Booth at Trump’s State Fair Forced to Remove Confederate Flag
Trump's sons are making millions on a foreign mining deal, a Republican Party Chair has been charged in a fatal hit-and-run, and an online age identification law could be used against whistleblowers
Good morning. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America.
A little-known American company won access to one of the world’s largest tungsten reserves, and the Trump sons cut themselves into the deal. The North Carolina booth at Trump’s “Great American State Fair” displayed a Confederate flag until a sponsor pulled out in protest. The treasurer of the Republican Party of New Mexico is charged in a fatal hit-and-run that killed a 40-year-old cyclist. And the bipartisan KIDS Act could force platforms like X to verify users’ identities, handing the government a new way to unmask journalists’ confidential sources.
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Now, the news.
Booth at Trump’s State Fair Forced to Remove Confederate Flag
Nothing says “America’s 250th birthday” like celebrating it with the flag of literal traitors.
The organization sponsoring North Carolina’s booth at Trump’s “Great American State Fair” in Washington, D.C., removed a video display showing a Confederate flag, according to reports. A Spectrum News Washington reporter captured footage of monitors inside the booth showing the current North Carolina flag alongside the Confederate one.
The exhibit was organized by Lorie Khatod, a consultant who once served as chief of staff to Rep. Nancy Mace. North Carolina was one of at least eight states that declined to sponsor a booth, with most citing cost.
“On Friday, we became aware of an unapproved image in a video displayed inside the North Carolina Pavilion,” a pavilion spokesperson said. They said their focus “remains on celebrating America’s 250th birthday and North Carolina’s role in our nation’s history.”
Gov. Josh Stein’s office was not soothed. “This display does not reflect the North Carolina that we love,” the office said. “Glorifying this divisive Confederate symbol does the exact opposite.”
Mt. Olive Pickle Company, one of the corporate sponsors, withdrew over the flag, saying it “stands on values of human dignity, opportunity, and freedom.” Other sponsors included Richard Childress Racing and a vehicle maker called Spevco.
Still losing, 161 years later
Trump and Lutnick Sons Make Millions From Deal Their Fathers Cut
Bring Your Son to Work Day has really gotten out of hand.
When Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met Kazakhstan’s president at the St. Regis Hotel in New York last September, Trump joined by phone to seal the deal. They won the Kazakh leader’s agreement to give one company access to one of the world’s largest untapped reserves of tungsten.
Ahead of the deal, the Trump administration approved preliminary applications for as much as $1.6 billion in federal financing for the company, now called Kaz Resources, which plans to break ground in rural Kazakhstan.
The fathers handled the negotiations. The sons handled the upside.
Within weeks, investors with Dominari Securities — a firm housed at Trump Tower and partly owned by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — joined partners to take a 20 percent stake in a corporate entity tied to the project.
Around the same time, Cantor Fitzgerald, the investment company controlled by the Lutnick family and overseen by sons Brandon and Kyle Lutnick, helped a lead investor on the deal raise $210 million in new capital for a related entity. Such fund-raising typically nets Cantor millions in fees.
The people making the biggest decisions in this country aren’t on a ballot. They’re in hotel suites and on phone calls, dividing up mineral rights and wiring the profits to their kids. This newsletter exists because somebody has to watch them do it and say it out loud. That costs money, and unlike these guys, we don’t have a billion-dollar backstop. Please upgrade your subscription today.
Republican Treasurer Charged in Fatal Hit-and-Run
It takes a special kind of commitment to law enforcement to keep the bumper sticker on while you’re allegedly fleeing a man you just hit with your SUV.
Kimberly Skaggs, 54, served as treasurer for the Republican Party of New Mexico until this week. She now stands accused of leaving the scene of an accident and tampering with evidence, according to the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office.
The crash happened late Monday afternoon on North Fairacres Road in Las Cruces. Deputies arrived around 2:46 p.m. to find 40-year-old Andrew Brown, who identified himself before he died. He told deputies he was riding his bicycle across the road when a northbound vehicle hit him.
A witness did the work the driver allegedly would not. She photographed the woman, the vehicle, and the license plate — a black Cadillac Escalade with a “Support the Troops” sticker, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican. A Flock plate-reading camera and nearby surveillance footage caught the same Escalade driving fast a few blocks away.
When investigators reached Skaggs’ home, they found an Escalade with front bumper damage, “blood splatter” near a wheel, and a bicycle tread pattern on the bumper. She turned herself in after learning there was a warrant, her attorney said, and maintains she is innocent.
The state GOP scrubbed her name and photo from its website. An archived version still shows her title, image, and email address. “Kimberly Skaggs is no longer affiliated with the Republican Party of New Mexico,” the party said. They declined to comment further on the troops.
Online Age Verification Law Would Unmask Whistleblowers
The Trump administration has decided the safest way to protect children online is to collect everyone’s government ID, which is a little like fireproofing a house by stacking it with kerosene.
The KIDS Act, a bipartisan bill that could pass the House floor as soon as next week, would fundamentally change how everyone — not just kids — accesses the internet. The mechanism is age verification. And there’s no way to reliably verify someone’s age without verifying who they are.
Here’s the part the bill’s backers don’t mention. The same machinery that checks a teenager’s birthday creates a new pool of data the government can demand when it goes hunting for journalists’ sources.
This week, news broke that the DOJ had unsuccessfully subpoenaed reporters from the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal in a likely leak investigation. Age verification lets the government skip the reporter and ask the platform directly.
The first Trump administration spied on journalists to find out who they talked to. The second has tried to unmask online critics and raided a journalist’s home, seizing the devices she used to reach sources.
The data itself is a liability. Age verification providers have already been breached, leaking sensitive identity data, and some sell or grant access to that data to third parties. That’s a “honey pot” for anyone wanting to intimidate reporters or chill sources.
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