by Hayes Brown | Jul 30, 2026 | Opinion, White House
When record snowstorms hit the northeast this year, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island applied for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Despite such requests having been routinely approved in the past, the Trump administration denied the requests to those majority-Democratic states. The administration did so even though, Politico reported Wednesday, FEMA’s regional offices agreed that, under federal guidelines, the requested assistance was warranted.
If everything goes according to plan, by this fall, Trump will have given himself the ability to veto any federal aid that might benefit his political opponents with little regard for the Americans his decisions impact.
The denials are part of a broader pattern that shows a major disparity in the Trump administration’s approval rates for disaster aid with the determining factor appearing to be the political leanings of the state. As of March, according to Politico, Trump had “approved just 23% of disaster funding requests from states with a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators,” while “states with a Republican governor and two Republican senators, it’s the opposite — Trump has approved 89% of their requests.” (White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Politico about its earlier reporting, “There is no politicization to the President’s decisions on disaster aid.”)
That’s not believable. Trump has already used billions of dollars as a weapon against Democratic governors and, if everything goes according to plan, by this fall, he will have given himself the ability to veto any federal aid that might benefit his political opponents with little regard for the Americans his decisions impact. A new rule under consideration would allow political appointees to reject applications for federal grant if the
by Ja'han Jones | Jul 30, 2026 | Opinion, White House
President Donald Trump has sought to demonize immigrants — particularly people who aren’t white — by calling many of them crooks.
But when it comes to deceitfulness, a new report from ProPublica suggests that may actually describe the MAGA influencer Trump tapped as his “special presidential envoy for American tourism, exceptionalism and values.”
That’s Nick Adams, the self-described “alpha male” and naturalized citizen from Australia who has fashioned himself into a cringeworthy caricature of MAGA masculinity.
According to the report, Adams launched the Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness, an organization supposedly intent on teaching civics, in 2016. The important context here is that Trump and MAGA world have condemned historically accurate teachings about things like racial inequality and touted the need to teach civics instead — as if it’s impossible to do both.
And despite being boosted by Trump and other MAGA figures, FLAG doesn’t seem to have thus far done the work it has promised. Per ProPublica:
There is little evidence that the nonprofit has provided the civics education it claims. And Adams and his nonprofit have engaged in a pattern of questionable financial arrangements, including paying Adams and his mother more than half its recent annual revenue, while raising much of its money through a sweepstakes operation that has promised donors a chance to win $1,000,000 — a prize FLAG’s records show no evidence of ever paying.
ProPublica said Adams didn’t respond to its list of questions and that the White House declined to comment.
The outlet noted that FLAG is part of the Education Department’s America 250 Civics Education Coalition, which includes more than 40 conservative groups. In other words, a nonprofit that’s under
by Anthony L. Fisher | Jul 30, 2026 | Opinion, Science, World
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, thoroughly embarrassed himself last week during a mostly amicable interview with Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of the self-described “radical centrist” British newsmagazine The Economist. He displayed puddle-deep knowledge on subjects in which he claims expertise, a callous disregard to human suffering and a hair-trigger temper at being calmly challenged with demonstrable facts.
His performance and subsequent menacing online tantrum ought to present the media, the government, investors, index funds and others with a simple yes-or-no question that requires a yes-or-no answer: Should we treat as fine and normal that the fate of huge chunks of the economy and millions of Americans’ 401(k)s are in the hands of this unstable, thin-skinned, thuggish race-baiting conspiracy theorist?
That he is an overconfident, ignorant buffoon who turns into a shrieking crybaby when a sympathetic interviewer challenges his lies only makes things worse.
Musk’s most ignominious moments during the 90-minute interview include saying “zero” people died as a result of the cuts to foreign aid implemented by the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, the untransparent, unaccountable, legally questionable quasi-agency he briefly ran at the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Beddoes said she agreed with Musk’s view that U.S. government spending had “a lot of waste” and held “a lot of sympathy” for the Trump administration’s “change of the aid regime.” But she nonetheless took issue with “the pace and the suddenness” of DOGE’s cuts that “almost certainly have caused unnecessary suffering and deaths.”
