Lindsey Graham Splits From Trump Over Putin and Ukraine

While the Trump administration extends its long leash on Russia, Republicans are running out of rope for dealing with the White House.

In reaction to a Wall Street Journal editorial note demanding change in America’s negotiating strategy, Senator Lindsey Graham said that the Senate is “prepared” to do what the president has not, and slap severe sanctions on Moscow.

“I have coordinated with the White House on the Russia sanctions bill since its inception,” Graham penned Tuesday. “The bill would put Russia on a trade island, slapping 500 percent tariffs on any country that buys Moscow’s energy products. The consequences of its barbaric invasion must be made real to those that prop it up. If China or India stopped buying cheap oil, Mr. Putin’s war machine would grind to a halt.

“The sanctions bill has 82 co-sponsors,” he continued. “As [Senator John] Thune said last week, if Mr. Putin continues to play games, the Senate will act. I’m hoping for the best, but when it comes to the thug in Moscow, we should all prepare for more of the same.”

Graham further claimed that Ukraine had been a ready and willing negotiating partner, unlike Russia, and that the Senate would know “which course to take” once Putin provided a “term sheet outlining the requirements for a cease-fire.” But since Donald Trump has taken office, the White House has repeatedly bent to Kremlin demands that prior administrations would have interpreted as outrageous requests.

The U.S. president has claimed that Russia has offered major concessions toward a possible peace deal, although the “concessions” have included staking a Russian flag in Crimea, a deal that would effectively reward Russia for falling short of conquering the entire country.

Senior officials in the Trump administration—including the president himself—have verbally recognized Crimea as a part of Russia, a remarkable reversal of long-standing U.S. policy that made Kremlin propagandists on state-sponsored television laugh at the downfall of American power.

But rising frustration over the ongoing conflict—and Putin and Zelenskiy’s deep hatred for one another—has flustered Trump. Trump has since tried to backtrack his initial promises over the war. In a 100-day retrospective with Time magazine, Trump claimed that his campaign pledge to end the war “on day one” was little more than a joke.

Graham isn’t the only senator going on the offensive against the Trump administration when it comes to Putin. On Memorial Day, Senator Chuck Grassley practically begged the president to do something about the situation in Ukraine.

“I’ve had enuf of Putin killing innocent ppl,” Grassley posted on X Monday after Russia attacked Ukraine with a new volley of drones. “Pres Trump Take action AT LEAST SANCTIONS.”

Federal Judge Brian Murphy lambasted the Trump administration for “manufacturing the very chaos they decry” in a scathing Monday evening order. 

This comes after the Department of Homeland Security deported six men to South Sudan in a hurried move that Murphy identified as a clear violation of his previous preliminary injunction, which required DHS to give “meaningful” notice before deporting someone to  an unfamiliar country, particularly an “unstable” one, without due process. 

“Defendants have mischaracterized this Court’s order, while at the same time manufacturing the very chaos they decry,” Murphy wrote in his Monday order.

“The court recognizes that the class members at issue here have criminal histories,” he continued “But that does not change due process.… The court treats its obligation to these principles with the seriousness that anyone committed to the rule of law should understand.”

Murphy noted that he initially accepted the administration’s own recommendation to keep the men at a U.S. military base in Djibouti rather than send them to South Sudan. But days later, Trump lied about the judge’s order, making it seem as if Murphy had required the men to stay in Djibouti. 

“A Federal Judge in Boston, who knew absolutely nothing about the situation, or anything else, has ordered that EIGHT of the most violent criminals on Earth curtail their journey to South Sudan, and instead remain in Djibouti,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “He would not allow these monsters to proceed to their final destination. This is not the premise under which I was elected President, which was to PROTECT our Nation. The Judges are absolutely out of control, they’re hurting our Country, and they know nothing about particular situations, or what they are doing—And this must change, IMMEDIATELY!” 

This was a complete lie, according to Murphy. 

“The court never said that defendants had to convert their foreign military base into an immigration facility,” he wrote in the memo. “It only left that as an option, again, at defendants’ request.”

Donald Trump announced Tuesday he was perfectly content to levy massive tariffs on goods from the European Union, while his economic advisers maintained that a lower rate is likely to stay in place no matter what.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that he was “extremely satisfied” with his outlandish threat to place a whopping 50 percent tariff on European goods, if the bloc failed to work out a new trade deal with the United States. He accused the nations of “slow walking” negotiations, though over the weekend, he had agreed to extend the deadline for that deal to July 9.

“Remember, I am empowered to ‘SET A DEAL’ for Trade into the United States if we are unable to make a deal, or are treated unfairly,” Trump wrote.

