Trump News for Monday, August 4, 2025

Palantir CEO Alex Karp takes a shot at elite colleges and says the company offers 'a new credential independent of class'

Julia Hornstein, Business Insider

CEO Alex Karp dismisses elite education and says that those without college degrees "are creating a lot of value" using Palantir software.

Company advised by Trump sons said it hoped to benefit from fed money, then took it back

BERNARD CONDON, Yahoo Entertainment

A public document filed by a company that just hired President Donald Trump’s two oldest sons as advisers included a sentence early Monday that said it hoped...

Mark Geragos Says President Trump Pardoning Diddy Would Be Great Decision

TMZ Staff, TMZ

President Trump would hit a home run if he were to grant Sean "Diddy" Combs a pardon for his prostitution conviction ... at least according to Mark Geragos. The famed defense attorney was flying out of LAX on Monday when a photog asked him about a…

Putin and Trump's relationship has soured - but behind the posturing, a deal on Ukraine is still possible

BBC News

Steve Witkoff is visiting Moscow this week - is it a sign that an agreement between Russia and the US to end the fighting in Ukraine could yet be reached?

Demons Hate Her! 21-Year-Old Alice Maio Mackay Just Made Six Feature Films in Four Years

Alison Foreman, IndieWire

"The Serpent's Skin" director chats with IndieWire about the Shudder acquisition and the Dark Star Pictures collaboration that's already turned her into a genre powerhouse.

US Democrats block vote on Trump-backed Texas redistricting map

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

Texas House fails to establish quorum as dozens of Democrats flee state to block redrawn congressional map.

A Terrible Five Days for the Truth

David A. Graham, The Atlantic

Trump’s latest moves represent an assault on reporting, statistics, and the historical record.

This Is Who ‘SNL’ Is Looking to Cast for Season 51

Opheli Garcia Lawler, Cracked.com

Casting is allegedly fully underway, with scouts working at improv clubs across the country

WATCH: Pilot rescued after making an emergency landing in the ocean in Oak Island, N.C.

ABC News

A pilot was rescued after his small plane crashed in the water off the coast of Oak Island, North Carolina on Saturday.

iPhone 17 import tariffs may cost Apple more than expected, as Trump threatens India

Marko Zivkovic, AppleInsider

Apple's new number one iPhone manufacturing country, India, will face a significant tariff increase, after the Trump administration caught it selling oil to Russia.President Trump has threatened India with even higher tariffs.The "reciprocal" tariff policy of…

WATCH: 'We saw a human skeleton,' brother of hostage Evyatar David says

ABC News

ABC News' Ian Pannell spoke to the brother of Evyatar David, an Israeli hostage seen in footage released by Hamas over the weekend.

Bernie Sanders Responded After Trump Fired The Head Of The Bureau Of Labor Statistics, And Everyone's Like, "YUP"

Alana Valko, Buzzfeed

"This is very Soviet."View Entire Post ›

WATCH: Giant panda Bao Li celebrates 4th birthday at the National Zoo

ABC News

Happy birthday Bao Li! The giant panda celebrated turning 4 at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., on Monday, with a cake made of his favorite foods.

Trump envoy Witkoff in Russia this week for stab at Ukraine ceasefire after Kremlin warns US to be ‘careful’ over nuclear subs move

Yahoo Entertainment

The Global Impact of the Latest U.S. Tariffs

Jackie Northam, NPR

The Trump Administration’s worldwide tariff wars continue. A top priority for Trump has been resetting U.S. trade relations and earlier this year his administration had vowed “90 deals in 90 days”. But as the August 1st deadline came and went, what emerged w…

White House Peddles New Excuse for Moving Ghislaine to Comfy Jail

Erkki Forster, Daily Beast

The Trump administration has a fresh excuse for transferring Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell to a comfier jail. The White House has been accused...

Trump threatens India with 'substantial' tariff hike for buying Russian oil

BBC News

The US president says India doesn't care "how many people in Ukraine are being killed" - but India calls the tariff threat "unjustified".

Modi and Trump once called each other good friends. Now the US-India relationship is getting bumpy

SHEIKH SAALIQ and RAJESH ROY, Yahoo Entertainment

In India, the bonhomie between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump was seen as a relationship like no other. From Trump’s tariffs...

