Voting rights advocates welcome US supreme court decision to stop Trump administration from restricting mail voting in midterms
Voting rights groups and local officials welcomed the US supreme court decision on Monday to keep a new United States Postal Service rule from being implemented before the midterm elections.
The Campaign Legal Center and Democracy Defenders Fund had filed an amicus brief at the supreme court calling for the postal service rule to be blocked on behalf of: the League of United Latin American Citizens, Secure Families Initiative, Arizona Students’ Association, the city of Madison, Wisconsin and Travis county, Texas.
“This rule, as directed by an executive order issued by the president in March, would have given the executive branch unprecedented control over the way Americans vote by mail,” the groups said in a statement. “It would have made burdensome new requirements mandatory for every state and local election official that sends voters ballots through U.S. Mail and given the Postal Service the power to refuse to send ballot mail to voters if states had failed to comply.
“In this decision, the Supreme Court has made clear that the 2026 midterm elections must not be disrupted by the Trump administration’s efforts to implement an unlawful new mail-voting system mid-election,” Tianna Mays, legal director at Democracy Defenders Fund, said. “The Constitution does not give the president unilateral authority governing federal elections regarding mail voting or any of the other schemes the administration has cooked up to rig the election.”
“Experts who have looked at the Postal Service’s plan to screen mail-in ballots – including a whistleblower within the agency – say it carries tremendous risks for the freedom to vote,” Trevor Potter, president of Campaign Legal Center, said. “The court wisely heeded these warnings and affirmed a lower court ruling to stop the agency from taking actions that could cut off access to absentee ballots for millions of Americans. I remain confident that this effort by the Postal Service, which comes in response to an unconstitutional and illegal executive order, will ultimately be permanently blocked.”
“We are grateful the court recognizes that this issue is not a matter of presidential preference – it is a constitutional right,” Dyana Limon-Mercado, Travis county clerk, said. “Implementing this rule so close to the election would create confusion for voters and jeopardize the ability of election officials across the country to administer a fair and transparent midterm election.”
“The Constitution is clear: states hold the power to oversee elections, not the president or the Postal Service”, Jessica Mendoza, executive director of Arizona Students’ Association, said.
“This is an important win for local clerks, who simply want to serve their communities and administer fair, secure and accurate elections,” Satya Rhodes-Conway, the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin said.
Key events
Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:
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The US supreme court denied a request from the Trump administration to implement new US Postal Service restrictions on mail voting in the 2026 midterm elections, which have already started.
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Mitch McConnell, the 84-year-old former Senate majority leader from Kentucky, was seen in Washington for the first time in months on Monday, minutes before his office released a statement saying that he was back at work.
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With a slip of the tongue reminiscent of Joe Biden, Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, told CNN that he would not run for president in 2028 if his fellow Californian, former vice-president Kamala Harris, decides to run again, since “I know what that means: I know her base of supporters, I know her friends, the zen diagram on that is just pure crossover.”
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Donald Trump claimed there is a “SICK conspiracy” against artificial intelligence and data centers in response to the growing calls for greater checks on AI development.
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In a statement posted on social media, Barack Obama, the former US president, called for the pace of AI development to be slowed to allow time for the federal government to develop regulations to address “serious safety concerns”.
Alex Ovechkin returns from Russia to play hockey in Washington DC after starring in election ad for Putin’s party
Before Alex Ovechkin, the Russian hockey player, returned to the United States to meet up with his Washington Capitals teammates ahead of the new NHL season, he took time out to star in a campaign ad for Vladimir Putin’s party, United Russia, the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti reported on Friday.
The newspaper published still images from a campaign video which showed Ovechkin standing behind Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, the leading parliamentary candidate on the party’s list, alongside other pro-Putin officials including Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the propaganda network Russia Today, who posted the video on social media.
The video was one in a series for the party’s top five candidates. One of the other candidates featured in a different video was Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia’s so-called children’s ombudsman, who was indicted along with Putin by the International Criminal Court “for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation”.
