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Judge finds Elon Musk, Kristi Noem engaged in premeditated campaign to smear ex-FEMA official

2026-10-15T16:25:00-0400 / CBS News

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Updated on: October 15, 2026 / 4:26 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — A federal judge on Tuesday found that billionaire Elon Musk and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, as well as other senior Trump administration officials, engaged in a coordinated campaign to spread false information about a former FEMA official and impugn her integrity.

U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick condemned the Trump administration for what he said was “outrageous” conduct targeting Mary Comans, who he said was “professionally targeted and personally attacked by government officials for no legitimate reason.”

Comans, a career civil servant, was most recently the chief financial officer at FEMA until she was fired in February 2025 without cause.

While Comans was told that her firing was an exercise of the president’s power to remove executive officials, the Department of Homeland Security published a press release that falsely accused her of “circumventing” agency leaders to make “egregious” payments to New York City for luxury hotels for undocumented migrants. The Trump administration also accused her of violating an executive order signed by President Trump on the first day of his second term that directed federal agencies to pause funding to nongovernmental organizations providing services to immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

But the decision to continue payments to state and local governments, including two issued to New York City, was made by senior officials at DHS and FEMA, and was approved by employees with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the cost-cutting task force that was overseen by Musk, according to court records. Because of that approval, Comans was told to continue the payments to the state and local governments.

Still, DHS and senior administration officials, including Noem, Musk and Corey Lewandowski, who served as a top aide to Noem, made a series of statements about Comans that they knew were false, the court found.

“These facts establish that high-ranking government officials, including then Secretary of DHS Kristi Noem and Elon Musk, engaged in a coordinated public relations campaign to impugn the personal and professional integrity of Ms. Comans,” Fitzpatrick wrote. “For reasons unfathomable to this Court, officials chose to turn the power of the federal government against a singular employee with an impeccable record of public service.”

As part of its campaign targeting Comans, Musk, who served as a special government employee and oversaw DOGE, shared a photo of her on X and falsely accused Comans of engaging in “criminal action” by allegedly funneling millions of dollars to hotels in New York City. The court said Musk knew, or should’ve known, that his DOGE employees approved the payments. Fitzpatrick also said the social media post with Comans’ photo and false characterization of her actions “was clearly intended to make her afraid.”

“Posting Ms. Comans’ picture served no legitimate governmental interest and was little more than state sanctioned intimidation,” Fitzpatrick wrote.

The judge also said that Noem and Lewandowski provided false information to Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist, about Comans with the expectation that she would disseminate it to her social media followers.

“Armed only with false statements, high-ranking government officials undertook a premeditated campaign to impugn the personal and professional integrity of Ms. Comans, a nonpartisan, career public servant,” Fitzpatrick found. “Their intent was to disseminate false and derogatory information about Ms. Comans as widely as possible.”

The decision from Fitzpatrick stemmed from a name-clearing proceeding that was conducted after a federal judge ruled in July that Comans was fired without due process.

Comans had filed a lawsuit in July 2025 that challenged her removal and argued that DHS and FEMA harmed her reputation by falsely accusing her of funneling millions of dollars to New York City for the hotels.

The judge said all of the accusations leveled against Comans by Trump administration officials, including that she engaged in criminal activity, misspent federal funds and laundered “forbidden funding,” were not true.

“The attacks against Ms. Comans were based entirely on false information, and many government officials knew the accusations were untrue at the time they were made,” Fitzpatrick said. “With no regard for the truth and with no consideration for the personal and professional effect on Ms. Comans, government officials exploited their access to mass media outlets to broadcast false information.”

CBS News has reached out to DHS and to attorneys for Musk and Noem for comment.

Ousted general warned of years-long missile defense shortage before Iran war

2026-10-15T16:28:00-0400 / CBS News

Washington — In late December, two months before the U.S. war with Iran began, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George warned that his service was critically short on missile defense munitions and that the shortage would last another five years, according to multiple U.S. officials familiar with the matter. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ousted George in April, as the Iran war was underway.

George’s risk analysis appeared in the Pentagon’s Global Force Management Allocation Plan, a defense secretary-approved annual order determining where troops and weapons will be allocated across the globe, according to the U.S. officials who spoke to CBS News.

He warned that the stockpile of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense batteries and Patriot missiles would continue to be strategically low until 2030. His assessment was written for the Defense Department’s plan for fiscal year 2027 and before the outbreak of the U.S.-Israel-led war with Iran, now in its seventh month.

U.S. officials who spoke to CBS News under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly said his assessment stemmed from the transfer of Patriots to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in 2022, the expenditure of munitions to defend Israel, and the reduced capacity of the defense industrial base.

CBS News is withholding the exact percentage figures conveyed by U.S. officials because of security concerns, and George declined to comment. U.S. officials say that while the U.S. possesses a significant stockpile of some offensive munitions, like the Joint Direct Attack Munition and Small Diameter Bombs, missile defense munitions used in Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, batteries, and Patriot missile systems are at low strategic-risk levels.

The THAAD system is one of the U.S. military’s most advanced missile defense systems, designed to intercept and destroy incoming ballistic missiles during the final phase of their flight, either inside or just outside Earth’s atmosphere. The Army has eight THAAD batteries. Each battery consists of 90 soldiers who operate six truck-mounted launchers, with each truck possessing eight launchers. A full battery controls 48 interceptors, according to a 2025 report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

The Patriot air-defense system is designed to protect military installations, troops and other critical infrastructure from incoming ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as hostile aircraft. It can engage a broader range of aerial threats at lower altitudes than a THAAD battery, but when used together, they provide even more effective overlapping layers of defense against missile attacks.

