Rubio Confirms End of New START, Sparking Calls for Nuclear Talks With Russia, China

“Trump, Putin, and Xi can and must put the world on a safer path by taking commonsense actions to build down the nuclear danger,” said one campaigner.


US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a press conference at the Sate Department in Washington, DC, on February 4, 2026.
(Photo by Oliver Contreras/AFP via Getty Images)

Brett Wilkins
Feb 04, 2026
COMMON DREAMS


Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday implicitly confirmed that New START—a key arms control treaty between the United States and Russia—will expire Thursday, prompting renewed demands for what one group called “a more coherent approach from the Trump administration” toward nuclear nonproliferation.

Asked about the impending expiration of New START during a Wednesday press conference, Rubio said he didn’t “have any announcement” on the matter, and that President Donald Trump “will opine on it later.”


“Obviously, the president’s been clear in the past that in order to have true arms control in the 21st century, it’s impossible to do something that doesn’t include China because of their vast and rapidly growing stockpile,” Rubio said.

New START, signed in 2010, committed the United States and Russia to halving the number of strategic nuclear missile launchers in their arsenals. While the treaty did not limit the size of the countries’ actual nuclear arsenals, proponents pointed to its robust verification regime and other transparency features as mutually beneficial highlights of the agreement.

“We have known that New START would end for 15 years, but no one has shown the necessary leadership to be prepared for its expiration,” said John Erath, senior policy director at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation and former longtime State Department official.

“The treaty limited the number of nuclear weapons the United States and Russia could have, but perhaps more importantly, New START also provided each country with unprecedented insights into the other’s arsenal so that Washington and Moscow could make decisions based on real information rather than speculation,” Erath added.

Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said Wednesday that “the end of New START requires a more coherent approach from the Trump administration.”

“If President Trump and Secretary Rubio are serious, they should make a serious proposal for bilateral (not trilateral) talks with Beijing,” he asserted. “Despite Trump’s talk about involving China in nuclear negotiations, there is no indication that Trump or his team have taken the time to propose risk reduction or arms control talks with China since returning to office in 2025.”

Kimball continued:
Furthermore, there is no reason why the United States and Russia should not and cannot continue, as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin suggested on September 22, to respect the central limits of New START and begin the hard work of negotiating a new framework agreement involving verifiable limits on strategic, intermediate-range, and short-range nuclear weapons, as well as strategic missile defenses.

At the same time, if he is serious about involving China in “denuclearization” talks, he could and should invite [Chinese President Xi Jinping] when they meet later this year, to agree to regular bilateral talks on risk reduction and arms control involving senior Chinese and US officials.

“With the end of New START, Trump, Putin, and Xi can and must put the world on a safer path by taking commonsense actions to build down the nuclear danger,” Kimball added.

Erath lamented that “with New START’s expiration, we have not only lost unprecedented verification measures that our military and decision-makers depended on, but we have ended more than five decades of painstaking diplomacy that successfully avoided nuclear catastrophe.”

“Agreements preceding New START helped reduce the global nuclear arsenal by more than 80% since the height of the Cold War,”
he noted. “Now, both Russia and the United States have no legal obstacle to building their arsenals back up, and we could find ourselves reliving the Cold War.”

Last week, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board advanced its symbolic Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to global thermonuclear annihilation, citing developments including failure to extend New START, China’s growing arsenal, and Russian weapons tests—to which Trump has vowed to respond in kind.

“The good news is,” said Erath, is that “the end of New START does not have to mean the end of nuclear arms control.”

“While New START can’t be extended beyond today, Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin could decide to respect the numerical limits the treaty set on nuclear arsenals,” he explained. “They could also resume the treaty’s data exchanges and on-site inspections, in addition to implementing verification measures from other previous arms control treaties.”

“Further, they could instruct their administrations to begin immediate talks on a new treaty to cover existing and novel systems and potentially bring in other nuclear powers, like China,” Erath continued. “Meanwhile, Congress could—and should—fund nonproliferation and global monitoring efforts while refusing to fund dangerous new nuclear weapons systems.”

Last December, US Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.), John Garamendi (D-Calif.), and Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) reintroduced the bicameral Hastening Arms Limitation Talks (HALT) Act, “legislation outlining a vision for a 21st century freeze on the testing, production, and deployment of nuclear weapons.”



“The Doomsday Clock is at 85 seconds to midnight,” Markey—who co-chairs the congressional Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group—said Wednesday ahead of a press conference with HALT Act co-sponsors. “We need to replace New START now.”

Who Has Nearly 90% Of The World's Nuclear Weapons?

IT'S A DUOPOLY

Jonathan H. Kantor
Tue, February 3, 2026 


A mushroom cloud from a hydrogen bomb test - Alones/Shutterstock


Several military technological innovations have changed the course of history. From the sailing ship to the stirrup, these advances have pushed the world into new directions, and chief among them is nuclear weapons. The first nukes were some of the most notorious weapons developed during World War II, used in the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. After the war, nuclear weapons became the tentpole of military and foreign policy, and other nations have followed the U.S. in developing their own arsenals.

As of writing, there are nine countries with nuclear weapons: Russia, China, the United Kingdom, India, North Korea, France, Pakistan, Israel, and the U.S. It should be noted that Israel has never confirmed whether it has nuclear weapons, despite most international agencies believing that it does. Additionally, Israel is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Regardless, there are numerous nations with weapons of all kinds, and together, these account for more than 12,300 warheads, 9,600 of which remain in active military stockpiles.

While that's a lot of nukes, just two countries collectively hold 86.8% of the world's nuclear weapons, with the remaining split between the other seven. Those two nations are the U.S. and Russia, the latter of which has more than the former. These stockpiles represent the legacy of the U.S. policy of Mutually Assured Destruction, which ensured that both the U.S. and the former Soviet Union maintained enough firepower to wipe out the other should either deploy a nuclear weapon in combat.

America's nuclear weapons stockpile

Three nuclear missiles launched over a backdrop of the American Flag. - Dancingman/Getty Images

While the Cold War ended decades ago, the United States still maintains a large stockpile of nuclear weapons. This is in line with the U.S.' nuclear triad, which is a policy requiring three nuclear deployment methods at all times: submarine-launched ballistic missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and aircraft-dropped nuclear weapons. While the stockpile has decreased significantly since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. maintains 5,177 warheads, according to the Federation of Atomic Scientists' 2025 Status of the World's Nuclear Forces report.

The weapons are broken down into three categories. Deployed warheads are those on ballistic missiles and those at bomber bases, and the U.S. has 1,670 of these. It has 1,930 stockpiled warheads, which are available for use when needed. Finally, there are the retired nuclear warheads, accounting for 1,477 of America's total. These are weapons that aren't intended for use, but have yet to be dismantled. This leaves the U.S. with a total of 3,700 usable nuclear warheads.

The U.S. continues to develop nuclear weapons technology, though testing is heavily restricted via numerous treaties. Several defense contractors and government agencies manufacture the nation's nuclear missiles and their warheads, with modernization efforts carried out at multiple facilities in Texas and Tennessee. These ensure that the nation's nuclear capabilities are spread out and maintained in a constant state of readiness should the need arise.

Russia's nuclear arsenal

Missiles preparing to fire over a backdrop of a nuclear detonation, the Russian flag, and a nuclear symbol - Bymuratdeniz/Getty Images

When it comes to nuclear warheads, Russia and the former Soviet Union reign supreme. The Soviet Union developed and tested the largest nuclear weapon ever tested, the Tsar Bomba, which detonated at an estimated 50 megatons. Of course, that's only one of many, and when the U.S.S.R. collapsed, its constituent nations retained some weapons. Ukraine briefly held the third-largest stockpile before denuclearization, and other nations followed suit. These days, Russia has a stockpile of 5,459 total warheads, according to the FAS' 2025 report.

Russia's weapons break down to 1,780 deployed warheads, 2,591 stockpiled, and 1,150 retired, leaving a usable total of 4,309. As a result, Russia maintains 609 nuclear warheads more than the United States, but the difference means little when you're talking about weapons capable of total annihilation of the world in a nuclear war. Like the U.S., Russia maintains its weapons for use in numerous ways, as the nation has nuclear-armed submarines, strategic nuclear bombers, and ICBMs ready to go should the unfortunate need arise.

While Russia and the United States have a lot of nukes, accounting for almost 90% of the total world stockpile, they're nowhere near the numbers of the past: There were an estimated 70,374 nuclear warheads worldwide in 1986. It took a long time to dismantle and draw down from that amount, and treaties continue to push nations to reduce their total number of deployable weapons. Unfortunately, neither the U.S. nor Russia is a signatory to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Terrible history shows what Trump's migrant 'camps' really are — and what comes next

Thom Hartmann
February 5, 2026 

COMMON DREAMS

As people testified before Congress on Tuesday about the brutality and violence they’d suffered at the hands of ICE, that massive paramilitary organization was shopping for giant warehouse-style facilities they can retrofit into what they euphemistically call “detention centers.”

