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American Military News
3 hours ago
- Politics
- American Military News
Top Biden official exposed for spending $80 billion on DEI, delaying air traffic control upgrades: Report
A new report claims that former Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spent $80 billion on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) grants and failed to implement upgrades to the country's air traffic control systems under former President Joe Biden's administration. According to The New York Post, airline industry sources and federal spending records indicate that Buttigieg prioritized the Biden administration's DEI policies while failing to replace the Department of Transportation's outdated air traffic control systems. Sources told the outlet that Buttigieg told airline industry executives during a meeting that upgrading air traffic control systems would allow airlines to fly additional airplanes, 'and so why would that be in his interest?' The New York Post reported that federal spending records show the Department of Transportation spent over $80 billion under the Biden administration on approximately 400 DEI grants. 'He was definitely pushing an agenda,' an industry official told The New York Post. The source claimed that Buttigieg had 'little to no interest' and took 'definitely zero action' toward the modernization of the country's air traffic control systems. Instead, sources told the outlet that Buttigieg repeatedly blamed airlines for traffic delays and denied that the Department of Transportation's DEI policies led to staffing shortages. READ MORE: Video: Pentagon failure exposed by FAA after deadly DC plane crash One source told The New York Post, 'At first, [the Department of Transportation] and he were reluctant to say there was an air traffic controller shortage or that the shortage had anything to do with flight delays or flight cancellations.' In response to The New York Post's report regarding Buttigieg's leadership of the Department of Transportation, Chris Meagher, a Buttigieg spokesperson, said, 'Suggesting that Secretary Buttigieg chose not to pursue air traffic control modernization is absurd.' 'Secretary Buttigieg's focus was always on safety — not just in aviation, but also on roads and bridges, where 40,000 Americans die on our country's roads each year,' Meagher added. 'Fixing issues with air traffic control was a priority.' The Buttigieg spokesperson claimed that the Department of Transportation's DEI grants that were approved under the Biden administration were a 'separate siloed transportation mode' and did not result in delays to the 'work' of the Federal Aviation Administration. 'You can walk and chew gum at the same time,' Meagher said. 'FAA operates completely separately than other modal administrations. So what happens at FHWA doesn't have a meaningful effect on FAA or NHTSA because they operate independently. It's separate staff, separate budgets, separate programs.'
American Military News
10 hours ago
- Politics
- American Military News
230,000 pages on Martin Luther King Jr assassination released by Trump admin
President Donald Trump's administration announced on Monday that it was releasing more than 230,000 pages of files pertaining to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Prior to the release of the files by the Trump administration, the documents had been sealed since 1977. In a Monday press release, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard confirmed that her office was releasing over 230,000 pages of files on King Jr.'s assassination in response to the president's executive order directing his administration to release classified documents regarding the assassinations of King, former President John F. Kennedy, and former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. 'The American people have waited nearly 60 years to see the full scope of the federal government's investigation into Dr. King's assassination,' Gabbard stated. 'Under President Trump's leadership, we are ensuring that no stone is left unturned in our mission to deliver complete transparency on this pivotal and tragic event in our nation's history. I extend my deepest appreciation to the King family for their support.' Monday's press release explained that the newly-released documents include information on the investigation the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted into King Jr.'s assassination, such as internal FBI memos regarding the case, potential leads, and information on a former cellmate of James Earl Ray, who initially pleaded guilty to assassinating King following the civil rights activist's death in 1968 before renouncing his guilty plea. READ MORE: Video: JFK assassination files released The press release noted that other documents released by the Trump administration include evidence of Ray fleeing the country following King Jr.'s assassination and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) records on the 'international hunt for the prime suspect in the assassination.' 'The American people deserve answers decades after the horrific assassination of one of our nation's great leaders,' Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a Justice Department press release. 'The Department of Justice is proud to partner with Director Gabbard and the ODNI at President Trump's direction for this latest disclosure.' Dr. Alveda King, the niece of the former civil rights activist, said she was grateful that the Trump administration followed through with its commitment to provide transparency by releasing the documents regarding King Jr.'s assassination. 'My uncle lived boldly in pursuit of truth and justice, and his enduring legacy of faith continues to inspire Americans to this day,' Alveda King stated. 'While we continue to mourn his death, the declassification and release of these documents are a historic step towards the truth that the American people deserve.'
