(Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks, the cost to taxpayers for the U.S. War on Terror is approaching $10 trillion.
Initial costs for two conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan were more than $8 trillion. An additional $2 trillion will be incurred by U.S. military spending after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack against Israel and conflicts in Yemen and Iran.
“From late 2001 through fiscal year 2022, the U.S. appropriated and is obligated to spend an estimated $8 trillion for the post-9/11 wars – an estimated $5.8 trillion in appropriations, plus an additional minimum of $2.2 trillion for obligations to care for the veterans of these wars through the next several decades,” according to an analysis of federal data published by Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs.
The report breaks down spending by federal agency for the conflicts between 2001 and 2022. It includes more than $2 billion initially spent by the Department of Defense, with another $884 billion in increases. It also includes more than $189 billion spent by the State Department, more than $1.1 billion spent by the Department of Homeland Security and more than $465 billion spent on veteran care.
During the 21 years analyzed, interest on federal borrowing to fund the wars exceeded $1 billion.
The 20-year Afghanistan conflict cost more than $2 trillion.
On Oct. 7, 2001, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan with the stated purpose of overthrowing the Taliban and dismantling al-Queda, which took credit for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. After the U.S. fought al-Queda and the Taliban for 20 years, the Biden administration withdrew U.S. troops in August 2001. The administration left $7 billion worth of U.S. military equipment behind and turned control of the country back to the Taliban.
The U.S. invaded Iraq in the Second Gulf War in March 2003, initially over Iraq allegedly obtaining weapons of mass destruction. The conflict lasted until December 2011.
After imposing sanctions on Syria in 2011 and supporting the overthrow of Syria’s president Bashar Assad in 2013, the Obama administration launched airstrikes in 2014. U.S. troops have been stationed there ever since until they were pulled out in April.
According to the Brown report, the U.S. spent nearly $3 trillion on both conflicts. A Harvard Kennedy School analysis puts the total higher, noting the Iraq war cost $5 trillion.
The former Al-Qaeda leader, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, wanted by U.S. authorities with a $10 million bounty, is now Syria’s leader and was removed from a U.S. terrorist most wanted list by the Trump administration. The president invited him to the White House, praising the man who previously supported suicide bombers in Syria and Iraq who killed U.S. troops.
The estimated cost of caring for post 9/11 veterans dealing with physical and mental issues is expected to reach $2.5 trillion by 2050, according to another Brown analysis.
Cost on interest on debt to fund war: more than $2 trillion
The Brown report refers to the War on Terror as “credit card wars. By 2030, the U.S. will have spent as much on interest payments as it did on ‘overseas contingency operations’ for the wars themselves – over $2 trillion,” it says. It also highlights perpetual spending on military contractors, big tech and weapons companies, noting that “30-40% of spending on contractors is lost to waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack against Israel, War on Terror costs to U.S. taxpayers has skyrocketed. Within two years, the U.S. government has spent nearly $34 billion in the form of military aid to Israel and in military operations in Yemen, according to the Brown analysis.
In February, in the first few days of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, the Pentagon said munitions cost $11.3 billion. A Harvard analysis puts the total cost closer to $16 billion with the ongoing conflict costing Americans $2 billion a day.
A Center for Strategic & International Studies analysis questions Pentagon budget data. It notes that the Office of Management and Budget often disagrees with federal agencies about what to include when reporting total budget costs. It also estimates the cost to replace equipment, infrastructure damage, loss of ammunition and replace plane inventories is nearly $2 billion.
In June, OMB director Russell Vought requested another $87.6 billion from Congress to support the ongoing Iran conflict, including $17 billion for operational costs.
In June, both houses of Congress passed war powers resolutions directing the president to withdraw troops from the Iranian conflict. Secretary of State Marco Rubio maintains the War Powers Act is unconstitutional.
Multiple polls conducted in March and in June and July, indicate nearly 60% of Americans polled oppose U.S. military intervention in Iran.
(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Republican Rep. Nancy Mace’s former chief-of-staff has filed a lawsuit against a local political site in response to an article suggesting that she and Mace had an affair.
