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Meet the man Trump picked to pursue his war on fraud at the Justice Department

By [Hannah Rabinowitz]

Updated 1 hr 17 min ago

Updated Feb 25, 2026, 5:48 PM ET

PUBLISHED Feb 25, 2026, 4:32 PM ET

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Colin McDonald

Colin McDonald/LinkedIn

The morning after President Donald Trump declared a “war on fraud” during his State of the Union address, senior Justice Department prosecutor Colin McDonald told the Senate Judiciary Committee and said he would steadfastly follow the department’s tradition to focus only on the evidence.

“I am a career federal prosecutor,” McDonald said. “I follow the facts; I apply the law — those are the two considerations that come into play for me.”

His comment paraphrased a promise that’s core to the Justice Department, cited constantly by attorneys general under both Democratic and Republican administrations. But it didn’t directly address what he was asked: Whether McDonald, who is tapped to run a new DOJ division tasked with rooting out fraud, would follow an order from Trump to prosecute one of his own perceived enemies.

“You are now placed in a highly politicized division,” one of the Democratic senators on the committee, Mazie Hirono, warned. “We already know that the president considers the Department of Justice to be his law firm, Pam Bondi to be his lawyer. You are down the chain and I don’t see how you sit there and tell us that you are going to be independent, as much as you might want to be.”

The Trump administration has made allegations of widespread fraud a main focus of their prosecution efforts, as well as a political tool to criticize Democratic officials. Most notably, the administration has focused on a wide-ranging fraud scandal in Minnesota that prosecutors estimate could total more than $9 billion in stolen funds. The president has specifically laid blame at the feet of Democratic officials for allowing the state to become a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”

McDonald’s career was relatively low profile until he moved with his wife and five children to Washington, DC, one year ago, leaving his decadelong post at the federal prosecutor’s office in California’s Southern District to work in Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s office. There, his work focused on everything from law enforcement issues to co-chairing the so-called Weaponization Working Group.

In January, Trump announced on Truth Social his nomination of McDonald as the “first ever Assistant Attorney General for National FRAUD Enforcement, a new Division at the Department of Justice, which I created to catch and stop FRAUDSTERS that have been STEALING from the American People.”

The new division was under scrutiny before McDonald was even nominated. The Justice Department already has multiple offices that investigate criminal and civil fraud cases, leading some lawmakers and legal experts to question whether creating the new division is necessary.

And Vice President JD Vance told reporters in early January that the role will be like that of a special counsel, but “run out of the White House under the supervision of me and the president United States,” which experts said would run afoul to longstanding department efforts to stay separate from political interference.

Vance, who Trump said in his speech would lead the “war on fraud,” said Wednesday that the effort would be a “whole government approach” that included other federal departments, including the Treasury Department.

McDonald tried to ease concerns of duplicate efforts during the hearing Wednesday, saying that his office would be “complementary” of the department’s preexisting fraud sections and would initially focus on cases that involved abuses of Medicaid and SNAP funds — both of which are alleged to have taken place in Minnesota. He also pointed to a Justice Department organization chart that showed he would report directly to Bondi and Blanche, and pledged to work with federal, state or local partners “regardless of political party.”

None of the senators asked McDonald Wednesday what role Vance’s would play in his office’s efforts. The vice president said at an event later in the day that McDonald “impressed a lot of people. He certainly impressed me.”

McDonald’s attempts to appear non-political largely fell on deaf ears among Senate Democrats, who continued to push him to say definitively that he would not listen to prosecutorial demands from the president.

“If in fact the Constitution requires that the president take care that the laws be faithfully executed, it would be a dereliction of duty if they did not ensure that we stop this fraud,” Republican Sen. Ashley Moody eventually cut in. “Is that correct?”

“I agree with that, senator,” McDonald said.

This story has been updated with additional details.

