‘Keep Bribing Him Forever’: Critics Appalled at New Details of Trump’s Corporate Shakedowns

“I am trying to see how this operation differs from a classic organized crime protection racket. I see little distinction.”


US President Donald Trump shakes hands with CEO of Apple Tim Cook during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday August 6, 2025.
(Photo by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)


Brad Reed
Jul 31, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

A Thursday report in The Wall Street Journal revealed new details on President Donald Trump’s attempts to shake down major corporate donors to fund his assorted vanity projects, including the construction of his luxury White House ballroom and his presidential library.

According to the Journal, Trump employs a fundraiser named Meredith O’Rourke whose job is to hound corporations into sending money to the president’s projects.

O’Rourke’s work is so important to the president, the Journal added, that he asks her for updates on her progress in raking in corporate cash almost nightly.

“Trump asks O’Rourke which companies and donors have cut checks and which haven’t, and for how much,” the Journal reported. “He often asks her to make much larger financial requests than she was planning—for some donors the ask is $5 million, for others it is $50 million. And the president gives her names to call, often including people who have recently met with him, according to people with knowledge of the calls.”

The Journal estimated that Trump has raised more than $800 million from corporate donors throughout his second term, and the newspaper found that it appeared to be entirely legal.

“No laws prohibit presidents from raising unlimited sums of money for nonprofits, like the ones used for the ballroom and his presidential library, his super PAC, or political issue committees,” the Journal explained. “For most of these types of transactions, public disclosure of donors isn’t required and reporting on spending is infrequent.”

Regardless of technical legality, many critics called the president’s actions deeply corrupt, especially since many of the companies being shaken down for cash have business before the federal government.

“ Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in our nation’s history,” wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in reaction to the Journal’s report.

Adam Serwer, staff writer at The Atlantic, joked that Trump technically “can’t be bought” because “he is subscription based.”

“You have to keep bribing him forever,” Serwer quipped.

Eric Rauchway, historian at the University of California, Davis, noted the Journal’s reporting that O’Rourke will sometimes try to persuade corporate donors by telling them that “the boss wants this money,” which he likened to a mafia extortion scheme.

“Guys, ‘the boss wants this money’ is not ‘fundraising,’” wrote Rauchway, “it’s a Piranha Brothers operation.”

Scott Horton, contributing editor at Harper’s, made a similar analogy.

“I am trying to see how this operation differs from a classic organized crime protection racket,” Horton wrote. “I see little distinction.”

Amanda Carpenter, writer and editor at Protect Democracy, argued that Trump wasn’t the only party meriting criticism here, as the corporations who give in to his demands deserve blame as well.

“If a politician is selling access and favors, CEOs aren’t off the hook,” she observed. “They don’t get to just pay to play. It’s not a free pass to bribe and extort and corrupt our economy. There are many legal tools to track that on the private side and hold them account for their end of these dirty deals.”

Anthropic Discloses Hacking Incidents Amid Alarm Over OpenAI Autonomous Cyberattacks

“This is only going to get worse as the models get smarter,” warned one expert.

Anthropic workers have signed a petition calling for the government to find ways to slow the breakneck development of AI technology.

The Claude by Anthropic app logo appears on the screen of a smartphone’s app store in this 2024 photo.
(Photo by Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Brett Wilkins
Jul 31, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Days after revelations that an OpenAI artificial intelligence model autonomously broke into two outside companies, rival firm Anthropic on Thursday disclosed that three of its own frontier models gained unauthorized access to unspecified organizations during internal testing, deepening concerns that increasingly capable AI systems are outpacing the safeguards designed to contain them.

San Francisco-based Anthropic said that it is investigating “three real-world incidents” uncovered during a broad review of more than 141,000 cybersecurity evaluations launched after OpenAI publicly disclosed its own containment failures.

According to Anthropic, three models—Claude Opus 4.7, Claude Mythos 5, and an unspecified internal research system—accessed three separate organizations after a testing environment was inadvertently connected to the internet. Anthropic did not identify which organizations were breached.

“In all three incidents, Claude had been tasked with a capture-the-flag challenge, one of the ways we assess a model’s cyber capabilities,” Anthropic explained. “The model is given a fictional scenario and told that a piece of secret information (the ‘flag’) has been hidden on a different machine on the network, and its objective is to break in and retrieve it. The challenge is left open-ended, and no particular method is prescribed.”



“In all cases, Anthropic’s evaluation prompt specified to Claude that its environment was a simulation and that it had no internet access,” the company continued. “Due to a misunderstanding between us and our evaluation partner, this was not the case, and internet access was available. Because of this, when Claude’s search led it to real systems on the open internet, it treated them as part of the exercise.”

“Operating under the false belief that all accessible entities were intended to be in-scope for the exercise, Claude compromised the impacted organizations’ infrastructure using basic techniques, such as exploiting weak passwords and unauthenticated endpoints,” Anthropic said.

“In none of these situations did Claude exfiltrate itself or deliberately attempt to escape its test environment,” the company stressed.



