The urge to pick up Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America everytime Trump talks about commandeering a country’s natural resources bsky.app/profile/atru...

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last wk.

Trump: "We're taking a lot of oil from Venezuela -- billions and billions of barrels of oil. To the victor belong the spoils."

Not even Silvio Berlusconi could conjure this up in his wildest dreams bsky.app/profile/chad...

Mark Chadbourn@chadbourn.bsky.social · 4w ago

Trump Media plans to charge trading firms for access to Trump’s Truth Social posts milliseconds before they appear publicly, the FT reports. The product, Truth API, is aimed at firms that rely on ultra-fast data to trade in markets that are often moved by those posts.

See, this is what it’s about: not freeing the Cuban people from dictatorship, but looting the country with their pals.

Media Matters for America@mmfa.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Jesse Watters on Cuba: “My banking buddy told me that after we topple Castro, we’re going to be able to buy 100 acres of pristine Cuban coastline for like 50 Gs”

Signing an interim peace deal at Versailles is *a choice* given it invokes a defeated empire forced into paying reparations to end WWI. It didn’t create lasting peace. The conditions were set for another destructive war. Will Congress ratify? Or reject as it did to Wilson? bsky.app/profile/atru...

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2mo ago

Trump: "It's signed. I signed it in Versailles. I just signed it."

Sen. Warren last fall when I asked about Musk becoming the 1st trillionaire: “People compare today to the excesses of the roaring '20s & Elon proves that is a gross understatement. It's time to start talking about Marie Antoinette. All the wealth flows to the top, and peasants are left with crumbs”

“I love the inflation” Once he connects that higher inflation usually calls for interest rate hikes at the Fed, I’ll bet he won’t love it as much bsky.app/profile/acyn...

Acyn@acyn.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Reporter: Are you concerned, Mr. President, about the latest inflation number which came out this morning? Trump: No, I love it. I love the inflation.

What GOP economist Doug Holtz-Eakin told me a year ago when I asked him to rate Bill Pulte’s job performance: “I have been underwhelmed by his performance as FHFA Director, unimpressed with his lack of leadership during an affordable housing crisis, and baffled by the rest of his vaudeville act”

Now they’ll find a way to get Raul Castro on mortgage fraud bsky.app/profile/apne...

The Associated Press@apnews.com · 2mo ago

BREAKING: President Trump taps housing finance director Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence to replace Tulsi Gabbard.

“It turns out that would-be authoritarians don’t need to staff their regimes with ideological true believers.. They just need to figure out how to target their ideal labor pool: the frustrated and mediocre.” www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/w...

Actually, Democracy Dies in H.R.

nytimes.com

Cassidy joins the bloc of GOP senators causing headaches for the White House on their way out. No more primaries to worry about. Collins, Murkowski, Tillis, McConnell, and soon Cornyn might join the list bsky.app/profile/ashl...

Ashley Murray@ashleymurray.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Sen. Cassidy, R-La., just voted YES on Iran War Powers Resolution as the upper chamber votes for the eighth time to limit Trump's war in Iran. Cassidy lost his primary Tuesday night after Trump backed challenger Rep. Julia Letlow.

This is totally bananas but calling it that is an insult to banana republics bsky.app/profile/josh...

Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social · 3mo ago

FLASH: DOJ expands settlement in Trump-IRS leak suit to cover audits of all tax returns filed by Trump, family members, companies and trusts. Waiver of IRS' claims contained in addendum signed by AAG Blanche that was not in agreement released Monday www.politico.com/news/2026/05...

I’ve seen others talk about it, but probably something we should talk about more in the industry is how the long term survival of your clips is very much not guaranteed anymore. You really have to vigilantly PDF the stuff you wanna keep (and I have not been good at this)

Trump on Cuba today: “It's a failed nation and we'll be talking about Cuba at the right time” For @msnowreports.bsky.social I wrote about Trump’s obsession with Cuba four months into an U.S.-enforced oil blockade that doesn’t have a clear endgame beyond regime change www.ms.now/news/news-an...

The U.S. is picking a fight with Cuba. It’s not clear how it’s supposed to end

The Trump administration has not bothered to outline its strategy, plans or even demands.

ms.now

Getting deja vu from four years ago when Biden similarly pitched suspending the federal gas tax in 2022 Republican Sen. John Thune at the time: "What the administration, of course, is coming up with is yet another gimmick, another Band-Aid" bsky.app/profile/theb...

The Bulwark@thebulwark.com · 3mo ago

Q: "Are you going to suspend the federal gas tax?" Trump: "Yeah, I'm going to reduce until the — let me tell you, as soon as this is over with Iran, as soon as it's over, you're going to see gasoline and oil drop like a rock."

King Charles III in historic speech to Congress cites ‘checks and balances’ on executive power My latest for @statesnewsroom.com: www.newsfromthestates.com/article/king...

