The only substantial thing to come from the Wednesday Russia-Ukraine talks – which is the third round of dialogue – is another sizeable prisoner swap, which Ukraine’s President Zelensky has confirmed.

He said a post on social media that Wednesday’s prisoner swap has resulted in more than 1,000 Ukrainian prisoners had been returned under the agreement. “For a thousand families, this means the joy of embracing their loved ones again,” Zelensky said.

He pointed out that many of the prisoners had been in captivity for more than three years. “It is important that the exchanges are ongoing and our people are coming home,” he said of the multi-phased exchange deal.

“We will continue doing everything possible to ensure that every one of our people returns from captivity.”

As for what was discussed at Wednesday’s meeting, Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, has told reporters: “Priority number one is to organize the meeting of the leaders, of presidents,” in comments after the talks.

Ukraine wants talks by the end of August also with Presidents Trump and Erdogan participating – but the Kremlin has been cold on this proposal, citing that no progress has been made in lower-level engagement thus far.

Moscow’s lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsky has said: “The positions are quite distant. We agreed to continue contacts.”

He said both countries agreed to exchange 1,200 prisoners of war each and that Moscow offered to hand Kyiv the bodies of 3,000 killed soldiers.

“We once again proposed to the Ukrainian side… to establish short 24- to 48-hour ceasefires on the line of contact, so that medical teams are able to collect the wounded and so that commanders can come take the bodies of their soldiers,” he added.

However, Kiev has been pressing for a long-term truce, which Russia has rejected on fears that Ukraine’s military would just use a long pause to rearm and regroup along the front lines.

Putin’s office as of Tuesday had laid out that “Nobody expects an easy path. Naturally, it will be a very difficult conversation. [Ukraine’s and Russia’s peace proposals] are diametrically opposed to one another.”

.@proud_diplomat : Anyone who believes that Zelensky is really committed to accelerating moves towards peace in Ukraine may, I fear, be overly optimistic. https://t.co/nbOuFQjy39

— Responsible Statecraft (@RStatecraft) July 24, 2025

But there’s a Trump-imposed deadline looming, albeit it remains vague. Trump last week said that Russia has 50 days to reach an agreement to end the war or face more far-reaching sanctions.

The Kremlin has responded by calling the threat “misguided” as no one should expect a breakthrough and thus no timeline can be arbitrarily imposed on a peace deal, citing “many factors” which remain complex.

Authored by Arjun Singh via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

WASHINGTON—Two federal judges on July 23 ordered that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador subject to a high-profile prosecution by the United States, be released from federal custody and permitted to return to his family in Maryland.

Abrego Garcia, 30, was first removed to El Salvador on March 15  following the government’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, and detained in the maximum security prison Terrorism Confinement Center in that country—prompting opposition from Democrats and illegal immigrant advocacy groups—before being returned to the United States to face felony smuggling charges in Tennessee.

The U.S. government has indicated that it seeks to remove Abrego Garcia, once again, from the country and would detain him if released from criminal custody in Tennessee, where he is presently located.

As a result, U.S. District Judges Waverly Crenshaw Jr. of the Middle District of Tennessee, who is presiding over the criminal case, and Paula Xinis of the District of Maryland, who is overseeing the civil suit against the government over his removal, issued joint orders on July 23 that barred Abrego Garcia’s detention.

They restored his previous immigration arrangement, where he must periodically report to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) but is allowed to remain free.

“The Defendants SHALL NOT take Abrego Garcia into custody, including but not limited to custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”); Defendants SHALL restore Abrego Garcia to his ICE Order of Supervision out of the Baltimore Field Office,” wrote Xinis in her order.

Abrego Garcia illegally crossed the U.S. border with Mexico in 2012 and was arrested in 2019 after being suspected of gang involvement. The Trump administration has said that Abrego Garcia was a member of Mara Salvatrucha, or “MS-13,” which it has designated as a terrorist organization.

Abrego Garcia was later ordered to be removed from the United States, but in 2019, he was granted relief in the form of a “withholding of removal” order that prevented his deportation to his home country of El Salvador, due to a “clear probability” of persecution.

