Rumored Wedding and Holiday Weekend News

Good morning Trump's financial disclosures reveal vast wealth and close ties to crypto. Borders has been pouring over the nearly thousand pages of filings. The amount of money is really just unlike anything that we've ever seen before in a presidency. The worst case predictions over gas prices never came, and now they're falling. Colitico tells us why And the US men's soccer team end their knockout curse, but last night's win came with a sting in the tail. It's Thursday, july second. I'm Cecilia Leay in for Shita Bestu. This is Apple News today President Trump's latest financial disclosures show his wealth has skyrocketed during his second term He earned at least two point two billion dollars in revenue in twenty twenty five, roughly four times what he reported in twenty twenty four The disclosures, which came out on Tuesday showed that the president had made an enormous sum, totally vast amount of money through these crypto activities. That's Ror' reporter, Tom Berggin, who told us that in many cases, Trump and his family directly profited from actions the president took since returning to the White House especially his cryptocurrency ventures, which accounted for more than half of his income last year. The Pident himself, of course, is famous for having said that he thought that Bitcoin and other cryptos were a scam. I don't like it because it's another currency competing against the dollar. Essentially it's a currency competing against the dollar. I want the dollar to be the currency of the world. That's what I've always said. But a couple of years ago, he changed his position on this And his sons became quite interested in crypto. Trump campaigned on being a crypto friendly administration. He and his family launched a crypto firm in the middle of his twenty twenty four campaign According to the disclosures, Trump generated nearly eight hundred million dollars from that firm Roughly a third of that came after a United Arab Emirates royal family member made a deal to buy a stake in the company just days before the president's inauguration Then shortly after that deal was signed, Trump, by now, the president, granted the UAE access to special chips used for artificial intelligence Another six hundred thirty five million dollars came from meme coins, a type of speculative crypto token whose value depends almost entirely on what investors are willing to pay Trump set this coin up just days before taking office Since then, he's held annual contests where top buyers of his meme coin can win private time with the president at his golf clubs. And one of his administration's first moves was to exclude meme coins from SEC oversight under the Biden administration, and indeed under the first Trump administration, we saw the SEC take quite a robust approach to companies that were selling crypto tokens. And basically they shut a number of them down and they also levied fines on people for marketing cryptocurrencies President Trump has pulled back from that, which has been massively welcomed by the crypto industry, and that has been very helpful for the president's own business Trump has also supported legislation that stands to benefit his family's crypto interests Last summer, he signed a law promoting a type of digital currency called stablecoins, just a few months after his family's firm introduced its own type of stablecoin. Trump has also used executive power to strengthen alliances with leaders in the crypto industry He issued a pardon in October to the richest man in crypto, the owner of the company Binance, which has been a critical business partner to the Trump family And Trump just got more power to reshape key regulatory bodies that oversee the crypto industry The Supreme Court this week ruled that presidents can fire people at will who work for these agencies, which means Trump could potentially remove people who disagree with his crypto agenda. When reporters asked the president about his financial disclosures yesterday, he credited his crypto success to a strong stock market. Everybody's profiting. you have a four hundred one J How's your four hundred one K done eighty five percent Thank you, President Trump So we're all profiting. Trump also told reporters that he doesn't speak with the people who manage his investments Many of his assets are in a trust controlled by his sons, unlike previous presidents who divested their holdings or placed them in blind trusts Trump is the beneficiary of that trust, meaning he profits from the business deals his sons make The wealth that he and his family have amassed over his second term have raised questions about possible ethics violations In a statement, the White House spokesperson said, quote, neeither the president nor his family has ever engaged or will ever engage in conflicts of interest And Bergen told us the ethics rules and laws that apply to most federal officials do not apply to the president. is behaving in a way that many ethical scholars that we speak to say is contrary to the intentions of the rules and without precedent Most people that we speak to, most legal experts, are generally of the view that the president is probably not breaking the law. But he is certainly breaking precedent. Most former presidents have sold off businesses they owned or held stakes in when they took office to avoid even the perception that they might be profiting from their office. George W. Bush sold his stake in the Texas Rangers baseball team, while Jimmy Carter famously put his beloved peanut farm into a blinde trust When the war with Iran broke out, experts predicted major spikes in energy costs, and a lot of them warned that those higher prices would stick around even after the Strait of Hamuz opened up And yet, gas prices have declined steeply ahead of the fourth of July weekend. According to Triple A on july first, gas averaged about three dollars eighty five cents a gallon, down nearly fifty cents from about a month ago. The experts got this one wrong because they were just looking at the way the markets have traditionally reacted. Scott Waldman covers the White House for Politico No one knew what was going to happen when you had the straight of cororn moose where about twenty percent of the world's oil supply flowed every day Closed And I think they were basing it on past trends. And really we missed it for a variety of reasons. To be clear, gas prices in the US did jump, and parts of Asia and Europe took a real hit to their economies while the straight was shut W the worst case predictions, one analyst warned of a fuel apocalypse haven't come to pass at least so far Waltman told us there are a few reasons why The US and Japan increased its exports, which plug the gap a little Countries dipped into global reserves more than expected, and China cut their imports, helping ease the pressure on worldwide demand. It has to do both with renewables and also of course with the state of the economy in China, where manufacturing is down, which means demand is down. The clean energy industry in China has been ramping up for years since they don't produce a lot of oil preping for a scenario exactly like this for a long time President Trump is claiming victory for the falling gas prices while demanding oil companies to lower them even more, threatening probes into price gouging from the Oval Office last week We should be in my opinion at Two dollars and twenty five cents right now at the pump And well higher than that And we