A third candidate is the former war correspondent for Russian state television Evgeny Poddubny, whose reporting from Syria and Ukraine distorted facts to justify Russian military interventions that killed thousands of civilians.
The other two candidates from United Russia, the official party of Putinism, were the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, who defeated the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny in a disputed 2013 election, and Vladislav Golovin, a wounded veteran of the Russian assault on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in 2022.
According to Vedomosti, Ovechkin also appears in the final video in the series, among a group of celebrities and officials standing behind Lavrov, Lvova-Belova, Poddubny, Sobyanin and Golovin.
Reporters were barred from recording video of McConnell in Capitol
As our colleague Chris Stein reports, Mitch McConnell, the former Republican Senate majority leader, returned to the US Capitol on Monday and spoke to reporters briefly before entering the Senate chamber after a months‑long absence that fueled rampant speculation about his health.
McConnell said he was back to help advance the latest farm bill and to support legislation aiding Ukrainians, “our good friends who are totally in the fight against the Russians”.
The senator, who rarely replies to questions in the Capitol hallways, joked that he wasn’t sure how many reporters would be there to see him return. “But I’m glad to see you,” he said. “It’s time to get back to work.”
As Chris noted, reporters and photographers were instructed by Senate staff not to take video of McConnell speaking, which led to the bizarre spectacle of television news reports on the senator’s return to work being illustrated by the still images they were permitted to take, and distant video of him on the Senate floor.
The Senate staffers were not, however, completely successful, since paparazzi from TMZ did stake out McConnell’s home earlier in the day, and were able to record video of him responding to a shouted question about how he was feeling with a silent thumbs up.
California’s attorney general celebrates US supreme court decision to block changes to mail voting
California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, welcomed the US supreme court decision in the suit he filed, along with officials in 25 other states, to block the US Postal Service from interfering with ballots cast by mail in the November midterm elections.
The new USPS rule would have required state election officials to redesign and reprint ballot envelopes, submit information on millions of voters to the federal government and give the postal service the authority to refuse to deliver mail ballots to voters it deemed ineligible.
Last week, a federal court in Massachusetts granted the coalition’s request for a preliminary injunction, blocking the USPS from implementing its new rule. The supreme court on Monday declined to lift that block.
“After losing in the district and appellate courts, the Trump Administration has now lost at the U.S. Supreme Court. Today’s decision is a victory for our democracy and a powerful affirmation of the rule of law,” Bonta said. “The stakes in this litigation could not have been higher. Voting is the fundamental right from which all other rights flow, and all 50 states allow ballots to be cast by mail in some form. In California and several other states, mail voting is the primary way elections are conducted. Had this rule been allowed to take effect, the consequences would have been catastrophic.”
Voting rights advocates welcome US supreme court decision to stop Trump administration from restricting mail voting in midterms
Voting rights groups and local officials welcomed the US supreme court decision on Monday to keep a new United States Postal Service rule from being implemented before the midterm elections.
The Campaign Legal Center and Democracy Defenders Fund had filed an amicus brief at the supreme court calling for the postal service rule to be blocked on behalf of: the League of United Latin American Citizens, Secure Families Initiative, Arizona Students’ Association, the city of Madison, Wisconsin and Travis county, Texas.
“This rule, as directed by an executive order issued by the president in March, would have given the executive branch unprecedented control over the way Americans vote by mail,” the groups said in a statement. “It would have made burdensome new requirements mandatory for every state and local election official that sends voters ballots through U.S. Mail and given the Postal Service the power to refuse to send ballot mail to voters if states had failed to comply.
“In this decision, the Supreme Court has made clear that the 2026 midterm elections must not be disrupted by the Trump administration’s efforts to implement an unlawful new mail-voting system mid-election,” Tianna Mays, legal director at Democracy Defenders Fund, said. “The Constitution does not give the president unilateral authority governing federal elections regarding mail voting or any of the other schemes the administration has cooked up to rig the election.”