During this time, he met and married Jennifer Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen, with whom he fathered a child.

The order withholding removal remained active at the time of Abrego Garcia’s expulsion from the United States in March.

The initial reaction to Abrego Garcia’s removal saw protests and a flurry of legal challenges, including one that resulted in a ruling by the Supreme Court, which directed the government to “facilitate” his release from custody in El Salvador due to the prior order withholding removal.

Abrego Garcia was later returned to the United States on June 6 and indicted on two felony counts related to the smuggling of illegal immigrants.

Even as the order prevents Abrego Garcia’s removal to El Salvador, he may be removed to a third country, which the Trump administration has sought to do alongside his criminal prosecution.

Xinis also required the government to provide at least 72 hours’ notice, excluding holidays, to Abrego Garcia and the court if it sought to remove him from the United States.

The Department of Justice and ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Vice President JD Vance unleashed a fiery takedown of Corporate America’s relentless outsourcing of U.S. jobs, zeroing in on Big Tech’s shameless dependence on foreign workers through the grossly misused H-1B visa program, slamming it as a betrayal of American workers.

“You see some big tech companies where they’ll lay off 9,000 workers, and then they’ll apply for a bunch of overseas visas. And I sort of wonder; that doesn’t totally make sense to me,” Vance said during an interview at the All-In AI Policy Summit in Washington, DC.

VP Vance goes after Microsoft for firing Americans while still applying for H-1B visas: “That math worries me. I don’t want companies to fire 9,000 American workers and then go and say they can’t find workers here in America. That’s a bulls*** story.” pic.twitter.com/OURcQzRpbW

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) July 24, 2025

The vice president continued: “That displacement and that math worries me a bit. And what the president has said, he said very clearly: We want the very best and the brightest to make America their home. We want them to build great companies and so forth. But I don’t want companies to fire 9,000 American workers and then to go and say, ‘We can’t find workers here in America.’ That’s a bullshit story.“

Newsweek reports:

Microsoft is facing mounting scrutiny over its use of the H-1B visa program after announcing a wave of layoffs in July that will impact approximately 9,000 employees globally.The latest cuts, affecting about 4 percent of the company’s total workforce, follow two earlier rounds in May and June, which together eliminated around 8,000 positions. In total, Microsoft has laid off nearly 16,000 employees so far this year, out of its global headcount of 228,000.

In the aftermath of the layoffs, social media posts began circulating on X, formerly Twitter, alleging that Microsoft has submitted applications for more than 6,000 H-1B visas since October, the start of the current fiscal year. While that specific figure has not been independently verified, official data shows that Microsoft filed 9,491 H-1B applications during the previous fiscal year, all of which were approved.

Last December, a fierce clash rocked the so-called MAGA-Tech Right coalition as tensions flared between Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and die-hard Trump supporters over the H-1B visa program. Musk and Ramaswamy pushed for more so-called “highly skilled” foreign workers to fuel their industry, while MAGA loyalists demanded tougher immigration rules to put American workers first.

Ramaswamy sparked outrage with a scathing post that seemed to mock American culture, writing, “A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.” He doubled down, taking jabs at pop culture, saying, “A culture that venerates Cory from ‘Boy Meets World,’ or Zach & Slater over Screech in ‘Saved by the Bell,’ or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in ‘Family Matters,’ will not produce the best engineers.”

Musk backed him up, blasting in a post that America lacks “super talented engineers” with the drive to compete.

Days later, then-President-elect Donald Trump jumped into the fray, siding with Musk and Ramaswamy. “I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program,” Trump told the New York Post.

Authored by Jackson Richman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President Donald Trump says he will receive $20 million in ads and public service announcements from Skydance, the incoming owner of CBS, in his lawsuit against the network’s “60 Minutes” over its 2024 interview with then-Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris. This is in addition to the $16 million he won for his future presidential library in a settlement with Paramount.

Trump announced the development in a July 22 post on X.

“BREAKING NEWS! We have just achieved a BIG AND IMPORTANT WIN in our Historic Lawsuit against 60 Minutes, CBS, and Paramount,” he wrote.

