President Trump Takes Credit for February Job Gains
"Balance of Power" focuses on the intersection of politics and global business. On today's show, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Director of the Heritage Foundation Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment, shares her thoughts on what disturbances she's bracing for in the US economy. Elizabeth Wydra, Constitutional Accountability Center President, talks about President Trump going on record saying Elon Musk is the head of DOGE and the potential legal ramifications of the President's comment. Melinda Haring, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center, discusses the US & Ukraine set to talk next week and what to expect from these conversations. (Source: Bloomberg)
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The Hill
44 minutes ago
- The Hill
DOGE's Supreme Court victory is a huge loss for Americans' privacy
The six justices comprising the far-right majority on the Supreme Court just radically endorsed a sweeping intrusion into the privacy of hundreds of millions of Americans by the Department of Government Efficiency or 'DOGE,' without so much as the pretense of a justification. One must seriously wonder what their endgame really is, because it's not about upholding the law. With the exception of a reference to the Treasury Department, the Constitution says nothing about federal agencies. Congress creates them pursuant to its Article I powers to legislate. But Congress did not pass any legislation creating the Department of Government Efficiency. It was declared into existence by President Trump via executive order when he took office in January. What's more, for the real federal agencies that Congress actually creates, Article II of the Constitution mandates that their officers — the agency heads or 'secretaries' — must be appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate. The outgoing 'head' of DOGE, Elon Musk, was neither. Congressionally created agency heads are also confined to the job descriptions established under a governing statute for each particular agency. For DOGE, Trump directed the actual federal agencies to create 'DOGE Teams' to 'coordinate their work' with Musk and to 'advise their respective Agency Heads on implementing the President's DOGE Agenda.' This kind of uber-power over agencies is constitutionally unprecedented. The point of mandating Senate confirmation of agency heads is of course to enable elected representatives of the people to gather information about a candidate's qualifications and possible disqualifying characteristics, such as conflicts of interest that would make it difficult or impossible for an officer to neutrally exercise the duties of their office. According to an April report from Senate Democrats, Musk and his companies faced upwards of $2.37 billion in legal liability stemming from 65 pending or potential federal investigations, regulations and litigation across 11 agencies relating to his companies — including Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reported in February that Musk would simply 'excuse himself' if a conflict of interest arose. That cynical strategy failed. In firing tens of thousands of federal employees, including over a dozen inspectors general, Musk managed to muck around with numerous agencies that regulate him — such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is now nearly defunct, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This is grossly inappropriate self-dealing. A lawsuit filed by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees complained that Musk's DOGE team members were violating a slew of federal laws, including the Privacy Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, the Social Security Act, the Tax Revenue Act of 1976 and the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014. The Privacy Act protects citizens' sensitive data unless government access is 'for a necessary and proper purpose' and mandates that 'adequate safeguards' be in place 'to prevent misuses of this information.' Information cannot even be shared between agencies without the consent of the people whose personal data is implicated. In April, a federal judge in Maryland agreed that Trump's unfettered data-collection effort was legally dubious, finding that the pretense that it was necessary to detect 'fraud, waste and abuse' was not enough to overcome the myriad statutory protections for individual Americans' private data. The judge issued an order temporarily enjoining DOGE from harvesting unlimited amounts of information from the Social Security Administration — which may include birth dates, addresses, Social Security numbers, drivers' license numbers, tax return information, bank account information, credit card numbers, employment and wage histories, citizenship and immigration records, and detailed medical records. Trump's executive order requires agencies to give the DOGE teams 'full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems.' The lawsuit is thus a standoff between Trump's roving DOGE snoops and the rule of law itself. In a terse order issued without full briefing or oral argument, Chief Justice Roberts — on behalf of the six conservative justices in the majority — sided with DOGE, reversing the district court's temporary injunction and allowing Musk's minions to access a treasure trove of personal data while the district court's decision is on appeal. Normally, when a district court issues an order, that order holds while it is appealed (absent some finding of exceptional circumstances). In this case, DOGE was positioned to possibly get what it wants down the line, either from the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit or from the Supreme Court in due course, while the case makes its way through the system. In the meantime, the status quo of keeping statutory protections in place for regular Americans would stand — just like it has under every president before Trump. Instead, Roberts found that it is DOGE — not the American people — that would irreparably suffer if the legal questions are given time to percolate on appeal. DOGE gets the goods immediately. If the plaintiffs manage to secure a ruling affirming the district court on appeal many months from now, thus undoing the Supreme Court's stay, the damage will already have been done. The data is already breached. There is no longer a remedy. To justify his decision, Roberts properly cited the four-part test for granting a temporary stay of an injunction: Trump must show that he will likely win under the various federal laws that otherwise protect the data, that he'd be irreparably damaged without a stay, that the stay will not 'substantially injure' other parties (like Americans who want their personal data to remain secure) and that a stay is in the broader public interest. The wrinkle is that Roberts didn't bother to actually analyze any of these factors. He just summarily concluded they were satisfied. Too bad for the plaintiffs — and too bad for the American people, whose personal data is now in the hands of DOGE and anyone else it cares to share it with. Roberts simply reasoned that the DOGE team must get access to the records 'for those members to do their work.' In a dissenting opinion, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted that 'the 'urgency' underlying the government's stay application is the mere fact that it cannot be bothered to wait for the litigation process to play out before proceeding as it wishes.' The majority nonetheless is 'jettisoning careful judicial decision-making and creating grave privacy risks for millions of Americans in the process.' Since the landmark 1803 decision Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court's job has included holding the other branches of government accountable to federal statutes. By baldly eschewing its constitutional role while hiding behind a veneer of legitimacy, today's conservative majority is much like DOGE, the entity it put above the law: a fake. Kimberly Wehle is author of the book 'Pardon Power: How the Pardon System Works — and Why.'
