A grand jury indictment announced by the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday charges the SPLC with 11 counts, including wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Federal officials allege the organization directed more than $3 million in donor funds between 2014 and 2023 to individuals associated with extremist groups. Benson served on the SPLC’s board of directors from 2014 through early 2019, which overlaps with the timeframe outlined in the indictment.
The allegations against the SPLC have prompted questions about the role board members, like Benson, played in the alleged crimes.
“This indictment raises serious questions about how the SPLC has been spending donor money,” said Gabe Butzke, a spokesperson for Michigan Forward Network. “As a member of their board, did Jocelyn Benson know that donor money was reportedly being used to fund extremism and violence?”
According to the federal indictment, some of the groups that received funding include the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America and the National Socialist Movement, as well as an individual tied to organizing the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.
“The SPLC is a nonprofit entity that purports to fight white supremacy and racial hatred by reporting on extremist groups and conducting research to inform law enforcement groups with the goal of dismantling these groups,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a news conference announcing the charges. “The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.”
SPLC CEO Bryan Fair said the group is “outraged by the false accusations.”
“Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do,” Fair said. “To be clear, this program saved lives.”
Benson’s office did not respond to a request for comment from The Center Square regarding her role on the SPLC board or the federal charges. She has also not released a statement regarding the indictment.
Separately, Benson is also facing multiple lawsuits alleging racial discrimination within the Michigan Department of State, which she leads.
A lawsuit filed just last week by Metro Detroit employees Jaqueline Griffin and Cherylann Sanker alleges they were subjected to discrimination and retaliation. The plaintiffs are seeking $10 million in damages.
The case marks at least the fourth lawsuit in recent years alleging racial discrimination within the department. A separate lawsuit filed in January on behalf of four employees also alleged a “racially hostile environment.”
In a sworn statement included in that case, former Assistant Secretary of State Heaster Wheeler said he raised concerns directly with Benson.
“I brought these matters to the attention of Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson,” Wheeler wrote. “Ms. Benson did not act to correct this situation.”
Benson’s department has denied the allegations of racial discrimination. Previous disputes have resulted in settlements, including a $775,000 agreement reached in 2024 with a former employee who alleged a “racially hostile” work environment.
This all comes as Benson campaigns for governor and is considered a leading Democrat candidate for the election, which is in just 194 days.
Saying it would protect taxpayers of Florida, the second-term Republican applied signature to proposals linked to diversity, equity and inclusion policy, and to environmental, social, and governance policies in investments. Commonly known respectively as DEI and ESG, the governor said residents should not “be forced to pay for radical climate agendas or identity politics with their hard-earned tax dollars.”
DeSantis said the diversity ideology promotes a political agenda “to the detriment of disfavored groups.”
“The disfavored groups,” he said, “No. 1, obviously, would be white males, and I think they’ve been discriminated against. And it’s like a lot of people are, ‘Oh that’s fine. That’s fine.’ No, it’s not fine. It’s wrong.”
Senate Bill 1134 became a law prohibiting counties and municipalities from funding, promoting or implementing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. No offices, officers or programs are allowed; nor are third-party contractors for such efforts allowed; grant recipients are required to certify public funds will not be used for it; and the law provides enforcement inclusive of penalties for officials in violation.
“Floridians should not be forced to pay for radical climate agendas or identity politics with their hard-earned tax dollars,” DeSantis said. “I signed two important bills to limit government overreach and prevent local authorities from imposing carbon taxes and discriminatory DEI mandates on Floridians.”
House Bill 1217 became a law prohibiting state and local governments from adopting or enforcing net-zero greenhouse gas emissions policies inclusive of carbon taxes. This stretches into any government entity; prevents new taxes, fees or penalties tied to carbon emissions; bans cap-and-trade agreements or any other carbon trading program; will not allow taxpayer money to support organizations supportive of promoting net-zero policies; and has a requirement for annual reporting to ensure compliance and transparency.
“Net-zero mandates and carbon taxes increase costs on families, businesses, and consumers,” said Rep. Berny Jacques, R-Clearwater. “This bill protects Floridians from higher energy prices, increased transportation costs, and other hidden junk fees caused by emissions mandates and burdensome regulations.”
(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) In a fiat system, your money is constantly being devalued. That means you are losing purchasing power month after month.
