Leftist media figures are increasingly walking on eggshells when discussing President Trump, hastily retracting or clarifying statements to avoid potential defamation lawsuits that could bankrupt their networks.
In recent clips, MSNBC’s Jen Psaki and CNN anchors have been caught mid-sentence backpedaling on inflammatory remarks tying Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, signaling a broader chill in media rhetoric as Trump’s legal victories mount.
During a segment on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki,” the host quickly corrected herself after implying Trump was among “predators” linked to Epstein.
? LMAO! Jen Psaki sees a multi-MILLION dollar lawsuit flash before her very eyes and immediately retracts her defamatory statement about Donald Trump
“The other predators out there, in ADDITION to Trump! I mean, not, I’m not, not saying HE is…” pic.twitter.com/3wm9WLqIFF
Psaki stated, “The other predators out there, in addition to Trump! I mean, not, I’m not, not saying HE is…” This fumbling reversal came amid chyron headlines like “Trump White House Engulfed by New Epstein Bombshell,” highlighting how anchors are now second-guessing their words to evade legal scrutiny.
Similarly, CNN anchors went out of their way to absolve Trump during Epstein coverage, emphasising, “We wanna be clear. Trump didn’t receive or send any messages…he has not been accused of any wrongdoing with Epstein or Maxwell.”
This unsolicited clarification underscores the network’s caution, likely influenced by Trump’s aggressive litigation strategy against perceived smears.
? WOW! CNN is so PETRIFIED of a lawsuit that they are now fully exonerating President Trump of any wrongdoing RE: Epstein
“We wanna be clear. Trump didn’t receive or send any messages…he has not been accused of any wrongdoing with Epstein or Maxwell.” pic.twitter.com/66jDA8rxNa
These instances reflect a wider trend where media outlets are “tip-toeing” around Trump-related stories, fearing exposure and costly lawsuits.
Critics argue this self-censorship stems from Trump’s track record of holding networks accountable, with legal experts noting that defamation laws are being weaponized to curb biased reporting.
As one analyst put it, “The media is terrified of Trump’s legal team— they’re editing in real-time to avoid the next big payout.”
Democrats too have been forced to delete a previous completely unfounded claim that Trump spent Thanksgiving with Jeffrey Epstein in 2017, a remarkably stupid accusation given that Trump was serving as President at that time and Epstein was a known pedophile.
? BREAKING: The official X account of the Democrat Party has DELETED their post claiming President Trump spent Thanksgiving with Jeffrey Epstein in 2017
He was literally the President, dumbasses. You don’t think someone would’ve noticed?!
Tying into this caution is the ongoing BBC controversy over a deceptively edited video in their Panorama documentary, which spliced Trump’s January 6, 2021, speech to misleadingly suggest incitement.
After the President issued an ultimatum, the BBC apologized, admitting an “error of judgment” and agreeing not to rebroadcast the episode, but rejected demands for compensation, stating there’s “no basis for a defamation claim.”
Trump, however, brutally rejected the apology, vowing to proceed with a threatened $1 billion lawsuit, calling it insufficient and demanding full accountability.
This scandal exemplifies how international media is also treading carefully, with the BBC’s partial concession highlighting fears of U.S. legal repercussions.
President Trump’s successful suits against major networks are fueling this media restraint. In July 2025, CBS/Paramount settled for $16 million over deceptively edited “60 Minutes” footage of Kamala Harris, marking a major win against manipulative reporting.
Similarly, ABC agreed to a $15 million donation to Trump’s presidential library in December 2024 to resolve defamation claims from George Stephanopoulos’s on-air accusations.
These settlements expose the leftist media’s agenda of biased editing and smears, forcing outlets to rethink their anti-Trump narratives or face financial ruin.
Beyond these, recent cases abound. Trump filed a $15 billion suit against The New York Times in September for alleged defamation, prompting the paper to issue clarifications in subsequent stories.
In July, he sued The Wall Street Journal for $10 billion over similar claims, leading to heightened editorial scrutiny.
NPR and PBS have also faced threats, with insiders reporting “tiptoeing” in coverage to avoid litigation.
Critics note this wave of suits—tying records for 2025—reveals how media giants are now prioritizing legal safety over aggressive reporting.
These developments underscore how Trump’s legal offensives are dismantling the leftist media’s unchecked bias, forcing accountability and exposing their agenda of manufactured scandals to undermine America First policies.
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Data Center Volatility, Batteries And The Electric Grid’s New Reality
Published at UtilityDive and authored by Amanda Simonian of TerraFlow Energy, a Texas-based developer of long-duration energy storage solutions.
I spent most of September on the road, from RE+ in Las Vegas to Climate Week NYC, Houston Energy and Climate Week and Data Center World Power in San Antonio. Four different audiences, four very different rooms, but one conversation that always found its way to the surface: power. Not just how much we need, but what kind. The quality, the stability and the very real stress being placed on a grid that was never built for what is coming next.
