Good evening everyone. We have reports now that the United States military has killed all civilians aboard a medevac plane in New Mexico, the first known instance where GPS jamming led to the downing of a civilian aircraft. Republicans are admitting they cannot rein in Trump as Congress is rendered useless. Trump continues new White House vanity projects using taxpayer dollars. And much more.
We also have an interview with Bale Dalton, who is running for Congress in Florida, and a report from Luke Radal from the White House!
Also big news: Ron Wyden, the senator who released the bombshell Epstein report today, is sitting down with me tomorrow. Bari Weiss and CBS refused to air his interview with 60 Minutes. I won’t hide the truth. You’re going to get something big.
Despite the constant threats and attacks, I am not stopping. I will never trade access for the truth. If you can, subscribe today. Some may think I talk too much about Epstein. I haven’t talked enough. And tomorrow should be big.
Here’s the news:
Military kills civilians in Medevac Plane:
It appears that the US military accidentally killed everybody on board a civilian medevac flight in New Mexico this past May, when an experimental GPS jamming exercise at the nearby White Sands Missile Range knocked out the navigation system of a small twin-engine plane carrying two pilots and two medical workers. The crew had taken off from Roswell, heading west toward the mountain village of Ruidoso, when they lost GPS shortly after departure and were forced to rely on air traffic controllers and backup navigation methods. Making matters worse, at least three other aircraft in the area also reported GPS disruptions that same night, stretching Albuquerque air traffic control well beyond capacity as they tried to help multiple confused crews at once. The advisory warning issued ahead of the military’s exercise wasn’t enough to prevent tragedy, since there weren’t adequate safeguards or staffing in place to keep the disoriented crew safe. All four people aboard the plane were killed when it slammed into the side of a mountain the pilots likely never saw.
The disorientation stemmed from a fatal chain of decisions in near-total darkness: unable to see the 10,000-foot Capitan Mountains looming ahead, the pilots abandoned their instrument approach and opted to fly visually toward the lights of Ruidoso’s airport instead of waiting for controller guidance. As they closed in, the dark mass of the mountain blotted out the valley lights they’d been using to orient themselves, a moment aviation crash analyst and pilot Juan Browne described to Wired starkly: “When those lights go out, man, you know you are in big trouble.” Experts say the safer move in that moment would have been to climb and circle until the crew could reestablish their bearings, rather than continuing to press forward blindly. Instead, the plane flew straight into the rising slope at full speed, killing everyone instantly. This marks the first confirmed instance in which military GPS jamming has contributed to the crash of a civilian aircraft in US airspace.
The incident fits into a fast-worsening pattern, since reported GPS interference events within the continental United States have exploded from just four in 2020 to 50 in 2024 and 40 more across 2025, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. It also follows a string of other military and law enforcement mishaps involving experimental technology near civilian airspace, including an incident earlier this year when Customs and Border Patrol fired an experimental high-energy laser at what they believed was a drug-smuggling drone near El Paso Airport, only to discover afterward it had actually targeted a kid’s party balloon. That laser test reportedly happened before the FAA and Pentagon had even finished discussing how to safely deploy the weapon, an oversight officials called a “small miracle” didn’t get someone killed. Unlike that earlier close call, the New Mexico crash shows what happens when there isn’t a miracle: as drone and electronic warfare testing expands, civilian aircraft are increasingly caught in the fallout far from any actual battlefield. With GPS jamming incidents rising sharply and the aviation industry still catching up on safeguards, officials and experts warn this tragedy likely won’t be the last of its kind.
White House construction:
Trump has ordered contractors to redo weeks of work on his new White House helipad after growing frustrated that the sloped South Lawn wouldn’t produce a landing pad level with the horizon, according to two people familiar with his private comments. Photos obtained by The Washington Post show crews dismantling their progress, including a 100-foot-wide granite presidential seal that had just begun taking shape last week, as the around-the-clock construction races to finish before Xi Jinping’s state visit in late September.
It remains unclear how much extra time or money the redo will add to the project, which costs more than $5 million and is being funded by Lockheed Martin, the parent company of Marine One manufacturer Sikorsky; both Lockheed and construction firm Clark Construction declined to detail the changes, deferring to the White House. Federal guidance says helipads should be flat for safety but not perfectly level, since some slope is needed for water runoff, and the South Lawn’s roughly 20-degree slope in some areas exceeds recommended limits, though the new site was chosen specifically because it’s flatter than other options. The helipad is meant to solve a real problem, since the newer VH-92A Patriot helicopters vent exhaust downward and risk scorching the lawn, and in the meantime Trump has been using the nearby Ellipse park as a temporary landing zone for Marine One.
