The Dictatorship

Ukraine balks at White House’s call to give up its rare earth minerals

Published

1 year ago

February 18, 2025

Ukraine balks at White House’s call to give up its rare earth minerals

Over the course of the last decade, Donald Trump’s line on the 2003 invasion of Iraq has evolved more than once, but there’s one claim he’s repeated ad nauseum: The United States, the Republican has long argued, should’ve kept Iraq’s oil as part of the war. After the president deployed U.S. troops to Syria, Trump insisted that his administration actually did take and keep Syrian oil.

He was, of course, brazenly lyingbut the false claims reflected a sentiment he appeared to take quite seriously: Foreign policy interventions, from Trump’s perspective, should be inherently transactional. If the United States deploys military resources abroad, the argument goes, then it stands to reason that American officials are entitled to other countries’ natural resources.

That’s not at all how U.S. foreign policy has ever worked in this country, and just an approach isn’t altogether legal under international law. By all appearances, Trump has never cared.

With this in mind, it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that the Republican White House believes Ukraine should also turn over some of its natural resources to the United Statesin exchange for the security aid we’ve provided to our ally.

At least for now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy didn’t appear especially receptive to the idea. NBC News reported:

The Trump administration has suggested to Ukraine that the United States be granted 50% ownership of the country’s rare earth minerals, and signaled an openness to deploying American troops there to guard them if there’s a deal with Russia to end the war, according to four U.S. officials. Rather than pay for the minerals, the ownership agreement would be a way for Ukraine to reimburse the U.S. for the billions of dollars in weapons and support it’s provided to Kyiv since the war began in February 2022, two of the officials said.

When presented with proposed deal, Zelenskyy declined to sign it. The Ukrainian president did, however, say that he would examine the offer in more detail.

Of course, the fact that the Trump administration even put such a proposal on the table is quite extraordinary. The United States didn’t defend our ally against a deadly invasion because we expected Ukrainians to give up its natural resources; we defended our ally because it was in our geopolitical interests to do so.

There was no need for a transaction — at least until Trump returned to power.

Time will tell what, if anything comes of this, but in the meantime, the Republican president and his administration are moving forward with plans for peace talks, beginning with negotiations in Saudi Arabia. There’s some uncertainty about the degree to which Ukrainian officials will be involved in the process, but Zelenskyy declared at a security conference in Germany over the weekend, “Ukraine will never accept deals made behind our backs.”

For his part, Trump said a day later that Zelenskyy “will be involved” in the negotiations — he didn’t say when, how, or to what degree — and went on to talk about how impressed he is with Russian military might.

“They have a big, powerful machine, you understand that?” the American president saidreferring to Putin’s military. “And they defeated Hitler and they defeated Napoleon.”

It was the latest in a series of pro-Russia comments that Trump has made in recent days.

Steve legs

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an BLN political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

The Dictatorship

Senate approves war powers vote to rein in Trump on Iran

Published

32 minutes ago

May 20, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

May. 19, 2026, 6:08 PM EDT

The eighth time is sort of the charm for the U.S. Senate.

Amid attendance issues and growing defections in the GOP ranks, the Senate on Tuesday approved a procedural vote related to a war powers resolution. If adopted, the war powers resolution would severely restrict President Donald Trump’s war powers in Iran.

After seven failed previous attempts, the Senate voted 50-47 to discharge the war powers resolution, with Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining with nearly all Democrats in backing the procedural motion. (Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., once again opposed the vote.)

Cassidy, the newest GOP defection, just lost his bid for reelection to the Senate over the weekend, after Trump backed a challenger in the Louisiana primary. Cassidy also voted to support an Iran war powers resolution in 2020.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told MS NOW the Cassidy flip underscores there is “steady progress towards a realization that we are overextended and diplomacy is the only reasonable way to resolve this.”

But this victory will mostly be symbolic. Three GOP senators — John Cornyn, R-Texas, Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. — weren’t present for the vote Tuesday, hence why the resolution succeeded. The resolution will now get another procedural vote before a final up-or-down vote in the Senate.

Even if those senators supported the measure, the legislation would still need to be adopted in the House — and survive an almost certain veto from President Trump.

None of those things are likely. But after seven failed votes in the Senate, this victory is at least symbolic for Democrats.

Introduced by Tim Kaine, D-Va., the resolution directs the president “to remove the United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Iran.”

Last week, Kaine told reporters a day would come soon that Republicans joined Democrats on the resolution. By luck, or pure vengeance, that day came today.

Under Senate rulesa floor vote on the war powers resolution must occur within three calendar days — which should give Republicans more than enough time to get senators back to Washington to defeat the underlying resolution.

Still, the vote exposes growing frustration in the GOP ranks over the Iran war.

With the Iran conflict nearing the three month mark and a critical 90 day deadline, military action is supposed to cease unless Congress votes to declare or authorize war, according to the War Powers Resolution of 1973. The Trump administration, however, has disputed that the Iran war is on the clock, arguing the timeline has paused while in a ceasefire.

Still, the Senate’s vote comes as Democrats in the House are also expected to force a vote this week on reining in the president’s Iran war authority.

Last week, the House’s third vote on a war powers resolution failed with a 212-212 tied vote. Notably, the sole Democrat who voted with Republicans against that measure — Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine — objected on technical grounds and has suggested he could vote for a slightly different resolution this week.

Jack Fitzpatrick contributed to this report.

Kevin Frey is a congressional reporter for MS NOW.

Peggy Helman is a desk associate at MS NOW.