“Paramount/CBS/60 Minutes have today paid $16 Million Dollars in settlement, and we also anticipate receiving $20 Million Dollars more from the new Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming, for a total of over $36 Million Dollars.”

Skydance will merge with Paramount to form a company called New Paramount, which will be led by Skydance CEO David Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. RedBird Capital Partners, a minority owner in Skydance, will also play a role.

The president sued Paramount Global, which owns CBS, over its “60 Minutes” interview with Harris, which Trump accused the flagship program of deceptively editing. This stems from interviewer Bill Whitaker’s asking Harris, who was running for president after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, about the Israeli conflict in Gaza and U.S. involvement.

During CBS’s “Face the Nation,” the show aired a part of Harris’s answer about whether the United States was putting enough pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s actions in Gaza. “60 Minutes” aired answers Harris gave in response to follow-up questions on the subject.

“Quite simply, the version of the Interview that Plaintiffs and other consumers ultimately saw during ‘60 Minutes’ on October 7, 2024 was not the Interview that Defendants advertised on October 6, 2024 during ’Face the Nation’ and at other times prior to the Election Special,” the complaint said.

“The Preview and the Interview are both distortive, and to Defendants’ commercial and pecuniary benefit. Instead of broadcasting and posting the Interview online as advertised during the Preview and at other times prior to the Election Special, Defendants deceptively manipulated the Interview in a manner calculated to make Harris appear coherent and decisive, and thus the product more commercially appealing to Defendants’ audience.”

“60 Minutes” denied Trump’s allegation.

“‘60 Minutes’ gave an excerpt of our interview to ’Face the Nation‘ that used a longer section of her answer than that on ’60 Minutes.’ Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response,” the program said in an Oct. 20, 2024, statement.

“When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point,” they continued. “The portion of her answer on ‘60 Minutes’ was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment.”

Trump was offered the opportunity to be on “60 Minutes” ahead of the 2024 election but declined to appear.

Authored by Veronica Friedman via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump will visit the Federal Reserve headquarters on Thursday, the White House said, amid ongoing tensions between the administration and the central bank.

In a schedule released to the press on Wednesday night, the White House said the president would visit the Fed at 4 p.m. but did not say whether he would be meeting with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

Confirmation of Trump’s attendance came after White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair earlier this week said that administration officials would be visiting the central bank, but did not mention that the president would be joining them.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Federal Reserve for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.

Trump has been critical of Powell over his reticence to cut interest rates more aggressively and called for his resignation. The president has said he would like the Federal Reserve to cut the benchmark interest rate from its current range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent to as low as 1 percent.

During a meeting at the White House with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday, Trump said of Powell: “I think he’s done a bad job. But he’s going to be out pretty soon, anyway. In eight months, he’ll be out … He should have lowered interest rates many times. Europe lowered their rate ten times. We lowered ours none. And it’s causing a problem for people that want to buy a home.”

Refurbishment

White House officials have also criticized the Federal Reserve over its handling of renovations to two historic buildings in Washington: the Marriner S. Eccles Building, the Fed’s headquarters, and the 1951 Constitution Avenue building.

Renovation costs for the Fed’s headquarters have risen to $2.5 billion, $700 million over budget, according to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought.

Last week, Trump indicated that Powell’s handling of the renovation project could be grounds to fire him, saying, “I think it sort of is.”

“When you spend $2.5 billion on, really, a renovation, I think it’s really disgraceful,” he said.

The Fed responded to the criticism, stating on its website that major systems in both buildings, whose construction dates back to the 1930s, are “obsolete and in need of replacement for health and safety reasons.”

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks at the Federal Reserve in Washington on July 22, 2025. Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo

Call for Internal Review

Earlier this week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called for the Federal Reserve to conduct an internal review into nonmonetary policy operations, saying that “mission creep and institutional growth” have taken the central bank into areas beyond its core mission.

Bessent wrote on social media on Monday that while the Fed’s independence is the “cornerstone” of the United States’s economic growth and stability, that autonomy is “threatened by persistent mandate creep into areas beyond its core mission, provoking justifiable criticism that unnecessarily casts a cloud over the Fed’s valuable independence on monetary policy.”

