Tag: Politics

Suspect Yelled ‘Free Palestine’ After Fatally Shooting Couple Outside Jewish Museum in D.C.
A suspect is in custody after two staff members of Israel’s embassy in Washington, D.C., were fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday night, police said.
The suspect, identified as Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, shouted “Free, free Palestine” before being arrested, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said. He has been charged with first-degree murder, murder of foreign officials, causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Israel’s foreign ministry identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26. Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, said during a news conference following the shooting that they were a couple and were about to get engaged.
“Words cannot begin to describe the heartbreak and sorrow,” Tal Naim, a spokesperson for the Israeli embassy, said in a post on X on Thursday, adding, “Instead of walking you down the aisle, we are walking with you to your graves. What an unbearable loss.”
Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky. (@IsraelinUSA / X)
The police chief said Rodriguez, 31, “implied” he had committed the shooting and told authorities in custody where he had discarded the weapon. There is no ongoing threat to public safety, officials said.
The victims had been leaving the museum, which is located roughly half a mile from the U.S. Capitol, when they were gunned down around 9 p.m. ET, Leiter said. The American Jewish Committee had been hosting an event at the museum for young Jewish professionals. IsraAID, an Israeli-based aid group, said the event focused in part on “bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza through Israeli-Palestinian and regional collaboration.”
Steve Jensen, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, said his team was working to identify whether the shooting may have been hate-motivated or possibly an act of terrorism, NBC News reported.
“Targeted anti-Semitic violence is an attack on our core values and will be met with the full weight of federal law enforcement,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote Thursday in a statement posted to X that described the shooting as “an act of terror.”
“The individuals responsible will be held accountable, and the Bureau will continue pursuing every lead until justice is served,” he wrote.
The fatal shooting occurred amid the ongoing Israeli war in Gaza, launched after the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack in Israel by Hamas militants that Israeli officials say killed more than 1,200 people. Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign in Gaza has killed more 53,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.
President Donald Trump is “saddened and outraged” over the deadly attack, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing on Thursday. “Everyone here at the White House is praying for the victims’ friends and families during this unimaginable time,” she added.
What we know about the victims
Lischinsky had worked for the Israeli Embassy as a research assistant on Middle East and North African affairs since 2022, according to his LinkedIn page. He wrote on that page that he emigrated from Germany to Israel at the age of 16.
Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to Germany, described Lischinsky as a Christian and “a true lover of Israel” who dedicated his life “to the State of Israel and the Zionist cause.” The New York Times reported he was the son of a Jewish father and a Christian mother.
Israeli Minister of Industry Nir Barkat leaves flowers at the Capital Jewish Museum on Thursday in Washington. (Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images)
Milgrim, who was Jewish, indicated on her LinkedIn page that she had worked for the embassy’s Department of Public Diplomacy since 2023. She was previously involved with Tech2Peace in Tel Aviv, where she worked on a study exploring the “role of friendships in the Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding process,” she wrote on LinkedIn.
“My passion lies at the intersection of peacebuilding, religious engagement, and environmental work,” Milgrim, a Kansas native, wrote on her page.
Lischinsky and Milgrim were scheduled to travel to Jerusalem this weekend, where she was set to meet his family there for the first time, her father, Robert Milgrim, told the The New York Times. Her parents learned after her death that Lischinsky had purchased an engagement ring ahead of the trip.
“The ironic part is that we were worried for our daughter’s safety in Israel,” Robert Milgrim told the Times. “But she was murdered three days before going.”
What we know about the suspect
According to a complaint filed by the FBI, which was unsealed on Thursday, Rodriguez told police at the scene, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.” He later told police he had purchased a ticket to the event at the museum three hours prior to its start.
The complaint states that Rodriguez “expressed admiration for the actions of an individual who self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., on February 25, 2024, as a form of protest intended to draw attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
During his initial court appearance Thursday evening, Rodriguez waived his right to a detention hearing, meaning he will be held without bond as he awaits his trial. During his appearance, the judge informed him that he faces the possibility of the death penalty. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 18.
Multiple armed officers wearing clothing with “FBI” lettering were seen heading inside an address in Chicago that’s tied to the suspect on Thursday morning.
Sarah Marinuzzi, who was at the museum with friends at the time of the shooting, told MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera on Thursday that she interacted with the suspect after the attack. She described hearing gunshots near the museum’s entrance before a “clearly distressed” man ran inside the building.
“We kind of assumed this man … was a witness to the crime, so everyone’s trying to help him and calm him down,” she said, adding that the man encouraged everyone to call the police.
“He was inside the museum for about 10 to 15 minutes with us,” Marinuzzi continued. Once a police officer entered the building, she said the man began shouting “I did it!” and “Free Palestine!”
She said he then pulled out a keffiyeh, a traditional scarf worn by Arab communities that has been a symbol of Palestinian nationalism for decades. He was then handcuffed and removed from the building, Marinuzzi said.
Rodriguez was an employee at the American Osteopathic Information Association, the group and the American Osteopathic Association said in a joint statement. “As a physician organization dedicated to protecting the health and sanctity of human life, we believe in the rights of all persons to live safely without fear of violence,” the organization said.
Read the full complaint below:
rodriguezcomplaint Download
May 23, 2025
FTC Investigates Media Matters’ Communications With Ad Groups, Sparking Fears of Retaliation
The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday sent Media Matters for America a letter demanding communications between the progressive media watchdog and advertising entities as the commission probes whether the watchdog colluded with advertisers to pull funding from Elon Musk’s X.
Media Matters was notified in a letter dated May 20 from the FTC that it is being investigated, a source familiar with the letter told. The letter, which The NY Budgets has viewed, directs Media Matters to turn over all documents, materials and communications with a range of ad entities and related organizations — including the World Federation of Advertisers and the Global Alliance for Responsible Media — regarding brand safety and disinformation, the source said.
Media Matters is a media watchdog whose reporting tracks conservative and far-right news publications and personalities. The organization was sued by Musk in 2023 after it published a report detailing antisemitic and pro-Nazi content on the social media platform he owns, X. That lawsuit accuses the media watchdog of hatching a “media strategy to drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.”