Cable news people call them “prison camps” or “Trump prison camps,” but look in any dictionary: prisons are where people convicted of crimes are held. As Merriam-Webster notes, a prison is:
“[A]n institution for confinement of persons convicted of serious crimes.”

Jails are where people accused of crimes but still waiting for their day in court are held, as Merriam-Webster notes:

“[S]uch a place under the jurisdiction of a local government for the confinement of persons awaiting trial or those convicted of minor crimes.”

But what do you call a place where people who’ve committed no criminal offense (immigration violations are civil, not criminal, infractions)? The fine dictionary people at Merriam-Webster note the proper term is “concentration camp”:
“[A] place where large numbers of people (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or the members of an ethnic or religious minority) are detained or confined under armed guard.”

The British originated the term “concentration camp” to describe facilities where “rebel” or “undesirable” civilians were held in South Africa during the Second Anglo‑Boer War (1899–1902) to control and punish a rebellious population.

They were facilities where the “bad elements of society” were “concentrated” into one location so they could be easily controlled and would lose access to society and thus could not spread their messages of resistance against the British Empire.

The Germans adopted the term in 1933 when Hitler took power and created his first camp for communists, socialists, union leaders, and, by the end of the year, Hitler’s political opponents. They Germanized the phrase into “Konzentrationslager” and referred to the process of their incarceration as “protective custody.”

The first camp was built at Dachau just weeks after Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, and by the end of the year there were around 70 of them operating across the country.

When Louise and I lived in Germany in 1986-87, we visited Dachau with our three children. The crematoriums shocked our kids, but even more so because this was simply a “detention facility” and not one of Hitler’s death camps (which were all located outside Germany to ensure deniability).

The ovens at Dachau were for those who had been worked to death or killed by cholera or other disease, much like the 35+ people who’ve recently died in ICE’s concentration camps.

When American friends would visit us and we’d take them to Dachau (we lived just an hour up the road) they’d invariably be surprised when I told them that by the time of the war there were over 500 substantial camps and an additional few hundred very small ones all over the country.

“How could the people not know what was going on?” they’d ask.

The answer was simple: the people did know. These were where the “undesirables,” the “criminal troublemakers,” and the “aliens” were held, and were broadly supported by the German people. (It wasn’t until 1938, following Kristallnacht, that the Nazis began systematically arresting and imprisoning non-political Jews, first at Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen.)

By the end of his first year, Hitler had around 50,000 people held in his roughly 70 concentration camps, facilities that were often improvised in factories, prisons, castles, and other buildings.

By comparison, today ICE is holding over 70,000 people in 225 concentration camps across America, and Trump, Homan, Miller, and Noem hope to more than double both numbers in the coming months.

In Tennessee, the Guardian reports that Miller has been coordinating with Republican leaders to create legislation that would turn every local cop, teacher, social worker, and helper in the state into an official agent of ICE and criminalize efforts by cities to refuse cooperation. It also makes it a felony crime to identify any of ICE’s masked agents or disclose conditions within the concentration camps to the public.

Germans didn’t have the benefit of warnings from a fascist history they could look back on; much of what Hitler did took them by surprise, as I’ve noted in previous articles.

In 2026 America, however, operating with the benefit of historical hindsight, entire communities are rebelling at Trump’s effort to beat Germany’s 1933-1934 prisoner numbers.

In city after city, Americans are organizing to deprive ICE of their coveted spaces, putting pressure on companies not to sell and on cities and counties not to permit any more concentration camps.

Because immigration violations are labeled “civil,” people in ICE concentration camps are stripped of many of the normal constitutional protections that apply to people in criminal incarceration. This has created a legal black hole that ICE and the Trump regime exploit, where indefinite imprisonment, abuse, and medical neglect flourish with little to no oversight or accountability.

Human rights organizations like the ACLU describe pervasive patterns of abuse in ICE detention: hazardous living conditions, chronic medical neglect, sexual assault, retaliation for grievances, and extensive use of solitary confinement.

Detainees who have committed no crime other than being in the United States without documentation report being shackled for long periods, packed into freezing, overcrowded cells under constant fluorescent light, and denied hygiene and timely care. Meanwhile, GOP-aligned private prison companies are making billions off the program.

Inspections and oversight are inconsistent: one recent investigation found that as detentions and deaths surged in 2025, formal inspections of facilities actually dropped by over a third. ICE regularly refuses to allow attorneys, family members, and even members of Congress to access their concentration camps; the issue is now being litigated through federal courts.

History shows us that once a nation builds a mass detention apparatus, it never remains limited to its original targets. Future generations of Americans — our children and grandchildren — won’t ask us whether ICE followed civil detention statutes: they’ll want to know why we allowed concentration camps to exist in America at all.

Germany’s concentration camps didn’t start as instruments of mass murder, and neither have ours; both started as facilities for people the government’s leader said were a problem. And that’s exactly what ICE is building now.

History isn’t whispering its warning: it’s shouting.

Thom Hartmann is a New York Times best-selling author and SiriusXM talk show host. His Substack can be found here.

This dark history uncovers the roots of Trump's racist paramilitary police

Thom Hartmann
February 4, 2026

COMMON DREAMS


People are reflected in a federal agent's sunglasses in Minneapolis. REUTERS/Tim Evans

ICE thugs dragged a Minnesota woman out of her car and assaulted her, stopping only when local police showed up, leaving her with cuts and bruises from being dragged on the ground. Her “crime” was following and tracking Trump’s violent, racist, masked federal modern-day Klan goons.

Joe Scarborough expressed the shock and outrage of most Americans, when he said:
“This is so out of control, and it looks like a paramilitary force from the third world! And so [the] police chief — not Antifa, Republicans, not Antifa, liars on the right — she calls the police to ask for help in America from paramilitary-type officers. It’s disgusting!”

What Scarborough and most Americans probably don’t know — particularly since Ronald Reagan gutted civics education — is that this is nothing new for America.

Between the 1830s and the 1860s the American South ceased to be a democracy altogether, more closely resembling a Nazi-style race-based fascist oligarchy.

Thus, Trump and today’s Republican Party aren’t offering something new. They’re simply resurrecting the old Confederacy — something factions within the GOP have demanded for years — dressing it up in the trappings of modern politics and media.

They’re not so much expressing nostalgia for Dixie as much as they’re engaging in a deliberate effort to bring back the very systems that tore our nation apart the last time the morbidly rich tried to end our democratic republic and replace it with an early fascist form of neo-feudalism.

At the heart of the old Confederacy was neofascist oligarchy, as I laid out in The Hidden History of American Oligarchy. A tiny elite of plantation owners controlled the politics, law, and the economy across the entire region; by the mid-1850s democracy in the Old South was entirely dead. Even white people who spoke up against the system risked losing their lives.

That same racist, fascist goal animates today’s GOP politicians, who fight tooth and nail to defend the interests of white men, billionaires, and giant corporations while undermining any effort to preserve genuine democracy.

Taxes on the morbidly rich are cut to the bone, while working people and the professional middle class carry the burden.

Government subsidies in the hundreds of billions now flow to “friends of the administration,” while towns, industries, and communities that refuse to go along with Trump and his lickspittles are punished both by the withdrawal of federal support and the brutal attacks on their people by armed, masked ICE punks.

And, it appears, they’re rehearsing now to use those same terror tactics this November to intimidate voters of color in the relatively small handful of states and congressional districts where control of the House and Senate will be decided this fall.

They don’t need to attack or control the entire country; half a dozen cities, or maybe a dozen, and they will definitely keep control of the Senate and probably the House.

It looks like Black Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, a crucial state for Democrats, are next on their list.

Both Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) can see this coming, with Warner saying:
“I’m deeply concerned about the potential for Trump to send ICE agents to polling places to intimidate voters in this year’s elections.”

For years, white supremacist groups have worked to infiltrate and evangelize within our military and police departments; now, thanks to Trump, Miller, and congressional Republicans there’s an entire federal agency — with a massive budget — devoted exclusively to their beloved racial enforcement.

They’re so into using the racial profiling Brett Kavanaugh legalized with his so-called “Kavanaugh stops” that (Minneapolis-area suburb) Brooklyn Park’s Police Chief Mark Bruley publicly said that several off-duty police officers from local departments — every single one a person of color — have been stopped by ICE agents even though they were U.S. citizens and not suspected of any immigration violation.