It is the problem no one planned for. As the next wave of data centers energizes, operators are discovering that the real challenge is not just finding enough megawatts. It is what happens when those megawatts do not stay still.
AI workloads do not draw power the way traditional computing does. They surge. They idle. They fluctuate thousands of times a second, driving load profiles that look less like a flat demand curve and more like an EKG. For utilities and transmission operators, that volatility is more than an inconvenience. It is a destabilizing force on local feeders and substations that were never designed to handle such rapid swings.
Industry experts have been warning about this for more than a year. Recent reliability assessments have pointed to the rise of emerging large loads such as AI campuses, crypto miners and hydrogen plants that are reshaping how the grid behaves. The North American Electric Reliability Corp. has noted similar concerns in its discussions on these new load types, including their unpredictable growth, extreme ramp rates and the coordination challenges they create for utilities and grid operators.
The grid can handle large loads. What it can’t handle, at least not yet, is a 300-MW campus that behaves like a strobe light, pulling hard one second and backing off the next. Transformers trip. Frequency control tightens. Backup generation spins when it shouldn’t. And the more facilities come online, the more that volatility compounds.
This wasn’t an unknown risk, just an underestimated one. Engineers warned of harmonic distortion and ramp-rate limits long before “AI” became a utility buzzword. But the pace of construction outstripped the pace of adaptation. What was once a handful of hyperscale sites has become a nationwide build-out measured in gigawatts, each carrying a microgrid worth of volatility.
The truth is simple: every data center is about to play a role in grid stability, whether it wants to or not. Power quality, inertia and ramp control are no longer the grid’s problems alone. They are the new operating parameters for digital infrastructure.
The thing is, that shift doesn’t have to be a burden. In fact, it is an opportunity to turn what was once a point of stress into a stabilizing resource to the grid. But meeting that challenge requires technology built for continuous cycling and endurance. Lithium-ion, optimized for short discharges and limited duty cycles, was never designed to chase a data center’s power curve all day. Flow batteries, on the other hand, can. They operate like engines with fuel tanks — steady, durable and capable of near-infinite cycling without degradation.
Long-duration flow systems can sit quietly at the DC link, absorbing or releasing power in milliseconds to smooth out spikes before they ever reach the grid. They bridge the gap between UPS and energy storage, conditioning power in real time and sustaining it for hours when needed.
That is the next evolution of resilience: not just keeping servers online, but keeping the power around them steady. It is a design choice, an engineering discipline and, increasingly, a responsibility.
The grid of the future will not be built around data centers. It will be built with them. And the ones that understand that first will define how the next decade of digital growth actually stays online.
Beginning Of A Revolution? Populist Revolt Shocks Mexico
Chaos erupted in front of Mexico’s National Palace in Mexico City on Saturday after anti-corruption protests turned violent following the recent cartel murder of Uruapan Mayor Carlos Manzo. Protesters are furious with leftist President Claudia Sheinbaum, while the government blames right-wing business interests for stoking the unrest.
Reuters reports that 120 people and 100 police officers were injured outside the National Palace when a large group of anti-government protesters led by Gen Zers clashed with Sheinbaum’s security forces.
The National Palace in Mexico is under siege by its citizens amid discontentment with Claudia Sheinbaum.
Public outrage has grown over the recent assassination of Uruapan Mayor Carlos Manzo, a critic of cartel violence in the crime-ridden third-world country just south of the U.S. southern border.
Footage on X shows demonstrators ripping down parts of a giant steel barrier around the National Palace, prompting police to deploy tear gas and other non-lethal weapons.
Mexico is experiencing a populist revolt against its narco-state government. Sheinbaum and her socialist party have allowed many elected officials to be k*lled by the cartels. Is this the beginning of a revolution? pic.twitter.com/AcTHBYQqYX
🚨🇲🇽 “JEWISH WHORE” SCRAWLED ON MEXICO’S NATIONAL PALACE AS GEN Z RAGES AGAINST PRESIDENT
Protesters have straight-up trespassed barriers, storming the National Palace gates and slapping on vile graffiti calling President Claudia Sheinbaum a “Jewish whore”.
Sheinbaum is a member of Morena (Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional), a left-wing political party in Mexico that aligns ideologically with far-left U.S. politicians through Democratic Socialists of America. DSA supports unhinged leftists, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani.
Remember the name of Mexico’s new president Claudia Sheinbaum. She is another Marxist authoritarian and is going to cause America endless headaches. https://t.co/LZ88dtNarx
More broadly across Latin America, Argentine President Javier Milei’s recent midterm victory, alongside right-wing populist movements gaining ground across Europe and President Trump’s 2024 win, signal that voters are increasingly rejecting corrupt globalist Marxists who have squandered the inheritance of nations through failed policies (climate crisis hoax) that only enrich the globalist elite.