In keeping its request for assorted materials vague, the FTC is effectively throwing the kitchen sink at the wall to see what sticks, the source told.
The move by the FTC sees the commission’s chair, Andrew Ferguson, make good on comments he made in December, mere days before Trump nominated him for the job.
“We must prosecute any unlawful collusion between online platforms, and confront advertiser boycotts which threaten competition among those platforms,” then-Commissioner Ferguson said about a different case.
That’s exactly what Musk, who has spearheaded the president’s Department of Government Efficiency, has spent years accusing the progressive watchdog of doing, claiming Media Matters caused a coordinated mass exodus of advertisers by publishing the report.
In a Thursday statement, Angelo Carusone, the Media Matters president, said that the Trump administration has been “defined by naming right-wing media figures to key posts and abusing the power of the federal government to bully political opponents and silence critics.”
“It’s clear that’s exactly what’s happening here, given Media Matters’ history of holding those same figures to account,” Carusone said. “These threats won’t work; we remain steadfast to our mission.”
In 2024, a record number of advertisers were looking to cut their ad spending on X, as the platform is now known, citing concerns that the extreme content that has proliferated there since Musk’s takeover could damage their brands. Musk himself has buoyed conspiracy theories and hate speech with his own account. He also told advertisers that left the platform to “go f**k yourself.”
But advertisers began fleeing the social media platform nearly a year after Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, expressing concerns about the billionaire’s gutting of the platform’s content moderation team, mass layoffs, and uncertainty over the platform’s future. In July 2023, months before Musk sued Media Matters, the billionaire reported a 50% decline in Twitter’s ad revenue.
Since the exodus, Musk has sought to mend fences, looking to woo back advertisers via a charm offensive.
But that same year, Musk sued the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, a voluntary ad-industry initiative run by the World Federation of Advertisers, claiming that the group illegally coordinated an ad boycott against X. In February, Musk broadened that lawsuit to include Lego, Nestlé, Shell and several others.
Advertisers named in the lawsuit filed a motion last week to dismiss his suit, claiming that Musk was using it “to win back the business X lost in the free market when it disrupted its own business and alienated many of its customers.”
Additionally, in March, Media Matters sued Musk, claiming that he lodged several expensive lawsuits against the watchdog “for having dared to publish an article Musk did not like.”
Media Matters has seen similar probes before. In 2023, the progressive watchdog sued Ken Paxton, accusing the Texas attorney general of violating the First Amendment by investigating Media Matters’ reporting on Musk’s app, similarly arguing that it was being penalized for its reporting. The progressive watchdog won an injunction against the Texas attorney general in 2024.
The FTC declined to comment for this story. WFA did not respond to a request for comment on the probe.
May 22, 2025
Two aides from the Israeli Embassy were killed in a shooting outside an event in Washington
Two Israeli Embassy staff members were shot and killed by a gunman who later yelled “Free Palestine!” while being arrested in Washington, DC, Wednesday night, authorities said.
The slain staffers, who the Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs named as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were a couple who officials say were soon to be engaged.
The two were attending an event for young professionals at the Capital Jewish Museum hosted by the American Jewish Committee. At around 9 p.m. outside the museum, they were approached by a gunman who opened fire and killed them, officials said.
The suspect, whom DC police identified as 30-year-old Chicago native Elias Rodriguez, pretended to be a bystander after the shooting, an eyewitness told CNN News.
When police arrived, the man turned himself in and shouted “Free, Free Palestine” while being handcuffed. He is currently in custody, according to authorities. Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said the man “implied that he committed the offense.”
What we know about the shooting near the Capital Jewish Museum
Two Israeli Embassy staff members were killed in a shooting near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, on Wednesday night.
Sources: CNN reporting, District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, Google (image) Graphic: Lou Robinson, CNN
The shooting, which took place in the heart of the Hill, has shaken the Jewish community at a time of heightened global tensions, as US-led attempts to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas remain unsuccessful and fighting in Gaza continues.
Tensions are also high across US college campuses where hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested amid polarized debates over the right to protest Israel’s military actions and accusations of antisemitism.
“We’ll be doing everything in our power to keep all citizens safe, especially tonight our Jewish community,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters late Wednesday.
“These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA,” President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social, expressing his condolences to the families of the victims.
Rodriguez is being interviewed by the DC Metropolitan Police and FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino said on X.
“Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence,” Bongino said.
Ted Deutch, the CEO of the AJC, described the shooting “an unspeaking act of violence.”
“At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families,” he said.
Suspect was seen ‘pacing’ outside museum before shooting
Police Chief Smith said Rodriguez was allegedly seen pacing back and forth outside the museum before approaching a group of four and shooting two of them with a handgun.
The 30-year-old later retreated inside the museum, where he was eventually detained, according to Smith.
According to Sara Marinuzzi, an eyewitness who spoke with WTTG, the suspect “pretended to be a witness” once inside the building and waited for police to arrive for over 10 minutes before claiming responsibility for the attack.
Police officers work at the site of the shooting. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Another witness, Paige Siegel, told WTTG she heard Rodriguez say, “I did it for Gaza,” and “Free Palestine.”
Rodriguez, who was taken into custody on Wednesday night told officers, “I did this,” according to eyewitness Yoni Kalin.
Kalin was at the museum attending the same event organized by the AJC when he heard shots rang out. “At first I didn’t recognize them as gunshots,” he told CNN News over the phone.
Moments later, a man entered the museum appearing to be a witness, according to Kalin. He recalled the man sitting in the museum but not interacting with many people present at the event. Ten minutes later, when police entered the building, the man appeared to confess to shooting, telling officers, “I did this, I did this for Palestine,” according to Kalin.
“It’s horrible,” Kalin said. “I just didn’t realize he was the perpetrator.”
Kalin added that between the shooting and the arrest, Rodriguez appeared shaken up. People approached the suspect to offer him water and check if he was okay, he said.
Kalin said around 50 people attended the event, which was organized to discuss how multi-faith organizations can work together to bring humanitarian aid to war-torn regions such as Gaza. He added that over 30 staffers from various embassies attended the event.
