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President Trump on Tuesday belatedly hit back at Chancellor Friedrich Merz after on Monday the German leader told students in a talk that the United States is being “humiliated” by Iranian leaders, amid struggling on-and-off negotiations, and as a crisis in the Strait of Hormuz shows no signs of de-escalating.

Merz had said he didn’t see "what strategic exit the Americans are now choosing" while simultaneously describing that Tehran’s negotiators are proceeding "very skillfully - or indeed very skillfully not negotiating."

The result, Merz had said, is that an "entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, particularly by these so-called Revolutionary Guards." The unusually blunt and direct anti-Trump commentary by the German Chancellor was given before a group of students at a secondary school in western Germany on Monday.

Throughout Monday, the media expected Trump to quickly lash back out, but that didn't come quickly. It's possible that he hadn't seen the Merz remarks, however. But by Tuesday afternoon, Trump complained on Truth Social that Merz apparently "thinks i's OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon" and that he "doesn't know what he's talking about!"

He continued with the following jab, echoing a broader critique of other European allies as well: "No wonder Germany is doing so poorly, both Economically, and otherwise!" 

Merz in his original attack on Trump's Iran war decision had claimed, "If I had known that it would continue like this for five or six weeks and get progressively worse, I would have told ?him even more emphatically." ?And yet the criticisms from EU leaders in the opening days were somewhat muted, meager, and weak.

Responsible Statecraft's Trita Parsi is also a deep Iran war critic, but agrees that the hypocrisy of EU leaders needs to be called out. Parsi writes:

Merz isn't wrong in saying he's "disillusioned" with the US & Israel over Iran because they "claimed at the beginning that they could solve this problem within days. Now I must recognize: It is not solved." But he is in no position to complain. He applauded the war and as a result, owns the outcome. This is typical of some EU leaders who support and help facilitate the US's worst instincts, and then pretend they are innocent when the foreign policy adventure predictably goes wrong.

The comments underscore several European leaders’ reassessment of their relations with Trump. A tendency to smooth ties by currying favor has given way to a more sober perspective of a U.S. president who has repeatedly called into question NATO, bolstered European far-right forces and threatened to seize Greenland, a territory of Denmark.

Regardless, the fresh critique by a leading EU head of state is certainly going to add fuel to the fire of Trump's ratcheting anti-EU and anti-NATO rhetoric, given their absence in helping the US get the Strait of Hormuz back open and the return to normal functioning of global energy transit once again.

But Trump's own words have been confusing for allies to say the least - on the one hand lambasting them for not joining a US-led coalition, but then sometimes in the same breath declaring that Washington does not 'need their help'. Naturally this enables uncertain fence-sitting allies to shrug and say simply, this is "not our war" - as the lead European powers are doing.

The U.S. Department of Justice has secured a new federal indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, marking the second criminal case brought against him by the Trump administration in under a year. The charges center on a controversial May 2025 Instagram post in which Comey shared a photograph of seashells arranged on a beach to form the numbers "86 47."

According to CNN, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter (who ran to CNN to leak the news), the indictment was returned by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia. It comes after the Justice Department’s first case against Comey-filed in September 2025 and charging him with making false statements and obstructing a congressional proceeding related to his 2020 Senate testimony-was dismissed late last year. A federal judge ruled that the interim U.S. Attorney who brought those charges had been improperly appointed without Senate confirmation.

So - the guy acts as Obama and Hillary Clinton's hatchet man to frame Trump and they're going after the seashell thing... right. 

The Seashell Post at the Center of the New Case

The new indictment revives scrutiny of a social media post that ignited intense backlash last spring. On May 15, 2025, Comey posted a photo on Instagram showing seashells lined up to spell "86 47," captioned simply: "Cool shell formation on my beach walk."

The numbers quickly drew sharp criticism from Trump allies. "86" is longstanding slang-commonly used in restaurants to mean "get rid of," "remove," or "toss out"-while "47" is widely understood as shorthand for President Donald Trump, the 47th president. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at the time called the post a call for Trump’s assassination and announced a Secret Service investigation. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard publicly suggested Comey should be "put behind bars."

Comey deleted the post the same day and issued an apology on social media, writing that he had assumed the shells represented "a political message" but "didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence." He added: "It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down." He later told interviewers that he and his wife had simply noticed the formation during a beach walk in North Carolina and saw it as a quirky, possibly restaurant-themed joke.