Yahoo
44 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump and Musk might already be making up over Los Angeles protests
The feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump appears to be cooling off, with Musk recently expressing support for the White House's stance on immigration protests in Los Angeles and engaging positively with posts from President Trump and VP JD Vance. Despite a dramatic fallout over federal spending, Musk has since deleted inflammatory posts and responded amicably to conciliatory comments from Trump's camp, signaling a possible reconciliation. The so-called 'blood feud' between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump may already be simmering down, after the richest man on the planet returned to endorsing the actions of the White House. In recent weeks the political partnership that was Musk and Trump broke down in spectacular fashion over the Oval Office's 'Big, Beautiful Bill.' Musk felt the package undermined the work he had done with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to reduce spending and the federal deficit, though Trump claimed the SpaceX founder went 'crazy' after finding out the bill cut certain electric vehicle mandates. But even in the last 24 hours the sharpest rebukes between the pair seem to have been walked back and in some cases, rescinded. Musk seems to have reconnected with the work of the White House due to the protests currently happening in Los Angeles against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Neuralink founder has long pushed for tighter border controls into the U.S., and this was among the political common ground which led to him supporting Trump in the 2024 elections. Musk's repatriation into team Trump began with the X owner screenshooting a post from the president's Truth Social platform. In the post, Trump wrote: 'Governor Gavin Newscum and 'Mayor' Bass should apologize to the people of Los Angeles for the absolutely horrible job that they have done, and this now includes the ongoing L.A. riots. These are not protestors, they are troublemakers and insurrectionists. Remember, NO MASKS!' The Tesla CEO also reshared a post from Vice President JD Vance, adding it to his timeline with two American flags. The post from Vance itself contains a further screenshot from Trump's Truth Social, in which he claims 'order will be restored, the illegals will be expelled and Los Angeles will be set free.' The post from Vance accompanying Trump's post reads: 'This moment calls for decisive leadership. The president will not tolerate rioting and violence.' And a further indication of the thawing relations between Musk and his former colleagues in Washington D.C. was his response to a JD Vance interview published at the weekend. Speaking on podcast 'This Past Weekend' with Theo Von, Vance said: 'I don't want to reveal too many confidences but [Trump] was getting a little frustrated, feeling like some of the criticisms were unfair coming from Elon…the president doesn't think that he needs to be in a blood feud with Elon Musk, and I actually think if Elon chilled out a little bit, everything would be fine.' Reacting to the clip, Musk wrote: 'Cool.' Perhaps the most notable of Musk's actions has been to delete the most salacious of his posts on X, which claimed the president's name is in the Epstein files. The post—shared with no evidence—was slammed as 'BS' by Vance. The spat between Musk and Trump has unfolded a breakneck speed since the man worth $356 billion left Washington D.C., rescinding his title as a special government employee. The partnership between the duo hasn't always been smooth sailing, with Musk making his opinions of some major Trump 2.0 policies clear. He wasn't a fan of tariffs, for example, and publicly sparred with a top Trump advisor, Peter Navarro, on the issue. While White House Press Secretary Karoline Levitt laughed off that feud as 'boys will be boys' she did have to respond more forcefully when Musk's ire was directed at the Oval Office. The Tesla CEO has variously claimed Trump could not have won last year's election without him, as well as asking voters to rebel against the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' saying it is a 'disgusting abomination.' Musk even went as far as calling for Trump to be impeached, and baited the Oval Office into cancelling government contracts with his private entities. Trump hasn't been silent on the matter but has been somewhat more tempered. Although warning Musk's federal contracts could be due a review, the president added he 'wasn't thinking' about the Tesla CEO and hopes he does well with his EV-making company. 'I have no intention of speaking to [Musk],' Trump added in an NBC News interview this weekend. 'I think it's a very bad thing, because he's very disrespectful. You could not disrespect the office of the president,' he added. And even if Vance is hoping Musk will return to the fold, Trump added to NBC he believed his relationship with the CEO is over. This story was originally featured on
Business Wire
2 hours ago
- Business Wire
Venu Holding Corporation Announces Fan-Forward Preferred Offering with 8% Dividend and NYSE Access
