All posts tagged "Lockheed Martin"

The internet reacted Tuesday after reports that President Donald Trump was so dissatisfied with the construction on his new helipad that he ordered contractors to start over.

The frustration was reportedly over the appearance of the new 100-foot-wide granite seal and slope of the White House lawn, The Washington Post reported. Crews were reportedly working around the clock to prepare for a visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping next month.

"The White House’s South Lawn, where the helipad is being built, slants downward. Trump has expressed a desire for a landing pad that sits level with the horizon, prompting contractors to disassemble their work and consider whether to start by changing the lawn itself," sources told The Post....

President Donald Trump has planned to add to his vast number of projects with another White House makeover, according to reports on Friday.

After adding gold decor to the Oval Office, knocking down the East Wing for his ballroom and paving over the rose garden, Trump has turned his attention to the next venture — a new landing pad for his Marine One helicopter, The Atlantic reported.

Budget documents have revealed that weapons giant Lockheed Martin will drop a $5 million donation for the helipad, in addition to private donations for the new project at the White House South Lawn — where Trump hosted his recent UFC Freedom 250 birthday bash....

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie omitted some notable perks and sources of income on the first go-around of a required financial disclosure report, according to a Raw Story analysis of new federal documents.

Christie, the former New Jersey governor who is polling fifth nationally for the Republican nomination, quietly amended his public financial disclosure report on Dec. 1 to reveal he had received "free attendance" to New York Mets baseball games and that he earned nearly $750,000 in previously undisclosed speaking fees during 2022 and 2023 from a variety of special interest groups and corporate entities.

The U.S. Office of Government of Ethics (OGE) certified Christie's amended disclosure on Wednesday....

This article originally appeared in OpenSecrets. Sign up for their weekly newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

In the first half of 2023, defense contractors and other defense sector players spent nearly $70 million lobbying the federal government. Much of this lobbying concerned the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, an annual appropriations bill funding the Pentagon and military operations. Lobbyists are legally required to report third quarter spending on Oct. 20.

The NDAA allocates a total of $876.8 billion, with $844.3 billion dedicated to the Department of Defense budget and $32.4 billion to the Department of Energy for national security programs....

Another member of a congressional armed services committee has personally invested in the stock of a major U.S. defense contractor that received more than $1.7 billion in government contracts — just last month.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) purchased between $15,001 and $50,000 in stock in Raytheon on Sept. 13, according to new congressional personal financial disclosure filings. Raytheon was awarded more than $1.7 billion in contracts in September, according to a Raw Story analysis of contract announcements from the Department of Defense.

Mullin serves on the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, which has jurisdiction over areas such as “aeronautical and space activities peculiar to or primarily associated with the development of weapons systems or military operations; common defense; Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, and the Department of the Air Force,” according to its website....

WASHINGTON — Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) recently purchased up to $250,000 worth of stock in telecommunications technology company Qualcomm Inc., a federal defense contractor, while serving on the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services and actively blocking hundreds of military nominations and promotions, new congressional financial disclosures indicate.

Qualcomm and its subsidiaries have been the recipient of several dozen defense and homeland security contracts during the past two decades, according to federal contracting records reviewed by Raw Story.

Among these is a Department of the Army contract with Qualcomm Intelligent Solutions, worth nearly $11.7 million with the possibility of growing to $30.4 million, related to a government program exploring "innovative, energy-efficient, and reliable computer architectures that can address the intelligence community’s large-scale data-analytic applications."...