President Donald Trump reacted on Tuesday to the Supreme Court&#8217;s decision on birthright citizenship and congratulated Chinese President Xi Jinping on a ruling that he said would ultimately benefit other nations more than the United States.
&#8220;I would like to congratulate President Xi, and the Great Country of China, on their massive Birthright Citizenship WIN!&#8221; Trump declared via his Truth Social platform.
The court&#8217;s decision protects, for now, the practice of &#8220;birth tourism,&#8221; which is used by many wealthy Chinese nationals who travel to the United States to give birth to their children.
In an <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116839981384247632">earlier post</a>, the president&#8217;s first reaction to the decision was slightly more subdued as he called on Congress to take legislative action on birthright citizenship.
&#8220;The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation, with the support of the President, that has now been determined during this process,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary! Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They will have my Complete and Total Support!&#8221;
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supreme-court-rules-against-trump-in-birthright-citizenship-case">high court</a>, in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, held that children born in the United States — regardless of their parentage — were American citizens under the 14th Amendment.
&#8220;Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land,'&#8221; Roberts wrote, adding, &#8220;We keep that promise today.&#8221;
In a <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-365_4hdj.pdf">separate opinion</a>, partly concurring and partly dissenting, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that he disagreed with the majority in holding that Trump&#8217;s executive order banning birthright citizenship ran afoul of the 14th Amendment. Instead, he argued that the order was at odds with current federal statutes, meaning that if Congress were to take legislative action, that could change.
In a scathing dissent, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote, “The court today takes the extraordinary step of holding facially unconstitutional the President’s Order excluding from citizenship the children of foreign temporary visitors and illegal aliens. In doing so, the court adds to the sad history of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was designed and understood to secure equal rights for the freed blacks but has instead been repurposed for political projects that the Reconstruction Congress did not support.”

