television, Trump responded, “Well, they’re going to have to get themselves better public relations people!”

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The Donald Gets a Double-Whammy

It sure looks like the Donald is on the receiving end of a double-whammy. His victory declaration in Iran looks to rank right up there with George Dubya Bush’s “mission accomplished” pratfall on the deck of a US aircraft carrier in 2003; and that also means that his SOTU boasting about defeating “Joe Biden’s” inflation and getting the gas pump price under $2 per gallon is out the window, too.

What’s back in play front and center, therefore, is the AFFORDABILITY issue come November. The Dems have no clue about how to fix it, of course, but they sure as hell will be brutally pounding the GOP candidates and the Donald with the latter’s own bogus hot air on the matter.

For want of doubt, consider the conflagration in the global oil markets at this very moment. At ground zero in the Persian Gulf, the major crude oil from the region have already shot the moon.

Thus, Oman crude prices are up to $154/barrel, crossing $150 for the first time ever. At the same time, Dubai crude is up to $130/barrel, while Brent is trading at $110.

This means, in turn, that the gap between Oman and world prices is off-the-charts wide, and now stands at 30% or $44 per barrel. By comparison, before the Iran War, the difference between all benchmarks was just $5 per barrel during January and February.

In very short-run, of course, Brent and WTI are priced based on US and European supply conditions, while the actual disruption is concentrated in the Middle East, meaning they do not fully capture the severity of the physical shortage. YET.

On the other hand, global crude oil markets everywhere and always eventually get arbitraged, causing the major marker grades to fully reflect worldwide supply, demand and inventory conditions. So unless the Gulf is re-opened within a matter of days, the marker grades will soon rise toward these Gulf prices as global inventories continue to be liquidated.

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Trump Admin Strikes Deal With Energy Firm to Nix Offshore Wind Plans

A global energy corporation based in France has ceded leases off North Carolina and New York, where it planned to spend nearly $1 billion to build offshore wind turbines, back to the U.S. Department of the Interior and will instead redirect that investment into natural gas projects in Texas.

The “landmark agreement” was jointly announced by the department and TotalEnergies in Washington on March 23 and confirmed by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné during a press conference at the 44th annual CERAWeek by S&P Global conference at the Hilton Americas-Houston.

Burgum said much of TotalEnergies’ offshore wind investments were tied to Biden-era “green energy” subsidies rather than direct power generation, forcing U.S. taxpayers “to pay for energy sources twice.”

“They were paying for it in terms of high utility bills, but they were all paying for it in terms of the taxpayer subsidies,” he said.

Under the agreement, the department will reimburse TotalEnergies “dollar for dollar” for the $928 million it spent on securing the leases, much of that placed in bonds required to develop federal lands, in exchange for the company agreeing to reinvest that money into a Texas LNG project it was already developing.

The vacated offshore leases were acquired in 2022. They are in the Carolina Long Bay area off North Carolina and in the New York Bight off Long Island.

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Iran threatens to ‘completely’ close Strait of Hormuz and hit power plants after Trump ultimatum

 The United States and Iran threatened to target critical infrastructure Sunday as the war in the Middle East, now in its fourth week, puts lives and livelihoods at risk throughout the region.

Iran said the Strait of Hormuz, crucial to oil and other exports, would be “completely closed” immediately if the U.S. follows up on President Donald Trump’s threat to attack its power plants. Trump late Saturday set a 48-hour deadline to open the strait.

Israeli leaders visited one of two southern communities near a secretive nuclear research site struck by Iranian missiles late Saturday, with scores of people wounded. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a “miracle” no one was killed.

Netanyahu claimed Israel and the U.S. were well on their way to achieving their war goals. The aims have ranged from weakening Iran’s nuclear program, missile program and support for armed proxies to enabling the Iranian people to overthrow the theocracy.

There has been no sign of an uprising, nor of an end to the fighting that has shaken the global economy, sent oil prices surging and endangered some of the world’s busiest air corridors. The war, which the U.S. and Israel launched Feb. 28, has killed over 2,000 people.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an airstrike that killed a man in northern Israel, while Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called Israel’s new targeting of bridges in the south “a prelude to a ground invasion.”

“More weeks of fighting against Iran and Hezbollah are expected for us,” said Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin.

Meanwhile, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates said early Monday their air defenses were dealing with missile and drone attacks as air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain.

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