Tag: donald trump

Army Lays Groundwork for First Military Executions Since 1961

The Army has prepared for the possibility of carrying out executions of the military’s death row prisoners if President Donald Trump approves them.

The plan would apply to the military’s four death row inmates and would mark the first U.S. military execution in more than six decades if carried out, according to an internal planning document first reviewed by ABC News. The outlet reported earlier this month that said document is called “Operation Resolute Justice” and was internally issued within the Army this past February.

“Exercises regarding this operation have been conducted regularly for the past 20 years,” Cynthia Smith, an Army spokesperson, told ABC News, adding in early June that no orders had been handed down by Trump. “These drills are a standard component of our continued planning and preparation if the president approves a death sentence,”

The main holdup is built into military law. Article 71 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice says a court-martial death sentence “may not be executed until approved by the president,” and it also bars execution until appellate review produces a final judgment on the legality of the proceedings. That requirement explains why military death sentences can sit for decades after trial.

Ronald Gray, sentenced to death in 1988 for murders and rapes near Fort Bragg, had an approved execution date set for Dec. 10, 2008, but a federal court stayed the execution on Nov. 26, 2008.

The last U.S. military execution occurred April 13, 1961, when Army Pvt. John A. Bennett was hanged after being convicted of rape and attempted murder.

Ronald Gray, Hasan Akbar, Timothy Hennis and Nidal Hasan are prisoners currently sentenced to death in the military system. They were imprisoned based on the following crimes:

  • Gray was convicted by general court-martial of 14 charges, including premeditated murder, attempted murder and three rapes.
  • Akbar was sentenced to death in 2005 after a grenade and shooting attack killed Army Capt. Christopher Seifert and Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone and wounded 14 other soldiers in Kuwait in 2003.
  • Hennis was sentenced to death in 2010 after a military trial for a 1985 triple murder.
  • Hasan was sentenced to death in 2013 after killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009.

What the Army Is Preparing

The Army plan is called “Operation Resolute Justice” and involves coordination with the Federal Bureau of Prisons for possible executions at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind.

The plan outlines procedures for transferring condemned prisoners from the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to Terre Haute, arranging a viewing station for witnesses and coordinating with federal prison officials. Terre Haute has housed all the federal government’s executions since 2001.

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US plans $725 million payment towards its large UN debt

The Trump administration has informed Congress of its intention to pay $725 million to the United Nations, a congressional notification seen by Reuters showed, a move aid experts said was a welcome step towards paying billions in dues owed.

The administration has criticized the global body for not living up to its potential and slashed funding to many U.N. agencies. When asked about the planned payment, a U.S. official said any payments will be contingent on continued reforms of the organization and added that the U.S. has not transferred any funds as of Friday.

The allocation of funds – mentioned in an August 4 State Department notification letter to Congress that has not been previously reported – comes ahead of an expected speech by U.S. President Donald Trump to the U.N. General Assembly in New York next month. 

‘It keeps the ship afloat a little longer’

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this year that the U.N. faced “imminent financial collapse” due to unpaid contributions from member states, and the global body has brought in large budget cuts.

“Over the past six months, the United States has achieved historic reforms across the U.N. – reforms long considered impossible – including the first real budget cut in U.N. history, resulting in nearly one billion in cuts,” a State Department official, responding to Reuters questions about the payment, said in an email.

In April, Devex, a development news agency, reported that the U.S. had set specific conditions for the release of funds, such as more cost-cutting and moves to counter China’s influence.More: U.S. debt set to hit $40 trillion months earlier than expected

The Trump administration has carried out an unprecedented shrinking of its federal government, saying it was bloated and has significantly cut back on domestic and foreign grants in an effort that it says was to put money into causes that aligned with U.S. taxpayer interests.

The $725 million would be less than 20% of the more than $4 billion that the U.N. said in May that the United States owed — though Washington has said that total figure is much lower and that it has made some payments.

Eugene Chen, a former U.N. official, said such a transfer would help pay U.N. salaries for a period, but might not cover them all. “It keeps the ship afloat a little longer,” he said. 

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Functional Unemployment in USA Reaches New High

The government claims unemployment stands at 4.1%, yet a new analysis cited by CBS News found that 24.9% of American workers were functionally unemployed in July. Functional unemployment includes those who cannot find employment, people forced into part-time work because full-time jobs are unavailable, and workers earning less than $26,000 annually before taxes. Washington can call these people employed, but try paying rent, food, insurance, utilities, transportation, and medical expenses on barely $2,000 per month before the government takes its share.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is not measuring whether people are prospering or even surviving. If you worked as little as one hour during the survey period, you can be classified as “employed.” If you have searched for months, become discouraged, and finally stop looking, the government simply removes you from the labor force. You did not find a job and your circumstances did not improve, but you cease to exist statistically. Politicians then point to the lower unemployment rate and claim their policies are working.

Functional unemployment has now risen for four consecutive months while workforce participation has moved lower. Employers reportedly eliminated 23,000 jobs in July, consumer prices rose 3.4% year over year, and wages increased only 3.2%. Therefore, the average worker lost purchasing power even after receiving a nominal raise. This is why people become angry when politicians lecture them about a strong economy. The statistics say they are employed, inflation is under control, and everything is wonderful, yet the paycheck no longer covers the monthly bills.

This is how the political establishment disguises economic decline. Inflation statistics do not reflect the actual cost of maintaining a household, GDP rises when government borrows and spends money it does not have, and unemployment declines when people surrender and stop searching for work. Every major statistic has been constructed to make government appear competent while the standard of living steadily deteriorates. They measure whether money changed hands, not whether society became wealthier.