U.S. President Trump Meets With China’s President Xi And Attends State Banquet

Trump Congratulates Xi Jinping On Major Win At SCOTUS

birthright citizenship

Communist China

Donald Trump

Global Politics

Politics

Supreme Court

&#8220;Death to America.&#8221; These are the only words Tim Sheehy needs to hear to understand what motivates the Iranian regime. The senator from Montana and former Navy SEAL understands this threat and doesn’t hesitate to speak plainly about what is at stake for America and the broader Middle East. In this weekend&#8217;s Punch interview, DW talks with Sheehy about the importance of the fight with Iran to the future of the region and American interests, the rise of radicals within our borders, and his views on the Trump administration’s foreign policy strategy.
***
Ben Domenech: Why do you think that what <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/republican-senator-delivers-blunt-message-on-iran-talks">you had to say</a> about this current situation with Iran hit a nerve with a lot of people?
Tim Sheehy: I don&#8217;t have any problem with us trying to come to an agreement with Iran. That&#8217;s not the issue. My issue&#8217;s not with the administration or the negotiating teams. The issue is with Iran. And as one of the few people on the Hill who actually fought the Iranians directly, and their proxies, who spent years of my life — and my wife&#8217;s a combat veteran and all my friends — fighting against the Iranian influence. I think it gives us a very clear-eyed realization of how insidious the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and their proxy groups really are and how brutal and barbaric they actually are.
Their designs on the world don&#8217;t end with Israel in the Persian Gulf or with Azerbaijan. They want a global caliphate, and they will literally kill everybody to get that caliphate. And they don&#8217;t want to kill them in a lethal injection snap of a finger. They want to brutally wipe us off the face of the earth, like what happened on October 7.
They want us to be in pain. They want us to be burned alive and destroyed. So I think we have to keep that in mind, and trust cannot be a component of our negotiations. We cannot have them say something, and we say something, and we trust that they&#8217;re going to carry it out. And I support President Trump and his team&#8217;s campaign. I think it was way overdue — the first president ever to do this. And I support getting a resolution to the conflict that truly has structural limits around it because we don&#8217;t want to invade Iran.
We don&#8217;t want 500,000 troops there. But I simply feel propelled as someone who fought there and who lost friends to Iran, to remind our side of this negotiation that we need to not forget who we are dealing with. We need to remember what they&#8217;re capable of and what they want because we don&#8217;t have to think or assume what they want; they tell us that every single day, and they act on it every single day. And that is death to America, death to Israel.
BD: Do you think that there is an attitude of naiveté about the Iranians that has perhaps seeped in over the last couple of years, just given the fact that people are so tired of foreign wars, but particularly of Middle East wars, that they perhaps downgrade that threat mentally?
TS: I think that is the wrong answer. I think it&#8217;s just general non-awareness of the threat. I mean, the average American, the average politician, the average person who works in government is not aware of what Iran has done, does every day, and is capable of. They&#8217;re just not. And that&#8217;s a good thing, Ben. That&#8217;s the whole point of these forever wars that everyone hates, and I get it. I fought them, too. I don&#8217;t like forever wars, but we&#8217;ve been able to keep this terrible threat at bay thousands of miles away for the last 50 years. And that&#8217;s a good thing. As a result, the average American, luckily, doesn&#8217;t have a personal experience with radical Muslim psychopaths who want to murder them and their family. And as a result, they&#8217;re like, &#8220;What&#8217;s the big deal? Why do we care about Iran? I don&#8217;t want six-dollar-a-gallon gasoline; this is unpopular. Let&#8217;s get back to bringing inflation down, housing prices down, and immigration under control.&#8221; All very valid points, and they&#8217;re not wrong, but they&#8217;re also just not aware that because we&#8217;ve kept these savages at bay, they actually still exist. And not only do they exist, but they also want to come kill us. And I don&#8217;t want it to be another 9/11. I don&#8217;t want it to be another October 7. And I certainly don&#8217;t want to funnel billions of dollars, as Obama did, into a terrorist regime that wants to kill all of us in any way possible. So I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s naive today. It&#8217;s generally not awareness of the reality of it. And I think the vice president and his team are cheering on the president&#8217;s directive to try to bring an orderly close to this. And I think it&#8217;s very important.
I&#8217;ve expressed skepticism about our ability to get a deal. I have not expressed skepticism about the president and his team at all. I&#8217;m simply reminding everyone that our counterpart here is not trustworthy. And our counterpart will say and do anything to create time and space to rebuild themselves and come at us. They have a very long view on this; they’re not in a hurry. They say, &#8220;You know what? Fine. This guy Trump, he&#8217;s pretty tough on us. Let&#8217;s just play nice. Let&#8217;s get a few hundred billion dollars of revenue. We&#8217;ll act like nice people for a couple of years until he&#8217;s gone, and hopefully we&#8217;ll get another Biden or Kamala or Mamdani for Christ&#8217;s sake. That would be a dream come true.&#8221; And then they&#8217;re like, &#8220;Great, we&#8217;re back, baby.&#8221; And then, with all the money we give them access to, they&#8217;ve rebuilt a whole new infrastructure.
One thing we did learn from this is that a lot of people underestimated how many drones and missiles these dudes really built. They had them buried everywhere, like squirrels with acorns. And on every mountain, they had a goddamn cave full of missiles. And we&#8217;re like, &#8220;Where did those come from? Oh, they came from the American taxpayer when we gave them the money to build them.” And I&#8217;ll be goddamned if we let that happen again.
BD: You talk about radical Muslim psychopaths. I think that you could be talking about them or you could be talking about the latest round of Democrats who ran and won in New York this week. Why do you think the Democratic Party is tolerating this degree of psychopathy on its side? And do you think it&#8217;s actually a more serious problem than perhaps Republicans have been paying attention to? As much as they talk about it, I feel like they didn&#8217;t take it seriously.
TS: I don&#8217;t think they did. And once again, I try not to be a history professor, but sometimes you have to remind people where these issues come from. As you well know, the Red Green Alliance goes back a long way. Radical Islam and Marxist communist ideology have been interwoven for the last 60 years. This is nothing new. The IRGC is really the most virulent example of that. The Ayatollah Khomeini’s rise in 1979 was very much a Red-Green alliance. So this collectivist, Marxist-revolutionary mindset is interwoven with radical Islamic ideology in many ways. And it&#8217;s always been there. Hell, even the Civil Rights movement and the Black Panther Movement were very tied in with that. Muhammad Ali changed his name because of that. So there&#8217;s always been that tie. But I think what&#8217;s happened lately is there&#8217;s been a very targeted investment into our media markets by Muslim influencers who don&#8217;t like us.
They&#8217;re paying off people to say things specifically to incite opinions and events that are obviously, number one, antisemitic and number two, anti-American. It&#8217;s a very engineered attempt to undermine the fabric of our society. And the Democratic Party, of course, traditionally the home base for the American Jewish voter, shockingly became their vessel to do this. I shouldn&#8217;t say shockingly because, actually, it makes perfect logical sense, because the Democratic Party has drifted more and more into the Marxist direction of the past couple of decades, which again, is a natural home for radical Islamic ideology.
So I&#8217;m not surprised by this per se, but I am disappointed that the establishment hasn&#8217;t made a stronger effort to clarify their moral positioning. Because at this point, as you know, the Democrats for the last 30 years, anytime there&#8217;s a policy disagreement with Republicans, we&#8217;re racist, we&#8217;re Nazis, we&#8217;re homophobes, we&#8217;re transphobes, and we&#8217;re sexist. Pick your name, and they call us that. Well, now they&#8217;ve embraced an ideology that literally murders gay people, that stones women to death, that condones the rape and murder of innocent families on October 7, and then condones terrorist attacks that have killed thousands of Americans.
In a terrible way, it&#8217;s politically good for Republicans because they have removed any moral high ground, if they ever had any, to accuse us of being anti-women, anti-minority, or racist. They don&#8217;t have a soapbox anymore because their flagship candidate – the leader of the Democrat Party today – is Zohran Mamdani. That is who leads the Democrat Party. That is their mascot, and that is their messaging platform.
BD: You mentioned that this has been something that&#8217;s been fomented. There&#8217;s an interesting piece that ran in New York magazine recently called “Your Feed Is Fake,” which dug into the number of essentially AstroTurfed campaigns designed to help things go viral. They were looking at it in the context of mostly Hollywood, but also other things. Just to give one example, there were firms that were hired around the Sydney Sweeney Jeans ad that were fomenting and pushing both sides of that argument, meaning the negative and the positive at the same time, to gin up more activity. Do you think there needs to be some kind of transparency requirement, or more government attention, to the number of people out there who are paid influencers advocating for these DSA plans because they are everywhere?
TS: There absolutely should be. And to your point, I do think, though, the podcast-social media influencer world has reached its peak because I think in the 2024 election, we saw that the podcasters were a game changer, the influencers were a game changer, and that&#8217;s because it was legitimate. And I think it&#8217;s been so saturated now. There are so many podcasts, and so many fake influencers with AstroTurf content, that the average person is now starting to just not believe any of it, and they don&#8217;t have the bandwidth to absorb it all. So I think we&#8217;re going to start to see the influence wane. I think it already is waning, but I do believe, just like in TV commercials, there should be a requirement to disclose who&#8217;s paying for this. You can&#8217;t run a political ad without saying who&#8217;s paying for this and this is no different. So that would obviously fall within my purview as a member of the Commerce committee. And I think there&#8217;s already been discussions about that to say, listen, you should be forced to disclose who&#8217;s paying you for this podcast.
If a foreign government gave you $20 million to buy your podcast, well, you need to say that because if you&#8217;re going to pretend like you&#8217;re in your basement in the heartland with your Coors Lite beer and a rifle on the wall and act like you&#8217;re a red-necked hillbilly, but in fact, you&#8217;ve been bought by the Chinese Communist Party, well, we should know that.
BD: The issues related to Iran obviously flow into other foreign conflicts. And one of the big open questions is what does this mean for China – particularly their interest in Taiwan? Do you think that, given the way this played out, it makes China&#8217;s attempt to take Taiwan and absorb it more or less likely?
TS: I think on the whole, this whole campaign makes it less likely. Number one, we had a tremendously successful military campaign, and despite the media just looking for any reason to bash the president, despite the Democrats being abjectly un-American during this process by going after our troops. It was disgusting how the internal backstabbing was happening here against our campaign, against the country that&#8217;s been working after 47 years. So I think we displayed a level of precision and ferocity in those strikes all the way from Midnight Hammer through the latest campaign that China said, &#8220;That&#8217;s oppressive. They can&#8217;t do that.” But let&#8217;s not forget that China has not fought a war since the Korean War, from 1950 to 1953. So they have a big paper-tiger military that should not be underestimated but is not combat-tested, unlike ours. So we showed extreme capability and ferocity in our targeting. That&#8217;s going to give them a good bit of pause.
At the same time, look at Ukraine and say wow, Russia – big, giant, big bear Russia – they&#8217;ve been beaten back and essentially knocked into a stairway now by little old Ukraine with a bunch of off-the-shelf drones and scrappy fighters and trenches.
So China will realize it&#8217;s a lot harder to project military power, especially across a body of water, than you think. It has really only been one time in history where military power has been successfully projected amphibiously over a body of water. That&#8217;s America during World War II with our island-hopping campaign and the Normandy invasion. It&#8217;s really hard to quickly and effectively move thousands of people across a body of water without getting your ass kicked. So I think that will be a tale of caution.
At the same time, though, if China is able to hack this deal in some way on the backend and recognize revenue from a very dependent Iran.
China is always dependent on cheap, sanctioned Iranian oil. That’s been a superpower for their economies. They get oil for cents on the dollar. With Iran being weaker than ever, they&#8217;re going to be more and more desperate to make a deal with China, and they may even give them cheaper oil, and China can take more of it for cheaper. Additionally, sanctions-dodging will continue. No matter what we do, they aren’t going to follow any sort of sanctions regime. So they&#8217;re going to want to try to find a way to continue to use the Chinese yuan as their exchange currency for oil, and that’s, of course, good for China and bad for us. So on the whole, this is going to be worse for China and the designs on Taiwan, but in the end, they might have better access to Iranian oil.
BD: I’m just going to ask a question on behalf of one of our younger staffers. She said, &#8220;Why didn&#8217;t we just keep bombing, and why didn&#8217;t we bomb the IRGC?”
TS: Well, that&#8217;s obviously a question for the executive branch. I&#8217;m not in the chain of command, so I can&#8217;t give you specific reasoning why. The reality is probably that a full collapse of the government would have required the follow-on commitment of ground forces, be they American, allied, Kurdish, or others, which I think would have required a broad alliance to support. And my assumption is that at the time, nobody wanted that. The American people have made it very clear they&#8217;re tired of ground wars in the Middle East. They don&#8217;t want it. And I think that the president said, &#8220;Listen, we&#8217;ll do what we have to do, but I think we can probably get this done without that.&#8221; And I think that&#8217;s where it ended up. However, I&#8217;ll say the president is absolutely locked and loaded and ready to go back in again for another round should they welch on these talks and resume their bad behavior.
***

