Our readers weigh in on Project 2025
Our by Paul Dans, who led Project 2025, the presidential transition plan for Donald Trump, sparked a lively response from readers. Here is an edited selection of some of their letters.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Utterly staggering sum Barron Trump has already made at 19... outshining his dad and brothers
Barron Trump just completed his freshman year of university. But in a year attending introductory NYU business classes, President Donald Trump's youngest son amassed a giant crypto sum that could make some of Silicon Valley's executives blush. Barron, 19, is reportedly sitting on a fortune of up to $40 million, largely thanks to a family-linked cryptocurrency firm called World Liberty Financial. The venture, co-founded by Trump and his three adult sons, has quickly exploded in value, selling at least $550 million of tokens. After the first $30 million in sales, the money flowed directly from investors and into the Trump family members' bank accounts. Barron is reportedly one of the biggest beneficiaries of that cashflow, with the executive title 'Web3 ambassador,' alongside his half-brothers Don Jr. and Eric. Each of Trump's sons is believed to hold a 7.5 percent stake in the company. There are some disclosure and partial interest sales that could complicate the overall take-home pay from the venture. But at just 19 years old, he appears to have earned far more than his older siblings did at the same age — thanks to a digital gold rush that's become the centerpiece of the Trump family's modern empire. The college student may have raked in $25 million after taxes while his father returned to the White House, according to Forbes. Barron, who reportedly introduced his father to the concept of digital wallets, has been credited by Trump as the family's crypto brain. 'Barron's a young guy, but he knows it — he talks about his wallet,' Trump said in a previous interview. 'He's got four wallets or something, and I'm saying, "What is a wallet?"' President Trump is also making a healthy sum, too. A newly released 234-page financial disclosure revealed the President raked in more than $57 million last year from cryptocurrency ventures. Trump himself owns a 52.5 percent stake in the company, per his disclosure. He also made millions off retail offerings, like gold-plated shoes, high-end watches, collectible coffee table books, and electric guitars. Trump watches are another retail avenue of revenue for the Trump empire President Trump had long railed against the Biden administration for allegedly allowing the the then-President's son, Hunter, to profit off his White House proximity But the cryptocurrency is ruffling the feathers of White House watchdogs. Investments in the currency are shielded from public view, making skeptics nervous about potential foreign investment or unseen lobbying via trades in the Trump-branded coin. In May, the President hosted a lavish dinner with some of the biggest investors in his crypto empire. The White House has long argued that President Trump remains walled off from political corruption because he ceded financial power of his profit-making organizations to his sons. But that argument also came after President Trump railed against the Biden administration for allowing the former President's son, Hunter, 55, to allegedly profit from his closeness to the White House. 'Ultimately, no matter what it is, I always put the country way ahead of the business,' President Trump said, adding 'You can't say that about Hunter.'
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Voice of America parent terminates over 600 more staff in likely death knell
WASHINGTON, June 20 (Reuters) - The parent agency of Voice of America said on Friday it had issued termination notices to over 639 more staff, completing an 85% decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. Kari Lake, senior advisor to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of U.S. President Donald Trump's agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. "Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a long-overdue effort to dismantle a bloated, unaccountable bureaucracy," Lake said in a statement. She said the agency had been "riddled with dysfunction, bias, and waste." Lake said the move meant USAGM now operated near its statutory minimum of 81 employees. She said 250 employees would remain across USAGM, Voice of America, and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which transmits news into communist-run Cuba. She said none of OCB's 33 employees had been terminated. The move likely marks an end to VOA, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda, operated in nearly 50 languages and reached 360 million people a week, many living under authoritarian regimes. In May, nearly 600 VOA contractors were dismissed. Some Republicans have accused VOA and other publicly funded media outlets of being biased against conservatives, and called for them to be shuttered as part of wider efforts to shrink the government. Another USAGM station, Radio Free Asia, which has already been reduced to skeleton staffing, said in a staff email on Friday that it was implementing additional furloughs in its human resources, ordinance, journalist security, and research, training & evaluation teams. Various court cases are in train against the USAGM cuts.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Hundreds of US citizens left Iran in last week, State Dept cable says
WASHINGTON, June 20 (Reuters) - Hundreds of American citizens have departed Iran using land routes over the past week since an aerial war between the Islamic Republic and Israel broke out, according to an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters on Friday. While many left without problem, "numerous" citizens had faced "delays and harassment" while trying to exit, the cable said. It said, without giving further details, that one unidentified family had reported that two U.S. citizens attempting to leave Iran had been detained. The internal cable dated June 20 underscores the challenge Washington is facing in trying to protect and assist its citizens in a country with which it has no diplomatic relations and in a war in which the United States may soon get involved. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The cable was first reported by The Washington Post. President Donald Trump and the White House said on Thursday he will decide in the next two weeks whether the U.S. will get involved in the Israel-Iran war. Trump has kept the world guessing on his plans, veering from proposing a swift diplomatic solution to suggesting Washington might join the fighting on Israel's side. The air war began on June 13 when Israel attacked Iran and has alarmed a region that has been on edge since the start of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023. Israel is the only country in the Middle East widely believed to have nuclear weapons, and said it struck Iran to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons. Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, has retaliated with its own strikes on Israel. Iran is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Israel is not. The U.S. State Department in a travel alert earlier on Friday urged its citizens wishing to depart Iran to use land routes via Azerbaijan, Armenia or Turkey. Iranian airspace is closed. The U.S. Embassy in the Turkmenistan capital of Ashgabat has requested entry for over 100 American citizens, but the Turkmenistan government has yet to give its approval, the cable said. The Islamic Republic treats Iranian-U.S. dual citizens solely as nationals of Iran, the State Department emphasized. "U.S. nationals are at significant risk of questioning, arrest and detention in Iran," the alert said. Washington is looking at ways to potentially evacuate its citizens from Israel, but it has almost no way of assisting Americans inside Iran. The two countries have had no diplomatic ties since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Thursday said the administration was looking at different ways to get U.S. citizens out. "We're working to get military, commercial, charter flights and cruise ships for evac," he said in an X post, urging U.S. citizens and green card holders to complete an online form. As of Friday, more than 6,400 U.S. citizens filled out that form for Israel, a separate internal department email seen by Reuters said. The form allows the agency to predict an approximate figure for potential evacuations. "Approximately 300-500 U.S. citizens per day would potentially require departure assistance," said the internal email, also dated June 20 and marked "sensitive". The State Department does not have official figures but thousands of U.S. citizens are thought to be residing in Iran and hundreds of thousands in Israel. Israel's strikes over the last week have killed 639 people in Iran, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Israel says Iranian attacks have killed 24 civilians in Israel. "The U.S. Department of State received no reports of U.S. citizen casualties in Israel or Iran," the second email said.
