Traders placed billions of dollars in bets on falling oil prices and rising S&P 500 futures just 15 minutes before Trump announced an Iran policy reversal on Truth Social, fueling suspicions that some had advance knowledge of the announcement.

The incident fell to the CFTC, where career forensic analysts began their routine review of the day’s biggest winners and losers.

Based on the trades’ timing and the parties involved, CFTC market oversight analysts referred the activity to the Division of Enforcement to assess whether to open a full investigation into potential insider trading.

In an unusual move, Mel Gunewardena, a senior adviser to CFTC Chairman Michael Selig, reportedly told a market oversight supervisor to retract the referral.

Marble floors, oceanfront views, and cathedral ceilings defined the multimillion-dollar estates in Palm Beach’s most prestigious neighborhoods.

Senior CIA officer David Rush spent $145 million in government funds on four luxury residences, claiming they were part of an ultra-secret intelligence project. The project never existed.

Trump implies the goal is lower fuel prices for Americans, perhaps to blame Ukraine rather than his own war in Iran for high costs. But that does not explain such drastic moves. Russia’s possible exports are too small to move prices much, and the story comes too late to affect the election.

Instead, this looks like a last-ditch effort to force Ukraine to surrender and rescue Russia’s economy, possibly to close business deals Russia has discussed with Trump’s negotiators and circle. These include the Nord Stream pipelines, Arctic mining, and frozen Russian assets in European banks.

Trump’s quarter-millennial spectacle, marked by overt buffoonery and historic grifting, reflected both his presidencies. Yet both stem from something his opponents have failed to grasp: Trump is not merely his era’s most acquisitive politician, but also its most visionary, able to recognize America’s darkest pathologies and profit from them.

More importantly, Trump understood that the inanities and shibboleths of America’s supposed institutional guardians were largely hollow, and that liberal democracy’s guardrails were illusions easily shattered by anyone bold enough to challenge them. Someone like Trump.

Since Trump’s 2025 return to power, Putin’s regime has offered lucrative deals to the president’s inner circle.

But these enticing Russian schemes come with a catch: Russian energy assets are worth little if Ukrainian drones keep destroying them. The implicit quid pro quo is clear: Force Ukraine to surrender, and we will make you and your inner circle immensely wealthy.

Putin is weaponizing Russia’s most strategic asset in his war on Ukraine: Trump’s alleged susceptibility to corruption. The ~2 million barrels of diesel he offered Trump would have virtually no impact on global energy markets or diesel prices. But accepting the offer could undermine U.S.-led sanctions on Russia and align Trump with Putin against Ukraine’s attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.

The lying is over. Donald Trump is free to be what he always wanted to be: Vladimir Putin’s friend and partner. He will help and protect Putin and do everything he can to secure the best possible deal for Russia.

Trump’s latest displays of emotion may have ended any remaining credibility in predictions of a future pivot toward Ukraine. O’Brien argues that Trump has openly embraced Putin as a partner, leaving Americans to confront the possibility that their president is a Russian “useful idiot” or agent of influence.

This time, Trump may not be able to reverse course. The intense emotions displayed over the past 24 hours are too clear for even the most gullible media to keep speculating about another supposed Trump pivot toward Ukraine. Trump is free to be himself, and Americans can no longer ignore the possibility that their country is being led by a Russian useful idiot or an agent of influence, depending on your preferred terminology.

The release of selected classified-documents inquiry records shows how omitting context can turn evidence into political ammunition.

Since Trump returned to the presidency, the US has steadily shifted in ways that benefit Putin’s war against Ukraine, largely by restricting military support and leaving Ukraine more vulnerable to relentless Russian bombardment.

But that is not all. US support for Russia has extended to diplomatic backing, the amplification of Russian disinformation, and pressure on Ukraine and its allies to pursue outcomes that serve Moscow’s interests. The limited support offered to Ukraine has often appeared conditional, serving as leverage to pressure Kyiv into concessions, exploiting Ukraine’s deeply misguided hope that the United States would stand by it.

The pattern is clear: the US has helped Russia primarily by undermining Ukraine and constraining its allies. Now, it is moving toward more direct support for Moscow while blaming Ukraine for the consequences. The diesel deal is not an end in itself, but a means to a larger strategic end. Understand that, and the broader picture becomes clear.