Punch-Sheehy-3

Don’t Trust Iran, They Want Us All Dead

DW Opinion

Iran war

IRGC

Punch

Taiwan

Tim Sheehy

Our great country is celebrating 250 years of independence. That’s on 250 years of freedom, innovation, and economic strength that all began with the strong and simple declaration that we would no longer be controlled by a hostile foreign power.
Today, maintaining that independence is not just a political necessity; it’s an economic one too. The threat is real, and countering it starts in our factories, our supply chains, and our homes.
For too long, we&#8217;ve allowed foreign adversaries, including the Chinese Communist Party, to quietly take control of the brands Americans trust, the infrastructure Americans depend on, and the household products Americans bring into their living rooms. They didn&#8217;t get there only through espionage or cyberattacks. They got there through deals, acquisitions, and joint ventures that most Americans never saw coming.
Put simply, buying products made here is no longer enough on its own. We need to ask who owns the company making it.
Once that Chinese appliance, smart bulb, or other device is connected to your Wi-Fi, Xi Jinping’s thugs could then have an opening to weasel their way in to spy on and disrupt every aspect of your family’s life.
Just pause and think about everything we entrust to apps, online banking, and social media. Now imagine it all being pipelined straight to a state-affiliated hacker farm in Communist China. Then imagine those hackers now having an off switch to disrupt every utility and service your family relies on.
That’s not a free and independent America, but it’s the one we’re willingly paying for right now.
Take GE Appliances. Most Americans still think it&#8217;s still the same all-American brand. Not anymore. In 2016, it was <a href="https://pressroom.geappliances.com/news/ge-completes-sale-of-appliances-business-to-haier">sold</a> to Haier, a company whose roots trace back to a Chinese state-owned factory and that has operated for decades under Beijing&#8217;s close watch. That brand now sits in millions of American kitchens, connected to home networks, drawing power from our grid. Americans buying that product have no idea who is really on the other end. But China knows what they’re doing here. They’re listening to you — all the while <a href="https://www.rickscott.senate.gov/2026/5/exclusive-sen-rick-scott-rep-andy-ogles-america-s-cybersecurity-cannot-be-an-easy-target-for-communist-china">tapped into our power and water grids</a>. The Soviet Union only wished it could have had the same access to Americans’ information.
Last month, the Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/05/31/chinese-owned-company-is-bringing-factory-jobs-back-united-states/">heralded</a> Haier for bringing jobs back to America under the GE Appliances name. In the piece, GE Appliances leadership claims they would never hand Americans&#8217; data over to Beijing. But they don&#8217;t get to make that choice.
Under China’s police state laws, no Chinese company can refuse a government data request. No exceptions. That means every Chinese-owned brand operating on American soil is a potential instrument of Beijing.
Zhang Ruimin, former CEO and chairman, has long-standing <a href="https://www.bjreview.com/17thCPC/txt/2007-10/18/content_81345.htm">ties</a> to the CCP. Zhou Yunjie, current chairman of the board of directors and CEO of Haier Group, is a <a href="https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202503/05/WS67c7abcea310c240449d8b3b.html">Deputy to the National People&#8217;s Congress</a>. Haier has been promoted by the state as a model of a successful Chinese enterprise, which means pleasing Xi Jinping comes before protecting customers.
Then there is Lenovo, which <a href="https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press-releases/lenovo-completes-full-acquisition-motorola-mobility-from-google/">acquired</a> Motorola Mobility from Google in 2014. Lenovo is a Chinese company with deep ties to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a state-linked institution. Yet Motorola Mobility smartphones sit in the pockets of American workers, law enforcement officers, and government contractors, connected to voice, location, and network data around the clock. Think about all the personal and data that goes through those phones and how it could be used against those officials to blackmail them and undermine our safety.
Meanwhile, in South Carolina, Electrolux <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/electrolux-group-and-midea-group-form-a-highly-complementary-long-term-strategic-partnership-in-north-america-to-accelerate-profitable-growth-and-strengthen-innovation-302752046.html">announced</a> a joint venture with Midea, a Chinese-owned appliance giant, that includes partial operational control of a factory in Anderson, South Carolina. Not only does this further expose American information and our infrastructure, but now <a href="https://www.foxcarolina.com/2026/04/24/electrolux-lay-off-more-than-1000-workers-upstate-plans-new-partnership/">1,200</a> American workers are temporarily displaced while a CCP-linked company moves into their plant. This is happening right now to real American workers in real American communities, to American workers and their jobs today.
In response, President Trump made his position clear. He’s <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/trump-orders-federal-agencies-prioritize-american-made-goods-curb-waiver-use">called</a> on every federal agency to buy American, close waiver loopholes, and implement policies that prevent the federal government from purchasing foreign products when great American alternatives already exist.
He&#8217;s right. This is exactly how we become less dependent on foreign nations, create more American jobs, and protect our country.
Still, there’s more we can do. My <a href="https://www.rickscott.senate.gov/2025/8/sen-rick-scott-introduces-protect-the-grid-act-to-target-communist-china-s-control-of-smart-devices">PROTECT the Grid Act</a> would direct the Department of Commerce to assess exactly how deeply CCP-linked smart devices have penetrated American homes and our power grid and create a clear pathway to cut off that access before it’s too late.
If we want to remain truly independent, we cannot keep handing our adversaries the keys to our economy, our infrastructure, and our power grid, one appliance, one joint venture, one government contract at a time.
Communist China is playing the long game. It is time we started playing ours — and playing to win.
***
Rick Scott is currently serving as a U.S. Senator from Florida.