Unlike the OpenAI incident, which involved an autonomous agent exploiting vulnerabilities, Anthropic characterized its cases as a failure caused by a testing misconfiguration rather than by models independently escaping containment. Still, Anthropic’s disclosure underscores the troubling reality that frontier AI models are increasingly capable of carrying out real cyber operations when given the opportunity.

“Safety testing happens before a model is released precisely because we don’t yet know what it is capable of,” Anthropic said. “Evaluation environments increasingly need to be held to the same security standard as any other system our models run in.”

Last August, Anthropic revealed that Claude had been “weaponized” by human hackers in order to commit ransomware crimes, “including a large-scale extortion operation using Claude Code, a fraudulent employment scheme from North Korea, and the sale of AI-generated ransomware by a cybercriminal with only basic coding skills.”

Less than three months later, Anthropic disclosed that it had thwarted what it described as “the first documented case of a large-scale cyberattack executed without substantial human intervention.” The company said that it believed there was a high likelihood that a Chinese state-sponsored group was behind the incident, which targeted “large tech companies, financial institutions, chemical manufacturing companies, and government agencies.”

Kok Tin Gan, co-founder and CEO of the cybersecurity company NyxLab, told The Associated Press on Thursday that there are likely to be more incidents like the Anthropic and OpenAI hacks as artificial intelligence capabilities advance.

“It is increasingly about governing what agents are available to the AI, what authorities they possess, which actions require approval, and how we ensure they remain within scope,” he said. “If we simply give the AI a goal and allow it to decide how to achieve it, we should not be surprised when it takes actions that technically satisfy the objective, but fall outside our intended scope or expectations.”

Jeffrey Ladish, executive director of Palisade Research—which analyzes the autonomous offensive capabilities of AI systems—told Reuters on Thursday that he believes other companies have experienced similar incidents that they have not publicly disclosed.

“This is only going to get worse as the models get smarter,” he said. “They’re going to be better at cheating. They’re going to be better at lying.”

Elon Musk, CEO of the artificial intelligence company xAI, also responded to Anthropic’s disclosure by saying that such incidents “will happen frequently ⁠as AI becomes smarter and more agentic,” a reference to systems’ ability to independently act toward accomplishing specific goals without meaningful human control.

Experts say the autonomous hacks underscore the problem of AI alignment. As AI advances to the point where it will likely outsmart humans one day, the challenge of ensuring that advanced systems reliably pursue goals that match what humans actually want becomes increasingly difficult—and dangerous.

In the foreseeable future, a misaligned, superintelligent AI could take uncontrolled autonomous actions at massive scale to achieve its goals, potentially causing an existential catastrophe like the subjugation of humanity or even its extinction—a prospect that has had numerous pioneers in the field sounding the alarm in recent years.

However, the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress have rejected meaningful guardrails on AI development while pushing for self-regulation and voluntary benchmarks and arguing—as the US did during the Cold War nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union—that any slowdown would give adversaries like China an edge.

On Wednesday, Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) said that “Congress should immediately hold public hearings with the CEOs of big AI companies” in the wake of the OpenAI breaches.

Anthropic is among the more than 1,000 companies and workers at AI firms that have signed a petition calling for the government to find ways to slow the breakneck development of AI technology.

“AI could help create a dramatically better future, but that outcome is not guaranteed,” the petition states. “The world’s leading AI companies believe they could be close to automating AI research. It is hard to predict exactly how much this will accelerate AI progress, but there is a real risk that capability development rapidly accelerates beyond our ability to understand or control the resulting systems.”

“To realize AI’s potential, industry, government, and society at large may need the option to buy time to address emerging risks, develop security measures, and strengthen oversight,” the document continues. “But each company—and country—is under intense competitive pressure not to unilaterally slow that acceleration. And today, the world lacks the technical and governance tools to deliberately pace frontier-wide progress.”

“We request that the US government support an international effort to develop the technical and governance tools needed to deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development,” the petition adds.

IDF Closes Investigation Into Brutal 2023 West Bank Settler Attack on Palestinians Without Charges

As The Times of Israel described, “Israel has largely failed to crack down on such attacks, with arrests rare, indictments even rarer, and convictions almost unheard of.”

Objects are scattered more than a week after Jewish settlers attacked the occupied West Bank village of Wadi al Seeq on October 24, 2023.
(Photo by Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images)

Stephen Prager
Jul 31, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

As the Israeli government faces increasing scrutiny for its enabling of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, the Israel Defense Forces has reportedly closed an investigation into one of the most brutal assaults documented in recent memory. Nobody has been charged.

Haaretz reported on Friday that the Military Advocate General’s Office has closed its investigation into an incident from October 12, 2023, in which about two dozen armed settlers attacked the village of Wadi as-Seeq, about 10 miles east of Ramallah, where most residents had been driven out by violence by a nearby Israeli outpost.