US iPhones: ‘Made in India’, built in China

Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

Apple may say that most iPhones sold in the U.S. are now assembled in India, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Apple has reduced its reliance on China. Patrick McGee, who literally wrote the book on , explains. more…

Forget the Space Force! Trump needs to create a Cyber Force, says think tank

Brandon Vigliarolo, Theregister.com

One new military branch per term would have to be some sort of record The US Space Force won't be the only new military branch Donald Trump has created if forthcoming recommendations from a group of retired military and civilian leadership end up being adopte…

Now That They’re Free: Venezuelan Men Sent To CECOT On What They Endured

Perla Trevizo, Melissa Sanchez, Mica Rosenberg, Ronna Rísquez, Adrián González, and Adriana Loureiro Fernández, Techdirt

This story was originally published by ProPublica, along with The Texas Tribune, Alianza Rebelde Investiga, and Cazadores de Fake News. Republished under ProPublica’s CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Now that he’s free, Leonardo José Colmenares Solórzano, a 31-year-o…

Top analyst says the next 5 years could see ‘no growth in workers at all’ and sends a warning about the fate of the U.S. economy

Nick Lichtenberg, Yahoo Entertainment

Investors may want to think twice about betting broadly on a “strongly rising U.S. economic tide,” JPMorgan’s David Kelly writes. Same with lower interest...

The Case for Retaining Faith in Courts That Trump Is Slowly Corrupting

Mark Joseph Stern, Slate Magazine

These three judges give reason for hope.

Israel’s Gaza aid cutoff was not only immoral. It was a strategic disaster.

Zack Beauchamp, Vox

Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid in Gaza are, first and foremost, a moral atrocity. Israeli policies since March, most notably the initial shutdown on aid entering the Strip, were very obviously going to cause a hunger crisis down the line. There can…

Texas Democrats walked out to block the GOP. How well has the tactic worked before?

Rachel Treisman, NPR

Dozens of Texas Democrats left the state to protest a redistricting map, facing potentially steep consequences. Lawmaker walkouts have had mixed success in the past — so what is there to gain?

Florida’s Latest Death Penalty Innovation Is Absolutely Horrifying

Austin Sarat, Slate Magazine

If the law remains in place, other death penalty states may be tempted to follow suit.

Amazon Is Laying Off Wondery Staff as It Rethinks Its Podcast Business

Bruce Gil, Gizmodo.com

Amazon is moving some of its Wondery shows to Audible as video podcasts are taking over

In his own words: Trump's comments over the past year on the jobs report

MEG KINNARD, Yahoo Entertainment

In firing the head of the agency that produces monthly jobs figures, President Donald Trump alleged that the recent weaker-than-expected numbers were phony...

Why have relations between Trump and Modi nosedived so quickly?

Al Jazeera English

The United States slaps 25 percent tariffs on a nation long viewed as an ally.

The Supreme Court just revealed its plan to make gerrymandering even worse

Ian Millhiser, Vox

One of the biggest mysteries that has emerged from the Trump-era Supreme Court is the 2023 decision in Allen v. Milligan.  In Milligan, two of the Republican justices — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh — voted with the Court’s Democratic…

Is it possible to “win” a nuclear war?

Joshua Keating, Vox

Following their first meeting in Geneva in 1985, US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev issued a historic joint statement stating their shared belief that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”  The maxim lived on. The…

AI could be the US's secret weapon in the race to mine more minerals — if it can prove itself

Aaron Mok, Business Insider

In the US push for mineral independence, AI could support faster discovery and supply chain security, but skepticism in the mining industry remains.

President Of ‘Facts Don’t Care About Your Feelings’ Party Fires Statistician For Reporting Facts That Hurt His Feelings

Tim Cushing, Techdirt

We’re becoming everything we (perhaps naively) assumed most Americans didn’t want America to be: a backwater burg on the world map, overseen by a corrupt sheriff and known mostly for our routine rights violations and unwillingness to treat facts as facts. Big…

Social media images of Gaza cafes can’t hide truth: Israel is starving Palestinians

Johana Bhuiyan, Yahoo Entertainment

Pro-Israel posts point to a handful of cafes to claim 2 million people are not suffering hunger – despite Israel’s own data

WATCH: 2 dead, 6 injured in shooting following festival after-party in LA

ABC News

Two people were killed and six others were injured in a mass shooting at an apparent after-party in downtown Los Angeles, authorities said.

Trump set to announce replacement for Fed governor Kugler this week. Is this a tryout for the Fed Chair?

Jennifer Schonberger, Yahoo Entertainment

President Donald Trump said he plans to name a replacement this week for Federal Reserve governor Adriana Kugler, whose unexpected resignation set for this...

Trump Deletes and Reposts Tweet About Sydney Sweeney Several Times

Matt Novak, Gizmodo.com

The president is yelling at the TV again.

Trump says he will ‘substantially’ raise tariffs on India over Russian oil

Al Jazeera Staff, Al Jazeera English

US president accuses India of buying Russian oil and reselling it on the open market 'for big profits'.