李强：中德经济合作面远大于竞争面

发布时间：2026年2月26日 07:42 / 来源：联合早报

中国国务院总理李强（右八）2月25日下午在北京人民大会堂同德国总理默茨（左八）共同出席中德经济顾问委员会座谈会。 （中新社）

中国国务院总理李强说，中德经济、产业优势互补的基本格局没有变，合作面远大于竞争面，完全可以通过塑造良性的竞合关系，更好地携手发展。

据中新社报道，星期三（2月25日）下午，李强在北京人民大会堂同德国总理默茨共同出席中德经济顾问委员会座谈会。

李强说，过去一段时间以来，世界经济的不稳定不确定性总体在上升。中德作为世界两大经济体，通过持续紧密合作，既为各自发展拓展了空间，也为世界经济注入了动能。

他说，当前，世界经济仍然面临着较大挑战，单边主义、保护主义在一些国家和地区抬头甚至盛行，使国际经贸秩序遭到严重破坏。越是形势严峻，中德越应当加强合作。唯有合作，才是应对风险的最优解；唯有发展，才是保障安全的必选项。

李强说，目前中德经济都呈现回升向好势头。“十五五”时期，两国经贸合作将迎来更加广阔的空间。中德经济、产业优势互补的基本格局没有变，合作面远大于竞争面，完全可以通过塑造良性的竞合关系，更好地携手发展。

他建议，双方可以重点聚焦三个方面协同发力，实现更高水平的互利共赢。一是做强传统合作的基本盘。两国企业可以继续深耕机械、装备、化工等领域合作，加快业务本土化，不断提升韧性和效率。二是把握未来发展的新机遇。支持两国企业和科研机构推进创新资源双向流动，深入开展技术共研、平台共建、成果共享，还可以共同开拓第三方市场。三是营造投资兴业的好环境。中国将坚定不移扩大高水平对外开放，积极解决德国等外资企业合理诉求。希望德国政府提供开放、公正、非歧视的营商环境，让两国企业遵循市场原则开展合作与竞争。希望中德企业家既为推动两国经贸合作，也为增进双方沟通理解、促进双边关系稳定发挥重要作用。

吴政隆参加活动。60余位中德企业代表出席。

ICE arrested 261 DACA recipients over 10 months last year, document shows

February 25, 2026 / 4:57 PM EST / CBS News

Federal immigration agents arrested 261 beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, during the first 10 months of the second Trump administration, according to official U.S. government statistics that were shared with Congress and obtained by CBS News.

The statistics indicate the vast majority of DACA recipients taken into federal immigration custody during that period had criminal records.

The government figures provide the most comprehensive official accounting so far of how many DACA recipients, also known as “Dreamers,” have been swept up by President Trump’s nationwide deportation crackdown.

Those enrolled in the Obama-era DACA program came to the U.S. illegally or overstayed their visas as children. They were granted temporary work permits and deportation protections after passing background checks and meeting several requirements, including coming to the U.S. before June 2007, not having serious criminal histories and graduating from an American high school or serving in the military.

In a letter to Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Department of Homeland Security said that between Jan. 1 and Nov. 19, 2025, ICE arrested 261 DACA beneficiaries and deported 86 of them. That timeframe includes the final 19 days of President Joe Biden’s term, though it is unclear how many of the arrests occurred under his administration, which rarely targeted DACA beneficiaries.

DHS letter on DACA arrests and deportations

DHS said in its letter that 241 — or 92% — of the 261 DACA enrollees taken into ICE custody had “criminal histories” outside of civil immigration violations. DHS typically considers pending criminal charges and convictions as criminal histories. The letter, signed by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, did not specify the severity of the alleged criminal records.

CBS News reached out to representatives for DHS, including to request more details on the nature of the charges or convictions of the DACA recipients identified as having criminal histories.

In a statement in response to the DHS letter, Durbin and fellow Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla and Mark Kelly called the arrests of DACA recipients “deeply troubling,” saying the detentions “disrupt families, harm communities, and inflict unnecessary social, emotional, and economic costs.”

The Democratic senators also questioned the criminal figures provided by DHS, noting they’re demanding more details.

“Secretary Noem’s response to our letter claims that 241 of the 261 DACA recipients arrested had ‘criminal histories,’ without providing any further details,” they said. “DACA recipients go through strict background checks every time they renew this protection, and the Trump Administration has not hesitated to arrest immigrants with no serious criminal convictions and falsely label them the ‘worst of the worst.’”

The arrests and deportations of DACA recipients represent a significant increase from unofficial estimates by advocates about how many “Dreamers” had been arrested under Mr. Trump’s deportation campaign. But they also represent a small fraction of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants with active DACA status.

As of the end of June 2025, roughly 516,000 Dreamers were enrolled in DACA, with the majority living in states like California, Texas, Illinois, Florida and New York, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data.

DACA has been one of rare immigration programs created under a Democratic president that the second Trump administration has not yet moved to end, though the policy remains in legal peril.