Americans have been forced to replace income with debt. They have depleted savings, increased credit-card balances, postponed major purchases, and begun cutting necessities because discretionary spending was already eliminated. Consumer spending may represent roughly two-thirds of the economy, but consumers cannot continue spending indefinitely when prices rise faster than wages and employment becomes increasingly unstable. Credit can postpone the reckoning, but it cannot replace real economic growth.

Functional unemployment explains why Washington can proclaim prosperity while millions of Americans feel trapped in a personal recession. The economy has produced millions of positions that satisfy the government’s definition of employment but cannot provide an independent life. The political class counts the number of people receiving paychecks while refusing to ask what those paychecks can actually buy. That is poverty disguised by statistics.

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Is ICE Investigating Ilhan Omar? Trump ‘Truths’ Report On Withheld Fraud-Probe Records

President Donald Trump drew fresh attention to a long-running controversy on Sunday when he reposted a Just the News article on Truth Social headlined “ICE refuses to disclose records on Ilhan Omar fraud probe, cites ongoing ‘enforcement proceedings.'” His decision to amplify the report, without comment, renewed scrutiny of allegations that have dogged Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) for years – though ICE’s response stops short of confirming she is personally the target of any active proceeding.

The Trump administration has said for months it possesses evidence that Omar committed immigration fraud. What has remained unclear is whether that evidence translates into an indictment, a denaturalization proceeding, or nothing at all.

Just the News filed a Freedom of Information Act request in January 2026 for records related to Omar’s marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, a man whose identity, evidence suggests, is that of her brother. ICE’s response cited a specific legal exemption rather than denying or providing a timeline. “ICE has determined that the information you requested is being withheld in full pursuant to Title 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(A),” the agency wrote. “Disclosure of any responsive records at this time could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.”

Department of Justice guidance requires a two-step showing before an agency can invoke it. “First, there must be a ‘reasonable likelihood’ of a pending or contemplated law enforcement proceeding,” the guidance states. “Second, release of the information must be reasonably expected to cause some articulable harm to that proceeding.” ICE cleared both hurdles by its own estimation; whether that estimation holds up matters more now that the president has amplified it himself.

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Trump slams Canada as ‘most difficult and unreasonable’ nation as trade talks collapse

Tensions flared between Washington and Ottawa after President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to challenge Canadian leadership. Calling out Ottawa as the “most difficult and unreasonable” government to negotiate with — despite its ongoing reliance on the U.S. defense umbrella — Trump doubled down on his firm stance to hold Canada accountable.

The rhetoric exemplifies an escalation in an intensifying trade conflict, coming directly on the heels of collapsed negotiations and mounting cross-border economic retaliation.

In his social media posts, President Trump called out Canada for its exploitation, spanning decades, arguing that high Canadian tariffs on American agricultural products have damaged U.S. farming operations.

Highlighting long-standing grievances, Trump also cited steep dairy import duties and a ten-year regulatory delay in certifying U.S.-made Gulfstream jets — a move he said was designed to shield Canadian aviation competitors.

Trump asserted that the U.S. has sustained an average annual trade deficit of $60 billion with its northern neighbor, declaring that Washington would no longer tolerate the unfair dynamic.

The president’s public posts follow a sudden breakdown in formal trade talks.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney ordered Ottawa’s negotiating team to return home after Washington introduced terms that Canadian officials deemed “unfair and economically unviable.”

In response to the stalemate, Trump threatened to slap a 50% tariff on all Canadian cars, trucks, automotive components, and steel starting January 1, 2027. The economic threat directly targets one of the most deeply integrated manufacturing supply chains in North America, raising concerns among Canadians about rising consumer costs and disruption to regional assembly lines.

Canada responded by preparing dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs on hundreds of American products. Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada–U.S. trade, stated that while Ottawa had hoped for a mutually beneficial agreement, the government felt that it should act to protect domestic industries from unilateral U.S. penalties.

Trump also further provoked Canadian leadership by declaring on Truth Social that the U.S. might rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” referencing how the nation no longer expected to conduct business with the region.

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Report: Trump Admin Requests Ukraine Refrain From Striking Russia During Meetings

The Trump administration reportedly requested that Ukraine refrain from striking parts of Russia with missiles while the United States engaged in meetings with Russian officials.

Christopher Miller, the Chief Ukraine Correspondent for the Financial Times, shared in a post on X that officials in the Trump administration had “requested that Kyiv not strike Moscow, St. Petersburg, and northern regions of Russia with its long range missiles and drones on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday when the U.S. would send a plane carrying a senior-level official to the Russian capital,” citing “people familiar with the request.”

“Ukraine agreed, they said,” Miller added. “Today we see that a U.S. Air Force C-17 plane has landed in Moscow.”

Breitbart News’s Oliver JJ Lane reported that a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III was reported to have flown “from the capital of NATO-member Latvia to an airport near Moscow, Russia on Tuesday morning”:

A U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III flew from the capital of NATO-member Latvia to an airport near Moscow, Russia on Tuesday morning. The military jet first flew on Sunday from Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C., reports France’s Le Figaro, citing the open source transponder data which is collected by hobbyist ground-based receivers and aggregated through services such as the Flight Radar app.

Military flights are not obliged to keep their transponders on, but it is best practice to do so for the sake of other flights in the area and air traffic control for the sake of safety. The decision to keep the transponders broadcasting over Russian airspace betrays a desire to make the flight as visible and easily identifiable as possible.

CBS News’s Senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs reported in a post on X that Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe was reported to have “traveled to Russia aboard a C-17 for meetings in Moscow today.”

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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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