One reported incident involved an off-duty dark-skinned Brooklyn Park officer who was “boxed in” by federal agents, had agents draw weapons and demand “paperwork” proving her citizenship, and had her phone knocked out of her hand when she attempted to record the encounter. Once she identified herself as a police officer, the agents immediately left without apology, Bruley said.

The chief said multiple local officers have had similar experiences, including two from the St. Paul Police Department who said they were pulled over in situations that seemed outside legal authority for immigration agents, and one who was pulled over on two different occasions for driving while brown. All were people of color.


These actions resemble the old Slave Patrols that terrorized both Black people in the South and abolitionists in that region (mostly poor, working-class white men, many unemployed) who argued for an end to slavery (and its free labor competition).

In the old South — like in American cities today occupied by ICE — opposing the oligarchs and their one-party segregationist regime was treated as a threat. If you spoke up for labor rights, racial justice, or democratic reforms, your name was put on informal but very real blacklists that circulated among police, employers, banks, and political bosses.

Enforced by White Citizens Councils and the masked, deputized agents of the Klan — that era’s version of ICE — that meant you’d experience harassment, bogus arrests, firings, evictions, and sometimes even execution. Dissent wasn’t just frowned on in the Confederate South: it was systematically tracked and punished.


This wasn’t some kind of random bigotry. It was a coordinated public-private system of control where business elites, politicians, and law enforcement worked hand-in-glove to intimidate anybody who dared challenge their power.

Police routinely stopped “known troublemakers,” arrested activists on phony charges, and looked the other way when intimidation or violence against the activists erupted.

Terror and even death were always waiting in the wings if someone didn’t get the message.

The result was a regional police state in all but name: one-party rule, oligarchic power, racial caste enforcement, political surveillance, and intimidation as daily governance.


Even after the Civil War, in the Jim Crow South, challenging this racialized fascist system didn’t just make you unpopular; it put you on a list. And once you were on it, the machinery of repression could crush you anytime they chose.

From Stephen Miller’s rhetoric to Pete Hegseth’s purge of dark-skinned officers to Kristi Noem strutting for the camera in front of El Salvadoran prisoners, the racism and naked authoritarianism of the Trump regime is the cornerstone of their support by their racist, white supremacist MAGA base.

To his base’s delight, Trump is deleting the stories of Black heroes from our museums and cemeteries, restoring the names of slave-owning Confederate generals to our military bases, and bringing back their statues. Outside of a few tokens, his administration is almost entirely all-white with 13 white billionaires in his cabinet.


Today’s Republican Party — something Dwight Eisenhower would recognize as what he fought against in Europe — is based on and sustained by racism, male supremacy, cheap labor, corporate cronyism, propaganda, a devotion to a mythic white past, immunity for powerful white men, a race-based form of religious fundamentalism, dynastic families, the censorship of schools and libraries, isolationism, violent policing of people of color, and the embrace of foreign dictatorships.

In every one of those, it’s a virtual clone of the Confederacy with the exception of explicit chattel slavery, although legal slavery is enthusiastically practiced in the prisons of most Red states under the rubric of the 13th Amendment, which legalizes slavery against a person convicted of a crime.

As we see red states eagerly embracing gerrymandering and voter suppression, the danger is not simply that Trump may rig an election, or that Republicans may pass bad laws.

The real danger is that this model of governance, rooted in the Confederacy and funded and refined by generations of American oligarchs (particularly since the Brown v Board SCOTUS decision roused Fred Koch to fund the John Birch Society and their “Impeach Earl Warren” billboards), is becoming normalized across Republican-controlled states and increasingly in the federal government.

All of these threads tie together into a single tapestry. As Barry Goldwater or John McCain would have been the first to tell you, what Trump and the GOP are selling today is not new and not even remotely conservative in any meaningful sense.

It’s the Confederate model updated for the 21st century: a system of oligarchy, racism, patriarchy, cheap labor, monopoly, propaganda, religious control, violence, censorship, judicial capture, and economic extortion. Trump, Vance, Miller, Johnson, and their billionaire and GOP cronies aren’t looking forward to a better or freer future but backward to a mythic past where a narrow wealthy white male elite could rule unchecked, enjoying Cognac and a cigar (and the occasional underage girl) in an exclusive men’s-only club.

Under Trump, today’s Republican Party has become feudalistic, pseudo-royalist, and anti-democratic, and proclaims that they always will be.

America fought both a Civil War and a World War to defeat this system of government, and now we’re confronting it — again — here at home as the GOP slides deeper and deeper into autocratic capture.

Hopefully, these rightwingers won’t force us into a second civil war, won’t start a foreign war, and their motion toward full-on fascism can be stopped this fall at the ballot box. If not, America is in for a world of hurt.

Double-check your voter registration, wake up your friends and neighbors, and show up on March 28th for the next No Kings Day. See you there!

Thom Hartmann is a New York Times best-selling author and SiriusXM talk show host. His Substack can be found here.

‘Occupation Has to End!’ Rep. Omar Argues After Homan Says Most Agents Will Stay in Minnesota

Jessica Corbett,

 Common Dreams
February 4, 2026 


U.S. Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) hold a press conference at Karmel Mall, after the fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 28, 2026. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

President Donald Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, announced Wednesday that 700 immigration agents are leaving Minnesota, but with around 2,000 expected to remain there, Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, whose district includes Minneapolis, declared that the drawdown is “not enough.”

As part of Trump’s “Operation Metro Surge,” agents with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have invaded multiple Minnesota cities, including Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and committed various acts of violence, such as fatally shooting Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

In a pair of social media posts about Homan’s announcement, Omar argued that “every single ICE and CBP agent should be out of Minnesota. The terror campaign must stop.”

“This occupation has to end!” she added, also renewing her call to abolish ICE—a position adopted by growing shares of federal lawmakers and the public as Trump’s mass deportation agenda has hit Minnesota’s Twin Cities, the Chicago and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, multiple cities in Maine, and other communities across the United States.

In Congress, where a fight over funding for CBP and ICE’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, is playing out, Omar has stood with other progressives in recent votes. The bill signed by Trump on Tuesday only funds DHS through the middle of the month, though Republicans gave ICE an extra $75 billion in last year’s budget package.


During an on-camera interview with NBC News’ Tom Llamas, Trump said that the reduction of agents came from him. After the president’s factually dubious rant about crime rates, Llamas asked what he had learned from the operation in Minnesota. Trump responded: “I learned that maybe we can use a little bit of a softer touch. But you still have to be tough.”

“We’re really dealing with really hard criminals,” Trump added. Despite claims from him and others in the administration that recent operations have targeted “the worst of the worst,” data have repeatedly shown that most immigrants detained by federal officials over the past year don’t have any criminal convictions.

Operation Metro Surge has been met with persistent protests in Minnesota and solidarity actions across the United States. Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Wednesday that “the limited drawdown of ICE agents from Minnesota is not a concession. It is a direct response to Minnesotans standing up to unconstitutional federal overreach.”

“Minnesotans are winning against this attack on all our communities by organizing, resisting, and defending our constitutional rights. But this moment should not be a victory lap,” Hussein continued. “It must instead be a call to continue pushing for justice. The deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal immigration agents remain uninvestigated, and communities and prosecutors alike have raised grave concerns about violations of their oaths and the Constitution. This is not the time to pull back, it is the time to deepen our resilience, increase our support for one another, and keep fighting for our democracy and accountability until justice is served.”

The Not Above the Law coalition’s co-chairs—Praveen Fernandes of the Constitutional Accountability Center, Kelsey Herbert of MoveOn, Lisa Gilbert of Public Citizen, and Brett Edkins, of Stand Up America—similarly said that “Tom Homan’s announcement that 700 federal immigration agents will be withdrawn from Minnesota is more a minor concession than a meaningful policy shift.”

“The vast majority—approximately 2,000 federal agents—remain deployed in the state, and enforcement operations continue unabated,” the co-chairs stressed. “This token gesture does nothing to address the ongoing terror families face or the constitutional crisis this administration’s actions have created.”

“The killings of Minnesotans demand real accountability,” they added. “Families torn apart by raids and alleged constitutional violations deserve justice. Real change means the complete withdrawal of all federal forces conducting these operations in Minnesota, full accountability for the deaths and violations that have occurred, and congressional action to restore the rule of law. The American people deserve better than political theater when constitutional rights hang in the balance.”

On Tuesday, the state and national ACLU asked the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to “use its early warning and urgent action procedure in response to the human rights crisis following the Trump administration’s deployment of federal forces” in the Twin Cities.