From the government’s standpoint, this isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. Fiat money printing enables governments to spend far beyond what they could if they had to run on tax receipts alone. I have often said the Federal Reserve is the engine that drives big government.
However, this isn’t the only pernicious impact of a fiat system.
Economist Saifedean Ammous argues that the incentives inherent in a fiat system drive significant societal shifts that are overwhelmingly negative.
Fundamentally, a fiat system empowers governments and leads to higher time preferences. This eventually spills over with multiple negative effects, undermining the entire society.
“Time preference” is a fancy economic term describing how much a person values present versus future consumption. People with low time preferences are as concerned about the future as the present. They are willing to put off gratification. They tend to save instead of borrowing and spending.
On the flip side, a person with a high time preference lives in the here and now. A high time preference attitude is more along the lines of “eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” Or to put it another way, “Eat and drink, for tomorrow our dollar will be worthless.”
Ammous argues that the constant devaluation of fiat currency leads to high time preferences. Why save when your dollar will buy less tomorrow? While it might not be readily apparent, this high time preference mindset spills over into many areas of society.
And when you couple high time preferences with the government’s ability to intervene in every aspect of life (because it can print money to spend), you have a recipe for societal decline.
Economic historian Tom Woods highlighted some of the impacts of high time preference living coupled with big government in a recent article.
Family – Having children is the ultimate low-time preference act. A devaluing currency squeezes young adults and makes parenting and investing in a family less attractive. This drives a drop in birth rates and weakens families as “people prioritize immediate gratification over multi-generational legacy-building.”
Architecture – In a low time preference world, people build beautiful structures designed to last centuries. High time preference architecture produces, as Woods described it, “hideous, disposable, repair-prone monstrosities as developers and societies no longer value long-term legacy over quick yields.”
Food – A student of Ammous wrote a book titled Fiat Food. As Woods summarized it, “Government-subsidized debt and distorted incentives degrade soil, favor industrial junk over real nourishment, and promote poor dietary guidelines that serve political or corporate interests rather than human health.” From a practical standpoint, nutritious foods are gradually replaced by cheap, processed foods that are detrimental to long-term human health.
Science – In a high time preference world, long-term research is gradually replaced by sloppy research on shortened timelines. The difficulty in obtaining funding when the public is constantly strapped due to inflation leads to more and more government influence in science. Woods sums up the inevitable outcome. “Government grants and fiat-funded academia reward alarmism, predictions of catastrophe, and calls for state intervention rather than falsifiable, market-tested truths.”
Health – When you combine bad science with bad food, you end up with deteriorating health. “Tied to fiat food and distorted science, public health advice and outcomes worsen. Chronic disease rises alongside the promotion of low-quality diets and medical interventions that benefit from endless monetary expansion.”
Education – Learning is another low-time-preference activity. It takes time and resources to get a good education. If you’re constantly fighting inflation, resources become scarce. A fiat money system coupled with government monopolization of education is a recipe for dumb and debt. As Woods explained, “Centralized funding and credential inflation have turned universities into debt factories churning out politicized and worthless degrees. Real skills and market feedback are replaced by government-aligned research and accreditation games.”
War – As already mentioned, fiat systems allow governments to spend far more than they otherwise could. That means they can fund endless wars and foreign adventurism while avoiding significant taxpayer backlash.
Distorting Markets – Fiat systems distort markets by incentivizing and enabling government intervention. Consider energy. Fiat systems have allowed governments to pick winners and losers by subsidizing certain “green energy” sectors to the exclusion of others. In effect, the government picks and chooses winners based on political considerations instead of allowing markets to function. We have no idea how many breakthroughs never happened because the government, in its infinite wisdom, was incentivizing something else. As Woods summarized it, “Fiat money enables massive subsidies, misallocation, and politicized ‘renewable’ pushes while understating fiat’s own role in soil degradation and resource waste.”
Money isn’t just about economics. As we’ve seen, money has a huge impact on how society functions. This is why we need sound money. I couldn’t have summed it up better than Woods did.
“This is why, to my mind, gold is more than a past and future medium of exchange — it is a symbol of civilization itself.”
Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.
(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) Earlier this week, Ugandan officials announced the country’s central bank has begun to buy gold from domestic producers to bolster its reserves.
Uganda is one of several African central banks, including Kenya, Nigeria, and the Congo, that are buying domestic gold to expand national holdings and diversify their reserves.