The LG Smart Refrigerator with THINQ is

Rick Scott: Who Really Owns the Products in Your Home?

Big Tech

Electric grid

Electrolux

Haier

PROTECT The Grid Act

Satellite images revealed Wednesday morning that China has built a replica of a U.S. destroyer at a remote missile-testing location in one of its deserts.
The image captured in May 2026 that was just released depicts the structure of a U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer in Xinjiang in the Taklamakan Desert that will be used to test missiles. The subject looks to be an exact copy of a ship currently used in the U.S. Seventh Fleet that covers the Western Pacific and the waters surrounding Taiwan.
Co-founder of the Taiwan Defense Studies Initiative Joseph Wu first identified the structure.
Debris that appeared to be left from previous missile tests surrounded the mock ship in the desert. Given the available information, the assessment is that those replicas are being used as target practice for China&#8217;s military to test out new anti-ship weaponry.
Earlier in the month, Taiwan test-fired dozens of practice rockets from U.S.-supplied HIMARS launchers into the Taiwan Strait in a drill simulating a Chinese invasion, its first such live-fire exercise on the coast facing China.
On Wednesday, the de facto British, French, and German embassies in Taipei issued a rare joint statement voicing concern over recent Chinese coast guard patrols in the waters east of Taiwan, saying the activity threatened regional stability and freedom of navigation.
This is not the first time satellite images have surfaced showing China building replicas of U.S. ships on which to test their firepower. In 2021, the U.S. Naval Institute reported that two of the same destroyer models and an aircraft carrier were seen at a testing range in the southeastern region of the desert in Ruoqiang. 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1122567 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/ChinaReplicaWarship.jpeg" alt="" width="362" height="212" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/ChinaReplicaWarship.jpeg 362w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/ChinaReplicaWarship-300x176.jpeg 300w" sizes=" (max-width: 362px) 100vw, 362px" /></div>
Recreations of U.S. airfields and Taiwanese roads have also appeared in the same deserts over the years.
While building mock-ups is a common use around the world for a country’s military, the complex relationship between the United States and China raises concerns for what the communist country may have planned. 
Neither China’s Defense Ministry nor the U.S. Department of Defense responded to Bloomberg’s request for comment.

U.S. Navy Warship

China Builds Replica U.S. Destroyer To Test Missiles On

Military

The Trump administration is doubling down on AI development and deployment, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/06/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-signs-historic-directive-on-ai-in-the-national-security-enterprise/">issuing an executive order</a> to “put the most advanced, secure, and reliable AI systems into the hands of America’s warfighters and intelligence professionals while ensuring their responsible use.”
Emphasis on “responsible use.” This caveat is significant yet often ignored by Silicon Valley’s industry allies in government.
As a lifelong Republican and a firm believer in Ronald Reagan’s vision of peace through strength, there is absolutely nothing wrong with building AI systems that strengthen our national security and protect us from foreign adversaries — from China to Russia and Iran. I would much rather America lead the world in AI development than a communist regime in Beijing, an autocratic government in Moscow, or a radical Islamist one in Tehran.
On that front, failure is not an option. The world is a safer and better place with America in charge than the alternative.
But promoting AI innovation and building effective guardrails for “responsible use” (quoting Trump) are not mutually exclusive. Nor is criticizing Silicon Valley somehow ensuring American defeat in our decades-long geopolitical struggle against Chinese communism.
This is the same Silicon Valley that likens AI to a deity in hopes of rendering humanity obsolete. For years now, AI engineers have<a href="https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/silicon-valleys-obsession-with-ai-looks-a-lot-like-religion/"> predicted</a> a world with an AI that is “a billion times smarter than the smartest human.” Machine learning researchers are<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/silicon-valley-using-religious-language-talk-ai-rcna227987"> likening AI CEOs</a> to “modern-day prophets” (OpenAI CEO Sam Altman <a href="https://futurism.com/sam-altman-imply-openai-building-god">doesn’t seem to mind</a>). Meanwhile, venture capitalists in the technology space are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gurley-anthropic-ai-god-humanity-theory-2026-6">praising Anthropic</a> for “midwifing a deity” by “building a species that’s superior to humans.”
For religious Americans and other traditional conservatives, we should be on high alert. There is a reason Pope Leo’s<a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2026-05/pope-leo-xiv-encyclical-magnifica-humanitas-ai.html"> first encyclical focused on AI</a>: he warned people to stop building a “new Tower of Babel” and to <a href="https://ascensionpress.com/blogs/articles/a-complete-guide-to-pope-leo-s-encyclical-magnificent-humanitas?srsltid=AfmBOor0shI_G9zc9HRtBNp9t5GSb9eBD3VPVQ1ObI2KpCV1xX_H4SAs">prioritize safeguarding humanity</a>.
Let’s be clear: There is a distinction between AI for civilian and military use. Reforming AI chatbots to <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/09/19/nx-s1-5545749/ai-chatbots-safety-openai-meta-characterai-teens-suicide">stop recommending suicide</a> to young Americans doesn’t make us vulnerable against China. Making AI companies answer for<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11059964/"> model hallucinations</a> that spit out false, damaging information doesn’t make us “weak on Russia.” Supporting legislation that<a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/digital-future-daily/2026/05/27/the-case-against-ai-personhood-00938508"> rejects AI personhood</a> — the novel concept of technology somehow being entitled to human rights — isn’t going to lose military engagements. Nor is worrying about<a href="https://jobloss.ai/"> AI job loss</a>.
U.S.-China competition is heating up, and artificial intelligence is a key front line. At stake is global technological leadership for years to come.
The Chinese government<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-09/china-prepares-295-billion-plan-to-fund-nationwide-ai-buildout"> recently announced</a> a $295 billion plan to fund a nationwide AI build-out of data centers, strengthening its domestic sector and perhaps even surpassing American innovation. The plan is to rely on local suppliers like Huawei for at least 80% of the technology, making Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices irrelevant as foreign exporters. If AI can make drone strikes more accurate and more adept at avoiding civilian casualties, I am all for it. If AI can protect our brave military service members from harm, I am obviously for that too.
But what does that have to do with preventing AI chatbots from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/27/number-of-ai-chatbots-ignoring-human-instructions-increasing-study-says">ignoring human instructions</a>? That is currently happening.
What about OpenAI trying to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/openai-chatgpt-accused-using-subpoenas-silence-nonprofits-rcna237348">stifle nonprofit organizations</a> that are critical of the company? That is happening too, and it certainly has nothing to do with national defense.
For America’s sake, it is encouraging that the world’s best AI researchers and engineers live and work in the United States. If these brilliant minds are cognizant of advanced AI’s risks and diligent in avoiding them, I trust our best and brightest to figure out how to mitigate the technology’s threats to our society.
Americans are demanding it. According to Fox News,<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-voters-see-ai-regulation-urgent-rank-safeguards-ahead-innovation"> nearly 80% of U.S. voters</a> want the Trump administration to focus on AI safeguards. Meanwhile,<a href="https://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan-institute/press-releases/reagan-national-defense-survey-shows-record-public-support-for-taiwan-ukraine-nat"> almost 90% of Americans</a> believe it is important for the U.S. to have the most powerful military in the world — supported by AI.
Why? Because we can walk and chew gum at the same time. When national security and AI safety are both winners, all Americans are winners too.
***
Brendan Steinhauser is CEO of<a href="https://secureainow.org/"> The Alliance for Secure AI</a>, a nonprofit organization that educates the public about the implications of advanced AI.

