842 Photos and videos
John Chu retweeted
Feb 5
This should be a bigger story.
A Reagan-appointed judge just ruled Trump’s Energy Secretary illegally ran a secret panel of climate deniers to cook up a biased report and sabotage clean air rules.
They didn’t follow the law, didn’t follow the science, and betrayed the public to serve Trump’s agenda.
Disgraceful. nytimes.com/2026/01/30/clima…
728
13,631
27,832
552,133
John Chu retweeted
I think it is time to stop pretending that billionaires aligned with the Trump administration are in any way trying to have a free press or accessible information. The point of owning the Post, TikTok, Twitter, etc. is the same as the point of LLMs: controlling information.
It is totally dumbfounding that Bezos and co. managed to botch up a news company in THIS news climate.
4
133
535
8,737
John Chu retweeted
Feb 5
This happened four days before the inauguration. That part matters.
He wasn’t president yet.
So this can’t be waved away as an “official act.”
No immunity dodge. No presidential cover.
Just a private citizen taking foreign money right before the policy payoff.
That’s not governance.
That’s a bribe.
Feb 3
BREAKING NEWS: Trump Family Took Secret Hundreds of Millions From UAE as U.S. Approved Banned AI Tech
New reporting confirms a staggering corruption scandal at the highest level of the U.S. government.
Just days before Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, a firm backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, a UAE royal and national security chief, secretly paid at least $187 million to Trump family entities and $31 million to the family of Trump’s top Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, through a private cryptocurrency deal that was never disclosed to the public.
Within months, the Trump administration reversed U.S. national security policy and approved the export of billions of dollars’ worth of advanced AI chips to the UAE—technology the Biden administration had explicitly blocked over fears it could be diverted to China.
The sequence is now clear and documented:
* January 2025: UAE-backed firm signs a $500 million deal for a 49% stake in Trump-linked crypto company World Liberty Financial.
* Immediate payouts: $187M to Trump family, $31M to Witkoff family.
* Spring–Fall 2025: Trump White House greenlights massive AI chip sales to the UAE after years of refusal by prior administrations.
* Experts respond: Ethics lawyers call it a likely violation of the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause and warn it “looks like a bribe.”
No Republican lawmaker has called for an investigation. The Justice Department has announced no enforcement action. The White House denies any conflict, despite the money flowing first and the national security concessions following.
Democratic senators are calling it “mind-blowing corruption” and an unprecedented case of a sitting president’s family profiting directly from a foreign government while shaping U.S. policy in that government’s favor.
The bottom line is brutal and unavoidable:
A foreign government secretly paid Trump’s family hundreds of millions of dollars, and then received national-security-sensitive technology it had previously been denied.
That is not normal politics.
That is not “America First.”
That is corruption in plain sight.
Sources:
[1] CNN, Feb. 1, 2026. Trump family crypto firm received secret UAE investment tied to Sheikh Tahnoon.
cnn.com/2026/02/01/politics/…
[2] Wall Street Journal, Jan. 31, 2026. UAE spy chief quietly took stake in Trump-linked crypto firm days before inauguration.
wsj.com/politics/policy/spy-…
[3] Yahoo News, Feb. 1, 2026. Trump sold stake in crypto company to UAE-backed firm in private deal.
yahoo.com/news/articles/trum…
[4] CNBC, Feb. 1, 2026. U.S. approved advanced AI chip sales to UAE after Trump took office.
cnbc.com/2026/02/01/spy-shei…
[5] Reuters, May 16, 2025. U.S., UAE agree path for Abu Dhabi to buy most advanced AI chips.
reuters.com/world/china/uae-…
[6] Reuters, Oct. 9, 2025. U.S. approves billions in Nvidia AI chip exports to UAE.
reuters.com/technology/us-ap…
[7] New York Times, Feb. 1, 2026. Trump family’s crypto venture deepens foreign entanglements.
nytimes.com/2026/02/01/us/po…
[8] The Nation, Feb. 2026. Trump’s UAE crypto deal looks like an emoluments violation, experts say.
thenation.com/article/politi…
[9] Japan Times, Feb. 2, 2026. Senators call Trump-UAE crypto deal “corruption, plain and simple.”
japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/0…
[10] Bloomberg, Oct. 9, 2025. U.S. greenlights Nvidia AI chip sales to UAE despite security concerns.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
135
6,852
15,039
263,932
John Chu retweeted
I was just laid off by The Washington Post in the middle of a warzone. I have no words. I'm devastated.
Waking up without power, heat, or running water. (Again.)
But the work here in Kyiv continues. Warming up in the car, writing in pencil — pen ink freezes — by headlamp.
Despite how difficult this job can be, I am proud to be a foreign correspondent at The Washington Post.
11,220
31,233
235,984
14,911,923
John Chu retweeted
Feb 5
Why are so many people offended by this suggestion? Jeff Atwood and Betsy Burton earned $100M, partly through co-founding the Q&A network Stack Exchange. They're giving away $50M over the next four years to some of the poorest people in rural United States. Why is that bad?
367
1,173
18,544
443,635
John Chu retweeted
That makes fourteen federal prosecutors who have resigned from the Minnesota office, plus an additional four who resigned from the national DOJ Civil Rights Division office, since the Minneapolis operation began.
Feb 2
BREAKING Star Tribune:
Eight additional federal prosecutors are in the process of leaving the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.
