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Category: politics

  • Big Oil Stocks Surged Due to Iran War—and New Filings Show How President Trump Cashed In

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    Article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    US President Donald Trump gestures as he meets with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on July 28, 2025 in Turnberry, Scotland. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

    The president is making “significant profits on the global instability he’s inciting,” said one government ethics expert. “It’s profoundly unethical.”

    In a mandated filing with the Office of Government Ethics released Thursday, President Donald Trump was found to have made more than 1,000 stock transactions in June, including thousands of dollars invested in energy companies that were reaping record profits from the war Trump started with Iran.

    Trump submitted financial disclosure forms to the OGE covering the second quarter of 2026, during which the Iran War continued, was paused for a ceasefire, and restarted again.

    CBS News pointed to a “notable large transaction” on April 7, the day Trump declared a ceasefire with Iran after having threatened to destroy the country’s “entire civilization.” His investment accounts sold between $500,000 and $1 million of ExxonMobil stock that same day.

    The filings were submitted days after Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) estimated that Trump’s oil and gas stocks have soared in value since before he began attacking Iran in February—an act that raised oil prices due to Iran’s retaliatory closing of the Strait of Hormuz. The holdings were estimated at $13 million to $46 million at the start of 2026 and $17 million to $61 million this month.

    “President Trump saw his wealth go up by as much as $15.5 million just through stocks he owned in oil and gas companies at the end of 2025,” said the JEC Democrats. “These companies’ profits and stock values are rising because Trump’s reckless war in Iran has caused gas and oil prices to skyrocket.”

    The JEC’s estimates were based on his holdings in 2025 and did not account for the trades he continued to make as the war dragged on.

    “Trump’s war in Iran has inflicted higher energy and gas prices on the American people,” said Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). “Meanwhile, Trump’s brokers have been trading oil and gas stocks for him, helping him profit on the global instability he’s inciting. It’s profoundly unethical.”

    The White House said the president does not make trades himself, but CREW president Donald Sherman told CBS News that Trump should not be making “significant profits on the global instability he’s inciting.”

    “President Trump’s war of choice in Iran has cost the American people in the form of higher energy and gas prices and higher shipping costs,” Sherman said. “Meanwhile, Trump’s brokers have been trading oil and gas stocks for him… It doesn’t matter whether he’s trading the stocks himself—the president has a duty to avoid conflicts of interest between his finances and what’s best for the American people.”

    Unlike other US presidents, Trump has refused to place his assets in a blind trust, instead continuing to hold stocks that are visible to him in all 11 sectors involved in the stock market.

    In June, the president’s stock portfolio made a series of energy trades, including two sales and one purchase of ExxonMobil stock that were valued between $1,001 and $15,000. He also bought and sold Chevron stocks three times and made three sales of ConocoPhillips holdings.

    Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said that the new filings show “Trump’s only focus is enriching himself at the expense of the American people.”

    Article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
    Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
    Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
    Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up

  • Trump’s war on Iran is rapidly draining US navy budget, documents and interviews reveal

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    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/27/trump-iran-war-navy-budget

    US navy sailors on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln as part of Operation Epic Fury, on 28 February 2026. Photograph: US navy/Getty Images

    {Guardian] Exclusive: Experts and former officials say accounts are running dry, and funding a war with no clear endgame is the main challenge

    Donald Trump’s war on Iran has driven the US military into a severe financial crisis, with the US navy forced to transfer money from its payroll and other sources to cover the costs of combat, according to documents obtained by the Guardian, and interviews with navy officials, contractors and defense analysts.

    The US-Israeli operation, which has depleted US munitions stockpiles and prompted retaliatory Iranian strikes that have wrecked strategic bases across the Middle East, is piling pressure on budgets across the military.

    One Pentagon memo about navy funding seen by the Guardian warns that there are “shortfalls in payroll” accounts due to the department “raiding” them to fund combat operations.

    …

    When Trump started the war on 28 February, it quickly strained the military’s existing budgets – particularly that of the navy, which not only helped launch the initial wave of attacks but was later responsible for an extensive naval blockade. The White House eventually asked Congress for emergency funding to pay for the war efforts, but prospects that the request will be approved are dim amid the unpopularity of the war.

    A navy official who was briefed on how the service is planning to address the shortfalls said money is shifted around in imaginative ways. “The money for payroll,” he said, “was robbed to pay for overseas contingencies and is being backfilled by money that hasn’t been spent. They are backfilling payroll so we get enough money in our paycheck.”

    …

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/27/trump-iran-war-navy-budget

    Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of Peace
    Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of Peace
    Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Strait of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don't need people to join wars after they've already won. He's challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.
    Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Strait of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.
    Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
    Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up

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    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.

  • Greens slam Burnham’s ‘free labour for Sainsburys’ con

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    https://www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2026/08/27/burnham-sainsburys

    Lambeth’s Green council leader has slammed PM Andy Burnham for his ‘free youth Labour for Sainsbury’s’ plan – which just happens to benefit one of Burnham’s major donors. Burnham went to Lambeth to launch his stunt – many say con – yet did not invite local council leader Martin Abrams.

    And Abrams pulled no punches in outlining the scale of the free workforce Burnham’s workfare scheme is handing to his billionaire donor’s company:

    Sainsbury’s: cut jobs, gain forced labour

    Sainsbury’s, according to the government’s spin, has “created 10,000 work experience opportunities for young people”. Like army recruitment, the scheme will target poor communities:

    New programme launching from October will target schools with higher levels of free school meal uptake and communities where young people face some of the biggest barriers to work

    But the young people will be paid benefits from the public purse, not wages from Sainsburys’ fat accounts – and will face ‘conditionality’ that means they will lose benefits if they don’t agree to work for nothing.

    Sainsbury’s, meanwhile, will fatten its profits even further – and have free workers to replace the 3,000 it made redundant last year while announcing an annual profit of over £1bn.

    …

    Continues at https://www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2026/08/27/burnham-sainsburys

  • Morning Star Editorial: The long economic crisis Britain’s not talking about

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/long-economic-crisis-britains-not-talking-about

     Secretary of State for Wales Stephen Kinnock (left) and Prime Minister Andy Burnham arrive for a visit to Tata Steel in Port Talbot, on the next leg of his summer tour meeting local communities outside Westminster, ahead of Parliament’s return next week,

    ANDY BURNHAM’S visit to Wales coincided with today’s announcement of current youth unemployment. In Wales 17 per cent of young people available for employment are without work. Figures are worse in London and north-east England. Overall they are higher by 30,000 than the same figures this time last year.

    Earlier in the week the Prime Minister announced he was convening the National Economic Council this October, bringing together the first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to discuss economic development. This council, re-established shortly after Burnham took over as prime minister, was originally set up by Gordon Brown in 2008 in the face of global financial crisis.

    We are not yet in such a crisis. But omens are not good. Values in the London stock exchange are up over a third on where they were a decade ago — for a period when there has been virtually no growth in Britain’s economy. And this is not mentioning Elon Musk, the AI speculators, arms spending and Trump’s wars.

    However, for the young people in Wales, and all other places, what really matters will not be what happens next year but during their working lives: the next 40 years. Here three reports published over the last month by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) are of particular importance.

    The first, by William Ellis and Carsten Young, is on “Why We Need a Better Fiscal Framework.” They calculate that, on current projections, interest payments on government debt, will increase from the current 7.6 per cent of tax income to anything between 21 and 47 per cent over the next 40 years — the money going to the very wealthy who hold the bonds and crushing anything that remains of the welfare state.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/long-economic-crisis-britains-not-talking-about