Arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement of people with no criminal record are surging. Federal immigration agents have shot at nearly two dozen people – most of them Latino – since last year, according to The New York Times. Those include the fatal shootings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine.
Dimwit Trump's own absurd brag literally begs us to depose him
When an industry asks for its own regulation, we should listen
When was the last time industry leaders called for regulation of their own for-profit undertaking? How about never — it’s never happened before. The lack of precedent makes current pleas for regulation by AI insiders all the more urgent.
Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei are ringing the alarm about AI. Over the weekend, Amodei wrote an essay calling on the government to regulate AI companies — including his own — and to slow the pace of the technology’s development due to its emerging threats to human safety.
Amodei was responding to an earlier warning from AI developer and researcher Jacob Coxon, who wrote on September 9, 2026, that artificial intelligence could kill off humanity within the decade, that he was resigning his position at Anthropic in protest — and this was no joke.
An AI researchers’ warning
In July, OpenAI disclosed that some of its models — with no human direction — had escaped containment and hacked into Hugging Face, another AI company, causing researchers to question whether they could control the very systems they were building. This week, another report surfaced that AI had hidden mistakes, made up data, and moved files onto the open internet without permission or human direction.
In September, Coxon wrote that Anthropic and his previous employer, OpenAI, were mishandling known threats to human safety. Coxon posted publicly that, “Neither company (Anthropic and OpenAI) is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.”
He warned: Do not underestimate the power of this technology. These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources…
The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt. No other human activity poses this level of danger.
Other Anthropic employees echoed Coxon’s warnings. Then industry leaders came together and said out loud that AI is dangerous and must be regulated. Immediately.
The child in the oval office responds
Trump, in his wisdom, disagreed. He says we don’t need AI regulation and declared that all we need is him, posting:
"The only control or “guardrails” that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades! The Trump Administration has stopped AI “people” from doing bad, or potentially bad, “things,“ like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a “perfect little angel” … There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China… Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP
At the risk of being too on the nose, the president’s post alleging his own high IQ is written at the level of a 4th grader.
Trump’s an imbecile
Trump loves to call people who correct him ‘dumb,’ ‘stupid,’ or “low IQ.” One early report stopped counting how many times he attacked the intelligence of his critics when it reached the hundreds. Trump often claims he has an ‘extremely high IQ’ or that he’s a “very stable genius” but, like his tax returns, Trump has never publicly revealed the results of any assessment, other than to brag that he knew the words, “Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV” on cognitive tests.
Several years ago, reports surfaced on social media claiming what 240 million Americans already suspected: Trump is cognitively impaired. The unsubstantiated post said that, “The results of an IQ test that Trump allegedly took during his first year at New York Military Academy have been discovered in a file box in a closet in Brooklyn. According to the test results, Trump’s IQ is 73.”
In other words, he’s barely functioning intellectually.
Although intelligence judgment is inherently subjective, there’s an endless list of objective evidence, including that Trump suggested injecting bleach or disinfectant to treat COVID-19; claimed hurricanes could change course due to nuclear bombs; used a Sharpie to alter a hurricane forecast map; and bankrupted multiple companies after he inherited the funds to start them with.
Trump is not going to shut off his own money spigot
Alas, even idiots can rake in the cash, if they remain useful idiots. Although AI is disliked among the general public, investors are getting insanely wealthy from it, and they will fight to protect their stash. Politico reports that AI and crypto super PACs spent $127 million across more than 100 primaries this year, and won roughly 90 percent of them.
Trump, on the take, calls AI data centers “the oil of the next 50 years,” insisting that they are “cash cows.” Trump is holding on tight to his cow for a reason: Donald Jr. and Eric Trump have invested significantly in American Data Centers, a firm supporting AI cloud computing and infrastructure. They are backing a $1 billion investment network targeting the acquisition of AI, drones, and cryptocurrency. Overall, Trump’s unethical family ventures have earned at least $4 billion from AI, crypto, and nuclear power, including a planned $6 billion Trump family merger with a firm building nuclear fusion plants to power AI data centers.