The Romanian Defense Minister recently confirmed that the US will withdraw around half of its 2,000 troops as part of its plans to reprioritize Asia, which could include drawdowns from other countries as well.
This is especially true for aspiring regional leader Poland. Trump said in early September that the US might even deploy more troops there upon request, and while that hasn’t yet happened, Poland’s Defense Ministry confirmed that US troop numbers remain stable amidst the latest news from Romania. Those two and the Baltic States also host multiple other allies’ forces, including nuclear-armed France’s and the UK’s, whose roles complement the US’ previously mentioned “deterrence” one.
Western, Central, and Eastern Europe are also being knit together through the “military Schengen”, which refers to the initiative for facilitating the flow of troops and equipment between members, while the last two regions are becoming more integrated through the “Three Seas Initiative”. Poland, which commands NATO’s third-largest army, plays a crucial role in both by connecting “mainland Europe” with the Baltic States. This explains why it’s tipped to become the US’ top European partner in the future.
From the US’ evolving perspective after the past 3.5 years of proxy warfare, its European junior partners are finally shouldering more of the burden for containing Russia, so the presence of so many of its troops on the continent is no longer required except for “deterrence” purposes. They’re much better put to use in Asia, as policy planners now seem to believe, for encouraging its junior partners there to replicate their European counterparts by shouldering more of the burden for containing China.
So long as nuclear-armed France and the UK retain their own military presences in the countries from which the US draws down its troops, then the US can expect them to “Lead From the Front” in a crisis while the US would only need to “Lead From Behind”. Those two and Poland would play the foremost roles in future tensions with Russia while the US would provide back-end support through logistics and intelligence. It could also directly escalate on its own if the going gets tough for its junior partners.
Minimal US troops along NATO’s eastern flank would draw lines that Russian troops would be deterred from crossing on pain of drawing America directly into the conflict. The direct involvement of French and UK troops in the region would complement that role by reminding Russia that the conflict could go nuclear so all sides should keep it conventional. If the crisis further worsens, then they could rattle their nuclear sabers, especially if they by then transferred some of their nukes to Germany and/or Poland.
The evolving geopolitical, military, and strategic situation in Europe is therefore such that the US is offloading most of the responsibilities for containing Russia onto Poland, the UK, France, and Germany. Of these four, Poland is the lynchpin upon which the success of this EU-fronted but US-backed containment plan is dependent for military logistical reasons, thus meaning that its ties with Russia will greatly determine the future of war and peace in Europe after the Ukrainian Conflict finally ends.
Goldman Sees Brighter US Housing Outlook Taking Shape For 2026
Conversations around the housing market this week revolved around Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte floating the idea of 50-year mortgages, pitched by the Trump administration as a clever way to make homes more “affordable” by lowering monthly payments, expanding access, and attracting more buyers. But stretching mortgages out for roughly 65% of the average U.S. life expectancy is not affordable in the long run.
Our conversations with readers this week focused on the deepening downturn in the home improvement industry. This slide could deepen into a sharper contraction and may signal continued cooling in the housing market:
For more color on the housing market, we turn to Goldman Sachs Managing Director Kate McShane, who told clients Thursday the housing backdrop is set to improve in 2026, with mortgage rates drifting toward 6.15% and pent-up demand helping home-price appreciation recover.
Here is McShane’s view on the housing market, based on her upgrade of flooring company Floor & Décor from “Sell” to “Neutral” as she sees a better 2026 environment: slightly improving housing turnover, stabilizing comps, margin recovery, and potential market-share gains as competitive pressures ease:
The housing market is anticipated to experience a more favorable environment in FY26 and our economists forecast mortgage rates at year-end 2025 and 2026 to be 6.25% and 6.15%, respectively. Our economists noted if mortgage rates remain around 6.15% (in line with their expectation), the pace of home price appreciation is likely to start to recover in 2026 due to pent-up housing demand. Our economists expect housing turnover to be flat to marginally higher in FY25 and projects a +5-7% increase in 2026 compared to 2025. Floor & Décor’s comparable store sales (comps) are highly correlated to housing turnover, as replacing floors is one of the first improvements many new or existing home purchasers undertake. The company’s focus on a growing Pro customer base and high-margin design services also provides growth opportunities as the market recovers.
Our economists have noted that HELOC deal issuance has increased since 2023, with YTD 2025 (until 10/8/25) volume reaching post-GFC highs. The seemingly renewed interest in HELOC securitization is likely a function of both increased HELOC usage by homeowners and greater demand from investors in the securitization market. Our economists now suggest potential for significant further growth in HELOC in the coming years and expect home equity debt outstanding growth rate to tick-up slightly to around $15-17 bn/quarter in 2026 (vs. $14bn/quarter over the past 5 quarters), driven by lower financing rates and increased demand for tapping into equity. In spite of this higher activity level however, the company continues to see homeowners favor smaller-scope projects amid affordability constraints. However, we believe FND is positioned to capture potential HELOC-driven upside as macro transmission improves.
