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Trump administration officials once called high gas prices the Biden administration's "Achilles' heel" — but now it appears that could have come back to haunt them, according to a new Reuters report on Thursday.The political and economic backlash over the Iran war has left the White House struggling to address the skyrocketing price of oil as the prospect of a quick end to the military operation looks increasingly unlikely, three Trump administration insiders familiar with the conversations told Reuters."U.S. President Donald Trump this week backed suspending the federal gas tax, a step that would knock 18 cents a gallon off motor fuel prices currently averaging more than $4.50 a gallon nationwide," Reuters reported. "Once viewed by some White House aides as unnecessary, the idea is gaining urgency as officials run low on options to show they are tackling rising costs, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations."As prices have climbed, the president needs "a visible consumer relief move now," one of the White House insiders said."Historically, $4-per-gallon gasoline has been a level that triggers public backlash and economic anxiety," Reuters reported.AAA data has revealed that seven states have already passed the $5 a gallon mark.And as consumer sentiment drops to a record low and consumer inflation hit 3.8 percent this April — the highest it has been in nearly three years — more Americans are experiencing economic strain as gas prices climb and U.S. households are already paying the price.With midterm elections in November, Republicans have started pressuring Trump and his administration as they worry that affordability concerns among voters could ultimately push Republicans out of majority in the House of Representatives — and potentially the Senate."They feel like that’s their largest vulnerability right now: that specific cost, gas, not overall economic conditions," an unnamed White House political adviser told Reuters."The toughest thing, too, is that we made gas prices the Achilles' heel for (former President Joe) Biden and now it's our own."Taylor Rogers, White House spokesperson, said that the president and his energy team had expected the Iran war would create repercussions for global energy markets and had anticipated they needed a plan to address it."The ability to supply both the United States and our allies with reliable, affordable, and secure energy has long been a key strategic objective of President Trump, and his successful efforts to unleash American oil and gas has achieved this objective," Rogers told Reuters.

Gautam Adani, richest man in Asia, was accused of conspiring to pay $250m in bribes to Indian government officialsThe US Department of Justice is dropping its fraud charges against the Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, the richest man in Asia, after he hired a new legal team led by Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, according to new reports.In an undisclosed April meeting at the justice department, Trump’s personal lawyer, Robert J Giuffra Jr, said that Adani would invest $10bn in the US economy and create 15,000 jobs if prosecutors dropped the charges against him, according to the New York Times and Bloomberg. Continue reading...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced backlash after he shared an animated video arguing that the Pentagon needed a massive $1.5 trillion for war preparations.In a social media post on Thursday, Hegseth called the funds a "GENERATIONAL DOWN PAYMENT on America's national defense.""We remain the strongest military power on Earth, but that power requires renewal," the defense secretary said in the video. "And with global threats that are constantly evolving, it's time to make a $1.5 trillion investment, a generational down payment. For far too long, Washington bureaucrats allowed America's defense industrial base to fall apart."The video featured a cartoon version of former President Joe Biden alongside a crumbling factory."The execution of operations Midnight Hammer, Southern Spear, Absolute Resolve, and Epic Fury are testaments to this restoration of strength," Hegseth crowed. "America's $1.5 trillion investment guarantees that the United States military will maintain this advantage against any adversary, anywhere, at any time."However, not all viewers of the cartoon were sold on Hegseth's pitch."How is this real?" author Jim Stewartson asked. "This is a pitch for $1.5 trillion and it looks like a bad Sora demo. The Pentagon is a clown show. What a tragedy.""Not for nothing, but the School House Rock vibe is bad," Lincoln Project strategist Reed Galen observed."More bullsh— from a bulls—er," Democratic author James Graham quipped."We've never seen a Secretary of a Cabinet position have to SELL the PRESIDENTS ideas with bad AI commercials," KRLL radio host Mark Bland commented.

Former Ambassador Michael McFaul made a point of noting that President Donald Trump lavished extensive personal praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping, but Jinping did not return the favor.During an appearance on MS NOW Thursday, the former ambassador to Russia told anchor Erielle Reshef there was a striking difference between the two leaders' opening remarks that can only be interpreted as the fact that China has the upper hand in the historic meeting.“What is striking to me about the public remarks, just how effusive President Trump was in calling the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, a dictator and autocrat, a friend,” McFaul observed. “He just kept using the phrase ‘friend, friend, friend,’ ‘great leader, great leader, great leader.’”“Chairman Xi Jinping said nothing reciprocal to President Trump, to the best of my mind, unless I missed it,” he added. “I never heard him call the president his friend, or even called him a great leader. The asymmetry, I think, is striking — a position of weakness, frankly.” - YouTube youtu.be

New signs of strain were bubbling up among Republicans on Wednesday after three GOP lawmakers sided with Democrats on a vote to end the Iran war, Politico reported.The war has grown more unpopular among Americans as gas prices soar and Republicans consider the economic fallout ahead of the midterm elections, according to Politico. The 49-50 vote on Wednesday was the closest the Senate has come to having a war powers vote as the Trump administration has missed the legal deadline to tamp down its military operation, "which several Republicans have signaled would be a turning point for their support."Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) supported the resolution, joining Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Susan Collins (R-ME). Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) broke with Democrats again to oppose the vote."Paul has supported all seven attempts to rein in Trump, while Collins broke ranks for the first time last month, just ahead of the 60-day benchmark," Politico reported.Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told Politico before the vote that he expected Republicans to oppose the war sooner, but that was not the case. Many Republicans have "still opted not to cross Trump, a sign of his continued sway over the bulk of the party." But Kaine and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the resolution's co-sponsor, think that GOP lawmakers could be pressured by the economy to change their minds."We know what our colleagues are hearing. We know what they’re hearing from their constituents, and we’re starting to hear doubt creep into their words," Kaine told Politico. "There will be a day — and it might be soon, I believe — where the Senate will say to the president, ‘stop this war.’"