The Bank of Uganda announced the program nearly two years ago. According to a statement from the central bank, it made its first domestic gold purchase last Friday (April 17) and will continue buying gold under a 3-year pilot program.
Uganda’s mining sector is relatively small, ranking 20th in Africa, with gold production dominated by small wildcat operations. However, Uganda has emerged as a major gold exporter as it processes and refines gold mined elsewhere. In 2025, the country exported $5.8 billion in gold, a 76 percent increase year-on-year.
When announcing the domestic gold-buying program, a Bank of Uganda statement said that buying gold from small-scale local producers would also “be supporting the livelihoods of artisanal and small-scale miners, and this has positive spill-over effects on other sectors of the economy.”
Bank officials did not reveal how much gold it bought or how much it paid.
According to the Bank of Uganda (BoU) statement, the gold-buying program is intended to “build and diversify Uganda’s foreign exchange reserves portfolio by purchasing and processing domestically mined gold and including it in the foreign exchange reserves.”
Uganda has struggled to maintain its foreign exchange reserves due to rising external debt payments and difficulties buying foreign currency, such as dollars, due to its own currency’s devaluation.
BoU officials also indicated the domestic gold-buying program “will strengthen reserve adequacy and reduce risks associated with conventional reserve instruments.”
By conventional reserve instruments, the bank means dollars and dollar-denominated assets.
In fact, a large number of central banks are growing their gold reserves to diversify away from the greenback. Wall Street has even come up with a fancy term for this de-dollarization trend – the debasement trade.
In a nutshell, as the dollar (along with other fiat currencies) depreciates, central banks and other institutions are dumping them for a “more neutral” safe haven.
That neutral safe haven is gold. It is money without counterparty risk.
There are two overriding concerns surrounding the dollar.
First, there is the U.S. government fiscal malfeasance. Uncle Sam spends hand over fist, adding trillions to its pile of debt every year, and there doesn’t seem to be much interest in slowing down the spending train.
Second, dollar worries were exacerbated after the U.S. and its Western allies effectively locked Russia out of the dollar-driven global financial system and froze billions in Russian assets. This weaponization of the dollar has made many countries wary of holding the greenback.
According to a 2023 World Gold Council survey, a “substantial share” of central banks expressed concern about potential sanctions after the U.S. and other Western countries froze almost half of Russia’s $650 billion in gold and forex reserves.
Aware of these risks, many countries in Africa, and elsewhere, are looking for ways to diversify their reserves and minimize dependence on the U.S. Dollar. Gold is the perfect solution as it carries no counterparty risk and is recognized as money worldwide.
Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.
(Headline USA) More than 17 million people along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts are at the highest risk of being affected by flooding, with New York and New Orleans standing out, according to one of the most comprehensive studies ever of flood risk.
Researchers at the University of Alabama used 16 different factors including the geographic hazards, the population and infrastructure exposed and the vulnerability of people living there. They then brought in past damages from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s database and applied three different artificial intelligence tools to figure out flood risks from Texas to Maine, calculating that 17.5 million people were at “very high” risk and an additional 17 million were at “high” risk, the next level.
The authors looked at all sizes of flooding and examined separately what FEMA considers the most extreme, which are the top 1% of events. The study found 4.3 million people along the coasts to be at the highest level of risk of extreme flooding, but 20.5 million to be at high risk, the second highest level.
They found a lot of vulnerability, highlighting eight different cities from Houston, which flooded in 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, to New York, which was inundated in 2012’s Superstorm Sandy.
Wednesday’s study in the journal Science Advances found that New York City has 4.75 million people at the two highest risk levels for all flooding, with more than 200,000 buildings likely to be damaged.
And while the number of people at risk in New Orleans is far lower, about 380,000, it involves 99% of the city’s population. That doesn’t mean 99% of the people will be affected in the next hurricane or nontropical flood, but that they might be depending on the storm’s individual path and rain pattern, said study co-author Wanyun Shao, a climate scientist at the University of Alabama.
“Just look at the magnitude,” Shao said. “Those numbers are shocking, are alarming.”
The elderly and poor are most at risk
“When the next big storm hits New York City, when the next Hurricane Katrina -like hurricane makes landfall in New Orleans, people will get hurt, especially those socially vulnerable populations,” Shao said referring to the poor, the elderly, children and the uneducated.
Shao and outside experts said the numbers stunned them even though they were familiar with the worsening effects of climate change.