The Patriot munition at a critical low is the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, or PAC-3, a high-velocity surface-to-air interceptor designed to destroy incoming tactical ballistic missiles and cruise missiles by ramming into them. PAC-3s can also bring down enemy aircraft, according to U.S. officials who spoke to CBS News.

“Those are the two Army munitions that would be most heavily used in a conflict with China,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and CSIS Defense and Security senior adviser. “You’re not gonna use that many Javelins, for example, because the amount of ground combat is going to be relatively limited, even artillery will be limited, but air defense — missile defense — that will be huge.”

An April estimate from the Center for Strategic and International Studies showed that it currently takes defense contractors four years and five months to complete delivery of new THAAD interceptor contracts. Patriot PAC-3 interceptor orders have an average delivery time of three and a half years.

CSIS’ estimate said that before the Iran war, the U.S. entered 2026 with roughly 2,300 or so Patriot interceptors and expended between 1,050 and 1,430 during the conflict, potentially consuming as much as 61% of its prewar inventory. Fewer than 500 replenishment munitions were expected to be delivered in fiscal year 2026.

The stockpile for THAAD systems prior to the Iran war sat at around 355 interceptors, with the Iran war using between 190 to 290, or about 82% of its prewar inventory, according to CSIS. There were no expected deliveries for replenishment in fiscal year 2026. In the current fiscal year — 2027 — the U.S. has requested more than 800 THAADs.

Two of the nation’s largest defense contractors — Lockheed Martin and RTX, through its Raytheon business — are involved in manufacturing these systems and their key components. They’ve recently signed agreements aimed at accelerating production.

In January, Lockheed Martin announced a plan to quadruple the production capacity of THAADs from 96 to 400 interceptors per year.

While the war with Iran has caused missile defense munitions to be depleted at a much higher rate, decades of Pentagon spending decisions, a shrinking defense industrial base and successive military operations that consume weapons faster than manufacturers can replace them have contributed to the current shortages.

One U.S. official told CBS News that even if the United States could avoid expending additional THAAD or Patriot munitions in Iran or in other conflicts, it would take until the midterm elections of the next presidential administration — 2030 — to replenish the stockpile to the already-low December 2025 levels.

Contacted by CBS News, Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said, “Claims of U.S. munitions shortages are false. When the Fake News media irresponsibly amplifies these lies, the real-world consequences is clear: our enemies are emboldened to provide — or attack — American troops.”

He added that the U.S. still has “everything required to strike at the time and place of the President’s choosing.”

“Across multiple combatant commands,” Parnell said, “we have already executed successful operations while maintaining a deep, ready arsenal to defend our people and our interests.”

How munitions are used around the world

The U.S. military is divided into 11 unified combatant commands, each responsible for either a region of the world or specialized military mission. For operations against Iran, U.S. Central Command, led by Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, is in charge.

Each combatant command needs a certain number of troops and weapons. The Pentagon uses a framework known as Global Force Management to decide where American troops, their units and some of the military’s most sought-after weapons are sent around the world.

The Global Force Management Allocation Plan, or GFMAP, is at the center of the process, laying out which forces will be provided to combatant commanders, for what missions and for how long.

The plan is typically organized around the federal fiscal year. Generally, the Pentagon enters a new fiscal year with an existing plan for many of the forces expected to deploy or remain deployed during the coming 12 to 24 months, rather than deciding from scratch each time a commander asks for troops or weapons.

But the plan is not set in stone. Wars erupt, crises develop, missions end and commanders are faced with unanticipated events to address.

For instance, the commander of U.S. European Command might want more Patriots in Poland at the same time that U.S. Central Command wants those same resources in Kuwait, while U.S. Indo-Pacific Command may also need the systems for contingencies involving China.

There’s a constant shuffling of troops and assets from one region to another — in one instance in April 2025, Adm. Samuel Paparo, the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Army had transferred a Patriot battalion from his region to U.S. Central Command amid ongoing fighting with the Iranian-back Houthi rebels in Yemen.

What led to the current weapons systems shortage?

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, American military planners abandoned the assumption that the U.S. might need to fight a prolonged war against another superpower, explained Cancian.

“After the Cold War, we planned on fighting short regional conflicts against countries like Iraq or North Korea. And for those countries we didn’t need the large inventories that we had needed during the Cold War,” Cancian said. “We needed much smaller inventories.”

He added: “We shrank the industrial base. There was the famous ‘Last Supper’ which was literally a dinner that the deputy defense secretary put on for the heads of the defense industry, and he told them there’s not enough money to keep you all in business, so you’re going to have to consolidate or move out of the business, which they did.”

The resulting mergers reduced the number of major aerospace and defense contractors from 51 to five, according to the CSIS analysis.

Also, historically, the Pentagon’s procurement decisions have reduced spending on ammunition and missiles to free up money for fighter jets, tanks and warships, even while acknowledging that those weapons are essential to war fighting.

Cancian told CBS News that the consolidation of the defense industrial base shaped an industry that produces efficiently during peacetime but is not designed to surge production.

“We squeezed all the surge out because it was seen as unnecessary. So, that’s where we end up when the war in Ukraine begins,” said Cancian. “And after six months or so, we realized that we just don’t have enough munitions and equipment for a protracted conflict.”