Three Palestinian men who’d remained in the village to help evacuate the local Bedouin community were detained by the gang of Israelis, who they said tortured them for hours, stripping them naked, beating them, urinating on them, burning them with cigarettes, and sexually abusing them.

Several Israeli peace activists also said they were attacked during the incident and corroborated much of the testimony of the Palestinian victims.

A photo of the three men stripped, bound, and blindfolded quickly made international headlines and drew condemnation from human rights organizations and even some pro-Israel groups like the US-based Israel Policy Forum, which called the reports “sickening and inexcusable.”



The military prosecutor’s office apparently found it very excusable. According to Haaretz:
The Military Advocate General’s Office decided that the evidence collected did not establish the involvement of specific soldiers to the standard required for criminal prosecution.

The decision was made even though, following the initial publication, several soldiers who were present at the scene—including the unit’s commander—were dismissed.

The soldiers were from the IDF Desert Frontier unit, a unit that recruits “hilltop youth,” radical and often violent settler youths from illegal West Bank outposts. Some of the victims said that settlers also took part in the assault alongside the soldiers.

The dismissal of the case comes amid what the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) described as “an unprecedented surge in settler-related violence” this year, particularly this summer. June saw a record 460 settler-related attacks, and the trend has continued into July, with 360 documented incidents between July 1-24.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights warned on Wednesday that settler violence was at an “all-time high,” noting that 18 Palestinians have been killed so far this year in incidents linked to settler attacks, more than the 17 who were killed all of last year.

The Israeli government, meanwhile, approved over $430 million to establish 34 new settlements in the West Bank earlier this year.



“The increase is part of a broader upward trend in settler violence that has been developing since 2023 but has accelerated significantly in 2026,” said Nasser Khdour, Middle East Assistant Research Manager at ACLED. “Recorded incidents include attacks on Palestinians and their property, land seizures, looting activities, uprooting trees, grazing on Palestinian land, and clashes with Palestinians.”

As The Times of Israel noted on Friday: “Israel has largely failed to crack down on such attacks, with arrests rare, indictments even rarer, and convictions almost unheard of. The current government has been accused of turning a blind eye to the phenomenon or even tacitly supporting it.”



Members of the IDF have often been documented either directly participating in the violence or providing protection to settlers who are.

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed during a CNN interview that his government was working hard to bring violent settlers to justice and conducting “real investigations.”

But he also minimized the problem of settler violence that has become rampant, boiling it down to about “150 or so juvenile delinquents” causing mayhem while stating that they don’t represent the broader settler community.

There have been no reported charges coming from this month’s deadly attacks, which have resulted in the deaths of at least eight Palestinians and many more injuries, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

A Guardian analysis on July 21 found that Israel has not once prosecuted any of its citizens for killing a Palestinian in the West Bank at any point this decade.

Vivek Ramaswamy viciously booed off stage after speaking 'truth' to conservative youth

Nicole Charky-Chami
July 30, 2026

RAW STORY


Vivek Ramaswamy (Photo by Marco Bello for Reuters)


MAGA Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy fled a speaking event on Thursday after an audience started booing him over his comments.

Ramaswamy was speaking at the 2026 National YAL Conference in Cleveland when the crowd grew angry with him.

"The truth of the matter is, people in my generation have already made it. We're gonna be fine," Ramaswamy said.

The crowd broke out into booing and yelling at the Republican candidate. Video capturing the moment showed Ramaswamy quickly moving off stage and away from the group.

"You're a political creep and you need to get the f--- out of here!" one person in the crowd yelled out.

MAGA pastor who thinks Satanic forces run 'Austin swamp' handed major election role

Matthew Chapman
July 31, 2026

RAW STORY


Texas flag. (Photo credit: Svet foto / Shutterstock)

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has sparked alarm with his appointment of a far-right Christian nationalist to advise him on election integrity.

Abbott tapped Nate Schatzline, a two-term Texas House member and Fort Worth pastor, for a senior advisory role overseeing election policy, reported Texas Monthly. Schatzline resigned his House seat for the $275,000-a-year gig, where personnel records show he's tasked with "providing policy and strategic direction related to legislative and electoral matters."

Schatzline is a Christian nationalist, a fringe belief that America was founded as a nation for Christians and all human law, including the Constitution, is subservient to Biblical law.

He believes, among other things, that politics, and in particular defeating the Democratic Party, is a spiritual battle against Satanic forces, telling a reporter in 2025, “We really believe this is a spiritual battle. There are powers of darkness that I really believe control the Austin swamp, and I believe that those powers are at work today ... We’re talking about spiritual forces. We’re not talking about flesh and blood. We’re talking about principalities.”

Additionally, Schatzline has spent years pushing debunked "Stop the Steal" claims about the 2020 election and previously proposed bills that would have further restricted voting access in Texas.

Schatzline's ties run through Mercy Culture Church, a politically active Fort Worth congregation connected to the New Apostolic Reformation, a charismatic religious movement whose preachers played roles in mobilizing crowds ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. He also spent months as senior director for pastoral engagement at the National Faith Advisory Board, a group founded by televangelist and Trump spiritual adviser Paula White-Cain that connects the White House with conservative Christian leaders.

