The Dictatorship
FSU shooting victim’s family files federal lawsuit against OpenAI
Happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Dropthe past week’s top stories from the intersection of politics and technology.
OpenAI sued over FSU shooting
The family of a victim killed in a shooting at Florida State University last year is suing OpenAIalleging the shooter was inspired and advised by its chatbot, ChatGPT, on how to maximize damage.
The federal lawsuitfiled in Florida, claims ChatGPT informed the alleged shooter on how to operate certain guns and when FSU’s campus would be busiest. According to the suit, ChatGPT responded to a query about how to gain the most attention by saying in part:
Context also matters — fewer victims can still lead to national coverage if it happens at an elementary school or major college, if the shooter is a student or staff member, or if there’s something culturally or politically charged (for example, racial motives, a manifesto, or mental-health implications).
OpenAI declined responsibility, BLN reported:
OpenAI said that while the FSU shooting was a “tragedy,” ChatGPT is “not responsible.”
“In this case, ChatGPT provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity,” said OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri. “We work continuously to strengthen our safeguards to detect harmful intent, limit misuse, and respond appropriately when safety risks arise.”
As BLN noted, this litigation adds to a growing list of lawsuits accusing ChatGPT of fueling harmful behavior. And, to be clear, this issue isn’t unique to OpenAI: There have been numerous incidents — such as xAI’s Grok being used to produce nonconsensual sexual imagesincluding ones depicting children — that suggest the public ought to remain skeptical of chatbots and their effect on society.
Read more at CNN.
France’s X investigation
Speaking of Elon Musk’s Grok, French investigators have escalated their probe — over the chatbot’s dissemination of Holocaust denials and nonconsensual deepfakes — to a criminal investigation. Musk has called the investigation a political attack, without providing evidence. According to CNBC, the escalation comes after Musk declined to appear for questioning. Last month, President Donald Trump’s Justice Department officially refused to assist French investigators in getting Musk to comply.
Read more at CNBC.
Judge slams DOGE’s humanities cuts
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities, calling the cuts discriminatory. The judge also rebuked employees at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency for trying to blame ChatGPT, which they used while trying to decide which programs to slash.
Read more at MS NOW.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that a reported rise in anti-Israel sentiment among Americans is the result of foreign influence campaigns on social media. The evidence-free comments, made on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” underscore Netanyahu’s concerns about online criticism — and his efforts to suppress it amid backlash over Israel’s bombing campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.
Netanyahu met with right-wing influencers last summer in an effort to stem anti-Israel sentiment among conservatives. And according to recent pollingIsrael’s standing has significantly dropped among Democrats, fueling some primary challenges among liberals.
Watch the “60 Minutes” interview at CBS News.
According to a Pew survey published last month, 60% of U.S. adults viewed Israel unfavorably, up nearly 20 points in four years. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the rise of social media is a major reason for this decline. https://t.co/QP4ESNtjGq pic.twitter.com/miCEwFYLX3
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) May 10, 2026
Canvas hack underscores cybersecurity cuts
I wrote about the recent ransomware attack on Canvas, an educational app used by thousands of K-12 schools and universities across the country, and how the debilitating hack spotlights the danger in the Trump administration’s gutting of cybersecurity programs.
Read more at MS NOW.
A new ICE-monitoring app emerges
The developers behind Tucson Migra Map, which allows users to track U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity, explained to The Associated Press why they believe their platform is positioned to avoid the fate of other ICE-tracking apps that have been taken offline amid pressure from the Trump administration.
Read more at The Associated Press.
Texas sues Netflix
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxtonwho is running for the U.S. Senate, has filed a lawsuit in his official capacity against Netflix, accusing the streaming platform of “spying” on users, collecting data without consent and deploying features designed to make the platform addictive. A Netflix spokesperson said in a statement that the lawsuit “lacks merit and is based on inaccurate and distorted information.”
Read more at Variety.
Meta has officially killed end-to-end encryption on Instagram, meaning the social platform will no longer offer the feature that supposedly blocked third parties — including government entities — from viewing messages between users.
Read more at PCMag.
Trump Mobile drives buyers mad
MS NOW’s Ari Melber delivered a great segment spotlighting customers who ordered Trump-branded mobile phones feeling “duped” and “angry” after not receiving anything for more than a year. He explained why a recent update to the preorder terms and conditions means the phones may never arrive.
Read my colleague Allison Detzel’s write-up of the segment — and watch the segment in full — at MS NOW.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.
Over the course of June, Donald Trump spent nearly every day focusing attention on assorted construction and beautification projects, emphasizing the unavoidable conclusion that the president takes his renovation crusade very seriously.
His allies aren’t necessarily pleased. The Hill recently reported that Republican officials, worried about the midterm elections and maintaining partisan control, have been “thrown off-balance” by, among other things, Trump’s focus on “pet projects” instead of more meaningful national priorities.
The list of projects keeps growing nevertheless. It includes (but is by no means limited to) the ballroomthe Reflecting Poolthe “triumphal arch,” the fountainsthe horse statuesthe “Trump Promenade,” the “statue garden” and the dozen or so additional renovation projects he’s prioritized in and around the White House complex.
But let’s also not forget the helipad.
A couple of months ago, The Washington PostThe Wall Street Journal and The New York Times separately published similar reports about Trump hoping to build a permanent helicopter landing site on the White House grounds. Evidently, those plans have now advanced to the construction stage. The Post reported this week:
President Donald Trump has begun construction on a new White House helipad, his latest change to the historic grounds, according to three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the project publicly.
Construction crews worked into the night Monday on the White House’s South Lawn, with the project blocked off by a large fence.