Under the Biden administration, there was a renewed interest in building surge capabilities back into the defense industrial base but that would take time. As the war between Russia and Ukraine began in full, the U.S. transferred roughly 600 Patriot interceptor missiles to Ukraine. However, not all of those weapons came from American military stockpiles; some were manufactured through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative or provided by European countries.

Additionally, both Biden and Trump administrations used Patriot and THAAD missile interceptors to defend Israel against Iranian strikes. Six months before Gen. George’s warning assessment, U.S. forces fired roughly 150 THAAD interceptors and almost 80 Patriot interceptors during the Twelve Day War.

Cancian noted that the five-year timeline to bring Patriot and THAAD stockpiles just to the low pre-Iran war levels is based on the assumption that the production schedule stays on track — and that additional military operations do not further deplete the inventory.

This story published first on CBS News at 4:28 p.m. on Oct. 15, 2026.

Trump ally removed from role after report of State Department feud

2026-10-15 6:40 PM ET / CNN

By Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood

Paolo Zampolli reacts during a visit to Belgrade on April 21, 2026.

Oliver Bunic/AFP/Getty Images

A political appointee with deep ties to the Trump family has been removed from his special envoy role following a report of a feud with a top State Department official.

Paolo Zampolli, who served as US special envoy for global partnerships, “was notified today that his status as an envoy has been terminated and he is no longer a government employee,” a US official said Thursday. Two other officials confirmed he’d been removed.

The news of his termination comes hours after a Politico report detailing a monthslong dispute between Zampolli and Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. According to the report, the feud played out over email on a widespread number of topics, particularly related to chain of command, and messages between the two included personal attacks.

Zampolli is the second Trump administration diplomat who had personal ties to President Donald Trump to be ousted from the administration in recent days, following the forced resignation of Kimberly Guilfoyle who had served as the US ambassador to Greece.

Zampolli, a businessman and former modeling agent, represented Melania Trump. He hosted a party in 1998 where he said he introduced Melania Trump to her would-be husband.

In a statement Thursday, Zampolli noted that his special envoy role, which was only supposed to last a year, had already been extended by Trump for six months.

“Years ago, (Trump) told me I was too good for modeling and brought me into real estate,” he said. “Now he told me: ‘Why do you want to work in government when you can close all these deals?’”

“The President is always right,” Zampolli said, adding that “serving him and the United States has been the greatest honor of my life.”

“I am deeply grateful to President Trump, Vice President (JD) Vance, Secretary (Marco) Rubio and the entire team,” he said. “Now it is time for the next chapter – back to business, building relationships and closing deals.”

“President Trump changed my life once. He just did it again,” Zampolli said.

Trump announced Zampolli as special envoy for global partnerships in March 2025.

“With his extensive experience working with the United Nations, the Kennedy Center, and various International initiatives, Paolo will help us advance America’s Interests on the Global stage,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time.

Zampolli served on the Board of the Kennedy Center during Trump’s first term and was also an ambassador to the UN for the Caribbean island of Dominica.

Zampolli touted securing business deals for the administration while serving as special envoy.

He stirred controversy earlier this year related to the World Cup when he suggested Italy, where he was born, could play in the place of Iran. He told CNN at the time that he believed Iran was no longer participating amid the war with the US. Italy had failed to qualify.

“A World Cup without Messi is not a World Cup,” Zampolli said. “Italy has the same merits after winning four times the World Cup.”

Ilhan Omar’s husband snaps over rumors she fled US after federal immigration fraud raid

2026-10-15T16:10:41-04:00 / Fox News

Omar’s husband told reporters they were ‘annoying the hell out of all the neighbors’ outside the residence

By Hannah Brennan Fox News

Published October 15, 2026 4:10pm EDT | Updated October 15, 2026 5:02pm EDT

SEE IT: Ilhan Omar’s husband responds to rumors she fled the country following federal raid

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s, D-Minn., husband, Tim Mynett, responds to rumors that the congresswoman fled the country after HSI raided their Washington, D.C., home as part of a federal criminal investigation. (Credit: Nicholas Ballasy for Fox News Digital)

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While Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has not been seen publicly since federal agents raided her Washington, D.C., residence on Monday, her political consultant husband was once again spotted emerging from their shared rental home this week.

Tim Mynett was seen Wednesday stepping out in the neighborhood to walk their Golden Labrador Retriever dog Teddy, a second time later that same day to take out the trash and a third time to walk out his wife’s staffer.

“There are rumors that the congresswoman left the country, is that true?” Mynett was asked while on an evening walk with Teddy.

“You guys are annoying the hell out of all the neighbors around here, man,” he told Fox News Digital when approached about the developments this week, including President Donald Trump weighing in on the saga.

One of Omar’s congressional staffers was captured the same day bringing into the couple’s home two large bags from fast food chain Burger King. Security escorted her to the door and staked out in front of the house after she entered with the meal.

ILHAN OMAR’S EMBATTLED HUSBAND APPEARS AT SCENE OF HSI RAID IN MIDST OF CRIMINAL FRAUD INVESTIGATION

An image of Ilhan Omar overlaid over her neighborhood in DC.(Getty Images)

Rumors swirled that Omar fled from the country following the raid carried out by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) as part of a criminal fraud investigation looking into the Somali-born congresswoman’s immigration paperwork, as first reported by Fox News Digital.

Omar’s cellphone and passport were reportedly seized by federal authorities during the search.