Artificial Intelligence

Will Investing In AI Cost Us Our Humanity?

Data Centers

Encyclical

human intelligence

National Defense

Silicon Valley

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/trump-thanks-chinas-xi-russias-putin-being-neutral-iran-war-2026-06-17/">thanked China</a> for remaining neutral in the Iran war. This drew pushback <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6398750706112">from China watchers,</a> and it’s easy to see why.
China has outwardly stayed on the sidelines of the Iran conflict, but behind the scenes, it’s been working to help the regime survive. They’ve <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/politics/international-relations/china-widens-oil-purchases-to-extend-influence-from-us-to-iran">continued to purchase</a> Iranian oil and reportedly even <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/us/politics/china-iran-weapons-trump-xi.html">sent Tehran military equipment</a>.
But the president’s graciousness toward China was prudent geopolitics. It was also evidence that Trump knows he’s been successful at blunting the country’s once unstoppable ascendance.
No doubt China remains a serious threat, and there’s much work to be done. But in important ways, Trump’s policy has had an impact.
Take the Chinese economy, where, behind the scenes, red lights are flashing. Chinese consumer demand has lagged for years, slowing the country’s vaunted retail sector. Last month, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/16/business/china-retail-sales.html">Chinese retail sales fell year over year</a> for the first time since the COVID pandemic.
This belt-tightening was triggered by the popping of China’s immense real estate bubble, which erased trillions in household wealth, as well as a <a href="https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-weak-job-market-stirs-032154183.html">persistently weak job market</a>. It’s so serious as to be reflected in the upper ranks. Lavish wines and expensive banquets among the Communist Party elite have <a href="https://www.mundoamerica.com/news/2026/06/18/6a33bfe8e4d4d844598b45a7.html">been banned</a>, an austere show of solidarity with suffering Chinese.
If Chinese consumers aren’t spending as they used to, Beijing will need to rely on foreigners to buy its exports. This is where they’ve run headlong into the Trump playbook. As <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/china-pulling-ladder-behind-it">Shoumitro Chatterjee and Arvind Subramanian note,</a> U.S. “tariffs, bans, and national security restrictions have blunted Chinese import competition by fiat.”
The United States is the most lucrative consumer market in the world, and that market is far more walled off to China than it used to be. It’s also not just the Americans. European Union top diplomat Kaja Kallas recently <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/us-china-and-russia-prefer-a-divided-europe-kallas-warns/">called European dependence</a> on China a “disease,” signaling a drawback from the EU’s historically softer China policy.
Decades of Chinese economic coercion are finally catching up with Beijing. Take rare earth metals, <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/what-chinas-ban-rare-earths-processing-technology-exports-means">90% of which are refined in China</a>, an undeniable advantage in a crucial resource. Not only has the U.S. been bolstering its own rare earths industry — <a href="https://miningdigital.com/news/pentagon-backs-us-1bn-rare-earth-processing-push">backed by extensive government funding</a> — but the EU <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/can-europe-recycle-rare-earths-to-cut-china-reliance/video-77584766">is starting</a> to do the same.
The snowball effect of all this — lagging consumer demand, a toxic real estate sector, U.S. and European resistance — has been to take the shine off China’s reputation as a global boomtown. Foreign investment in China, once the lifeblood of the country’s economy, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/20/economy/china-fdi-jan-decline-intl-hnk">plummeted by 27% last year</a> to its lowest level since 2016.
President Trump’s plan to leverage trade fairness measures against China was once laughed at. Yet almost a decade later, it looks like the Trump strategy is working.
Of course, China still brings other powerful advantages to the table. The country has a formidable tech sector, and many believe it is currently winning the AI race.
America needs to ensure that AI is developing responsibly and in ways that strengthen human flourishing, protect workers, and uphold human dignity. Achieving these goals becomes far harder if the future of artificial intelligence is shaped in Beijing rather than Washington, D.C.
But the United States is pushing back here, too. When President Trump <a href="https://www.hpe.com/us/en/newsroom/press-release/2025/06/hpe-and-juniper-networks-reach-settlement-with-us-department-of-justice.html">greenlit a merger</a> between U.S. tech companies Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Juniper Networks, he <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/07/30/merger-hpe-juniper-networks-national-security">reportedly had China</a> at the front of his mind. Specifically, he was thinking of Huawei — the Chinese conglomerate that is banned in the U.S. for national security reasons and dominates China&#8217;s domestic AI chip market — a rival America now has the scale to compete against.
The administration has also moved aggressively to accelerate AI infrastructure at home, streamlining approvals for new data centers and the energy projects needed to power them. It’s telling that China has reportedly <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/10/openai-china-ai-data-centers-report-00957612">launched influence campaigns</a> to try to stop data center construction in the United States. Unfortunately, many on the Left and Right have been duped by these misinformation campaigns, which clearly demand the administration’s attention before they get out of control.
While China continues to rely on state-directed industrial policy, the United States is leveraging its private-sector strengths to expand the computing capacity that will help determine the future of artificial intelligence.
The United States remains the globe’s undisputed heavyweight in tech. It leads the way in innovation, attracts the most highly educated talent, and has the strongest venture capital base.
All of which leaves China at a systemic disadvantage. A slowing domestic economy can’t support a wannabe superpower. An increasingly shunned export market can’t make up the difference.
There’s no point in being naïve about China’s role in the Iran war. But given the United States’ fortunes on China lately, it can perhaps be excused.
***
Rick Santorum is co-chair of Bipartisan Policy Center’s Task Force on Paid Family Leave. He served as a United States senator from Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007.