Texas faces some marquee elections in the 2026 midterms. In addition to the battle over a congressional map Texas lawmakers aggressively redrew to try to add extra Republican seats, Abbott himself faces re-election, while state Attorney General Ken Paxton faces off against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico for the Senate seat.

MAGA Texas governor taunted as Fox News poll paints dire midterm picture

Alexander Willis
July 31, 2026

RAW STORY

U.S. President Donald Trump and Texas Governor Greg Abbott participate in a roundtable with first responders and local officials, at Hill Country Youth Center, in Kerrville, Texas, U.S., July 11, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

A recent Fox News poll showed Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa within the margin of error of defeating Gov. Greg Abbott, and critics wasted little time taunting the MAGA governor over his potential election loss.

Despite President Donald Trump winning Texas in 2024 by close to 14 percentage points, Abbott – a fierce Trump ally – is favored to win his re-election bid by just 1 percentage point over his Democratic opponent, well within the margin of error. Conducted between July 23-27, the poll also found that Texas voters indicated they were “falling behind financially” by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

Sara McGee, the Democratic nominee for Texas’ 132nd Congressional District, predicted the new polling data would force Abbott’s hand in adjusting his campaign strategy over the next 95 days.

“Republicans will say this poll is fake only for Greg Abbott to turn around and flip on data centers, and then roll out a ‘healthcare plan’ after refusing federal Medicaid expansion dollars for the last 12 years,” McGee wrote Friday in a social media post on X. “He’s seen the numbers. November is coming.”

In 2024, Trump performed strongly with several key demographics in Texas, securing more support from independent and Hispanic voters than his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris. According to the new poll, however, Hinojosa leads Abbott with both groups by 27 and 16 points, respectively.

Abbott has served as governor since 2015 and is seeking a fourth term that would make him the longest-serving governor in Texas history. He enters the race with a massive financial edge, reporting nearly $90 million in campaign cash on hand.

He’s also demonstrated a strong loyalty to Trump, calling a special session last year at Trump’s request to help enact the White House’s nationwide redistricting push to update congressional district maps in a manner more favorable to Republicans for the midterms.

Kasie Hunt backs Jim Jordan into a corner with his own words: 'Why does that not apply?'

Nicole Charky-Chami
July 30, 2026 
RAW STORY


CNN anchor Kasie Hunt asked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to respond to domestic abuse allegations surrounding a Republican lawmaker, using his previous comments about Democratic Senate Graham Platner when he pushed back on responding to the questions. (CNN/Screenshot)

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was backed into a corner on Thursday during a CNN interview when anchor Kasie Hunt asked him to respond to domestic abuse allegations involving a fellow GOP lawmaker from Jordan's home state.

Hunt asked Jordan to comment on Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) after reports that Miller, who was married to Sen. Bernie Moreno's daughter Emily Moreno, had allegedly scalded her with hot water and held a gun to her head.

Jordan initially responded to Hunt's question and said "this is a family matter."

"I know Max is a good man," Jordan said. "I was up campaigning for him. I hope he wins reelection. He's done a good job as a member of Congress, and we should all pray for his family. These are difficult times that they're going through."

But then Hunt pointed to his comments about former Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner. She played a Newsmax interview, showing what Jordan had said when allegations of sexual misconduct against Platner had surfaced.

"I want to play for you what you said when you were asked about Graham Platner, who faced allegations of abuse," Hunt said.

CNN cut to the interview with Jordan — with Hunt urging the Republican to comment on the difference between the two situations.

"That's always been the case with Democrats," Jordan said. "It's all about maintaining power. They will take any crazy position as long as it furthers their ability to, to win elections and get power and frankly, to go against anyone that goes against President Trump."

Hunt pushed back.

"Why does that not apply here, to Republicans who want to keep power in the seat?" Hunt asked.

Jordan tried to dodge the question, claiming he didn't remember the context of the question he was asked.

"I think I was dealing with just who he was as a candidate, and the crazy, antisemitic, anti-Israel, pro-Nazi positions that he has taken," Jordan said. "I think, is evidenced by the fact that he had a what, a Nazi tattoo on his chest."

'I see how Hitler happened!' Devastating supercut shows MAGA rejecting Trump

Matthew Chapman
July 31, 2026

RAW STORY



Donald Trump gestures to reporters from the roof of the White House. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Trump's longtime die-hard supporters in the right-wing ecosphere are starting to abandon him, MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace revealed with a humiliating supercut on Friday evening.

The reasons for the mutiny are diverse, ranging from frustration over the Iran war to the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein trafficking case files — and it comes amid a general traffic collapse for right-wing media.

"I do want to show you some of the contortions that Trump has forced some of his most rabid followers to make, in their own words," said Wallace to her panel, playing the cut.

