“The first six days of war in Iran cost U.S. taxpayers at least $11.3 billion in munitions alone, according to Pentagon estimates reviewed by lawmakers, and experts say the ongoing cost could increase exponentially. That total does not include the cost of operating and maintaining the military force engaged in the war or battle damage sustained from Iran’s attacks.
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While initial cost estimates of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were around $50 to $60 billion, they ended up costing a combined $8 trillion, according to analysis by Costs of War.”
“After spending millions of taxpayer dollars on a fleet of new vehicles with Donald Trump-inspired paint jobs, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents reportedly don’t want to drive them.
Last summer, a slick promotional video captured a Ford Raptor pickup truck and GMC Yukon SUV rolling around Washington, D.C., with music from DaBaby playing over close-up images of navy blue paint jobs with red-and-white racing stripes and a gold seal.
The words “defend the homeland” appear on the side, and “President Donald J. Trump” is printed in gold on a rear window.
Homeland Security’s preview of its new fleet — with paint jobs designed to look like the president’s private jet — cost more than $700,000. The government ultimately spent more than $2 million buying up hundreds of new cars with custom wraps, according to contracts reviewed by The Independent.
But officers don’t want them
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“ICE has never had marked vehicles,” one person familiar with the purchases told the outlet. “In talking to people, they’re like, ‘We don’t want to use these, we can’t.’”
Another said it’s “ridiculous” to drive marked cars because “you don’t want to advertise what you’re doing.”
“We’re just hiding them in a parking garage somewhere because we don’t want to drive them,” the person reportedly told the outlet. “Who wants to drive the marked vehicles?”
Roughly 25 newly delivered ICE vehicles are sitting at an immigration detention facility in California, unused, according to the Examiner.
ICE has denied any suggestion that its new vehicles aren’t being used.
“Any allegation that these ICE vehicles are not being used is FALSE. ICE is a law enforcement agency, and like all other law enforcement agencies, has a fleet of vehicles that includes those with ICE branding,” a spokesperson wrote”
Iran’s military is split up into regional commands that each have the resources to fight independently if they lose contact with leaders or the rest of the country.
Musk claimed that if USAID activities could even send him flimsy evidence that they were doing something useful, DOGE wouldn’t cut it. But Musk’s and Trump’s DOGE cut USAID programs that in total saved half a million to one million preventable deaths a year.
The head of USAID during W Bush’s presidency says that the idea that USAID is a Marxist organization is ridiculous. He said that while he was head, he moved the organization to the right and focused on free market reforms, and when Obama came in, he moved it to the left; the career people do what the people at the top tell them to do. Trump just came in and destroyed it.
“The Trump administration signaled a plan Friday to revoke a two-year-old tax rule designed to crack down on an arcane but highly lucrative tax avoidance tactic used by some of the largest and most complicated businesses.
If enacted, the Trump administration’s proposal would mean that large business partnerships no longer need to tell the IRS when they shift assets from one corporate entity to another. Those transactions, called “basis shifting,” have allowed businesses to dodge tens of billions of dollars in taxes, the Treasury Department alleged in the past, by illegally depreciating the same asset over and over again.
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the IRS workforce has shrunk drastically under Trump. In the first months of his term, more than a quarter of the agency took buyout offers or otherwise left their jobs.”
Trump’s special military operation in Iran is failing. There’s no sign that the regime will be overthrown. The US and Israel can destroy a lot of equipment, but Iran still has a ground army and still has forces to keep control of the country. Without a massive ground invasion, there’s no sign that Trump’s special military operation will produce significant political results.