American Military News
11 hours ago
- Politics
- American Military News
Videos: Hunter Biden reveals cause of Joe Biden's disastrous debate with Trump
Hunter Biden recently claimed that his father, former President Joe Biden, was on Ambien prior to his debate with President Donald Trump in June of 2024, suggesting that the medication could have contributed to his disastrous debate performance, which later led to him dropping out of the 2024 election amid pressure from Democrat leadership. During an interview with Andrew Callaghan on the 'Channel 5' podcast over the weekend, Hunter Biden claimed that his father had been given Ambien, which is a sleep medication, to help the president sleep during his term in the White House. Asked if he believed his father was going to drop out of the 2024 presidential election, Hunter Biden said, 'No. I thought that we had cleared all the hurdles that they had set up for us.' Hunter Biden then addressed the highly-anticipated debate between Joe Biden and Trump in June of 2024, which quickly led to Biden dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing former Vice President Kamala Harris for president. READ MORE: Fmr. top Biden aide admits to controlling autopen 'It was a horrible debate, and there's no arguing that it was anything but an absolutely horrible debate,' Hunter Biden told Callaghan. 'And I think it scared the sh-t out of a lot of people because they were already concerned about his age.' In another video from Hunter Biden's interview with Callaghan, the former first son said, 'I know exactly what happened in that debate. He flew around the world basically, the mileage he could have flown around the world three times. He's 81 years old; he's tired as sh-t. They give him Ambien to be able to sleep. He gets up on the stage, and he looks like he's a deer in the headlights. And it feeds into every f-cking story that anybody wants to tell.' Hunter Biden also pushed back against claims that the Biden administration engaged in a conspiracy to hide the former president's condition from the American people and from Democrat voters. 'If this was a conspiracy… somehow the entirety of a White House in which you're literally living on top of each other has kept their mouth shut about you now, like what? And what's the conspiracy? That Joe Biden got old? Yeah, he got old,' Hunter Biden said. 'He got old before our eyes. The people that came out against him were who — nobody — except Speaker Emeritus Pelosi did not give a full-throated endorsement, which allowed everybody else to kind of go, 'OK.'' 'He's 81 years old, he's tired as shit, they give him Ambien to be able to sleep. He gets up on the stage and he looks like he's a deer in the headlights. And it feeds into every fucking story that anybody wants to tell.' — Hunter tries to explain Joe Biden's debate with Trump — The Recount (@therecount) July 21, 2025
American Military News
15 hours ago
- Politics
- American Military News
Will Trump's 50-Day Deadline Shift Putin? Doubtful, Analysts Say
This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission. US President Donald Trump handed the Kremlin a clear warning this week, announcing plans for weapons supplies to Kyiv via Europe and saying the United States will impose 'very severe tariffs' on Russia if it doesn't reach a deal on the war in Ukraine within 50 days. Trump did not specify whether a cease-fire would suffice, or only a comprehensive peace deal. Either way, many analysts say it's unlikely to happen. Here's why. Territorial Aims Russian President Vladimir Putin's goals clearly go far beyond the conquest of part of Ukraine: He has made plain that he wants to subjugate the country and weaken NATO and the West, restoring a measure of Moscow's Soviet-era sway over swaths of Europe. But a more immediate aim is all about territory. Russia occupies about 20 percent of Ukraine. In addition to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia has controlled since 2014, Putin formally and falsely claims that the Ukrainian mainland regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson are now Russian — including the substantial portions that Russia does not occupy. Russia has said a full Ukrainian withdrawal from those four regions is a prerequisite of any peace deal — a demand that Kyiv says is unacceptable. And while analysts say Putin could weather any backlash at home if he agreed to a pact that would limit Russia's presence to the land it now holds, he has given zero indication that he might do that. On the contrary, Russia has stuck to this demand in its rhetoric. On the ground, it has sought to make its claim a reality, pressing forward in the Donetsk region in particular and bearing down on the ruined city of Pokrovsk. In one of the first Russian reactions to Trump's remarks, Kremlin-aligned lawmaker Konstantin Kosachyov said on Telegram that 'oh so much can change on the battlefield in 50 days.' Russia could seek to step up its offensive in the coming weeks, pushing to advance not just in the provinces it claims but also elsewhere, such as in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions north of Donetsk. In June, Putin issued a thinly veiled threat to try to capture the city of Sumy. Still, there actually is a limit to what can change in six weeks on the battlefield, where incremental Russian gains have come at a massive cost in terms of casualties, which are estimated to be close to 1 million killed or wounded since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. But while there is no way Russia can seize the remaining parts of the four regions by September — areas that include the capitals of Zaporizhzhya and Kherson — that may only sharpen Putin's desire to secure control over them on paper ahead of any deal. 'To me, it's clear that Putin does not want any cease-fire, at least not until he gains control over all the regions that are defined as Russian in his version of the constitution,' Dmitry Gudkov, a former opposition lawmaker in the Russian parliament, told Current Time on July 16. 'In essence, it would mean Ukraine's capitulation.' 