“New York is known to be susceptible to floods and it has the largest population. But the fact that New York has nearly an order of magnitude more flood-exposed population than any other city is surprising,” said Alex de Sherbinin, a geographer who directs Columbia University’s Center for Integrated Earth System Information. He wasn’t part of the study.
Flood problems are becoming more frequent in New York and New Orleans because of human-caused climate change, the study said.
Other cities are also threatened
Jacksonville has 679,000 people at high or very high risk of flooding, while Houston is just behind at just under 600,000. Other cities highlighted include Miami, Norfolk, Virginia, Charleston, South Carolina, Mobile, Alabama.
Shao and outside experts said what separates her study from others is the sheer comprehensiveness of all the factors it considers, including sinking land and pavement that doesn’t allow water to seep into the ground, as well as incorporating human social vulnerability such as poverty and age.
“This could be applied to other places in the world, such as Manila,” said University of Virginia engineering professor Venkataraman Lakshmi, who heads the hydrology section of the American Geophysical Union, referring to the capital of the Philippines. He wasn’t part of the study, but said the flooding problems it highlights will get more frequent and intense due to human-caused climate change.
Columbia University’s Marco Tedesco, who wasn’t part of the study, said “it reinforces the crucial concept that future flood disasters are not just about water—they are about where people live, how cities are built, and who is least protected.”
Actions can lessen the risk
De Sherbinin said, “the analysis of the flood risk factors is important for local planners, emergency managers, and even highway crews and utility providers. We all know that low lying areas are more flood prone, but the data they have assembled provide more insights into flood risk, particularly for flash floods.”
Study lead author Hemal Dey, a geospatial scientist, said he hopes local officials look at not just building more dams and levees, but more natural infrastructure such as wetlands, grasslands, rain gardens and estuaries.
“The research is solid confirmation of what emergency managers have been saying for years. Realtors will hate it,” said Craig Fugate, a former FEMA director who wasn’t part of the study. “The harder question is what we’re actually going to do about it.”
(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) The United States is taking steps to ramp up the pressure on Iraq to reduce its ties with Iran and rein in Iran-aligned militias in the country after the escalations in the country amid the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
Iraqi officials told the paper that in its latest step, the United States has suspended cooperation and funding for Iraq’s security service. Iraqi reports said that the US had also halted shipments of physical US dollars to Iraq, a move that would seriously hurt the Iraqi dinar, but the Central Bank of Iraq denied those reports.
The US control of Iraq’s foreign reserves and oil revenue, a result of the 2003 US invasion, gives the Trump administration the ability to inflict significant economic pain on the country, and the threat has been used to pressure Iraq regarding the formation of its next government.
Hussein Allawi, a security adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said that the US security support will be halted until Iraq forms its next government, which could take days or weeks. Earlier this year, Trump threatened that there would be consequences for Iraq if former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki became the country’s next leader.
Iraq exploded during the US-Israeli war against Iran, as drone attacks targeted US assets across the country, and the US was bombing the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a coalition of mostly Shia militias that was formed in 2014 to fight ISIS and was absorbed by Iraq’s security forces.
Many of the drone attacks against the US were claimed by the Islamic Resistance of Iraq, another coalition of Shia militias that includes some of the factions in the PMF. US airstrikes killed dozens of PMF fighters, including senior commanders, and one US attack on a PMF base killed seven members of the Iraqi military.
The US has been drawing down its forces from Iraq and recently pulled the last of its troops from Syria, but the US still maintains a significant presence in Iraqi Kurdistan.
(Money Metals News Service) In a recent episode of the Money Metals Midweek Memo, host Mike Maharrey explored a surprising disconnect in the silver market. Normally, declining demand would point to weaker prices. Instead, silver surged dramatically through late 2025 and into early 2026.
Maharrey explained that headline demand figures only tell part of the story. The deeper driver behind the rally was a tightening physical market that had been developing for years. By the time prices finally moved, the imbalance between supply and demand had already reached a breaking point.
He framed the situation simply. Markets do not always respond immediately to changing fundamentals. In silver’s case, years of strain built beneath the surface before erupting into a sharp price move.
The 2025 Silver Market in Numbers
According to final data from Metals Focus and the Silver Institute, total silver demand in 2025 came in at 1.13 billion ounces. That represented an overall decline of about 2% compared to the previous year.
