Bessent:

I was the subject of an assassination attempt in February 2024 by an adult left-wing activist, two hours after being sworn into my job.

So any of you who want to report that this is a fiction and does not exist — be there for the sentencing this August.

Bessent:

If you do the right thing, if you want to work hard, if you want to make good decisions, then there is still the American Dream.

Source: The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe

Bessent:

The people building AI have done a terrible job explaining it.

When you go on Google, that's AI. When you use spell check, that's AI.

It is just growing, and it's going to be able to do more for you. The optimistic view of AI is that it's going to let small businesses compete with big businesses.

You could start a business that used to take ten people with just one or two people. We've seen no job loss from AI yet.

Source: The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe

Former CIA Director David Petraeus:

Ukraine is now using 10,000 or more drones per day. This is just staggering.

Last year they produced 3.5 million drones. We in the US produced 300,000.

We have nothing like what they have.

Former CIA Director David Petraeus:

We should by all means ensure that deterrence is sufficiently solid so that every morning when President Xi gets up and looks in the mirror—and pats himself on the back for dealing with the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Tibet, and crushing the democracy movement in Hong Kong, and all these others that have been on his bucket list—he's got one left.

He looks wistfully out to the southeast and thinks about Taiwan, but then says, "Not today."

That's what we want to have happen every day.

Former CIA Director David Petraeus:

Ukraine had no navy once Russia occupied Crimea. In fact, they even sank their own flagship because they didn't think they could secure it.

Yet they've taken down 35% of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. They've sunk it.

Intelligence tells them where the ships are. Aerial drones pinpoint them, and maritime drones sink them.

The Russians have tied the entire remaining fleet up in a port as far from Ukraine as they can get on the Black Sea because they're not allowed to transit the Turkish Straits under the Montreux Convention.

Now Ukraine has maritime drones that launch aerial drones closer to that port, taking out refineries, storage sites, and then striking the ships that remain there.

Federal regulators are investigating Gabriel Perez, President Trump's longtime teleprompter operator, for allegedly using advance knowledge of Trump's speeches to place bets on prediction market Kalshi.

According to sources, Perez made more than $100,000 by betting on whether Trump would mention specific words or topics in more than a dozen speeches, including the State of the Union.

Perez is reportedly in settlement talks that could require him to return his profits and agree not to make similar trades.

The White House said Perez is cooperating with the investigation, while Kalshi said it has strengthened its insider trading safeguards.

Source: ABC News

Rahm Emanuel on Iran:

They've also discovered that while Trump thinks he wrote a book called The Art of the Deal, they're going to teach him a lesson, which is the Persian lesson, the art of the negotiation.

And he just got schooled unbelievably.

Source: FT

WSJ report analyzes $781M financial network fueling Trump's second term.

▪️MAGA Inc. secured $392M from tech and corporate donors
▪️Legal settlements routed to Trump family foundation
▪️White House ballroom donors obtained $50B in government contracts.

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Fetterman Threatens Democratic Party Exit Over Israel Support

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NEW: Satellite imagery appears to show a U.S. Patriot launcher destroyed by Iranian Shahed-136 drone strike at Erbil Airport, Iraq.

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White House:

This has been the most watched and most successful World Cup in American history.

Zelensky has appointed Yevhen Khmara as acting defense minister and will ask parliament to approve him as Ukraine's next defense minister after the legal process.

Khmara previously served as acting head of the SBU (Ukraine's security service).

White House:

We are kind people, and we have the best country on the planet.

White House on JD Vance's remarks about Israel:

Trump would certainly agree that, yes, foreign countries certainly do try to persuade American public opinion.

There is no doubt about that.

Nicaragua has cut diplomatic ties with Italy after Italy renewed demands to extradite Alessio Casimirri, a former Red Brigades militant convicted for his role in the 1978 kidnapping and murder of ex-Prime Minister Aldo Moro.

White House:

Trump knows that our military never targets civilians or children.

Iran is well known for killing women, children, and innocent people.

You should focus on that.

White House:

Iran continues to talk to the U.S. and express that they want to make a deal with us because they are suffering devastating blows.

White House:

The reason for the recent strikes on Iran is because Iran violated the MOU.

They signed that they would not fire upon commercial vessels moving through the Strait of Hormuz.