“I’m still in shock,” Kalin told NBC News. “I just hope we learn from this and just recognize that violence and terrorism doesn’t get us where we need to be” he added.
Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter and US Attorney General Pam Bondi visit the site of the shooting. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
The couple ‘were in the prime of their lives’
When officers arrived on the scene minutes after the shooting, they found “one adult male and one adult female unconscious and not breathing,” Smith told reporters late Wednesday. “Both victims succumbed to their injuries,” she said.
“We are shocked and horrified this morning by the news of the brutal terrorist attack that claimed the lives of two of our Embassy staff members in Washington,” the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in a post on X in the early hours of Thursday.
“We embrace the grieving families during this painful time and will continue to support them always,” the post read.
“Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives,” Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, also said in a social media post Thursday. “The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss.” Leiter earlier shared with reporters that the couple was about to be engaged.
“A young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem. They were a beautiful couple,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement, expressed his condolences to the families of the young couple.
“My heart aches for the families of the beloved young man and woman, whose lives were suddenly cut short by a vile antisemitic murderer,” Netanyahu said.
May 21, 2025
Biden Has Been Diagnosed With a Severe Form of Prostate Cancer
Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was diagnosed on Friday with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, his office said in a statement on Sunday.
The diagnosis came after Mr. Biden reported urinary symptoms, which led doctors to find a “small nodule” on his prostate. Mr. Biden’s cancer is “characterized by a Gleason score of 9” with “metastasis to the bone,” the statement said.
The Gleason score is used to describe how prostate cancers look under a microscope; 9 and 10 are the most aggressive. The cancer is Stage 4, which means it has spread.
“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” according to the statement from Mr. Biden’s office, which was unsigned. “The president and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”
Mr. Biden, 82, left office in January as the oldest-serving president in American history. Throughout his presidency, Mr. Biden faced questions about his age and his health, ultimately leading him to abandon his re-election campaign under pressure from his own party.
Prostate cancer experts say that Mr. Biden’s diagnosis is serious, and that once the cancer has spread to the bones — where it tends to go — it cannot be cured. But Dr. Judd Moul, a prostate cancer expert at Duke University, said men whose prostate cancer has spread “can live five, seven, 10 or more years.”
The first line of attack is to cut off the testosterone that feeds prostate cancer. Dr. Moul said that when he started out as a urologist in the 1980s, this was done by removing a man’s testicles. Today, men have a choice of two drugs given by injection that block the testicles from making testosterone or a pill that does the same thing. In addition, men take drugs that block any testosterone that manages to be made despite the drugs that inhibit its production.
Dr. Moul said he sees men Mr. Biden’s age with similar prostate cancer diagnoses on a regular basis. “Survival rates have almost tripled in the last decade,” he said.
President Trump, who has repeatedly bashed Mr. Biden and blames him for most of the country’s problems, was among those who issued supportive statements on Sunday evening.
“Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media. “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who served with Mr. Biden, said she and her husband were “saddened” to learn of the former president’s diagnosis.
“Joe is a fighter — and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership,” she wrote on social media. “We are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery.”
Since leaving office, Mr. Biden has largely kept a low profile, spending most of his time in Delaware and commuting to Washington to meet with staff to plan his post-presidential life. After Mr. Trump passed the 100-day mark, and ahead of the release of books about his presidency and the 2024 campaign, Mr. Biden participated in interviews to push back against claims that he suffered from mental decline.
“They are wrong,” Mr. Biden said during an interview on “The View.” “There’s nothing to sustain that.”
He also said that he could have defeated Mr. Trump had he not dropped out of the race.
Still, many top Democrats have been forced to reckon with their staunch support of Mr. Biden’s re-election campaign before a disastrous debate last June, in which he appeared disoriented and listless. After dropping out, Mr. Biden endorsed Ms. Harris, who lost to Mr. Trump.
Adding fuel to the fire was the release this weekend of the audio from Mr. Biden’s 2023 interview with Robert K. Hur, the special counsel who investigated his handling of classified documents. Axios published the full five-hour tape ahead of the Trump administration’s plans to release it this week, and it reveals Mr. Biden’s halting voice and his difficulty providing dates and details.
Mr. Hur ultimately declined to recommend charges against Mr. Biden in part because, he said, a jury would find the president to be a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
In February 2024, when Mr. Biden was still president, his longtime doctor declared him “fit to serve” after he underwent a routine physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Mr. Biden and his family have faced numerous health challenges throughout their lives. In 1988, Mr. Biden battled two brain aneurysms that threatened to end his political career. His son Beau died in 2015 from glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
When Mr. Biden was asked in January, shortly before leaving office, whether he would have had the vigor to serve another four years, he said he did not know.
“Who the hell knows? So far, so good,” he said in an interview with USA Today. “But who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old?”
May 18, 2025
Trump found his trip to the Gulf ideal due to the enthusiastic praise and absence of protest risks
In Saudi Arabia, he received a standing ovation from business elites as he announced the lifting of sanctions on Syria.
In Qatar, he took home an investment pledge of billions of dollars in American goods and services.
In the United Arab Emirates, he was awarded the country’s highest civilian honor.
If President Trump has been dogged at home by backlash over his tariff policies, protests over his immigration crackdown and questions over his ethics, a week in the Arabian Peninsula produced nothing but wins for the president.
“The last four days have been really amazing,” Mr. Trump said on Thursday, as he was leaving a palace in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where he had just been feted. He added, looking rueful, “Probably going back to Washington, D.C., tomorrow.”
On Friday, the president reflected on his trip on Air Force One: “The respect shown to our country was incredible. Nobody’s treated like that. Nobody’s treated well like that.”
At every step of Mr. Trump’s whirlwind tour of the Middle East, he was treated with the kind of honor and respect he has long desired. Escorts of fighter jets. Extravagant welcoming ceremonies. Red and lavender carpets. Arabian horses. Glitzy chandeliers. Camels. Sword dancers. White marble palaces. In the United Arab Emirate of Dubai, the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, lit up with an image of the American flag. All in his honor.
