Good morning. I’m Corrine Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
The Trump administration’s Gold Card visa has been purchased by exactly one person. House Republicans proposed cutting food aid to millions of women and children. Kash Patel’s FBI investigated a New York Times reporter for the crime of writing a story he didn’t like. And Trump’s new Acting Navy Secretary once asked to have his KKK hood fitted with slits instead of circles, for better visibility.
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Now, let’s go.
Trump’s Gold Card Has Exactly One Customer
The Trump administration’s plan to sell American residency to wealthy foreigners for a million dollars has so far sold to just one person. The name of that person has not been released.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appeared before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Thursday and admitted under oath that only one Gold Card visa had been approved. Back in March 2025, Lutnick boasted on the All-In Podcast that he had already sold 1,000 of them at $5 million each.
He did not address the discrepancy while under oath. He did not have to, because no one made him.
After the program launched in December, Lutnick said the government had sold $1.3 billion “worth” in just several days, as Trump stood by holding up the gilded ticket and called it “essentially the green card on steroids.” The steroids, it turns out, were a placebo.
Lutnick had previously said the Gold Card would raise $1 trillion in revenue and help “balance the budget.” The publicly held debt is currently around $31.3 trillion.
When a congresswoman asked how the proceeds would be spent, Lutnick said revenue from the program and decisions about its allocation would be left to the Trump administration, noting the terms are “for the betterment of the United States of America.”
Lutnick called it “the most serious vetting in the history of government.” Keep in mind, the history of government also includes the DMV.
Republicans Are Taking Food From Women and Children
The Republican budget bill signed last July cut SNAP by nearly $187 billion through 2034, the largest cut to the program in history. Over 2 million people have lost food assistance since then.
Now they want more.
House Republicans proposed cutting $200 million from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) in the coming fiscal year. The cuts were included in an appropriations bill to fund the Department of Agriculture.
Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts noted that the Trump administration has spent roughly $60 billion on the war in Iran, with the administration also pushing Congress to approve up to $100 billion in new funding for that conflict. It has simultaneously requested a $1.5 trillion military budget, a nearly 50% increase.
McGovern put it plainly: “We have 46 million people in this country who are hungry, and they don’t seem to give a shit.”
The administration has also encouraged states to restrict which foods SNAP benefits can buy. Twenty-two states are now aiming to block the purchase of candy and soda. The candy and soda restrictions are the part Republicans are comfortable telling you about.
Kash Patel Sent the FBI After a Reporter Who Made Him Look Bad
The FBI launched an investigation last month into New York Times reporter Elizabeth Williamson after she published a story revealing that FBI Director Kash Patel had assigned federal agents to provide security and transportation to his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins.
The story was embarrassing. The investigation was the response.
According to a person briefed on the matter, Wilkins viewed Williamson’s story as evidence of “stalking,” a federal felony punishable by up to five years in prison. FBI agents interviewed Wilkins, searched databases for information about Williamson, and recommended moving forward to determine whether she had violated federal stalking laws.
As relevant here, federal law defines stalking as placing someone under surveillance with “intent to kill, injure, harass, or intimidate” that person. Nothing Williamson did while researching and writing her story fits the elements of that crime.
Times executive editor Joe Kahn called the probe “an escalation of tactics to chill and intimidate reporters who reveal information that’s unflattering to the administration.” Reporters Without Borders noted that in the same week, Patel filed a lawsuit against The Atlantic for a story he didn’t like.
Patel has previously described the mainstream media as “the most powerful enemy that the United States has ever seen.” Williamson sent three emails and made a phone call. .
Meet the Man Running the Navy, Who Once Asked for a KKK Hood
The Pentagon fired Navy Secretary John Phelan on Wednesday. His replacement is Hung Cao, a retired Navy officer, a failed 2024 Senate candidate, and a man who once asked for a custom-fitted KKK hood.
“I know I’ll be attacked by the left, and call me a white supremacist, but I have one ask for them,” Cao said on Real America’s Voice during his Senate campaign. “When you give me my hood, make sure it’s got the little slits and not the circles so I can see better.”
That is the man now in charge of the United States Navy while the country is fighting a war.
Cao has also claimed in multiple interviews that he was “shot at” and “blown up” while serving in the Navy, describing himself as “100% disabled.” Except his service record doesn’t show him receiving a Purple Heart or the Navy’s Combat Action Ribbon. When a newspaper asked him about it, he issued a statement describing the question as an insult to veterans.
In a 2023 interview with a right-wing pastor, Cao warned that witchcraft had overtaken parts of Monterey, California, and that he was running for Senate in Virginia to prevent it from spreading east.
All of this was known during his confirmation hearings as Navy undersecretary last year. The Senate confirmed him anyway. Now he’s been promoted.
The Billionaires Have Their Outlets. This One’s Yours.
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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Turning Point USA Campus Leader Quits After Erika Kirk’s No-Show. The president of the University of Georgia’s Turning Point USA chapter quit this week after J.D. Vance drew a crowd to a quarter-full arena and TPUSA’s new CEO skipped the event entirely, citing security concerns. In her resignation letter, the former chapter president wrote that TPUSA’s mission had become “dishonest” since Charlie Kirk’s death — a revelation that apparently required joining, leading, and publicly representing the organization for several years to arrive at.
Court dismisses GOP overseas voter eligibility lawsuit. A Michigan court dismissed a Republican lawsuit this week that sought to strip voting rights from the spouses and children of military members and civilians serving overseas. The lawsuit argued that the families of service members stationed abroad shouldn’t be allowed to vote in Michigan if they’ve never lived there. The court disagreed, as it did the last time Republicans filed this exact lawsuit. The RNC filed it again anyway, because the goal was never to win in court.
ICE is cutting back on cuffing immigrants in courthouses and warrantless arrests. The Trump administration has quietly instructed ICE officers to stop entering homes without a judicial warrant and to cut back on courthouse arrests. The retreat came after a top federal prosecutor admitted in writing that the government had been defending a memo that, in his words, “does not and has never applied” to immigration courthouse arrests, meaning ICE arrested thousands of people at courthouses based on a policy that did not exist.
Senators to introduce Hot Rotisserie Chicken Act for SNAP recipients. A bipartisan group of senators introduced the Hot Rotisserie Chicken Act this week, which would allow SNAP recipients to purchase hot rotisserie chicken, which is currently banned under a decades-old rule that permits buying the same chicken once it has cooled down. Congress is cutting $187 billion from food assistance for hungry families and also writing legislation about the correct temperature at which poor people may purchase a chicken.