TOPSHOT-CHINA-EXPO2010

Rick Santorum: China Remains a Threat But the Cracks Are Showing

Energy Policy

Foreign Policy

Oil policy

Trump Administration

On Monday, the Trump administration <a href="https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-11571.pdf">set</a> the record straight on Chinese companies affiliated with Beijing’s military. Back in February, the Pentagon published, then quickly deleted, an updated version of its “1260H List,” a reference to the section of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that requires the Department of War to publish lists of Chinese companies linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The list helps government contractors avoid national security threats and cautions private companies about the material and reputational risk of partnering with PLA-aligned actors.
The administration was right to reissue the list, and even more justified in new additions. Notable changes to the 1260H list were the re-addition of ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp (YMTC). Both companies participate in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military-civil fusion strategy and present data security and espionage risks to U.S. defense supply chains. President Donald Trump is doing important work in decoupling America’s access to critical minerals from CCP-controlled supply chains. He has now taken a significant step toward doing the same for memory chips by preserving the Biden administration&#8217;s original judgment.
Memory chips play a supporting but critical role in the AI revolution. Unlike graphics processing units (GPUs), the compute devices that perform mathematical operations in AI models, memory chips store and ferry the data that GPUs process. Without them, the world’s most powerful AI chips sit underutilized. The AI boom has boosted the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnvp9dq0p3go">valuations</a> of memory chip companies like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron due to demand for memory chips. These “big three” companies <a href="https://dset.tw/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/The-Rise-of-CXMT-Inside-the-Hydra-like-Chinese-Memory-Sector-compressed-1.pdf">accounted</a> for 90% of the global market share for memory chips in 2025. But demand is outpacing supply, and multiple companies are <a href="https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/samsung-and-sk-hynix-warn-ai-driven-memory-shortages-could-last-until-2027-and-beyond-as-hbm-demand-explodes-customers-already-reserving-supply-years-ahead-while-the-wider-dram-market-begins-to-tighten">warning</a> of prolonged shortages, with <a href="https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/memory-prices-now-shifting-hourly-as-smaller-firms-fight-over-scraps">prices</a> trending upward.
Enter CXMT and YMTC. Last year, CXMT held <a href="https://dset.tw/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/The-Rise-of-CXMT-Inside-the-Hydra-like-Chinese-Memory-Sector-compressed-1.pdf">6%</a> global market share for DRAM chips, and YMTC <a href="https://counterpointresearch.com/en/insights/global-nand-memory-market-share">cornered</a> 11% of the market for NAND chips. Despite their small presence, both companies are capturing the attention of U.S. tech giants. According to the People&#8217;s Republic of China (PRC) media, Apple is<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20260217152232/http://jiweipreview.laoyaoba.com/n/984427"> considering</a> purchasing memory chips from both CXMT and YMTC to defray rising costs from Japanese and American providers. Dell and HP are also<a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/spotlight/supply-chain/hp-dell-acer-and-asus-mull-using-chinese-memory-chips-amid-supply-crunch"> reportedly</a> turning to CXMT for cheaper chips. Notably, both Chinese companies are <a href="https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/ymtc-partners-with-cxmt-for-hbm">reportedly collaborating</a> to develop high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which would compete directly with cutting-edge products from Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron.
The lure of cheap chips in a tight market is real. Beijing’s industrial strategy is primed to exploit these dynamics and gobble up market share, just as it has done in other critical industries. In 5G telecommunications, Huawei undercut global competition with below-market pricing to dominate markets in Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Chinese display companies are doing the same with memory chip technology. As Micron officials recently <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/micron-pushes-us-congress-crack-down-chip-tool-sales-chinese-rivals-sources-say-2026-04-22/">warned</a> members of Congress, the same playbook that handed Beijing dominance over solar panels, lithium batteries, and rare earth refining could launch CXMT and YMTC from marginal players to global titans.
By some measures, their prices <a href="https://techwireasia.com/2026/04/chinese-memory-chips-ymtc-cxmt-nand-dram-expansion/">undercut</a> their competitors’ rates by 15%. According to a CCP united front <a href="https://www.chinausfocus.com/peace-security/chinas-strive-for-self-reliance-in-advanced-technology">source</a>, CXMT and YMTC both receive financial assistance from China’s Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (colloquially called the “Big Fund”) and participate in China’s drive for semiconductor self-sufficiency. To wit: Beijing has apparently <a href="https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ddr4/top-chinese-memory-maker-expected-to-abandon-ddr4-manufacturing-at-the-behest-of-beijing">directed</a> CXMT to phase out older consumer-grade memory products in favor of server and AI-focused chips. Meanwhile, YMTC is <a href="https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/ymtcs-third-wuhan-fab-clears-beijings-50-percent-domestic-tooling-threshold-as-two-more-are-planned">building</a> a third fab in Wuhan with more than half its equipment sourced domestically.
These companies are not competing on merit. They are state-subsidized national champions executing a deliberate industrial strategy designed and underwritten by the CCP. As such, policymakers should consider the national security risks if Washington does nothing to head off CXMT and YMTC’s global rise.
The most immediate concern is supply chain exposure. In 2010, Beijing halted rare earth exports to Japan over a territorial dispute. In 2025, it <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-suspends-ban-exports-gallium-germanium-antimony-us-2025-11-09/">imposed</a> export controls on gallium, germanium, and other defense-critical heavy minerals to the United States. Memory chips could be next in line. If America’s AI infrastructure relies on affordable memory chips from CXMT and YMTC, Beijing would have its thumb on the scale of U.S. computing. In such a world, private competitors in America, Japan, and elsewhere may not survive for long.
Moreover, several concerns arise from the chips themselves. Memory chips embedded in government systems and defense-adjacent infrastructure are not passive devices. They receive firmware updates that control and shape their operation. When manipulated by a foreign adversary, that firmware <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/alerts/2025/08/27/cisa-and-partners-release-joint-advisory-countering-chinese-state-sponsored-actors-compromise">presents</a> a potential attack vector. Policymakers cannot presume that chips from companies subject to PLA direction and CCP data-sharing requirements are reliable or safe. Congress recognized this in the FY2023 NDAA, which <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/02/17/2026-03065/federal-acquisition-regulation-prohibition-on-certain-semiconductor-products-and-services">restricted</a> the U.S. government from procuring components from PRC companies, including CXMT and YMTC. Compromised chips could also enable persistent access or data exfiltration that may be difficult to detect. In a crisis, Beijing could weaponize Chinese memory chips in U.S. systems to cut off supply or possibly sabotage American infrastructure. For all these reasons, policymakers on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue should act now to hamstring Beijing’s gambit to dominate memory chips.
The Trump administration has done its part by reissuing the 1260H list and including CXMT and YMTC. Congress crafted this authority precisely to highlight risks from PRC entities that blur the line between commercial enterprise and the PLA. Moreover, Congress should also move to deny these companies the tools to compete globally. The bipartisan Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware (MATCH) Act would accomplish this objective, either by diplomacy or extraterritorial export controls. Washington has momentum now, and policymakers should seize this moment. America cannot win the AI race with U.S. data centers housed by CCP-controlled chips.
***
Michael Sobolik is a senior policy fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Flag of USA and China on a processor, CPU or GPU microchip on a motherboard. US companies have become the latest collateral damage in US – China tech war. US limits, restricts AI chips sales to China.

