On this day in 2025, the Trump administration carried out its first known strike on a boat in the Caribbean, claiming to be target drug runners.
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administration → carry → Caribbean
Eleven people were killed.
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people → kill → ?
A year on, the death toll from such extra-legal actions stands at 223 from 67 strikes.
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toll → stand → strikes
Andrew here as we recap another hellishly busy and mostly hard-to-love news day.
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we → recap → day
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ the UAE’s “spy sheikh” and his pals own half of the Trump family’s bank, far-right influencer Milo Yiannopoulos thinks ICE should stick to brutalizing other people, and progressive Senator Ed Markey trounces Rep. Seth Moulton in Massachusetts
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Markey → own → Massachusetts
Today is also another day on which ‘First Draft’ is published without a paywall, so new readers can see what Zeteo brings to the table: all the reporting and opinion you need, on the political subjects that matter.
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that → publish → subjects
Let’s get to it.
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’s → let → it
The ‘Spy’ Who Funded Me
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Who → fund → Me
With the daily onrush of news about Donald Trump’s titanic corruption, fascism, petty grievances, and embarrassing misuse of taxpayer dollars, it can be easy to lose sight of his individual acts of graft – even when they are world-historic.
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they → lose → graft
Last year, the president made at least $1.4 billion off his cryptocurrency ventures.
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president → make → ventures
Much of that haul came from sales of his near-worthless memecoin, $TRUMP, which the president launched days before his second inauguration.
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president → come → inauguration
Even more came from his family’s crypto exchange, World Liberty Financial.
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more → come → exchange
As president, Trump has actively sought to boost the crypto industry, while signing legislation to legalize and promote the sale of crypto “stablecoins,” like those marketed by World Liberty Financial.
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Trump → seek → Financial
As bad as that all sounds, it’s only gotten worse as reporters have uncovered more details about the president’s business dealings with foreign leaders – and as the corruption has grown more staggering.
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corruption → sound → leaders
Days before Trump’s inauguration, his family inked a $500 million deal with an investment firm backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, brother to the United Arab Emirates’s president.
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family → ink → president
He’s the UAE’s national security adviser, often called the “spy sheikh.”
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He → ’ → ?
Per Bloomberg, Tahnoon is also known as “the de facto business chief of Abu Dhabi’s wealthy ruling family and the man at the helm of a $1.5 trillion empire.”
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Tahnoon → know → empire
The deal with World Liberty Financial gave Tahnoon and co. a 49% stake in the Trump family’s crypto bonanza.
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deal → give → bonanza
The public only learned many of these details in January, thanks to a Wall Street Journal report.
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public → learn → report
Of course, that was well after Trump’s second administration agreed to provide 500,000 advanced AI chips per year to the UAE, with a fifth slated to go to one of Tahnoon’s companies.
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fifth → agree → companies
The UAE had sought such AI chips before, but was rebuffed by the Biden administration.
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UAE → seek → administration
Things apparently changed after several meetings with Trump and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff (whose son is World Liberty Financial’s CEO), a visit to the White House last March, and – of course – the investment in World Liberty Financial.
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son → change → Financial
Somehow, the story keeps getting worse.
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story → get → ?
As part of the Trump administration’s unparalleled corruption, the president’s appointees recently gave World Liberty Financial “preliminary conditional approval” to launch a bank.
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appointees → give → bank
But roughly half of the bank will, naturally, belong to the Emiratis.
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half → belong → Emiratis
According to a recent Journal report, “Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan and co-investors are behind an entity that owns the largest stake – 49% – in the holding company that World Liberty Financial created to house its banking venture, according to people familiar with the matter.”
If it feels like more Americans should be mad about all of this, thankfully, it appears they are.
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they → accord → this
A new poll from UMass Amherst finds that Americans oppose Trump’s crypto grifting.
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Americans → find → grifting
Respondents were told that Trump and his family earned $1.4 billion last year from their crypto ventures, and asked if a sitting president should be allowed to profit from business ventures that could be affected by the policies and decisions of his administration.
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that → tell → administration
The response was overwhelming: 77% of Americans said the president should not be allowed to profit this way, while only 23% said it should be allowed.
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it → say → Americans
UMass additionally asked respondents whether they trust Trump to avoid using his position as president to benefit his family’s business interests.
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they → ask → interests
Roughly two-thirds of Americans said they do not.
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they → say → Americans
The only question, of course, is why there are any Americans who are OK with Trump’s crypto corruption, or who trust him to avoid using the presidency to boost his family’s business interests.
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who → be → interests
He is doing that, and then some.
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He → do → that
We’ll surely learn more soon.
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We → learn → more
Iranian officials said a U.S. airstrike hit a wedding, killing five, including a 4-year-old child, and wounding 68.
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airstrike → say → 68
The U.S. said it did not target civilians.
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it → say → civilians
Iran vowed revenge, and fired missiles and drones at U.S. sites in Jordan and other countries.
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Iran → vow → Jordan
The U.S. military also said it struck Iranian air defense, radar, and maritime assets, with Axios reporting tankers hit under a “tanker for tanker” policy.
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tankers → say → policy
Hailing what he called a “very justified attack,” Donald Trump reached for the sort of threat he has made repeatedly before backing off, saying Iran should not fight back or it would be “hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings.”
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that → hail → wings
Asked about the chances of another ceasefire, Trump told Fox: “I think an agreement with them isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.
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it → ask → paper
…and 81 more, not listed.
