Washington, D.C. — A new tracking tool shows Trump has cut or frozen $177 billion in grants in every state in the country, the FBI has quietly built out a national center to police dissent under the guise of counterterrorism, and the top Democrat on House Oversight has opened an investigation into Donald Trump Jr.’s Russian oligarch-funded wedding.
Trump Has Gutted $177 Billion in Aid, Touching Every State in the Country
Watchdog groups States United Democracy Center and Grant Witness launched a public database this week cataloging $177 billion in grant money the administration has yanked away or left in limbo, touching every single state and the District of Columbia. The tool, called Lost Funds, catalogues the litany of programs that have been axed: prenatal care in Michigan, research grants at Mississippi schools, and aid that was supposed to reach struggling farmers in Iowa. Researchers say this is a deliberate campaign to choke off funding Congress already approved, state by state, family by family.
The FBI Built a Tool to Track Political Dissent, and the IRS Is In on It
Newly obtained records show the FBI has stood up a national NSPM-7 Joint Mission Center to hunt the administration’s political enemies, pulling in agents and analysts from across federal law enforcement, including the IRS. The presidential memo behind the center instructs agencies to treat everyday political dissent as a warning sign of domestic terrorism, and the center’s leadership has compared the effort to tracking foreign terrorism networks. Documents obtained by American Oversight show IRS staff from the division that oversees nonprofits’ tax-exempt status sitting in on meetings about a “Violent Anarchist Task Force,” showing that the agency with the power to strip charities’ status is directly embedded in the plan to go after anyone who disagrees with the administration.
Trump Jr.’s Wedding Was Bankrolled by a Putin-Linked Oligarch, and Congress Wants Answers
House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia has opened an investigation after reporting revealed that Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev paid for two nights of Donald Trump Jr.’s Bahamas wedding, private island rental included, at a cost running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Kremlev is a close Putin ally, and the wedding costs were funneled through one of his affiliated entities in Dubai. Garcia has demanded records from both the White House and Trump Jr. documenting the relationship and every foreign national who helped pay for the celebration. It’s one of the most serious in a long list of scandals involving the Trump family, and is exactly the kind of undisclosed foreign money trail that would have given James Comer and Jim Jordan the vapors during any Democratic administration.
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