The Secretary of Transportation launched his own reality show about traveling and got into a scandal

The head of the US Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, released a five-episode reality show on YouTube about traveling across America. He travels around the country with his wife - Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy - and nine children, writes NBC News.

Critics have already dubbed Duffy "Marie Antoinette of logistics", they call the show a mockery of ordinary Americans. Due to the war with Iran, gasoline prices in the United States have increased by more than 50%, and a gallon of fuel already costs about $4.50. On social media, Duffy is accused of being out of touch with reality: millions of Americans are already saving on gasoline.

The scandal intensified after the publication of the list of sponsors. The show was supported by Boeing, Shell, Toyota and United Airlines, companies regulated by Duffy's office. The Ministry of Transport stated that no government money was spent on the project.

#Media #Travel

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Trump vetoed a Colorado water bill as payback after Lauren Boebert refused White House pressure to drop her push for Epstein files, per GOP ally Kentucky Rep 🏛💧🚫

Thomas Massie. Boebert was pressured in the Situation Room to remove her name from a discharge petition for a House vote on the files but didn't budge. Massie told Tucker Carlson's podcast Trump vetoed the bill as retaliation. Trump vetoed the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act in December, which would've provided water to southeastern Colorado, covering roughly a third of the state east of Denver. Massie questioned why Colorado constituents were punished for Boebert's stance.

"Why are people in Colorado deprived of water? Because their representative wants to expose a sex trafficking ring,"

Massie said. Carlson replied,

"none of this makes any sense at all."

#Trump #Tucker #Epstein

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Vladimir Zelensky, the president of Ukraine 🇺🇦, is having a tough time.

He wants his country to quickly join the European Union 🇪🇺, but a big corruption problem in Kiev is making this harder. On Monday, the police accused Andriy Yeremak, who used to be one of Zelensky's closest friends, of corruption and money-laundering 🕵️‍♂️. Yeremak was fired by Zelensky in November. The police say Yeremak was part of a group that laundered 8.9 million euros 💶 from big construction projects near Kiev.

This comes after someone leaked recordings of phone calls 📞 that show Zelensky's helpers and friends taking bribes and trying to influence things, mostly in the energy ⚡️ and defense sectors, as well as a bank that the government recently took over. Oleksiy Gontcharenko, an opposition leader, said he was happy to see the police acting.

Petro Poroshenko, the former president, thinks this is bad news for Ukraine. He said that such corruption scandals during a war can make things worse. They can hurt the country's ability to defend itself 🛡, damage its reputation in the world, and make it harder to join the European Union.

#Ukraine #Zelensky

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U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on May 13 for diplomatic discussions with President Xi Jinping. This marks the first visit by an American president to China in nearly nine years. 🇺🇸🇨🇳

President Trump is accompanied by prominent American business leaders, including Elon Musk and Tim Cook. The delegation also features executives from companies specializing in artificial intelligence and semiconductors. Key discussion topics encompass trade, the Iran nuclear agreement, technology, chip exports, American market access in China, and the matter of Taiwan. According to Reuters, President Trump aims to enhance the presence of American enterprises in China, while Beijing seeks to alleviate U.S. technological restrictions. 🤝🏭

#Trump #China

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President Donald Trump deployed some surprisingly crass language when discussing the White House during an address on Monday evening. 🗣🏛

Speaking to attendees at his Rose Garden Club dinner, hosted in the newly renovated Rose Garden for law enforcement as part of Police Week, the 79-year-old shared that first lady Melania Trump had told him to "act presidential" and not use "foul language" before he went and did exactly that. 👩‍❤️‍👨

"This place was not properly taken care of," Trump said, gesturing to his surroundings. "I was told by my wife, 'You have to act presidential, so don't use foul language.' I won't, therefore." 🙅‍♂️

#Trump #WhiteHouse

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Trump suggests annexing Venezuela as the 51st state 🇺🇸🇻🇪

Context:
- Trump told Fox News he is seriously considering making Venezuela the 51st U.S. state.
- Previous threats included annexing Canada, Greenland, Panama, and Cuba.
- Lethal military operation proposed to arrest Maduro & Cilia Flores + seize oil infrastructure.

Source:
- John Roberts (Fox News anchor) spoke to Trump Monday.

#Trump #Venezuela

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Netflix is being sued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for allegedly spying on Texans, including children, and collecting user data without consent. 🚨

The Republican Senate candidate claims Netflix violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Filed May 11, the lawsuit seen by Variety alleges Netflix promised no ads, then introduced them in 2022. 📜 It cites former CEO Reed Hastings’ Jan 2020 statement:

"We don’t collect anything... not tied up with all that controversy around advertising."