'Ultimatums Are Unacceptable' Trump has sought to broker an end to the war in Ukraine since he took office six months ago, following an election campaign in which he said he could get it done in a day or two. Facing pushback from Putin, most notably in the form of his carefully worded rejection of the US call for a 30-day cease-fire, Trump has had harsh words for Putin in recent weeks. But the 50-day warning was the first time Trump has given the Kremlin an ultimatum — a form of pressure that Putin, who has made demands that other countries treat Russia as an equal a formal part of his foreign policy, does not seem to like. So while many in the West have been eager for Trump to make specific demands on Putin, it's not clear whether an ultimatum increases or decreases the chances of a deal. Putin has not spoken publicly about Trump's remarks, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said nothing specific about them. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who oversees Moscow's ties with the US, said on July 15 that 'any attempts to make demands, especially ultimatums, are unacceptable to us.' 'If we cannot achieve our goals through diplomacy, then the [war against Ukraine] will continue,' Ryabkov said, delivering the closest thing so far to an official rejection of Trump's call for a deal within 50 days — by September 1 or 2, depending on how it's counted. 'This is an unshakable position.' The Blame Game The Kremlin may hope that Trump's turn against Putin in recent weeks is not so unshakable — and that if there's no deal come September, the pendulum will swing back and the US president will lay at least part of the blame on Kyiv. One prominent view in Russia is that Trump's current focus is 'transient' and the increased support for Ukraine is 'a maneuver designed to increase pressure on Putin and test whether this approach yields results,' Tatyana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, wrote on X. Those who hold this view believe that when 'it becomes evident that such pressure is ineffective — expected to be soon — Trump is likely to revert to a diplomatic course, including exerting pressure on Ukraine to reach a compromise,' Stanovaya wrote ahead of Trump's remarks. Trump has put much of the blame on Ukraine at times in the past. And an aspect of his July 14 remarks that flew mostly under the radar was that he stressed that he hopes the push for a deal within 50 days will 'have an impact on Ukraine also.' 'We want to make sure that Ukraine does what they have to do,' Trump said. 'All of a sudden, they may feel emboldened and maybe they don't want [a deal] — this is a very difficult situation.' 'Not Ready For Prime Time' In any case, though, there are at least two reasons why the threat of sanctions seems unlikely to push Putin much closer to a deal with Ukraine to halt or end the war at this point. One is that it is unclear how the measures Trump threatened — chiefly, tariffs or sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil — would work. Trump's July 14 announcement was 'laudable in its intention to hit Russia on the economic side' but 'not ready for prime time in its details,' Daniel Fried, a fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank and an architect of US sanctions against Russia after it seized Crimea in 2014, said on the podcast Just Security. It's also unclear how well they would work if they are put in place, so the Kremlin could be inclined to take its chances. 'China and India are the top two recipients of Russian energy exports, and the expectation that they will pressure Putin to end his war in the next 50 days seems naïve,' Michael McFaul, a political science professor at Stanford University and the US ambassador to Russia in 2012-14, wrote in Time Magazine. The other reason is that Russia has weathered Western sanctions so far and the Kremlin has made that a point of pride, slotting it into the overarching narrative that Russia — in fact the aggressor in an unprovoked war — is fighting a defensive campaign in a major showdown with West — and winning. Against that backdrop, appearing to bend in the face of the tariff threat is something Putin would be loath to do unless absolutely necessary. 'Two Big Contingencies' The same may go for the stepped-up weapons shipments that Trump has promised Ukraine, with NATO allies footing the bill by purchasing Patriot air-defense missile systems and other arms from the United States or sending Kyiv weapons they have already received. Fried, the former sanctions architect, said that if Trump's announcements on weapons for Ukraine and economic pressure on Russia are 'crystallized, sharpened, and implemented,' it could make a big difference in terms of the war and the path to peace. 'Two big contingencies: Get the weapons flowing and keep them flowing; and crystallize our policy options for hitting the Russian economy. You do both and Ukraine's in a very different position,' he said. 'If Putin's assumptions or his hopes for a US failure of leadership and abandonment of Ukraine prove to be false, then he may have to settle.' Other analysts suggest that's not about to happen anytime soon, if at all. 'I think…we're going to need to see the United States showing a lot more muscle if it really is going to be able to bring Putin to the table in any kind of meaningful way,' Russia expert Mark Galeotti said on the This Is Not A Drill podcast. The prevailing view in Russia is that 'none of these developments will alter Putin's strategy of coercing Kyiv into capitulation by any available means,' Stanovaya wrote. 'Putin will not be beaten out of his war optimism easily, and he believes [Trump] has few cards,' Alexander Gabuev, director of Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, wrote on X on July 14. As far back as winter 'it was clear that Vladimir Putin is convinced [of] one thing: time is on his side,' Gabuev wrote. 'This is why he isn't interested in a deal [that's] not on his terms.'
American Military News
16 hours ago
- American Military News
Video: Plane engine fire forces emergency landing in Los Angeles
A Delta A350 767 commercial aircraft rests during Operation Allies Refuge at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Aug. 24, 2021. This is the first time Delta Airlines is transporting evacuees from Ramstein to more permanent resettlement locations as part of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet for Operation Allies Refuge. Team Ramstein is providing safe, temporary lodging for evacuees from Afghanistan. Operation Allies Refuge is facilitating the quick, safe evacuation of U.S. citizens, Special Immigrant Visa applicants and other at-risk Afghans from Afghanistan. Evacuees receive support, such as temporary lodging, food and water and access to medical care as well as religious care at Ramstein Air Base while preparing for onward movements to their final locations. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Milton Hamilton)