The Trump Administration Strikes A Big Blow To China’s Chip Chain And Its Spy Game

Memory Chips

Supply Chain

An American journalist pleaded guilty Thursday to working as an unregistered agent for China after prosecutors said he helped a Chinese intelligence officer try to steal classified information from the U.S. government. 
Thomas Pauken II, 50, admitted in a plea agreement with Justice Department prosecutors that he acted as an agent of China from 2019 to 2026. Prosecutors said Pauken worked for a member of the Chinese Ministry of State Security who sought sensitive information about the United States. 
“Pauken admitted to being part of a conspiracy to obtain sensitive information from the U.S. government for the PRC,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg. “His actions are a betrayal of this Nation and pose an unacceptable risk to our national security.”
Pauken has lived in China since 2010 and worked for the Chinese state media outlet Xinhua News. At the same time, prosecutors said, he was on the payroll of a member of the Chinese Ministry of State Security referred to in court documents as “Cathy.” 
According to prosecutors, Cathy directed Pauken to meet with human sources in the United States, provide those sources with laptops and cellphones, and send their reports back to China. 
In February 2026, Pauken was arrested after an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/american-journalist-charged-in-anti-ccp-espionage-sting">apparent FBI sting</a> operation during a recorded meeting at a Washington, D.C. hotel.
At the meeting, Pauken met with an unidentified U.S. government employee who had sought a job in the Trump administration and whom Pauken had allegedly been attempting to recruit on Cathy&#8217;s behalf. Prosecutors said Cathy wanted the official to produce reports she claimed would make their way to Chinese President Xi Jinping and shape policy. 
Pauken offered to pay the government employee a $10,000 bonus and subsequent payments funneled through a bogus nonprofit, according to court documents.  
Court documents state that Pauken himself did not personally handle classified information, but acted as an “intermediary to recruit individuals to provide classified information to the Chinese.”
Pauken also sold multiple reports to a group of Chinese people from Wuhan, according to prosecutors. 
“PAUKEN’s Wuhan clients mainly sought information about technology and the U.S. Department of Justice,” a statement of facts compiled by prosecutors agreed to by Pauken said. “The Wuhan clients wanted PAUKEN to find an expert who would help them engage in cyber espionage.”
Pauken told the FBI he believed his work would deter a military conflict between the United States and China and that he would support greater religious freedom through his contacts in both countries. 
His sentencing is set for September 1, and he faces up to 10 years in prison.
“By his own admission, not only did Thomas Pauken attempt to infiltrate U.S. political circles at the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security,&#8221; said FBI official Roman Rozhavsky. &#8220;But he gathered intelligence on his American targets and reported it back to his Chinese intelligence handlers.&#8221;

U.S. Secretary Of State Antony Blinken Visits Shanghai

American Journalist Caught In FBI Sting Admits Working For China

Department of Justice

Espionage

A California museum dedicated to remembering the victims of communist China’s brutal Tiananmen Square massacre was vandalized just days ahead of the anniversary of the communist crackdown.
Displays and exhibits at the June Fourth Memorial Museum in El Monte, California, were spray-painted on Sunday in what museum officials believe to have been a targeted attack. The Los Angeles County museum tells the history of the June 4, 1989, massacre at Tiananmen Square, where soldiers killed up to 2,600 pro-democracy protesters. 
“The main part of the exhibition, including sections of the walls, was vandalized with spray paint, causing serious damage to the museum&#8217;s assets. The museum strongly condemns the perpetrators and those instigating the incident and will pursue legal action against them,” the museum said in a statement. 
The museum said it was working with the El Monte Police Department and had obtained certain leads and identified suspicious circumstances.” 
“We view this incident as yet another instance of ‘transnational repression’ and have reported the relevant details to the FBI and the appropriate committees of the U.S. Congress,” the museum said. 
El Monte police sergeant Andrew Mora <a href="https://dominotheory.com/tiananmen-square-memorial-museum-vandalized-ahead-of-anniversary/">told</a> Domino Theory that police were probing whether the incident was a hate crime and would report it to the FBI. 
Museum co-founder Wang Dan posted photos of some of the vandalism and said that surveillance cameras were destroyed, but that the footage was able to be recovered and sent to the police. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
已经到达现场，现场破坏严重。
作案者潜入纪念馆，并破坏了摄像镜头，然后才开始损毁动作。
现发布第一批照片。 <a href="https://t.co/hFn5RWYf1z">pic.twitter.com/hFn5RWYf1z</a>
— 王丹 (@wangdan1989) <a href="https://x.com/wangdan1989/status/2061098550482874779?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“The June Fourth Memorial Hall will never cease operations due to such acts of destruction and threats. On the contrary, with the support of all sectors of society, we look forward to making the memorial hall even better!” Wang <a href="https://x.com/wangdan1989/status/2061126269182579003">said</a>. “No matter how fierce the storm, we will stand firm!”
Wang later spoke to the House Select Committee on China about the incident. The committee said the vandalism was “disturbing and sad.” 
“The museum will continue and all of us will never let the world forget about Tiananmen Square,” the committee added. 
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China also commented on the vandalism and called for the FBI to investigate. 
“Vandalism of a [Tiananmen Massacre] museum cannot erase the memory of what happened on June 4, 1989, or cover up the crimes committed by the [CCP] as it crushed peaceful demonstrations for freedom and democracy,” the commission said. “[The FBI Los Angeles] should investigate this as an act of [transnational repression].”

