Mike Barnett

2014 Squad fantasy baseball champion. Just a simple country lawyer.

[WarMonitor🇺🇦🇬🇧 @WarMonitor3]

The US has warned Poland Russia is preparing an armed provocation in the near future and Belarusian troops could be involved.

Wow...

[CBS News @CBSNews]

A watch-sized gold ring was gifted to President Trump this week from a Belgian diamond group, months after it won tariff relief.

Isidore Mörsel, president of the Antwerp World Diamond Center, presented the ring to Bill White, the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, to give to Trump. Mörsel said the piece was gifted on behalf of the centuries-old diamond community in the Belgian port city.

"A very special thank you to my friends from Antwerp for the magnificent Freedom 250 ring," Trump said in a prerecorded video message during an event marking America's 250th birthday in Brussels

Some U.S. ethics experts say the president has broken with the decades-old custom in the White House to avoid accepting such gifts. The fate of the ring is not currently clear.

https://t.co/Zzp469VRkv

[Mike Barnett @Mike_Barnett]

@JesseBWatters @karolineleavitt Are they going to take ownership of private entities? That would be bad…

[Alex Ward @alexbward]

NEW: Hegseth planned to drop a bombshell at a recent NATO meeting—the U.S. was gonna withdraw troops from Europe.

But then he shared his plan with Rubio and others at the White House—and the plan got nixed.

Hegseth then announced a force posture review instead.

[Mike Barnett @Mike_Barnett]

@scottlincicome I’m in SE Asia, and their electric cars are awesome—would be great to have them in America. Our automakers are scared of the competition.

[Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney]

BREAKING: The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals just ruled 2-1 that ICE cannot detain people under the Trump administration's massive new detention policy for more than 90 days without affording them a bond hearing.

https://t.co/bEpLmClKGr

[Alec MacGillis @AlecMacGillis]

WSJ editorial page on Trump's billions: "an unseemly display of using the Presidency for family profit. It’s hard to believe the Trump boys would be able to do same deals if Dad wasn’t in Oval Office....Charges of GOP corruption will resound through 2028." https://t.co/6rBFRRYhnc

[Donald Trump Portfolio Tracker @TrumpsPortfolio]

In Q1 2026 Donald Trump executed 3,500 trades and made $1.5 billion dollars. We are going to track all of Trump’s trades. And get filthy rich. Follow along

[Tom Winter @Tom_Winter]

NBC News: Trump brought in $2 Billion while president his financial disclosure forms show.

Where the money came from: https://t.co/exUZ6sxA0h

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

Ronald Reagan: “You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman…But Anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American…This, I believe, is one of the most important sources of America's greatness.”🇺🇸

[Rep. Don Bacon 🇺🇸✈️🏍️⭐️🎖️ @RepDonBacon]

The SECDEF and his team have decreased the Army’s brigade strength by 40% and has done so unilaterally without support from Congress. What concessions has Russia made for this reduction? None. The President has directed that a Brigade be sent to Poland. Nothing has happened.

[Mike Barnett @Mike_Barnett]

@greggnunziata This should be bi-partisan, along with a promotion on self dealing with family and related entities. The Oval Office should not be a path to riches.

[CSPAN @cspan]

.@jonathanvswan: "Trump is essentially beyond the reach of the law in terms of actions...Trump has told senior advisers in the Oval Office that he's going to pardon anyone who came within 250 feet of the Oval Office...I don't think they feel any real concern about illegality."

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

Let me tell you what just got reported, because you will not believe it until you see it laid out.

The Trump administration cut a billion-dollar tungsten deal with Kazakhstan. Tungsten is the metal we need for missile warheads, fighter jets, and computer chips. Trump himself got on the phone to close it. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick worked it from the inside, sending letters, leaning on the Kazakh president, lining up as much as $1.6 billion in federal financing.

Within weeks of those negotiations, investors tied to a firm partly owned by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump took a 20% stake in an entity connected to the very same Kazakhstan project their father was negotiating. Around that same time, Cantor Fitzgerald, the firm run by Lutnick’s own sons, raised $210 million for a partner in the deal and pocketed the fees.

The fathers set the policy. The sons cashed in.

Six days after the Trump sons and their partners moved their money, Lutnick signed the final deal.

The reporting found one or both families have financial ties to at least 14 companies working with the government on critical mining deals.

The total federal funding flowing toward those companies tops $8.9 billion.

This is your tax money.

It is supposed to secure our supply chains and protect our troops, not pad the portfolios of the President’s children and the Commerce Secretary’s children.

This is the most corrupt administration in American history. It is not close.

We must keep digging, and keep asking the questions they do not want asked. Republicans in Congress are unwilling to lift a finger. Mike Johnson is running a protection racket.

Either we will end the corruption, or the corruption will be the end of us.

https://t.co/yFOl7zvOhC

[Scott Lincicome @scottlincicome]

New research from @nytimes finds that the US government is actively doing "critical minerals" deals with FOURTEEN different companies that have financial ties to the Trump and/or Lutnick families - deals worth around $9 billion in all:

[Moe Davis (U.S. Air Force, Retired) @ColMoeDavis]

Here’s an in-depth New York Times article on how Trump, his family, and his cronies are abusing their government power to line their pockets and using billions of your tax dollars to facilitate their grifting. Note that the $8.9 billion in federal money going to the 14 Trump and Lutnick companies is equal to the entire amount of federal assistance Western North Carolina has received for Hurricane Helene recovery.

Rampant corruption in plain sight . . . and Republicans see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.

Here’s an excerpt from the article and a free link to the entire piece:

“Ahead of the deal, the Trump administration approved preliminary applications for as much as $1.6 billion in federal financing for the American company, now called Kaz Resources, which plans to break ground on the project in rural Kazakhstan.

It was not only Mr. Trump and Mr. Lutnick who saw an opportunity.

Their sons were soon doing business with partners in a deal that their fathers were negotiating, continuing a pattern of self-enrichment in the second Trump administration that has few precedents in American history.”

. . . . .

“One or both families have financial ties to at least 14 companies that are actively working with the federal government on critical mining deals, including the Kazakhstan project, according to federal filings examined by The New York Times.

All 14 of these companies have either benefited directly from offers of financial assistance from the Trump administration, or have pending permit applications before the Commerce Department, which Mr. Lutnick oversees, The Times found. The total amount of federal funding that the Trump administration has provided or is considering providing to the companies exceeds $8.9 billion, according to public statements by the companies and federal government.”

https://t.co/HvoK9qva0H

[Charlie Bilello @charliebilello]

A 25-year old married couple earning $150k will pay over $3k more in federal income tax in 2026 than a 65-year old married couple with the same income.

(note: assumes no social security - 65-year old couple is waiting to age 70 to get max benefit).

This is a fair tax policy?

[First Things First @FTFonFS1]

“Having Joe Burrow ranked ahead of Patrick Mahomes on any quarterback list is an unacceptable opinion... Patrick tore his ACL last year and played more games than Joe Burrow did.”

@getnickwright explains:

[Mike Barnett @Mike_Barnett]

@SenRandPaul You’ve lost me. You sound like a kook.

[Peter Baker @peterbakernyt]

The average life expectancy of a new Russian recruit—from arrival at a training ground to death in a combat zone—lies somewhere between 10 days and three weeks. Once sent onto the battlefield, they survive an average of 20 to 35 minutes. @peterfrankopan https://t.co/W3UhBerdH0