He stated in his post on X that while he has no knowledge or opinion on the legal basis for the two buildings’ renovations, “a review of the decision to undertake such a project by an institution reporting operating losses of more than $100 billion per year should be conducted.”

The treasury secretary had earlier on Monday told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that there needs to be an examination of whether the central bank has been successful in its mission.

“If this were the [Federal Aviation Administration] and we were having this many mistakes, we would go back and look at why has this happened,” Bessent said.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

“When the legend becomes fact…print the legend.” Those words from an editor to a young reporter in “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” still appear to be the modus operandi of the media. That was demonstrated this week with the legend of Luis Leon after The Morning Call in Allentown, PA, printed yet another harrowing account of ICE agents “disappearing” an immigrant. According to a story quickly picked up by other eager outlets, the 82-year-old grandfather, a legal asylum holder, was roughed up and then deported to Guatemala. The problem is that there appears to be no proof supporting the story of the “family members” cited by the reporter.

According to The Morning Call, Luis Leon, a Chilean national, was trying to replace his lost green card at a local USCIS office when he was suddenly deported to the wrong country, Guatemala, and he ended up in a hospital with pneumonia. The story further recounted how Leon’s wife was kept in custody in brutal conditions for 10 hours before she was released.

Media, including The Guardian, eagerly picked up the story of another “disappearing” of an immigrant.

As the story went viral, a few people decided actually to look into the case and found that it not only made no sense but there is no evidence of such a deportation.

For its part, The Morning Call changed key facts but did not withdraw the story as a hoax.

Guatemala states that there is no record of Leon entering the country. While the granddaughter claimed he was sick in a Guatemalan hospital with pneumonia, a doctor at the hospital claimed that there is no record of him being there. At the same time, Chilean authorities are saying that a man with the name Luis Leon with the same birth date as the Luis Leon died in their country in 2019.

Then the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) became involved and stated that there was no record of any such arrest or deportation. It also mentioned that there was no green card appointment in Philadelphia or arrest at the location cited by the family. It clarified that the only record of this man is from 2015 under a waiver program, not an asylum program, as alleged.

Chilean journalist Jose Del Pino confirmed that there is no record to support the U.S. media’s claims and that a man by the same name and date of birth died in Santiago, Chile, in 2019.

Nevertheless, The Morning Call continued to run claims by “Nataly,” the supposed granddaughter.

The DHS issued a statement slamming the media for another hoax without a modicum of effort to confirm the facts:

The Morning Call, an Allentown, Pennsylvania, newspaper published the following headline on July 20, 2025, without any facts from DHS about major allegations made against law enforcement:

The family of the individual allegedly told reporters he was handcuffed and taken by federal officers at a green card appointment in Philadelphia. This claim is completely false. There is no record of the man appearing at any green card appointment in or around the area of Philadelphia on June 20, 2025.

Furthermore, ICE has not deported Luis Leon—a Chilean national—to Guatemala, as his family members have said. ICE’s only record of this individual entering the U.S. is in 2015 from Chile under the visa waiver program.

According to reporting by the Associated Press, the Guatemalan Institute of Migration—which coordinates with ICE on all deportations from the U.S. to Guatemala—claims they have not received anyone matching the name, age or nationality of Luis Leon back into Guatemala.

According to the report, the family alleges a woman claiming to be an immigration lawyer called and offered to help them but did not disclose how she knew about the case. The family claims this individual also told them Leon died in ICE custody.

“ICE never arrested or deported Luis Leon to Guatemala. Nor does ICE ‘disappear’ people—this is a categorical lie being peddled to demonize ICE agents who are already facing an 830% increase in assaults against them. This was a hoax peddled by the media who rushed to press without pausing to corroborate the facts with DHS. This was journalistic malpractice,” said Assistant Secretary McLaughlin.

The story had the same feel as the widely reported whipping of migrants by border agents. The media went into a frenzy over a false story accusing mounted officers of whipping undocumented migrants near Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 19, 2021. Reporters like CNN’s April Ryan continued to peddle the false story for years despite being debunked.