King Charles III in historic speech to Congress cites ‘checks and balances’ on executive power

WASHINGTON — King Charles III did not name President Donald Trump Tuesday when he acknowledged before a joint session of Congress the transatlantic tension between the United States and the United Kin...

newsfromthestates.com

Sen. Tim Kaine to me on Trump’s oil blockade crippling Cuban hospitals and causing a reported spike of preventable deaths: “The US is culpable for them.. If you blockade people from getting energy, and then the hospitals can't run operations, those deaths are sort of on your shoulders”

New: The Iran War presents Trump with new opportunities to supercharge crony capitalism in the US, starting with the pending bailout (and even sale) of Spirit. The UAE has lucrative ties to Trump family. Now it’s first in line for financial support www.ms.now/news/news-an...

Trump is using the Iran war to take more control over business

The president has already turned the federal government into a major shareholder.

ms.now

Tulsi Gabbard has been told by the White House that she has until the midterms to pack up and leave, according to sources I've spoken to in recent weeks. sherwood.news/power/whos-n...

Who’s next to leave the Trump admin following Chavez-DeRemer’s departure?

In the past month, top officials such as Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer...

sherwood.news

Well reported ticktock on yesterday from WSJ military planners scrambling, WH staff disturbed and confused, market makers dizzied, allies desperately searching for off-ramps (credited to "WSJ Staff", but WSJ reporters praising @verambergen.bsky.social specifically) www.wsj.com/world/middle...

The Day Trump’s Iran Threat Gripped the World

In posting that a whole civilization would die if no deal was struck, the president sparked a frantic global guessing game.

wsj.com

This amounts to Iran extracting payouts in exchange for safe passage thru a commercial waterway. Hard to separate this from Trump's freewheeling use of tariffs to coerce foreign governments into doing what he wants. The latter legitimized the former bsky.app/profile/carl...

Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 4mo ago

$2 million per ship — to cross a Strait that was free six weeks ago. @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/w...

New in LatAm: Spanish media reports Russia will send a second oil tanker to Cuba. It'll be another test in Trump's regime change campaign against Havana as it clings to power. Russian Energy Minister Tsiviliov: "We are not abandoning the Cubans" efe.com/mundo/2026-0...

Rusia prepara un segundo envío de petróleo a Cuba ante la permisividad de EE.UU. - EFE

Rusia prepara un segundo envío de petróleo a Cuba tras la exitosa llegada del primero, que rompió con permiso de EE.UU.

efe.com

I got hit with a surprise tariff. Now that they’re illegal, do I get a refund? @josephzeballos.bsky.social shares this interesting story of receiving a $45 tariff bill from FedEx: www.vox.com/policy/48293...

I got hit with a surprise tariff. Now that they’re illegal, do I get a refund?

The saga for customers and companies is just beginning.

vox.com

New for @msnowreports.bsky.social : Oil was projected to trade at $60 per barrel this year. Now it’s on the verge of crossing into dreaded triple-digit territory for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. On the price shock about to land on the US economy www.ms.now/news/news-an...

America can’t afford Trump’s war with Iran for long

The economy has already taken damage from inflation, tariffs and a government shutdown.

ms.now

Trump’s actions in Venezuela resembled a “corporate hostile takeover:” A firm acquires its rival and swaps out the chief executive. The new owners hold off on its destruction with stability being the chief priority. New from me on the limits of replaying the approach in Cuba qz.com/trump-takeov...

Trump's ‘corporate takeover’ of Venezuela spells trouble for Cuba

Trump could rerun his Venezuela playbook to force change on Havana. He shouldn’t expect similar results

qz.com

Personal news — this is my last week at The Washington Post. My next destination is settled, and I’ll share more soon. Until then, subscribe to the newsletter for the right amount of Bogage in your life. And please keep supporting The Post.

Personal news

I'm leaving The Washington Post.

jacobbogage.beehiiv.com

👀 What if I told you there was a hidden art gallery scattered across the country? What if I told you some of its treasures had vanished? What if I told you that I found them? A project three years in the making (🎁 gift link):

The disappearing art gallery in your post office

The U.S. Postal Service is home to thousands of historic works of art in post offices nationwide. Hundreds have been lost, sold or destroyed.

wapo.st

Today, the Washington Post laid off more than 300 people. If you think this is abt Jeff Bezos's concern that the paper losing money, you're wrong. So wrong that you should be disqualified from expressing opinions in public. Billionaires *like* losses. They *need* losses.

Republicans who have known Nancy Mace for years are increasingly worried about her. But why is she like this? A number of scoops and new details here, including her recently departed campaign chief going on the record to call for her to leave electoral politics altogether: nymag.com/intelligence...

Nancy Mace Is Not Okay

“Something’s broken. The motherboard’s fried. We’re short-circuiting somewhere.”

nymag.com

I wrote about Renee Good, Venezuela, Greenland, and what it means to be a human being. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

President Trump gathered with chief executives from U.S. and European oil companies on Friday to drum up private-sector cash for his plans to salvage Venezuela's devastated oil sector and exploit its reserves. They're not buying what he's selling so far qz.com/trump-venezu...

ExxonMobil CEO calls Venezuela 'uninvestable'

The meeting was the latest chapter in Trump's open-ended intervention in Venezuela, a South American nation he has said he wants to control for years

qz.com