GS economists forecast 30 year fixed mortgage rate at year-end 2025 and 2026 to be 6.25% and 6.15%, respectively
Mortgage rates have started to show a declining trend
Housing turnover remains at historic low levels but could grow in FY26
Housing Affordability Index (Monthly NSA) vs. FND com
Remodeling activity picked up sequentially in 3Q
McShane’s view gives readers her framework for what to expect in the spring selling season, which begins in 3 to 4 months.
ZeroHedge Pro subscribers can access the full note and the complete chart pack in the usual place.
French authorities have reportedly lifted Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s travel ban amid an ongoing investigation into the messaging platform.
Durov had been ordered to remain in France following his arrest in Paris in August last year, facing multiple charges related to his operation of Telegram.
Durov was previously granted temporary exemptions, and French authorities have now fully lifted restrictions on his travel, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
As part of the latest decision, dated Monday, officials also removed the requirement for Durov to regularly check in at a local police station, the report said, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Investigation still ongoing
The report did not mention any details regarding the French investigation into Telegram, hinting that the case is still active.
According to a statement on preliminary charges by France’s Prosecutor’s Office, Durov was last year accused of facilitating a platform that enables illicit transactions. The prosecutors said the Telegram CEO is facing up to 10 years in prison, in addition to a fine of $550,000.
Pavel Durov met with Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the Digital Bridge 2025 forum in October. Source: Press office of the President of Kazakhstan (Aqorda)
Telegram and Durov have repeatedly denied the accusations, highlighting the messenger’s compliance with industry standards and the laws of the European Union.
While denying the accusations, Durov has consistently criticized the French government, including French President Emmanuel Macron, regarding what Durov has described as the country’s political trajectory around censorship.
“Emmanuel Macron isn’t making the right choices. I’m very disappointed. France is getting weaker and weaker,” Durov said in an interview with French outlet Le Point in June.
In October, Durov warned of the potential consequences of the EU’s Chat Control proposal, urging the world to fight against the “dystopian” measures proposed by the EU.
“Germany is persecuting anyone who dares to criticize officials on the Internet. The UK is imprisoning thousands for their tweets. France is criminally investigating tech leaders who defend freedom and privacy,” Durov wrote in an X post on Oct. 9.
After Tucker Carlson Exposé, FBI Director Patel Says Trump Rally Shooter Thomas Crooks Acted Alone
The same day that Tucker Carlson told America more than the FBI has about Donald Trump’s attempted assassin, Thomas Crooks, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that Crooks ‘acted alone’ in planning and conducting the attack.
“Over 480 FBI employees were involved in the Thomas Crooks investigation. Employees conducted over 1,000 interviews, addressed over 2,000 public tips, analyzed data extracted from 13 seized digital devices, reviewed nearly 500,000 digital files, collected, processed, and synchronized hundreds of hours of video footage, analyzed financial activity from 10 different accounts, and examined data associated with 25 social media or online forum accounts.
The FBI’s investigation into Thomas Crooks identified and examined over 20 online accounts, data extracted from over a dozen electronic devices, examination of numerous financial accounts, and over 1,000 interviews and 2000 public tips.”
While Patel was seemingly responding to Tucker’s claim that the government originally said Crooks had virtually no online footprint, that’s not the point. If all of what Patel says is true, why don’t we know any of it? Why did it take an anonymous tip to Tucker Carlson to provide the public with Crooks’ public shift from Trump supporter to Trump hater to failed assassin? The public has an interest in this and a right to know.
In late September, Carlson’s team received an anonymous tip from someone who said they had gained access to some of Crooks’ online accounts, which he found using ‘tools commonly used by private investigators’ after obtaining Crooks’ phone number and gmail address from public documents. He then traced that to two encrypted foreign email accounts (bcook[at]mailfence.com and americangamer[at]gmx.com). He also had a snapchat account, a Venmo, Zelle and PayPal account among several others.
“It turns out that Crooks was hardly an online ghost,” Carlson reports. “And yet, federal investigators lied and told us there was no trace of him online.”
The source was able to obtain all materials from Crooks’ deactivated YouTube account – which includes his search history, watch history, and 737 public comments.
When Carlson’s team asked the FBI why they hadn’t shared this information with the public, the agency replied by asking if they could verify the authenticity of the shooter’s account.
As the Epoch Times notes further, in the July 13, 2024, attack in Butler, Pennsylvania, Crooks fired eight shots from a rooftop, grazing Trump’s ear, killing one attendee, and wounding two others before being fatally shot by Secret Service agents. Patel’s statement aligns with earlier FBI briefings, but also provides new details on the investigation’s depth.