“I have just been informed that the E.U. has called to quickly establish meeting dates. This is a positive event, and I hope that they will, FINALLY, like my same demand to China, open up the European Nations for Trade with the United States of America. They will BOTH be very happy, and successful, if they do!!!” he added.

The EU agreed to fast-track tariff discussions Monday, according to a spokesperson for the European Commission. The U.S. currently applies 25 percent tariffs on steel, aluminium and cars from the EU, in addition to a blanket 10 percent tariffs on all European imports.

Meanwhile, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNBC Tuesday that countries that come up with “good-enough offers” were likely to keep a 10 percent tariff rate, “or perhaps even below.”

“But if they come in with retaliation and they don’t open their markets to U.S. goods, then it will go the other way,” Hassett said.

Hassett also said that the EU remained indecisive about how to respond to Trump’s threats. Last month, the European Commission greenlit tariffs of up to 25 percent on cigarettes from Florida, beef from Kansas and Nebraska, chicken from Louisiana, car parts from Michigan, and most importantly, soybeans.

Donald Trump is escalating his war against Harvard University and trying to cut all remaining federal ties with the institution. 

The New York Times reports that the president is seeking to end all government contracts with Harvard, which total about $100 million, according to a letter prepared by the General Services Administration, the government’s purchasing arm. The GSA instructs all federal agencies to respond by June 6 with the contracts they have canceled with Harvard, with any critical contracts transitioned to other vendors.  

“Going forward, we also encourage your agency to seek alternative vendors for future services where you had previously considered Harvard,” the letter states.

According to the Times, some contracts that could be canceled could be a $25,800 Department of Homeland Security contract for senior executive training and a National Institutes of Health contract of $49,858 on the effects of drinking coffee. The Trump administration has already made several rounds of cuts to the university’s federal grands, totaling millions of dollars, including $60 million in cuts coming one week ago. 

Earlier this month, Trump signaled plans to have the university’s tax-exempt status revoked, and on Thursday, Trump’s DHS tried to ban Harvard’s ability to enroll international students. But the university immediately sued, and a judge temporarily blocked the administration’s move. 

The loss of millions of dollars in federal grants and contracts isn’t so easily remedied, though, even by one of the country’s wealthiest universities. Trump has plenty of support from his conservative base for his attacks on Harvard and other major universities. Many on the right accuse these institutions of stoking antisemitism by allowing protests against Israel’s war in Gaza over the past year.  

It’s all part of a long-standing right-wing agenda to take over America’s elite institutions to push a conservative cultural and political agenda. Will Harvard, and the other ivory towers of academia, be able to withstand these attacks?

Electric car sales are booming in Europe—but not for Tesla.

The Elon Musk–led automaker’s sales continue to decline in the continent, dropping by 49 percent since April 2024 across 32 countries, according to a report by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association released Tuesday. In the background of the company’s terrible tumble, sales for all other electric car companies rose by 28 percent in April.

It’s not the only recent bit of rough news for the carmaker since Musk decided to infuse far-right politics into his brand. Musk’s support for Donald Trump and the U.S. president’s far-right, government-destroying policies has influenced buyers, leading to boycotts at home and abroad that have drastically affected Tesla’s margins.

Musk’s political foray has also hit Tesla in its key demographics, affecting purchasing options for the carmaker’s historically liberal and environmentally conscious consumer base. Tesla was previously Europe’s favorite electric vehicle company—but last week, numbers emerged revealing that its sales had been overtaken by Chinese company BYD in April, which sold 7,231 fully electric cars compared to Tesla’s 1,165, according to data from Jato Dynamics.

But the multibillionaire CEO hasn’t publicly winced at the sinking numbers. Speaking with Bloomberg at the Qatar Economic Forum last week, the world’s richest man pointed to Tesla’s rising stock as evidence that bullish investors were likely to ignore his political activism.

“We’ve lost some sales perhaps on the left, but we’ve gained them on the right. The sales numbers at this point are strong and we see no problem with demand,” the Tesla CEO said. “The stock wouldn’t be trading near all-time highs if things weren’t in good shape, they’re fine, don’t worry about it.”  

Musk’s time in the White House hasn’t just been a P.R. nightmare for the car company. At the beginning of this month, Musk said he would take a step back from leading DOGE to focus on Tesla after the company’s first-quarter earnings fell far below expectations, with its profit plummeting by 71 percent.