“The Trump administration’s ongoing immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota are being carried out by thousands of masked federal agents in military gear who are ignoring basic constitutional and human rights of Minnesotans,” said Teresa Nelson, legal director of the ACLU of Minnesota. “Their targeting of our Somali and Latino communities threatens Minnesotans’ most fundamental rights, and it has spread fear among immigrant communities and neighborhoods.”

Nancy Pelosi warns of dark days ahead under 'king' Trump: 'America is in a crisis'

Ewan Gleadow
February 5, 2026 

RAW STORY

Nancy Pelosi has warned the First Amendment is being crushed by Donald Trump and his administration.

The former Speaker of the House spoke to journalists at an annual dinner for reporters covering Congress and urged resilience in the face of trying times under the Trump administration. Pelosi said, "Let’s make no mistake: we are living in a time when the first amendment is under siege here at home.

"Facts are challenged, truth is distorted, and the press is treated by those in power as an enemy, fake news, rather than vital partner." The Guardian reported that Pelosi had also made comment on the intimidation tactics used against members of the press, and also noted the layoffs affecting The Washington Post.

She said, "But amid that political intimidation, we must also reckon with an ongoing and accompanying threat. Just today, we saw painful layoffs at the Washington Post – part of a broader reprehensible pattern in which corporate decisions are hollowing out newsrooms across the country.

"A free press cannot fulfill its mission if it is starved of the resources it needs to survive. And when newsrooms are weakened, our republic is weakened with them. Because democracy does die in darkness."

Pelosi did not let up in her criticism of the president, either, warning that he was one of the greater threats present in modern day America.

The former speaker added, "America is in a crisis of conscience. We have a president who has crowned himself King, a Congress which has abolished itself, and a supreme court that has gone rogue.

"Our first amendment – a free and independent press – the fourth estate – is essential to the survival of our Republic." Pelosi confirmed her retirement from Congress late last year, with the 85-year-old political veteran stepping down in the 2026 midterms.

“I want you, my fellow San Franciscans, to be the first to know I will not be seeking re-election to Congress,” she stated. “With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative as we go forward.”

Staggering evidence trove shows who put Trump in the White House — and controls him still

Thom Hartmann
February 3, 2026 

COMMON DREAMS

The British newspaper Daily Mail is out with a deeply researched investigative report, the result of a long collaboration between columnists Glen Owen and Dan Hodges, along with Mark Hookham (Assistant Editor Investigations), and Daisy Graham-Brown (Investigative Reporter).

It’s shocking in its detail and its implication that Vladimir Putin has basically owned Donald Trump for years, even before Trump ran for president in 2016.

They note of last week’s partial (about 50 percent) Epstein document release:

“The files include 1,056 documents naming Russian President Vladimir Putin and 9,629 referring to Moscow. [Jeffrey] Epstein even seems to have secured audiences with Putin after his 2008 conviction for procuring a child for prostitution.”

Essentially, they’re arguing that Epstein was running an operation on behalf of the KGB/Putin that lured wealthy and powerful men to Epstein’s New York and Palm Beach mansions and his island where they were surreptitiously filmed having sex with underage girls.

That material was then presumably passed along to Putin, who used it for leverage when he needed it:

“Intelligence sources believe Epstein was running ‘the world’s largest honeytrap operation’ on behalf of the KGB when he procured women for his network of associates.”

In return for giving Putin videos of wealthy, famous men in criminally compromising positions, Putin reportedly arranged for massive amounts of corrupt Russian money to be handed to Epstein to launder in the US.

Such money typically comes from illicit drug and oil deals, outright theft, sanctions evasions, and Russian organized crime oligarchs (including Putin and his associates) and is frequently laundered in this country using real estate. It’s the Mafia’s favorite, too.

America has the most lax and largely useless real estate transaction laws in the developed world, so a main way to launder such dirty cash is through cash-based real estate transactions (which are illegal in almost every other developed country).

And we know that Trump and his sons, when US and European banks refused to loan him any more money after his multiple bankruptcies, started taking in enough money to ensure the survival of his little real estate empire and it was all coming from Russia.

As Don Jr. told wealthy attendees to a 2008 real-estate conference:
“In terms of high-end product influx into the U.S., Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.”

Similarly, Eric Trump told a friend, who later testified about it:
“‘Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.’ I said, ‘Really?’ And he said, ‘Oh, yeah. We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.’”

This is one of the reasons Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the Ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee (that oversees US banking) has been demanding access to Epstein’s finances and even introduced legislation (the Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act) to require that disclosure, which Republicans are currently blocking.


That alone is worth a call to your two US senators.

The documents released last week included a series of email conversations between Epstein and senior European officials close to Putin. This is way beyond Gary Hart and Monkey Business; this is the President of the United States being in the pocket of a foreign power and profiting from it. They pretty much openly suggest Epstein knew about ways to “handle” Trump:
“Other messages revealed Epstein claimed he could give the Kremlin valuable insight into Mr Trump ahead of a summit with Putin in Helsinki. …

“In a June 2018 exchange, Epstein indicated that Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, ‘understood Trump after our conversations.’ …

“Earlier that month Epstein had also messaged Steve Bannon, a Trump ally, to tell him Mr Jagland was due to meet Putin and Lavrov and was then staying overnight with him at his mansion in Paris.” [Emphasis added]


Epstein, of course, died under deeply suspicious circumstances in jail while Trump was president (and now Epstein’s partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell, has been moved to a country club type of facility where she reportedly spends the days training puppies). As Republican consultant Harlan Hill noted on Twitter at the time of Epstein’s supposed suicide:

“Dead men tell no tales. Just as Jeffrey Epstein starts to name names, he decides to kill himself? Mkay. Totally believable.”


So, if Epstein had given Putin video of Trump having sex with underage girls, and Trump knows it and has for decades, how might that have changed Trump’s behavior?Might it provoke him to hang a photo of Putin in the White House?
Or go along with Putin’s daily slaughter of Ukrainian children?
Give Putin’s top diplomat information that burned a spy and an anti-Russia operation?
Tell the world that he trusts Putin over the US intelligence services?
Put a Putin-friendly conspiracy fan in charge of all US intelligence?
Severely damage NATO, a perpetual thorn in Putin’s side?
Shatter our alliances with the EU and other democratic nations in ways that may well last for generations?
Refuse to make America’s dues payments to the UN, causing that body to have to shut down, perhaps permanently, this summer?
Steal US intelligence secrets, including top-secret nuclear information, and put it in a place where Russian spies or their associates can easily access and photocopy it?
Unleash ICE in a way that turns Americans against each other leading to the “Second US Civil War” that Russian media and Putin’s #2 man (Medvedev) have been gleefully predicting?
Gut America’s soft power around the world by shutting down USAID, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands mostly children, in the Third World while opening opportunities for Putin and Xi to pick them up as new alliances?

In 2019 The Washington Post revealed that, throughout his first presidency, Donald Trump was having secret phone conversations with Putin (over 20 have been identified so far, including one just days before the 2020 election).


The Moscow Project from the American Progress Action Fund documents more than 270 known contacts between Russia-linked operatives and members of the Trump campaign and transition team, as well as at least 38 known meetings, all just leading up to the 2016 election.

The manager of his 2016 campaign, Paul Manafort — who was previously paid tens of millions by Vladimir Putin’s people to install a pro-Putin puppet as Ukraine’s president in 2010 — has admitted that he was regularly feeding secret inside-campaign strategy and polling information to Russian intelligence via the oligarch who typically paid him on their behalf.

Throughout the campaign, he regularly let Russia know where Trump needed specific types of help, and how, and when.


With that help, an army of bots, shills, and trolls were unleashed on social media to successfully swing the young white male vote toward Trump.

Trump pardoned Manafort, which got him out of prison. He’s still fabulously rich from his work for Russia and his unpaid efforts to elect Trump.

As The New York Times noted in 2020:
“[I]nvestigators found enough there to declare that Mr. Manafort created ‘a grave counterintelligence threat’ by sharing inside information about the presidential race with Mr. Kilimnik and the Russian and [pro-Russian] Ukrainian oligarchs whom he served.”


There is no known parallel to this behavior by any president in American history — one could argue it easily exceeds Benedict Arnold’s audacity — and criminally bringing stolen top secret documents to Mar-a-Lago is just the tip of the iceberg.


The Washington Post reported that Trump had a habit of carrying top-secret information that could severely damage our national security, leaving it in hotel rooms in hostile nations.

Was he bringing these documents with him to sell? Or just to show to leaders or oligarchs in those countries to impress them? Or because Putin told him to?

Trump doesn’t put all that effort into hauling things around unless he’s terrified.

“Boxes of documents even came with Trump on foreign travel,” The Post noted, “following him to hotel rooms around the world — including countries considered foreign adversaries of the United States.”