“Experts who have looked at the Postal Service’s plan to screen mail-in ballots – including a whistleblower within the agency – say it carries tremendous risks for the freedom to vote,” Trevor Potter, president of Campaign Legal Center, said. “The court wisely heeded these warnings and affirmed a lower court ruling to stop the agency from taking actions that could cut off access to absentee ballots for millions of Americans. I remain confident that this effort by the Postal Service, which comes in response to an unconstitutional and illegal executive order, will ultimately be permanently blocked.”
“We are grateful the court recognizes that this issue is not a matter of presidential preference – it is a constitutional right,” Dyana Limon-Mercado, Travis county clerk, said. “Implementing this rule so close to the election would create confusion for voters and jeopardize the ability of election officials across the country to administer a fair and transparent midterm election.”
“The Constitution is clear: states hold the power to oversee elections, not the president or the Postal Service”, Jessica Mendoza, executive director of Arizona Students’ Association, said.
“This is an important win for local clerks, who simply want to serve their communities and administer fair, secure and accurate elections,” Satya Rhodes-Conway, the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin said.
Obama calls for labs ‘to slow down the pace of AI development’ and regulations ‘that deal with serious safety concerns’
In a statement posted on social media on Monday, Barack Obama, the former US president, called for the pace of AI development to be slowed to allow time for the federal government to develop regulations to address “serious safety concerns” and other issues.
Obama wrote:
I was encouraged this week to see the leaders of the frontier labs agree on the need for them to slow down the pace of AI development. Given the stakes, it’s a good and necessary first step.
But I’m even more encouraged by the growing recognition that how this powerful new technology develops should be at the center of our public debate.
I’ve been watching the progress on AI for over a decade now, and one thing that’s clear to me is that the potential impact of this technology is not overhyped. It’s also moving at lightning speed – and even faster than those who are engineering it can keep up with.
I’m not an AI accelerationist who believes it will lead to some techno-utopia, and I’m not a doomer who thinks it will inevitably lead to humanity’s destruction.
But whether this technology results in amazing breakthroughs in medicine, energy and education or unleashes huge economic disruptions, greater inequality, and potential catastrophe will depend on the choices that we make right now – choices that should be made not just by the companies involved, but by all of us.
So, we need to use this time to structure a more open, public and democratic conversation about AI. Building on the statements that the frontier companies have already made, some leaders in the space announced they’re launching what they call Project Blueprint to help tech companies and policy makers work together on setting stronger standards and guidelines for AI development.
But at the end of the day, voluntary standards made by a handful of tech companies won’t be enough. We need government – and specifically our leaders in Washington – to get proactive in coming up with concrete proposals, laws and regulations that deal with serious safety concerns, anticipate AI’s impact on jobs and our kids, and make sure that AI’s benefits are widely spread. And we need the U.S. to take the lead in creating international standards for AI safety.
Given what we know about technology, we can’t stuff AI back in a box. But we can collectively determine how it’s developed and how it’s used, rather than sitting back and letting AI and its fallout happen to us.
California congressman Robert Garcia, the senior Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, welcomed the US supreme court’s decision to block the US Postal Service from enforcing a rule to restrict the delivery of mail ballots in the midterm elections, in line with Donald Trump’s wishes.
“The Supreme Court has done the right thing by protecting the American people’s right to vote,” Garcia said in a statement. “Donald Trump tried to illegally interfere with our elections and undermine vote-by-mail for millions of Americans and failed. We will keep fighting to protect the right to vote of every single citizen in this country.”
“This decision is a big victory for voters this midterm election season,” Kristen Clarke, the NAACP general counsel, said in a statement on the US supreme court ruling that blocks the US Postal Service from enforcing a rule to restrict the delivery of mail ballots in the midterm elections.
“The Supreme Court rightly rejected an effort that would have made it harder for millions of Americans to participate in our elections,” Clarke added. “Mail voting is safe, secure, and deeply rooted in our nation’s history. The Court’s decision preserves a critical pathway to the ballot box and reaffirms that our democracy works best when every eligible voter can participate. We will continue to use every tool available to support Americans in registering their voices and their ballots this midterm election cycle.”
US supreme court blocks Trump administration from changing mail ballot rules for midterm elections
The US supreme court on Monday denied a request from the Trump administration to implement new US Postal Service restrictions on mail voting in the 2026 midterm elections, which have already started.