The departures follow the mass exit of six veteran prosecutors who left the office last month.
startribune.com/ice-raids-mi…
44
1,067
2,460
160,583
This is why the argument that the Epstein files are a "nothingburger" are silly. Lots of very damaging information in there about very powerful people.
Feb 2
Difficult to overstate the gravity of the Mandelson affair. A cabinet minister, during a financial crisis, allegedly leaking highly-confidential and market-sensitive information to a mega-rich financier (and convicted paedophile) who had been personally bankrolling him, while also privately suggesting the CEO of a top investment bank 'threaten' his own chancellor in an effort to force a change of policy. Potentially one of the most serious scandals in British political history, surely?
8
140
831
70,637
John Chu retweeted
Feb 1
A note from our editors:
ALT Note from the editors: ProPublica is publishing the names of the two federal immigration agents involved in the fatal shooting of Minnesota protester Alex Pretti. We believe there are few investigations that deserve more sunlight and public scrutiny than this one, in which two masked agents fired 10 shots at Pretti as he lay on the ground after being pepper-sprayed. The Department of Justice said it is investigating the incident, but the names of the two agents have been withheld from Congress and from state and local law enforcement. The policy of shielding officers’ identities, particularly after a public shooting, is a stark departure from standard law enforcement protocols, according to lawmakers, state attorneys general and former federal officials. Such secrecy, in our view, deprives the public of the most fundamental tool for accountability.
Feb 1
BREAKING: The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.
propublica.org/article/alex-…
881
7,145
40,568
2,362,476
John Chu retweeted
Feb 2
Unless your Odyssey has Helen of Troy played by a woman who actually hatched from an egg, I don't want to see it.
Feb 2
DEI causes me to feel fatigue. "Diversity," "equity," and "inclusion" aren't inherently bad; it's the distortion of the concepts in implementation that fatigues.
Christopher Nolan casting a black woman as Helen of Troy in The Odyssey causes me to feel hostility. It is a deliberate assault on a treasure of Western Civilization. But the same thing applies on a lesser scale to the casting in Bridgerton. It's a distortion of a historical setting in the service of an ideology, and I find it offensive.
OTOH, I'm old and grumpy.
149
504
6,918
181,308
John Chu retweeted
Feb 2
Amber Glenn re: change of the Ice House name to Winter House: It's unfortunate that we can't embrace the word "ice" because of these circumstances in my own country; I can't imagine how the people affected by [ICE] are dealing, this is only a minor inconvenience for me in the bigger picture
bit.ly/45JzQJH #MilanoCortina2026
6
45
428
23,717
John Chu retweeted
There is nothing stopping reporters from giving this the level of coverage they did to Hillary's email server or Biden's age, they simply refuse to do it and instead expect some deus ex machina to do it for them.
49
1,242
5,864
102,560
John Chu retweeted
Feb 2
"I won the state three times, but I got no credit for it," the president said today about Minnesota, a state he doesn't get credit for winning three times because he lost it three times.
223
4,149
31,095
526,844
Canadians! This week (2/2-2/8) Indigo has a 25% sale on their Most Anticipated Sci-Fi books, which includes The Subtle Art of Folding Space!
Bugs in physics! Fraught family relationships! Equivalence reports in the form of egg tarts!
indigo.ca/en-ca/the-subtle-a…
1
22
Non-Canadians! Feel free to pre-order The Subtle Art of Folding Space, too!
Secret cabals! A wise mentor (or is he?) A sister who keeps trying to assassinate you!
us.macmillan.com/books/97812…
15
John Chu retweeted
Feb 2
This is such a huge problem! He got his Olympic spot last March. And competed ALL SEASON to this program. Why was he only told a week before the Olympics that he can’t use it? What’s happening? This is outrageous and so unfair to the athletes.
#TomasLlorencGuarinoSabate is one of the skaters affected the additions copyright issues with the Olympic Games. His Short Program (The Minions) is no longer cleared.
28
429
3,540
306,602
John Chu retweeted
Jan 16
Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system against your opponents is an authoritarian tactic.
The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.
The Justice Department is investigating Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey over alleged obstruction of law enforcement, a source told CNN. cnn.it/3LR4xFU
14,585
13,152
63,087
2,859,331
John Chu retweeted
Jan 17
She gave him her Nobel Prize and he forgot her name the next day.
It couldn't be more perfect. Pure comedy. 10/10.
Jan 16
Trump: "I had a great meeting by a person who I have a lot of respect for. She has respect obviously for me and our country. And she gave me her Nobel Prize, but I'll tell you what -- I got to know her. I never met her before. And I was very very impressed. This is a fine woman."
402
9,414
63,279
1,235,748
The Subtle Art of Folding Space is one of Esquire's "22 Most Anticipated Books 2026", along with books by famous people whose work I love, such as Amal El-Mohtar and George Saunders!
(Comes out on 4/7 Available to preorder now!)
esquire.com/entertainment/bo…
1
3
235
John Chu retweeted
DHS deleted this one because:
-The family was driving home and got blocked.
-ICE deployed flashbangs and tear gas INSIDE the car.
-The 6-month old child stopped breathing and had to be rushed to hospital.
DHS did NO investigation & rushed to lie to defend the officers.
1,052
25,318
97,590
2,988,808