by Ja'han Jones | Jun 4, 2026 | Opinion
The Trump administration’s latest justification for tariffs is even less believable than its previous ones.
President Donald Trump has previously said, among other things, that the tariffs would stem the tide of fentanyl entering the United States and help boost American manufacturing — two things that experts rightly warned would not occur as a result of the president’s destructive and delusional economic agenda.
Aside from soaring prices for Americans, what the tariffs did seem to do was net the president lavish gifts from those seeking tariff relief.
After the Supreme Court ruled that Trump doesn’t have the tariff authority he claimed, the president is trying to impose tariffs through other means. The latest example is his administration’s claim that tariffs are needed to thwart the scourge of “forced labor” around the world.
On Tuesday, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who at times has seemed completely out of the loop on Trump’s tariff policy, announced proposed tariffs against dozens of countries while accusing the nations of failing to crack down on forced labor. Greer said the plan is meant to protect American workers from being “forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field.”
Because if there’s one thing we know about Trump, it’s his commitment to fair business practices, amirite?
Some may find it hard to believe that an administration that has yet to release the entire Epstein files, and one that has touted the “legendary” legacy of a brutal Louisiana prison with ties to slavery, is truly concerned about ending the scourges of human trafficking and forced labor — for economic, moral or any other reasons.
What’s more, this Trump administration has gutted many of the
by Zeeshan Aleem | Jun 3, 2026 | Opinion
Even more than most presidents, President Donald Trump likes to draw attention to his executive order signings. He often turns these events into impromptu press conferences, and seems to relish changing the government with the stroke of his pen. But on Tuesday, Trump skipped the fanfare and privately signed an order issuing new regulations on artificial intelligence. Why the uncharacteristic shunning of the cameras? Perhaps because he realized the order makes him look like a pushover.
Ostensibly, the order revises Trump’s previously hands-off stance on the AI industry. But what looks like a move toward regulation is in reality a gift to the tech industry. The process is so meager that it allows the participating companies to claim concern about the public good while offering little in exchange. Part of the reason it is weak is because Trump allowed key industry figures to convince him to water it down it to the point that they believe it couldn’t get in the way of their profit-maximizing behavior.
Trump’s last-second softening of the order underscores how much it was designed to satisfy Silicon Valley.
Even before tech executives intervened directly with the president, this executive order was crafted with the blessing of the industry it’s meant to be regulating. Politico reports that an earlier draft of the order “had been reviewed by the tech giants OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.”
The order creates a framework under which AI companies can voluntarily submit their new models to the government 30 days in advance of releasing them publicly. That pause, Politico reports, is intended to “give federal agencies some time to gauge what threats the products may pose to
by Ja'han Jones | Jun 3, 2026 | Opinion
Donald Trump has told Americans to “get on to something else” other than the Jeffrey Epstein files, in which the president, a former friend of the deceased sex offender, is named thousands of times. But the state of New Mexico isn’t acquiescing to the president’s wishes.
New Mexico’s truth commission is preparing a slate of 14 subpoenas that target private, state and federal institutions as part of an effort to unearth details about Epstein’s activities in the state. The development marks an escalation of the commission’s efforts to shake loose lingering secrets.
On Monday, the commission approved subpoenas for a list of more than a dozen entities, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. The list includes Epstein’s estate; the Federal Aviation Administration, the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice; the U.S. attorney’s offices for New Mexico and New York’s southern district; Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan Chase; New Mexico’s Departments of Public Safety and Justice, the governor’s office and State Land Office; the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office; and the Santa Fe Institute.
Subpoenas do not, in and of themselves, indicate wrongdoing — nor does the appearance of any name in the Epstein files. The Santa Fe New Mexican previously reported on files released by the DOJ that showed a donation of hundreds of thousands of dollars by Epstein to the Santa Fe Institute, a scientific research and education center. The institute’s president told the New Mexican in February that an audit of Epstein’s donations exists (though he didn’t provide it), and he reportedly didn’t respond to the outlet’s request for comment after the subpoena list was announced.
The commission is conducting its work
by Ja'han Jones | Jun 3, 2026 | Opinion
Multiple candidates backed heavily by Big Tech executives floundered in Tuesday’s primary elections, as concerns about the corrosive effects of new technologies such as artificial intelligence tools continue to mount. The clearest examples came in California, where tech executives spent ungodly amounts of money attempting to make sure their chosen candidates emerged victorious.