Like this story, it could have been immediately refuted by any reporter. Indeed, the photographer captured the scene, which showed agents using bridle reins to guide their skittish horses. The entire videotape clearly shows the agents using the reins on their mounts, not on the migrants. Not only did the photographer quickly deny seeing any officers whip migrants, but the videotape clearly refuted that allegation. However, for many in politics and the media, it did not matter because it played into a racial-justice claim of the “whipping (of) Haitian asylum seekers.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) condemned “the inappropriate use of what appear to be whips by Border Patrol officers on horseback to intimidate migrants.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) decried “images of inhumane treatment of Haitian migrants by Border Patrol — including the use of whips.” Vice President Kamala Harris emoted on “The View” about how the brutality “invoked images of some of the worst moments of our history, where that kind of behavior has been used against the Indigenous people of our country, it has been used against African Americans during times of slavery.” Reps. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) described the incident as “worse than what we witnessed in slavery” and “white supremacist behavior.”

President Biden rushed to express his own revulsion and rage, too: “It was horrible what — to see, as you saw — to see people treated like they did: horses nearly running them over and people being strapped. It’s outrageous. I promise you, those people will pay.”

The Administration delayed the results of the findings but eventually admitted that there was no such whipping. It still said it would punish the agents for other violations in what some of us viewed as a face-saving measure for President Biden.

In reading the original story, there was little support outside of the claims of the family and key elements of the story appeared to change as others challenged the account.

Frankly, I am still mystified by this controversy. It is hard for me to believe that a family would fabricate such facts while supplying pictures and details of this kind. Yet, the changes in the story and the fact of corroborating material undermine the account. Perhaps the family can produce further evidence in the coming days but, at a minimum, the newspaper ran with a story that lacked such foundation.

In the end, it does not matter that the story may be false. After all, you can get a Pulitzer prize for a debunked story funded by a political campaign.  It fits the preferred narrative of many in the media. It is the scourge of “advocacy journalism” where reporters pursue social or political agendas in framing the news.

If there is support for its story, The Morning Call needs to publish those facts. If not, there is a story in all of this on how a hoax went viral, but it is not the one that most reporters would relish.

Three miners have been trapped 500 meters underground at Newmont Corp.’s Red Chris mine in northwest British Columbia since Tuesday after part of a non-producing area of the mine collapsed. 

“At the time of the initial incident, three business partner employees were working more than 500 meters beyond the affected zone and were asked to relocate to a designated refuge station before a subsequent fall of ground blocked the access way,” Newmont wrote in a statement published on its website. 

Newmont stated that the refuge station is “equipped with adequate food, water, and ventilation” to support the three miners during an “extended stay.” 

A second collapse blocked access and restricted communication, Newmont said, adding that operations at the gold and copper mine have been suspended to focus resources on the rescue effort. 

According to British Columbia’s mining database, Red Chris received Mines Act and Environmental Management approvals in May 2012 and began regular production in mid-2015. The mine’s current projected operational timeline is expected to continue through 2043. 

What you should know about Red Chris:

• Strategic mine for Newmont: While not among Newmont’s largest operations, Red Chris is part of its global portfolio and represents a foothold in Canada’s mineral-rich British Columbia region.

• Gold and Copper Production: The mine produces both gold and copper, which are critical metals in demand for both industrial and investment purposes. It produced nearly 40,000 ounces of gold in 2023.

• Joint Venture Model: Newmont owns a 70% stake and operates the mine in partnership with Imperial Metals Corp.

Specialist teams from nearby mines are being assembled. Newmont has not provided a rescue timeline or indicated how long the refuge station can sustain the three miners.

By Philip Marey, senior US strategist at Rabobank

If Fed Chair Jerome Powell is thinking about planning his retirement, his fellow Republicans are giving him plenty of suggestions.

In an interview on Bloomberg TV, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent talked about the trade negotiations, his role as an intermediate between President Trump and the financial markets, and about Powell’s retirement.

Regarding trade, Bessent said that the 15% tariff for Japan, which is lower than the 25% in Trump’s recent letter to Japan, came about because of the innovative proposal by the Japanese to invest $550 billion in the US. When asked whether the EU had come up with an innovative proposal, Bessent said “Not yet, but again, talks are going better than they had been.” He also indicated that it was easier to negotiate with Japan which “moves as one entity”, rather than with the EU which has a collective action problem given its 27 member nations. Bessent played down a report about the EU preparing to levy 30% retaliatory tariffs on some $117 billion worth of American goods. He said that “it’s a negotiating tactic, and it’s what I would do if I were in their place.”