Little is known about Crooks, who lived in Bethel Park and was a registered Republican who donated $15 to a progressive group in 2021. Neighbors said they were shocked to learn that he was behind the assassination attempt, describing him as quiet and unassuming.
FBI officials previously revealed that Crooks searched more than 60 topics related to Trump and President Joe Biden in the month before the attack, especially as they related to rally details and explosive devices. His digital activity included encrypted overseas accounts, prompting suspicions of foreign involvement, but Patel’s social media post dismissed these concerns.
The deceased victim, Corey Comperatore, died shielding his family from gunfire, while Marine veteran David Dutch, 54, survived after being shot in the chest and liver. Another man, James Copenhaver, sustained life-altering injuries. David Dutch, 54, was also injured.
Patel’s post is the first major update on the case since he assumed leadership of the FBI, and some lawmakers and critics are demanding more information, including access to Crooks’s online posts.
In the weeks after the assassination attempt, congressional hearings criticized Secret Service protocols, resulting in the resignation of its director. A bipartisan task force is currently investigating systemic failures.
A watchdog group is suing the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security for records regarding security lapses that allowed Crooks to climb onto the rooftop with a rifle after being seen by rallygoers and police.
They’re fearmongering about Russia’s intentions towards those two in parallel with proposing closer US ties with them.
The Washington Post recently published a piece fearmongering that Putin’s “next stop” after Ukraine might be Armenia and/or Kazakhstan, which they released in the run-up to the C5+1 Summit in DC between the five Central Asian leaders and Trump. It was written by Seth Cropsey and Joseph Epstein, the president of the Yorktown Institute and the director of the Turan Research Center therein. Their organization focuses on “great power competition”, “military supremacy”, and “alliance-building”.
Those two’s mentioning of Armenia and Kazakhstan in this provocative context, as well as the timing of their article, was deliberate.
The first functions as the irreplaceable transit state along the new “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP), which was assessed here in the summer shortly after its announcement as threatening to undermine Russia’s regional position. The fear is that NATO-member Turkiye will inject Western influence into the South Caucasus and Central Asia via this route.
Accordingly, Kazakhstan figures prominently in these plans since it’s the most prosperous country in the latter region and also shares the world’s longest land border with Russia, NATO’s rival.
Armenia and Kazakhstan’s crucial roles in facilitating the Turkish-led injection of Western influence into their respective interconnected regions at the increasing expense of Russian interests there explains why Cropsey and Epstein decided to fearmonger that those two might be Putin’s “next stop” after Ukraine. The timing of their provocative piece importantly coincided with the C5+1 Summit and was therefore meant to influence off-the-record conversations there and/or Western reporting about the event.
According to them, last summer’s unrest in Armenia was a failed Kremlin-backed coup while Kazakhstan is being targeted through less visible forms of pressure such as the creation of pro-Russian influence networks, which they imply could precede a Donbass-like ethno-regional conflict in the north. The first was actually a patriotic revolt over the perception that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sold Armenia out to its Turkic neighbors while the second is based on unverified leaked reports and attendant speculation.
The reality is that Russia accepts that the US successfully expanded its influence in the South Caucasus and respects Kazakhstan’s multi-alignment policy. The only concern that it has is that extra-regional actors like the US, EU, NATO, and Turkiye – all of whom it’s fighting by proxy in Ukraine to varying extents – could exploit those two and their regions to threaten its national security as part of their rivalry. That would risk expanding their proxy war from Eastern Europe to the South Caucasus and/or Central Asia.
Cropsey and Epstein propose more trade and investment between the US, Armenia and Kazakhstan, and their regions, which sounds innocent but could lead to or disguise closer cooperation on other issues like security that come at Russia’s expense. What they want to do is manipulate the perceptions of Russia’s partners against it and/or provoke an overreaction from Russia that ruins their relations for the same divide-and-rule ends, which is why it’s crucial that they’re aware of this so they can avoid falling for it.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
If you really want to counter the chaos grifters of the political left in the US, then you have to be willing to offer a coherent and consistent plan which dissolves the chaos they thrive on. Planning eases instability. Consistency defeats confusion. Clarity squashes disorder. The public needs to see a comprehensive list of standards, actions and goals and they don’t like it when their leaders suddenly derail the train.
When it comes to economics, vision is meaningless. Every idiot out there has an economic “vision”, very few people have any idea how to get from Point A to Point Z.
To be clear, Trump has limited political capacity to change the economy for the better. He has three years left on his second term and the fiscal problems he’s dealing with were created through decades of government and central bank mismanagement (or deliberate sabotage).
Even if Trump had two more terms it would be difficult, and I’m setting aside the fact that the political left DOES NOT WANT the economy to be fixed and will do everything in their power to keep instability in place. Why? Because the worse things get the greater their election chances in 2026 and 2028. And, the more the system breaks the easier it is to convince the public that socialism is the ultimate solution.