When Robert Mueller’s team tried to investigate Trump’s ties to Russia and his possibly sharing sensitive military information with Putin, they were stonewalled.

The Mueller Report identified ten specific instances of Trump trying to obstruct the investigation, including offering the bribe of a pardon to Paul Manafort, asking FBI Director Comey to “go easy” on General Flynn after Flynn’s dinner with Putin, and directing Attorney General Jeff Sessions to limit Mueller’s ability to investigate Trump’s connections to Russia.

As the Mueller Report noted:
“The President launched public attacks on the investigation and individuals involved in it who could possess evidence adverse to the President, while in private the President engaged in a series of targeted efforts to control the investigation.

“For instance, the President attempted to remove the Attorney General; he sought to have Attorney General Sessions un-recuse himself and limit the investigation; he sought to prevent public disclosure of information about the June 9, 2016 meeting between Russians and campaign officials; and he used public forums to attack potential witnesses who might offer adverse information and to praise witnesses who declined to cooperate with the government.”


It adds, detailing Trump’s specific Obstruction of Justice crimes:
“These actions ranged from efforts to remove the Special Counsel and to reverse the effect of the Attorney General’s recusal; to the attempted use of official power to limit the scope of the investigation; to direct and indirect contacts with witnesses with the potential to influence their testimony.”


There are, after all, credible assertions from American intelligence that when Trump was elected, members of Russian intelligence and Putin’s inner circle were literally partying in Moscow, celebrating a victory they believed they made happen.

And apparently Putin and his intelligence operatives had good reason to be popping the champagne in November, 2016. They were quickly paid off in a big way.

In his first months in office, Trump outed an Israeli spy to the Russian Ambassador in what he thought was going to be a “secret Oval Office meeting” (the Russians released the photo to the press), resulting in MOSAD having to “burn” that spy.

The undercover agent was apparently working in Syria that year against the Russians, who were embroiled in the midst of Assad’s Civil War and indiscriminately bombing Aleppo into rubble (creating a brown-skinned refugee crisis in Europe, which both Putin and Orbán exploited).

That, in turn, prompted the CIA to worry that a longtime American spy buried deep in the Kremlin was similarly vulnerable to Trump handing him over to Putin.

As CNN noted (when the story leaked two years later):
“The source was considered the highest level source for the US inside the Kremlin, high up in the national security infrastructure, according to the source familiar with the matter and a former senior intelligence official.

“According to CNN’s sources, the spy had access to Putin and could even provide images of documents on the Russian leader’s desk.”


The CIA concluded that the risk Trump had burned or was about to burn our spy inside the Kremlin was so great that — at massive loss to US intelligence abilities that may even have otherwise helped forestall the invasion of Ukraine — they pulled our spy out of Russia in the first year of Trump’s presidency, 2017.

Similarly, when they met in Helsinki on July 16, 2018, Trump and Putin talked in private for several hours and Trump ordered his translators’ notes destroyed; there is also concern that much of their conversation was done out of the hearing of the US’s translator (Putin is fluent in English) who may have been relegated to a distant part of the rather large empty ballroom in which they met.

The Washington Post reported, after a leak six months later, that when Trump met privately for those two hours with Putin the CIA went into “panic mode.” A US intelligence official told the Post:
“There was this gasp’ at the CIA’s Langley, Virginia headquarters. You literally had people in panic mode watching it at Langley. On all floors. Just shock.”


Three weeks after Trump’s July 16, 2018 meeting with Putin in Helsinki, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) made a solo trip to Moscow to personally hand-deliver a document or package of documents from Trump to Putin. Its contents are still unknown, although Paul told the press it was a “personal” letter of some sort.

Paul has also consistently taken Trump’s and Putin’s side with regard to the Ukraine war: he single-handedly blocked a $40 billion military aid package in the Senate. When the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, he responded with a call for the repeal of the Espionage Act, which Jack Smith was prepared to charge Trump under. Paul further suggested the FBI may have “planted” Secret documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Ten days after Paul’s trip to Moscow, The New York Times reported that the CIA was worried because their sources inside Moscow had suddenly “gone silent”:
“The full reasons the sources have gone silent are not known,” the Times reported, but Trump having intentionally burned a man working for the FBI — whose job at that time was to find and reveal Russian agents involved in or close to the Trump campaign — may also have had something to do with it:

“[C]urrent and former officials said the exposure of sources inside the United States has also complicated matters,” noted the Times. “This year, the identity of an F.B.I. informant, Stefan Halper, became public after [Trump-loyal MAGA Republican] House lawmakers sought information on him and the White House allowed the information to be shared. Mr. Halper, an American academic based in Britain, had been sent to talk to Trump campaign advisers who were under F.B.I. scrutiny for their ties to Russia.”


Things were picking up the following year, in 2019, as Putin was planning his invasion of Ukraine while Trump was preparing for the 2020 election.

In July 2019, Trump had conversations with five foreign leaders during and just before a presidential visit that month to Mar-a-Lago; they included Putin and the Emir of Qatar.

In one of those conversations, according to a high-level US Intelligence source, Trump “made promises” to a “world leader” that were so alarming it provoked a national security scramble across multiple agencies.

As The Washington Post noted in an article titled “Trump’s communications with foreign leader are part of whistleblower complaint that spurred standoff between spy chief and Congress”:
“Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson determined that the complaint [against Trump] was credible and troubling enough to be considered a matter of ‘urgent concern,’ a legal threshold that requires notification of congressional oversight committees.”


On the last day of that month, July 31, Trump had another private conversation with Putin.

The White House spokespeople told Congress and the press that Trump said that he and Putin discussed “wildfires” and “trade between the nations.” No droids in this car…

But the following week, on August 2nd, The Daily Beast’s Betsy Swan reported that Trump had that week asked the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for a list of all its employees (including all our “spies”) who had worked there more than 90 days, and the request had intelligence officials experiencing “disquiet.”

Perhaps just by coincidence, months after Trump left office with cases of classified documents, The New York Times ran a story with the headline Captured, Killed or Compromised: C.I.A. Admits to Losing Dozens of Informants:
“Top American counterintelligence officials warned every C.I.A. station and base around the world last week,” the Times’ story’s lede began, “about troubling numbers of informants recruited from other countries to spy for the United States being captured or killed, people familiar with the matter said.

“The message, in an unusual top secret cable, said that the C.I.A.’s counterintelligence mission center had looked at dozens of cases in the last several years involving foreign informants who had been killed, arrested or most likely compromised. Although brief, the cable laid out the specific number of agents executed by rival intelligence agencies — a closely held detail that counterintelligence officials typically do not share in such cables.”

In the years since, Trump continues to maintain a close relationship with Putin; most recently he revealed that he’d asked “a favor” of the Russian dictator to “pause” his murderous, war-crime bombing of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine “for one week.” Putin, being in the power position, chose to laugh at Trump and continued his assault on the nation, although he did throw Trump a bone by pausing his hits on Kiev for a few days.

These aren’t just “a few bad judgment calls” or a president with “strange foreign policy instincts.” These stories (and literally hundreds of others) point to a man who’s behaved, consistently and predictably, like someone under leverage, someone whose personal fear of exposure of some sort of major crime — like the ones we know Epstein was holding over other billionaires — outweighs his loyalty to the nation he swore to serve.

If Americans don’t demand real investigations, genuine accountability, and impeachment and jail time for what sure looks like the greatest counterintelligence failure in our history, we may lose what’s left of our democracy before the 2028 elections can fix things.

If Democrats can take control of either branch of Congress and if Schumer and Jeffries get spine transplants and begin a serious investigation into Trump’s destruction of the United States and our historic role in the world, they’ll have enough to keep them busy for years.

This is not about politics or personality. It’s about whether a country can survive being led by someone who looks captured and compromised by a foreign power. If even half of this is true, then staying quiet is the same as going along with it.

We must demand real investigations and real consequences, or accept that the presidency can be bought, blackmailed, and used against the country itself.

Let your elected officials know your thoughts on this, and don’t forget to demand your elected Republicans step up and defend America, too. You can reach your member of Congress and both your Senators via the congressional switchboard at: (202) 224-3121.

See you in the streets on March 28th!

Thom Hartmann is a New York Times best-selling author and SiriusXM talk show host. His Substack can be found here.

Jesse Ventura Says The United States Is Getting What It Deserves With Donald Trump

“How about since Trump dislikes Minnesota so bad and we’re so out of control, let’s join Canada” 

Manik Aftab
Mon, February 2, 2026 



Photo Credit: Matthew Eisman/Getty Images

Jesse Ventura criticizes American voters for choosing Donald Trump over Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, citing Trump's controversial legal and financial history.See more

Jesse Ventura drops another hot take on Donald Trump.

