The Trump administration has raked in about $13 billion after taking over Venezuela’s oil exports in the wake of its kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro, according to a Financial Times analysis. But six months later, and one month after two devastating earthquakes, that money is nowhere to be found.When Trump first seized the “millions of barrels” of oil back in January, he assumed complete control. His administration eventually proclaimed that it would use any profit from the sales for “the benefit of the American people and the Venezuelan people.” The State Department has since claimed that “billions of dollars have been disbursed to the Venezuelan economy” and that “financial monitoring is under way to ensure funds benefit the Venezuelan people.”But none of that has been proven to be true. The Financial Times reported Wednesday that there has been no evidence of oil money going back into the hands of the Venezuelans Trump claimed to care for, and that Venezuela’s first-quarter gross domestic product was the lowest it’s been in five years.“Trump’s invasion of Venezuela has been about oil, power, and graft from the very beginning, with billions of dollars in Venezuelan oil revenue being controlled by the Trump administration without transparency or safeguards,” Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro told the FT, adding that all of Congress had been “kept in the dark” by the Trump administration. And on Tuesday, Republican Representative María Elvira Salazar called on Trump to make the transactions known, citing “the importance of transparency over where the money is going.”It seems clear that the most corrupt president in history is withholding oil revenue from Venezuelans who badly need it, as oil makes up nearly a quarter of the entire country’s GDP. In January, Semafor reported that Trump would be keeping proceeds from the first $500 million sale of Venezuelan oil in an offshore bank account based in Qatar. It might be worth checking up on that account.
Donald Trump has made billions of dollars grifting the American public since returning to office, yet he’s still trying to find a way to weasel out of paying E. Jean Carroll.The president cannot accept the reality that he lost: Trump’s legal team demanded that the former Elle columnist repay him the $5.6 million that he was court-mandated to give her, The Independent reported Tuesday.The money was disbursed to Carroll from a court-controlled escrow account on July 9—three years after a nine-person jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the mid-1990s and defaming her in the early 2020s when she went public about the attack. Trump had done everything in his power to avoid paying Carroll her due, including attempting to take the case to the Supreme Court, although it ultimately refused to hear the case in June.“But rather than accept the reality that he had lost, [Trump] has engaged in a series of maneuvers trying desperately to forestall payment,” Carroll’s lawyers wrote in a legal filing Monday night, noting that the payment should have been the end of the case.“But Defendant now demands yet another unprecedented remedy,” Carroll’s attorneys continued. “The judgment here is final, the money has already been disbursed, and Carroll is entitled to keep it.”Her team added that each of the president’s attacks has a “domino effect” that subjects the writer to “ongoing and prolific harassment” from people who take Trump’s word as gospel, “including a multitude of death threats and other threats of physical injury.”The sum is just the tip of the iceberg for how much Trump owes Carroll, however. After the 2023 civil case, Trump tried and failed to sue Carroll for defamation, insisting, despite the jury’s determination, that he had not sexually abused her. A federal judge eventually ruled that Trump—not Carroll—was the liable party, as he had defamed the advice columnist by denying the sexual abuse on the basis that she wasn’t his “type,” and by accusing her of inventing the sexual assault allegations against him for the benefit of her book. A jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in that case, though Carroll has not yet seen a dime from that decision.
Companies’ patience has thinned as the war has ebbed and flowed, and a quarter of companies now plan cuts, a survey by staffing firm ManpowerGroup found.
The U.S. is continuing to strike Iran for an 11th straight day. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday revealed the cost of the war on Iran has soared to over $37 billion during an appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee. However, independent estimates and media reports based on internal leaks suggest the true figure is much higher. Hegseth is now seeking $80 billion more from Congress, including $67 billion for the war on Iran.
“You’re requesting billions of dollars in supplemental funding for a war that you said would last for weeks and that the president has no plan or ability to end,” said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, during the hearing. “You are asking for unlimited money for bombs when people can’t feed their families.”
The U.S. is continuing to strike Iran for an 11th straight day. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday revealed the cost of the war on Iran has soared to over $37 billion during an appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee. However, independent estimates and media reports based on internal leaks suggest the true figure is much higher. Hegseth is now seeking $80 billion more from Congress, including $67 billion for the war on Iran.
“You’re requesting billions of dollars in supplemental funding for a war that you said would last for weeks and that the president has no plan or ability to end,” said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, during the hearing. “You are asking for unlimited money for bombs when people can’t feed their families.”
Traveling to Mexico for routine healthcare can be convenient and affordable – but the cues patients rely on to judge quality of care may differ in important ways.
Defense Secretary Hegseth Testifies U.S. War on Iran Has Cost $37.5 Billion, Yemen’s Houthi Rebels Warn Shipping Companies Against Using Saudi Arabian Ports, Israeli Military Builds Giant Barrier Separating the Portion of the Gaza Strip It Controls, Three Villages in Southern Lebanon Begin to Implement Phased Withdrawal of Israeli Forces, Appeals Court Overturns Decision to Release Palestinian Rights Activist Mohsen Mahdawi, Trump Administration Arrests Record Number of Immigrants in June, Federal Judge Prohibits DHS from Deporting Key Witness in Fatal Shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Federal Judge Blocks Trump Admin from Revoking Work Permits of Immigrants with Temporary Protected Status, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Ends Requirement for Employers to Collect Demographic Data, Police Detain Congress Party Leader Rahul Gandhi as Student-Led Anti-Gov’t Protests Continue in India, Trump Admin Pauses More Than $1 Billion in Medicaid Funding to California and Minnesota, Cyclosporiasis Outbreak Sickens Thousands of People in the U.S., French Lawmakers Pass Bill Banning Social Media for Children Under 15, Njoki Njehû, Pan-African Feminist Educator and Advocate, Dies at 60