Since taking office for a second time, Mr. Trump has moved swiftly to undo numerous Obama and Biden-era immigration policies, including by revoking the Temporary Protected Status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from crisis-stricken nations. But Trump administration officials, including USCIS Director Joseph Edlow, have declined to say publicly what they intend to do with DACA.

The first Trump administration tried to terminate DACA, arguing it was illegal. But the Supreme Court blocked that effort on technical grounds in 2020, allowing the policy to survive, though in a zombie-like form.

In recent years, federal courts in Texas and Louisiana have declared DACA — and the Biden administration’s efforts to codify the policy — illegal. But they have allowed current recipients to continue renewing their two-year work permits and deportation deferrals.

The Republican-led states challenging DACA’s legality, however, asked a federal judge in Texas last fall to order the Trump administration to gradually terminate the policy. It’s unclear when or how the judge will rule.

In its letter to Congress, DHS noted DACA is only a temporary protection that can be revoked.

“It comes with no right or entitlement to remain in the United States indefinitely. Aliens with certain criminal histories will not be considered for DACA,” DHS said. “Further, those who violate the terms are also subject to termination and removal.”

The high percentage of DACA arrestees with criminal histories, as outlined in the DHS letter, stands in sharp contrast with the lower criminality levels among the overall number of people taken into ICE custody under the second Trump administration.

In President Trump’s first year back in the White House, ICE arrested nearly 400,000 immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. According to an internal DHS document obtained by CBS News, less than 14% of arrestees had violent criminal records. Overall, 60% of those arrested by ICE over the past year had criminal charges or convictions, and about 40% did not have any criminal records, beyond civil immigration violations.

Trump administration defers $259M in payments until state proposes plan to stop welfare schemes

By Emma Colton
Fox News

Published February 25, 2026 5:55pm EST

Vice President JD Vance announced Wednesday that the Trump administration is temporarily halting Medicaid funding to the state of Minnesota, giving Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz 60 days to clean up how the state doles out funding.

“We have decided to temporarily halt certain amounts of Medicaid funding that are going to the state of Minnesota in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligations seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money,” Vance said Wednesday in a press event attended by Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Mehmet Oz.

The announcement comes after President Donald Trump railed against fraud in the Gopher State Tuesday evening in his State of the Union address. Minnesota has been rocked by alleged fraud surrounding social programs and welfare programs stretching back to the COVID-19 pandemic that investigators estimate could top $9 billion.

Trump pointed to his vice president as leading the administration’s “war on fraud” amid his State of the Union remarks.

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Vice President JD Vance, alongside Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz, speaks about combatting fraud Feb. 25, 2026.(Oliver Contreras / AFP via Getty Images)

Vance explained Wednesday that “we are stopping the federal payments that will go to the state government until the state government takes its obligations seriously to stop the fraud that’s being perpetrated against the American taxpayer.”

The vice president continued that officials have verified that a program in Minnesota intended to provide after-school care to autistic children actually benefited fraudsters.

“A lot of people are getting rich off the generosity of American taxpayers,” Vance said. “But more fundamentally, and more importantly than that, it means that there are kids in Minnesota who deserve these services, who need these services, and they’re not going to those kids. They’re going to fraudsters in Minneapolis. That is unacceptable. And that’s the sort of thing that we’re cutting off with this action today.”

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Sen. Joni Ernst named Gov. Tim Walz the recipient of her monthly “Squeal Award” for the sweeping Minnesota fraud scandal.(Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

Oz added that it is that the pause marks “the largest action against fraud that we’ve ever taken” at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, before launching into how the administration is deferring funds to the state.

HEAVILY-REDACTED AUDIT FINDS MINNESOTA MEDICAID HAD WIDESPREAD VULNERABILITIES

“It’s going to be $259 million of deferred payments for Medicaid to Minnesota, which we’re announcing as I speak, to Governor Walz and his team,” Oz said. “That’s based on an audit of the last three months of 2025. Restated: a quarter billion dollars is not going to be paid this month to Minnesota for its Medicaid claims.”

“We have notified the state and said that we will give them the money, but we’re going to hold it and only release it after they propose and act on a comprehensive corrective action plan to solve the problem,” Oz said. “If Minnesota fails to clean up the systems, the state will rack up $1 billion of deferred payments this year.”