“As a construction person, I’m seeing perfect marble. This is what they call perfecto,” Mr. Trump said at one point, admiring the royal court in Doha, the capital of Qatar. “We appreciate those camels. I haven’t seen camels like that in a long time.”
President Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meet with officials during a traditional welcome ceremony at the royal court in Riyadh, the capital, on Tuesday. (Win McNamee / Getty Images)
Such a welcome would have been unlikely in most other corners of the world, where governments, including the United States’ closest allies, are reeling from Mr. Trump’s aggressive tariffs and bellicose rhetoric toward Canada, Greenland and Panama.
But in the gulf, Mr. Trump’s every move was lauded.
Mr. Trump was able to announce what he said was more than $2 trillion in economic investments between the United States and the three nations he visited: Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, each longtime purchasers of American military equipment.
Mr. Trump said that the investments from those three nations could reach as high as $4 trillion — roughly the size of all their sovereign wealth funds combined. While much of that total comes in the form of long-term pledges that may or may not materialize and counts some deals that were already underway, leaders of the gulf nations were all too happy to supply Mr. Trump with the eye-popping figures.
At a business event in Abu Dhabi on Friday, Mr. Trump was treated to a tour of deals underway between American and Emirati companies, including purchases of Boeing jets and G.E. engines.
Mr. Trump marveled at the wealth of his hosts, who can pay upfront for whatever deals they undertake.
“They don’t say ‘subject to financing,’” Mr. Trump said. “They have no problem.”
At each step of the trip, Mr. Trump surrounded himself with friendly audiences and often turned his events — such as a stop at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest U.S. military facility in the Middle East — into campaign-style rallies: blasting his favorite playlists (“Gloria,” of course), bashing Democrats and falsely claiming he had won the 2020 election.
President Trump spoke to American troops at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest U.S. military facility in the Middle East. He was greeted with chants of “U.S.A.” (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
Speaking to American troops as their commander in chief, he was greeted with chants of “U.S.A.”
“We won three elections, OK? And some people want us to do a fourth. I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it,” Mr. Trump told the troops, yet again floating the idea of an unconstitutional third term in office. “The hottest hat is, it says, ‘Trump 2028.’ We’re driving the left crazy.”
If Mr. Trump hoped to avoid controversy about his family’s business dealings in the region, the gulf leaders helped with just that — highlighting deals with private firms that are unrelated to Mr. Trump’s personal business interests. There was no visit to the site of the Trump Organization’s deal with a Saudi real estate company to build a residential high-rise in Jeddah; no presentation of a $400 million luxury jet that Mr. Trump is seeking as a gift from Qatar; and no promotion of the Abu Dhabi-backed fund that is making a $2 billion business deal using the Trump firm’s digital coins.
On Air Force One, taking questions from reporters, Mr. Trump denied knowledge of the crypto deal.
“I really don’t know anything about it,” he said. “But I’m a big crypto fan, I will tell you.”
If a Democratic president did what Mr. Trump has done — praising a former jihadist, welcoming Qatar’s friendship with Iran and accepting a “gift” of a $400 million airplane — Republicans would have been howling in protest and ordering up congressional investigations. What transpired, instead, was mostly an uncomfortable silence.
A few Trump allies, like Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri and the far-right activist Laura Loomer, made clear they did not like the plane gift, but contorted themselves to express their discomfort in ways that would be least likely to offend Mr. Trump. Ms. Loomer preceded her criticism by saying she would “take a bullet” for the president, and Mr. Hawley avoided the implication of corruption and simply said he would prefer “if Air Force One were a big, beautiful jet made in the United States of America — that would be ideal.”
Mr. Trump’s declaration that the United States was shifting its policy toward the Middle East away from judgment and confrontation toward peace and profit was praised repeatedly.
US President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a bilateral meeting in Riyadh on May 13, 2025. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP)
“It’s crucial for the wider world to note this great transformation has not come from Western interventionists or flying people in beautiful planes, giving you lectures on how to live and how to govern your own affairs,” Mr. Trump said at a gathering of Saudi royalty and business elites in Riyadh.
Even back home in the United States, Democrats and Republicans approved of Mr. Trump’s announcement that he was removing sanctions from Syria in an effort to give the war-torn country a fresh start.
“We commend President Trump’s decision to lift all sanctions on Syria,” the leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jim Risch, Republican of Idaho; and Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, said in a joint statement.
The trip was intended to deliver a series of economic, diplomatic and public relations wins for the countries involved, said Andrew Leber, an assistant professor at Tulane University in Louisiana, who focuses on the U.S.-Saudi relationship.
A military jet formation over Air Force One after President Trump delivered remarks to troops at Al Udeid Air Base in Doha on Thursday. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
Saudi Arabia got the opportunity to highlight the changing nature of its society and economy, and present itself as a leader in global affairs, both in terms of business opportunities and diplomacy. Mr. Trump got a trip that essentially could not go wrong for him, Mr. Leber said.
“This was the one place that’s guaranteed to give him a very enthusiastic, warm and tightly controlled welcome,” Mr. Leber added. “If he went anywhere in Latin America, there would be protests. If he went anywhere in Europe, there would be protests. This is a place that’s going to speak with him and deal with him on very transactional terms, that’s going to put on a big show and where there’s not going to be any domestic protests whatsoever.”
That was indeed the case, as gulf leaders adopted Mr. Trump’s favorite phrases. Each nation talked about their trade deficits with the United States and how they buy more from the United States than they sell — a favorite topic of the president’s.
At a business forum in Saudi Arabia, panelists talked of “making aviation great again,” playing off Mr. Trump’s campaign theme.
At the meeting in Abu Dhabi on Friday, Mr. Trump walked into a large rotunda where five large screens showed various kinds of investment — starting with “Making Energy Great Again.” There, he was gifted a box containing a drop of oil.
In Doha, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, adopted Mr. Trump’s energy slogan, “Drill, baby, drill.”
“The U.S. and Qatar are feeding and fueling the world,” the emir said, before turning to Mr. Trump. “Glad to have you back on board.”