The Trump administration is regilding four historic bronze statues near the Lincoln Memorial in 23-karat gold leaf, part of a broader push to add gilding to Washington landmarks that has already touched the White House and Kennedy Center. The Interior Department awarded a no-bid contract in April to Maryland-based The Gilders’ Studio, which has previously handled gilding work at Boston’s Faneuil Hall and Arlington National Cemetery. The four 19-foot statues, gifted by Italy after World War II and installed in 1951 near the Arlington Memorial Bridge, are grouped as two pairs: “The Arts of War” by Leo Friedlander and “The Arts of Peace” by James Earle Fraser. Trump announced on Truth Social in late July that the first regilded pair, “Valor and Sacrifice,” was now visible, while “The Arts of Peace” remain covered in staging material, with the surrounding area closed to the public until September 30. The total project is expected to cost roughly $5.1 million.
Max Miller:
Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, requested Tuesday that the House Ethics Committee investigate the domestic abuse allegations made by his ex-wife, an unusual attempt to clear his name amid a public custody battle, saying “I have absolutely nothing to hide.” Hours later, the Ethics panel confirmed it had launched an investigation into whether Miller engaged in “domestic violence and abuse or illegal drug use,” after Miller spent the weekend denying the allegations on a livestream and releasing audio recordings, including one in which his ex-wife Emily Moreno says she found needles by his bed and another in which he tells her he was injecting testosterone.
A spokesperson for Moreno accused Miller of lying to save his political career, saying there’s “a documented trove of evidence” of violent behavior. The request suggests Miller intends to stay in his reelection race despite his former father-in-law, Sen. Bernie Moreno, publicly declaring him unfit for Congress and saying he “holds his breath” whenever Miller has custody of his granddaughter, calling the ordeal “the seventh level of hell” for his family. Trump is still standing by Miller, calling the situation “a very sad thing” and Miller a “good person,” while the investigation itself will likely take weeks or months and echoes a similar self-requested probe by Rep. Charlie Rangel in 2008, which ultimately ended in his censure.
On CNN,Miller threatened to expose “a deeply and personal embarrassing matter” involving Senator Bernie Moreno, apparently in response to Moreno publicly calling for Miller’s resignation.
Blanche:
Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, setting up a final floor vote requiring near-unanimous Republican support. As acting AG since April, Blanche has aggressively pursued Trump’s agenda, including cases against perceived foes, scrutiny of the 2016 Russia investigation response, and the now-scrapped $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund,” and sources say a fresh wave of public activity on stalled probes like the John Brennan investigation is expected once he’s formally confirmed.
His path was nearly derailed by two of his own missteps: the fund itself, which he ultimately rescinded after tense negotiations with Sens. Cornyn and Tillis over IRS audit protections for Trump, and the botched release of Epstein files that initially exposed victims’ personal information, which Tillis said he wouldn’t support Blanche without a meeting with survivors that was then arranged same-day. Both holdout senators ultimately backed him, with Cornyn calling for a “stabilizing force” at DOJ and Tillis urging Blanche to “bend the curve of this absurdity,” while Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley called the delay over such a “common sense thing” a “crime.” Meanwhile, Cornyn said the quiet part out loud that Republicans can’t do anything to “rein in” Trump:
Blanche has also built goodwill by working directly with senators outside the committee, notably Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, whom he visited this month while settling an $180 million dispute with Anchorage and dropping two Biden-era lawsuits over the state’s oil and gas production.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced Tuesday she’ll vote against Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination, saying that while she believes he’s a “capable lawyer,” his actions have “further eroded the Department’s independence” amid what she called an increasingly political DOJ. Her opposition won’t sink the nomination alone, since Blanche can afford to lose just two GOP votes with Mitch McConnell still absent from the Senate, but it raises the stakes for remaining undecided Republicans Bill Cassidy and Lisa Murkowski, neither of whom has said how they’ll vote.
Blanche cleared his biggest hurdle earlier Tuesday when the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced his nomination after Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis dropped their opposition following a written agreement to kill Trump’s $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund and narrow IRS audit protections for Trump, while Sen. John Curtis also signaled support after previously expressing concerns. Collins, the only Republican senator seeking reelection in a state Trump lost, has broken with the president on several high-profile votes this term, including opposing his signature legislative package, a spending rescissions bill, and Pete Hegseth’s defense secretary nomination, while she did back RFK Jr. for HHS.