Walz has 60 days to respond to a letter Oz and the administration sent to Walz on the matter, Oz said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Walz’s office Wednesday afternoon for comment and has yet to receive a reply.

Oz continued that he believes Walz will take the matter seriously, and noted fraud is not exclusive to Minnesota, but also other states.

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Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz attends a press conference at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., on June 30.(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“These schemes disproportionately involve immigrant communities,” Oz continued. “They’re insulated, they’re able to … organize efforts, and sometimes they don’t understand what’s going on.”

Vance added that the administration does not want to make this move, but it is needed due to Minnesota being “careless with federal tax dollars.”

“All we need the governor and the administration of Minnesota to do is something quite simple, which is to show that before you give Medicaid funds to somebody, you’re taking seriously whether they provided the services that they say that they’re providing,” the vice president said, calling the fraud a “disgrace.”

MINNESOTA DEMOCRATS DEMAND REPARATIONS FROM ICE AFTER LOSING $18 BILLION TO SOMALI FRAUD

Trump spotlighted the fraud in his State of the Union address Tuesday, underscoring that while Minnesota has taken the spotlight, schemes run deep in other states as well.

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President Donald Trump warned during his State of the Union speech about Iran’s nuclear program.(Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP)

“When it comes to the corruption that is plundering — it really, it’s plundering America — there’s been no more stunning example than Minnesota, where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer,” Trump said. “Oh, we have all the information.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“And in actuality, the number is much higher than that, and California, Massachusetts, Maine and many other states are even worse. This is the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation, and we are working on it like you wouldn’t believe,” he continued, before naming Vance as the administration leader taking on fraud.

Related Article

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JD Vance spearheads ‘war on fraud,’ promises to root out taxpayer money ‘stolen’ by illegal immigrants

FBI’s head of congressional affairs stepping down, sources say

February 25, 2026 / 6:16 PM EST / CBS News

Marshall Yates, who led the FBI’s congressional affairs office, is departing from the bureau, multiple sources told CBS News.

Yates, a former Capitol Hill staffer, last year served as one of the FBI’s representatives on the Interagency Weaponization Working Group, which is composed of dozens of government officials from at least 12 different government offices who are tasked with carrying out President Trump’s quest for retribution against his political enemies, according to other sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Yates was one of several FBI employees assigned to the group.

He has also been involved with the Justice Department-led Weaponization Working Group on topics including the prosecutions of Jan. 6 rioters and the potential reinstatement of fired former FBI agents who have claimed they were removed during the Biden administration for complaints about COVID-19 protocols, the Jan. 6 cases and other issues, those sources said.

Yates’ last day is expected to be Friday, a source said. His departure was reported earlier by ProPublica.

A source familiar with Yates’ plans told CBS News he was stepping down to spend more time with family and is working to help find his replacement.

CBS News reached out to Yates for comment.

As the head of congressional affairs, Yates has been the key point person for discussions with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley.

Over the last year, Grassley has repeatedly released a series of documents related to the FBI’s investigation into President Trump, known as “Arctic Frost,” without redacting agent names.

After those names became public, the FBI went on to fire them.

Among them was Walt Giardina, a former agent who worked on investigations into Trump and his political allies.

Former Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll and other former senior officials have filed a lawsuit filed against the FBI, alleging that the then-head of the D.C. office begged FBI Director Kash Patel and Yates in a meeting not to disclose Giardina’s name to Capitol Hill, telling them that Giardina’s wife was dying of cancer and that doing so would also “trigger a torrent of online abuse and threats of violence.”

Giardina’s name was later released in records from Grassley’s office, and Giardina was fired.

Yates previously worked on Capitol Hill for Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who is locked in a war of words with the Justice Department over its handling of the release of the Epstein files.

He was also previously an aide to Congressman Mo Brooks and worked with the Election Integrity Network, a group spearheaded by Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who was involved in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Mitchell raised questions about ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, and participated in a call with Mr. Trump and the Georgia secretary of state, in which the president asked him to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

Trump administration’s ‘third country’ deportation policy is unlawful, judge rules

Published Feb 25, 2026, 5:33 PM ET / Source: Associated Press

Members of the Venezuela’s General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence stand guard as a flight carrying migrants deported from the United States arrives at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, on January 19.

Maxwell Briceno/Anadolu/Getty Images

The Trump administration’s latest policy of deporting immigrants to “third countries” to which they have no ties is unlawful and must be set aside, a federal judge ruled Wednesday in a case that already reached the nation’s highest court.

