Tag: donald trump

Trump Floats Taxpayer-Funded Takeover of Spirit Airlines, Selling for Profit

President Donald Trump said on April 23 that a taxpayer-funded takeover of Spirit Airlines could be an option, with the intention of reselling it when oil prices fall.

The Florida-based airline is undergoing restructuring after filing for bankruptcy protection in August 2025.

Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, said he was interested in the U.S. government bailing out Spirit, or buying it outright.

“We’d be getting it debt-free. They have some good aircraft and good assets, and when the prices of oil goes down, we’ll sell it for a profit,” Trump said.

“I’d love to be able to save those jobs. I’d love to be able to save an airline,” Trump said, adding that more airlines improves competition in the market.

Spirit said in March that it had been working to sell some planes and scale back operations to focus on its “strongest routes and markets,” including Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Detroit, Michigan; and the New York metropolitan area.

Marshall Huebner, a lawyer with Davis Polk who is representing Spirit, told a U.S. bankruptcy court hearing in New York this week that government financing would make Spirit more competitive.

Creditors Notified of Deal

Huebner said details of a potential deal had been shared with all three of the company’s primary creditor groups.

The airline that became Spirit was launched in the 1980s, but rebranded in 1992.

“It all started with our launch as Charter One, flying Guests from Detroit to Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and the Bahamas,” the company says on its website. “When we rebranded as Spirit Airlines, we doubled down on our mission: bringing more guests to more places for more fun.”

Ultra-low-cost airlines have been under pressure for years as they traditionally attract budget-conscious travelers with low base fares, but the rise in oil prices is eroding margins and increasing losses.

Earlier this week, for example, German airline Lufthansa announced that 20,000 short-haul flights would be canceled this summer because of the ongoing fuel crisis sparked by the Iran war and subsequent blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil shipments.

On April 21, Trump urged for someone to buy Spirit and said federal assistance may be available.

“I’d love somebody to buy Spirit—it’s 14,000 jobs,“ he said. ”Maybe the federal government should help that one out.”

In 2024, the Biden administration, citing antitrust laws, prevented JetBlue Airways from buying Spirit for $3.8 billion.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CBS News this week he had concerns about a Spirit Airlines bailout.

“The question will be does the federal government step in and bail out an airline that for a very long time hasn’t been run well,” Duffy said.

He said he was unsure whether Spirit could be saved and “made viable” and was concerned that taxpayers’ money could end up in a company that would eventually be liquidated.

But Trump said he had “a smart person” in mind who could potentially run Spirit and get it back on solid a financial footing.

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Trump to Probe Banks Regarding Los Angeles Wildfire Response

U.S. President Donald Trump said on April 23 that his administration will look into banks’ handling of payments and debts in the aftermath of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.

Two Los Angeles-area communities were devastated by wildfires in January 2025. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported that the Palisades fire caused 12 deaths, destroyed 6,845 structures, and damaged 975 more. The nearby Eaton fire, which ignited in Altadena on Jan. 7, 2025, claimed 19 lives. Combined, the fires have claimed 31 lives and destroyed more than 16,000 structures.

Last month, Trump said State Farm and other insurers should “get their act together,” following a meeting with California politicians.

Trump met with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger on Thursday and said he is now turning his attention to banks.

“Since my strong action and statements with respect to Insurance Companies, and the way they were treating the Home Owners, that aspect of this Disaster has proceeded well — Big progress has been made, and those Companies are ’stepping up to the plate,’ as they should be,” Trump ​said in a 23 April post on Truth Social.

“The Banks, however, have a long way to go, and we will be looking into their actions, effective immediately. Wells Fargo, in particular, has been very difficult to deal with. The Banks must treat those people, who so horribly lost their Homes in this tragic fire, very fairly and well. I will be working with the Mayor, Supervisor, and everyone else to help this tragic situation go smoothly.”

A Wells Fargo spokeswoman told The Epoch Times via email that the company did not have a comment to share.

In an April 23 joint statement, Bass and Barger said they had “a very positive discussion about FEMA and other rebuilding funds, as well as the support of the President to continue joining us in pressuring the insurance companies to pay what they owe – and for the big banks to step up to ease the financial pressure on LA families.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in January ​2025 that five major lenders, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, and Citigroup, would grant 90-day mortgage forbearance ​to homeowners in Los Angeles and Ventura fire zones. The relief included a pause in credit reporting and the potential for extended aid.

