Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America.
Trump is skipping the 25th anniversary of 9/11 at Ground Zero because he isn’t allowed to give a speech. A federal judge approved a $72.5 million settlement between Bank of America and Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. Far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos has been detained by ICE in Louisiana. And the Trump administration is quietly working to hand over a piece of Yosemite National Park to a private developer.
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Trump Skipping 9/11 Ceremony Because He Can’t Give a Speech
Ground Zero asked for a moment of silence, which is the one thing Trump has never been able to give anyone.
The president will not attend the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks at Ground Zero because the ceremony doesn’t allow politicians to speak, and the organizers refused to make an exception for him. Vice President JD Vance will represent the administration instead while Trump spends the day at the Pentagon, where he can say whatever he wants.
White House officials initially told organizers that Trump planned to visit Ground Zero, but reversed course after learning that the National September 11 Memorial and Museum has barred politicians from speaking at the ceremony since 2012 in order to keep it apolitical.
Trump also plans to fly the next day to his golf course in Doonbeg, Ireland, as officials decided that leaving from Andrews Air Force Base near Washington would create fewer traffic headaches than leaving from the New York area. So, logistics of a golf trip also played a role in the decision to skip the anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack in American history.
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Bank of America Reaches $72.5 Million Settlement With Epstein Victims
Jeffrey Epstein is dead and he’s still getting better customer service than you.
A Manhattan federal judge on Thursday approved Bank of America’s $72.5 million class-action settlement with women who accused the bank of aiding Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation. Compensation is expected to be paid to almost 100 claimants.
The lawsuit, filed last October, accused Bank of America of ignoring more than $170 million in suspicious transactions between billionaire Leon Black and Epstein. Instead of stopping the transactions, the suit claims the bank helped Epstein set up his operation’s financial accounts.
Three major banks have now settled claims tied to Epstein’s crimes. JPMorgan Chase paid $290 million in 2023, and Deutsche Bank paid $75 million the same year. All three have denied responsibility while writing checks that suggest otherwise.
Right-Wing Influencer Milo Yiannopoulos Detained by ICE
ICE finally caught someone everyone can agree on.
Milo Yiannopoulos, the far-right influencer and former chief of staff for Kanye West, has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Yiannopoulos, a British-born Greek citizen, is currently being held at an ICE detention center after he was apprehended in Louisiana, according to TMZ.
Yiannopoulos has lived in the United States for years as a foreign national. He was reportedly in New Orleans for a Kanye West concert at the Caesars Superdome when he was picked up by ICE at a New Orleans airport.
Yiannopoulos gained notoriety as an editor at Breitbart News, where he became one of the loudest figures in the MAGA movement. He lost that job and a book deal in 2017 over comments that seemed to defend sexual relationships between adults and minors. He later rebranded as Kanye West’s chief of staff, and oversaw his 2024 presidential campaign.
Yiannopoulos spent the better part of a decade arguing that immigration enforcement should be faster and harsher. He is now in a position to find out whether he was right.
Trump Quietly Working to Give Part of Yosemite to Private Developer
You can’t put a price on Yosemite, but you can apparently put a driveway through it.
The Trump administration is urging the National Park Service to hand over a quarter-mile stretch of Yosemite National Park to a Nevada-based real estate company called Kingsbarn Realty Capital. The company wants to build a private road through the park, connecting its 83-acre property to a main road.
The Park Service has repeatedly rejected this exact proposal for more than 20 years under the Bush, Obama, and Biden administrations. A previous owner of the property sued to force the issue and lost twice, in district court and again on appeal.
Kingsbarn’s CEO, Jeff Pori, had never donated to a national political campaign before October 2024. Then he started making monthly contributions to Republican committees and Trump-affiliated PACs, and his company started getting meetings with the Interior Department shortly after.
Yosemite was the very first piece of land preserved by the federal government. It was done under Abraham Lincoln, who was the last Republican to actually listen to Lincoln.
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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Longtime GOP Staffers Are Abandoning Republicans to Work for Democrats. GOP staffers are jumping ship to work on Democratic Senate campaigns in Texas and Kansas heading into the midterms. Jacob Smith, who spent five years working for Republican Sen. John Cornyn, is now deputy policy director for Democrat James Talarico, who leads Attorney General Ken Paxton in recent polls. Austin Gilpin, a former GOP congressional staffer and state Republican Party employee, has signed on with the Kansas Senate campaign of Democrat Adam Hamilton. Gilpin said his former boss chose the president over decency, and that he did not leave his values behind when he switched sides.
Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Postal Service Restrictions on Mail Voting. A federal judge on Thursday blocked the U.S. Postal Service from implementing a final rule that would have allowed it to reject mail ballots submitted by voters who are not on the federal government’s list of eligible voters. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a 14-day restraining order, saying the states could not possibly comply before the November midterms, and that the Postal Service likely lacked the authority to impose the restrictions. The ruling came days after the conservative majority of the Supreme Court lifted an earlier injunction by the same judge. Talwani will hear arguments Sept. 3 on whether to impose a longer-lasting block.
Nearly a Third of Gen Z Trump Voters Say They Regret It. A new Navigator poll finds that 31 percent of Gen Z voters who backed Trump in 2024 now say they regret it, with millennials not far behind at 28 percent. That buyer’s remorse seems to be translating into action, with a separate survey from URGE and HIT Strategies finding that 93 percent of young voters say they will definitely or probably vote in the 2026 midterms, a striking number considering the historically low youth turnout. With some 49 million Gen Z members eligible to vote in November, if even a fraction of that expressed enthusiasm is realized, Republicans have a serious problem on their hands.
New Jersey Governor Signs Two Laws Reining In Data Centers. Gov. Mikie Sherrill on Thursday signed legislation requiring data center operators to report to state energy regulators every six months on their total energy consumption, peak daily water use, water sources, and backup power supplies. She also signed a separate bill ending a $500 million tax credit program her predecessor created to lure AI companies to the state. More than three dozen New Jersey towns have already voted to block new data center construction, as residents blame the facilities’ huge power demands for rising electric rates.
At Any event Trump attends wants to make it about him.