"We've got to support Trump or civilization will collapse. Those are quotes. And it's true," said conspiracy theorist webcaster Alex Jones. More recently, he said of Trump, "I'm calling for it right now. 25th Amendment, impeachment, whatever needs to happen to get this front and center to get control of our country."

"I've been very open to the fact that I will be supporting Trump," said former Navy SEAL and podcaster Shawn Ryan. Then, in a more recent clip, he said, "I'm completely embarrassed that I supported Trump in the past because of, you know, the fact that he completely flipped on his entire base."

"You guys ever meet Trump? You talk to him? No, you meet him and he's actually a solid guy," said MMA fighter Sean Strickland. In a more contemporary interview, he said of Trump, "When you're at a Trump rally, you're like, oh, I could definitely see how Hitler happened. Like, I'm not even — I'm not joking, dude."

Wallace turned to her guest, political analyst Rick Stengel, who had a lot to say on the matter.

"Some of it is the proverbial rats deserting the sinking ship, but they're deserting the ship for different reasons," said Stengel. "I mean, all of the folks we just saw, feel betrayed by Trump in one way or another. They realized that he has no ideology at all except get attention and get money."

Trump declares 'complete disarmament' of Hamas and other 'armed groups'

Matthew Chapman
July 30, 2026
RAW STORY

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY


President Donald Trump proclaimed on his Truth Social platform Thursday that he has reached a solution for the Gaza war.

"Today, the Board of Peace reached a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza," said Trump. "This is a monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY." He called the agreement a "critical step" toward "Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government that will work closely with the Board of Peace to help the Palestinian people," while ensuring Israel's security.

"This is a major milestone in the implementation of the Trump 20-Point Plan," Trump continued. "The agreement will be carried out in carefully structured phases. As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors."

"One year ago there was a violent raging war, humanitarian crisis and hostages kept in brutal captivity," the president continued. "We have made historic progress and there is still much work to do ... the threat that emerged from Gaza on October 7 will NOT be allowed to rebuild! Under this agreement, Gaza will finally be in the hands of a new Palestinian government that serves its PEOPLE. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL ON THIS AMAZING DEVELOPMENT, THAT EVERYBODY SAID COULD NEVER BE ACHIEVED!"

Trump has been trying to resolve the Israeli occupation of Gaza since taking office.

He came into the conflict fully on the side of Israel, and still largely wants a solution that gives Israel everything it wants while making bombastic threats against Hamas, but has recently grown more frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

'Do not disrespect Bad Bunny': White House's mass deportation celebration slammed

Nicole Charky-Chami
July 31, 2026

RAW STORY


Super Bowl LX - Half-Time Show - New England Patriots v Seattle Seahawks - Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, California, United States - February 8, 2026 Bad Bunny performs during the halftime show REUTERS/Mike Blake

The White House used a Bad Bunny song to promote its deportations and harsh immigration agenda — and Tik Tok was not happy about it, TMZ reported on Friday.

A TikTok posted Thursday shows ICE agents handcuffing and hauling off detainees to Bad Bunny's "LA MuDANZA," according to TMZ.

In the video, the White House took the original lyrics "un aplauso pa mami y papi porque en verdad rompieron," meaning "a round of applause for mom and dad, because they really crushed it" — and changed them.

The video instead had: "A round of applause for Donald J. Trump because he really crushed it." The post was captioned "We're making America great again."

Bad Bunny hasn't commented on the White House move yet, according to TMZ.

The Puerto Rican rapper Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio has been a critic of the Trump administration and its policies. The international star performed at the Super Bowl halftime show in February, sending a message of pride to the Latino and immigrant community.

Tik Tok commenters were outraged. Nearly 3,000 people responded to the video, the top comments were mostly condemnations.

"Do not disrespect Bad Bunny like that," wrote one. Said another, "This is just disgusting."

'Irresponsible as hell': Outrage as Trump doubts bombshell intel on hostile attack

Nicole Charky-Chami
July 31, 2026 
RAW STORY


President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at Camp David in Thurmont, Maryland, on July 31, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Heuer

President Donald Trump's remarks questioning whether Iran had hacked water systems in Minnesota sparked anger online Friday.

Trump pushed back on the U.S. and state officials' reports about Iran hacking in Minnesota and several other states during a cabinet meeting at Camp David in Thurmont, Maryland.

"We heard in Minnesota there was a cyberattack and they blame it on Iran. I don't think so. I blame it on Minnesota because they're grossly incompetent."

Nearly three dozen water plants were attacked in the state this week, according to reports. But Trump blamed Gov. Tim Walz instead, despite evidence from U.S. intelligence officials saying it was likely to have been Iranian hackers, MS NOW reported.

"Iran's got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota," Trump said.

Political experts and commentators pushed back on Trump's claims, suggesting that there could be more to the cyberattacks.

"Remember a few months ago when it was reported that Iran was psychologically profiling Trump to decode his behavior? One has to wonder if Iran targeted Minnesota specifically because they knew Trump would let them get away with it because of his deranged hatred of Minnesota," wrote behavioral scientist Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D, who has more than 377,000 followers on X.