He said that the US and China were in a good place, after the initial tariff escalation, and “we can start moving on to bigger discussions.” He indicated those included Chinese purchases of sanctioned Russian and Iranian oil along with “a number of security things.” He also said “We will be talking about purchasing agreements, especially on agriculture.” The next talks will take place in Stockholm on July 28-29. Although the truce on tariffs expires on August 12, Bessent said that “I think that we could roll it forward, maybe in a 90-day increment. Both sides have de-escalated, and I think we can get into a very good cadence of regular meetings with them.” Bessent said that the personal relationship between Trump and Xi was good, which was beneficial to the negotiations. Regarding the Phase One deal from Trump’s first term, Bessent said that the Chinese had lived up to the deal when Trump was in office, but later Biden failed to enforce the deal. Bessent that that the US now lets bygones be bygones and is looking ahead to a new deal. He said the US does not want to decouple from China, but needs to derisk its supply chain.

Bessent explained that his role was to explain President Trump’s plan to the financial markets. The Treasury Secretary said there is a plan, and he tries to frame it in such a way that calms the markets. Bessent thinks the markets have taken the recent tariff letters very well.

When asked whether he has a good relationship with Powell, Bessent said they have continuing communication… Bessent said that President Trump has said that he is not going to fire Powell and they are now in the process of finding a new Chair. Bessent also said they were not in a rush. Replacing Governor Kugler is part of the comprehensive procedure. Bessent said that there were good candidates, both on the Board, among regional Fed presidents and outside, including women. He did not go into specifics regarding Governor Michelle Bowman.

Bessent repeated his forward guidance for Powell (see yesterday’s Global Daily) to leave the Board after his term as Chair ends in May 2026. Note that Powell’s term on the Board runs until the end of January 2028. Bessent said: “I think that it would be very good for the institution for him to do it. And I think it’d be very good for him personally to do it.” There are several ways in which we could interpret that last sentence, but let’s assume the Treasury Secretary wishes Powell a happy retirement!

Meanwhile, on Truth Social President Trump posted his suggestions for the Powell:

Housing in our Country is lagging because Jerome “Too Late” Powell refuses to lower Interest Rates. Families are being hurt because Interest Rates are too high, and even our Country is having to pay a higher Rate than it should be because of “Too Late.” Our Rate should be three points lower than they are, saving us $1 Trillion per year (as a Country). This stubborn guy at the Fed just doesn’t get it — Never did, and never will. The Board should act, but they don’t have the Courage to do so!

Finally, in an interview with Bloomberg reporters, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he is “disenchanted” with Jerome Powell. Asked about whether he would support Trump firing Powell, Johnson said he was unclear on the legal authority to dismiss the Fed chief: “But I will tell you that I have been, can I use the word disenchanted?” Johnson indicated he’s open to modifying the Federal Reserve Act. “I think all the scrutiny is appropriate,” Johnson said, referring to investigations into the cost of renovating the Fed’s office buildings and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s decision to explore “mission creep” at the central bank. However, Johnson stressed that the “devil’s in the details,” when it comes to modifying the Federal Reserve Act. “I’m not even sure where the original constitutional authority is for the Fed,” said Johnson. “There is probably some need to reform, but we would have to study that very carefully before Congress got involved in any way to the extent we have jurisdiction over it. You would not want to do it in a reckless manner.”

And of course, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Fox News that Powell “should either resign or be replaced.”

Today former President Donald Trump denied accusations that he plans to harm Elon Musk’s companies, such as Tesla and SpaceX, by cutting off federal support.

Responding to recent speculation, Trump posted on Truth Social: “Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon’s companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the U.S. Government. This is not so!”

He added, “I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE, in fact, THRIVE like never before! The better they do, the better the USA does, and that’s good for all of us.”

“We are setting records every day and I want to keep it that way” Trump added.