The congresswoman’s staff helped to get her birth year adjusted from 1981 to 1982 in the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, according to reporters. Omar gained citizenship automatically through her father’s naturalization since she was reportedly 17 years old at the time. If Omar was born in 1981, she would have been 18 years old, meaning the validity of her citizenship could be threatened because she was no longer a minor.

The altered birthdate was published during her entire time serving in Minnesota’s House and for months into her time serving in Congress.

When asked about the federal investigation earlier this week, Mynett told Fox News Digital he has “no concerns” about what federal authorities will find on his wife while investigating her immigration pathway.

“My wife came here when she was 12 years old as a child war refugee,” Mynett said. “No concerns.”

His comments to Fox News Digital come after Omar’s relatives were reportedly issued subpoenas as part of HSI’s investigation into the congresswoman’s immigration paperwork. At least two of Omar’s relatives were subpoenaed, one of which is reportedly Omar’s sister, Sahra Noor.

ILHAN OMAR’S HUSBAND INSISTS HE HAS ‘NO CONCERNS’ AMID FEDERAL IMMIGRATION INVESTIGATION

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Fox News Digital asked Mynett about President Donald Trump publicly questioning Omar’s net worth by alleging on Truth Social that her accountant may have reported fraudulent money when her previous financial disclosure listed the couple’s shared net worth as high as $30 million.

“Why did Ilhan Omar report a Net Worth of up to 30 Million Dollars just a short time ago, and then immediately say, “Oh, I made a mistake! It’s really $100,000.” Could it be that her highly paid accountant actually reported the money that was stolen from her fraudulent activities in Minnesota? Would something like that be possible? Do you think the accountant actually gave the right number the first time, 30 Million Dollars, and then she was forced to disavow because she never would have been able to report where that much money came from? She must have freaked out when she saw that money!” Trump posted to Truth Social on Tuesday.

“Where did her house come from, where did her cars come from, and what about her lovely place in Washington, D.C.? I didn’t know that Congressmen and women made that kind of money, but I do know her husband, according to information and belief, makes almost nothing, so it couldn’t have come from him. How many people did she illegally bring into our Country from Somalia? America wants answers, and we want them, NOW!”

Mynett is at the center of yet another investigation into Omar — this time looking into her finances.

Following Monday’s HSI raid, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Tuesday that her office is also investigating Omar’s financial disclosures about reporting of her and Mynett’s shared net worth.

OMAR FACES MOUNTING SCRUTINY AFTER FRAUD RINGLEADER SENTENCED TO 41 YEARS

Rep. Ilhan Omar sits with husband Tim Mynett during the first day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 19, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois.(Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Scrutiny of Omar’s finances intensified after her 2024 congressional financial disclosure listed business interests associated with Mynett valued between $6 million and $30 million. Omar’s office subsequently said the figures were incorrect and amended the filing.

The largest change in the documents was from Mynett’s assets. His reported ownership interests in both his winery and venture capital advisory firm, which were previously valued in the millions of dollars, are listed with no value now.

In Omar’s 2024 financial disclosure records, Mynett’s share in his winery was valued between $1 million and $5 million, and his share at the venture capital advisory firm was valued between $5 million and $25 million. Now, his equity interests are both listed at $0.

Omar’s office previously told Fox News Digital that Mynett has partners in both businesses and said the earlier disclosure mistakenly reflected the businesses’ total equity rather than his ownership interest. The office also said the original filing listed assets without accounting for liabilities.

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Officials noted that the investigation into Omar’s financial disclosures is unrelated to the raid on her home.

Hannah is a Production Assistant for the Politics team at Fox News Digital.

Kristi Noem no longer serving as Trump envoy to Shield of the Americas

October 15, 2026 / 5:00 PM EDT / CBS News

By Olivia Gazis

Olivia Gazis

Olivia Gazis covers intelligence and international security matters for CBS News. Twice Emmy-nominated, she has traveled worldwide with the secretary of state and contributes reporting on intelligence, foreign policy and other security topics across CBS News broadcast, radio, online and streaming platforms.

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Olivia Gazis

Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is no longer serving as the Trump administration’s special envoy for the Shield of the Americas initiative, a State Department official said Thursday, though she remains involved in the administration’s efforts to coordinate security cooperation across the Western Hemisphere.

“Kristi Noem’s envoy status expired last month and she is no longer in the role,” a State Department official told CBS News Thursday. “She is now a senior advisor to Deputy Secretary Landau and continues to work on the Shield of the Americas portfolio.”

The Shield of the Americas is a coalition made up of the United States and several Caribbean and Latin American countries established by the Trump administration earlier this year to cooperate on economic matters, anti-cartel enforcement and other issues.

Noem’s envoy designation expired just before the United Nations General Assembly last month in New York, where she continued participating in diplomatic meetings connected to the initiative.

On Sept. 22, she met with Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, whose government publicly identified her as the special envoy for the Shield of the Americas. She also attended a gathering of Shield of the Americas leaders hosted by President Trump, where he publicly acknowledged her work.

“I want to thank Kristi Noem for doing a really terrific job,” Mr. Trump said during his remarks.

Noem was appointed special envoy for the Shield of the Americas in March, after she was removed as homeland security secretary amid mounting scrutiny of her management of the department and the influence of her adviser, Corey Lewandowski.

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Her transition to the envoy role coincided with a five-country tour of Latin America and the Caribbean in March, much of which took place as she completed her tenure as homeland security secretary. Lewandowski appeared in photographs during those visits, though the State Department later clarified he had no formal position at the department.