Other news:
Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn is weighing “all options,” including civil suits, bar referrals for prosecutors, and requests for congressional investigation, after felony vandalism charges tied to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool were abruptly dropped last week. Hearn, 67, had faced up to 10 years in prison after his June 19 arrest, but prosecutors under U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro dismissed the case Friday, saying newly obtained Interior Department documents showed the pool liner’s peeling was caused by a “rushed and flawed installation process” rather than vandalism, a reversal that infuriated Trump and set off internal turmoil, with the president accusing Pirro of having “choked” and “folded like an umbrella.” Because the DOJ dropped the charge “without prejudice,” meaning it could technically be refiled, Hearn’s attorneys are now filing their own motion to dismiss “with prejudice” to permanently close the door on prosecution before pursuing further action, while also pushing prosecutors to disclose the legal instructions given to grand jurors, alleging “irregularities” in how the case was presented.
ICE detained Berhanu Kibret, a University of Maryland, Baltimore pharmacy instructor who had just won a “teacher of the year” award, at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport as he returned from the awards ceremony. DHS said he overstayed a visa that expired in May 2024 after entering the U.S. in June 2021 and will remain in custody pending immigration proceedings, though the university says he “has a valid work authorization” and called him a “highly valued” and “beloved” member of its community. The arrest follows ICE’s brief detention last month of a Johns Hopkins researcher with a pharmacy doctorate and a pending asylum case, who was later released, and comes despite a Guardian analysis finding 77% of people placed into deportation proceedings since Trump’s return to office had no criminal convictions. Kibret’s research focuses on how the brain’s cannabinoid system affects mental health and addiction, and he holds degrees from Ethiopia and a postdoctoral fellowship from William Paterson University in New Jersey.
SpaceX beat revenue expectations in its first quarterly report as a public company, driven largely by its Starlink satellite business, but investor attention shifted to soaring capital expenditures tied to its xAI unit, which runs Grok. Those costs hit $15.8 billion, above the $13.09 billion analysts expected and roughly double the prior quarter, making up most of SpaceX’s overall $18.4 billion in quarterly capex. The report reversed a strong rally during regular trading, sending shares down about 6.5% after hours despite having surged 9% earlier in the day. The stock has been volatile since its record-setting June 12 IPO briefly made it a multi-trillion-dollar company, only to lose about $1 trillion in value amid anticipation of insider share sales and broader worries over AI spending pace, though it still holds a valuation above $1 trillion and got a boost Tuesday from a new Nvidia computing deal. Investors are also increasingly speculating that SpaceX could merge with Tesla, which would further consolidate Elon Musk’s control over his tech empire.
Eight of the world’s biggest oil companies, including Aramco, BP, Shell, Chevron, and ExxonMobil, made a combined $93 billion in profit over just three months as the Iran war sent oil prices soaring above $126 a barrel, nearly doubling their haul from the same period last year to more than $700,000 a minute. Saudi Aramco led with a 34% jump to over $33 billion despite Iranian and Houthi drone strikes on its infrastructure, while BP posted its highest quarterly profit since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine even as it keeps slashing green energy investment and selling off renewable assets. In the US, Chevron and ExxonMobil posted fivefold and doubled profit increases respectively, drawing criticism even from Trump, who accused them of “making too much money” from his own war. Climate campaigners argue the windfall is coming directly at the public’s expense, pointing to this summer’s deadly heatwaves, which killed an estimated 20,000 people across Europe including nearly 3,000 in the UK, alongside record heat in Asia, extreme drought damaging European harvests, wildfires across southern Europe and North America, and catastrophic flooding in South Asia and China, all disasters scientists link to fossil fuel emissions.
Missouri’s Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins announced Tuesday he won’t certify a referendum aimed at undoing the state’s new GOP-drawn congressional map, arguing the effort to repeal it via ballot is unconstitutional under both state and federal law. The map, passed 11 months ago as part of Trump’s push for GOP states to redistrict ahead of the midterms, carved up one of Missouri’s two Democratic-held districts, and opponents under the group People Not Politicians Missouri say they gathered over 300,000 signatures, well above the roughly 106,000 needed to force a statewide vote. Hoskins declined to confirm whether enough valid signatures were collected, but the group’s director said election officials have already verified more than enough and vowed to sue, accusing Hoskins of a “last desperate attempt to silence the people’s voice.” Tuesday’s decision.
See you soon.
— Aaron