Industrial demand fell by 3%, with electronics usage down 2%. Maharrey noted that growth in artificial intelligence infrastructure, automotive applications, and power grid investment helped support demand. However, weakness in the solar sector weighed heavily as rising silver prices pushed manufacturers toward substitution and reduced usage.
Jewelry demand also softened. Global silver jewelry demand dropped 8%, driven largely by a 20% decline in India, one of the world’s largest markets. China stood out as a notable exception, posting a 5% increase as consumers substituted silver for increasingly expensive gold.
Silverware demand fell even more sharply, declining 24% to a four-year low. Despite these declines, investment demand provided a key offset. Silver coin and bar demand rose 14% in 2025, helping stabilize overall consumption.
Global Investment Demand Diverged
Maharrey highlighted a striking geographic divide in investment demand. The United States was the only major region that failed to see an increase in silver investment.
India led the world with a 33% rise in investment demand. Europe recorded its first increase in three years, while the Middle East and China saw strong gains driven by rising investor interest and relatively low starting points.
In contrast, US demand declined for a third consecutive year. Maharrey attributed this to reduced safe haven buying following President Donald Trump’s election, along with profit-taking during the early stages of the rally.
He connected this trend to broader patterns in precious metals markets. Asian investors have played a dominant role in driving demand, while Western investors have often been slower to respond until prices are already moving higher.
Supply Gains Were Not Enough
On the supply side, silver mine production rose 3% in 2025 to 846.6 million ounces. Recycling increased by 2% and reached its highest level in 12 years.
Even with these gains, total supply reached only 1.09 billion ounces. That left the market in deficit once again.
The 2025 shortfall totaled 40.2 million ounces, or 1,252 tons. This marked the fifth consecutive year in which global demand exceeded supply.
Maharrey emphasized that this persistent deficit is the key to understanding the price rally. Even as demand softened slightly and supply improved modestly, the market still could not produce enough silver to meet total needs.
A Multi-Year Deficit Finally Hit
The host stressed that the 2025 rally was not the result of a single year’s imbalance. It reflected the cumulative effect of years of deficits, finally catching up with the market.
Over the past five years, the silver market has accumulated a deficit of 716 million ounces. That figure is nearly equal to an entire year of global mine production.
Earlier in the decade, from 2010 to 2020, above-ground silver stocks increased by 243 million ounces. When recent deficits are factored in, Maharrey said the market has experienced a net stock decline of roughly 473 million ounces over the past 15 years.
This erosion of available inventory fundamentally changed market conditions. The cushion that once absorbed supply disruptions had largely disappeared, leaving the market far more sensitive to shifts in demand and logistics.
Silver’s Repricing Was Inevitable
Maharrey argued that silver had been undervalued for years, particularly when compared to gold. He pointed to the historically wide gold-to-silver ratio as evidence.
In modern markets, the ratio typically ranges between 40:1 and 60:1. Through most of 2025, it remained elevated near 91:1 and peaked at 107:1 in April.
By the end of the year, the ratio had fallen sharply to 61:1 and briefly dropped into the sub-50s in early 2026. This shift reflected silver catching up to gold after a prolonged period of underpricing.
He described the price surge as a straightforward supply and demand response. Holders of physical silver were unwilling to sell at lower prices, forcing buyers to bid higher until sufficient metal entered the market.
A Rapid and Powerful Rally
The speed of silver’s move was one of the most striking aspects of the market. Silver began 2025 at about $28.84 per ounce and remained below $40 until September.
The average price for 2025 was approximately $40, representing a 42% increase over the prior year’s average. While gold dominated headlines for much of the year, silver ultimately outperformed during the final months.
The rally continued into early 2026, briefly pushing silver above $100 per ounce before a correction brought it back into the $70 to $80 range.
The Silver Squeeze Explained
Maharrey identified October 2025 as the turning point when a full-scale silver squeeze took hold. Tight inventories collided with logistical disruptions and surging physical demand.
He traced the origins back to the spring of 2025, when tariff concerns triggered a large movement of silver from London to CME vaults in New York. Holdings in CME vaults climbed to 531 million ounces, surpassing pandemic-era records.
This shift created a mismatch in the global supply chain. Much of the remaining silver in London was already committed to exchange-traded products, leaving only 17% of inventory unallocated by late September.
At the same time, Indian demand surged as buyers turned to silver amid rising gold prices. Premiums in India, typically just a few cents above global levels, climbed as high as $5 per ounce.