"Let's be clear: Trump sees Minnesota as much as Iran (or maybe even more so) as constituting an enemy country," Greg Sargent, staff writer at The New Republic, wrote on X.

"At Helsinki, Trump undermined America’s intelligence community. At Camp David, he just did it again," Jessica Tarlov, Democratic strategist and co-host of Fox News show "The Five," wrote on X.

"Sure, sure, let’s just downplay an attack by a hostile foreign actor. Iran has some of the most persistent — and effective — hackers on the planet. This is irresponsible as hell from Trump," X political commentary account Angry Staffer, which has more than 565,000 followers, wrote.

"His own FBI assessed it was Iran. They also said they attacked multiple states," Sawyer Hackett, political strategist and content creator, wrote on X.

"The President of the United States is siding with Iran over Minnesota!" Political commentator Covie, who has more than 182,000 followers, wrote on X.

"Just like he did with Putin in the past, he takes the side of an enemy over his own country," anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project posted on X.

Trump's 'incredible cognitive dissonance'​ leaves CNN anchor in disbelief

Bennito L. Kelty
July 31, 2026 

RAW STORY


U.S. President Donald Trump disembarks Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, U.S., July 31, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Heuer

A video of President Donald Trump and his cabinet members making statements that bucked recent polling numbers left a CNN anchor shocked.

CNN anchor Erin Burnett aired footage of Trump's cabinet members showering him with praise, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touting the president's transparency and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying the economy under Trump is "the envy of the world" and a feat the founding fathers "could not have imagined."

She contrasted that with recent poll numbers that show Americans don't quite view Trump the same way, including a 34 percent approval rating. It marks Trump's "lowest approval rating among the American people so far," Burnett noted.

"At this point in a term, this is as low as it gets," she said. She also stressed that 73 percent of Americans said that Trump's priorities are wrong.

"Three-quarters of the American people say that the president of the United States is not paying attention to the country's most important problems," Burnett said. "That is a stunning number, three-quarters of Americans."

She also played a video of Trump saying, "America is safer and stronger and far more successful than it was two years ago, and I don't think it's ever been anything like this. We're going to leave this country in very, very good shape, better shape than it's ever been. This is the golden age of America."

The polling showed "stunning" and "unprecedented numbers," but based on the clips, "Trump's not hearing it. It's an incredible cognitive dissonance," Burnett said.

Hegseth's swagger meets a reckoning as Pentagon moves to unwind 'pugnacious' purge: report

Bennito L. Kelty
July 31, 2026

RAW ST0RY


U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a cabinet meeting at Camp David in Thurmont, Maryland, U.S., July 31, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Heuer

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is being pressured to backtrack after an airstrike gone wrong, according to The Atlantic.

The Pentagon is moving towards restoring as many as half of the roles that Hegseth cut during a "pugnacious" purge at the Department of Defense, according to reporting by The Atlantic. Hegseth's downsizing included the firing or reassignment of staff dedicated to avoiding civilian casualties in war, the reporting noted.

"The potential reversal, which hasn't previously been reported, now awaits Hegseth's signature," according to The Atlantic. The Pentagon is considering bringing back staff as it deals with the fallout of an airstrike that killed almost 170 people, most of them children, at a school in southern Iran, The Atlantic reported.

The Atlantic also noted that Hegseth said early in the conflict that the U.S. would fight with "no stupid rules of engagement" and "no politically correct wars."

An anonymous Pentagon official confirmed to The Atlantic that the DoD is "currently undergoing a strategic reassessment to inform its future reorganization."

A Pentagon inspector general report this spring determined that the DoD's cuts to civilian-harm protections may have violated laws designed to protect noncombatants, The Atlantic reported. Leaders of the Pentagon's combatant commands also support the restoration of personnel who can safeguard against civilian casualties, a U.S. official told The Atlantic.

"Over the last year, we have seen a total disconnect between the willingness to wage wars all over the world, at an unprecedented pace and scale, while at the same time all but abandoning their leading role in setting up the systems and approaches needed to better protect civilians," Emily Tripp, the head of Airwars, an independent UK-based watchdog, told The Atlantic.

Raging Trump pal unravels at Fox News CEO with vomit of sexist profanities

Loomer had been invited to discuss her recent reporting trip to Ukraine, where she made headlines this week by reversing her longtime support for Russia.

David Edwards
July 31, 2026

RAW STORY


Laura Loomer, far-right activist, speaks with anti-Trump demonstrators near the entrance of the Fulton County Jail, as former President Donald Trump is expected to turn himself in to be processed after his Georgia indictment, in Atlanta on Aug. 24, 2023. Photo by Dustin Chambers for Reuters


Far-right activist Laura Loomer erupted at Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott with a string of sexist profanities Thursday after the network canceled a podcast appearance at the last minute.

Loomer had been invited by an unnamed Fox host to discuss her recent reporting trip to Ukraine, where she made headlines this week by reversing her longtime support for Russia.

