Blanche: 'Weaponization' Fund Out, Pulte Tapped as Acting DNI, More
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Hello, I'm Stephen Carroll. I'm in Brussels, where many of Europe's biggest decisions get made.
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News when you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Doug Krisner. The Trump administration is dropping plans for a $1.8 billion fund to pay victims of alleged government weaponization. Now, this move follows backlash from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers. Here's an exchange between New York Democratic Representative Grace Meng and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch.
There were a lot of people in this country who had their government weaponized against them. The reasons for the fund, I think, remain as important as they were before, but... We are not moving forward with the fund.
Not moving forward ever.
Correct.
Now, this fund was created as part of a settlement to resolve President Trump's lawsuit against the IRS over a 2019 leak of his tax information to The New York Times. However, the fund faced multiple lawsuits. This included a suit from police officers who responded to the attack on the Capitol back on January 6th. Now, last week, a federal judge temporarily barred the administration from taking steps to operate the fund, while the same judge weighed a longer-term block. President Trump has tapped Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence. Today, in a post on Truth Social, the president said Pulte will remain in his current post as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and as chair of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Now, this election has drawn criticism from Democrats and even from some Republicans. Here is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Bill Pulte has proven himself willing to act as a Trump political puppet, filing baseless, outrageous, politically motivated charges on Trump's behalf. And now Trump wants to put him in charge of intelligence? Americans need an intelligence chief to be loyal to the facts.
That is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Incidentally, Pulte succeeds Tulsi Gabbard, who will step down at the end of this month. President Trump is still optimistic on the U.S. reaching an interim peace deal with Iran. Trump disputed reports in Iranian media today that talks with the U.S. had been suspended over fighting in Lebanon. The president has said the two sides have been continuously having conversations, including today. And at the same time, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a Senate panel the U.S. will not give Iran sanctions relief in exchange for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Rubio told Senator Chris Murphy negotiations are ongoing.
They have to announce the straits are now open. We're not charging a toll. What commitments do they need to make? We need the street reopened tomorrow. Phase two is they have to commit to very specific negotiations on disposition of the highly enriched uranium that still is buried deep in a mountain somewhere. That would require a team of experts to meet over a 30, 60, 90 day period. but they have to commit to their willingness to do that.
Now, Rubio went on to say it can take up to six days to get a response from Iran. He added the Iranian regime is fractured and having communications issues.
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