Trump’s Sons Are Making Billions on Defense Department Contracts

In the latest instance of Donald Trump’s family lining their pockets during his time in the White House, the president’s sons are cashing in on the administration’s military spending strategy with investments in defense technology.

A new analysis from The Washington Post found that investment funds associated with Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have “invested in more than a dozen defense tech companies and other firms seeking businesses from the Pentagon and federal agencies.”

Since the brothers’ investments, those firms have secured at least $3.2 billion in federal contracts in total, as well as $3.1 billion in future contract options. Some have even gained entry to exclusive preapproved contractor shortlists and, with that, the opportunity to “bid exclusively on up to nearly $200 billion in future work.”

The companies are benefiting from a ramped-up approach to military spending, which started under Joe Biden but escalated significantly under Trump, reports the Post.

Unsurprisingly, in statements to the newspaper, spokespeople for the administration, the Trump brothers, and the defense contractors have dismissed the plain conflict-of-interest concerns raised by the story. They insist that the contracts have been awarded solely on merit and that there is no corruption afoot.

Far-right conspiracy theorists still aren’t convinced that Mitch McConnell is alive.

The Kentucky senator hasn’t been seen since June 14, when he was found unconscious in his Washington residence. For weeks, McConnell’s office has refused to provide a clear explanation regarding his absence, offering scant details regarding the 84-year-old Republican’s hospitalization.

The media blackout ended on Sunday, when McConnell’s office shared a photo of the lawmaker beside his wife, holding a copy of The Washington Post’s Sunday sports section in his lap.

“My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion. I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke,” McConnell purportedly said in a statement released by his office. “I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages. But I was briefly unconscious and was taken to the hospital. While receiving excellent care over the past several weeks, I’ve also had to deal with a mild case of pneumonia.”

He added that he’s since been moved to a rehabilitation facility, and while he isn’t “able to return to the Senate floor to vote quite yet,” he is still “working closely” with legislative staff.

But some figures on the far right were still not satisfied by the update, openly speculating that something was gravely wrong with McConnell.

“How come Mitch McConnell’s staff won’t release a video of him? A photo could have been taken at any time. I call BS. The American people aren’t stupid,” wrote political influencer and Trump loyalist Laura Loomer.

In a string of social media posts, Loomer further claimed that there’s “no way Mitch McConnell wrote that essay,” and questioned whether the newspaper in the photograph had been AI-generated, despite the fact that the pictured stories accurately represented the Post’s Sunday coverage.

“The text is blurry and the tag on his shirt is blurred. Also, if he’s in the hospital, why is there no IV connected to him to monitor his health?” wrote Loomer. “This is such bullshit. His staff are liars.”

Former Utah representative and Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz also urged McConnell to get on video, writing on X: “Let’s see you say it. A written statement is far different than saying it on camera.”

Former Fox News producer Kylie Jane Kremer demanded to see the “metadata on the original photo” of McConnell, and argued online that “the public deserves clear, direct proof that Senator McConnell is recovering and able to communicate.”

“A brief, unedited video would put nearly all of these questions to rest,” Kremer said.

Trump last instituted a blockade on the strait in April, after Iran had already closed the vital passageway. The U.S. blockade wasn’t particularly successful back then, considering that Iran had the economic resources to outlast it, and ended with the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding last month.

Over the weekend, Iran targeted U.S. military bases in the Persian Gulf and Jordan, while the U.S. said it had attacked military targets in Iran such as missile sites, air defenses, and coastal radar. Iran says it will not come back to the negotiating table until there is a new ceasefire, although Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi went to Oman on Saturday to speak with regional mediators about the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s leader Mojtaba Khamenei called for revenge against the U.S. in an X post on Saturday following last week’s state funeral for his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes at the beginning of the war in February. It remains to be seen if and when tensions will settle down long enough for negotiations to resume.

This story has been updated.

