Trump’s Transportation Secretary distracts with an ill-timed actuality present at the same time as an AI firm linked to the Trump household and the UAE launches a $4.8 billion IPO.
That’s to say, the Trump 2.0 regime continues to mix the absurd and the completely corrupt.
Plus there are some energy struggles happening which have at the least one key Trump 2.0 villain considerably restrained for the second.
Begin With the Silly
Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is comparatively unknown in comparison with such luminaries as former head of DHS Kristi “ICE Barbie” Noem and her stored key man “authorities marketing consultant” Corey Lewandowski, however he’s doing what he can to rectify that with a brand new YouTube actuality present.
It’s getting the complete disaster remedy from the MSM:
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) Might 11, 2026
“The Nice American Street Journey,” a five-part actuality collection set to air on YouTube in celebration of the USA’ 250th anniversary, follows Duffy as he travels throughout the nation along with his spouse, Fox Information host Rachel Campos-Duffy, and their 9 kids.
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The challenge marks a return to the couple’s reality-TV roots. Earlier than getting into politics, Duffy was a forged member on MTV’s “The Actual World: Boston” in 1997, then joined the channel’s actuality recreation present “Street Guidelines: All Stars,” on which he and Campos-Duffy first met.
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The present has drawn criticism from those that name it tone-deaf as common gasoline costs have climbed to greater than $4.50 per gallon, up roughly 50% for the reason that U.S. entered warfare with Iran in late February.Some commenters on YouTube had been blunt. One in contrast the journey to “happening a foodie tour in the course of the Nice Despair.” One other wrote: “Individuals are struggling to afford gasoline and groceries however these two actuality television and Fox Information stars are handled to free journeys with celeb visits and a cruise. Learn the room, Mark and Marie Antoinette.”
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Duffy mentioned on social media that the entire present’s manufacturing prices had been lined by a nonprofit group, The Nice American Street Journey Inc. — not taxpayers — and that neither he nor his household obtained a wage or manufacturing royalties. Sizemore mentioned that lined prices included gasoline, automotive leases, lodging and actions and that taxpayer funds had been used just for official authorities journey.Critics additionally raised conflict-of-interest issues: A number of of the present’s sponsors — together with Boeing, Toyota, Shell, Royal Caribbean Group and United Airways — are corporations that Duffy’s division oversees and regulates.
The ridiculousness compounded when former Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband Chasten obtained into it with Campos-Duffy on-line. I’ll refer readers in search of extra mind harm to the Every day Beast for extra.
However there are way more critical capers afoot.
Trump and UAE Linked Cerebras Hoping for $4.8 Billion IPO
The Wall Avenue Journal has the fundamental define of the IPO (archived):
Cerebras Methods mentioned it would supply 30 million shares in its deliberate preliminary public providing at a worth of $150 to $160 a share, up from its earlier plan to supply 28 million shares at a worth of $115 to $125 a share.
The IPO would elevate $4.8 billion on the higher finish of the pricing vary.
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Cerebras, a chip startup that makes processors personalized for working superior artificial-intelligence fashions, will make its buying and selling debut Thursday below the ticker CBRS.The corporate’s chips are designed for inference workloads, the varieties of computations required to permit an AI mannequin to answer consumer queries, and have seen surging demand as AI labs transition from coaching to working their fashions.
Thornton McEnery of Moby has some evaluation on the IPO and its market timing in a bit headlined “Cerebras Doubles Its Pre-IPO Valuation in Three Months… Cool“:
The IPO market is again, and Wall Avenue is treating each itemizing like a warm-up act for the one no person will say out loud: SpaceX. Let’s be clear, the entire IPO parade is fluffing for Musk’s rocket firm. However earlier than that inevitable, earth-shaking (and WeWork-level problematic) debut, the market is at the least revealing how hungry it truly is. Enter Cerebras Methods.
Seems the market is fairly hungry.
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The AI chipmaker raised its IPO worth vary to $150-$160 a share on Monday, up from $115-$125 simply final week. On the excessive finish, Cerebras walks away with $4.8 billion in proceeds and a totally diluted valuation of $48.8 billion. The corporate was valued at $23 billion in February. Three months and one geopolitical disaster later, it’s price greater than twice that. Traders, apparently, are usually not feeling cautious.To be honest, the pitch is straightforward: Cerebras makes chips which can be sooner than Nvidia’s GPUs and cheaper, which is the sort of sentence that makes AI infrastructure traders instantly attain for his or her checkbooks. OpenAI dedicated greater than $20 billion to the corporate and depends on Cerebras for a code-writing mannequin. AWS lately introduced it will convey Cerebras chips into its knowledge facilities, which is the enterprise equal of a gold star.
Let’s join the dots to Workforce Trump and the UAE with assist from this Reuters report from final September:
Cerebras Methods, a Silicon Valley startup aiming to tackle Nvidia, opens new tab by producing a dinner-plate-sized AI computing chip, on Tuesday mentioned it raised $1.1 billion and added 1789 Capital, the enterprise agency the place Donald Trump Jr. is a companion, as an investor.
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The deal added traders Tiger World, Valor Fairness Companions and 1789 Capital, the fund the place President Donald Trump’s son is a companion. Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman instructed Reuters in an interview that 1789’s involvement was led by Paul Abrahimzadeh, an funding banker and veteran of Citigroup, which Cerebras had beforehand tapped to steer an preliminary public providing.