The former chief-of-staff, Lorie Khatod, filed her lawsuit on August 11 against South Carolina news site FITSNews and its founder, William Folks, in response to an April 21 article they published entitled: “Debate Deflect? Nancy Mace Once Again Hit with Affair Allegations.”
The article reported on a tweet by former Rep. George Santos, who tweeted on April 19 that Mace was “rumored to have an affair with her female chief of staff.” Santos later tweeted that he heard a “nasty political rumor” about Mace and someone named Lori.
Santos didn’t publish the full name of Lori Khatod, but FITSNews did—matching her biography to Santos’s description. However, FITSNews didn’t reach out to Khatod for comment before publishing, and now she’s suing over what she describes as “libelous statements.”
Attention folks!!!
This is DC in a NUTSHELL:
While I was involved with politics and in Congress these are some of the whispers that ran rampant in DC:
Rep. Max Miller of OH remains accused by more than one woman of hitting them.
“The statements in the April 21, [2026] article that mentions Plaintiff falsely suggested that she was a lesbian and that she had an inappropriate sexual relationship with her direct supervisor, both of which were and are untrue,” says Khatod’s lawsuit, which was first published by CourtWatch.
“The sole source for the false allegations cited by Defendants in the article was George Santos, who was expelled from Congress on December 1, 2023 by a vote of 311-114,” the lawsuit adds—explaining that Santos pleded guilty to identity theft and wire fraud in August 2024 and was given an 87 month sentence, which was later commuted by President Donald Trump.
“A journalist’s reliance on, or re-posting, anything that Mr. Santos says about anything without substantial corroboration is, in and of itself, reckless disregard for the truth.”
Khatod seeks compensatory and other damages from FITSNews, which has not retracted the article. FITSNews has yet to respond to the lawsuit.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
(Chris Wade, The Center Square) A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling blocking the U.S. Department of Justice from subpoenaing records from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office about her investigations.
In a 2-1 ruling Friday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision to bar interim U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York John Sarcone from investigating James’ office for possible misconduct in civil lawsuits against President Trump and the National Rifle Association.
A federal judge had previously ruled that Sarcone – who served as Trump’s campaign attorney – was ineligible to serve in the role because he hadn’t been confirmed.
“We disagree with the court’s decision, and intend to take this case to the Supreme Court.” the DOJ said in a statement.
In February, U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield ruled that Sarcone was in that role unlawfully and barred him from issuing subpoenas to James’ office. A panel of judges in the Albany-based Northern District appointed former prosecutor Donald T. Kinsella to lead the office following the ruling, but the DOJ quickly fired him. Sarcone is still leading the office under the title of first assistant U.S. attorney.
But the wrangling over the legality of Sarcone’s appointment stems from the DOJ’s repeated attempts to secure an indictment against James and other top Democrats who have criticized the president’s agenda.
James, first elected in 2018, has been a frequent critic of Trump and has filed several multistate lawsuits against the Trump administration over federal immigration policies, rollbacks in federal funding, and worker layoffs and other actions. That includes a civil fraud trial that ended in a $454 million judgment against Trump and his company, which was later overturned by a New York appeals court. James has appealed the ruling.
James also waged a multiyear legal fight with the NRA after filing a civil suit in 2020 in response to news stories questioning then-Chief Executive Office Wayne LaPierre’s spending as the organization’s leader. In 2024, the New York Supreme Court rejected James’ bid for a court-appointed monitor to oversee the NRA but banned the group’s former head from holding a paid position with the organization for a decade.
James was indicted in October by a federal grand jury on one count of bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a financial institution. She denied any wrongdoing and claimed the charges are politically motivated.
But a federal judge dismissed the indictment against James after ruling that Lindsey Halligan, the federal prosecutor handpicked by Trump to handle the case, was deemed unlawfully appointed.
Federal prosecutors tried at least twice after that to secure indictments against James, but grand juries refused to levy the charges.
Chief Justice John Roberts issued a stay on Friday temporarily stopping a D.C. District Court’s injunction against further construction on the ballroom. The D.C. court’s injunction comes after a lawsuit from the National Trust for Historic Preservation urged an end to the ballroom’s construction.
The historic preservation trust argued that Congress is responsible for authorizing whether a president can build structures on land protected or managed by the federal government – in this case, the White House grounds.