IT firing spree: Shrinking job market looks even worse after BLS revisions

Brandon Vigliarolo, Theregister.com

The payroll growth we thought we experienced in May and June? Gone, like tears in the rain The US IT jobs market hasn't exactly been robust thus far in 2025, and downward revisions to May and June's Bureau of Labor Statistics data mean IT jobs lost in July ar…

A Call for Jon Stewart to Run for President Has Set Off Trump

Matt Solomon, Cracked.com

Charlamagne tha God’s appearance on Fox News got the President hot and bothered

Nintendo Just Raised The Price Of The Switch 1, And The Switch 2 Might Be Next

staff@bgr.com (Chris Smith), BGR

Nintendo has officially raised the prices of the Switch, Switch OLED, and Switch Lite -- likely due to Trump's latest round of tariffs.

The world just lost its health report card. Now what?

Pratik Pawar, Vox

When President Donald Trump and Elon Musk fed the US Agency for International Development into the wood chipper earlier this year, one of the lesser-known casualties was the shutdown of an obscure but crucial program that tracked public health information on …

Moscow urges everyone, including Trump, to be 'very, very cautious' with nuclear rhetoric

Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY, USA Today

Moscow downplayed President Trump's announcement that he'd ordered two nuclear submarines to "the appropriate regions" after heated Russian rhetoric.

Tesla Approves Elon Musk’s $29 Billion Pay Package Despite Political Risks

Bruce Gil, Gizmodo.com

Amid falling sales, Tesla's board still thinks Musk is worth all the trouble.

Showdown in Texas as Abbott threatens Democrats who fled in protest of redistricting

Alexandra Hutzler, Oren Oppenheim, Brittany Shepherd, ABC News

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Texas House Democrats have until 3 p.m. local time on Monday to return to the statehouse for the special session or risk losing their jobs.

Jen Shah and Elizabeth Holmes, I Know One Way You Can Redeem Yourselves

Audra Heinrichs, Jezebel

In case you haven't seen, Ghislaine Maxwell is now bunking with Jen Shah and Elizabeth Holmes in Camp Bryan. That said: I'm looking for she-roes here...

WATCH: Passengers evacuate as fire erupts on PATH train in New Jersey

ABC News

A PATH train fire suspended service between New Jersey and New York City on Monday morning, the Port Authority said, with smoke filling the Newport Station in Jersey City as passengers evacuated.

Trump praises Sydney Sweeney amid American Eagle ad controversy

Katie Kindelan, ABC News

Sweeney has faced backlash for an ad campaign promoting American Eagle's jeans.

Trump: will 'substantially' raise tariffs on goods from India over Russian oil purchases

Reuters, Yahoo Entertainment

"Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA." India’s trade ministry did not immediately respond to a request for ...

‘King of the Hill’s Only Returning Writer on Dale’s Politics and Hank’s New Dynamic with Bobby

Brian VanHooker, Cracked.com

Norm Hiscock, the man behind ‘That’s my purse, I don’t know you!,’ on the newer, taller Bobby Hill

Donald Trump, IVF’s Deadbeat Dad

Danielle Han, Jezebel

Since 2007, Jezebel has been the Internet's most treasured source for everything celebrities, sex, and politics...with teeth.

That One Fujifilm Camera Everybody Badly Wants Now Costs Way More

Kyle Barr, Gizmodo.com

If you want the TikTok-famous Fujifilm X100VI that takes dreamy, film-like photos, you'll need to pay even more.

More Europeans are flying to Canada than ever before, aviation data shows

Pete Syme, Business Insider

Flights between Europe and Canada are scheduled to reach a record high this month, while both sides have been turning away from traveling to the US.

Banana republic? Trump puts credibility of US economic data on the line

John Power, Al Jazeera English

Trump's firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics raises fears for the integrity of official statistics.

Opinion - If Trump and the GOP keep this up, AOC is going to be president

Juan Williams, opinion contributor, The Hill

Have congressional Republicans forgotten the political pain they suffered when President George W. Bush tried to privatize Social Security in 2005?

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is so big it's like a mini US economy. It just said where it's feeling the tariff pain.

Theron Mohamed, Business Insider

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway said first-half revenues fell 39% at Squishmallows' parent company and 12% at Fruit of the Loom as tariffs loomed.

Tesla awards CEO Musk millions of shares valued at about 29 billion dollars

Michelle Chapman, Associated Press, Yahoo Entertainment

Tesla shares have plunged 25% this year, largely due to blowback over Mr Musk’s affiliation with President Donald Trump.

Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ May Be Ready for Testing Just Before the 2028 Election: Report

Lucas Ropek, Gizmodo.com

The Golden Dome cometh.

Tesla proposes giving Elon Musk $29 billion so he stays CEO

Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge

Tesla approved a restricted stock award of 96 million shares, worth about $29 billion, to “incentivize” the controversial billionaire to remain at the head of the company during a protracted legal battle over his original pay package. Last year, a Delaware co…

The Latest: Global markets mostly gain after Trump tariffs and jobs report sent Wall Street tumbling

The Associated Press, Yahoo Entertainment

Global shares advanced Monday after Wall Street had its worst day since May following the release of weak U.S. jobs data and U.S. President Donald Trump ’s...

Politico’s Rushed Adoption Of Half-Cooked ‘AI’ Continues To Go Terribly

Karl Bode, Techdirt

We’ve noted repeatedly how early attempts to integrate “AI” into journalism have proven to be a comical mess, resulting in no shortage of shoddy product, dangerous falsehoods, and plagiarism. It’s thanks in large part to the incompetent executives at many lar…

Russia downplays nuclear risk after Trump's submarine deployment

DPA, Dpa-international.com

The Kremlin has dismissed concerns of a nuclear escalation following US President Donald Trump's decision to reposition two nuclear submarines closer to...

‘King of the Hill’ Just Hit Joe Rogan-Types Below the Belt

Keegan Kelly, Cracked.com

According to the masculinity grifters of ‘King of the Hill,’ inner strength doesn’t come from the lower body

Peter Thiel-backed Bullish seeks up to $4.2 billion valuation in US IPO

Reuters, Yahoo Entertainment

Companies leveraging crypto and related technologies have rallied on friendly policymaking from the Donald Trump administration, such as the recent passage...

Donald Trump Says He Loves Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle Ad Campaign

TMZ Staff, TMZ

Donald Trump is all in on Sydney Sweeney's controversial American Eagle ad campaign ... and it's all because of her voter registration. The prez was taking questions from reporters Sunday evening -- when one brought up that Sweeney had been…

Rep. Nancy Mace kicks off South Carolina GOP gubernatorial bid. She says she's 'Trump in high heels'

Yahoo Entertainment

Trump's student-loan repayment overhaul could push borrowers out of the federal system. Democratic lawmakers want to know if private lenders are ready.

Ayelet Sheffey, Business Insider

From new caps on student-loan borrowing to higher monthly payments, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Trump's policies could benefit private lenders.

The Pentagon’s New Isolationism

Nancy A. Youssef, The Atlantic

An already insular Defense Department is sealing itself off from outside thinkers.

Elizabeth Warren on Why Billionaires Are Doing All They Can to Stop Zohran Mamdani

Ryan Bort, Rolling Stone

Elizabeth Warren explains why billionaires are boosting Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo to keep Zohran Mamdani from becoming New York City's mayor.

10 Monday AM Reads

Barry Ritholtz, Ritholtz.com

My off-to-Maine morning reads: • Trump Claims the Jobs Report Was Rigged. Was It? He does himself and his party no favors by waving away economic reality—as Biden did with inflation. (WSJ) see also What to Do When the President Acts Like a 5-Year-Old? For ove…

Sydney Sweeney Is a Registered Republican. And Water is Wet.

Audra Heinrichs, Jezebel

Also this weekend, Sweeney got heckled at the premiere of her latest film, and Donald Trump said her American Eagle 'is fantastic.

Trump envoy Witkoff to head to Russia for 'last chance' Ukraine talks

David Brennan, ABC News

President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Russia later this week, the president told reporters on Sunday.

Pets end up in LA shelters after owners detained in immigration raids

Jorge Garcia and Mike Blake, Yahoo Entertainment

LANCASTER/DOWNEY, California (Reuters) -Los Angeles County has a new task taking care of dogs and cats after their owners were detained or deported in...

Explainer-What happens next in the US court battle over Trump's tariffs?

Jan Wolfe and Dietrich Knauth, Yahoo Entertainment

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A federal appeals panel on Thursday appeared skeptical of U.S. President Donald Trump's argument that a 1977 law historically used for ...

Teen suicide is on the decline, new federal data shows

Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR

The 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health report found that in recent years, depression and suicidal thoughts and behaviors in teens have declined.

The E.P.A.’s Disastrous Plan to End the Regulation of Greenhouse Gases

Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker

Elizabeth Kolbert on the Trump Administration’s plan to revoke the “endangerment finding,” which has long formed the basis of federal limits on carbon pollution.

Amy Sherald’s “Trans Forming Liberty”

Françoise Mouly, The New Yorker

Françoise Mouly speaks with the artist Amy Sherald about her cover for the August 11, 2025, issue of The New Yorker.