The report, which has not been independently verified by MS NOW, added that the project hasn’t yet been formally announced by the White House, even as construction is apparently underway.
It’s not yet clear how much the project will cost, who will pick the tab and whether this has joined the growing list of no-bid contracts.
Unlike some of the president’s other priorities, there is a legitimate issue here — the latest generation of helicopters really do damage the White House lawn — although this doesn’t answer the other lingering questions or explain why Team Trump hasn’t acknowledged the existence of the project.
What’s more, this almost certainly won’t be the last of the Republican’s projects.
Earlier this week, the president used his social media platform to promote an artificial intelligence-generated image of a gold eagle affixed to the White House exterior. Trump added in his online image, “A Golden Gift to the White House for its 250th Birthday Year!”
The text (which erroneously said the White House is celebrating its semiquincentennial) suggested the president intends to add this gaudy addition to his ambitious renovation agenda.
Recent polling has found two-thirds of Americans are convinced their unpopular president simply has the wrong priorities. Trump could take steps to change their mind, but he apparently doesn’t want to.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
The Dictatorship
Hegseth blasts protesters at ceremony for D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force: ‘Ingrates’
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday derided protesters at an event in Washington, D.C., tied to the America 250 celebrationscalling the demonstrators “ingrates” who are “blinded by ideology.”
The D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force event in Meridian Hill Park was set to begin at 9 a.m. ET but did not start until roughly 30 minutes later, as members of the National Guard waited for Hegseth’s arrival amid a brutal heat wave. Protesters shouted during his brief address, in which he said he was to blame for the delay and praised the troops for their service.
“In fact, this background noise this morning is perfect,” Hegseth said about the protesters, with White House adviser Stephen Miller and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche standing behind him.
“It’s the sound of ingrates, of ingratitude of people who are so blinded by ideology they can’t see law and order and common sense in front of them,” Hegseth said. “That there’s nothing ideological about this group, there’s nothing political about this exercise.”
Some protesters could be heard shouting “Shame!” and “Guard, go home!”
Pete Hegseth: “This background noise is perfect. It’s the sound of ingrates, of ingratitude, of people who are so blinded by ideology they can’t see law and order and common sense in front of them.” pic.twitter.com/aWt5ciuRG3
—Aaron Rupar (@atrupar)”https://x.com/atrupar/status/2072679604184109222?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>July 2, 2026
National Guard troops have been deployed to assist with America 250 celebrations in the capital, though some Democratic governors have warned against their guard members being utilized for a larger federal joint task force to tackle what the Trump administration has called“rampant crime” in Washington.
Many Washington residents are not thrilled with the National Guard’s presence. The controversial America 250 festivities have also sparked criticism from Democrats who accuse President Donald Trump of putting himself at the center of the celebrations.
At the Thursday ceremony, Hegseth suggested the protesters were not from Washington.
“These ingrates will fade away; they’ll go back to wherever they came from,” he said, before asserting that National Guard troops have brought the crime rate down in the capital — a claim that at least one study has found to be inaccurate.
“The crime rate here has dropped in staggering amounts, and the media won’t want to admit it because, of course, they’d have to give credit to President Trump, and then they’d have to give credit to the Department of War or to Stephen Miller,” Hegseth said. “But courageous men like President Trump and Stephen, who said enough is enough, are the reason why this city is a safe and beautiful place.”
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
Stephanie Ruhle said she was left “almost speechless” after the release of Donald Trump’s new financial disclosureswhich reported he raked in more than $2 billion since returning to the White House. “Man, it looks good to be president,” the “Money, Power, Politics” host said Wednesday.
According to the 927-page document released Tuesday, Trump’s income has only increased since retaking the White House. The president reported almost $575 million in real estate and golf-related income and another $68.6 million in royalties and licensing fees.
But, as Ruhle pointed out, $1.4 billion of Trump’s 2025 total comes directly from one industry: crypto.
Despite having called that industry a “scam” and a “disaster waiting to happen” in 2021, Trump has in recent years appeared to have a change of heart about digital currency.
“That was just five years ago, but now he is a major crypto industry operator and essentially its top policy maker,” the MS NOW host said. “Remember, he is the one who appointed regulators that changed the rules to hugely benefit the crypto industry, and since he came back to office, he has either completely dropped or settled a whole lot of cases with crypto companies.”
As Trump rakes in more cash, Ruhle said the American people are not experiencing the same kind of prosperity, in part because of the administration’s policies. “[They] are suffering, whether it’s because of tariffs, whether it’s because of inflation, whether it’s because of increased costs, because of the war in Iran,” she said.
While Ruhle noted the president has said he does not choose his investments and has said they are in a “blind account,” she said the American people should not ignore how much Trump has profited since returning to the White House.
“Here’s what you need to know: All of this would be a major conflict of interest — a huge scandal — if it were any other presidency,” she argued.
You can watch Ruhle’s full breakdown in the clip below.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW. She was previously a segment producer for “AYMAN” and “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”
- Work reportedly begins on White House helipad as part of Trump’s renovation agenda
- Hegseth blasts protesters at ceremony for D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force: ‘Ingrates’
- Stephanie Ruhle breaks down what to know about Trump’s financial disclosures
- The stock market is not the litmus test the American public wants
- Despite his recent antics, acting DNI Bill Pulte gets broad declassification powers
- The European sports host with the most
- When a World Cup exit becomes a political crisis
- House Ethics says it doesn’t have information to share on lawmaker sexual misconduct settlements
- AOC endorses El-Sayed in Michigan Senate race
- Capitol agenda: Congress is settling in for a do-nothing summer
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