The decision allows states to continue sending out mail ballots without meeting new requirements the USPS tried to impose to comply with an executive order from Donald Trump, who insists without evidence that vote-by-mail is riddled with fraud.
The application for the high court to lift a lower court order blocking the implementation of the new postal service rule was denied by the court with just two noted dissents, from the conservative justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
“The Government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge to the District Court’s preliminary injunction,” the brief, unsigned ruling stated. “And the equitable factors applicable for obtaining emergency relief from this Court do not favor a stay.”
In his eight-page dissent, Alito argued the opposite, writing: “The Government is likely to succeed on the merits of its appeal.”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurrence that he agreed that the restrictions should not go into effect for the midterms but indicated he might rule in favor of the Trump administration later.
Gavin Newsom tells CNN he won’t run in 2028 if Kamala Harris does because ‘the zen diagram on that is just pure crossover’
With a slip of the tongue reminiscent of Joe Biden, Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, told CNN that he would not run for president in 2028 if his fellow Californian, former vice-president Kamala Harris, decides to run again, since “I know what that means: I know her base of supporters, I know her friends, the zen diagram on that is just pure crossover.”
Newsom made the remark in part of an interview with Jake Tapper, the CNN host, conducted while the two men were fly-fishing at the governor’s in-laws’ ranch in Montana.
When Tapper pointed out that he could face two fellow Californians in the 2028 Democratic primary – Ro Khanna, the progressive congressman and Harris, Newsom replied: “I don’t know if she runs, but we’ll see.”
After Tapper said, “I know she’s called around,”Newsom added: “But I wouldn’t run if she ran.”
Pressed to explain why, the governor suggested that the two would likely compete for the same supporters and donors, and open the door for another candidate to win.
“First of all, electorally it’s a gift from God for everybody else. They’d enjoy the hell out of it. Mutual assured destruction. It serves no greater good,” Newsom said.
The fact that Newsom clearly said “zen” and not “Venn” in the video of the exchange posted online was hinted at in the CNN transcript of the conversation, which read: “I know what that means. I know her base of supporters, I know her friends, the (Venn) diagram on that is just pure crossover.”
While the Associated Press incorrectly reported that Newsom said “Venn diagram”, rightwing outlets highlighted and mocked the governor, who has been open about his dyslexia, for his slip. The Blaze, founded by the former Fox News host Glenn Beck, shared the video with the caption: “Gavin Newsom apparently doesn’t know what a Venn Diagram is.”
Newsom’s botched reference to a Venn diagram in relation to his own supporters and those of Harris might have been prompted by the former vice-president’s repeated references to her love of Venn diagrams in recent years, which was frequently mocked online by the Republican National Committee.
Mitch McConnell returns to Senate after long absence
Mitch McConnell, the 84-year-old former Senate majority leader from Kentucky, was seen in Washington for the first time in months on Monday, minutes before his office released a statement saying that he was back at work.
McConnell said in a statement that his months‑long absence for health reasons, which fueled rampant online speculation that he might be incapacitated, or worse, was over.
“Today, I’ll cast my first Senate vote since I took a bad fall back in June. I’m really looking forward to being back on the Senate floor and seeing my colleagues,” the statement began.
“My recovery has been a long and often frustrating process, and the lingering effects of childhood polio haven’t made it any easier. I’m still not quite back to 100%, but I’ve assured Leader Thune that, as I continue with physical therapy on the advice of my doctors, I will do my best to be present for tough votes when our Conference needs me,” he continued.
“Elaine and I are very grateful for all the continued well wishes from our fellow Kentuckians, and I’m glad to get back to more of business as usual on their behalf this month,” the statement added, with a reference to his wife, Elaine Chao, a former cabinet secretary in the first Trump administration whose visit to her native China during her husband’s illness had also been the focus of speculation online from McConnell’s critics on the left and the far-right.
Video of McConnell being moved from his Washington DC home in a wheelchair was posted on social media by one of his critics on the Maga right, the Kentucky influencer Nick Sortor, with the caustic comment: “This dude is in NO shape to be a US Senator.”