A Democratic lawmaker laughed at a Trump administration official during a congressional hearing on Wednesday after the cabinet member made a peculiar claim that soaring gas prices were "exciting." Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) pressed Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to answer questions about the rising costs at the pump for Americans as Burgum testified about President Donald Trump's 2027 budget request before the House Natural Resources Committee in Washington, D.C."Mr. Secretary, while you're funneling billions into these vanity projects, gas is up by an average of $1.40 a gallon from last year," Huffman said. "In March, President Donald Trump posted this message. He said, 'the United States is the largest oil producer in the world by far, so when oil prices go up we make a lot of money," Huffman said, making air quotes with his hand while saying "we," and asking, "Who's the we?"Burgum responded to Huffman's question. "It could be states, the federal government, the American people, when we collect royalty rates on oil production on federal lands and so prices are higher than there's more revenue coming into the system," Burgum said.But Huffman wasn't satisfied with that response. "So this is good for American families that they're paying $1.40 more for gas?" Huffman asked."I'm not saying that, but I'm thrilled that they're paying about a buck less than they were during the Biden administration. I mean, that's exciting," Burgum said. "And these prices are going to drop quickly again because now we actually have supply, you know prices are based on supply."Huffman interjected and called out Burgum's claims."There's a real disconnect here," Huffman said. "Americans are not celebrating this spike in gas prices, that you seem to think is just great. And your only answer is to harken back to the depths of the pandemic."Burgum tried to argue again, and Huffman chuckled at his remarks."Americans are paying $1.40 more a gallon and there's no end in sight to this energy crisis created by the war in Iran," Huffman added. "They're the ones who can't afford to keep the lights on and keep food on the table, but the 'we' that's making a lot more money — let's be honest about it — are the big oil billionaires."BURGUM: I'm thrilled Americans are paying about a buck less for gas than they did during the Biden administration. That's excitingHUFFMAN: There's a real disconnect here. Americans are not celebrating this spike in gas prices, and your only answer is to harken back to the… pic.twitter.com/F1JbYUwz8x— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 13, 2026

Senior Director for Counterterrorism Sebastian Gorka, a former radio host, revealed that President Donald Trump left orders for Vice President JD Vance in case he is assassinated in China.As Trump was visiting China this week, Pod Force One host Miranda Devine asked Gorka what would happen if the country's leaders "take him out" during the trip."Now, they may not do it there, obviously, but as someone said to me, they could just put something in the air that makes him sick," the podcast host said. "I have no fear at all of them doing something," Gorka insisted. "Everybody wants recognition from this man. This is the most powerful individual we have seen since the likes of Eisenhower, right? This is a man — everybody wants to be at the table with him, to have the state dinner, to have the recognition.""Secondarily, remember what the president said about another country trying to do that?" he continued. "He said, you know, there is a letter in the drawer in the resolute desk that is addressed to the vice president, should something happen to him. So that is the language of power that nations like China, Iran, and Russia understand.""So no, for both of those reasons, the president, in my estimation, is very safe."Devine observed that Trump could also be killed in a tragic accident."The letter is there," Gorka repeated. "Yeah, but unfortunately, you know, China could do something so sneaky as they did with COVID that you wouldn't be able to really tell if the president just got Lyme disease and fell ill in America," Devine pointed out."We have protocols, trust me," Gorka replied. "Not ones I can discuss, but we have protocols."

Trump has already delivered China's ambitions with "self-inflicted" wounds, an ex-GOP strategist warned ahead of the president's visit with the country's leader, Xi Jinping."China's ambitions, whether they are military or economic, have been delivered up by Donald Trump," Rick Wilson said on a Tuesday episode of his podcast. Trump was set to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping from May 12-15 with business leaders like Elon Musk, and Wilson noted he's going in with "cataclysmically low poll ratings" and "tremendous political weakness" amid the war in Iran.However, while "we've lost the war in Iran," Trump started delivering "self-inflicted" wounds that benefit China's ambitions well before that, Wilson said."Trump starts a trade war. Almost every nation in South America is on the wrong side of Trump's trade war," Wilson explained. "What happens in South America? They cut deals with China. They're selling their products to China."Looking at Trump's government cutbacks, Wilson said that the DOGE decision to dismantle USAID is also helping China's global standing rise above that of the United States. "If you had gone into any African country two years ago, where there's a famine, where there's sickness, where there's poverty, where there's disease, where there's misery, you would have seen USAID workers," Wilson said. "You know what you'd see now? China. Because Elon and DOGE cut USAID and killed the program. So now those bags of food don't say, 'A gift from the people of the United States.' Now those bags of food say 'A gift from the people of the People's Republic of China.'"Wilson predicted that as people watch Trump's visit to China, they'll see him "with a sense of discomfort, with a sense of embarrassment," even though Trump will "bluster and yell and try to pretend that he's got the strong hand here. He does not. Xi Jinping has the strong hand."