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Cerebras final yr filed for an preliminary public providing on Nasdaq. The providing was delayed by U.S. nationwide safety overview of a $335 million funding by G42, an Abu Dhabi-based cloud computing and AI firm.
Final Fall there was thrilling discuss Cerebras and UAE partnering for a Gulf State Stargate, per Reuters:
AI chip startup Cerebras Methods goals to deploy its infrastructure to the United Arab Emirates to help the Gulf state’s quickly rising AI sector, in addition to markets in India and Pakistan, CEO Andrew Feldman instructed Reuters on Monday.
“I’m very assured that there can be huge clusters right here of our gear,” together with “megawatts price of kit” for the Stargate challenge, Feldman, referring to the primary section of the world’s largest deliberate set of AI knowledge centres exterior the USA.
No phrase on how that’s fared in the course of the Iran Battle which has seen the UAE take a little bit of a beating, however the group isn’t a one locale pony.
TechCrunch has extra on what G42 and Cerebras are as much as collectively, in India of all locations:
Abu Dhabi-based tech firm G42 has partnered with U.S.-based chipmaker Cerebras to deploy 8 exaflops of computing energy by way of a brand new supercomputer system in India, the businesses mentioned on the sidelines of the India AI Influence Summit in New Delhi.
The system can be hosted in India and comply with native knowledge residency, safety, and compliance guidelines. The challenge goals to offer computing assets for AI purposes to academic establishments, authorities entities, and small and medium enterprises.
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Abu Dhabi’s Mohamed bin Zayed College of Synthetic Intelligence (MBZUAI) and India’s Centre for Growth of Superior Computing (C-DAC) are additionally a part of the challenge. Final yr, MBZUAI and G42 launched Nanda 87B, a Hindi-English giant language mannequin constructed on Meta’s Llama 3.1 70B mannequin, which is purported to know informal speech in Hindi and English.
Lest readers fear that the Trump household portfolio isn’t correctly hedged for warfare time, concern not, the boys are into drones as properly.
Trumps Purchase In, Safe Air Drive Funding
Bloomberg has the inside track:
The US Air Drive agreed to purchase an undisclosed variety of interceptor drones from an organization backed by President Donald Trump’s sons, in accordance with the agency, deepening the army’s ties to protection contractors linked to the primary household because the US warfare with Iran enters its third month.
The West Palm Seaside-based firm, Powerus, will promote the drones to the Pentagon following an illustration at a facility in Arizona, in accordance with Brett Velicovich, the corporate’s co-founder and president.
…the corporate’s ties to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump may invite scrutiny of the deal.
Somewhat than pursuing an preliminary public providing, Powerus is planning to merge with Aureus Greenway Holdings Inc., a golf-course operator backed by the Trumps that already has a Nasdaq itemizing, in accordance with an announcement earlier this yr.
Democrats in Congress have requested the Pentagon for extra details about different protection contractors and expertise companies with ties to the president’s household. Along with Powerus, Eric Trump backed a reverse-merger deal between Israeli drone maker Xtend and JFB Development Holdings, a publicly listed development firm.
In response to criticism of their enterprise partnerships of their father’s second time period, his sons have repeatedly mentioned they’re non-public businessmen.
Glad they cleared that up.
Let’s shut out this round-up of Trump regime antics with a have a look at the tough patch hit by former POTUS favourite Stephen Miller.
Stephen Miller on the Outs
The Atlantic titled their piece “Stephen Miller in Retreat” (archived), which phrase capabilities for me as a psychological balm akin to “most cancers in remission.”
Let’s have a look:
The White Home deputy chief of employees and homeland safety adviser designed Trump’s second-term immigration agenda. However weeks into the brand new yr, the president dismantled the roving Border Patrol strike forces that Miller had inspired; turned on Noem, who had carried out Miller’s aggressive directions; and handed management of the deportation program again to profession law-enforcement officers.
White Home insiders mentioned that Miller stays a prime adviser to the president, that he has a singular relationship to Trump constructed over the previous decade, and that his job isn’t in jeopardy. Immigration enforcement stays a central theme of the administration and is anticipated to characteristic prominently in Trump’s midterm-election messaging. They mentioned that Miller has at all times seen himself as a staffer who subordinates his personal opinions on coverage to the agenda of the president, even when it shifts. “The President loves Stephen,” White Home Communications Director Steven Cheung instructed us in an announcement. “And the White Home employees respects him tremendously.”
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The setback for Miller is hanging largely as a result of his rise was so beautiful. No White Home official in latest historical past—since Vice President Dick Cheney within the early 2000s, maybe—has had such a dramatic and direct influence on U.S. authorities coverage and such operational sway over so many components of presidency.Miller oversaw the drafting and launch of government orders within the early days of Trump’s second time period, sat on the desk for early national-security choices, and was the driving power behind laws that awarded $175 billion in funding for immigration enforcement, permitting for extra Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, detention facilities, and deportation flights.
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the second yr of Trump’s second time period is being directed by a brand new immigration-enforcement group. The brand new secretary of homeland safety, former Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, took over in late March with a mandate to get again to fundamentals. Leaders of the division who had been sidelined by Noem, akin to Customs and Border Safety Commissioner Rodney Scott, all of a sudden discovered themselves empowered. Staff she had pushed out, akin to former Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar and the CBP official Matt Eagan, had been welcomed again. Andrew Block, an in depth ally of Miller who served as CBP’s chief counsel, was proven the door…
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