“After so much trauma, we hope this deal will provide thousands of survivors a measure of relief,” Newsom said at the time. “These financial protections will enable residents to concentrate on taking care of their immediate needs rather than worrying about paying their mortgage bills. I thank each of the financial institutions that are offering this help for Californians recovering from this catastrophic firestorm.”

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The Teenage Bully Boy Who Got the War Toys

Here he goes again. The phony “cease fire” is expiring Wednesday. So the Donald is back on the keyboard promising to obliterate what remains of Iran if the mullahs (or whoever) don’t raise the white flag of surrender forthwith.

Yet in the unhinged outpouring of crude bellicosity below we get the sum and substance of why the War Capital of the World on the Potomac has metastasized into a Trumpian clown show of bombast, misanthropy and farce.

We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY! They’ll come down fast, they’ll come down easy and, if they don’t take the DEAL, it will be my Honor to do what has to be done, which should have been done to Iran, by other Presidents, for the last 47 years. IT’S TIME FOR THE IRAN KILLING MACHINE TO END!”

Self-evidently, the Donald is an incompetent teenage bully-boy who never grew up. And, yes, it’s possible – albeit remotely so – that such an unsuited aspirant as Donald J. Trump could be mistakenly elected President fair and square by American democracy – even twice.

But what such a freakishly accidental man-boy should not have is the unilateral, open-ended capacity to play video games with a $1 trillion War Machine; and one that is capable of inflicting monumental violence and death anywhere along the length and breadth of the planet upon the whim of the POTUS.

What we mean is this: A proper $300 billion DOD “defense” budget (as opposed to the current $1 trillion “war” budget and the even more absurd $1.5 trillion proposed Trump DOD budget)) would provide for an invincible nuclear deterrent and Fortress America shield of protection for America’s coast lines and airspace. But it would not endow the POTUS – neither a competent one like Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and George Bush Sr. nor a narcissistic madman like Trump – with the capacity to rain missiles and bombs from the sky against the bridges, power plants, apartment buildings, hospitals and elementary schools of any foreign country that posed no threat to America’s Homeland Security.

That’s because, for example, he would have not have $85 billion per year worth of 11 carrier battle groups, whose only function is to wage unnecessary wars of invasion, occupation and kinetic intimidation. Nor would he have –

  • 800 foreign bases from which to launch cruise missiles, bombers, drones and other weapons of offensive attack.
  • upwards of 500,000 Marine and Army expeditionary forces designed to put US boots on foreign soil.
  • massive networks of airlift, sealift and logistics infrastructure needed to project conventional military power abroad.

Nor would they have the remit to act upon such an utterly false narrative as the alleged “47-Year Iranian War On America”. The latter retains credibility and resilience in the halls of government only because the nation’s War Machine and related the institutions of Empire (e.g. USAID, Agency for Global Media, NED etc.) fund the the think tanks, consultants and research operations who’s budget depends upon the existence of alleged mortal enemies and conjured threats to national security. So they find these aplenty.

Stated differently, if the peaceful Republic that America was intended to be had but a $300 billion defense budget and a proper War Powers Act, the clown show that the Donald has conducted since February 28th would not have been remotely possible. Not even conceivable.

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Who Is General Dan Caine? The Man Who Allegedly Said ‘No’ to Trump’s Nuclear Codes During the Iran Crisis

Now, General Dan Caine — America’s highest-ranking military officer — is at the centre of one of the most explosive and widely-circulated claims of the US-Iran conflict: that he stood up in a White House meeting and told President Donald Trump ‘no’ when the president allegedly moved to invoke nuclear codes.

The allegation, which originated from retired CIA analyst Larry C Johnson on the ‘Judging Freedom‘ podcast on 20 April, has not been confirmed by any official source. A White House spokesperson told Newsweek the claim was false. Yet it has already accumulated nearly two million views on X — and placed Caine squarely in the public eye in a way his relatively quiet rise to the top of the US military never had.