To bring our nation back to legitimate self reliance would require a total reformation of our society and the removal of the political left (including globalists) from the equation. Part of this long term reformation demands a reversal of open borders ideology and multiculturalism, which has ravaged the west. Migrants view our economy as a “global commons”, a wealth pool they are all entitled to access. They don’t see it is a privilege, they see it as a “right”.
This is something that Trump does have the capacity to fix in the three years he has left in office, but he has a tendency to get sidetracked by minutia and bad advice.
I have been warning since before Trump was re-elected that the economy was going to be his Achilles Heal. From past examples it seems that Trump delegates a lot of his policy ideas to advisers and among these advisers (he has dozens of them, official and unofficial) there are always people who give him suicidal arguments and terrible talking points.
His lack of concrete planning for economic repair is putting conservatives on edge and handing immense social influence over to Democrats and woke activists. All they have to do is point at the lack of a clear strategy and suggest that they can do better (they can’t, but it won’t matter to voters living paycheck to paycheck).
Trump has done some things right. His tariff policies are absolutely necessary to counter the wealth gap created by corporate globalism. The US has been turned into a consumer nation that continuously takes on debt in order to create ever depreciating wealth. That wealth is then siphoned from the public by international conglomerates, banks and foreign interests. We are being slowly drained of our lifeblood by a nest of vampires.
Tariffs are one of the few measures at Trump’s disposal to unilaterally stop the bleeding and force corporations to bring the wealth and jobs back to the US. This is done through new domestic manufacturing and the end of general outsourcing using third world labor. Globalism is NOT the free market, it is the opposite. It is forced interdependency of nations and economies to the benefit of a tiny handful of ultra-wealthy elites.
The tariff fight is direct and Trump’s reasons are evident. The average Joe wants more American jobs with higher salaries for the middle class instead of wallowing in low-wage retail and service sector hell. But Trump can’t say he’s fighting for this end result through tariffs and then turn around and let an army of migrants take middle class jobs.
The President stumbled into multiple forehead slapping blunders this past week. He called for 600,000 Chinese students to prop up US colleges. He called for 50-year mortgages to offset plunging home ownership, and he argued that America doesn’t have the talent pool to fill jobs taken by H1B foreigners.
I’ll focus on his flip-flop over H1B visas because it’s an obvious example of Trump trusting biased advisers when he should be following his campaign policies (The foreign student issue requires a separate article. The 50 year mortgage idea feels lazy and pro-banker, but no one is forced to take on a long term mortgage).
The H1B issue reveals Trump’s great weakness: He doesn’t have a clear economic plan with rules and goals – Making him easily changeable and vulnerable to outside influence. He’s playing the situation by ear. That might work for some problems, but not for a financial system weakened by stagflation and mass immigration. I am, of course, also operating on the assumption that Trump WANTS to fix the economy and doesn’t want to be blamed for its downfall.
There are approximately 730,000 foreign workers operating in the US today on H1B visas. Most of these workers come from third-world economies, 70% of them come from India. I’ve written about this in the past, but there is a hidden dynamic in play when it comes to third world countries and remittances.
Remittances are cash transfers from illegal migrants and visa holders back to their home countries. These transfers represent a massive dollar-based wealth transfer to certain nations. India is the largest recipient of remittances from the US (Mexico is the second largest). Over $129 billion is transferred from foreign workers into India every year.
To put this in perspective, this is nearly three times the amount that India spends annually on public welfare programs. It’s also almost twice the amount of the dollar value in goods that India exports to US markets. That is to say, remittances are far more important for cash flowing into India’s economy than manufacturing and agricultural exports to US consumers.
It is possible that in order to cut deals with India on tariffs Trump is compelled to back off of his opposition to H1B. That said, I think that more pressure is coming from his associates at home than political leaders in India.
Trump’s recent argument is, essentially, that America isn’t able to function without H1B workers and that Americans are not able to fill the jobs that these migrant do. This is utter nonsense.
There are advisers from the corporate sector that are keen to keep the caravan of cheap labor marching forward (Elon Musk has not hidden his views on this, though I think he wrongly downplays the wage factor). Then, there are also Indian-American conservative politicians and academics like Vivek Ramaswamy and Dinesh D’Souza who make rather impassioned declarations about American workers who are not up to snuff.
Even conservatives with migrant backgrounds often don’t view America as a culture they need to adapt to and support, they view it as an economic zone for their countrymen to freely access and exploit. This is their definition of the “American Dream”, and this is why immigration is a problem. Illegal immigration certainly, but H1B is also a concern. These people are quick to trash on Americans as “too uneducated” or “too lazy” to take on certain jobs.