Board members, executives, and major investors in Tesla have already jumped ship. Four top officers at the company unloaded more than $100 million in stock between February and March, reported ABC News. They include James Murdoch, the estranged son of right-wing media magnate Rupert Murdoch, and Elon Musk’s brother Kimbal Musk, the latter of whom shed $27 million from the carmaker, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Pete Hegseth’s lawyer suggested that the Pentagon may have fired three of the defense secretary’s top aides last month as the result of an illegal wiretap, according to an exclusive from The Guardian.

White House advisers were reportedly shocked when Tim Parlatore, Hegseth’s personal lawyer who was tasked with overseeing an investigation into a series of leaks at the Pentagon, told them that a warrantless wiretap was used to find classified documents on the phone of the secretary’s then–senior adviser Dan Caldwell.

Caldwell was dismissed last month, alongside the chief of staff to the deputy defense secretary, Colin Carroll, and deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick. Hegseth was reportedly counseled to dismiss those three by Joe Kasper, his former chief of staff, as part of a detonating power struggle within their office.

Kasper was reportedly close with Parlatore, who was charged with investigating his enemies at work, according to The Guardian.

In mid-April, White House advisers reportedly caught wind that there was evidence Caldwell had taken a photograph of U.S. military plans for Panama on his phone. After Caldwell was removed, they were disturbed that he maintained his innocence, claiming that individuals with “personal vendettas” against Hegseth’s three ousted advisers had “weaponized” the investigation against them.

Advisers also heard another rumor that the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, which had been looking into the leaked document, had focused its search on mid-level aides. They hadn’t turned their attention to the three top aides until the weekend after they were fired.

When the White House questioned Parlatore about how he’d determined that Caldwell had the leaked document on his phone, he suggested that a wiretap had taken place. He later denied this, and said all information he’d received had been passed to him from officials at the Pentagon. The Guardian noted that a warrantless wiretap, as this allegedly was, would “almost certainly be unconstitutional.”

While White House advisers found this claim to be untrue, The Guardian reported that the incident significantly undermined Parlatore’s credibility. The investigation was transferred to deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, while Parlatore went to work on another case.

Concerns over leaks within the Trump administration have been escalating since before Hegseth’s humiliating Signalgate scandal. As the administration has begun to wheel out the lie detectors, morale has plummeted. Carroll, one of Hegseth’s ousted aides, said on a podcast last month that his former boss and his team had become “consumed” by leaks. “If you look at a pie chart of the secretary’s day, at this point, 50 percent of it is probably a leak investigation,” he said.

The president and his speechwriters just had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad weekend.

Over the course of 72 hours, Donald Trump droned and dragged his way through stump speeches and interviews with the press, making some critics question whether the 78-year-old was still totally with it.

Trump urged the officer class of West Point Military Academy to “not lose momentum” on Saturday—but while doing so, he went on a long, rambling side note about Cold War–era real estate businessman Bill Leavitt and his “trophy wife,” his yacht, and how he lost it all.

At an Arlington Memorial Day ceremony intended to commemorate fallen soldiers, Trump basically alleged that his second term was a gift from God because the nation would experience both the World Cup and the Olympics during the next four years.

“In some ways I’m glad I missed that second term where it was,” Trump said, apparently refusing once again to acknowledge that he lost the 2020 presidential election. “Because I wouldn’t be your president for that—most important of all, in addition we have the World Cup and we have the Olympics.

“Can you imagine, I miss that four years and now I have everything,” Trump continued. “Amazing the way things work out. God did that; I believe that.”

(The World Cup and the Olympics are not scheduled by God, as you can imagine. Instead, they are both held every four years, with host countries selected through non-national organizations.)

During the same speech, Trump offered another verbal “covfefe” moment, lazily stumbling over the word “cryptologist” and instead blurting out “cryptolologic” while referring to a technician.

On Sunday, Trump spoke with reporters on the tarmac in Morristown, New Jersey, only to reveal (while boasting) that he actually did not understand the specifics of a deal between U.S. Steel and Japanese company Nippon Steel. Trump had announced the partnership on social media Friday, claiming that it would create “at least 70,000 jobs” and add “$14 billion dollars [sic]” to the economy. But instead of sharing the specifics of the deal on Sunday, the president mistakenly pitched that Japanese carmaker Nissan was involved in the steel arrangement.

“Everybody seems to want it, and we’ll see. We’ll see what the final is, but they’re going to invest billions of dollars in steel, and it’s a good company—Nissan—a very good company,” Trump said. “It’s an investment and a partial ownership but it will be controlled by the U.S.A.”

NPR is suing President Trump. 

National Public Radio and three local Colorado affiliates filed a suit Tuesday morning against the president on the grounds that his executive order to cut the organization off from federal funding is a violation of free speech rights—and an attempt to usurp Congress’s power of appropriating federal funding. 