After Trump says he likes Flock surveillance cameras, Montana Senate candidate responds: ‘Flock off, man’
One day after Donald Trump expressed support for AI-powered Flock surveillance cameras, “because of law enforcement”, Seth Bodnar, a former president of the University of Montana who is mounting a strong campaign for the US Senate as an independent candidate, responded to the president on social media with a video of himself saying, “Flock off, man,” before shooting one of the cameras.
“Are you tired of security cameras watching your every move?” Bodnar asks at the start of the campaign video that shows him loading a rifle and destroying two cameras. “Yeah, me too.”
“Now the whole thing isn’t just creepy as hell, it’s also part of a massive economy designed to buy and sell our personal data. Now, we’ve known for years that Big Tech follows us online, but now these Flock cameras are literally tracking our every move,” Bodnar continues. “And all this data needs a place to live, so that’s why they want to build data centers right in our backyards.”
“They are all getting rich, and we’re getting screwed, and nobody is holding them accountable,” the candidate, who is second to his Republican rival in a recent poll, says before taking aim at one of the cameras and blasting it.
Trump, who dodged a question about Flock cameras last month amid a bipartisan backlash, was asked on Sunday by Beni Harmony, a correspondent for the far-right network Real America’s Voice, if he agreed with law enforcement officers who support the network of over 100,000 cameras.
“I sort of like them because of that, because of law enforcement, but some people don’t, they think it’s an infringement,” Trump told Harmony, a former spokesperson for two far-right Republican congressmen, Paul Gosar and Matt Gaetz.
“They help catch a lot of criminals,” Harmony interjected.
“But I like them,” Trump concluded.
Harmony, who began her media career as a producer for Turning Point USA, achieved viral fame in right-wing media last year after she claimed that she had been suspended by a local news station in 2025 for an on-air tribute to Charlie Kirk after his death.
Speaking on the US Senate floor on Monday, Chuck Schumer, the senior Senate Democrat, scoffed at Donald Trump’s claim that he could personally regulate AI, amid concerns that the advanced technology could pose an existential threat to humanity.
“The warning signs about AI’s rapid pace have never been clearer,” Schumer said. “But what is President Trump’s response to the recent calls for the government to regulate AI – even from industry leaders? Trump says, ‘the only control or guardrails that AI needs is a strong and smart high IQ president.’”
“Well, even if we had a high-IQ president right now – and we surely don’t – it wouldn’t be enough. Congress cannot afford to turn a blind eye to AI,” the New York Democrat continued. “Today, I’m calling for an all-Senators classified briefing with top administration officials to address the dangers of unchecked AI development and hold the administration accountable for its lack of action to protect the American people.”
Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, condemned the Trump administration’s reported plan to repeal rules limiting carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, which were introduced by the Biden administration, a clear case of corruption.
“It’s simple”, the senator posted on social media, with a link to a Washington Post report on the planned rollback of regulations on emissions of climate changing gas. “Big Oil & Big Coal give millions to help get Trump elected. He lets them pollute more. You get dirtier air, extreme heat, flooding, & droughts.”
“Trump’s trading away your health & safety to pad his donors’ pockets,” Van Hollen added. “Polluters win, Trump wins, you lose.”
Here’s a recap of the day so far
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Donald Trump has claimed there is a “SICK conspiracy” against artificial intelligence and data centers in response to the growing calls for greater checks on AI development. “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, insisting that the administration has stopped leaders of AI companies from “doing bad, or potentially bad” things. This comes after a number of AI company CEOs called for the advancement of the technology to slow down.
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House speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Capitol Hill that the White House will schedule a meeting with artificial intelligence executives either by the “end of this week or early next week”. However, the speaker said that while the legislative branch could have “a role” moving forward, he did not want to act “irrationally or haphazardly”. He added: “If you do that, then you lose your edge, and that is a national security concern for the American people.”