“The Trust has an ‘obvious interest’ in challenging the construction of a massive new ballroom on White House grounds that could likely alter the aesthetic, cultural, and historical integrity of one of the most historic sites in the country,” lawyers wrote in a brief to the high court.
Solicitor General John Sauer argued the ballroom would be necessary due to several national security features that will be included in its construction. He said the construction includes bomb shelters, a drone port and advanced medical facilities.
Members of Congress have pointed out that taxpayers would be on the hook for necessary security measures to protect the ballroom, including $155 million for Secret Service, $149 million for the White House military office, and $3 million for the executive residency.
“The Project is on time and under budget, and the ballroom is funded with approximately $400 million in private donations by President Donald J.Trump and ‘some of the most prominent and successful corporations and people in America’ – zero taxpayer dollars are needed or required,” Sauer wrote.
Sauer said the lawsuit was pointless because there would be “no way” for current construction to be altered or dismantled. Crews set out with construction in October 2025 as the East Wing of the White House was demolished.
In a filing to the court, Sauer said the project is expected to be complete several months before the end of Trump’s term.
“Modernizing the East Wing to address security requirements, update its infra-structure, and better allow the President to carry out his Article II duties (like receiving foreign dignitaries) falls well within the statutory text,” Sauer said.
(Money Metals News Service) Gold and silver have pushed decisively higher, but veteran precious metals analyst David Morgan believes the bigger story goes far beyond the latest price move.
Speaking with Money Metals podcast host Mike Maharrey, Morgan, publisher of The Morgan Report, argued that investors are witnessing a growing contest between precious metals and the credit-based monetary system. With gold trading above $4,500 per ounce and silver approaching $69 at the time of the interview, Morgan said the market is increasingly signaling a loss of confidence in government debt and fiat currency.
For silver, he had previously argued that prices below $60 wouldn’t last long. Once silver established itself above $60 and held that level, Morgan viewed it as a legitimate breakout rather than a temporary move.
Gold told a similar story. Morgan had been watching the $4,000 level, but with the metal reaching roughly $4,500, gold had moved more than 10 percent above that threshold in only a matter of weeks.
Morgan hasn’t completely ruled out a sharp correction. A bond-market disruption, interest-rate shock, or other unexpected event could produce what he called a sudden “spike low.”
However, the strength of the metals during August, traditionally a seasonally weak period, caused Morgan to revise his expectations. He no longer believes such a selloff would necessarily push gold back to $4,000 or silver below $60. He suggested a sudden drop might instead take gold from around $4,500 to roughly $4,200, while silver could potentially retreat toward $62.50.
Building Wealth One Coin at a Time
Morgan cautioned investors against becoming obsessed with daily price fluctuations.
His preferred strategy remains dollar-cost averaging. Instead of attempting to perfectly time every rally and correction, investors can consistently accumulate physical metal and remove some of the emotion from the process.
The point isn’t to get rich overnight. It’s to preserve purchasing power and gradually accumulate wealth with money that required real work to earn. Morgan noted that plenty of people who become rich quickly ultimately lose their fortunes just as quickly.
A Battle Between Gold and Government Debt
Maharrey pointed out that geopolitical headlines, including developments surrounding Iran, have produced short-term volatility in gold and silver. But underneath those daily moves, he argued, the fundamental forces supporting precious metals remain intact.
Morgan took that argument further.
He believes the world may be approaching a tipping point in a much larger battle over which assets deserve monetary trust.
For decades, U.S. Treasuries and other sovereign debt instruments have been treated as among the safest assets in the financial system. Morgan believes gold is increasingly challenging that assumption.
In his view, the choice is becoming one between gold and a promise to receive currency sometime in the future.
A $1,000 bond may eventually return its principal, but Morgan noted that there is no guarantee the dollars received five, 10, 20, or 30 years later will possess the same purchasing power. Gold, by contrast, carries no counterparty promise.
Morgan pointed to central-bank reserve holdings as evidence that this transition is already underway, arguing that gold has overtaken credit instruments as the leading reserve asset held by central banks.
Mining Stocks Could Provide Confirmation
Morgan believes one important confirmation of this monetary shift could come from institutional investment in major precious metals mining companies.