President Trump with Emirati President, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, at the presidential palace in Abu Dhabi, on Thursday. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
Mr. Trump is also a relief for gulf leaders: They now have a U.S. president who breezes past their human rights records as he chases high-dollar deals.
“Governments and publics throughout the gulf like Trump a lot,” said Jon B. Alterman, a global security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“They feel Western liberals want to shame them on their domestic issues, everything from L.G.B.T. rights to abuse of migrant workers,” Mr. Alterman added. “While there certainly are rising liberal voices in the gulf, most people there see Trump as a common-sense, like-minded leader.”
As he ended his trip in Abu Dhabi on Friday, Mr. Trump worried aloud to the news media that whoever becomes president after him would get credit for the deals once they reach fruition.
“I’ll be sitting home, who the hell knows where I’ll be, and I’ll say, ‘I did that,’” he said. “Somebody’s going to be taking the credit for this. You remember, press,” he said, pointing to himself, “this guy did it.”
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press on board Air Force One en route to Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
May 17, 2025
The Federal Reserve will reduce its staff by 10% over the next few years
The Federal Reserve will reduce its work force by 10 percent over the next several years to ensure the institution is “right-sized and able” to carry out its duties to foster a healthy economy.
Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the central bank, announced the plan on Friday in an internal note to staff members reviewed by The New York Times. Certain employees will be eligible to participate in a voluntary deferred resignation program that is aimed at giving those close to retirement the option of an earlier exit. That offer will apply only to people at the Washington-based Board of Governors.
Cuts are expected to be made across the entire Federal Reserve System, including the 12 regional banks. Roughly 2,400 people will be affected.
“I have directed the leadership of the Federal Reserve, here at the board and across the system, to find incremental ways to consolidate functions where appropriate, modernize some business practices and ensure that we are right-sized and able to meet our statutory mission,” Mr. Powell said in the memo.
The Fed earlier imposed a hiring freeze on permanent workers as part of its efforts to align with the Trump administration’s decree that no federal position vacant at the time could be filled or new positions created. It also took steps to distance itself from diversity issues as well as those related to climate change — initiatives that President Trump has opposed.
The Fed is a politically independent institution, meaning it is not legally obligated to carry out orders by the executive branch. That buffer from the White House is being legally challenged by the Department of Justice, which has sought more sway over independent agencies.
The announcement on Friday mirrors an effort by the Fed during the Clinton administration to cull its work force, which Mr. Powell cited in his note. At that time, there were “governmentwide efforts to improve efficiency,” as is the case “now,” Mr. Powell said.
Yet at a congressional hearing in February, Mr. Powell pushed back on the idea that the Fed had too many employees. “Overworked, maybe, not overstaffed,” he said.
Mr. Trump is pursuing a similar goal, although much more aggressively than past administrations have. The newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, led by the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, has taken to gutting the federal work force, including shuttering agencies wholesale. Tens of thousands of government employees have since left their jobs.
The Fed’s decision is not tied to the ongoing initiative by DOGE, although some members of the central bank’s staff were contacted this year via email by Mr. Musk’s group, according to people familiar with the matter.
“The Federal Reserve is a careful and responsible steward of public resources,” Mr. Powell said in his note on Friday.
May 16, 2025
Supreme Court Keeps Halt on Using Wartime Law to Deport Venezuelans
The Trump administration will not be allowed to deport a group of Venezuelan detainees accused of being members of a violent gang under a rarely invoked wartime law while the matter is litigated in the courts, the Supreme Court said on Friday.
The justices sent the case back to a federal appeals court, directing it to examine claims by the migrants that they could not be legally deported under the Alien Enemies Act, the centuries-old wartime law invoked by the Trump administration. The justices said the appeals court should also examine what kind of notice the government should be required to provide that would allow migrants the opportunity to challenge their deportations.
The court said its order would remain in place until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled and the Supreme Court considered any appeal from that ruling.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote a dissent, arguing that the justices had no authority to hear the dispute at this stage. He was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas.
The ruling deals a sharp blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to deploy the wartime law to pursue swift, sweeping deportations of Venezuelan migrants accused of being members of the gang, Tren de Aragua.
It also suggests that a majority of the justices may be skeptical of whether the migrants have been afforded enough due process protections by the administration before being deported, potentially to a prison for terrorists in El Salvador.
In their order, the justices said that the stakes facing the detainees are “particularly weighty,” citing the case of a Maryland man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was “deported in error” to the El Salvador prison in March. So far, the Trump administration has said it is unable to bring him back, despite an order from the justices to “facilitate” his return.
Under such circumstances, the justices wrote, “notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster.”
President Trump reacted with fury to the ruling. “THE SUPREME COURT WON’T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!” he said on social media. In a subsequent post, he wrote, “The Supreme Court of the United States is not allowing me to do what I was elected to do,” and called it “a bad and dangerous day for America.”
Lawyers for the migrants responded with relief.
The decision “means that more individuals will not secretly be sent to a brutal prison in El Salvador,” said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union. He added that the administration’s use of the wartime law “during peacetime, without due process, raises issues of far-reaching importance.”
The Trump administration has attempted to use the law as a tool in its signature initiative to speed the deportation of millions of migrants, leading to a clash with a skeptical judiciary.
Several lower court judges have concluded that the administration has exceeded the scope of the law, which can be invoked only when the United States has been subject to “invasion” or “predatory incursion,” and have blocked the deportation of groups of Venezuelans.
The Supreme Court justices have been asked to weigh in on the Trump administration’s deportation plans a few times in recent months, and they had already stepped in to temporarily block the deportation of a group of Venezuelans held in northern Texas.
Friday’s order came after a high-stakes legal fight between the Trump administration and lawyers from the A.C.L.U. in one of those challenges. The lawyers rushed to the court on April 18 after getting word that Venezuelan migrants detained in Texas and accused of being members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, had received notices of imminent removal and were being loaded on buses, presumably to be taken to the airport.