This premium spike pulled additional silver into India, intensifying shortages in other regions. The result was a classic squeeze, with limited supply struggling to meet rapidly shifting demand.
Market Stress Became Visible
The strain in the market became evident through silver lease rates, which surged above 200% during the squeeze.
Although lease rates have since declined, they remain elevated by historical standards. Maharrey said this indicates that while short-term pressures have eased, the underlying tightness persists.
Some metal has flowed back into London vaults, helping rebalance supply. However, the fundamental issue remains unchanged. The market still lacks sufficient physical silver to comfortably meet demand.
According to Metals Focus, the market has entered an era of reduced inventories, thinner liquidity, and greater price volatility. This new environment is likely to produce larger and more frequent price swings.
Another Deficit Expected in 2026
Looking ahead, current forecasts point to a sixth consecutive supply deficit in 2026. The projected shortfall is 46.3 million ounces.
Maharrey noted that uncertainty remains high due to geopolitical factors, particularly the ongoing situation involving Iran. These developments could influence both industrial demand and investment behavior.
Even so, the baseline expectation is for continued structural tightness. Declines in industrial and jewelry demand may occur, but rising investment demand is expected to offset much of the weakness.
He added that higher prices could begin attracting more interest from North American investors, who have largely been absent from recent demand growth.
Investment Implications
Maharrey pointed to junk silver as one accessible way for investors to gain exposure. These are pre-1965 US dimes, quarters, and half dollars that contain 90% silver.
He noted that melt values for older quarters have reached around $14, highlighting the erosion of purchasing power in modern currency. He described junk silver as a practical entry point for physical investment.
With prices currently below recent highs and supply constraints still in place, he characterized the market as offering continued upside potential.
The driving force behind this forecast is what analysts call the debasement trade. Maharrey described this as the ongoing erosion of fiat currencies and a shift toward gold as a neutral reserve asset.
Wells Fargo estimates gold’s fair value at around $4,500 per ounce, with a base case of $6,000 to $6,300 in 2026. Their bearish scenario still places gold near $4,000, while most scenarios point to continued upside.
He linked this trend to strong central bank buying, rising global debt, and concerns about the US dollar’s role in the financial system. Gold has already surpassed the euro as the second-largest reserve asset and now accounts for a larger share of reserves than US Treasuries.
The Bottom Line
Maharrey concluded that the silver rally was not driven by rising demand alone, but by a prolonged supply imbalance that finally reached a tipping point.
Five consecutive years of deficits, a cumulative shortfall of 716 million ounces, and declining above-ground stocks created a market primed for a sharp repricing. When additional stress hit in 2025, the result was a rapid and powerful surge.
He argued that the same structural forces remain in place. With ongoing deficits and tightening inventories, silver and gold both stand to benefit in a world defined by supply constraints and currency debasement.
(José Niño, Headline USA) A senior Trump administration counterterrorism official faces an Inspector General investigation after her ex-boyfriend filed a formal complaint alleging she sought out wealthy men to fund an extravagant lifestyle, per a report by The Daily Mail.
Julia Varvaro, 29, has served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism at the Department of Homeland Security since May 2025. A businessman identified only as Robert B claims he spent between $30,000 and $40,000 on her during a three month relationship that began when they matched on the dating app Hinge.
“She was attractive and I swiped right,” Robert told the Daily Mail.
A top-level Trump counterterrorism official is under investigation amid claims she actively looks for sugar daddies to maintain her exorbitant lifestyle https://t.co/C2tRNlRNN3 🔗 pic.twitter.com/rC1pRcKmYi
The divorced executive says he flew the young official on first class trips to Aruba, Italy, San Diego, and South Carolina. He purchased Cartier jewelry, designer handbags, and picked up tabs at upscale restaurants. Yet he claims she always wanted more.
Robert has filed an official complaint with the DHS Inspector General. The complaint reveals that Varvaro maintained a profile on Seeking, a website that connects wealthy men with younger women seeking financial arrangements. On the profile, which the Daily Mail viewed, she called herself Alessia and advertised “seductive sophistication.”
The profile described her as “flirty, fun, and fond of sultry spaces – mysterious lounges, velvet shadows, wine in hand…” She wrote that she is “drawn to a masculine man who’s attentive, protective, and quietly playful for mutually beneficial experiences.”