He specifically pointed toward companies such as Newmont, Barrick, Wheaton Precious Metals, and Franco-Nevada.
If large institutions begin moving substantial amounts of capital into the major mining companies, Morgan said it could signal that sophisticated investors increasingly recognize the same shift toward precious metals.
After studying the silver market for more than four decades, Morgan acknowledged his natural bias toward precious metals. But he believes the market itself is increasingly providing evidence for his thesis.
Treasury Buybacks and the $40 Trillion Debt Problem
The conversation turned to the Treasury Department’s decision to double its buybacks of longer-term government debt.
Maharrey characterized the move as an attempt to suppress troublesome long-term interest rates. Morgan largely agreed.
Morgan explained that Treasury auctions ordinarily allow investors to determine the yield required to compensate them for inflation and other risks. If investors aren’t willing to buy a long-term bond at a given yield, yields rise until buyers emerge.
As yields rise, existing bond prices fall.
Morgan argued that government intervention through increased buybacks interferes with that price-discovery process. In his view, it amounts to an effort to control the yield curve rather than allowing the market to determine the true cost of borrowing.
The stakes are enormous.
Maharrey noted that the federal government is carrying roughly $40 trillion in debt and already faces annual interest expenses exceeding $1 trillion. Higher yields would make financing that debt increasingly expensive.
Could Silver Reach $100?
Turning specifically to silver, Maharrey asked Morgan whether $100 silver could become a reality before the end of the year.
Morgan said it was possible, but it isn’t his base-case forecast.
He has generally expected silver to reach somewhere around $78 to $82. At the same time, Morgan warned that silver has a long history of surprising even experienced analysts.
The critical variable is monetary demand.
Industrial demand has grown dramatically over the past quarter-century, rising from approximately 35 percent of total silver demand to around 60 percent. But Morgan explained that industrial demand generally doesn’t fluctuate enough from one year to the next to create explosive short-term price moves.
Investment and monetary demand can.
When industrial users and investors simultaneously compete for the same available 1,000-ounce silver bars, the market can move rapidly. Morgan believes that dynamic helped drive the dramatic silver moves seen during the latter months of the previous year and the first month of 2026.
Morgan expects silver to continue grinding higher through the remainder of the year, although sharp corrections could periodically shake investors out of the market.
He doesn’t believe the ultimate highs are in.
Morgan expects new record highs in both gold and silver, but he sees the bigger move potentially unfolding in 2027 or 2028.
Silver’s Industrial Demand Keeps Growing
Higher silver prices inevitably raise questions about substitution.
Solar manufacturers and other industrial users have an incentive to reduce silver consumption or replace it with cheaper metals such as copper. Morgan has been studying the issue and believes copper could reduce silver usage in solar panels, but he doesn’t think it eliminates the need for silver entirely.
Durability could also become an issue.
If a cheaper copper-heavy solar panel lasted only five years compared with 25 years for a silver-intensive alternative, the apparent savings could disappear when measured across the product’s full life cycle.
Even if technological improvements dramatically reduce solar-sector silver consumption, Morgan believes emerging technologies could absorb the difference.
He pointed to batteries, semiconductors, artificial intelligence infrastructure, electrical expansion, and robotics as potential sources of additional demand.
Could Robots Become a Major Source of Silver Demand?
Robotics could eventually become an especially interesting source of silver consumption.
Morgan said his ongoing research suggests robots could contain roughly 20 to 30 grams of silver apiece.
Thirty grams is approximately one troy ounce.
That creates some striking theoretical numbers.
If global production someday reached 100 million robots annually and each contained roughly one ounce of silver, robotics alone could theoretically require approximately 100 million ounces of silver every year.
Morgan emphasized that he isn’t predicting 100 million robots will necessarily be produced annually. The numbers remain speculative, and the industry isn’t yet large enough to provide certainty.
The broader point is that robotics represents an emerging source of silver demand that barely exists today.
What’s Really Behind Asian Silver Premiums?
Maharrey also asked Morgan about reports of unusually large silver premiums in Asia.
Morgan cautioned against interpreting the entire difference between Asian and Western prices as a true physical-metal premium.
Several additional costs can become embedded in the final Asian price.