WWE Hall of Famer Jesse Ventura believes the American public shares responsibility for Donald Trump becoming president for the second time in 2024.

During a recent appearance on Rosemary Barton Live, “The Body” criticized voters for choosing Trump over Kamala Harris, while also referencing the Republican’s controversial legal and financial history.

“You know, you got to remember the last election was really a simple one. And I blame the United States people for this too. They’re getting what they deserve because the last election was simple. You had the choice of the Constitution or the criminal. And for some reason, they took the criminal. So they shouldn’t be surprised at what they’re getting. He’s a convicted sex offender. He don’t pay taxes. Well, you know, he’s a draft dodger. Wouldn’t serve his country, and yet he stands out there and preaches patriotism,” Jesse Ventura said.
Jesse Ventura has extreme idea that might make Donald Trump happy

Speaking on the SpinSisters Podcast last week, Ventura floated the idea of Minnesota seceding from the United States and joining Canada after Trump suggested that the Great White North should become a U.S. state.

“I am one that thinks, let me throw this out on your show and we’ll get some headlines. How about since Trump dislikes Minnesota so bad, and we’re so out of control, let’s join Canada?” Jesse Ventura asked.

“Instead of Canada becoming the 51st state of America and lose their healthcare, like they said, they would never do that because they’d lose their healthcare. I’d like to see Minnesota, all of us become Canadians, and make this part of Canada, because it’s obvious Donald Trump don’t want us.”

Fans can check out his full comments here.



Ex-WWE star, Trump critic hints at return to politics, going ‘eye-to-eye’ with president

George Owens
Thu, February 5, 2026




Former professional wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura is hinting at a return to politics, and says he might run for an office that will allow him to be a thorn in the side of President Donald Trump.

The former WWE star – known as Jesse “The Body” as a wrestler – has been a vocal critic of Trump and the administration’s immigration crackdown in his home state of Minnesota over the last several weeks. Last week, he suggested on a podcast that Minnesota leave the U.S. and instead become part of Canada.

On the Canadian political talk show “Rosemary Barton Live” on CBC Sunday, he said that while that suggestion was tongue-in-cheek, talk of a return to the political arena is not.

Barton asked Ventura if, with Tim Walz not running for reelection, he was thinking about running for Minnesota governor again – “that is a real consideration you are having right now?”

“I’m having that consideration, and other considerations,” Ventura replied.

When Barton asked if that meant he was mulling a run for president, Ventura said, “No, that’s too far off, that’s three years from now.

“Our main person is Sen. (Amy) Klobuchar, and she’s announced she’s coming back to run for governor. Somebody’s got to replace her as a senator, don’t they? And would that not put me eye to eye with (Trump)?”

Barton asked Ventura if he had any advice for Gov. Walz.

“My position is hold tight, stand tough, and don’t give this guy nothing,” Ventura said. “Because Donald Trump views any concession as a victory for him, and he needs to learn something, this draft-dodging coward – that Minnesota is not going to back down from him. He picked the wrong state to mess with.”

Ventura was born James George Janos in Minneapolis in 1951, according to the Minnesota Historical Society, and grew up in the area. Last month, Ventura stopped at his alma mater, Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis, the day after there was a confrontation involving ICE agents on the grounds of the school as students were being dismissed for the day.

“I am so proud of Roosevelt High School, and how they stood up for what is supposed to be America and freedom,” Ventura told FOX 9 TV. “Freedom is not arresting people without warrants. We have a system here, it’s called a Constitution, and we have a party, the Republicans, who don’t seem to want to abide by the Constitution. Jan. 6 is a prime example of that.”

Last week, Ventura appeared on “The Spin Sisters” podcast, and he had a unique solution to the recent chaos in Minnesota.

“How about since Trump dislikes Minnesota so bad and we’re so out of control, let’s join Canada,” Ventura said.

“Instead of Canada becoming the 51st state of America and lose their healthcare ― like they said, they’d never do that because they’d lose their healthcare ― I’d like to see Minnesota, all of us, become Canadians, and make this part of Canada. Because it’s obvious Donald Trump don’t want us. It’s obvious that he’s ready to fracture the whole country for his own folly, whatever he is doing. I think we should petition to get out of the United States, if they don’t want us. I’m sure Canada would take us.”

Ventura was a professional wrestler for many promotions, but is most famous for his time as both a wrestler and broadcaster for WWE (then known as the WWF). Ventura was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004. Almost a decade later, in 2013, Trump would also be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

As a member of the Reform Party, Ventura won the governorship of Minnesota in 1999 and served one term. He did not run for re-election.

Ventura, sporting a bushy gray beard, said on Barton’s show that it will be easy to know when he’s ready to re-enter the political arena.

“It won’t be serious until you see the beard cut,” Ventura joked.

“If I show up clean-shaven or with just a mustache, watch out.”

THE GRIFT

Why President Trump’s latest crypto scandal could spell disaster for the blockchain industry

Leo Schwartz
Tue, February 3, 2026 

FORTUNE

Just over a year ago, I stood in a gilded Washington, D.C. ballroom during inauguration weekend, surrounded by the blockchain industry’s top executives and investors. They had traded in their hoodies for tuxedos and gowns, celebrating the ascension of the first “crypto president,” Donald Trump, who had embraced the once-renegade sector on the campaign trail. But halfway through the night, whispers began spreading through the crowd that Trump, who was not in attendance, had launched his own memecoin. Around the end of a DJ set by Snoop Dogg, the Trump coin had crossed $1 billion.

Some of the shrewder members of the audience immediately clocked what was happening. Trump, who has made a career out of branding everything from casinos to steaks to unaccredited colleges, was doing the same with crypto. Would Trump’s latest business venture go the way of Trump Tower or Trump University?

As we quickly found out, the quality of the Trump family’s crypto endeavors was almost a red herring (though we have reported closely on it, including in my colleague Ben Weiss’s terrific new feature on American Bitcoin). Instead, ethics watchdogs have argued that Trump has used his blockchain businesses as a way to sell access. But unlike concerns during his first term that foreign dignitaries could book rooms in Trump hotels, which taught the term “emoluments” to millions of Americans, now anyone with an internet connection could effectively wire Trump millions of dollars by setting up a digital wallet and reap the rewards. His top memecoin holders enjoyed a private audience with the president last May, though they weren’t all pleased by the food they were served.

In hindsight, those ethics concerns also look quaint. On Saturday night, the Wall Street Journal published a bombshell report that two lieutenants to a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family signed a contract to funnel $500 million into World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto platform, in exchange for a 49% ownership stake, just days before his inauguration. As the Journal plainly stated, this was something unprecedented in American politics: “A foreign government official taking a major ownership stake in an incoming U.S. president’s company.” And just a few months later, the Trump administration granted the United Arab Emirates access to advanced U.S. chips despite widespread security concerns (though a World Liberty spokesperson told Fortune that the deal had nothing to do with the administration’s actions on chips).

As the shockwaves of the scandal reverberate, an awkward question lingers: Is Trump bad for blockchain? The industry spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the 2024 election, culminating in the coronation of Trump, who has championed digital asset regulation, hosted summits, and appointed czars. But now, the landmark Clarity Act is stalled in the Senate as Democrats call for ethics provisions that would prohibit the president from profiting off crypto holdings, and that groundswell of opposition is only likely to grow. And despite Trump’s cheerleading, Bitcoin prices are nearly at their lowest price in a year, with many retail traders staying away.

For many Americans, crypto is now inextricably linked to the Trump family. Be careful what you wish for.

Merger madness…SpaceX completed a long-rumored acquisition of xAI, both Elon Musk companies, in a stunning deal that could set the joint venture up for one of the largest IPOs in history by market value. This comes months after xAI acquired X, another Musk venture, in a $33 billion, all-stock deal, and a month after Tesla revealed it had invested $2 billion in xAI. According to reporting in Bloomberg, the new deal will lead to a combined enterprise value of $1.25 trillion. You can read all about it here.

Leo Schwartz
X: @leomschwartz
Email: leo.schwartz@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Trump Meme Coin’s First Year Leaves Crypto Policy in Limbo

Vismaya V
January 18, 2026

It was a Friday night bombshell that nobody saw coming.

Three days before his second inauguration last January, President Donald Trump's social media accounts lit up with news of the launch of Official Trump (TRUMP), a Solana-based meme coin bearing his name and political brand.

The token jumped to a $10 billion market cap within hours, reaching a peak of $73 and sending degen traders into a frenzy, triggering more than 8 million requests per minute that overwhelmed Phantom Wallet’s infrastructure.


A year on, and the TRUMP token is trading just below $5, down about 93% from its all-time high, with a market cap exceeding $987 million, according to CoinGecko data.