The recording was set for 4 p.m. — then Fox pulled the plug with 20 minutes to go.

"I was just supposed to record a podcast episode with a Fox News host who invited me on their podcast to discuss my reporting in Ukraine," Loomer wrote on X. "I was supposed to record at 4 pm EST, but then they canceled on me 20 minutes before our interview because Fox News management said they can't have me on."

"What a miserable b—!" Loomer wrote.

Loomer claimed the snub is part of a decade-long pattern, alleging Scott placed her on a blacklist in 2017.

"I've been on this blacklist since 2017," she claimed. "When Pete Hegseth and Judge Jeanine worked for Fox News and tried to have me on, Suzanne Scott (a liberal) told them they couldn't have me on and would be reprimanded if they interacted with me on X," referring to former Fox host Jeanine Pirro.

"I'm told she allegedly directed the entire network to not cover my trip to Ukraine," she added.

CNN reported in September 2024 that Fox mentioned Loomer just once the week she flew with President Donald Trump to his presidential debate.

Loomer has previously called Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) a "lunatic hooker" and a "harlot" during a social media feud, and has lobbed profane insults at other women in public life.

Associated Press reported this week that Loomer traveled to Kyiv and interviewed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, reversing years of pro-Russia rhetoric. Fox News, she said, refused to cover any of it.

"Censorship is alive and well at Fox News," Loomer wrote.

Fox News host learns pigeons actually do lay eggs in brutal fact check to his face

Matthew Chapman
July 31, 2026 
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Fox News channel logo (Photo credit: Poetra.RH / Shutterstock)

A Fox News anchor had to get a humiliating fact check from one of his guests after blundering on basic biology.

Will Cain had on Matt DuBoise of Carolina Coops, a poultry coop manufacturer in North Carolina, to talk about boxing legend Mike Tyson's coop for pigeons — and he opened the segment by asking DuBoise, "Mike Tyson knows pigeons don't lay eggs, right?"

After an awkward second, DuBoise said, "Uh, well actually, they — they do, but just not the chicken eggs that we want."

"Ah!" said Cain, smiling as he recovered.

Pigeons, like all birds, do in fact lay hard-shelled eggs. They're even edible, although they're not very commonly sold and fetch a hefty price due to the difficulties in producing them at scale.

This isn't the first Fox News egg-related controversy. The network infamously hosted Trump administration Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Jenkins last year in the middle of a critical egg shortage, where she proclaimed people should just raise chickens in their backyards if they want cheap eggs.

'True embarrassment': Expert twists the knife as Trump admin's Reflecting Pool case flops

Bennito L. Kelty
July 31, 2026 
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U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro discusses charges related to vandalism of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool during a press conference in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 2, 2026. REUTERS/Cheney Orr

A legal analyst slammed the Trump administration's flopped case that sought to pin Reflecting Pool damage on an alleged vandal.

On Friday, the Trump Department of Justice withdrew criminal charges against Olympic canoeist David Hearn after accusing him of ripping up the Reflecting Pool liner with his bare hands. During an appearance on CNN, former prosecutor Elie Honig looked back at the case and the press conference by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, where she announced Hearn's indictment.

"I think you could see the problems with this case right away," Honig said. "I did not expect it to unravel so quickly. It's a real embarrassment, first of all, for the United States Justice Department."

The Reflecting Pool was plagued with algae after costly taxpayer-funded renovations finished in June, and then the lining along the bottom of the pool started to float up. Hearn was arrested next to the pool, which was captured in a social media video, as Trump blamed vandals for the poor condition. Hearn maintained that he just stopped to reach in and touch the floating liner.

"Let's remember, first, they arrest David Hearn, they charge him initially by complaint with a misdemeanor," Honig said. "Then they upgrade it to a felony. They get a grand jury to indict him for that felony."

Honig then reflected on Pirro's press conference, "where she's pounding the podium and talking about what a serious crime this is and how justice will be done. And now it turns out they dismissed the case voluntarily," he said.

"It's a true embarrassment for Jeanine Pirro," Honig said. "It's a true embarrassment for DOJ, and they brought it on themselves."

Reflecting Pool scapegoat case implodes as DOJ humiliatingly backs down

Matthew Chapman
July 31, 2026

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Evidence shows Trump admin caused Reflecting Pool damage it blamed on sabotage: ex-insider

In an admission of error, the Trump Justice Department withdrew criminal charges against an Olympic canoeist accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Justice Department prosecutors acknowledged in a court filing that contrary to the assertions they made that David 'Davey' Hearn had damaged the iconic landmark, "damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor," Meidas Touch's Scott MacFarlane reported.

The DOJ further admitted they have new information "showing that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented by [the Department of the Interior]."

It's an abrupt end to a trial that was plagued with prosecutorial missteps throughout.

Trump's renovation of the Reflecting Pool was announced to great fanfare, with the president complaining that under previous presidents it was full of trash. However, after the pool was painted and sealed, it was taken over by a massive algal bloom. This prompted maintenance workers to dump vast amounts of hydrogen peroxide, which resulted in the lining starting to peel and break.