The group quickly filed a lawsuit in a federal trial court in Abilene, Texas, on behalf of two of the Venezuelans held at the detention center. Justice Department lawyers responded, telling a trial court judge that they had no immediate plans to deport the detainees.
The judge, James W. Hendrix, who was appointed during the first Trump administration, declined to issue an order temporarily blocking the deportations.
The A.C.L.U. subsequently asked the Supreme Court to act instead.
After midnight on April 19, the justices temporarily paused the deportations, writing, “The government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this court,” the order said.
The justices moved swiftly that night, and the emergency application had been pending before the court since.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer had urged the justices in a court filing to allow lower courts to weigh in before intervening further in the case. He did not address the specifics of the A.C.L.U. claims that the deportations had been imminent, with buses being loaded for the airport. Rather, he said the government had provided notice to detainees subject to imminent deportation and that they “have had adequate time to file” claims challenging their removal.
In a reply to the court, the A.C.L.U. disputed this, arguing that the Trump administration had taken “actions contrary to this court’s specific ruling” that the government provide notice and time to challenge deportations.
Instead of providing notice to allow detainees to challenge their removal, the group’s brief said, “the government gave detainees an English-only form, not provided to any attorney, which nowhere mentions the right to contest the designation or removal, much less explain how detainees could do so.”
Earlier this week, Mr. Sauer again nudged the justices to allow the deportations. In a filing, the administration contended that “serious difficulties have arisen” from the detention of the group of 176 migrants who had been shielded from removal by the court’s emergency overnight ruling last month.
The Trump administration claimed that on April 26, a group of 23 migrants had barricaded themselves inside a housing unit for several hours, threatened to take hostages and harm immigration officers, and tried to flood the unit by clogging the toilets.
“The government has a strong interest in promptly removing from the country” gang members “who pose a danger” to immigration officers, facility staff members and other detainees, Mr. Sauer wrote.
There have been few public glimpses into the conditions at the Texas facility. On April 28, Reuters captured aerial images of the men held there. In the dirt yard of the detention center, 31 men, some wearing red jumpsuits designating them as high-risk, formed the letters SOS.
May 16, 2025
Leaving the Middle East, Trump Attacks His Critics in the U.S.
After spending much of the week touring the Middle East in the company of Gulf leaders not known for tolerating dissent, President Trump was reminded on Friday that in his own country, people are free to say whatever they would like about their president.
He did not seem terribly comforted by this reality.
While flying back to Washington on Air Force One, he had evidently become aware that Bruce Springsteen had slammed him on Wednesday while performing in England. Shortly after the plane took off from Abu Dhabi’s international airport, Mr. Trump posted on social media: “This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”
There were other posts aimed at other critics.
“Has anyone noticed,” Mr. Trump wrote in one of them, “that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?’” Shortly after that one, he took a swipe at “grandstanders” in the Republican Party and “radical left losers” getting in the way of his agenda and the Supreme Court, which he said was “being played.”
It is not unusual for this president to be fighting on the internet with celebrities or political opponents or even the Supreme Court, but his posting spree read like a comedown of sorts after four days spent basking in the kind of opulent splendor and lavish praise he found in the Middle East, which so delight him.
And his vague threat on Friday about what may await Mr. Springsteen upon his return to the United States seemed ominous, since these days so many of his threats have turned out not to be empty ones.
Asked what exactly Mr. Trump was implying, Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, would only send back a string of insults about Mr. Springsteen’s career.
“The America I love,” he said during his show in Manchester, “is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.”
Mr. Springsteen went hard at the White House.
“They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that has led to a more just and plural society,” he said. “They’re abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom. They’re defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological demands.”
The remarks by Mr. Springsteen, who campaigned for Kamala Harris, got a lot of attention at a time when many public figures in American life have avoided criticizing a president who campaigned on enacting retribution and has in many ways delivered on that promise.
A representative for Mr. Springsteen did not return requests for comment.
May 16, 2025
A $34.5 Billion Merger Will Unite Cable Leaders Charter and Cox
The cable giants Charter Communications and Cox Communications said on Friday that they had agreed to merge, a colossal deal that would create one of the biggest TV and internet providers in the United States.
The deal, which values Cox at roughly $34.5 billion, presents a test for President Trump’s antitrust enforcers. While many deal makers had expected the Trump administration to be more permissive than the Biden administration, many on Wall Street have been surprised by early signs that a tough-on-deals stance may persist.
Charter and Cox argued that the deal would help them compete against big rivals, including “larger, national broadband companies” — read: Comcast, Verizon and others — as well as satellite service providers. They are also likely to argue that their cable networks don’t significantly overlap geographically.
Charter and Cox signaled in their news release they were eager to secure the Trump administration’s approval of the deal. The announcement said the merger “puts America first” by returning customer-service jobs from overseas, echoing the president’s campaign language. It also underscored the value of bringing “hyperlocal, unbiased news” produced by Charter’s Spectrum News stations to Cox customers, an apparent gesture toward mollifying the White House, which has been critical of the press.
Unmentioned in the news release was Axios, a scoopy Washington-based media organization owned by Cox Enterprises, the privately held parent of the cable business as well as firms in other industries, like agriculture and cars. The newly formed cable group would not own any national programming, the release said.
Under the terms of the merger, Charter will pay cash and stock, with the combined company set to take on the Cox name and sell consumer services under the Spectrum brand within a year of closing. Cox Enterprises would become the new company’s largest shareholder, with a 23 percent stake. The group expects to cut $500 million in annual costs within a few years of closing the deal, from “typical procurement and overhead savings.”
Charter’s stock rose more than 2 percent in early trading on Friday.
It isn’t the first time the two have discussed a merger: They held talks 12 years ago, and John Malone, a telecom billionaire and major Charter shareholder, had named Cox last fall as one of the company’s potential transaction partners.
Mr. Malone, an influential media mogul, has lately made several moves to reorganize his media holdings. Last year, Charter acquired Liberty Broadband, a telecommunications company partly owned by Mr. Malone. This year, he relinquished his seat on the board of Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN and the Warner Bros. movie studio.