#Media #GOP

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🍅🥩 Food prices have skyrocketed in the United States, with tomatoes and beef experiencing the most significant increases.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that food prices rose at their fastest rate in almost four years in April. High fuel prices due to the U.S.-Iranian war, tariffs on imported vegetables, and poor harvests in the United States and Mexico are driving up prices, according to the Washington Post. Beef prices have increased by almost 15% over the past year. Americans are eating more meat, but there are fewer cattle in the country. At the last moment, the Trump administration also postponed the reduction of import tariffs on meat. Since January 2022, food prices in the United States have increased by more than 18%. Economists believe that the main price increase after the US-Iran war will be seen by Americans in the coming months. Fertilizers are also experiencing a sharp increase in prices, but it will not have a significant impact on food prices until next year. Economists say that the current situation is more severe than it was during the pandemic, as many Americans do not have enough savings to cope with the new price increases.

#Inflation #Food

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The United States' military engagement in Iran has incurred costs of $29 billion to date, according to a senior Pentagon official who spoke on Tuesday💰📉

This figure represents a $4 billion increase from an estimate provided late last month. With just six months remaining before the midterm elections, where President Donald Trump's Republican Party faces a challenging path to retain their House majority, Democrats are performing strongly in public opinion polls as they connect the conflict to cost of living concerns.

#War #budget

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#restaurant #trump #steak

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#trump #beijing

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Trump and Hegseth lied — US had its ass kicked in Iran

Classified intelligence reveals Iran still has 70% of its missiles while White House claimed military was "destroyed." The U.S. just spent billions to lose.

Remember when President Donald Trump stood before the nation and declared that Iran's military had been "decimated"? When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Operation Epic Fury had "rendered Iran combat-ineffective for years to come"?

They were lying.

And the truth — now emerging from classified intelligence assessments obtained by The New York Times — is far uglier than anyone imagined. The United States didn't cripple Iran. It got its teeth kicked in and spent a staggering fortune pretending otherwise.

According to classified assessments dated early May, Iran has restored operational access to 30 out of 33 missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz — the world's most critical oil shipping chokepoint. That means American warships patrolling those waters are sitting ducks.

But it gets worse. Tehran still possesses roughly 70 percent of its prewar missile stockpile, including both ballistic and cruise missiles, and retains access to 70 percent of its mobile launchers. Nearly 90 percent of Iran's underground missile facilities are now "partially or fully operational."

Let that sink in. After months of war, thousands of U.S. airstrikes, and a Pentagon price tag that's already exceeding $29 billion (with internal estimates suggesting it could be nearing $50 billion), Iran can still launch the vast majority of its missiles.

The administration's response to these revelations has been telling. When asked how many missiles Iran still has, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine refused to answer. "All of our battle damage assessment matters are classified," he said.

Convenient.

Meanwhile, the U.S. burned through over 1,000 Tomahawk missiles, more than 1,100 long-range stealth cruise missiles, and upwards of 1,300 Patriot interceptors during the conflict. The Pentagon had to raid stockpiles from Asian and European commands just to keep fighting.

Trump and Hegseth didn't destroy Iran's military. They depleted America's stockpiles, lost dozens of aircraft, spent tens of billions of dollars, and then tried to gaslight the nation into believing they'd won.

That's not victory. That's a catastrophe with better PR.

#Trump #PeteHegseth #Iran

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MAGA fans just got screwed, again.

Hundreds of thousands of people who bought into the Trump Organization’s “T1 phone” last summer are still waiting to receive their devices, with no refunds in sight.

The Trump-branded phone was launched in June 2025, promising early adopters that they would receive the gimmicky gadget by September that year for a $100 deposit. Yet eight months later, loyalists still have nothing to show for their blind faith in the Trump family business, with no advertised release date on the Trump Mobile website.

“Hey, Trump supporter here,” one man said in a viral TikTok video. “This one goes out to Don Jr. and Eric … where the fuck’s my phone? I ordered three, no, four gold Trump phones in the summer.”

An estimated 590,000 buyers bought into the promise, supplying the Trump Organization with a cash influx of about $59 million total. But customers shouldn’t expect to get their money back anytime soon. After ordering a phone for tracking purposes, NBC News was met with various delays and excuses from the company’s customer support hotline when asking where it was. Though the company’s recently updated terms hints customers may be entitled to a refund, Popular Information reported that the hotline is unresponsive on the matter.