Varvaro denied having a profile on Seeking when the Daily Mail contacted her. The profile disappeared after reporters reached out for comment. It had been created the day after Thanksgiving last year.
In his complaint, Robert stated, “I did not want a sugar daddy/prostitution relationship, after spending $30,000-$40,000 for vacations, Cartier jewelry, expensive handbags, and various shopping trips.”
He alleged that Varvaro told him sugar daddies paid for her college education. “She also told me directly that the $40,000 worth of jewelry on her wrists and ears are all trophies from her sugar daddies,” the complaint states. “I believe that she’s under financial stress and that her actions pose a security risk.”
The complaint also accuses her of marijuana use during their relationship, which she adamantly denies.
Security sources told the Daily Mail the case resembles the recent scandal involving Kristi Noem’s husband, whom the outlet exposed for paying women he met online and posing in photographs while wearing fake breasts.
“It’s the same issue as Noem but on a much larger scale and I’d argue is actually worse because getting to Noem is much harder than picking off someone at the DAS (Deputy Assistant Secretary) level,” one government source said.
Former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos expressed concern about the allegations. “Allegations of a sugar daddy relationship and unreported income from that relationship are serious issues for DHS security personnel that need to be resolved,” he told the Daily Mail. “I would be curious to see what kind of vetting was done on her prior to her employment, given she would have been subject to a full background investigation. How did this not come up?”
Robert provided the Daily Mail with text exchanges showing escalating financial demands. After he balked at buying her $1,000 sandals, paying for a $2,000 cellulite removal treatment, and giving her a credit card in her name, she allegedly messaged him, “I like feeling provided for and you’re not doing that for me, so not sure it will work.”
Varvaro defended herself to the Daily Mail. “I didn’t know it was bad to go on vacation with your boyfriend,” she said. “We were together in an exclusive relationship. We went on vacations. I don’t know what’s the problem with that.”
She attributed the complaint to a failed romance. “I did nothing wrong. This is just a mad ex-boyfriend putting crap together. And it’s just really weird. If we made a story about every failed short relationship in DC, this town would implode.”
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
(Headline USA) Navy Secretary John Phelan is leaving his job, the Pentagon abruptly announced Wednesday, the first head of a military service to depart during President Donald Trump’s second term but just the latest top defense leader to step down or be ousted.
No reason was given for the unexpected departure of the Navy’s top civilian official, coming as the sea service has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports and is targeting ships linked to Tehran around the world during a tenuous ceasefire in the war. Another Trump loyalist is taking over as acting head of the Navy: Undersecretary Hung Cao, a 25-year Navy combat veteran who ran unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. Senate and House in Virginia.
Phelan’s departure is the latest in a series of shakeups of top leadership at the Pentagon, coming just weeks after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired the Army’s top uniformed officer, Gen. Randy George. Hegseth also has fired several other top generals, admirals and defense leaders since taking office last year.
The firings began in February 2025, when Hegseth removed military leaders, including Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top uniformed officer, and Gen. Jim Slife, the No. 2 leader at the Air Force. Trump also fired Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan has left his position “effective immediately.”
Showing how sudden the latest move was, Phelan had addressed a large crowd of sailors and industry professionals on Tuesday at the Navy’s annual conference in Washington and spoke with reporters about his agenda. He also hosted the leaders of the House Armed Services Committee to discuss the Navy’s budget request and efforts to build more ships, according to a social media post from his office.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a post on X that Phelan was “departing the administration, effective immediately.”
Phelan had been a major Trump donor
Phelan had not served in the military or had a civilian leadership role in the service before Trump nominated him for secretary in late 2024. He was seen as an outsider being brought in to shake up the Navy.
Phelan was a major donor to Trump’s campaign and had founded the private investment firm Rugger Management LLC. According to his biography, Phelan’s primary exposure to the military came from an advisory position he held on the Spirit of America, a nonprofit that supported the defense of Ukraine and the defense of Taiwan.
The Associated Press could not immediately reach Phelan’s office for comment. The White House did not answer questions and instead responded by sending a link to Parnell’s statement.
Phelan is leaving during a busy time for the Navy. It has three aircraft carriers deployed in or heading to the Middle East, while the Trump administration says all the armed forces are poised to resume combat operations against Iran should the ceasefire expire.