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Meanwhile, vice-president JD Vance told reporters today that he doesn’t think Americans “should be scared of anything” when it comes to concerns about AI regulation. Vance also noted that he was skeptical of AI companies “begging” the government for increased regulation. “It feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan horse. So I think we just have to be careful about this,” he said.
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For his part, Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader has called for an all-senators briefing with key administration officials to discuss the administration’s actions to regulate “responsible” development of artificial intelligence, and “stopping China’s advancement of AI”. “I have long argued that we must keep the US as the global leader in AI innovation and security,” Schumer, a Democratic senator from New York, said in a statement. “But that innovation must be coupled with serious guardrails that earn the trust of the American public.”
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Detainees at Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” federal immigration jail were frequently locked in outside metal cages no bigger than a phone booth, according to a damning government watchdog report. The findings from the office of the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were published on its website – and offer rare criticism of the Trump administration by one of its own agencies. The report also provides the first official confirmation that guards repeatedly used the highly restrictive cages on detainees in direct contravention of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rules. More here
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Two dozen states and the District of Columbia have sued the Trump administration over a rule that would make it harder for adults to get a green card. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy, due to take effect on Friday, grants immigration officials greater authority to reject green cards if applicants are deemed likely to rely on public assistance programs like food stamps and Medicaid. Federal law already requires those seeking to become US permanent residents to prove they will not be a burden to the US – also known as a “public charge” – but the new rule includes a broader range of programs that could disqualify them.
Some more context following the news that Mike Johnson and Donald Trump are set to meet with AI company executives by the end of this week or early next.
Trump met privately with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman backstage at the Republican midterm convention last week, according to MS Now.
Citing three people familiar with the matter, Altman met with the president on Thursday, just days after Jacob Coxon – a former researcher for Anthropic and OpenAI said that “neither company was acting responsibly”, as the technology continued to develop rapidly.
According to one of MS Now’s sources, Altman requested the meeting with Trump, which was reportedly centered on artificial intelligence and its growing power. Altman was also one of the CEOs who spoke out about the need for increased guardrails.
Johnson says he will meet with AI execs ‘soon’ alongside Trump
House speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Capitol Hill that the White House will schedule a meeting with artificial intelligence executives and company CEOs “soon”.
“I think either end of this week or early next week. But wait and see,” he told reporters.
The speaker didn’t say whether Congress would try and rush through any legislation to curb AI development this week, before House lawmakers head out of Washington to continue campaigning ahead of the November midterms. However, Johnson confirmed that the Ratepayer Protection Act – a piece of legislation that would require tech companies to cover the costs associated with datacenters – will head to the House floor this week. The speaker said that he supported the bill.
On Sunday, Johnson said it was up to tech companies, not Congress, to guarantee the safety of their artificial intelligence products. However, on the Hill today, he seemed to say that the legislative branch could have “a role” moving forward, but did not want to act “irrationally or haphazardly”.
“The reflex of legislative bodies is to cover things up with red tape and hyper-regulation. If you do that, then you lose your edge, and that is a national security concern for the American people,” he said.
Trump ‘open to’ talks with Iran, insists that countries should reimburse US for oil arriving through strait of Hormuz
On Truth Social, Donald Trump also claimed that Iran wants to make a deal “quickly and badly”, and that while the US president will “determine” whether to engage, the US is “open to” the “concept”.
This comes after scheduled talks between Gulf states and Iran about the future control of the strait of Hormuz, were postponed today.
Earlier, Trump insisted that other countries who have benefited from oil that has arrived through the vital passageway should ultimately reimburse the US.
“The Countries of the World, which have been no help to us whatsoever, should, and will, reimburse the United States of America when this SCAM Confligration is all over,” Trump said. “We are doing it much more for others, than we are for ourselves, and we have been for Generations!”
The president has claimed that the “only reason” that there has been such consternation about increased guardrails on artificial intelligence is because the US is “leading” development of new technology. “Don’t kill the Golden Goose!” Trump warned on Truth Social.
However, the recent pushback, including from leading AI company CEOs has been in response to employees who have warned of irresponsible and “reckless” growth in the space, which – they argue – is threatening humanity.