The Cox-Charter deal is one of the biggest takeovers announced this year, along with Google’s planned acquisition of the cybersecurity provider Wiz for $32 billion. And it may show that, at least for some corporate leaders, uncertainty over the economy, driven in part by Mr. Trump’s trade policies, isn’t enough to deter them from major investments and acquisitions.
But antitrust approval is needed, and the Trump administration, which moved early to block deals like Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks, has warned corporate America not to assume that all deals will pass muster.
“I don’t have an ideological predisposition against M.&A.,” Andrew Ferguson, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, said last month. “It doesn’t follow, however, that I think it should just be open season” for deal-making, he added.
Cable executives have tested regulators’ appetite for consolidation before. In 2015, Comcast walked away from an attempt to buy Time Warner Cable amid regulatory pressure from the Obama administration. The next year, the Obama administration approved Charter’s $65.5 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, but imposed restrictions in the process.
One of Charter’s biggest rivals, Comcast, is pursuing a deal of its own. The cable and broadband giant announced late last year that it was spinning off its cable networks, including MSNBC, into a separate company. That firm, which was named Versant this month, is expected to make its debut this year.
May 16, 2025
How Qatar used a lot of money to try and have more influence in the U.S
Qatar, a nation roughly the size of Connecticut with a population smaller than Brooklyn’s, has leveraged its immense natural gas wealth to secure outsize influence in Washington and across the American academic and defense establishment. Over the past two decades, the Gulf monarchy has quietly spent billions of dollars on U.S. military cooperation, educational partnerships, and lobbying efforts—building a powerful soft power machine that has reshaped its image from regional outlier to indispensable partner.
At the core of Qatar’s U.S. influence strategy is Al Udeid Air Base, a sprawling American military installation outside Doha that hosts over 10,000 U.S. troops and serves as the forward headquarters for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). Since 2002, Qatar has spent an estimated $8 billion building and upgrading the facility, essentially offering it to the Pentagon rent-free.
“No other country in the region provides this level of military infrastructure support without asking much in return,” said Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, former CENTCOM commander. “It makes Qatar indispensable to American operations in the Middle East.”
In return, the U.S. has shielded Qatar from regional isolation campaigns, particularly during the 2017 blockade by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and Bahrain. Despite Qatar’s ties to Islamist groups and accusations of enabling Hamas financing, Washington has largely stood by Doha—a testament to the strategic leverage gained through deep pockets.
While its military investments fly under the radar, Qatar’s most public-facing influence effort has been its massive donations to American universities. According to U.S. Department of Education data, Qatari entities have contributed more than $4.7 billion to U.S. colleges since 2000, making it one of the largest foreign donors to American higher education.
Much of that money flows through Education City, a Doha-based campus complex hosting satellite branches of top-tier U.S. institutions including Georgetown, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, Texas A&M, and Cornell Medical College. While universities claim academic independence, critics argue the funding creates subtle forms of censorship and political self-censorship.
“No university wants to lose a $300 million donor,” said Deborah Lipstadt, U.S. Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, who has raised concerns about foreign influence. “That money buys access, and sometimes silence.”
In 2021, a congressional probe led by the House Education and Labor Committee found that several schools failed to report Qatar-linked donations in full, raising transparency and national security red flags.
Qatar has also cultivated a powerful presence in the Beltway’s influence industry. Since 2017, it has spent over $147 million on lobbying and public relations firms, according to the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) database. Notable beneficiaries include Skadden, Arps, Nelson Mullins, and former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft’s firm.
Qatar’s lobbying offensive intensified after the 2017 blockade, as it sought to shape U.S. public opinion and policymaking in its favor. In one instance, Qatar funded trips for over 250 American academics and opinion leaders to Doha, many of whom later wrote op-eds supporting Qatar’s position.
Additionally, Qatari-linked organizations have poured millions into American think tanks including the Brookings Institution, Atlantic Council, and Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)—often sponsoring research and panel discussions on Gulf security and U.S.-Qatar relations.
Qatar’s investments have paid geopolitical dividends. Despite its support for groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Jazeera’s frequent criticisms of U.S. allies, Washington continues to view Doha as a stabilizing partner. Qatar has also positioned itself as a mediator in high-stakes diplomacy, most notably brokering prisoner exchanges with Iran and facilitating ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel.
The recent release of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander from Gaza, mediated in part by Qatari diplomats, is the latest example of its delicate balancing act—simultaneously housing a U.S. air base and hosting Hamas leadership in luxury hotels.
“Qatar plays every side, and they do it well,” said Steven Cook, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “It’s transactional diplomacy, backed by enormous capital.”
Still, the tide may be turning. With bipartisan concern mounting over foreign interference in U.S. academia and defense policy, Qatar’s influence machine is facing greater scrutiny. A bipartisan bill introduced in April 2025 would require all universities receiving more than $10 million in foreign aid to submit detailed reports to the Treasury Department.
Furthermore, Republican lawmakers have proposed conditioning future military cooperation on Qatar’s transparency about Hamas ties and human rights practices, particularly its treatment of migrant workers and LGBTQ individuals.
“You can’t be both an ally and an enabler of terrorists,” said Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), who sits on the House Armed Services Committee. “We need to hold Qatar to the same standards we expect from any partner.”
Qatar’s influence in the U.S. was not inherited—it was engineered. Through a meticulous mix of strategic military support, educational philanthropy, and relentless lobbying, the Gulf state has carved out a role far greater than its size would suggest. As global politics evolve, the question is whether Washington will continue to accept Doha’s deep pockets as a substitute for shared values.
May 15, 2025
Trump announces the U.S. will end sanctions on Syria
President Trump announced in a speech in Saudi Arabia that he is lifting U.S. sanctions on Syria “to give them a chance.”
Why it matters: Trump’s announcement is a dramatic shift in U.S. policy towards Syria less than six months after the collapse of the Assad regime. The sanctions crippled the Syrian economy and brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy.
Trump is also expected to meet with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Riyadh on Wednesday, according to two sources familiar with the plan.
Assad’s son, Bashar al-Assad, was toppled in December in a lightning rebel offensive that brought al-Sharaa to power after 14 years of devastating civil war.