Her public activities in the envoy role appear to have been limited, and included meeting Noboa in Quito on March 25, holding discussions with Ecuadorian and Colombian diplomats in Washington in September, and participating in meetings with regional leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

This story published first on CBS News at 5:00 p.m. on Oct. 15, 2026.

Vance says “selling access to the White House” is “disgusting and despicable”

October 15, 2026 / 7:31 PM EDT / CBS News

By Joe Walsh

Vice President JD Vance told CBS News on Thursday that anybody who is “selling access to the White House” should “suffer consequences.”

Vance spoke with “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil during a one-hour town hall in Michigan that is set to air on Saturday evening, less than three weeks before the midterm elections.

Dokoupil pointed to a string of recent reports, including Mr. Trump’s staggering cryptocurrency earnings, and the ousting of U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle over allegations she asked a man who was seeking help from the Trump administration to wire her $100,000.

“First of all, if somebody’s selling access to the White House, that’s disgusting and despicable and they should suffer consequences,” Vance responded.

He went on to say, “I want to make those judgments based on the facts and not based on a random news media report that I read.”

Guilfoyle has denied wrongdoing. Mr. Trump has denied any conflicts of interest.

Congressional Democrats have vowed to investigate the Trump administration if they win control of the House or Senate, which would grant them control over committees and allow them to issue subpoenas to administration officials.

Asked if the administration would comply with any subpoenas, Vance said: “Of course I will. Look, I mean, we follow the law.”

Watch CBS News’ “Things That Matter: A Town Hall With Vice President JD Vance” on Saturday, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the CBS Television Network or stream it on Paramount+. The one-hour special will also be available to watch afterward on CBSNews.com, YouTube and CBS News 24/7.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/vance-talks-economy-inflation-corruption-cbs-news-town-hall/

The White House won’t even try to explain Trump’s fictional inflation numbers

2026-10-15T20:04:11.777Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/15/politics/trump-using-fictional-inflation-numbers

The actual inflation numbers aren’t good for President Donald Trump and his party. So Trump has come up with something of a solution: just use fake inflation numbers.

Trump has been lying about inflation throughout the midterm election campaign. Among other things, he has falsely declared he has “already stopped the inflation” (it accelerated again in September), that “prices are now coming way down” (they have continued rising), and that prices are now “way down” from when former president Joe Biden left office in January 2025 (they are up 5.4% on average).

But in a series of rally speeches and comments to the press this week, Trump has gone a step further – deploying specific but phony numbers to make inflation seem better than it is.

In a Tuesday rally speech in Alaska, Trump claimed that there was just “1.7 inflation in the last three months. Think of that, 1.7. He (Biden) had real inflation; he had real inflation of 19%.” On Wednesday, more than 12 hours after newly released Consumer Price Index figures showed a 3.7% year-over-year inflation rate in September, Trump repeated in a rally speech in Montana: “We inherited the worst inflation in history, think of it, and now, the last three months, we have 1.7 – we have it down to – he (Biden) had 19%, his real number’s 19%.”

Trump’s figures are so bewildering that it is hard to figure out what exactly he is even talking about. The White House has so far ignored our requests for an explanation.

But we can think of three possible things Trump could conceivably be doing here and none of them would make his claims accurate. Heather Long, chief economist for Navy Federal Credit Union, said Thursday that “the 1.7% inflation figure is not supported by the data.”

For years, Trump has invented fictional economic numbers that work better for his purposes than the actual economic numbers. So it’s very possible he’s just lying about the year-over-year inflation rates that tend to be the most commonly discussed – wildly exaggerating the highest rate under Biden and significantly reducing the most recent rates this year.

In the last three months of 2026 for which Consumer Price Index (CPI) data is available, the year-over-year inflation rate was far higher than “1.7%”: 3.7% in September, 3.4% in August and 3.4% in July. September data isn’t yet available for the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, but that index shows the year-over-year rate was 3.4% in August, 3.4% in July and 3.5% in June.

This wouldn’t be the first time he has made a false claim about having “1.7%” inflation for three months. In May, he falsely claimed that “just before the war” with Iran, “for the last three months, inflation was at 1.7%.” That was wrong, too, and the White House could not offer any substantiation at the time.

Peak year-over-year inflation under Biden was 9.1%, in June 2022, not “19%.” So why do we suspect that Trump might be (incorrectly) referring to peak Biden-era inflation when he claims Biden was at “19%”? In a 2022 speech, Trump said Biden and Democrats had given the country 9.1% inflation, then quickly added, “It’s not 9.1%. I believe it’s double that.”

It’s not. The Consumer Price Index has its flaws and limitations, but there is no basis for any claim that the “real” figure is double the actual CPI figure.

Cumulative inflation is the total increase in prices over a given period. There has been a 1.1% cumulative increase over the last three months, according to the CPI. That’s not a “1.7%” increase, so cumulative inflation doesn’t seem like what Trump is referring to, since he almost never uses a higher number when a lower number would be more helpful to him…

…but even if he was referring to cumulative inflation, his Trump-vs.-Biden comparison would be very deceptive. That’s because there is no reasonable way to compare three-month inflation under Trump to “19%” inflation under Biden.

The total increase in prices over Biden’s four-year term as president was 21.4%, according to the CPI, so “19%” is at least in the ballpark. But it would be completely nonsensical to contrast Biden-era cumulative inflation over 48 months with Trump-era cumulative inflation over three months.

