Revealed: Nuclear Security Chief Spilled National Secrets to Dinner Date

Trump Media just ousted its CEO after losing $712 million, the CDC is burying its own report showing COVID vaccines work, and FIFA is gouging ticket prices ahead of the World Cup

Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America.

Trump Media just ousted its CEO after losing $712 million. The CDC is burying its own report showing COVID vaccines cut hospitalizations by half. America’s nuclear surety chief got honey-potted at a dinner date and spilled classified secrets to a spy. And the World Cup is in 50 days, which should be great news, except FIFA is contributing nothing to host cities while gouging ticket prices.

Before we get into it: No billionaire owns this operation. No advertiser is quietly asking us to find a softer angle. No parent company has a seat at the table with the people we write about. This publication exists because readers pay for it. If you’ve been reading for free, today is a good day to change that. Consider upgrading your subscription. Independent journalism doesn’t run on goodwill.

Let’s get into it.

Trump Media Fires CEO After Losing $712 Million

As it turns out, all of Trump’s companies are just as productive as his government.

Devin Nunes quit Congress in 2022 to run Trump Media. He has now been fired. The company lost $712 million last year on $3.7 million in revenue. Total losses since going public top $1.1 billion.

Shares trading under the ticker “DJT” have fallen 67 percent from pre-election highs, wiping out more than $6 billion in investor value. The stock, which debuted near $58 after the company went public, closed below $10.

In response, Trump Media has pivoted repeatedly into cryptocurrency, prediction markets, a proposed multibillion-dollar merger with a fusion energy firm, and a potential Truth Social spin-off. None of it has worked.

Nunes, for his part, announced on Truth Social that it was an “appropriate time” to hand off to someone with more experience in media and mergers. That someone is Kevin McGurn, a former Hulu and Vevo executive who is now “Interim CEO” of the most famous money-losing social media platform in American history.

McGurn, inheriting a company that loses $193 for every dollar it makes, says it is “poised to take off.” He did not elaborate on where it has been for the last four years.

The CDC Is Refusing to Publish a Report Showing COVID Vaccines Work

The CDC had a report showing COVID vaccines cut hospitalizations by half. The administration blocked it from publication and called that normal.

The report showed that COVID vaccines reduced emergency department visits and hospitalizations among healthy adults by about half last winter. It was scheduled to run in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the journal physicians and state health officials rely on for public health guidance.

An HHS spokesperson confirmed the manuscript “was not accepted for publication,” citing concerns about the “methodological approach estimating vaccine effectiveness.”

The methodology in question is a standard test-negative design that has been used for decades to measure vaccine effectiveness for respiratory viruses. A similar report using the exact same methodology to study the flu vaccine ran in MMWR a week earlier. That one was fine. The COVID one was not.

Kennedy fired all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee and replaced them with seven new ones, several of whom have histories of exaggerating vaccine harms. One of the replacements is a professor of operations management. Your immune system is now a logistics problem.

We covered this story two weeks ago when it first leaked, and we’re covering it again now that it’s been confirmed. We’ll keep covering it. If you want to know when the government buries research about your health, that’s what your subscription pays for. Consider upgrading today.

America’s Nuclear Surety Chief Told His Dinner Date All of America’s Secrets

The man whose job was to make sure America’s nuclear and chemical weapons stayed secret sat down to dinner with a woman he’d just met and told her everything.

Andrew Hugg, the U.S. Army’s Chief of Chemical Nuclear Surety, was escorted out of the Pentagon and placed on administrative leave after O’Keefe Media Group released undercover footage of him spilling sensitive national security information to a woman he thought was on a date with him. She was not on a date with him.

Over dinner, Hugg discussed potential U.S. action against Iran’s leadership, described how nuclear launch decisions are made, confirmed that the U.S. still possesses nerve agents, confirmed an army chemist had recently died from exposure to an agent, and acknowledged that U.S. airstrikes had killed children in Iran. He said all of this to a stranger.

At some point during the evening, Hugg looked across the table and said: “You’re not a spy, right? Your eyes have mesmerized me so much… The easiest way to get intelligence… send a pretty girl, talk to the guy.”

He was describing what was actively happening to him, in real time, while it was happening to him.

The Army confirmed it has placed Hugg on administrative leave pending a full investigation. His LinkedIn profile has since been deleted. The dinner date’s, presumably, was never real to begin with.

Trump and FIFA Are Already Ruining the World Cup

The 2026 World Cup starts in 50 days, and the only people who seem happy about it are the two men who ruined it.

From the moment Trump returned to office, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has followed him everywhere. He attended his inauguration, appeared in Oval Office photo-ops, donned a red MAGA hat while pledging FIFA money to Trump’s Gaza redevelopment plan, and awarded Trump the inaugural “FIFA Peace Prize.”

What fans are getting in return: New Jersey is set to charge World Cup fans close to $150 for the 15-minute train ride from Penn Station to MetLife Stadium. The trip normally costs $12.90. The state says it has no choice, because FIFA is providing $0 for transportation.

The North American bid initially promised tickets as low as $21. The cheapest ticket is now $60, and most cost at least $200. Hotel associations in host cities have reported that the economic boom FIFA promised isn’t materializing.

Iran, which the U.S. has been bombing, is still technically scheduled to play. Trump posted that the Iranian team’s safety could not be guaranteed on American soil. FIFA rejected Iran’s request to move its games to Mexico and told Iran it “has to come.”

The promise of the World Cup — open borders, global unity, the beautiful game — is being hosted by an administration that has made all three of those things illegal.

About Our Billionaire Owner (We Don’t Have One)

Here’s what’s happening to the press while all of this is going on.

Local newsrooms are closing. National outlets are being bought by people who play golf with the subjects of their coverage. Networks are spiking segments. Reporters are self-censoring because they’ve watched what happens to the ones who don’t.

We’ve watched it too. The difference is we don’t have a parent company, advertisers with preferred outcomes, or a board of directors with opinions about which stories are worth finishing.

What we have is a publication that people read because they want to know. That’s the whole business model. No billionaire, no broadcast license, no quiet handshakes with the people in these stories. Just readers. Just you. If you’ve been reading for free, we’re asking you to subscribe. Not as a favor. Because that’s the only way this exists.

Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you tomorrow.

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