All posts tagged: Trump

Trump says U.S. will seize Iran’s Kharg Island, oil infrastructure

Trump says U.S. will seize Iran’s Kharg Island, oil infrastructure

Published by Sam Flores

US President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Shawn Thew | Bloomberg | Getty Images The U.S. military will attack Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT,” and will soon take over the country’s “oil infrastructure points,” President Donald Trump said Thursday morning. An operation to “assume total control” of Iran’s oil and gas markets and infrastructure, including taking Kharg Island, will occur “at some point in the not too distant future,” Trump vowed in a Truth Social post. Trump compared the forthcoming action to the U.S. operations in Venezuela, “which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America,” he wrote. This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news. Source link

Trump Isn’t Giving Up on His Slush Fund

Trump Isn’t Giving Up on His Slush Fund

Published by Sam Flores

When Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appeared before Congress last Tuesday, senior administration officials hoped that his testimony would be enough to quell the uproar over a $1.776 billion payout scheme for Trump loyalists, including January 6 rioters. “We’re not moving forward with the fund,” he told a House appropriations subcommittee. But Blanche, who was not under oath, refused requests from a representative to put that in writing. He asked instead for Congress to take him at his word that President Trump’s politically inconvenient project for rewarding those who were allegedly victimized by the Biden-era Justice Department had truly been abandoned. It turns out that it’s not that simple. Behind the scenes, Justice Department and other Trump-administration officials have quietly assured allies that plans for some form of payout remain on track. I spoke with eight people familiar with the so-called Anti-Weaponization Fund—including current and former Justice Department officials, current and former members of Congress, a defense attorney, and political operatives close to the administration. All said that Justice Department officials and people close to …

Trump Once Played Soccer – The Atlantic

Trump Once Played Soccer – The Atlantic

Published by Daniella Wilson

By the time Donald Trump was in his senior year at New York Military Academy, he had quit playing football and decided to join the varsity soccer team. Most of his teammates were from South or Central America, the children of diplomats and military officers: four Colombians, two Peruvians, and players from Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Venezuela. The coach wasn’t particularly good, former teammates told me, and the season was not particularly successful. The yearbook recorded three wins and eight losses, as recently reported by The Guardian. Latin music filled the team bus en route to away games, and the players’ pregame chant culminated in a plea for togetherness: “¡Nosotros! ¡Nosotros! Rah, rah, rah!” “It was like you were in another country,” Alfred Harrison, one of Trump’s teammates, told me. “You didn’t really get the ball unless you spoke Spanish.” Harrison recalls Trump being a decent player, working on the back line as a defender and kicking the occasional long ball over the midfield to start an attack. “He was fairly active on the …

Trump loves inflation. Why that should be music to Kevin Warsh’s ears: Analysis

Trump loves inflation. Why that should be music to Kevin Warsh’s ears: Analysis

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. President Donald Trump arrives with incoming Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh for Warsh’s swearing-in ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 22, 2026. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters A strange thing may happen in the coming days. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh may do exactly what his predecessor Jerome Powell had done about interest rates — only to get a completely different response from President Donald Trump. Trump’s unexpected comments Wednesday on the latest inflation figure may give Warsh some space on interest rates. “I love the inflation,” he said in the Oval Office hours after the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that annualized inflation jumped by 4.2%. If the president is unconcerned with the highest inflation in three years, that may buy Warsh a reprieve from expectations to quickly lower interest rates. The president spent years railing against and trying to undermine Powell for what Trump saw as a stubborn refusal to cut interest rates faster and deeper than the Fed was willing to go. But now that Warsh has been …

Trump keeps saying an Iran deal is close. Markets keep believing it

Trump keeps saying an Iran deal is close. Markets keep believing it

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room at the White House, in Washington, May 27, 2026. Evan Vucci | Reuters President Donald Trump this week said a sweeping peace deal with Iran could be signed very soon, echoing dozens of similar claims he has made over nearly three months. The latest example may not resonate with the average listener — after all, no deal has emerged following any of Trump’s dozens of claims so far. But despite the lack of follow-through, markets continue to react to the president’s repeated promises. Trump has signaled or stated outright more than 30 times that a deal is nearly at hand, according to a CNBC review of the president’s social media posts and public remarks. Stocks and oil markets, which have squirmed amid a global energy supply shock caused by the war, continue to pay close attention to Trump’s signals about a forthcoming deal, even when they don’t pan out. Meanwhile, more than 100 days into the war, Washington and Tehran seem to be …