A Fighter Pilot Nobody Saw Coming

John Daniel ‘Raizin‘ Caine was born on 10 August 1968 in Elmira, New York. His father, Steve Caine, is a retired United States Air Force fighter pilot. He followed that path, earning a bachelor’s degree in economics from Virginia Military Institute in 1990 before completing the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Programme and going on to fly F-16s.

A command pilot with more than 2,800 flight hours in the F-16, including over 150 combat hours, his career spans combat aviation, special operations, and senior interagency leadership across the Department of Defense, the White House, and the Intelligence Community. His last government post before becoming Chairman was as Associate Director for Military Affairs at the Central Intelligence Agency, a role he held from 2021 until his retirement in December 2024.

Trump’s Pick Over the Pentagon’s Own

Caine was not well known before his nomination in February 2025. Several officials on Capitol Hill and the Pentagon, granted anonymity as they were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, said at the time that they had to Google his name.

He is the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who never served at the rank of four-star general or admiral before being nominated, the first to be nominated while in retirement, and the first to have been nominated as a member of a reserve component. Despite the unusual path, Trump backed him publicly. ‘He only knows one thing, how to WIN,’ Trump wrote of Caine in February.

Caine was confirmed on 11 April in a 60-25 vote and was promoted to a four-star general prior to the vote. He was sworn in just days before the Iran ceasefire deadline came into force.

The Claim That Went Viral

It was against this backdrop that Johnson made his allegation on the ‘Judging Freedom’ podcast. Johnson claimed that an emergency White House meeting took place on Saturday night amid escalating tensions with Iran, during which Trump allegedly moved to invoke nuclear codes, and Caine refused, with Johnson describing the exchange as ‘apparently quite a blowup.’

Johnson cited no named sources. Lead Stories searched Google News and Yahoo News for matching reports and found none, concluding that had such a confrontation actually happened and been verified by insiders, major outlets would have covered it heavily. North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis said, ‘I’d have to see a couple of source confirmations before I even dignify that question with an answer. I just can’t imagine that that was ever a serious consideration.’

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Trump’s Embrace of Psychedelic Therapy Leaves Most Users on the Wrong Side of the Law

On Saturday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at “accelerating medical treatments for serious mental illness” by facilitating regulatory approval of ibogaine and other psychedelics that have shown promise as psychotherapeutic catalysts. Although the case for doing that is compelling, the medical model embraced by the president excludes most psychedelic use, which will remain illegal even if the “historic reforms” that Trump announced work as planned.

Trump takes it for granted that Americans should be allowed to use psychedelics only for reasons that the government recognizes as legitimate. Otherwise, they are criminals rather than patients, subject to arrest, prosecution, and potentially severe penalties for daring to assert sovereignty over their own bodies and minds.

The injustice of that policy is readily apparent when people use psychedelics in ways that manifestly improve their lives. Many combat veterans, for example, have found that ibogaine, which is derived from the root of an African shrub, provides dramatic relief from the constellation of problems known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“It absolutely changed my life for the better,” former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, whose Afghanistan memoir inspired the 2013 movie Lone Survivor, remarked as Trump signed his executive order. “I was reborn,” says Luttrell’s twin brother, Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R–Texas), also a former Navy SEAL. “It is one of the greatest things that ever happened to me.”

Because ibogaine is banned in the United States, the Luttrell brothers had those transformational experiences at a clinic in Mexico. So did the 30 subjects of a recent Nature Mental Health study, which found that ibogaine, combined with magnesium as a safeguard against the drug’s cardiac side effects, “safely and effectively reduces PTSD, anxiety and depression and improves functioning in veterans” with traumatic brain injuries.

Research on ibogaine, which also is reputed to be remarkably useful for people struggling with drug addiction, is relatively limited so far. But the evidence supporting the use of MDMA (for PTSD) and psilocybin (for depression), both of which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated as “breakthrough” therapies, is strong enough that they may soon be approved as prescription medications.

If that happens, some people who could benefit from these drugs will be able to use them legally, provided they can obtain a diagnosis and a prescription. But where does that leave all the psychedelic users who can’t meet those requirements?