What they’re saying: Trump said he hopes the new Syrian government manages to stabilize the country and keep the peace and stressed he will continue the process of normalization of U.S.-Syrian relations.
“After discussing the situation in Syria with the Crown Prince [Mohammed bin Salman] and also with President Erdogan of Turkey, who called me the other day and asked for a very similar thing … I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness,” Trump said with the crowd bursting into a standing ovation.
Trump said the sanctions were “brutal and crippling” and served a purpose at the time, but are no longer needed.
“Now it is their time to shine. We are taking them all off. Good luck Syria. Show us something very special,” he said.
Driving the news: When asked by reporters Tuesday if he expects to meet with al-Sharaa during his visit to Saudi Arabia Trump replied: “Yes, I think so.”
“The president agreed to say hello to the Syrian president while in Saudi Arabia tomorrow,” a White House official told The Budgets.
The extraordinary planned meeting between Trump and al-Sharaa — who remains on the U.S. terrorist list due to his past ties with al-Qaeda and ISIS — would mark the first meeting between a U.S. and Syrian president in 25 years.
The last such meeting took place in 2000, when then-President Bill Clinton met with then-Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in Geneva as part of efforts to broker an Israeli-Syrian peace deal.
Trump also said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet later this week in Turkey with the Syrian foreign minister.
The big picture: Trump’s new announcement marks a shift in the administration’s policy toward the new Syrian government, which is struggling to rebuild the country under the weight of U.S. sanctions.
In his first few weeks in office, Trump referred to al-Sharaa as “a Jihadi” when speaking with foreign leaders, a source with direct knowledge said.
One of Trump’s stated goals is to fully withdraw all remaining U.S. troops from Syria — a process he started in recent weeks.
A meeting and potential coordination with the Syrian president could accelerate that process.
Behind the scenes: Two sources with knowledge of the issue said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, along with several countries, including Turkey, Qatar and France, urged Trump to hold the meeting on the sidelines of his summit with Gulf leaders in Riyadh on Wednesday.
State of play: Charles Lister, director of the Syria program at the Middle East Institute, told Axios that the meeting could be a make-or-break moment for a country that urgently needs U.S. engagement and sanctions relief.
“If President Trump wants to bring peace to the Middle East, the departure of Assad’s regime and the near-defeat of Iran in the Levant presents him a historic opportunity — but Damascus will be central to whether that succeeds or fails,” Lister said.
“A Syrian olive branch has been extended for several months; it’s up to Trump whether that’s grasped or not.”
Mouaz Moustafa, the director of the Washington-based Syrian Emergency Task Force, briefed White House officials after meeting with al-Sharaa in Damascus for four hours several days ago.
He told Axios al-Sharaa wants to meet Trump and present his vision for the country, and that he expressed strong interest in partnering with the U.S. on Syria’s energy sector — including a proposal to allow a U.S. entity to manage Syria’s oil and gas fields.
Al-Sharaa emphasized his commitment to preventing Iranian reentry into Syria and continuing close cooperation with the U.S. on counterterrorism efforts, including the handling of ISIS prisoners, Moustafa added.
Between the lines: The meeting with al-Sharaa and the lifting of U.S. sanctions is another instance of Trump defying Israel’s preferred policy, after the U.S. engaged with direct talks with Iran and negotiated a ceasefire with the Houthis.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deeply skeptical towards the new Syrian government due to al-Sharaa and his advisers’ past affiliation with al-Qaeda.
Israel took over territory inside Syria to create a buffer zone after the collapse of the Assad regime, and has been conducting air strikes on Syrian military bases and weapons depot.
May 15, 2025
Democrats are seeking clarification from Trump regarding the Binance founder’s request for a pardon
Democrats are sounding the alarm and demanding answers on potential conflicts of interest in the Trump family’s business dealings with a pardon-seeking former cryptocurrency CEO.
Trump’s trip to the Middle East has highlighted the various foreign investments Trump and his family have received since Trump’s return to the White House, and Democrats are eager to highlight what seems like obvious corruption.
Last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and several other senators sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding answers about the Trump family’s business affiliations with Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former CEO of Binance, a cryptocurrency firm.
Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to money laundering and was sentenced to four months in prison. Binance is no longer licensed to operate in several states across the U.S. but may not face a lawsuit from the SEC (depending on what Trump’s administration opts to do). Zhao has openly stated he’s been pushing for Trump to pardon him.
Now Democrats are raising concerns about corruption, as the Trump family’s crypto firm, World Liberty Financial, reportedly struck a deal with Binance — a deal that could net the Trump family millions of dollars, according to The New York Times. The letter sent by Democratic senators last week demands answers about the Trump administration’s plans to uphold a settlement agreement previously made between the feds and Binance, and whether the company has raised the question of a potential pardon for Zhao amid its talks with Trump administration officials.
Warren sent a separate letter — with fellow Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Dick Durbin of Illinois — to deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and White House counsel David Warrington, demanding information about any discussions the Trump administration may have had about pardoning Zhao.
The senators write of the reported Binance deal:
These circumstances—involving billions of dollars in penalties and foreign investments, presidential family business interests, and the potential nullification of criminal sanctions— demand the highest levels of scrutiny to ensure that our justice system is operating free from inappropriate political and financial influence.
Democrats like Warren and Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut have been the most outspoken lawmakers highlighting the riches the Trump family appears to be raking in from crypto investors, many of whom appear to be based in foreign countries. And the potential for Trump’s self-dealing as his administration proposes crypto-friendly policies is part of the reason Warren has opposed a cryptocurrency bill, known as the GENIUS Act, being pushed by Senate Republicans.
In a video posted online, Warren explained her opposition to the GENIUS Act over its lack of parameters to rein in Trump’s potential self-enrichment. She told MSNBC host Chris Hayes on “All In” this week that the hasty push to pass the GENIUS Act and the Trump family’s dealings with Binance — juxtaposed with Republicans’ push to slash vital government programs like Medicaid — reveals that Trump’s vow to improve the lives of American families mainly applies to one particular family: his own.
May 14, 2025