As TRUMP turns one, conflict-of-interest questions remain unresolved—the Trump family continues to run multiple crypto ventures while the President is in office, and Democrats increasingly cite his personal enrichment as a reason to block digital asset reform.

"Trump's meme coin launch has done more harm than good to the industry as his political opponents are citing his personal gains from the meme coin launch as a reason to block or slow down the crypto's legislative process," Peter Chung, head of research at Singapore-based Presto Labs, told Decrypt. "It's an unnecessary distraction."

Trump’s crypto conflicts have dominated debate and even delayed the passage of the stablecoin GENIUS Act.

In May, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) led a Democratic walkout over “Trump’s crypto corruption” in a bid to force divestment language into the bill.
Crypto connections

The president's crypto connections stretch from the meme coin to World Liberty Financial and its USD1 stablecoin.

His family's crypto empire has mushroomed to generate more than $1 billion in profits, according to his son, Eric Trump, who told the Financial Times in October that the figure was "probably more."

Last May, Rep. Waters introduced the "Stop TRUMP in Crypto Act of 2025," aimed at targeting the president's ability to profit from digital assets while in office.

That same month, the president held a closed-door dinner for the top 220 TRUMP holders (press barred), including Tron founder Justin Sun, who bought over $22 million in TRUMP and invested tens of millions in World Liberty.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) called the dinner "an orgy of corruption" during a press conference, while hundreds of protesters gathered outside the venue.

World Liberty Financial has drawn similar scrutiny, with the Trump family’s WLFI stake swelling their net worth by over $6 billion since trading began. Trump disclosed $57.3 million in earnings in June that lawmakers called “open corruption,” and Sen. Warren labelled a $2 billion UAE investment tied to the project’s stablecoin USD1 “shady.”

Decrypt has reached out to the White House for comment.

Inside The $187M Deal Between The Trump Family And The UAE's 'Spy Sheikh'

Parshwa Turakhiya
Tue, February 3, 2026 

BENZINGA

The Trump family reportedly received $187 million from an Abu Dhabi royal-backed investment firm four days before Trump’s inauguration and months before the UAE secured access to 500,000 advanced AI chips annually.
Sheikh Tahnoon Invests $500M In WLFI

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser, backed a $500 million investment for 49% of World Liberty Financial (CRYPTO: WLFI) through his firm Aryam Investment 1 on January 16, 2025.

Eric Trump signed the agreement. Trump family entities received $187 million of the first $250 million installment.

Meanwhile, $31 million went to Steve Witkoff’s family entities and another $31 million went to co-founders Zak Folkman and Chase Herro.

The timing raised red flags.

Weeks earlier, the administration named Witkoff U.S. envoy to the Middle East, marking the first time a foreign government official bought a major stake in an incoming president's company.

The AI Chip Push

Sheikh Tahnoon—called the “spy sheikh”—oversees a $1.3 trillion empire spanning AI and surveillance operations.

His top priority was securing the U.S. AI chips that Biden had blocked over fears the technology could reach China through his AI firm G42, which had close ties to sanctioned Chinese tech giant Huawei.

However, Trump’s election reopened negotiations.

Trending: Deloitte's #1 Fastest-Growing Software Company Lets Users Earn Money Just by Scrolling — Accredited Investors Can Still Get In at $0.50/Share.

Following the World Liberty investment, Tahnoon met multiple times with Trump and Witkoff.

In March, he visited the White House and pledged $1.4 trillion in U.S. investment over a decade.

Two months later, the payoff arrived. The administration committed to give the UAE 500,000 of the most advanced AI chips annually. This is enough to build one of the world’s biggest AI data center clusters.

Notably, roughly one-fifth would flow to G42.

The Board And Binance Deal

The deal placed two Aryam executives—Peng Xiao and Martin Edelman, both G42 officials—on World Liberty’s five-person board alongside Eric Trump and Zach Witkoff.

In May, Zach Witkoff announced MGX, a Tahnoon-led firm, would use World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin to complete a $2 billion investment in Binance (CRYPTO: BNB)—the largest-ever crypto company investment.

What wasn’t disclosed: MGX and World Liberty shared leadership through the same G42 executives on both boards.

The $2 billion commitment boosted USD1’s ranking and gave World Liberty a cash reserve generating about $80 million annually in Treasury interest.

See Also: This ETF issuer isn't chasing the index — it's building tools for income, leverage, and conviction

The Constitutional Question

Legal experts said the deal could violate the Constitution’s emoluments clause. This provision prevents government officials from being controlled by foreign governments.

Kathleen Clark, a law professor and former ethics lawyer, called it a potential bribe and warned it signals the federal government is for sale.

Moreover, Ty Cobb, who served as White House lawyer in Trump’s first term, said don’t do business deals with families of foreign country leaders because it damages American foreign policy credibility.

The White House pushed back.

David Wachsman, a World Liberty spokesman, said the investment had nothing to do with the chip deal.

President Trump and Witkoff had no involvement since taking office, and the deal didn’t grant access to government decision-making.

Image: Shutterstock

UAE Royals Take 49% of Trump-Linked WLFI in $500M Deal

Fatima

Mon, February 2, 2026

99Bitcoins 

To make money in crypto, you need to be early. What better way to be early than a deal between UAE royals and the WLFI team? According to WSJ, just four days before Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January 2025, representatives tied to Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan quietly signed an agreement to buy a 49% stake in the Trump family’s crypto project, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), for $500 million, according to company documents and people linked to the project.

The buyers paid half the amount upfront, directing about $187 million straight to Trump family entities.

The Timing and Growing Influence of the UAE in American Politics: $500M WLFI Deal

The timing of the UAE WLFI deal is what people found critical. The agreement came shortly before the U.S. approved the UAE’s access to a large annual allocation of advanced American AI chips, which are subject to strict export controls. Sheikh Tahnoon, who heads UAE national security efforts and oversees major investment funds, backed the purchase through Aryam Investment. Reports note that two of his associates joined the WLFI board following the investment.

President Trump has stated he was not directly involved in the arrangement, but this seems to be his default answer for everything. However, the deal directed substantial proceeds to family members and entities they control, leading to ongoing questions about the separation between personal business and government decisions.

Sheikh Tahnoon oversees more than $1.5 trillion across UAE sovereign funds. He has steadily increased exposure to U.S. tech, AI, and now crypto. This deal links finance, politics, and technology in one bet.

This follows earlier headlines around the UAE stake in Trump crypto, but the WLFI deal goes further by handing over near-control.

Longstanding Connections Between the UAE and the Trump Family

Connections between the UAE and the Trump family extend beyond this single transaction. Relationships include past real estate dealings, diplomatic interactions, and business partnerships. Steve Witkoff, a longtime Trump associate now serving as a Middle East envoy, helped establish WLFI, linking private projects to official policy roles.

WLFI chart shows a clear long-term downtrend from its early spike, followed by months of consolidation. Price is currently trading near a key horizontal support around $0.12–$0.13, with recent candles showing a weak bounce attempt. The structure suggests lower highs and fading momentum, so sellers still control the trend.

A breakdown below this support could open further downside, while a sustained move above $0.18 would be needed to signal a meaningful trend reversal.

The UAE WLFI deal fits into a broader pattern where foreign entities invest in Trump-related ventures while U.S. policy developments appear to benefit those same parties. This overlap continues to generate debate about transparency and potential conflicts in an administration where family enterprises and national interests intersect closely.


Trump Says He Was Unaware of $500M UAE Investment in World Liberty Financial

WSJ reported an Abu Dhabi royal agreed to buy a 49% stake in the crypto platform.

Amin Ayan

Cryptonews.com
Tue, February 3, 2026

US President Donald Trump said he was unaware of a reported multimillion-dollar investment by an Abu Dhabi royal into the crypto platform World Liberty Financial, distancing himself from a deal that has drawn fresh scrutiny over foreign influence and presidential family business ties.

Key Takeaways:

Trump said he was unaware of a reported $500M UAE royal investment in World Liberty Financial.


WSJ reported an Abu Dhabi royal agreed to buy a 49% stake in the crypto platform.


The deal has drawn scrutiny over foreign influence and Trump family ties.


“I don’t know about it,” Trump told reporters on Monday when asked about the transaction.

“My sons are handling that — my family is handling it,” he added. “I guess they get investments from different people.”
UAE Royal Agreed to Buy 49% Stake in World Liberty Financial

The comments followed a report by The Wall Street Journal that Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a senior member of the United Arab Emirates royal family, agreed to acquire a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million just days before Trump’s inauguration.

The Journal cited company documents and people familiar with the matter.

