Three Trump-Appointed Judges Deliver Major Blow to Kalshi

A federal court has dealt a serious blow to prediction markets, ruling that Kalshi can’t block the state of Nevada from regulating its platform. 

The Ninth Circuit ​Court of Appeals in San Francisco ​ruled 3-0 against Kalshi Friday, saying that federal commodity training law doesn’t block Nevada from also regulating the platform when it comes to betting on sports events. All three judges were appointed to the federal bench by President Trump.

Circuit Judge Ryan Nelson said Kalshi’s business clearly seems to be in sports betting, “a quintessential form of gambling” that would put it out of the purview of the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission. He noted that Kalshi has run ads describing itself as “the first app for legal sports betting.” 

“It is difficult, then, to conclude that Congress intended to ​upend its decades of careful regulation ​of gambling based on broad definitions ⁠of the words used in a Wall Street Reform Bill,” Nelson wrote in his ruling. “The CFTC is not a national gambling regulator. No one suggested it was until over a decade after the law was passed.”

The Trump administration has fought to keep states from regulating prediction markets, arguing that the CFTC is in charge. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, told Republican state attorneys general at a meeting earlier this year to back off any action against businesses like Kalshi and Polymarket. The lack of clarity over what laws govern prediction markets, which include betting on political and international events in addition to sports, has already proven to be a major problem. 

Nevada’s win on Friday is one of several legal actions launched by both Republican and Democratic state governments against prediction markets, with 20 states in litigation over whether prediction markets fall under sports gambling laws. In July, 44 states signed a letter calling prediction markets a “new form of casino” endangering young people. In March, Arizona became the first state to criminally charge Kalshi for allowing people to bet on elections and “operating an illegal gambling business.”  

In April, the Third ​Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled against the state of New Jersey’s attempt to regulate prediction markets, setting up conflicting rulings and increasing the likelihood that the Supreme Court will address oversight of prediction markets in the near future.

President Donald Trump flew to Texas Friday to award the Artemis II team with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor—but still managed to make the event all about him. 

After making the team wait on stage for him for half an hour, the president began his meandering speech by recounting his experience watching the launch earlier this year during a “very important meeting with the biggest people in the country, maybe some of the biggest people in the world.”

Trump briefly addressed the day’s honorees—Reed Weisman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hanson, who would soon receive the highest U.S. space award— before rambling about how he’d inherited his love of space “genetically” from his uncle.

“He loved space, he used to tell me about space, space, all space,” Trump said. “He would throw in the word nuclear every once in a while. He loved space. So I guess we have, genetically, we sort of, I believe in that stuff. I love it. I find it so interesting.”

While musing that he “shouldn’t get political,” Trump shouted-out several Republican politicians in attendance, including Senator Ted Cruz, Representative Brian Babin, Representative Jake Ellzey, and Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who was Trump’s state campaign chairman during the last three elections. 

As the president turned back to his prepared remarks the room remained awkwardly silent, not bothering to applaud. 

But it didn’t exactly seem that Trump was winning over his audience as he claimed the country’s space program was merely “limping along” while he was out of office. 

“And now I’m back, and we’re doing more than limping, we don’t limp,” he said, to no response from the crowd. Desperate for any audience reaction, Trump veered into commenting on the astronauts’ appearances. “This is a good looking group of people,” Trump said, as the audience again remained quiet.  

It’s not surprising that Trump’s remarks didn’t resonate with the scientists at NASA. His mission to reignite the country’s space program is motivated by vanity, nationalism, and his desire to “never be second,” rather than actual exploration. Plus, he proposed a whopping 23 percent cut to the agency’s 2027 budget.

President Donald Trump has a new idea that’s pretty much certain to make Americans sicker—and it’s all thanks to Glenn Beck.

In a post on Truth Social Friday morning Trump called the Big Four meat-processing companies a “nasty Monopoly,” and said he would authorize legal documents to be drawn in order to grant farmers and ranchers the right to slaughter and process their own meat instead of using facilities inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “This should move quickly,” he added.

It appears that Trump was inspired to act during an interview Wednesday on the Glenn Beck Program, when the host—and cattle rancher—raged against the “meat-processing cartel” and urged the president to “break the back of those processing plants.”

“This is a very big thing you just told me, though, because you just gave me a very good idea,” Trump replied.

But not everyone agrees with Trump’s “very good idea,” including the National Cattleman’s Beef Association, which released a statement Friday opposing the plan.