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Venu Holding Corporation ("VENU" or the 'Company') (NYSE American: VENU), a developer, owner, and operator of upscale live music venues and premium hospitality destinations, today launched an offering of its 8.0% convertible Preferred Stock. Accredited and non-accredited individual investors can now purchase shares of Preferred Stock and join the movement at Known for fostering new pathways for ownership in one of the fastest growing industries, this initiative offers music lovers, investors and everyone in between the opportunity for a front row seat to priority returns. VENU's Preferred Offering gives shareholders an opportunity to earn an 8.0% dividend and to convert to VENU's common stock, traded on the NYSE American under ticker symbol VENU. Share VENU's Preferred Offering gives shareholders an opportunity to earn an 8.0% dividend and to convert to VENU's common stock, traded on the NYSE American under ticker symbol VENU. As part of the fan-owned model, shareholders can also unlock access to exclusive loyalty perks based on the level of investment, ranging from free concert tickets and custom signed guitars to unforgettable all-inclusive concert experiences. "This is an exciting time for our fan-founded and fan-owned movement. I built this company with the heart of a fan and as a seasoned entrepreneur,' said J.W. Roth, Founder and CEO of VENU. 'This Preferred Stock offering strengthens our ability to expand into key markets, while delivering exceptional fan-first experiences, and drives long-term shareholder value. As a public company, we're proud to offer our community a chance to take an even more active role in the future of live entertainment." How To Invest: Those interested in purchasing shares in the offering should visit and hit the 'Invest Now' button. Investors are not required to be accredited and any individual over 18 years of age is able to purchase shares at $15.00 per share. An expanding ownership opportunity portfolio The global live entertainment market is projected to reach $79.7 billion by 2030, growing at a 16.1% CAGR (ResearchAndMarkets). VENU's fan-founded, fan-owned model was built to expand opportunities for ownership in music to the masses. Including innovative fractional ownerships in world-class amphitheaters through Luxe FireSuites with optional structured financing, triple-net lease opportunities, membership-based Aikman Clubs, FINRA-approved investment vehicles such as 1031 exchange-eligible DST funding, common stock and now Regulation A+ Preferred Stock. As consumer demand for premium live entertainment experiences surges, VENU is proud to expand ownership opportunities as it strengthens its market position, enhances revenue predictability, and reinforces its long-term growth potential. About Venu Holding Corporation Venu Holding Corporation ("VENU") (NYSE American: VENU), founded by Colorado Springs entrepreneur J.W. Roth, is a premier hospitality and live music venue developer dedicated to building luxury, experience-driven entertainment destinations. VENU's campuses in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Gainesville, Georgia, each feature Bourbon Brothers Smokehouse and Tavern, The Hall at Bourbon Brothers, and unique to Colorado Springs, Notes Eatery and the 9,750-seat Ford Amphitheater. Expanding with new Sunset Amphitheaters in Oklahoma and Texas, VENU's upcoming large-scale venues will host between 12,500 and 20,000 guests, continuing VENU's vision of redefining the live entertainment experience. Click here for company overview. VENU has been recognized nationally by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Denver Post, Billboard, VenuesNow, and Variety for its innovative and disruptive approach to live entertainment. Through strategic partnerships with industry leaders such as AEG Presents and NFL Hall of Famer and Founder of EIGHT Elite Light Lager, Troy Aikman, VENU continues to shape the future of the entertainment landscape. For more information, visit VENU's website, Instagram, LinkedIn, or X. Disclaimer: VENU is offering securities through the use of an Offering Statement that has been qualified by the Securities and Exchange Commission under Tier II of Regulation A. Before making any investment, you are urged to read the Final Offering Circular carefully for a more complete understanding of the issuer and the offering. There is no guarantee of return, and you should only invest money that you can afford to lose. Use proper risk management when considering this investment. The offering documents may include 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and are intended to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements. This information is supplied from sources we believe to be reliable but we cannot guarantee accuracy. Although we believe our expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot assure you that they will be realized. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to the risks and uncertainties set forth in the attached materials, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results set forth in such forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement made by us speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement except as may be required by law. The securities offered by VENU are highly speculative. Investing in these securities involves significant risks. The investment is suitable only for persons who can afford to lose their entire investment. Investors must understand that such investment could be illiquid for an indefinite period of time. VENU intends to apply to have our Series A Preferred Stock listed on the NYSE American under the symbol 'VENUP' following the NYSE American's certification of the Form 8-A of the Company to be filed after the final closing of this offering. The listing of the Company's Series A Preferred Stock on the NYSE American is not a condition of the Company's proceeding with this offering, and no assurance can be given that our application to list on the NYSE American will be approved or that an active trading market for our Series A Preferred Stock will develop. Our Series A Preferred Stock is not currently listed or quoted on any exchange. For additional information on VENU, the offering and any other related topics, please review the Form 1-A offering circular that can be found by searching for VENU under Filings/Company filings search on Additional information concerning Risk Factors related to the offering, including those related to the business, government regulations, intellectual property and the offering in general, can be found in the risk factor section of the Form 1-A offering circular.