In a 2023 survey of psilocybin users, the RAND Corporation found that the most common motivations included “fun” (59 percent), “improved mental health” (49 percent), “personal development” (45 percent), “curiosity” (43 percent), and “spiritual growth” (41 percent). Although very few of those people would qualify for the medical exception that Trump advocates, that does not mean their reasons for using psilocybin should be dismissed as frivolous, let alone that they should be treated as criminals.

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The Least Psychedelic President in History Supports Psychedelic Research More Than Any of His Predecessors

This is the way the drug war starts to end, not with a bang or a whimper, but with an executive order signed by a president who must surely be the least-psychedelic occupant ever of the Oval Office, even when you think about characters as glum and dour as Millard Fillmore and Calvin Coolidge. In recent weeks, Donald Trump has picked figurative and literal fights with everyone from the Pope to Iran’s ayatollah. Last year, he released an animated video of himself in a fighter plane dropping feces on “No Kings” protestors. If there is an American alive over the age of 30 who has never listened to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band all the way through, it’s Trump.

But there he was this past Saturday, flanked by, among others, a pumped-up podcast host known for smoking weed on the air (Joe Rogan), an ibogaine evangelist (Bryan Hubbard), and a Cabinet member who has bragged about snorting cocaine off toilet seats (Robert F. Kennedy Jr.). The president was eagerly putting his John Hancock on “Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness,” an executive order that fast-tracks “innovative research models and…drug approvals to increase access to psychedelic drugs that could save lives and reverse the crisis of serious mental illness in America.” The order calls for expedited approval of “psychedelic drugs, including ibogaine compounds,” that “show potential in clinical studies to address serious mental illnesses for patients whose conditions persist after completing standard therapy.” A president who famously ingests nothing more psychoactive than Diet Coke is now pushing ibogaine—dubbed the “Mount Everest of psychedelics” because of the intensity of the trips it induces and its immense potential to reverse brain damage—into respectability. What’s next? Ayahuasca in juice boxes for K-12 cafeterias?

The people present at the signing show how drug policy reform springs from a mix of popular-culture discussion and hardcore, in-the-trenches policy work. Trump himself thanked Rogan for calling his attention to psychedelics and ibogaine, and RFK Jr. wrote on Instagram, “Thank you, [Joe Rogan] for helping bring national attention to these potentially life-saving treatments for veterans and others living with mental illness, and for pushing this conversation into the mainstream.” Rogan has used his immensely popular podcast for years to tout psychedelics and a wide array of conventional and unconventional therapies, supplements, and protocols (some more credible than others). Without him and his show, Saturday’s signing just doesn’t happen. Whatever else one might think of him, Rogan embodies better living through chemistry and self-directed experimentation with all sorts of drugs, exercise programs, and ways of creating a personalized life plan.

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Billionaire entrepreneur Justin Sun sues Trump family’s crypto firm

Billionaire entrepreneur Justin Sun has sued the cryptocurrency platform co-founded by US President Donald Trump and his sons, accusing the company of fraud.
Mr Sun, a 35-year-old Chinese-born crypto mogul, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday, US time, accusing World Liberty Financial of blocking him from selling his tokens after they became tradeable last year.

In the filing, Mr Sun claimed to have purchased $45 million worth of WLFI, an electronic currency launched by World Liberty Financial – founded by Donald, Donald Jr. and Eric Trump – in October 2024.

To thank him for the investment, which came at a time when WLFI was generating little initial interest, World Liberty Financial appointed him as an adviser and awarded him an additional one billion WLFI tokens, the lawsuit states.

Sales to investors subsequently accelerated, and in March 2025, World Liberty Financial announced that it had sold $550 million worth of the digital currency.

WLFI became tradeable on September 1, 2025.

Its value has since plummeted from 46 cents per unit to its current price of eight cents.

Mr Sun, the founder of another cryptocurrency platform TRON, claims his WLFI assets were unilaterally frozen by World Liberty Financial and he has been unable to resell any of them to date. He alleges platform executives even threatened to destroy his holdings if he attempted to take legal action.

“I have always been — and remain — an ardent supporter of President Trump and his Administration’s efforts to make America crypto friendly. This lawsuit does not change how I feel about President Trump or the Trump Administration,” he wrote in a post on social media.

“Unfortunately, certain individuals on the World Liberty project team have been operating the project in a manner that goes against President Trump’s values. They wrongfully froze all of my tokens, stripped me of my right to vote on governance proposals, and have threatened to permanently destroy my tokens by “burning” them — all without any proper justification.”