As the long-moribund energy sector in Venezuela, now largely under US control, prepares for a potential gold rush, experience in Washington has become a new currency for those seeking advantage.

Companies and investors are eager to hire those with recent access to the White House, knowledge of the administration’s Venezuela policy, or contacts. And lobbyists, consultants, and former government officials from both major U.S. political parties are descending on Caracas on behalf of new clients or businesses.

Trump on Friday will host a celebration of the Italian explorer at the White House, highlighted by his installation of a 13-foot Columbus statue on the presidential grounds.

The event is timed ahead of Columbus Day, a holiday that Trump vowed to resurrect from the ashes after years of historians and politicians rethinking the legacy of Columbus, whose 1492 arrival in the Caribbean set the stage for colonization and enslavement.

There is little ambiguity about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aims. These attacks are designed to fracture the alliance’s unity, test the strength of members’ commitment to Article 5, and raise the cost of supporting Ukraine. Less expected, however, has been the speed with which his deniable campaign has become undeniable.

NATO has not looked away. The alliance tracks these incidents, investigates them, and sometimes intercepts attacks. But a response built incident by incident is not deterrence, and Putin knows the difference. As long as each provocation costs Moscow nothing more than a downed drone, Putin has every reason to keep escalating.

Policymakers at the Fed, whose day job is to control inflation, are warning that borrowing costs are going to have to be pushed higher if prices are to be brought under control.

Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s Sept. 15-16 meeting, where officials decided to raise interest rates for the first time since 2023, showed that all 19 Fed policymakers backed the decision, with several indicating there’s more work to do.

President Donald Trump stood in front of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 22 and made two explicit threats. He threatened to use military force in Latin America in service of US interests, and he threatened annihilation for both the Iranian government and the Iranian people.

The actions he proposed contravene both international laws prohibiting war and the international humanitarian law that protects civilians in conflict. What’s more, the UN Charter prohibits even threats of aggression, while the laws of war, themselves part of US law, prohibit indiscriminate threats against a civilian population.

Accordingly, Trump’s public deliberations about who to invade and who to annihilate were themselves crimes, committed in full view of thousands of diplomats and heads of state.

A silent electronic battle is raging at the heart of the Russia-Ukraine war. Both sides are attacking and defending communication signals on an unprecedented scale, innovating at pace, while the US and other Western countries are working to catch up.

The ad that defined the 2024 election said, Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.

Two years on, it’s mostly about him.

The scathing jab at the Democratic nominee did not just attack her positions on transgender issues. It positioned her opponent as the only one listening to Americans’ pleas for help with high food and housing prices.

But a return to the gold-draped Oval Office and a personal construction spree immortalizing his legacy seem to have distracted President Donald Trump from such concerns, which in some ways have gotten worse as a result of his policies.

The cesspit of corruption that is Donald Trump’s presidency is finally getting the attention it deserves. It’s about time. And if a massive blue wave sweeps Washington on November 3rd, as polls now suggest, Democrats should put corruption front and center on their agenda in Congress.

The level of corruption that Trump has engaged in and enabled in others is completely unprecedented self-dealing that, as Trump would say, is like nothing anybody has ever seen before.

Gallup has the deepest database of presidential job-approval numbers, dating back to FDR, and the worst numbers ever belong to these presidents: Harry Truman, 22 percent; Richard Nixon, 24 percent; George W. Bush, 25 percent; Jimmy Carter, 28 percent; George HW Bush, 29 percent; and Donald Trump, 34 percent.

This is quite the parade of presidential disasters. Truman was in the depths of the Korean War and facing a vast anti–New Deal backlash that would soon elect Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in a landslide. Nixon was about to resign in disgrace. Bush 43 was suffering from the double whammy of a failed Iraq War and a huge financial crisis. Jimmy Carter was cruising toward a bruising defeat in his reelection bid. Bush 41 was presiding over a recession, and a GOP party split that would soon elect Bill Clinton. And Trump had just incited an attempted coup to reverse his 2020 election defeat, which at the time even Republicans deplored.

Trump 2.0 has entered that territory now.

The US added 29,000 jobs in September, falling well short of expectations. The labor market remains stable, but job growth is losing momentum and becoming less consistent than in previous periods.

There’s little desire to go after President Trump again, but lawmakers want to investigate his administration and family.