US District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts agreed to suspend his decision for 15 days, giving the government time to appeal his latest ruling in the case. Murphy noted that the US Supreme Court ruled in the administration’s favor last year, pausing his previous decision and clearing the way for a flight carrying several migrants to complete its trip to war-torn South Sudan, where they had no ties.

Murphy said migrants challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s policy have the right to “meaningful notice” and an opportunity to object before they are removed to a third country. The policy “extinguishes valid challenges to third-country removal by effecting removal before those challenges can be raised,” the judge concluded.

“These are our laws, and it is with profound gratitude for the unbelievable luck of being born in the United States of America that this Court affirms these and our nation’s bedrock principle: that no ‘person’ in this country may be ‘deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,’” Murphy wrote.

In June, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority found that immigration officials can quickly deport people to third countries. Liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, saying the ruling gives the government special treatment.

Murphy said President Donald Trump’s administration has repeatedly violated — or tried to violate — his orders. Last March, he noted, the Defense Department deported at least six class members to El Salvador and Mexico without providing the process required under a temporary restraining order that Murphy issued. DHS issued its new policy guidance for third-country removals on March 30, two days after Murphy’s order.

“The simple reality is that nobody knows the merits of any individual class member’s claim because (administration officials) are withholding the predicate fact: the country of removal,” wrote Murphy, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden.

Murphy said the DHS third-country removal policy has targeted immigrants who were granted protection from being sent back to their home countries, where they feared being tortured or persecuted in other ways.

Eight men who were sent to South Sudan in May had been convicted of crimes in the US and had final orders of removal, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said.

古巴：美籍快艇闯古巴领海并开火 边防队还击打死四人

2026年2月26日 07:06 / 联合早报

古巴海岸警卫队在古巴海岸附近与一艘美国注册的快艇发生交火，造成四人死亡，六人受伤。

事件发生在在古巴比亚克拉拉省附近领海内，法新社引述古巴内务部星期三（2月25日）在哈瓦那发布的通报称，当一艘边防警卫队船只靠近这艘佛罗里达州注册的快艇以核实乘客身份时，“船上有人开枪”，导致古巴船只的船长受伤。

内政部说，“冲突导致四名外方人员死亡，另有六人受伤”，并补充说，伤者已疏散并接受了医疗救助。

通报没有提及外方袭击者身份。内务部说，主管部门正在调查这一事件。

佛州将对枪击事件展开调查

美国佛罗里达州总检察长说，政府已对古巴边防警卫队枪杀四人的事件展开调查。

在古巴当局称该快艇“非法”并称遭到枪击后，总检察长詹姆斯·乌斯迈尔（James Uthmeier）在社交媒体上发帖称：“我已经指示州检察办公室与联邦、州和执法部门的合作伙伴合作，展开调查。”

乌斯迈尔是首名就此事件发表评论的美国官员，他说，古巴政府不可信赖，佛州将竭尽全力追究责任。

新华社报道，现阶段，古巴与美国关系紧张加剧。1月29日，美国总统特朗普签署行政令，威胁对向古巴提供石油国家的输美商品加征从价关税。2月6日，古巴宣布一系列措施应对美国新一轮石油封锁。

What’s behind the Anthropic-Pentagon feud

February 25, 2026 / 6:33 PM EST / CBS News

Washington — The Pentagon gave Anthropic an ultimatum this week: Give the U.S. military unrestricted use of its AI technology or face a ban from all government contracts.

At the center of the issue is a question of who controls how artificial intelligence models are used, the Pentagon or the company’s CEO.

The Pentagon’s AI contracts

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The Pentagon awarded Anthropic a $200 million contract in July to develop AI capabilities that would advance U.S. national security.

Anthropic’s rivals, including OpenAI, Google and xAI were also awarded $200 million contracts by the Pentagon last year.

Anthropic is currently the only AI company to have its model deployed on the Pentagon’s classified networks, through a partnership with data analytics giant Palantir.

A senior Pentagon official told CBS News that Grok, which is owned by Elon Musk’s xAI, is on board with being used in a classified setting, and other AI companies are close.

The Pentagon announced last month that it’s looking to accelerate its uses of AI, saying the technology could help the military “rapidly convert intelligence data” and “make our Warfighters more lethal and efficient.”