The Secret Service interviewed Comey for several hours in Washington, D.C.-an uncommon step for what many legal observers described as a non-specific social media image.

Political and Legal Context

The indictment represents a renewed push by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Trump Justice Department to pursue cases against high-profile political opponents. Comey has been a frequent target of President Trump since his firing in May 2017 amid the Russia investigation. Trump has repeatedly accused Comey of helping to "weaponize" the justice system against him and has publicly called for his prosecution.

Legal experts have long expressed skepticism that charges tied to the seashell post would survive constitutional scrutiny. First Amendment protections for political speech are broad, and courts have set a high bar for prosecuting ambiguous or hyperbolic statements as true threats or incitement (see Brandenburg v. Ohio and subsequent true-threat cases). Many analysts viewed the original May 2025 controversy as protected edgy commentary rather than a direct call to violence-especially given Comey’s immediate deletion and clarification.

The first indictment’s dismissal on procedural grounds had already drawn accusations of sloppy or overly aggressive prosecution from critics. Today’s development suggests the administration is undeterred and willing to test the legal waters again with a different set of charges.

After the wild success experienced by multiple companies under the Department of Energy's Reactor Pilot Program (RPP) and Fuel Line Pilot Program (FLPP), four new fuel chain and reactor development companies have been selected under the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad (NELP).

JUST IN: @Energy’s @GovNuclear & @NRICnuclear announced the first developers selected for the newly established Nuclear Energy Launch Pad.??

The initiative helps private #nuclear developers move their technologies from concept to commercial deployment. https://t.co/j3rQ0ngPSj

— Idaho National Lab (@INL) April 27, 2026

The NELP is the combined successor program to the RPP and the FLPP. The program provides “streamlined pathways for developers wanting to demonstrate advanced nuclear energy technologies and accelerate commercial deployment”. 

Some of the reactor developers under the RPP have gone from chalkboard to fully constructed microreactors preparing for going critical in just over a few months, leading to multiple other companies begging for ways to also harness the DOE’s lightning track. 

Four companies were selected under the initial round of NELP participants: General Matter, Radiant Nuclear, Deployable Energy, and NuCube Energy. NuCube is entering the program in partnership with Idaho State University. 

General Matter is the only non-reactor developer in the program. They are working to build out new uranium enrichment capacity in the country, amid the United States's current reliance on imports from countries like Russia and domestic production controlled by European nations. 

Radiant Nuclear is currently progressing a project under the RPP with this new effort under the NELP likely building on the project. After Radiant’s testing is done at the INL DOME, they will likely transition to a different location, either at INL or another DOE-controlled area, to deploy the next iteration of their Kaleidos reactor or work on a yet-to-be-announced design. 

Deployable Energy and NuCube Energy are some of the newer entries into the reactor development startup space. Both companies are working on microreactor designs for remote applications, military applications, and potential use for critical loads, including data centers. 

Deployable’s design is the Unity Nuclear Battery, a 1 MW high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. NuCube has yet to provide a lot of details as to what their "Deccacell" project is, but a previous filing with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission indicates it may be a heat pipe design similar to designs from Antares Nuclear and Westinghouse.
 

The week's final coupon auction per the truncated pre-FOMC schedule has come and gone, and like yesterday's 2Y and 5Y, was also mediocre at best.

The sale of $44BN in 7Y paper stopped at a high yield of 4.175%, down from 4.255% in March; and like the week's previous auctions, the 7Y also tailed the 4.170% When Issued by 0.5bps, which makes it 4 auctions that have not stopped through in a row.

The bid to cover was better, rising to 2.513 from 2.432; this was the highest bid to cover since last June, and obviously well above the 2.46 six auction average.

The internals, on the other hand, were softer, with Indirects awarded 58.35%, down from 62.35% and below the 61.28% recent average. And with Directs taking a surprisingly high 30.0%, up from 25.0% and the highest since December, Dealers were left with 11.6%, right on top of the recent average.

Overall, this was another medicore auction which in light of the recent move higher in rates could have been worse. 

As with the week's previous auctions there was no notable reaction to today's sale with markets far more focused on the price of oil and developments in Iran.

Las Vegas casino stocks have been largely mixed year to date on New York exchanges, as soaring costs for alcohol, parking, food, hotel rooms, bottled water, and other basic items have deterred cash-strapped visitors from the Strip.

Visitor volumes have been under pressure for more than a year, with Canadian travel down sharply in 2025. Major operators such as MGM and Caesars have reported revenue declines in Sin City, according to Bloomberg.

