Good Morning, this is the Commonwealth Report. News for the public, not the powerful.
Sign up at CommonwealthReport.news for AM & PM news daily.
Did Saudi Arabia Just Hand Trump a Humiliating Defeat?
Trump’s Iran adventure took an embarrassing nosedive this week. NBC News reports Saudi Arabia suspended American military access to Prince Sultan Airbase and shut down Saudi airspace for “Project Freedom,” Trump’s plan to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump announced it Sunday on Truth Social. The Saudis weren’t told first. A call between Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman didn’t fix a thing. Within thirty-six hours, Trump folded and paused the operation. Analyst Patrick Osgood called the losses “pretty astonishing.” Trump picks fights, begs allies for help, then crawls back when they say no. That’s not strength. That’s an old man being run by foreign capitals while sailors and gas prices pay the bill.
Is Trump Running a Government Shakedown of American Business?
The Wall Street Journal just exposed something startling. CEOs are so terrified of meeting with Donald Trump they’re rehearsing what to say if he demands a piece of their company. Lobbyists are coaching clients on how to fend off the president’s advances. Trump already grabbed a ten percent stake in Intel. He’s holding a “golden share” in US Steel. He went after dying Spirit Airlines, and when the company offered eighty percent for a bailout, Trump countered with ninety. He even floated a stake in a United and American Airlines merger before it collapsed. They call it state capitalism. Call it what it is. This is mob behavior in a suit. A republic that lets one man pick winners isn’t a republic anymore.
Now They’re Coming For You
This one will make your blood boil. According to journalist Dean Blundell and a new ACLU lawsuit, the Department of Homeland Security served Google with a subpoena demanding the personal data of a Canadian who criticized ICE on social media. His name. His address. His location history. The websites he visits. Who he talks to. Every IP address. No judge. No warrant. No grand jury. DHS used a 1930 customs statute, the Tariff Act, written to verify duties on imported merchandise. The man hasn’t crossed the US border since 2015. His crime? Posting that ICE killed two American citizens during the Minneapolis raids. They’re using customs law to spy on foreigners who hurt their feelings online. If they’ll do this to a Canadian, what are they doing to you?
How Are Big Utilities Crushing Public Power?
The Guardian and Floodlight News report giant private utilities are quietly funneling dark money into fake “grassroots” front groups to stop cities from switching to public power. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, organizers say DTE Energy is bankrolling an opposition committee called the Ann Arbor Responsible Energy Coalition. The committee’s filing actually listed DTE’s headquarters as its mailing address. In Maine, utility-funded outfits paid former legislators to campaign against a public-power ballot measure. Earlier reporting documented twenty-five for-profit utilities pumping over two hundred fifteen million dollars into dark money groups. Why? Public utility customers pay about twenty-five percent less. Investor-owned utilities don’t want a fair fight. Working families pay the bill every month.
Are MAGA Influencers Getting Paid to Lie to You?
Former MAGA insider Ashley St. Clair just blew the lid off the right-wing influencer racket. In a string of TikTok videos, she alleges the top conservative voices online coordinate their messages with Trump administration officials and get paid for it. She says they sit in group chats with names like “Fight, Fight, Fight,” waiting for marching orders and direct deposits. She showed screenshots of offers paying thousands per post. She says she was offered serious money to promote Rick Grenell for Secretary of State. Trump official James Blair allegedly asked her to amplify attacks on Biden, and Elon Musk boosted them. So when MAGA voices say the same thing at the same moment, it’s not because they agree. It’s because they got paid.
A Billionaire Compares “Tax the Rich” to Racial Slurs
And finally, brace yourself for the most stunning piece of self-pity you’ll hear this week. Steven Roth, CEO of real estate empire Vornado, told investors on an earnings call that the phrase “tax the rich” is, in his words, “just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs.” He said it on the same day hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin called Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s video about taxing second homes “creepy and weird.” Griffin lives in a two hundred thirty-eight million dollar penthouse. Let that sink in. A billionaire just compared asking him to pay a fair share of taxes to slurs that Black Americans have been hurt and killed over for centuries. The wealthy in this country pay a smaller share of their income than the worker who cleans their lobby. And when ordinary New Yorkers ask them to chip in for the city that made them rich, they cry persecution. That isn’t capitalism. That is contempt. And it tells you everything about what these people really think of us.
And that’s the way it is, Today Thursday, May 7, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