In Tuesday night’s gubernatorial race, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who was backed by tech executives like Google co-founder Sergey Brin and pro-MAGA Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, failed to crack the top five vote getters and ended the evening conceding his loss.
Big Tech investors also saw promise in candidate Ethan Agarwal, the tech investor with ties to pro-MAGA tech bro Marc Andreessen, after Agarwal launched a campaign to challenge Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna for his seat. Khanna has largely been an ally to Big Tech companies during his time in Congress, but some tech executives attempted to boost Agarwal’s campaign after Khanna supported a one-time 5% wealth tax on billionaires.
Their plan didn’t work. Agarwal, who was on the record criticizing the wealth tax and efforts to regulate technology companies, didn’t break single digits in his share of the vote Tuesday night en route to a fourth-place finish and a concession.
The results bring to mind a discussion MS NOW hosts Michael Steele and Stephanie Ruhle had on primary election night, about the massive amounts of money Big Tech executives are shoveling out to reshape American politics.
Indeed, the issue of money in American politics is one that shouldn’t be ignored. At the same time, Tuesday’s losses by billionaire-backed candidates are a reminder that candidate quality and policy positions still matter
by Hayes Brown | Jun 3, 2026 | Opinion
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte would become acting director of national intelligence. Pulte is stepping in to replace Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned from her post last month. Though Trump claimed his appointee “has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America,” he’ll take the position with literally zero relevant experience for coordinating 17 American intelligence agencies’ work.
But Pulte’s appointment makes slightly more sense when you consider his place in Trump’s orbit. The 38-year-old heir to his family’s massive home construction company shares the president’s love of social media bullying, golf and abusing power for personal gain. In currying Trump’s favor, he’s become the boy who cried “fraud,” using his limited portfolio to find leverage against the president’s enemies. With the broader remit his new perch provides, Pulte could do much more harm that he already has, opening the door to threats both foreign and domestic.
In currying Trump’s favor, he’s become the boy who cried “fraud,” using his limited portfolio to find leverage against the president’s enemies
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was created in the aftermath of 9/11, based on the idea that one office should be responsible for sorting the signal from the noise amid a cacophony of perpetually incoming data. Pulte’s appointment as acting DNI fits within the general rule that acting officials in high-ranking roles must be Senate-confirmed. But his lack of any experience and newfound ability to cherry-pick data for Trump’s benefit rather than the national interest reveals a major problem with that standard.
Before Tuesday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche would have been the slam-dunk
by Ja'han Jones | Jun 3, 2026 | Opinion
The Trump administration’s crusade against purported systemic fraud against liberals has largely looked like a racist project.
To promote such claims, the White House has relied in part on activists like Nick Shirley, who has targeted Somali Americans with unproven allegations of fraud and promoted a blatantly antisemitic video about a “Jewish invasion” in New Jersey. Trump, a man found liable for fraud in civil court and convicted of fraudulent activity in criminal court, has himself gone on repeated racist rants about Somali immigrants engaging in fraud. And his administration has launched a bogus fraud indictment against the anti-racist Southern Poverty Law Center, charges that some conservatives are using to downplay the existence of racist extremism.
Amid all of this, Arizona Republicans are dealing with a scandal over a massive school voucher initiative they backed, with accusations of scammy and fraudulent behavior happening for years.
Arizona’s billion-dollar Empowerment Scholarship Account has set aside mountains of cash for parents and guardians to send children to private schools — which Brookings has described as a “handout to the wealthy.” Nevertheless, national Republicans, including at The Heritage Foundation, have portrayed the effort as a model for other states.
Unfortunately for MAGA world, the ESA program has become a public relations disaster. Just last week, an Arizona mother pleaded guilty to collecting nearly $30,000 in ESA funds after moving to Texas. And Arizona’s auditor general recently unearthed what a Phoenix television station described as “explosive findings.” As KPNX-TV explained:
The findings echoed previous investigations by 12News, which uncovered widespread misuse of ESA funds by tens of thousands of account holders.
According to reporting by 12News Investigates, at least 20% of ESA