Protester Blocking Tanks Approaching Tiananmen Square

SEE IT: Memorial To Tiananmen Square Victims Vandalized Ahead Of Anniversary

California

Los Angeles County

Tiananmen Square

The FBI recently took out a massive internet scam network, arresting over 300 people, freeing over 2,000 people from human trafficking, and seizing over $8 billion in cryptocurrency. 
The FBI said last week that it primarily focused on taking down what it <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/fbi-seizes-record-8-billion-182232782.html">calls</a> “scam compounds” in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The scam compounds are typically guarded and filled with trafficked workers who are forced to conduct romance scams and fake investment schemes that target many Americans. Over 2,000 people were freed from the compounds. 
The operation focused on Prince Holding Group, a company in Cambodia. Authorities also took out a criminal compound in Dubai, Myanmar, and Thailand. Altogether, the FBI seized over 127,000 bitcoin from the nine scam compounds, which is over $8 billion, making it the largest crypto seizure in human history.
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The United States worked with Dubai police to arrest 275 people, six of whom will be transported to the United States to face federal charges.
FBI Director Kash Patel, said the major crackdown gives a clear message to scammers across the world.
&#8220;If you target Americans, we will find you, disrupt your network, and bring every available tool of the federal government down on you,” Patel <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/fbi-seizes-record-setting-8-billion-cryptocurrency-amid-intercontinental-scam-compound-crackdown">told</a> Fox News. 

The FBI also took down the &#8220;Democratic Karen Benevolent Army,” an armed militia in Myanmar that has ties to Chinese mobsters and has been engaging in this criminal scam network..
The U.S. seized thousands of smartphones and other office equipment in Thailand, severely crippling the scam infrastructure there.
During the whole operation, the FBI <a href="https://x.com/jacobincambodia/status/2060184532104700246">worked</a> with the Royal Thai police, the Burmese army, Dubai’s police, and some Chinese investigators. The FBI also utilized Elon Musk’s Starlink to take down over 7,000 terminals in Myanmar that criminals were using to facilitate communications.
The FBI’s 2025 &#8220;Internet Crime Report&#8221; <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/cryptocurrency-and-ai-scams-bilk-americans-of-billions">states</a> that Americans have been defrauded of $21 billion in cyber-related crimes, with AI and crypto-related scams being the costliest. 
 
Apprehending these con artists and hackers is difficult as the internet allows them to be scattered across the world, seemingly untouchable by American authorities.

FBI Makes Largest Crypto Seizure Ever In Global ‘Scam Compound’ Crackdown

Africa

Cambodia

China

Crime

Cryptocurrency

Cyberattack

Cybercrime

Cybersecurity

fbi director

India

kash patel

Middle East

Myanmar

Organized crime

scams

Thailand

Punch-Dr-Savage-2

Where Is God In The Machine?

Fertility crisis

Human Dignity

Weekend Punch

The idea of a “multipolar world,” where great powers can coexist within separate geopolitical spheres, is increasingly popular. But multipolarism, if it is embraced rather than resisted, will only end in Chinese Communist domination.
Multipolarity is innocent enough as a description of changing global trends. It is true that U.S. power has been waning even as China’s star has risen. But normative multipolarism, once isolated to the Left (former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once <a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/20092013clinton/rm/2010/05/142312.htm">promised</a> to “turn a multi-polar world into a multi-partner world”), is making new inroads on the Right. Republican “restrainers” are increasingly arguing that the emerging status quo is the natural state of affairs, and American hegemony an oddity.
According to the restrainers, the U.S. should normalize relations and continue to sweep tensions under the proverbial rug. Ironically, some of these same voices often object to U.S. support of Ukraine and U.S. action in Iran because the focus has shifted away from China, stating that the U.S. no longer has the strength to combat the CCP on top of Iran and Russia.
There is a temptation to sit back and allow the CCP to operate how it prefers in its hemisphere, even with an ongoing genocide and a surveillance state, as long as the U.S. is unbothered. But to assume that other global superpowers will respect U.S. hegemony once they have secured primacy in their sphere is woefully naïve.
The majority of people in the United States have never lived in a multipolar world. They have never witnessed a world in which the United States is not the global superpower, the enforcer of international law and free trade, and the credible deterrent to enemies of freedom. They see U.S. defense spending as excessive, especially when U.S. allies aren’t paying for their defense, remain inadequately armed, and refuse to decouple their economies from hostile powers. It is true that the NATO alliance must demonstrate to the U.S. (and to each other) that they are capable of defending their own countries and can adequately deter their enemy to the east, because they, too, have never lived in a world without the alliance deterring hostile powers.
The focus of the White House’s summit with China was largely on the economy, trade, and Iran, with Xi Jinping warning of a possible clash with the U.S. over Taiwan. There has been little reporting on President Donald Trump’s response to the question about Taiwan. It still has not been clarified what the U.S. response would be if the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) moved on Taiwan, and the U.S. has not widely discussed what exactly it would look like for the PLA to begin to take Taiwan, though we can assume it is a war game often played out in Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities of the Pentagon.
It is no mystery what the isolationist Right’s views on Taiwan will be if the attack occurs. They will argue that Taiwan is very far away, that our men and women should not die for a foreign country, that Taiwan’s independence is not associated with American security, but they misunderstand China’s long-term goal. Isolationists in the U.S. will be content with a multipolar world, so long as they do not feel any major shifts to their day-to-day life, but the Chinese Communist Party will not be content with multipolarity.
The United States stands in sharp contrast to the communist hegemony, and in the long term, the CCP will not tolerate the U.S. as a rival power. If the U.S. shrinks into its role in a multipolar world, we will be weaker, freedom around the world will be feebler, and the U.S. economy will suffer. Eventually, all American citizens will feel the consequences if the U.S. is no longer the preeminent force on the world stage, and will hate it.
The Chinese Communist Party is hoping for that future, for a U.S. citizenry scrolling TikTok where they are told China was right to take Taiwan, and China’s internal affairs don’t concern the U.S. The CCP already executed a test run after October 7, and the U.S. is still having to sort fact from fiction amongst our population.
China will accept a multipolar world for a few years, but that will not satisfy them in the long run. The freedom of America is a thorn in the side of every communist nation, and in the end, China will prefer only one to stay standing. Multipolar worlds do not exist in the long term. China knows this; it is time America learns it, too.
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Ali Holcomb is a National Security Fellow and Communications Advisor at Advancing American Freedom.

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