Lillie Boudreaux

The Dictatorship

Federal agencies are reportedly hiding DOGE documents from investigators

Published

32 minutes ago

May 20, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Federal agencies are reportedly hiding DOGE documents from investigators

May. 19, 2026, 5:44 PM EDT

Happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, the past week’s top stories from the intersection of politics and technology.

GAO’s DOGE probe hampered

Officials at some federal agencies are reportedly stonewalling the Government Accountability Office’s investigation into what sensitive information Elon Musk and other federal employees may have accessed while working for the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

The Washington Post reported on officials who have spurned requests from the GAO, which conducts audits and investigations into federal misconduct. Wouldn’t you like to know whether and how Musk and his minions garnered access to some of the government’s most highly guarded documents? I, for one, am certainly curious why some officials are blocking these efforts.

A GAO spokeswoman told the Post that the agency remains “committed to fulfilling our statutory audit responsibilities,” adding, “Timely cooperation from [a] federal agency is essential to ensuring Congress has the information it needs to conduct effective oversight.”

I don’t know about you, but to me that sure sounds like “you better hand over the documents.”

Elon’s latest L

Musk lost his lawsuit against OpenAI that could have led to a massive overhaul of the artificial intelligence company. The ruling, which the X owner has vowed to appeal, was something of a victory for OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman.

But Altman didn’t survive unscathed, as there were parts of the trial that made him appear quite untrustworthy.

Trump’s stock trades

I wrote about a new financial disclosure showing that President Donald Trump bought and sold stocks in tech companies, including Palantir and Nvidia, while his administration has had a hand in regulating — and enriching — these companies. As I see it, the Palantir stock purchases in particular raise fresh concerns about the motivations behind the president’s anti-immigrant crackdown.

‘Purge Palantir’ movement notches a win

Speaking of Palantir, Germany’s spy agency has reportedly decided to use a French software company rather than the American firm. The decision marks a victory for the “Purge Palantir” movement, a growing push for governments and businesses to sever ties with the Trump-aligned company.

MAGA world’s AI worries

Steve Bannon and a bunch of MAGA influencers are fretting over the AI revolution and what it could mean for humans, so they all sent an open letter to Trump, begging him to impose his will on the industry. I wrote about why their push for Trump to take a central role in AI regulation is a terrible idea.

Grassley extends an invitation to Big Tech

In a post on X late last week, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, invited top CEOs from Google, TikTok, Meta and Snapchat to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee next month to discuss what measures they’re taking to keep children and families safe.

Why Grassley, the committee chairman, neglected to invite Musk, whose scandal-plagued platform he used to make the announcement, is certainly worth pondering.

I invited the CEOs of Meta TikTok Google + Snapchat 2 testify before the Sen Judic Cmte on June 23 Americans deserve 2know what these companies r doing to keep kids&families safe online The cmte looks forward 2shining a bright light + holding Big Tech accountable

— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) May 15, 2026

Pope’s AI encyclical

Pope Leo is linking up with a co-founder of AI company Anthropic to launch an encyclical — basically, a guide on the church’s philosophy on different topics — focused on AI. The pope recently condemned the use of AI weapons in warwarning they can lead to a “spiral of annihilation.”

The Dictatorship

Tuesday’s Mini-Report, 5.19.26

Published

32 minutes ago

May 20, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* The Ebola outbreak: “Global health officials warned on Tuesday that the number of people infected in an Ebola outbreak in central Africa could be much higher than reported and that the outbreak could last for months. The suspected death toll stood Tuesday at more than 130 people.”

* The latest from San Diego: “The teenagers who killed three people at a San Diego mosque met online and shared a ‘broad hatred’ toward different religions and races, authorities said Tuesday. Mark Remily of the FBI said during a news conference that authorities have uncovered writings by the suspects. Authorities declined to specify what ideologies or views were expressed by the shooters. Authorities have also recovered 30 firearms and a crossbow from two residences searched in connection to the investigation.”

* No way to treat allies and neighbors: “The Pentagon’s policy chief announced Monday that the United States will suspend its involvement in a joint body that coordinates military consultation with Canada, pointing to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s address to the World Economic Forum earlier this year.”

* The first suit was a success, and I wouldn’t bet against the second: “The New York Times on Monday accused the Defense Department of violating the First Amendment by requiring journalists to have an official escort at all times when visiting the Pentagon. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, is the second time the newspaper has sued over the Trump administration’s restrictions on reporters who cover the military complex.”

* I tend to think the breadth of anti-AI feeling is underappreciated: “The only thing growing faster than the artificial-intelligence industry may be Americans’ negative feelings about it.”

* It often seems there are few people Trump cares about more than white South Africans: “President Trump moved ahead on Monday with plans to allow 10,000 more white South Africans into the United States as refugees, even as the program remains closed off to people from every other country in the world, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.”

* She’s right: “Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said Monday that the Supreme Court risks being seen as political in the wake of a major voting rights decision.”

* Remember when this guy led the IRS for two months before getting ousted?: “The Senate voted Monday to confirm a new ambassador to Iceland whose joke about making the country a U.S. state infuriated Icelanders. Billy Long, a former Republican congressman from Missouri, apologized during his confirmation hearing in February for joking about making Iceland the ‘52nd state.’”

* As the weekend wrapped up, Trump used his social media platform to promote an artificial intelligence-generated image of him walking alongside a handcuffed space alien. No one seems to know why, although it was yet another reminder of just how weird our current political conditions have become.

See you tomorrow.

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.”