ICE’s Spectacle of Intimidation

Mark Peterson, The New Yorker

Immigrants showing up for court dates in Manhattan must now navigate rows of masked federal agents. Mark Peterson’s photo portfolio documents these harrowing encounters, with reporting from Jordan Salama.

Las Vegas is down on its luck as tourism drops. Why it's kind of California's fault

Terry Castleman, Yahoo Entertainment

Visits to Las Vegas were down 11% in June over the same month last year amid a drop in international tourism.

A Korean university student and daughter of a priest was detained by ICE. Faith leaders are now standing behind her

Karina Tsui, Yoonjung Seo, CNN, CNN

Yeonsoo Go, a South Korean student at Purdue University and the daughter of a beloved Episcopalian priest in New York, was arrested by US Immigration and...

Kremlin urges caution with nuclear rhetoric after Trump's submarine order

Dmitry Antonov, Yahoo Entertainment

MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Monday that everyone should be careful about nuclear rhetoric, in its first response to a statement by U.S. President...

I Responded to One of the Spam Texts From a “Recruiter”—Then Took the Job. It Got Weirder Than I Could Have Imagined.

Alexander Sammon, Slate Magazine

The story of “Cathy,” my scammer.

Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose

Rebecca Hersher, NPR

The Trump administration has asked NASA staffers to draw up plans to end at least two satellite missions that measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to current and former NASA employees.

He calls the far-right activist, who set up an anonymous tip line to help get federal workers disloyal to Trump fired, a patriot.

Yahoo Entertainment

Trump aide accuses India of financing Russia’s war in Ukraine

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

White House deputy chief Stephen Miller says it was 'not acceptable' for India to continue to buy Russian oil.

‘It’s just PR’: Skittles, Hershey and Nestle are removing artificial colors

Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN, CNN

The Trump administration declared victory after Kraft Heinz, Skittles and General Mills made splashy announcements to remove artificial colors — even taking ...

As Trump's tariffs take shape, is America really winning?

Rafael Nam, NPR

Trump says his tariffs will spur America into a "golden age" — but that remains far from certain. Here are 5 things to know about how his trade policies could impact the U.S. and the global economy.

U.S.-India Relations Strain Over Russian Oil

Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time

The Trump Administration has accused its longtime friend of “financing” the war in Ukraine.

Predecessor to fired BLS commissioner says firing is damaging

Nathan Yau, Flowingdata.com

The prior commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics had some things to say about the recent firing of Erika McEntarfer. For Bloomberg, María Paula Mijares Torres and Catherine Lucey report: “…

A boomer couple wants to sell their 5-bedroom home. But they're delaying in hopes of avoiding at least $700,000 in taxes.

Eliza Relman, Business Insider

Joel and Kathryn Friedman, both 71, were encouraged by President Donald Trump's remarks in support of eliminating the capital gains tax on home sales.

Pesky statistics

Nathan Yau, Flowingdata.com

For the Atlantic, Alexandra Petri on the president’s approach to data: And now, at last, Donald Trump has fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Once these disloyal statisticians a…

Texas governor threatens to remove Democrats who left state over Trump-backed redistricting

Yahoo Entertainment

Russia's inflation fight is working — at the cost of growth

Huileng Tan, Business Insider

In July, Russia's manufacturing sector posted its steepest contraction in three years.

Trump says he'll name people to 2 jobs closely watched by Wall Street

Kwan Wei Kevin Tan, Business Insider

The president fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner on Friday after poor job numbers. A Federal Reserve governor resigned on the same day.

Gov. Greg Abbott threatens Texas House Democrats with removal from office for fleeing state

Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune

The governor also alleged absconding Democrats may have committed felonies by fundraising to cover the $500-a-day fines they will face under House rules.

Trump says US envoy Witkoff to travel to Russia ‘next week’

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

Witkoff will discuss Russia's war on Ukraine as Trump says again he wants a 'deal where people stop getting killed'.

Gold succumbs to profit-taking after US jobs data-fuelled rally

Anushree Mukherjee and Brijesh Patel, Yahoo Entertainment

(Reuters) -Gold prices slipped on Monday as investors booked profits after a sharp rise in the previous session following weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data...

Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures climb with tariffs and jobs data in focus

Rian Howlett, Yahoo Entertainment

US stock futures were little changed following a week of sharp declines.

China pushes back at US demands to stop buying Russian and Iranian oil

DIDI TANG, Yahoo Entertainment

U.S. and Chinese officials may be able to settle many of their differences to reach a trade deal and avert punishing tariffs, but they remain far apart on...