Musk’s response was inherently contradictory: There were no deaths as a result of food and medical aid for millions being cut off overnight, he claimed, but other
by Ja'han Jones | Jul 30, 2026 | Opinion, Sports, White House
International rage over FIFA’s close ties to President Donald Trump has reached a fever pitch after soccer’s governing body announced a plan to sell a significant stake to an investor group led by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law.
The president and his family have all but turned the White House into their personal piggy bank. And FIFA — which has its own sordid history of corruption — seems to have made itself a party to Trump’s self-enrichment under Gianni Infantino’s leadership, such as by paying for space inside Trump Tower in New York. (The organization has defended the office rental as a World Cup outpost.)
Soccer is seen by many as a unifying game. But Trump’s incorporation of FIFA into his political dynasty is threatening that idea.
As The Athletic reported:
FIFA has announced plans to sell a large minority stake in a new company that will run its main events, including the World Cup and Club World Cup, as part of a plan to triple the amount of development money it dishes out to its 211 member associations.
Under the proposals — which are subject to approval by a majority of those national associations and FIFA’s 37-member council — a new entity called FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE) will take over all commercial operations, while FIFA remains the game’s global governing body and retains a majority stake in FFE.
A press release from FIFA confirmed the plans and said Thrive Eternal, which was launched by Joshua Kushner, is expected to lead the investment group that would control FIFA Forward Enterprise. FIFA did not clarify why Thrive Eternal was selected, and Kushner was already dabbling
by Michael A. Cohen | Jul 29, 2026 | Opinion, White House, World
As America’s war with Iran enters its fifth month, the U.S. military is running out of munitions — or maybe it’s not.
Over the weekend, NBC’s Kristen Welker asked U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz about press reports that President Donald Trump called off a major military strike against Iran because U.S. munitions stockpiles were depleted.
“A lot of our stockpiles were depleted because of Biden,” he said.
But, asked if he was acknowledging that stockpiles were depleted, Waltz said, “No.”
No one has flip-flopped on this topic quite like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Confused? Join the club. Since the beginning of this conflict, Trump administration officials have been performing this rhetorical tap dance.
“We’re in very good shape,” Trump said on Monday about America’s munitions supply. But then he added that “for some of the more sophisticated stuff, we’d certainly like to have more. Biden gave a lot of it away.”
But no one has flip-flopped on this topic quite like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. In the first days of the Iran war, he declared that there was “no shortage of munitions” and that “our munitions are full up.” In April, however, he told lawmakers it would take months or years to replenish America’s weapons supplies. In June, he went back to his earlier position, saying on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that America’s munitions “stockpiles “are great, and they’re only getting stronger.” And in congressional testimony last week, Hegseth couched the administration’s Pentagon budget request of$1.5 trillion by attacking the Biden administration for “four years of underinvestment and mismanagement.”
If all of this seems contradictory, it’s because it is. The Trump administration clearly wants to hide that it went to
by Hayes Brown | Jul 29, 2026 | Opinion, Science, White House
Say what you will about him, but President Donald Trump is a man who expects results. This includes carrying out his most outlandish demands, even when they clash with common sense of both the regular and political varieties. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is apparently learning this lesson the hard way. According to The Wall Street Journal, citing “people familiar with the matter,” Kennedy is facing his boss’ ire for not “doing more to probe the alleged connection between vaccines and autism.”
It’s a surprising accusation, given the centrality of vaccine skepticism to Kennedy’s political brand and the Make America Healthy Again movement he is spearheading. It also cuts against the advice that the White House itself reportedly delivered earlier this year, to have HHS downplay the focus on vaccines ahead of the midterm elections. But, per the Journal, Trump has his own ideas about what Kennedy needs to be focused on:
Chief among the president’s desires: Do more to reduce the number of shots that federal guidelines recommend for children, according to people familiar with the matter. They said the president hopes to then see autism rates drop, even if any such effect could take years.
The issue has been an ongoing point of tension between the two men. In a mid-June meeting in the Oval Office, the president vented to Kennedy that he wasn’t doing enough, people familiar with the matter said.
The president has made clear he thinks he has given Kennedy enough time and is disappointed the health secretary hasn’t accomplished more in the past year and a half, the people said.
While the White House and