Cumulative inflation during this Trump term to date, through 20 months, is 5.4%.

This wouldn’t do anything to support Trump’s “19%” figure for Biden. But it’s possible that Trump’s “1.7%” figure for the last three months is his inaccurate rendition of a fair point National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett made this week – “core” PCE inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, was at an annualized rate of 2% for the three months from June through August.

This is the most generous reading of Trump’s “1.7%” figure we can think of, but it would still mean Trump was not telling the truth. He didn’t say in any of these comments that he was referring to core inflation rather than overall inflation; during an election in which gas prices are a major driver in overall inflation and a major factor in voter discontent, that’s a big omission. And 2% is not “1.7%.”

Also, the three-month PCE rate is widely expected to increase when the September figures for that index are released later in October. After the September CPI figures were released Wednesday, three-month core CPI jumped to an annualized rate of 3.4% – rising from the previous 2% after the September data replaced the June data in the calculation.

Long said the September data “changed the trend sharply. A key reason that 3-month annualized trend looked decent in August was due to falling gas prices in June and July.” And she said that while a reference to core inflation is her “best guess” about where Trump got his number, “I still can’t come up with 1.7%” without stripping out yet more price categories.

And one more thing: Biden didn’t leave Trump the worst inflation ever

Trump has been saying at event after event that he inherited the worst inflation in US history from Biden. He didn’t, as CNN and others have repeatedly noted.

The year-over-year inflation rate was 2.9% in Biden’s last full month in office, December 2024, and 3% in January 2025, the month Trump took over partway through. Those numbers are unremarkable by historical standards, nowhere near any record, and lower than the rate every month since Trump launched a war with Iran early this year.

Trump could fairly say the 9.1% peak year-over-year inflation under Biden was the highest in more than 40 years. But even that 9.1% rate was much lower than the all-time high, 23.7%, or the highest point of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, 14.8%, which was reached in 1980. And the rate then fell significantly before Trump returned to office.

The cumulative increase in prices from the beginning of Biden’s administration to the end was also not the highest in US history; it was less than half of cumulative inflation during Carter’s term.

CNN’s Alicia Wallace contributed to this article.

也门胡塞导弹无人机袭击亚丁总统府 造成5死16伤

2026年10月16日 07:09 / 联合早报

视频截图显示，也门亚丁总统府建筑群10月15日遭胡塞武装袭击后升起滚滚浓烟。 （路透社）

也门胡塞武装周四向南部城市亚丁的总统府及行政总部所在地马希克宫（Al-Maashiq Palace）发射多枚导弹及无人机，造成至少五人死亡、16人受伤。这是自今年7月也门内战重新升温以来，总统府建筑群首次遭到直接袭击。

随着今年2月美以打击伊朗后中东局势骤然升级，受沙特阿拉伯支持、获得国际社会承认的也门政府所在地亚丁（Aden），正成为这场更大规模地区冲突的新焦点。

也门新闻部长埃里亚尼（Moammar al-Eryani）及政府官员证实，袭击发生时也门总理赞达尼（Shaya al-Zindani）及内阁成员均在现场，所幸所有人安然无恙。多名现场目击者及法新社记者透露，总统府周边随后传出巨响并升起浓烟。

也门卫生部长布海贝赫（Qasim Buhaibeh）指出，袭击直接击中了总统府内的政府官方总部，死伤者主要为安保人员及文职雇员。

一名不愿透露姓名的政府部长补充说，胡塞武装共发射了三枚导弹击中也门政府军指挥中心，另有两枚导弹击中沙特联军指挥中心，造成也门及沙特多名人员伤亡。

也门总理赞达尼随后在X平台发文，强烈谴责这一懦夫行径，指责这是胡塞武装持续袭击平民设施和平民的犯罪模式。

胡塞武装军事发言人萨里阿（Yahya Saree）发表声明承认发动了此次轰炸，并称目标是沙特驻亚丁军事行动总部。他强调，这符合胡塞武装打击任何地方的沙特增援部队的既定策略。

胡塞武装旗下的萨巴通讯社（SABA）补充称，被袭总部由沙特军官直接指挥且设有武器库。路透社目前尚无法独立核实相关说法。

Houthis emerge as global threat beyond Iran control amid Saudi strikes, former envoy warns

Former US special envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking calls Houthis ‘a clear and very present danger’ after 20 attacks on Riyadh airport leave 17 dead

October 15, 2026 6:25pm EDT / Fox News

Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst reports on claims that Iran-backed Houthis are developing advanced missiles using Chinese parts and examines the potential threat to Saudi Arabia and stability across the Middle East on ‘The Story.’

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The Houthis are increasingly operating independently of Tehran, posing a “clear and very present danger” on the international stage as the terror group rearms and sharpens its strike capabilities, a former U.S. envoy warned Thursday.

The warning came amid deadly missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia in recent days and growing threats to global shipping routes and critical Middle East infrastructure in the run-up.

Turki al-Maliki, spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, also confirmed Thursday that Houthi attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh had killed 17 and injured 333 others from Oct. 7-11.

Speaking at a news conference in Riyadh, al-Maliki said the Oct. 10 attack involved 10 drones, missiles and other projectiles.

“King Khalid International Airport has been subjected to 20 attacks since (Oct. 1),” he noted.