Adjacent to AI infrastructure deals, on the crypto side, the Trump family received $187 million from an Abu Dhabi royal-backed firm just before the UAE secured access to 500,000 advanced AI chips annually. The UAE paved their way to advanced AI chips by bribing investing $500 million into the Trump family's crypto venture, World Liberty Financial.
As Andy the Alchemist recently put it, “The transhumanist Silicon Valley billionaire cabal (has) openly bribed Trump with billions of dollars to let them do whatever they want.” And, as of today, they are doing it.
Trump says all America needs to address AI is a smart president. Let’s follow that advice in November by turning him into a lame duck so the adults in the room can do what needs to be done.
Sabrina Haake is a political analyst and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. She writes the free Substack, The Haake Take.
A Trojan horse threatens to turn America into a puppet nation — and it's inside the gates
As a veteran, the oath I took to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, did not come with an expiration date. National security is not solely the responsibility of the military or even law enforcement. It begins with ensuring a government of, by, and for the people cannot be bought by the ultra-wealthy or left vulnerable to foreign influence.
A nation whose elected officials are propped up by foreign countries and shadow entities is not a sovereign nation, but a puppet. It is time to cut the strings.
As we mark Constitution Day this Sept. 17, I ask my fellow veterans to put that oath into practice through active civic participation. Take action to stand up for a country that is not run by the highest bidder.
Our nation’s Founders anticipated this exact vulnerability. George Washington called foreign influence “one of the most baneful foes of republican government,” while Thomas Jefferson warned that preserving liberty required constant vigilance against corruption and outside interference.
Unchecked dark money and foreign-backed interests are pouring into our elections, bending public policy toward priorities that do not serve the American public. Veterans, working families, and everyday citizens are being drowned out by massive financial influence from masked donors we cannot match.
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Here in Maryland, State Board of Elections filings reflect the same reality we see nationwide: Out-of-state funding and deep-pocketed donors dominate campaign finance, sidelining Marylanders. But this is not just a Maryland problem, and it is not one that we can solve alone. We need a national response.
According to an Ipsos Poll, Americans across the political spectrum agree that campaign spending is not speech that should be unregulated. Voters overwhelmingly agree that citizens and their elected representatives should be the ones setting the limits, without the Supreme Court sweeping away those protections. In 1976, in Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court determined that spending unlimited money on political campaigns is protected as free speech. In 2010, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission extended that “right” to corporations.
If money in politics is free speech, then most everyday Americans have no voice at all. Billionaires and corporate entities can spend sums in a single cycle that the vast majority of us will never see in a lifetime.
Americans of all political persuasions are uniting behind a clear objective: passing a constitutional amendment that restores the power to regulate election money to Congress and the states. The movement is real, and the moment has arrived.
The For Our Freedom Amendment, championed by American Promise, achieves exactly that by authorizing state and federal oversight of “contributions and spending in campaigns, elections, or ballot measures.” It has been introduced in Congress and needs active support to reach the floor for a vote.
Why is an amendment necessary? There are only two ways to overturn the Supreme Court: Wait for the court to reverse its own precedent, which is not happening here, or use the mechanism we learned about in high school civics, a constitutional amendment. The ultimate check and balance.
This Constitution Day cannot pass without notice. Having pledged our lives to defend this Republic, veterans hold both the standing and the moral obligation to demand a higher standard. We did not serve this country only to watch foreign wealth and billionaire mega-donors choose our leaders for us.
Fellow veterans, we no longer wear the uniform, but our duty is not finished. Our time standing in formations may be over, but our oath to the Constitution never expires. While we served, many of us were unable to be engaged in politics. That time has passed; we are home, and we are still serving, and we cannot do this alone.
Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: info@marylandmatters.org.