Clash over the guardrails

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The standoff between the Pentagon and Anthropic was reportedly set off by the U.S. military’s use of its technology, known as Claude, during the operation to capture former Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in January.

Anthropic has repeatedly asked the Pentagon to agree to certain guardrails, among them a restriction on using Claude to conduct mass surveillance of Americans, sources told CBS News.

And the company also wants to ensure Claude is not used by the Pentagon for final targeting decisions in military operations without any human involvement, one source familiar with the matter said. Claude is not immune from hallucinations and not reliable enough to avoid potentially lethal mistakes, like unintended escalation or mission failure without human judgment, the source said.

When asked for comment, a senior Pentagon official said: “This has nothing to do with mass surveillance and autonomous weapons being used. The Pentagon has only given out lawful orders.”

Pentagon officials have expressed concerns to Anthropic that the company’s guardrails could stand in the way of critical actions, such as responding to an intercontinental ballistic missile launched toward the United States.

Any company-imposed restrictions “could create a dynamic where we start using them and get used to how those models work, and when it comes that we need to use it in an urgent situation, we’re prevented from using it,” Emil Michael, the undersecretary of defense for research, said at an event in February.

On the question of when AI is used to strike or kill military targets and makes a mistake, who is liable — the military or the AI company — a defense official said: Legality is the Pentagon’s responsibility as the end user.

What top leaders are saying

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Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has been vocal in expressing his concerns about the potential dangers of AI and has centered the company’s brand around safety and transparency.

In a lengthy essay last month, Amodei warned of the potential for abuse of the technologies, writing that “a powerful AI looking across billions of conversations from millions of people could gauge public sentiment, detect pockets of disloyalty forming, and stamp them out before they grow.”

“Democracies normally have safeguards that prevent their military and intelligence apparatus from being turned inwards against their own population, but because AI tools require so few people to operate, there is potential for them to circumvent these safeguards and the norms that support them. It is also worth noting that some of these safeguards are already gradually eroding in some democracies,” he wrote.

Amodei has long backed what he describes as “sensible AI regulation,” including rules that would require AI companies to be transparent about the risks posed by their models and any steps taken to mitigate them.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, has favored a lighter touch, and has argued that stringent AI regulations could stifle innovation and make it harder for the American AI industry to compete. The administration has sought to block what it calls “excessive” state-level regulations. At one point last year, venture capitalist and White House AI and crypto adviser David Sacks accused Anthropic of “fear-mongering” and suggested its interest in AI regulations is self-serving.

In a January speech, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth derided what he views as “social justice infusions that constrain and confuse our employment of this technology.”

“We will not employ AI models that won’t allow you to fight wars,” Hegseth declared. “We will judge AI models on this standard alone; factually accurate, mission relevant, without ideological constraints that limit lawful military applications. Department of War AI will not be woke. It will work for us. We’re building war-ready weapons and systems, not chatbots for an Ivy League faculty lounge.”

What’s next in the Anthropic v. Pentagon saga

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Hegseth gave Anthropic until Friday, Feb. 28, to agree to give the U.S. military unrestricted use of its technology or risk being blacklisted, sources familiar with the situation told CBS News.

Pentagon officials are considering invoking the Defense Production Act to compel Anthropic to comply on national security grounds.

Or, if an agreement can’t be reached, defense officials have discussed declaring the company a “supply chain risk” to push it out of government, according to the sources.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/pentagon-at-odds-with-tech-company-anthropic-over-ai-model/

Analysis: Hear the similarities between Biden’s 2024 SOTU address and Trump’s 2026 SOTU address on the economy | CNN Politics

2026-02-25T22:36:35.829Z / CNN

Analysis: Hear the similarities between Biden’s 2024 SOTU address and Trump’s 2026 SOTU address on the economy

Analysis: Hear the similarities between Biden’s 2024 SOTU address and Trump’s 2026 SOTU address on the economy

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Analysis: Hear the similarities between Biden’s 2024 SOTU address and Trump’s 2026 SOTU address on the economy

CNN’s Kasie Hunt breaks down the similarities between President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address on the economy and former President Joe Biden’s 2024 address.

02:14 • Source: CNN

Politics of the Day 12 videos

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Analysis: Hear the similarities between Biden’s 2024 SOTU address and Trump’s 2026 SOTU address on the economy

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Trump attacks justices who ruled against his tariffs

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