Mr Sun is demanding the unfreezing of his assets as well as compensatory damages for the harm he has suffered.

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Trump Says His Supreme Court Picks Misrepresented Their Ideology

President Donald Trump on April 21 criticized recent Supreme Court decisions and said some of the justices he nominated “misrepresented” themselves during the confirmation process. 

“I put certain people on the United States Supreme Court who totally misrepresented who they were, and the true ideology for which they stand!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Trump’s comments came amid escalating tension between him and the court, which has seen a large number of cases challenging his second-term policies.

In February, two of the justices he appointed—Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch—joined a 6–3 majority that struck down his global tariffs.

Trump has since criticized those justices.

In a post on April 22, Trump said the court’s decision would “cost America massive amounts of money but, more importantly, it will cost America its DIGNITY!”

That majority decision was formed by Barrett, Gorsuch, Chief Justice John Roberts, and the three liberal justices—Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of Trump’s nominees from his first term, penned a dissent, while Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito also opposed the decision.

On TruthSocial, Trump said that some of the “Democrat Justices” are known to “stick together like glue,” which the president said he respected.

“Certain Republican Appointees let the Democrats push them around, always wanting to be popular, politically correct, or even worse, wanting to show how ‘independent’ they are, with very little loyalty to the man who appointed them or, more importantly, the ideology from which they came to be Nominated and Confirmed,” he said.

At the end of the month, the court is expected to hear challenges to the Trump administration’s termination of temporary protected status for certain migrants.

It also recently heard a challenge to Trump’s order limiting birthright citizenship.

Trump attended the oral arguments, which were widely viewed as indicating that the court would rule against him.

On social media, the president asked how Democrats could “not like” how the Supreme Court votes, again citing concern about the outcome of the birthright citizenship case.

“It was meant for the babies of slaves, not for the babies of Chinese Billionaires. No, certain ‘Republican’ Justices have just gone weak,” Trump said. 

He also criticized the way the Supreme Court handled tariff refunds in its decision.

Its handling was “unexplainable” and an “unnecessary and expensive slap in the face to the U.S.A,” he said.

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Trump Reportedly Has a ‘Naughty List’ of Failing Allies, and Is Planning Retribution Against Them

By now, it’s become clear that US President Donald J. Trump is not one to forgive or forget a slight or a betrayal.

During the ongoing military confrontation against Iran, Trump feels that a good number of ‘allies’ have let the United States down, and now, retribution is expected to follow.

Today it arises that Trump has developed something, some form of a ‘naughty and nice’ list of NATO countries, in an effort that puts them into ‘tiers’, according to ‘three European diplomats and a U.S. defense official familiar with the plan’ – the usual ‘off the record’ MSM sources.

The story was first reported by Politico and then picked up by literally dozens of outlets around the world.

“It’s the latest sign that President Donald Trump plans to make good on his threats against allies who don’t adhere to his wishes. And it’s another pressure point on the increasingly frayed alliance, which has been battered by Trump’s attacks — from his push to annex Greenland to his warning of a complete withdrawal from the pact.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth floated the broad idea in December. ‘Model allies that step up, like Israel, South Korea, Poland, increasingly Germany, the Baltics and others, will receive our special favor’, he said. ‘Allies that still fail to do their part for collective defense will face consequences’.”

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Trump says Iran won’t execute 8 women after he demanded their release

President Trump announced Wednesday that Iran will no longer execute eight women after he pleaded Tuesday for their freedom — calling it “very good news” in a social media post.

“I have just been informed that the eight women protestors who were going to be executed tonight in Iran will no longer be killed. Four will be released immediately, and four will be sentenced to one month in prison,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“I very much appreciate that Iran, and its leaders, respected my request, as President of the United States, and terminated the planned execution.”

The announcement came hours after Trump extended a two-week cease-fire with Iran as US negotiators await Tehran’s reply to the latest American offer to end the nearly two-month conflict.

Iran’s judiciary denied that the eight women were ever set for execution, claiming that “Trump was misled once again by fake news” and that “some of them have been released, while others face charges that, if convictions are upheld, would at most result in imprisonment.”

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