Tariffs can add expenses. Currency fluctuations between the Chinese renminbi and U.S. dollar create hedging costs. Shipping physical silver across the world isn’t free. Trust and other market considerations can add further expenses.
Once those factors are included, what appears to be a multi-dollar premium could actually consist of several different costs, with perhaps only around $1 representing the true premium on the metal itself.
That distinction matters because arbitrage isn’t effortless. Shipping multiple 1,000-ounce silver bars across the ocean to capture a relatively small price difference may not make economic sense when silver itself can move dramatically while the metal is in transit.
What If the Stock Market Doesn’t Crash?
Morgan also offered a provocative reassessment of the U.S. stock market.
He has long considered American equities extremely overvalued and once viewed a major correction as virtually inevitable.
He still considers a correction the most likely outcome, but no longer sees it as inevitable.
Why?
Inflation can distort nominal asset prices.
Morgan pointed to countries such as Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and Argentina, where stock markets can continue climbing in nominal currency terms even as the underlying currency depreciates faster than stocks appreciate.
In that environment, an investor’s brokerage account can show a larger number while the investor simultaneously becomes poorer in real purchasing-power terms.
Morgan stressed that he does not expect the U.S. dollar to enter hyperinflation. But he pointed to a reported 9 percent monthly increase in beef prices as an example of the kinds of acute price pressures consumers can experience even without economy-wide hyperinflation.
Inflation Can Ultimately End in Deflation
Morgan then raised another idea that may seem counterintuitive.
“All inflations end in deflation,” he argued.
The monetary system can continue inflating as confidence deteriorates, but Morgan believes some form of reset eventually becomes necessary.
He speculated that a future monetary structure could involve digital units, blockchain technology, or even a universal basic income. As a hypothetical example, he imagined a system providing people with 2,000 digital units per month.
But the number of currency units somebody possesses isn’t the same thing as wealth.
The important question is what those units can actually buy.
Wealth Is About Choices, Not Digits
Morgan argued that living standards ultimately provide a better measurement of wealth than bank-account balances.
Real wealth means having choices.
Can you afford transportation? Housing? Food? Entertainment? Can you purchase the products you want when you want them?
A person can possess more nominal dollars while simultaneously experiencing a declining standard of living if goods become more expensive, scarcer, or unavailable.
Morgan pointed to food as an increasingly obvious example. If higher grocery costs force a middle-class household to sacrifice entertainment or other discretionary spending simply to maintain its diet, its real standard of living has fallen even if its nominal income has increased.
Maharrey expanded on the point by noting that inflation doesn’t only manifest itself through consumer prices.
Monetary inflation can flow into stocks, real estate, and other assets, creating what appears to be greater wealth on paper. But if the amount of goods and services that wealth can command hasn’t increased accordingly, much of that prosperity can be an illusion.
Ultimately, Maharrey argued, an economy isn’t about paper units or digits in an account. It’s about real goods and services.
Investors don’t need to predict the exact date when the monetary system will change.
They need to be positioned before confidence changes.
Morgan believes that change in confidence is already occurring and accelerating.
His framework is straightforward. Gold provides monetary insurance. Silver provides monetary insurance combined with industrial leverage.
For investors interested in precious metals equities, Morgan believes carefully selected mining companies can provide additional opportunities. But equities also introduce additional risk.
That’s why his preferred starting point remains physical metal.
“The least risk take is physical metal,” Morgan said, describing it as the foundation of his approach to precious metals investing.
For Morgan, the surge in gold and silver isn’t simply another commodity rally. It reflects a deeper question increasingly confronting investors, institutions, and central banks alike.
When confidence in promises to pay begins to erode, what constitutes real money?
Morgan believes the market is increasingly providing its answer.
(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In February 2024, Headline USA published a story about the heinous activities of a Satanic pedophile named Kyle Spitze, who was still a free man at the time. Some two-and-a-half years later, Spitze has been sentenced to 77 years in prison.
The Justice Department announced Spitze’s sentence Wednesday following a hearing that lasted over a day.
“Spitze is one of the original members of the nihilistic violent extremist groups ‘Harm Nation’ and ‘764,’ and was committed to bringing about the downfall of society through terrorism, specifically by targeting children and other vulnerable people and extorting them to engage in criminal sexual conduct, self-harm, and mass casualty events,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said in a press release.