are doing a big investigation on it. Yeah. They're not reducing the prices commensurate with what What's happening? Waldman says that Trump's rhetoric, often in the form of late night social media posts, might have played a big role in keeping the price of oil futures down Experts have really credited him in the last few months with talking down the markets essionally late They call it job owning the market. evenven if people said, that seems questionable. That sort of claim, the market really bought into it and oil futures, the paper markets never really She jumped in the way that folks thought they would. Looking ahead to November, falling gas prices appear to be easing some concerns over the economy with the Consumer conffidence index ticaking up more than half a point in June. That's welcome newews for Republicans who've been bracing for a tax on affordability. Here's House Republican Majority Leer Steve Scalis. This is a country that's actually Eiencing a golden age again. and gas prices are down fifty cents from where they were just a few weeks ago and continuing to go down. Affordability is back again And Democrats are upset about that becausecause they wanted it as a talking point. November But time may be running out politically speaking sixixty percent disapprove of President Trump's handling of the economy in a recent NPR mared PBS poll And Scott says that voters' minds are made up now when it comes to the economy months before ballots are cast. This is sort of a cutoff point, according to Frank Luntz, a long time Republican pollster where he says prices today, prices into next month are going to be way more influential than a price bike or price drop in September or October, because attitudes among voters sort of gets locked in Is Midtown Manhattan about to host the wedding of the year No one knows for sure exactly how or when Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey are getting married, but the rumor mill has been intense, with news networks camped outside Madison Square Garden all week It's all about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey's rumored wedding this july fourth weekend. Look at these trucks right here. They are unloading all sorts of massive items off of these trucks and into the loading dock This is going to be the equivalent of America's royal wedding. The New York Times and CN have talked to insiders confirming several days of celebration centered around New York's twenty thousand capacity arena The Reporting stops short of confirming it's a wedding exactly, but the New York Post cites an NYPD memo confirming closed roads and extra patrols for a private two day event And others have slipped into using the W word, notably New York City mayor Zoharan Mandani. We know it coincides with july fourth, America two hundred fifty Taylor Swift's wedding all happening at the same time Swift has a long history of throwing big parties on july fourth, so fans have speculated that it makes sense The Times reports that some of Kelsey's friends have booked hotels nearby too The forty nineers George Kiddle disclosed to ExtraTV that the big day is at least close enough that Swift and Kelsey have offered some guidance for guests. They said absolutely no gifts, but I was thinking, Travis for some reason he likes old coins. So I might give him an old coin. Oh, I love that. That's really personal. Sounds expensive too. I like that. I like it Would you like to give them a wedding wish Wh are wedding rush U Just have so much fun with all of your friends. But some speculated this was all to throw people off the scent or that it could be a decoy. All of the guesswork and fairies are perfectly on brand for Swift, who spent her career sending fans searching high and low for Easter eggs about her songs and projects. In early albums, she would hide messages in the liner notes of her CD's. Her music videos have hidden clues about the titles of her upcoming records, and on her record breaking Eis tour, she wore outfits that teased her next project The Atlantic writes that Swift over her career has become a master of the thrill of the chase. Sometimes her clues lead nowhere. Other times they turn out to be true But even if this weekend comes and goes with no wedding, Swifties will almost certainly keep looking for the next hint Here are a few other stories we're following today The heat wave that struck much of the Midwest is heading east in time for the july fourth holiday weekend The heat index, that is what the temperature feels like to the body, hit the triple figures in several areas earlier this week, one hundred six in Chicago, one hundred and three in Cleveland, and one hundred thirteen in southern Illinois. two hundred fifty million people live in areas that are expected to experience some level of dangerous heat today, according to the Weather Service Cities including Washington, DC, New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston could see temperatures climb into the low hundreds It's expected to cool down at least a little bit by Saturday. And as the country heads into the holiday weekend marking America's two hundred fiftieth anniversary, two new polls offer a snapshot of how Americans are feeling about the nation's legacy The PBS News NPR Marist Poll found most believe the country has drifted from its founding principles Even so, nearly two thirds said they're very proud to be American Meanwhile, a CBS poll showed that about forty seven percent think the country's best days are in its past, though forty three percent also feel that the country has lived up to the ideals it was founded on Those views are just a snapshot in time. Another two hundred and fifty years from now, people may feel very differently That's when America's time capsule is set to be opened The nine hundred pound steel cylinder was officially sealed last month and will be buried in Philadelphia on Saturday Some of the peculiar contents added by states include a whale bone from Maine, a single diamond from Arkansas, and from Arizona, a stainless steel coin, nano etched with the entire Declaration of Independence And finally, the men's soccer team has made it to the World Cups last sixteen after beating Bosnia and Herzegovina two to zero last night in Santa Clara, California It's a rare win at this level for the US. Before yesterday, eleven World Cup appearances had delivered only one knockout stage victory. But Last night's win came at a price. Veloren Balligan has been a star of the tournament and scored the opening goal, but he was controversially sent off for catching an opposition player's leg in a collision, meaning he'll miss the next match. It didn't stop the celebrations though. Head coach Maurizio Porchertino joined the thousands in a redition of What's beccome the Team's Tournament Anthem Their next game comes Monday in Seattle against Belgium, and if they win that, they'll head to the quarterfinals The last time they made it that far was two thousand two You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the newews app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next Vox reports on how attitudes about generosity have shifted from the hopeful days of twenty fourteen's ice bucket challenge to a more cynical view of giving. If you're listening to the podcast app, follow Apple News plus narrated to find that story And before we let you go, just a heads up. our team will be off Friday and Monday for the holiday weekend, but we'll be back with the news on Tuesday