Tim Lenderking, who served as U.S. special envoy for Yemen from 2021 to 2025 and was posted to Saudi Arabia from 2013 to 2016, said Saudi officials had warned more than a decade ago that the Houthis would become a major threat, a prediction he says has now materialized.

SAUDI FOREIGN MINISTER WARNS HOUTHI THREAT GOES GLOBAL AS TRUMP HOLDS FIRE

The Houthis are increasingly operating independently of Tehran, posing a “clear and very present danger” on the international stage as the terror group rearms and sharpens its strike capabilities, a former U.S. envoy warned.(Handout from Houthi Media Center via Getty Images)

“The Saudis were very clear to our leaders that they viewed the Houthis as a major threat,” Lenderking said of his time in the kingdom a decade ago.

At the time, he said, the group was “quietly building up their capability, burnishing their narrative of why they sought to lead Yemen as a messianic group, as a group from northern Yemen, with an agenda, with a mission.”

The Houthis had emerged as a religious and political movement in Yemen in the 1990s, but their ties to Iran developed into a military partnership after 2014, when Tehran expanded its assistance and training during Yemen’s civil war.

“The Houthis don’t really need the Iranians anymore,” Lenderking, a former acting assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs at the U.S. State Department, continued, adding it was still “a very important relationship that “enabled the Houthis to become the powerful force that they are.”

Lenderking, now a distinguished diplomatic fellow at the Middle East Institute (MEI), said, over time, the Houthis had developed their own “homegrown indigenous capability” as they capitalized on any disunity across the Gulf region.

Saturday’s missile and drone attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh raised concerns that President Donald Trump could be drawn into a broader regional conflict as Saudi Arabia seeks U.S. assistance.

Asked whether the U.S. would defend Saudi Arabia against further attacks, Trump said, “You’ll find out soon.”

NEW RISK FOR US CONSUMERS AS IRAN-BACKED ATTACKS THREATEN A SECOND MAJOR OIL CHOKEPOINT

Smoke and flames rise from King Khalid International Airport after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis said they attacked the airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 8, 2026.(Reuters)

Speaking at an MEI briefing, Lenderking said the Houthis’ sophisticated weapons and targeting capabilities have transformed the group from a regional insurgency into an international security threat.

“They have the capability to hit around the region, including up into the northern reaches of the Red Sea. So, this is a regional problem, and given the fact that the Houthis control the west coast of Yemen,” Lenderking said.

“It’s an international problem now.”

Lenderking cited the precision of the Riyadh airport attack as evidence of the Houthis’ growing capabilities compared with earlier strikes during the Gaza conflict.

“They can hit things better. Now, they are hitting Terminal Four of Riyadh Airport, very specifically. It’s a clear and very present danger,” he said.

The Houthis reportedly launched multiple drones followed by cruise and ballistic missiles that traveled more than 620 miles to Riyadh, prompting an investigation into possible Saudi air defense failures, according to The Associated Press, citing regional officials.

Saudi forces intercepted two more ballistic missiles targeting Riyadh on Monday. On Tuesday, a Houthi strike caused damage to Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran, sparking a fire that spread across several floors, Reuters reported.

Lenderking said the Houthis have built extensive weapons supply chains, smuggling networks and domestic financing operations that allow them to sustain attacks without relying solely on Tehran.

HOUTHIS ENTER US ‘KILL BOX’ AFTER SEIZING RED SEA ‘CORK,’ FORMER PENTAGON OFFICIAL WARNS

Houthi supporters demonstrate in solidarity with Iran, amid a two-week ceasefire between U.S. and Iran, in Sanaa, Yemen, April 10, 2026.(Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)

“They get a lot of supplies off the open market through the internet, through commercial exchanges. They have a very well entrenched smuggling network, from big boats onto small boats, onto tiny boats, on the pack animals, on people’s backs.

“They are able to move things undetected through government terrain, even through various borders and with a lot of wide open space there. They are constantly moving, building, resupplying, restocking, innovating.”

The group’s self-sufficiency also extends to financing. Lenderking said the Houthis generate revenue through black-market oil sales, taxation and extortion while also forcing families to provide recruits, allowing the group to continue fighting even if Iranian assistance is cut off.

“They have had support from Iran over the years, so they have money in the bank from that,” Lenderking said.

“They relied on sales of black market oil in the past. They extort Yemeni transport companies, businesses. They tax people in areas that they control. They force many families to offer up a son to fight on the front lines.”

The Houthis’ expanding arsenal has raised concerns about potential Chinese involvement in their weapons supply networks.

OIL SQUEEZE TIGHTENS AS IRAN-BACKED ATTACKS CRIPPLE HORMUZ ESCAPE ROUTES

Tim Lenderking, who served as U.S. special envoy for Yemen from 2021 to 2025 and was posted to Saudi Arabia from 2013 to 2016, said Saudi officials had warned more than a decade ago that the Houthis would become a major threat, a prediction he says has now materialized.(Houthi Media Center via Getty Images)

Yemen’s government has accused the rebels of seeking Chinese components for medium-range ballistic missiles, raising concerns about the group’s access to advanced military technology.

“There is a Chinese connection here that’s very detrimental,” Lenderking warned, adding that front companies have helped the group obtain weapons through commercial channels.

Lenderking warned that the Houthis could also target Saudi energy facilities, pipelines and desalination plants, infrastructure critical to the kingdom’s economy and water supply.

“The Houthis have hit pipelines,” he said. “They have diesel plants and other energy infrastructure in their sights.”