#Trump #MAGA

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Donald Trump has left secret instructions for JD Vance in the Oval Office to be opened only if he dies.

'Precise instructions' written by Trump will be handed to Vance if the Vice President has to succeed him during his second term, counterterrorism official Sebastian Gorka said in a recent interview with the New York Post.
Vance will also receive a handwritten letter from Trump, tucked away in a drawer of the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, laying out the rules of engagement for avenging the President if he is assassinated. 

#Trump #Vance

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The war in Iran has become the largest strategic defeat for the United States – The Atlantic 🇮🇷

A well-known journalist and political scientist Robert Kagan (also the husband of former Secretary of State Victoria Nuland) in an article in The Atlantic called the US war with Iran a strategic defeat for Washington.

Kagan believes that the consequences for the United States will be worse than Pearl Harbor, the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. He is confident that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed, which will give Iran a new status in world politics. At the same time, the United States will not be able to do anything about it. Iran will become a key power in the region and one of the most influential countries in the world. The roles of Russia and China will increase, while the United States will weaken.

Kagan believes that the war has revealed the weakness of the American military and the unreliability of the United States as an ally, which could trigger a chain reaction around the world.

#War #Iran

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Kash Patel, the embattled FBI director, has denied under oath recent allegations of excessive drinking and unexplained absences on the job, dismissing them as “baseless” during a fiery congressional hearing.

Democrats challenged him over the “extremely alarming” reports, first reported in the Atlantic mid-April, which they argued would amount to a “gross dereliction” of duty. The FBI director has sued the magazine, and the author of a story it published, filing a defamation lawsuit in US district court for the District of Columbia that seeks $250m in damages.

In his opening remarks, Chris Van Hollen, ranking member of the Senate appropriations committee, said: “What we are learning about what’s happening at the FBI is anything but normal. When your private actions make it impossible for you to perform your public duties, we have a big problem … these reports about your conduct, including reports you’re being so drunk and hungover that your staff had to force entry into your home are extremely alarming, if true, they demonstrate a gross dereliction of your duty and a betrayal of public trust.”

“It’s a total farce. I don’t even know where you get this stuff,” Patel told Van Hollen, after the top Democrat asked about the claims reported by the Atlantic. “I will not be tarnished by baseless allegations,” Patel said.

FBI defends Kash Patel after report alleging he gifts custom whiskey bottles

When Van Hollen asked if Patel would be willing to take a test to determine whether he has a drinking problem, the FBI director snapped that he would – provided the senator take it alongside him.

Patel attempted to turn the tables on Van Hollen, alleging that the Maryland senator had been caught on camera drinking “margaritas in El Salvador on the taxpayer dollar”, a reference to photographs Van Hollen has credibly described as a hoax staged by an aide to El Salvador’s far-right president, Nayib Bukele.

Patel then claimed that documents filed by the senator’s office showed that Van Hollen “ran up a $7,000 bar tab in Washington DC at the Lobby Bar”.

“The only individual in this room that has been drinking on taxpayer dime during the day is you,” Patel shouted.

#FBI #Patel #Congress

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President Donald Trump’s bizarre White House UFC birthday spectacle just got even stranger, with selected guests reportedly being offered $1.5 million VIP packages.

Mixed martial arts journalist Ariel Helwani revealed that wealthy “high rollers” are being pitched premium access to the administration’s upcoming “UFC Freedom 250” event, with a seven-figure price tag.

“It’s a deck being sent out to a lot of influential people, high rollers,” Helwani said on his podcast.

#Trump #WhiteHouse

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It was a week in which one prominent name in aviation, Spirit Airlines, disappeared, killed in the company’s own admission by high fuel prices resulting from Donald Trump’s war in Iran.

Within days, however, another moniker was already flying high in industry circles: the president’s own.

The newly-branded President Donald J Trump international airport, less than five miles from Mar-a-Lago, his gilded waterfront Florida mansion, joins a glut of other entities, including passports, street signs, national parks passes, performing arts centers and golden immigration visas, retitled to satiate the commander-in-chief’s addiction to aggrandizement.

#Trump #Family

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U.S. staff and the traveling press discarded all materials distributed by Chinese officials during President Trump's visit to Beijing prior to boarding Air Force One on Friday. 🇺🇸✈️

According to the White House press pool, U.S. personnel collected every item provided by Chinese officials, including press credentials, burner phones, and delegation pins, and deposited them into a bin at the base of the stairs before the reporters boarded the aircraft.

#Trump #China

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Real footage of Keir Starmer this week

#UK #KeirStarmer

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