Trump’s  May order barred the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a congressionally authorized private corporation, from sending funds to NPR and PBS. 

“The Executive Order is a clear violation of the Constitution and the First Amendment’s protections for freedom of speech and association, and freedom of the press,” said NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher.

Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio, and KSUT are the other represented stations on the suit. 

Trump has been attacking NPR and other liberal media institutions for some time now, pushing the tried and true conservative narrative that the network is a propaganda arm of the U.S. left. 

“NPR and PBS, two horrible and completely biased platforms (Networks!), should be DEFUNDED by Congress, IMMEDIATELY,” he wrote in March. “Republicans, don’t miss this opportunity to rid our Country of this giant SCAM, both being arms of the Radical Left Democrat Party. JUST SAY NO AND, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

This story has been updated.

Incredibly unsurprising news: The people who paid millions of dollars to get into Trump’s lavish cryptocurrency dinner did so to directly influence the president’s financial policy in their favor.

“I will definitely not hesitate to share my perspective,” Vincent Liu, CIO of Taiwanese-based crypto firm Kronos Research, who bought enough of Trump’s crypto to attend the dinner Thursday night, told The New York Times. “It’s great to see the current direction that everything’s going.”

“It’s kind of a fund-raiser” for Mr. Trump, Korean crypto executive Sangrok Oh and another dinner attendee, told the Times. “And he’ll always be good to his sponsors.”

The dinner was held at Trump’s private golf club in northern Virginia on Thursday evening for the top 220 holders of the president’s meme coin cryptocurrency—after an auction that brought in $147,586,796.41. Protesters lined the entrance to the building, chanting “Shame, shame, shame!” and holding up signs while attendees arrived.

The event was promoted as the “most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the world,” according to an email. While the top 220 buyers got into the gala, the top 25 buyers received a much more personal, “ultra-exclusive private VIP reception” and “Special VIP Tour” with Trump, allowing them unfettered access to the president.

There were also some other high-profile attendees there (with much smaller pockets than the likes of Liu and Oh). Embattled former NBA player and reality TV star Lamar Odom posted a video on X of himself walking into the event while boos and jeers rained down on him from the crowd.

“I’m just about to pass through security and officially walk into the Trump Gala.

Honestly … I’m fired up. Think about it—what meme coin has ever done this?” Odom wrote on X, plugging his own meme coin, as well. “$ODOM isn’t just a token, it’s taking the stage at a presidential gala tonight!”

Trump’s cryptocurrency has been widely condemned as a blatant conflict of interest that completely blurs the lines between executive power and private business.

“Donald Trump’s dinner is an orgy of corruption. That’s what this is all about,” Senator Elizabeth Warren said that evening. “Donald Trump is using the presidency of the United States to make himself richer through crypto, and he’s doing it right out there in plain sight. He is signaling to anyone who wants to ask for a special favor—and is willing to pay for it—exactly how to do that.

Crypto-investors anonymously shelled out a total $148 million to purchase access to Donald Trump, but all they got was a low-quality steak.

Guests at Trump’s supposedly “intimate” gala for the 220 top buyers of the $TRUMP memecoin gathered at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia Thursday night, hoping for a little facetime with the president. But they were left entirely unsatisfied.

Nicholas Pinto, a 25-year-old social media influencer who spent a whopping $360,000 on the president’s memecoin, told Fortune that he was distinctly underwhelmed by the affair.

Trump, rather than cozy up to his guests, gave an address to the room that was “pretty much like bullshit,” Pinto said. Most guests struggled to get any face time with the president, according to Pinto. The event’s host Caitlin Sinclair, an anchor at OANN, said that she didn’t even get a picture with the commander-in-chief, Pinto recalled.

Christoph Heuermann, who shared a series of photographs from the event on his Instagram page, wrote that Trump gave a brief 20-minute speech “and didn’t interact with the crowd other than enjoying being celebrated.”

Only the 25 biggest investors were given access to a small VIP reception with Trump. The rest were left with only their halibut or filet mignon.

During the banquet, Pinto texted Fortune to say that the food was “trash.”

“Walmart steak, man,” he wrote.

Guests reportedly included the coin’s top buyer Justin Sun, a Chinese billionaire who founded the crypto platform Tron, and former Los Angeles Laker Lamar Odom. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that a list of attendees would not be made public because the president was attending the event off-the-clock—which doesn’t even begin to resolve the conflicts of interest issues at play for the president of the United States.

On average, each person had spent roughly $1.8 million on the president’s meme coin, in what many critics have called a blatant pay-for-access scheme.