Though Trump had previously threatened to revoke billions in government subsidies to Musk’s ventures, his recent statements mark a softer stance. The two have had a turbulent relationship in recent weeks, with tensions rising after Musk’s departure from the Department of Government Efficiency. Despite their past alliance, Trump emphasized his broader commitment to American business success.

It was reported over the past week that President Trump had expressed a willingness to harm Musk’s companies by targeting their federal funding and contracts.

Following a public feud between the two men—intensified after Musk left his government advisory role—Trump reportedly suggested he could retaliate by canceling contracts with Musk’s businesses, including SpaceX.

WSJ reported that after tensions between President Trump and Elon Musk escalated in early June 2025, the Trump administration began reviewing SpaceX’s multibillion-dollar government contracts to assess potential waste and whether any could be canceled.

This move followed Trump’s public suggestion that terminating Musk’s federal deals would be an effective cost-cutting measure. The General Services Administration asked several agencies, including the Defense Department and NASA, to compile detailed spreadsheets—known as “scorecards”—on SpaceX’s active contracts, evaluating their financial value and whether any competitors could fulfill the same roles.

However, after reviewing the data, officials concluded that most of the contracts were essential to national security and space exploration, making them difficult to terminate.

SpaceX’s dominance in the launch and satellite sectors left the government with few viable alternatives. Despite ongoing frustrations and scrutiny, the company continued securing major contracts, including a $5.9 billion Pentagon deal for 28 national-security launches.

SpaceX’s proven track record, reusable rocket technology, and critical role in programs like Crew Dragon and Starlink have solidified its position as a cornerstone of U.S. space and defense operations—even amid political friction.

Most recently, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she did not believe Trump supported federal agencies contracting with Musk’s AI company, xAI, which had just secured a $200 million deal with the Department of Defense.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk believes that President Trump only has a short timeframe to take decisive action and score a meaningful victory over the Deep State before it’s too late.

Kirk told Tucker Carlson that the clock is ticking and “We need accountability. If we do not smash the administrative state and the deep state in the coming six to 12 months, then we’re actually not going to.”

“I know what the grassroots want. I know what President Trump wants. We need perp walks. We need arrests,” Kirk further urged.

Referring to the bombshell documents on Obama’s role in the Russia hoax dropped by Tulsi Gabbard last week, Kirk noted “I believe that all roads lead back to the intel agencies on all this stuff. And so Tulsi is now getting under the hood.”

“This revelation of Russiagate is massive. It’s huge. God bless her for doing this,” Kirk contiuned, adding “I know the president cares about it personally, as he should, because how much of his life and his energy was just spent defending against a fabrication? Not a fabrication of the Chinese Communist Party, by the way. Not a fabrication of our adversaries, [but] a fabrication of our own government.”

“That’s what makes this so sinister, is that our own government was turned against the duly elected president. So here we are now in the year of our Lord 2025. Who’s running the United States government?” Kirk continued adding “President Trump, he is now the hunter. He was the hunted back in the first term.”

However, Kirk warned that if progress is not rapidly made then “We’re not going to bring this entire intelligence apparatus to heel,” asserting “We have to lance the boil because it’s gone so out of control.”

“I can tell you, they are deeply fearful of this movement. They know that we are aware. They notice that they know that we are noticing things, that we’re seeing patterns, that we know how powerful the intelligence agencies have become,” Kirk further urged.

“So that’s why I think Russiagate really matters, is that it’s a way to hold them accountable to see how dark and honestly demonic their activities have become,” he emphasised.

Kirk described the remaining months of 2025 as “Hopefully an opportunity to fulfill a mandate that President Trump ran on I still know [he] believes to this day, which is to bring the deep state to hopefully smash it or, [at] the very least, bring it back into balance.”

Watch the entire interview below:

Charlie Kirk on how continuing to ignore the debt slavery of Gen Z will lead to revolution.

(0:00) How the Russiagate Hoax Paved the Way for America’s War With Russia
(11:42) Donald Trump’s Fight Against the Intel Agencies
(17:11) What Really Is the Deep State?
(18:42) Why Don’t… pic.twitter.com/lCruWuUMve

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) July 21, 2025

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