US bishops signal closer ties to Pope Leo — while nudging Trump on immigration

US bishops signal closer ties to Pope Leo — while nudging Trump on immigration

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — In agenda-setting speeches for the beginning of their terms as leaders of the U.S. Catholic Church on Wednesday (June 10), Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, the new president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, Pope Leo XIV’s new diplomatic representative in the U.S., emphasized their unity with the pope and each other as they tackled some of the church’s most pressing problems. During Pope Francis’ pontificate, the conference did not always appear to prioritize his keystone initiatives, particularly around environmental teaching and dialogue known as synodality. As church observers watched closely to see what kind of posture the new U.S. leaders might take toward Leo’s papacy, Coakley’s repeated citations of the first U.S.-born pope and references to his teachings may be signaling a closer relationship between the Vatican and U.S. church, though the meeting’s public agenda does not include any sessions dedicated to artificial intelligence or Leo’s first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas.” “ Today, in an age of constant flux, of forced migration, polarization, disruptions, climatic and economic upheavals, …

Trump Risks Key Surveillance Authority Over ‘Unqualified’ Spy-Chief Pick

Trump Risks Key Surveillance Authority Over ‘Unqualified’ Spy-Chief Pick

Published by skeptic

Cornyn said materials from Section 702 generate roughly 60 percent of the President’s Daily Brief, a figure Senate Judiciary chairman Chuck Grassley has also cited. Some Republicans dispute the catastrophe framing. Representative Keith Self of Texas called the warnings “hysteria,” arguing that other FISA authorities remain in force and that proponents should accept reforms such as a warrant requirement: “FISA isn’t going dark. We have the law. We have precedent from 2008. Don’t fall for the scare tactics.” The libertarian Cato Institute has made a similar point. “The [702] program has the FISA court’s permission to continue for another year, so it will continue whether we act or not,” said a senior Republican aide on a relevant committee. “None of the members saying the program is ending Friday will be claiming it’s actually dead on Monday—especially those on intel. They know better.” Hajar Hammado, a senior policy adviser at Demand Progress, was sharper still. “If Republican leadership actually believed their baseless fearmongering about security at the World Cup, then they would do what needs to …

Trump says ‘I love the inflation’ after CPI hits 3-year high

Trump says ‘I love the inflation’ after CPI hits 3-year high

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said, “I love the inflation” after being asked if he was concerned about new consumer price index data that showed the annual inflation rate at 4.2%, a three-year high. Trump, speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, also predicted that inflation is “going to come down like a rock” after the United States’ war against Iran is over. The president linked that prediction to a confusing statement about the U.S. “taking” oil and ships. “No, I love it, the numbers were great,” Trump said when a reporter asked him about the CPI number issued earlier in the morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “You know what I really love? I love the inflation. You know why?” Trump said. “Because as soon as this war is over, you know I can say it now … you know we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil.” “Nobody knows it. You know who doesn’t know about it? Iran, until right now,” Trump said. Read more CNBC politics coverage “We took out …

Defense industry leaders preparing to meet with Trump as worries over missile supply grow, sources say

Defense industry leaders preparing to meet with Trump as worries over missile supply grow, sources say

Published by Sam Flores

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the U.S. military had more than enough munitions, ammunition and stockpiles “to serve all of President Trump’s strategic goals and beyond, and Operation Epic Fury has exposed what happens when you mess with the United States.” “Even still, the President has urged our defense contractors to constantly produce more made-in-America weapons, which are the best in the world. Democrats destroyed our military, but President Trump rebuilt it,” she said in a statement. One of the people familiar with plans for a meeting this week said they anticipate it is “going to be ugly,” in part because of Trump’s frustrations with the status of the U.S. munitions stockpile. NBC News reported in May that despite widespread concern about a dwindling missile supply the Pentagon had yet to ink any new, multiyear contracts to purchase more since Trump came into office. While the Pentagon has entered into “framework agreements” on weaponry, none include any actual contracts to produce new munitions that would replenish the American stockpile, according to officials and defense …

Trump signs billion immigration funding bill after months of delay

Trump signs $70 billion immigration funding bill after months of delay

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. President Donald Trump displays the signed Secure America Act in the Oval Office of the White House on June 10, 2026 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong | Getty Images President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a $70 billion bill to fund immigration enforcement agencies through the end of his term. The package to pay for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection passed out of Congress in the last week after months of debate and delays amid Democratic concerns about overly aggressive immigration enforcement. At a signing ceremony in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said the bill would “give the heroes of ICE and border patrol … the support and resources they need to defend our borders, protect our homeland and to keep America safe.” Democrats had refused to fund the two Department of Homeland Security subagencies since January, when an immigration surge in Minneapolis led to the deaths of two U.S. citizens at the hands of federal agents. Read more CNBC politics coverage Republicans, in response to Democratic opposition, pursued …