“Today’s sentence of 77 years, the longest federal sentence ever imposed on a nihilistic violent extremist, sends a strong message that civil society will not tolerate such depravity.”
Headline USA first reported on Spitze in February 2024, before he had been arrested. This publication had received information that Kyle—who had recently achieved internet fame when a video of his mom’s boyfriend shooting him went viral—was involved in the Satanic pedophile cult “764.”
CASE UPDATE from @FBI_Nashville: ‘764’ Extremist Group Member Sentenced For Production Of Child Pornography And Distribution Of Animal Crushing Videos
Kyle William Spitze, formerly an online leader of the Nihilistic Violent Extremist (NVE) group “764” and an administrator and… pic.twitter.com/S2Gav5o8OI
The DOJ’s June sentencing memorandum also details Spitze’s crimes, which were estimated to be committed against more than 30 female victims. Only 19 have been identified so far, while two of them have committed suicide, according to the DOJ.
“Both killed themselves after the defendant contacted them from jail. The final proof needed that they would never be rid of his evil. The raw vulnerability they must have felt knowing their terrorizer could reach them even from jail,” the DOJ’s memorandum says.
A week before his sentencing, the DOJ further revealed that Spitze started a “devil worship group” called “Colts Harmnation” while incarcerated at Blount County Jail.
There appears to have been at least two other inmates involved in Spitze’s group, one of them also a convicted pedophile, according to court records. The inmates were performing sexual acts on each other in an area in the jail known as the “cave.” Records say they were also cutting themselves with razor blades—just like what Spitze would have his underage female victims do.
Meanwhile, Spitze’s father, Michael Spitze—whom Headline USA interviewed for its original February 2024 article—is serving a 70 month sentence for tampering with some of his son’s victims.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
(Sarah Roderick-Fitch, The Center Square) President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum to expand space travel, with the goal of facilitating more than 1,000 launches and reentries “on American soil” each year by 2030.
The White House seeks to encourage American exceptionalism in its approach to space travel, beginning with an overhaul of what it describes as an “outdated” National Space Transportation policy to deliver “modernized access to space transportation services.”
The memorandum directs federal agencies to expand and accelerate the nation’s space transportation, underscoring its infrastructure and commercial capabilities.
In line with the president’s establishment of the U.S. Space Force during his first administration, the memorandum sets out to strengthen military readiness and economic dominance in space.
The memorandum supports the president’s plan to return Americans to the moon and, eventually, to send people to Mars, and directs the administrator of NASA to “facilitate commercial transportation to and from the moon.” It would also “facilitate commercial robotic access to Mars,” paving the way to “explore commercial avenues to send humans to and from Mars.”
In addition, the memorandum directs the secretaries of transportation and the interior to coordinate with the secretary of war and the administrator of NASA to identify new launch and reentry sites.
The administration argues the new directive would lower costs for space systems, while creating high-paying jobs in the aerospace sector.
In addition to benefits for space travel, the memorandum will improve navigation through “better positioning, navigation,” provide more accurate weather forecasts, aiding safer and more “predictable airline travel,” and improve satellite communications, including broadband internet.
The president’s memorandum paves the way for Trump’s aggressive plan to expand human space exploration, including the Artemis missions, which saw Americans return to the moon with the Artemis II mission, in which four Americans orbited the moon in April. The mission plans to return Americans to the surface of the moon when Artemis IV launches in 2028, followed by crewed missions aimed at sending Americans to Mars.
Trump is scheduled to visit Houston’s Johnson Space Center Friday, Aug. 28, to award the four Artemis II astronauts with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, NASA announced.
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) By now, anyone who follows cable news is likely familiar with Gustavo Gordillo, the co-chair of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. But viewers may not know that the self-described socialist lives in a Brooklyn townhouse now valued at $1.5 million, a home his wealthy parents bought for him.
Gordillo’s affluent upbringing is raising eyebrows as he makes the case for socialism on television and across social media.
As revealed by the New York Post, Gordillo’s parents purchased him a roughly $1 million, 2,000-square-foot townhouse in Brooklyn. The Post reported that they bought and renovated the property through a trust fund in 2019.