The latest data from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority show that visitor volumes increased marginally by 2.1% in February, but this was from a depressed level, as foot traffic remains below late-2024 levels.

Foot-traffic data from Placer.ai indicate that quarterly visits across the top casino operators remain soft, with Las Vegas-exclusive Red Rock Resorts being the only one showing growth.

Vegas foot traffic is expected to remain muted this year: "I wouldn't expect a major upswing," Bloomberg Intelligence gaming and lodging senior analyst Brian Egger said.

Citizens analyst Jordan Bender noted that Vegas is more like a "vacation," with visitors going there "not necessarily to gamble more."

If "you just want a fun weekend for two days, it's not a bad place to go," Suter told clients.

We have detailed for years how unaffordable Vegas has become. Even MGM CEO William Hornbuckle acknowledged this reality on an October earnings call: "Whether it's the infamous bottle of water or Starbucks coffee at Excalibur that costs $12, shame on us."

Vegas must become affordable again - or risk yet another year of muted traffic, which would impact the local economy because the leisure and hospitality industry made up about a quarter of all jobs in the metro area.

Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Monday that more than 1,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers have left the agency since the partial shutdown began on Feb. 14.

Amid the record-breaking lapse in funding, DHS said that with summer months approaching and the FIFA World Cup kicking off in June, impacts to travelers could be significant.

The department announced the drastic drop in staffing in a post on X, blaming Democrats in Congress for the prolonged shutdown.

“This loss has SIGNIFICANTLY decreased TSA’s ability to meet passenger demand and left critical gaps in staffing, as each new recruit requires 4-6 MONTHS of training,” DHS wrote.

Fliers at airports across the United States experienced hours-long security lines earlier in the spending lapse.

To ease travel pains, President Donald Trump on March 23 deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to 14 U.S. airports.

“[The American public is] going through a big struggle right now, and we just put ICE in charge, and they’re helping TSA—the agents—and they’re working together so far very well,” Trump said at the time.

If longer wait times persisted, Trump pitched the idea of also deploying the National Guard.

Lauren Bis, acting assistant secretary for public affairs at DHS, told The Epoch Times that from the start of the shutdown through March 24, 450 TSA agents had quit. Thousands more were calling out sick and could not afford gas, childcare, food, or rent, she added.

“As Democrats continue to put the safety, reliability, and efficiency of our air travel system at risk, [President] Donald Trump is taking decisive action—deploying hundreds of ICE officers, already funded by Congress, to the airports under the greatest strain,” Bis said.

TSA acting Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill told Congress on March 25 that airports might be forced to close if the partial shutdown continued.

“At this point, we have to look at all options on the table. We don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing how we maintain our operations,” McNeill told lawmakers.

“And that does require us to, at some point, make very difficult choices as to which airports we might try to keep open and which ones we might have to shut down as our callout rates increase.”

Only days after McNeil testified on Capitol Hill, Trump signed a presidential memorandum to pay TSA agents with DHS emergency funds.

More than 50,000 TSA employees had been working without pay for weeks.

Wait times at airports eased as TSA agents began receiving paychecks and backpay. Security lines that were taking multiple hours to pass through were down to 10 minutes or less.

But there’s still no long-term plan from Congress to fully fund DHS.

Republicans and Democrats are blaming each other for the spending standstill. An array of funding proposals have come from both sides, but none have successfully advanced.

GOP lawmakers are criticizing their counterparts for not passing their proposals, as Democrats demand a guaranteed overhaul of immigration operations in exchange for a funding agreement.

On March 27, the House passed a stopgap plan to fund DHS for 60 days. The bill was sent to the Senate, which had already left for a two-week recess.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned on April 21 that DHS will soon run out of its emergency funds to pay TSA if Congress cannot reach a deal. The money would run dry by the first week in May, he said in a “Fox and Friends” interview.

“My payroll at DHS is just over $1.6 billion every two weeks,” Mullin said. “There is no more emergency fund, so the president can’t do another executive order for us to use money, because there’s no more money there.”

The Senate, using the budget reconciliation process, advanced on April 23 a $70 billion funding plan for ICE and Customs and Border Protection through 2029. The process allows passage by a simple majority, bypassing the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.

If brought up by the House, the resolution would allow congressional committees to write detailed legislation on allocation of the funds, which would then require Trump’s signature to take effect.

Trump praised the Senate’s effort and urged Republicans to unify to achieve full funding for DHS.