First and foremost, H1B holders are not working integral jobs. The vast majority (65%) work in IT and software development, largely for Silicon Valley. Only 9% are architects and engineers and 1% are doctors. These are not key workers keeping America afloat with their skills, though they might be keeping Silicon Valley companies afloat with their cheap labor.
Second, H1B workers are not hired for their expertise, they are hired because they work for less money on average. Over 80% of visa applicants are hired for entry level positions or “junior/qualified” roles.
Analysis from 2020 to 2025 shows that H1B employees are consistently paid less than their American counterparts (10% to 30% less depending on the sector and job). The H1B program legally allows companies to pay foreign workers less. The White House’s own documentation outlines this problem.
The biggest lie about H1B is that foreign workers are hired because they have the training. Many do not. In fact, companies run training centers in the US, bring workers over on visas, then teach them how to do the jobs they’re being hired for. Even worse, American employees are often forced under contract to train their third world replacements before they are laid off.
One could argue that H1B applicants are usually required to have a degree for the job they want to work. Not surprisingly, there are numerous programs for foreigners to gain admission to US colleges. Around 60% of Indian H1B holders got their degrees in US colleges, not Indian colleges. Over 300,000 Indian students go to college in the US every year. There are over 1,100 different college scholarship programs in the US specifically catering to Indian students.
Again, why aren’t these classroom seats and jobs being filled with American citizens first? Are foreign workers more talented, or are they just being offered more opportunities because they are cheaper to hire?
This is about US companies taking advantage and saving money on labor, it has nothing to do with skill or education.
Trump ran on a campaign platform of America for Americans and America first. The H1B program was originally designed as a way to bring foreign workers with niche skills to the US to fill desperately needed roles. Instead, they are used by conglomerates to supplant American workers for less pay. They are also used by foreigners as the primary stepping stone to quick US citizenship, and by foreign governments as a way to drain wealth from the US economy.
If a foreign worker really has something to offer that’s valuable to our country, then by all means, let’s bring them here. However, no foreign worker should be given a visa until companies at least attempt to hire and train Americans for these roles. If they can’t find enough people, only then should those jobs be outsourced.
When Trump ignores these factors, it makes it seem as though he is abandoning the America First mantra that got him elected. It runs contrary to his efforts to keep jobs in America for Americans. Furthermore, blindly defending H1Bs from the third world undermines his goal of reducing immigration to only the best and brightest. Yes, there are many educated workers coming from countries like India – Because we educated them and trained them to replace us.
The point is, if we can educate and train third worlders, then we can easily educate and train Americans. Therefore, there’s little reason for H1B to exist.
If the economic plan is to make America stronger by retaining our jobs and resources, then stick to the plan, Donald. Stop acting like the US is an open economic zone. Establish education programs that favor American citizens that want to train for these jobs. Close the low wage loophole for foreigners. Remove the incentives that encourage corporations to hire outside the US and watch how many middle class jobs (and dollars) boost the US economy instead of feeding bank accounts in India. This is within your power as president.
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Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
‘A Sharp Escalation’: Americans Starting To Revolt Against Data Centers
As the cost of electricity continues to skyrocket, Georgia voters delivered a political surprise on Election Day – elevating Democrat Peter Hubbard to the state’s Public Service Commission. Hubbard notably ran on rising utility costs and the spread of data centers, and his victory, along with another Democratic win in a separate statewide race, marks the first time in nearly twenty years the party has captured statewide office in Georgia.
Hubbard – who will join the body that regulates the state’s electric utility, ran on a pair of related concerns: rising utility costs and the rapid spread of data centers across the state.
“The number one issue was affordability,” Hubbard said. “But a very close second was data centers and the concern around them just sucking up the water, the electricity, the land – and not really paying any taxes.”
Georgia has become a magnet for data-center investment in recent years, aided by generous tax incentives and a growing footprint of large-scale digital infrastructure. But it is also emerging as an early indicator of a broader national pushback – one that is increasingly bipartisan and increasingly organized, WIRED notes.
A new report released this week by Data Center Watch, a project of AI-security firm 10a Labs, suggests that people are rapidly getting pissed about data centers. The project catalogs community-level opposition across the country using public sources such as news reports, legal filings, and social media. Its latest findings show that between March and June of 2025, local resistance either blocked or delayed $98 billion in data-center projects – surpassing the $64 billion tracked in the project’s first report, which covered May 2024 through March 2025.
“This was a sharp escalation,” the report concludes, with eight projects fully blocked and nine delayed in just three months. Two of the blocked projects were located in Indiana and Kentucky. One of the largest halted developments – a $17 billion proposal in suburban Atlanta – was put on hold after county officials approved a 180-day moratorium in May following extensive public pressure.
between exploding electricity bills and lack of jobs for grads, a new luddite revolution is coming – they will be burning down data centers within a year
Miquel Vila, the report’s author, said the data suggests a significant shift in public sentiment. While he noted methodological caveats, including the possibility that more total construction simply yields more opportunities for opposition, other indicators point to what he described as “a turning point.” Nearly 50,000 signatures opposing specific data centers were submitted in the March–June window alone.