His father is the owner of Draftpros Inc., a company that the Post said “specializes in engineering and consulting services.”
Gordillo’s past creates a striking contrast to the pro-socialism activism he is advocating.
Gordillo also had the benefit of an elite, niche education, studying fine arts at Yale University, where the estimase annual cost of attendance is now roughly $94,000.
After graduating, Gordillo enrolled in an apprenticeship to become an electrician. But IBEW Local 3 told the Post that he was fired from the program in March 2026 for unexcused absences and failing to attend classes. Despite his dismissal, the outlet reported that Gordillo has continued to describe himself online as a “union electrician.”
(Ioannis Vlahos, Antiwar.com) The Trump administration is increasing sanctions on Cuba, in the form of new economic penalties for Cuban industries as well as expanding enforcement of laws that bar Americans who visit the island from dealings with government-owned or -affiliated businesses.
The penalties, which were announced Thursday by the Treasury and State Departments, are aimed at 10 state-owned mining, metal and construction companies along with the leadership of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, or ICAP. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the institute is responsible for sponsoring “a vast subversive network in the United States aimed at identifying, cultivating, and radicalizing” Americans.
“Just days ago, the regime attempted to use Communist kingpin and despot Fidel Castro’s 100th birthday to reinvigorate this subversive network, ferrying a new brigade of international sympathizers to Havana to network with regime officials,” Rubio said in a statement.
“The Trump Administration will not stand by while a hostile foreign power seeks to exploit our freedoms — none of which are afforded to its people — by misleading and corrupting American citizens with lies, spy tradecraft, and other malfeasance as part of the regime’s raison d’être of exporting Marxism, racial resentment, and Communist violence across the world,” Rubio said.
Since the year began, the Trump administration has rapidly escalated pressure on Cuba, going so far as to threaten military action as well as increasing economic sanctions designed to cut off funding for the Cuban government. The oil blockade, which was implemented after the January raid in which the United States kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, has plunged the country into a humanitarian crisis.
Experts appointed by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council warned that Cuba risks becoming a “silent Gaza”, and said, “The humanitarian consequences are already unfolding into a full-blown crisis, threatening the rights to health, to life, to food and to development.”
Cuba routinely denounces American sanctions, as well as the Cold War-era embargo that remains in place, and has accused the United States on multiple occasions of targeting a poor nation simply for ideological differences and its proximity to the mainland US.
(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The family of Iryna Zarutska, the Ukrainian refugee who was stabbed to death on a Charlotte train last year, is reportedly planning to file a lawsuit over the matter.
“The attorney representing the family and estate of Iryna Zarutska is expected to soon file a civil lawsuit in connection with Zarutska’s death,” WBTV in Charlotte reported Wednesday.
Attorney Lauren Newton told the outlet the lawsuit will come around the one-year anniversary of Zarutska’s killing, which is on Saturday. A lawsuit had yet to be filed as of the writing of this article. It’s unclear what parties the lawsuit will target. A state auditor found earlier this month that the Charlotte Area Transit System should install turnstiles or gates at every light rail station to improve security.
Zarutska’s August 22, 2025, death shocked and horrified much of the country when the full video was finally released by this outlet on Sept. 9. The footage showed a homeless man, DeCarlos Brown, stabbing Zarutska in the neck before sauntering off—leaving her to blead out and die within seconds.
Brown was arrested shortly later and taken to the hospital with cuts on his own hand. He was charged with murder. He’s since been deemed “incapable of proceeding” in the federal and state cases against him. The determination for Brown does not mean he’s being let out of custody. However, it may spare him from the death penalty.
Now, Brown is undergoing medical treatment in a federal facility to restore his competency, according to the Justice Department.
The DOJ has said Brown’s prognosis to become competent to proceed is “good.” But even if he can’t be restored to competency, he still wouldn’t be released. He’d be subject to civil commitment proceedings.
Brown was found incompetent to proceed because he has a mental illness. “He experiences delusions that center around his belief that he was exposed to a Material and it ‘control[s] his every movement,’” his attorneys said in a Thursday filing. “He refers to it as his Body Emergency. The delusions are constant and persistent.”