“NCBA supports more competition, more opportunities for small & regional processors, and eliminating unnecessary regulations but weakening federal meat inspection & food safety standards isn’t the answer,” the statement said. “America’s cattle producers have earned consumer trust in U.S. beef over generations. That trust, and the gold standard food safety system behind it, shouldn’t be put at risk for a short-term political fix.”

In the beef industry, just four processors control 85 percent of the market: Tyson Foods and Cargill Incorporated, which are U.S-owned, as well as JBS and National Beef, which are Brazilian-owned. In May, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into the big four meat-processing companies. In June, the Department of Agriculture directed $60 million to support small meat processors.

Trump’s short-sighted announcement arrives as the president faces major backlash on a plan to begin importing tariff-free beef. The plan has been condemned by the American Farm Bureau, and to make matters weirder, the administration won’t reveal where the imported beef will come from.

All of this comes as beef prices are steadily rising, and as the shrinking American herd struggles to keep up with high demand. At the same time, farmers in the Midwest—who were once some of the president’s most steadfast supporters—are facing the toughest economic crisis in decades.

Far-right political pundit Milo Yiannopoulos has been detained by ICE in Louisiana.

TMZ reports that Yiannopoulos, who reportedly works as a spokesperson and legal liaison for Kanye West, was detained at an airport, and is now being held in a detention facility.

Far-right commentator, Trump administration confidant, and bigot Laura Loomer took credit for Yiannopoulos’s arrest and detention, claiming on X that she “was the first person to report on the fact that Milo was in the US illegally where he incited violence against President Trump and worked for Marjorie Traitor Greene.”

“When Milo called for me to be assassinated, I reported him to ICE and the FBI. I told you all that Milo was an illegal alien. He was detained in Louisiana by @ICEgov,” Loomer posted. “Milo is going to be deported back to the UK where he can live among the Muslims he has recently chosen to embrace. Today is a great day for America.”

Yiannopoulos has oddly been supportive of Muslims in recent months on his X account, a reversal of his history of bigotry towards Islam and its adherents. That has put him at odds with Loomer, who speaks proudly of her Islamophobia, and the two publicly feud online. Loomer has boasted about getting people deported by the Trump administration before.

The British-born Yiannopoulos has a long history of racism, white nationalism, and controversy. He used the 2014 Gamergate online harassment campaign to build up his right-wing following, later working as a Breitbart editor under Steve Bannon. He was depicted singing “America the Beautiful” with a group of neo-Nazis and white supremacists including Richard Spencer at a Dallas, Texas, bar in 2016, who cheered him on with the Nazi “Seig Heil” salute.

Yiannopoulos’s stature was diminished in 2017 when video clips circulated of him defending pedophilia, specifically “consensual” sex between adults and 13-year-old boys. He lost a book deal, had to resign from Breitbart, and lost an invitation to speak at CPAC. Now, depending on how his immigration case goes, he could be deported to the United Kingdom.

This story has been updated.

President Trump has his sights on taking over two Pacific island countries: Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.

The president posted a picture to his Truth Social account Thursday night labeled “U.S. Territories,” showing the flags of the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands along with multiple U.S. territories. The image also included a map of the Strait of Hormuz, labeled “new.”

The Marshall Islands were occupied and administered by the U.S. during World War II, and Congress granted the islands their independence in 1979. Micronesia also was occupied by the U.S. during the war, gaining its independence in 1990. Both have a Compact of Free Association with the U.S., which means they get financial assistance and access to certain U.S. government programs, such as the U.S. Postal Service and National Weather Service.

Why Trump is claiming them along with the Strait of Hormuz (which the U.S. doesn’t actually control) isn’t clear. Perhaps the president doesn’t understand the CFA arrangement, which also allows the U.S. military to operate in the territories, and thinks that means that they are part of the U.S. And for some reason, his picture didn’t include Palau, another country in the Pacific Ocean that is also part of the CFA with the U.S.

In Trump’s second term, his administration has hurt relations with Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau, failing to adequately staff U.S. government positions dealing with the countries, such as the Joint Economic Management and Financial Accountability Committee as well as the Joint Economic Management Committee.

Why is Trump claiming these island countries now, especially considering that he hasn’t achieved his dream of taking over Greenland? The CFA ensures a close relationship just short of total U.S. control anyway. Trump’s pointless, braggadocious post isn’t likely to improve relations with the Marshall Islands or Micronesia. Even with the CFA, the Trump administration’s neglect could push them closer into the orbit of a big power in the region: China.