Attacks on such facilities could disrupt global energy markets, maritime commerce and regional stability.

The Houthis also control Yemen’s western coastline along the Red Sea, a vital shipping corridor connecting Europe and Asia.

With the rebels now capable of striking targets hundreds of miles away, Lenderking warned that the threat extends far beyond Yemen’s borders.

“One blast at Riyadh Airport is a huge statement,” the expert said.

“That’s why I come back to the fact that this is an international conflict,” he said, adding that “immediate action is required.”

Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture.

Trump admin files ‘long shot’ lawsuit after California wouldn’t open a thumb drive of alleged non-citizens

2026-10-15T21:20:12.279Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/15/politics/trump-doj-sues-california-non-citizens-voting

The Trump administration made good on threats that it would sue California over unvetted non-citizen voter claims, with a lawsuit legal experts are describing as a “long shot” and “a press release masquerading as litigation.”

The new lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles seeks to block state election officials from counting the ballots of some 20,000 people the administration believes could be non-citizens.

It’s the latest effort by President Donald Trump – who has for years made unfounded claims of mass voter fraud – to inject his administration into how elections are run, a task the Constitution primarily assigns the states.

The Justice Department earlier this week dropped off a thumb-drive with people it believes could be noncitizens who registered to vote with the office of Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan. The office, however, said that because of “established data privacy and information security protocols” it had not even accessed the device as of Wednesday. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, another defendant in the case, said on Wednesday that the DOJ never even provided her a list when it sent the Tuesday letter making the demand.

California – a state that sends mail ballots to all of its registered voters – began mailing ballots on October 5.

“To be sure, the United States actively investigates and prosecutes incidents of unlawful voting,” the Justice Department said in its lawsuit. “But it is not practicable or feasible for the United States to investigate before the 2026 election concludes thousands, let alone tens of thousands, of individuals that two federal investigative offices identified on the California voter roster as likely being sent vote-by-mail ballots.”

Notre Dame Law School Professor Derek Muller said the lawsuit, at best, is a “long shot.”

The Justice Department claims in its complaint that the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause gives it the ability to go to court to challenge how California has allegedly stood in the way of the Trump administration’s ability to enforce the federal ban on non-citizens.

It’s true the Supremacy Clause says when federal law and state policy are at odds, the federal law prevails. But the issue in the new DOJ lawsuit, according to Muller, is that there is no federal law dictating how states should go about verifying the citizenship status of voters on their rolls.

“The federal complaint filed today is full of language about the supremacy clause and federal ‘preemption,’” University of California-Los Angeles law professor Rick Hasen, wrote on his Election Law Blog about DOJ’s new case. “But federal law does not preempt the state’s right to run its election and judge the qualifications of its voters.

Courts previously blocked executive orders Trump signed in 2025 and 2026 seeking to change certain election procedures. Judges have also tossed out two dozen lawsuits the Justice Department has brought against various states seeking sensitive voter registration data for administration audits.

The administration’s claim of 20,000 potential non-citizens on California voter rolls was derived from public voter registration information the federal government obtained, according to the lawsuit.

“The State knows that noncitizens might be registered to vote, and it knows the names of such individuals,” the lawsuit said. “But it still intends to count their vote without verifying the voter’s citizenship. California’s actions thus knowingly facilitate unlawful voting.”

Justin Levitt, a Loyola Marymount University law professor who worked on voting rights issues in past Democratic administrations, said, “This is as guaranteed a loss as anything the DOJ has filed yet.”

“It is real tough to know what the legal theory is,” Levitt added, calling the lawsuit a “press release masquerading as litigation.”

The lawsuit gives some insight into how the Trump administration has been coming up with its claims that tens of thousands of non-citizens are registered to vote it has made against states that have not voluntarily handed over its non-public voter data for the administration to review.

Offices within the Department of Homeland Security and the US Customs and Immigration Services have been comparing publicly accessible voter rolls with the agency’s internal immigration records.

“Voter rolls or information about voter rolls provided to USCIS typically do not contain complete information on an individual,” the lawsuit said. “So, after receiving a voter roll or information about voters on voter rolls, USCIS utilizes third-party software to identify high, medium, or low confidence matches between voter information and information about that individual compiled by the software program.”

In other states, the claims have shrunk significantly after further scrutiny.

For instance, in Nevada for instance, DHS claimed in July that it found that 15,903 non-citizens on its voter rolls, but a month later, clarified to state election officials that only 6,218 were high-confidence matches. The administration then provided the state with a subset of 185 alleged non-citizens it had come up with after “rigorous manual review process.”

Nevada claims that all 185 of those people appeared to be citizens, according to its records.

“There is no reason to believe that the data given to California is any better,” Hasen wrote. “The risk of disenfranchisement is very serious.”

Weber, in a letter to DOJ released Thursday,said that the information the administration has handed over “lacks both the detail and function to be of any investigative use.”

She said that her office “will welcome” the chance to review evidence of ineligible voters and take action “in compliance with federal and state law.”

“However, I will not disenfranchise thousands of Californians – or order any county elections official to do so – based solely upon an unsupported and likely inaccurate ‘belie(f)’ that certain voters are ‘likely” noncitizens,” she wrote.

“The State knows that noncitizens might be registered to vote, and it knows the names of such individuals,” the lawsuit said. “But it still intends to count their vote without verifying the voter’s citizenship. California’s actions thus knowingly facilitate unlawful voting.”

CNN’s Gabe Cohen contributed to this report.