“Before, [resistance] was something that could happen,” Vila said. “Now it seems that it’s very likely that when you are developing [a data center], potentially someone is going to organize.”
Energy Costs Become a Political Catalyst
As we’ve been noting all year, rising electricity use is a unifying theme in the backlash. Hubbard’s victory in Georgia underscores that point, but similar dynamics are unfolding in other states with concentrated data-center activity.
In Virginia, the country’s largest data-center hub, Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger said during her campaign that she wanted data centers to “pay their own way” for power amid a serious homeowner and consumer advocate backlash – linking the rapid build-out to higher utility bills.
Josh Thomas, a Democratic state delegate representing Loudoun County, said data-center sprawl dominated his most recent campaign. Loudoun County markets itself as having the highest concentration of data centers in the world. Thomas introduced several bills to rein in data-center development during the last legislative session, and he faced a Republican opponent who argued he had not gone far enough.
Thomas’s district includes the proposed Prince William Digital Gateway, a contentious project that would add more than 30 data centers near a national reserve in northern Virginia. A homeowner group challenged the project in court, and a judge voided zoning approvals in August, halting construction. The ruling was subsequently stayed in October, allowing work to resume pending trial next year.
“The little guy finally won, which rarely happens in any industry, let alone where the Magnificent Ten play,” Thomas said, referring to major U.S. technology companies. The case, he added, galvanized voters.
Thomas said residents are increasingly focused on how data centers affect electricity costs. “People are just a lot more cost-conscious,” he said. After years in which energy bills rose only modestly, he argued, the load from data centers has become a factor in driving up utility rates.
A Bipartisan Movement Takes Shape
Resistance to data centers is not confined to Democratic constituencies. According to the Data Center Watch report, pushback has grown across red, blue, and purple states alike. Some national Republicans – including Sen. Josh Hawley and Reps. Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene – have become vocal critics (while Trump pushes for rapid development).
Greene, who has highlighted the issue for months, wrote on X on Nov. 7: “People you have got to pay close attention to your local city, county, and state approvals of data centers and demand your water and energy bills be protected!!!”
I have been saying this for months now, they are going to make AI data centers critical infrastructure and I oppose it along with a federal government insuring it. That means you will never be able to get rid of the AI data centers built near you that causes your energy prices to… https://t.co/PIqhTzat1b
In Indiana and Kentucky, two of the projects blocked earlier this year occurred in heavily Republican areas. The report notes that the cross-party nature of the backlash is one reason it has expanded so quickly.
Separately, reporting by climate publication Heatmap last week profiled John McAuliff, a former Biden climate adviser whose successful campaign leaned heavily on opposition to data centers. Heatmap also released polling showing that fewer than half of Americans across political persuasions would support a data center in their community.
Industry Stays Quiet as Investments Accelerate
Major technology companies, which are driving an unprecedented wave of infrastructure spending to support artificial intelligence, have issued few public responses to the mounting opposition. Many projects are shielded by nondisclosure agreements during the siting and construction phases, leaving communities with limited insight into which firms are involved.
In a statement, Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy for the Data Center Coalition, a leading industry group, said the sector continues to see “significant interest” from communities nationwide. He added that members remain committed to “continued community engagement and stakeholder education,” as well as to being “responsible and responsive neighbors.”
Diorio said data centers generated substantial economic benefits in 2023, supporting 4.7 million jobs and contributing $162 billion in federal, state, and local taxes that help fund “schools, transportation, public safety, and other community priorities.”
The industry’s capital deployment, however, dwarfs even the billions now tied up in stalled or blocked projects. Meta announced last week that it plans to invest $600 billion over the next three years in AI infrastructure, including data centers – an amount far larger than the $93 billion in investments that, according to Data Center Watch, were disrupted this year.
Policy Reforms Loom as Legislatures Prepare for 2026
While coordinated opposition has slowed or halted some projects, it remains unclear whether community pressure can alter the broader economic trajectory driving the build-out.
Even where residents have secured temporary wins, such as in the Prince William case, judicial stays or revised proposals have allowed construction to continue. Industry analysts note that as long as AI-driven demand remains high, large tech firms are likely to continue seeking new sites – and states will continue competing to host them.
Still, the politics have changed enough that lawmakers in both parties are preparing new proposals. Thomas, whose reform bill passed Virginia’s legislature earlier this year before being vetoed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, said he plans to reintroduce it in the upcoming session.
“I have Republicans and Democrats coming to me saying, ‘How can we help with this issue? My constituents are talking about it like they never have before,’” he said. “Our coalition of data center reform-minded legislators has just grown to a very large number.”