Trump claimed this damage was the result of a "gash" in the monument inflicted by political protesters, but no evidence of such a gash was found when the pool was drained for remedial maintenance.

Red state moms weaponize voter-approved law to take on Ten Commandments mandate

Ellie Ashby, 

Texas Tribune
July 31, 2026


Ten Commandments. (Photo credit: Carmen K. Sisson / Shutterstock)

Three Houston mothers are suing to stop displaying the Ten Commandments in Texas public school classrooms, arguing that it violates the state’s religious freedom law and a voter-approved parental rights amendment.

Their lawsuit is the latest challenge to Senate Bill 10 — this time under Texas law. Other attempts to prohibit the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools under federal law — primarily the First Amendment’s guarantee of separation of church and state — have been unsuccessful so far.

The mothers’ suit, filed in Harris County, demands that the displays be taken down and that the court act before mid-August, when the school year begins.

Emily Roth, one of the plaintiffs, said in a Friday morning press release that the Ten Commandments poster purposefully ignores religious differences in the classroom and will make students feel like they do not belong.

“It teaches students, and their teachers, that exclusion is acceptable, maybe even preferred. That is not a lesson I want my children learning from the state of Texas,” she said.

The parents are suing under the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which the Legislature passed in 1999 and declares that “a government agency may not substantially burden a person’s free exercise of religion.”

They are also suing under the recently approved Texas Proposition 15 — also known as the “Parental Rights Amendment” — which ensures parents have the right “to exercise care, custody, and control of the parent’s child, including the right to make decisions concerning the child’s upbringing.”

Last year’s Senate Bill 10 requires Texas classrooms to display donated posters of the King James Version of the Ten Commandments. The posters must be visible in the classroom and cannot be smaller than 16 by 20 inches.

However, various faiths — such as Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant traditions — number and word the commandments differently, the press release noted.

Sixteen families sued 11 school districts to block the new law in July 2025. They argued that it violates the separation of church and state and pressures students to embrace religious principles and values they may not align with.

In August 2025, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery blocked the law in the targeted districts.

A 5th Circuit Court ruling this spring then permitted the enforcement of Senate Bill 10, stating that the Texas law did not violate the Constitution. The court also cleared the way for a similar law in Louisiana.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has long argued that the Ten Commandments are an important part of the heritage and history of the United States. Lawyers with his office have argued that the posters — because they are displayed rather than taught — do not qualify as coercive, as students are allowed to ignore them.

This lawsuit comes less than two months after the Texas Board of Education approved a new Bible-infused curriculum for public schools.

The three mothers suing in Houston are Roth, Audrey Rosa Nath and Sanjam Kaur Sohal.

Roth is raising her children without religion; Nath is raising her children across a variety of religious traditions found in her family, including Jainism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Quakerism; Sohal is Sikh, according to the press release.

Megan Hassan, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said that despite the women’s different religious beliefs, they all want the same thing: “for their children to attend school without being compelled to display a message that conflicts with their faith.”

“They did not want a legal battle with the state of Texas,” she said. “They wanted a poster removed from a classroom wall. That should never have required a lawsuit.”

This story is published through a collaboration between The Texas Tribune and Religion News Service.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

FIFA kills controversial plan to sell World Cup rights to a Kushner-led group

Daniel Hampton
July 31, 2026 

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FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a red card as he meets with FIFA President Gianni Infantino in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., August 28, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo

Gianni Infantino has scrapped his plan to sell a slice of the World Cup to private investors, backing down barely 72 hours after the proposal leaked and set off a revolt inside soccer's governing body, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The FIFA president announced Friday that FIFA Forward Enterprise would not proceed, saying the project had created divisions no longer in the interest of the sport.

“Having listened carefully to all the views,” Infantino said, “it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place.”

The plan would have raised $4.2 billion at a roughly $20 billion valuation by selling about 20 percent of a new commercial arm, with a one-time payment of $20 million dangled to each of FIFA's 211 member federations.

The lead investor lined up for the deal was Thrive Eternal, a vehicle founded by Joshua Kushner, brother of Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, a link that had already drawn Democratic scrutiny before the reversal.

UEFA's 55 members voted unanimously Thursday to boycott all FIFA competitions if the sale went through, a walkout that would have sidelined powers like Spain, France and England from the men's and women's World Cups. The confederations for Asia and for North America and the Caribbean also rejected the plan.

The pressure reached Infantino's inner circle, with senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro, a former U.S. Soccer president who sat on the White House task force for the World Cup, resigning in protest. FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour, who did not step down, said staff had been deceived by the secretive plan.

Trump, whose earlier phone call pushing FIFA to reverse a red card had fueled questions about his closeness to Infantino, distanced himself Friday. Asked at Camp David whether the FIFA boss had consulted him on the sale, the president told reporters, "No, I never spoke to him."