According to the report, the investment was made through Aryam Investment 1, an entity backed by Sheikh Tahnoon, with an initial $250 million installment.

Of that amount, $187 million was directed to Trump-family entities, while another $31 million went to an entity linked to World Liberty Financial co-founders Zak Folkman and Chase Herro.

If completed as described, the deal would make Aryam the largest shareholder in World Liberty Financial, a US-based crypto venture founded by nine individuals, including Trump and his sons Donald Trump Jr., Eric and Barron.

The structure has raised questions among lawmakers and commentators about governance and foreign capital exposure in a company closely associated with the sitting president.

Sheikh Tahnoon maintains close diplomatic ties with Washington and chairs Group 42, an Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence conglomerate.

In December, Group 42 secured approval from the US Department of Commerce to purchase advanced chips from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, underscoring its standing with US regulators.

The reported investment has added to broader political debate over Trump’s crypto links.

In January, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren urged federal banking regulators to pause consideration of World Liberty Financial’s application for a bank charter until Trump divests his stake.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency later rejected that request, saying the application would undergo the same “rigorous review” as any other and that political ties would not affect the process.

Bitcoin Loses 25,000 Millionaire Addresses Despite Pro-Crypto Turn Under Trump

As reported, Bitcoin has shed roughly 25,000 millionaire addresses in the year since Donald Trump returned to the White House, even as US policy shifted toward a more crypto-friendly stance.

Blockchain data shows the number of addresses holding at least $1 million in BTC fell about 16% year over year, suggesting regulatory optimism has not translated into sustained on-chain wealth growth.

The pullback was less severe among the largest holders. Addresses with more than $10 million in Bitcoin declined by about 12.5%, indicating that top-tier investors were better able to withstand price volatility, while wallets near the millionaire threshold were more exposed to market swings.

Much of the increase in Bitcoin millionaire addresses occurred before Trump took office, driven by a late-2024 rally fueled by election-related optimism and expectations of deregulation.

How a ‘spy sheikh’ bought 49% of the Trump family’s flagship crypto company: ‘We’ve got some pretty meaningful investors’

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that his crypto businesses pose no conflicts of interest. · Fortune · Al Drago—Getty Images
Ben Weiss
Mon, February 2, 2026 at 10:37 AM MST 3 min read

Just four days before President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, two lieutenants to a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family signed a contract to funnel $500 million into a Trump family crypto company. The investment into World Liberty Financial was backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, brother of the president of the United Arab Emirates, the Wall Street Journal reported. A spokesperson for the Trump family crypto company confirmed to Fortune that the transaction had occurred.

In exchange for half a billion dollars, a company tied to the politician, who’s an Emirati national security advisor and sometimes referred to as the “spy sheikh,” received 49% in equity in World Liberty Financial. The company was founded in 2024 as a DeFi platform, or business that puts banking activities like lending and borrowing on the blockchain. It’s one of the Trump family’s main crypto businesses.

Meanwhile, the two sheikh lieutenants who signed onto the World Liberty deal also hold top positions at G42, a technology and venture capital firm backed by the Abu Dhabi royal family. When asked by Fortune in May whether G42 backed the Trump family crypto company, Eric Trump, son of the president and cofounder of World Liberty Financial, said: “I’m not going to get to who the investors are, but we’ve got some pretty meaningful investors.”

The investment comes amid scrutiny over a landmark AI deal that saw the U.S. agree to give access to advanced AI chips to the Abu Dhabi–based G42, which is also a significant investor in AI. Fiacc Larkin, a senior executive at G42, is an advisor to World Liberty Financial, according to his LinkedIn and first reported by the New York Times.

“Any claim that this deal had anything to do with the administration’s actions on chips is 100% false,” said a spokesperson for World Liberty Financial. “The idea that, when raising capital, a privately held American company should be held to some unique standard that no other similar company would be held is both ridiculous and un-American.”

Anna Kelly, a spokesperson for the White House, said: “President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest.”


A spokesperson for G42 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tokens, stablecoins, and DeFi

The deal follows broader worries over conflicts of interest concerning the president’s policies and his family’s crypto businesses, which continue to lean heavily on the commander-in-chief’s likeness and brand. He and the first lady have both promoted their own memecoins. Trump Media & Technology Group, which is behind the Trump-affiliated social media platform Truth Social, has also leaned into crypto. And Eric Trump and his brother Donald Trump Jr. have both backed a Bitcoin mining business called American Bitcoin.

But, among the Trump family’s sprawling crypto empire, World Liberty Financial stands out as the most ambitious and potentially lucrative.

In October 2024, the Trumps announced the launch of the business, which they called a DeFi platform. DeFi is shorthand for decentralized finance—a term those in the crypto industry use to refer to taking traditional banking activities like lending and borrowing and putting them on the blockchain.

When first launched, the company had no products—except for a cryptocurrency that it sold to investors for $550 million. In March, the company launched its own stablecoin, or cryptocurrency pegged to underlying assets like the U.S. dollar. The coin got an immediate bump in market capitalization after MGX, another venture firm tied to the Abu Dhabi royal family, invested $2 billion into the crypto exchange Binance with USD1, the stablecoin.

In January, the company finally released its own DeFi product, which lets users borrow and lend cryptocurrency using USD1.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com


Huge Shock as UAE Firm Buys Secret $500M Stake in Trump Crypto Firm

Alex Ioannou
Sun, February 1, 2026 


A UAE-backed investment vehicle reportedly bought a 49% stake in the Trump-linked crypto startup World Liberty Financial for $500M just before Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.

A year on from this investment, we take a look at what effect it has had on World Liberty Financial and the broader Trump-linked crypto ecosystem.


It also comes at a time when global funds are pushing deeper into DeFi and the broader crypto space, betting that continued friendlier US policy will unlock more growth.

The crypto market has taken a battering over this weekend, with over $300Bn wiped off the total market cap as the Bitcoin price crashed below $80,000 and is currently trading at $78,250.
(SOURCE: CoinGlass)

What is the Significance of Abu Dhabi’s $500M Investment into Trump-Backed World Liberty Financial?

The Wall Street Journal reports that Aryam Investment 1, an Abu Dhabi vehicle backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, agreed to buy a 49% stake in the company just days before Donald began his second term as US President.

Half the money arrived upfront. About $187M flowed to Trump family-controlled entities, with more paid to groups tied to the project’s founders. Donald’s son, Eric Trump, reportedly signed the agreement.

The deal with World Liberty Financial, which hasn’t previously been reported, was signed by Eric Trump, the president’s son. At least $31M was also slated to flow to entities affiliated with Steve Witkoff’s family, a World Liberty co-founder who, weeks earlier, had been named US envoy to the Middle East, the WSJ said.

Sheikh Tahnoon’s involvement is significant as the Abu Dhabi royal has reportedly been pushing the US for access to tightly guarded artificial intelligence chips. Tahnoon is the brother of the United Arab Emirates’ president, the government’s national security adviser, and the leader of the oil-rich country’s largest wealth fund.

He oversees an empire valued at more than $1.3 trillion, funded by his personal fortune and state money, spanning everything from fish farms to AI to surveillance, making him one of the most powerful single investors in the world.

The deal marked something unprecedented in American politics: a foreign government official taking a major ownership stake in a company linked to the incoming US President.

Why Does Big UAE Money Matter Here?

This is not retail speculation. This is state-linked capital stepping into crypto on a large scale. For everyday investors, that signals confidence that crypto will sit closer to the financial mainstream under Trump.

It also fits a bigger pattern. The UAE has pushed hard into digital assets, from exchanges to stablecoins. Recent moves in the UAE’s crypto expansion show the country wants to influence where finance and tech intersect.

Weeks before the deal surfaced, another Tahnoon-led firm used World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin to settle a $2Bn investment into Binance. That connects Trump Crypto, the world’s leading crypto exchange, with sovereign capital in a single deal.

Trump Crypto Projects are Currently in the News for All the Wrong Reasons
(SOURCE: CoinGecko)

This story, reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes during a period of extreme volatility in the crypto market, especially for projects associated with the President.

The Official Trump memecoin is down over -94% from its all-time high and is currently trading at just $4.15, after briefly trading above $40 in January 2025.

Then there is the President’s wife, Melania, and her official memecoin. MELANIA is down -99% from its January 2025 high of more than $7 and is trading today for just $0.12.


Finally, the native token for Trump’s DeFi platform, World Liberty Financial, is down -63% from its September 2025 high. WLFI is trading for $0.125, down -17% on the day, and its market cap has fallen to $3.2Bn from $6.6Bn just six months ago.

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Read original story Huge Shock as UAE Firm Buys Secret $500M Stake in Trump Crypto Firm by Alex Ioannou at 99bitcoins.com