The Navy also has maintained a heavy presence in the Caribbean, where it has been part of a campaign of strikes against alleged drug boats. It also played a major role in the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January.
New acting Navy secretary ran unsuccessful bids for Congress
Taking over as acting secretary is Cao, who ran a failed U.S. Senate bid in Virginia to try to unseat Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine in 2024. He had Trump’s endorsement in the crowded Republican primary and gave a speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention.
Cao’s biography includes fleeing Vietnam with his family as a child in the 1970s. In a campaign video for his Senate bid, he compared Vietnam’s communist regime during the Cold War to the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.
🚨 JUST IN: Navy Secretary John Phelan is DEPARTING the Trump administration, effective immediately, per the Pentagon
Undersecretary HUNG CAO has now stepped into the role as Acting Secretary of the Navy
During his one debate with Kaine, Cao criticized COVID-19 vaccine mandates for service members as well as the military’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
“When you’re using a drag queen to recruit for the Navy, that’s not the people we want,” Cao said from the debate stage. “What we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat them and ask for seconds. Those are the young men and women that are going to win wars.”
Trump and Hegseth have railed against DEI in the military, banning the efforts and firing people accused of supporting such programs.
When he ran for Congress in Virginia in 2022, Cao expressed opposition to aid for Ukraine during a debate against his Democratic opponent.
“My heart goes out to the Ukrainian people. … But right now we’re borrowing $55 billion from China to pay for the war in Ukraine. Not only that, we’re depleting our national strategic reserves,” Cao said.
Cao graduated from the prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, before attending the U.S. Naval Academy.
He was commissioned as a special operations officer and went on to serve with SEAL teams and special forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia before retiring at the rank of captain, according to his Senate campaign biography.
Cao also earned a master’s degree in physics and had fellowships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.
Since becoming Navy undersecretary, Cao has championed returning to duty service members that refused a Biden-era mandate to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
(José Niño, Headline USA) Seven out of every ten American farmers say fertilizer has become so expensive that they cannot purchase enough to meet their needs this year, according to a nationwidesurvey conducted by the American Farm Bureau Federation.
The survey gathered responses from more than 5,700 farmers across all 50 states and Puerto Rico between April 3 and April 11. Farm Bureau economists analyzed the findings in the latestMarket Intel report, which paints a grim picture of the agricultural economy.
Southern farmers face the worst conditions. Nearly eight in ten respondents from that region say they cannot afford all the supplies they need this year. The Northeast and West follow at 69 percent and 66 percent respectively. Midwestern farmers fared better at 48 percent, though that still represents nearly half of producers in the nation’s agricultural heartland.
Pre-planning varied dramatically by region. Only 19 percent of southern farmers pre-booked fertilizer before planting season. The Northeast came in at 30 percent and the West at 31 percent. The Midwest led with 67 percent, yet even there almost one in three farmers entered the season without securing their full fertilizer requirements.
The Middle East conflict has driven these prices through the roof. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has blocked critical fertilizer supplies and crude oil from reaching global markets, creating shortages that have rippled across the world.
“Spring planting decisions depend heavily on access to fertilizer and diesel fuel, both of which have been impacted by geopolitical risks that have disrupted global markets,” the Market Intel states. “Since the escalation of tensions in the Middle East, nitrogen fertilizer prices have risen more than 30%, while combined fuel and fertilizer costs have increased roughly 20% to 40%. Urea prices have increased by 47% since the end of February, marking the largest month-to-month percentage increase in the price of urea. These increases are occurring when many producers were already facing tight margins for many consecutive years.”
Many farmers who responded to the survey indicated they will skip fertilizer applications this spring in hopes that prices will decline later in the growing season. That gamble could backfire if supplies remain constrained.
AFBF President Zippy Duvall warned of serious consequences ahead. “The skyrocketing cost of fuel and fertilizer is creating more economic hardships for farmers who have already endured years of losses,” Duvall said. “Without the necessary fertilizers, we’ll face lower yields and some farmers will reduce acres altogether, which will impact food and feed supplies. It’s too early to know how this will affect food availability and prices in the long run, but it’s a warning light that we’ve shared with leaders in Washington. We look forward to working with them to find solutions so farmers can continue to feed families across America.”
The financial strain extends well beyond fertilizer costs. A staggering 94 percent of surveyed farmers reported that their financial situation has worsened or remained stagnant compared to last year. Only 6 percent said their circumstances had improved.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