President Trump is spending taxpayer funds worth thousands of dollars to make and hang more large banners with his face on them all over federal buildings in Washington, D.C.

Democratic Senator Adam Schiff shared newly discovered federal contracts with MeidasTouch News that show government agencies putting their own budgets toward “America First” banners, which include ones of the president’s face.

The Department of the Interior made a $39,000 contract for “America First” banners with Trump’s portrait, while the Federal Aviation Administration awarded a $114,000 contract for “Freedom 250” banners. Both contracts went to a Maryland-based graphic design agency called Grafik Industries.

Using taxpayer dollars to fund government propaganda and self-promotion by public officials isn’t allowed, Schiff says.

“The Trump administration is spending hundreds of thousands of your tax dollars to glorify and pay tribute to a sitting U.S. President and his political agenda,” Schiff said in a statement. “Not only is this a terrible waste of Americans’ hard-earned money, it is clearly against the law. Congress has long outlawed spending tax dollars on propaganda and self-aggrandizement and an eight-story high Donald Trump head certainly qualifies as propaganda.”

In September, Schiff issued a report showing that Trump had spent at least $56,000 on promotional banners with his face that were later hung on government buildings, including the Department of Labor, Department of Agriculture, and Department of Health and Human Services headquarters. This is part of a pattern of Trump wanting to put his name and face on as many things as possible in Washington, D.C. and remake the city in his own image.

No matter how much money Trump wastes on his propaganda art, it won’t change the fact that his popularity is plummeting and that federal workers in the nation’s capital hate him.

A young man was shot and killed Monday morning by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Biddeford, Maine, according to reports by local media outlets and authorities.

“This morning a shooting occurred in Biddeford,” Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau wrote in a Facebook post. “A person was killed. ICE was involved. State Police and the Department of Public Safety are now on scene to gather details and would expect the FBI to investigate as well.”

The victim, who appears to have been shot while operating a car, was a 26-year-old Colombian man “who was authorized to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security number,” according to two immigrants rights groups, Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! Maine.

“A 26-year-old man came to Maine to live and work, and now his family is mourning his death following an incident involving ICE,” the groups said in a statement. “This is devastating, enraging, and unacceptable. His loved ones deserve answers, and the public deserves a full and transparent account of what happened.”

At a press conference Senator Angus King said the FBI would investigate the incident. King also said the agents involved were not wearing body cameras and that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had told him the victim was the target of an immigration operation “based on his immigration status.”

According to King, Mullin alleged the man “weaponized” his vehicle against an agent—recalling accusations ICE has made dubiously against other victims of high-profile fatal incidents involving the agency in the past.

A statement from the Maine Attorney General’s Office, citing “initial statements,” says the man “attempted to flee in a vehicle in the direction of the officer and was fatally shot.”

Footage of the aftermath appears to show ICE agents standing around the deceased man in an intersection, beside a white Kia sedan whose windshield bore several bullet holes.

A witness told the Portland Press Herald that he heard gunshots, then saw an SUV attempting to “ram a small white car in the intersection” before agents in vests stopped the white car and pulled the man from the vehicle. Before he died, the victim was “bleeding profusely from the head,” that witness said. “He was talking. He said, ‘I tried to stop.’”

Another witness told the Press Herald that the victim’s family was apparently at the scene of the shooting. As the man lay on the street, an “older woman” was present “with a distressed family,” including a toddler—a little girl in Bluey pajamas. “You took her dad, you took her dad!” the woman yelled.

This is at least the eleventh fatal ICE shooting since Donald Trump returned to office—and the second in less than a week, coming just days after ICE shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas, on July 7.

Members of the community protested the fatal shooting Monday morning and afternoon.

At one such protest, City Councilor Abigail Woods told the Biddeford Gazette, a local news source, that friends of hers had witnessed the incident. “It’s unacceptable to have one of our own residents in the city of Biddeford be murdered by ICE,” Woods said.

This story has been updated.