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An analysis of the Trump administration’s efforts to end diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the federal government during the president’s first 100 days in office revealed that nearly 750 DEI employees have been placed on leave or fired for a savings of more than $2 billion.

The analysis provided by the White House showed that the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Education and the Department of Labor saw some of the biggest savings. The trio of agencies fired or placed on leave 256 DEI employees, saving taxpayers over $1.3 billion, the analysis noted.

Overall, the Trump administration let go of 745 employees working in DEI offices or on DEI-related programs throughout the government and saved taxpayers roughly $2.33 billion. 

‘President Trump ordered the end of radical and racist DEI propaganda in government, and the administration is swiftly enacting the president’s order,’ White House principal deputy communications director Alex Pfeiffer told Fox News Digital. ‘Common sense has returned to government.’

In addition to savings and staff cuts, the White House’s analysis highlighted the various grants that were slashed and other changes made as a result of the Trump administration’s efforts to rid the federal government of DEI.

Those programs included race-based grants or quota programs at multiple agencies and race-based promotion commitments. Multimillion-dollar grants for DEI training and DEI-focused activist groups were also among the cuts at most agencies.

At the State Department, a $5 million grant to ‘strengthen organizational capacity leadership and impact for mid-sized autonomous intersex and trans human rights organizations’ was cut. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) saved $1.7 million by eliminating four years of DEI staff training on topics ranging from ‘microaggressions’ to ‘identifying and preventing racism in your marketing.’ 

‘You must accept what has happened and what you have done,’ a narrator of one of the LinkedIn training sessions funded through these grants stated. ‘If you can’t accept what the marketplace is telling you, that this piece of content is sexist, racist, homophobic … you can’t move forward as a leader.’  

Other USDA grants, according to the White House’s analysis, spent money on staff training aimed at ‘cultivat[ing] an Eye for Inequity,’ while Trump administration staff also found ‘DEI Bingo’ cards left over from the Biden administration. The bingo cards included spaces to be checked off, like, ‘I know what the ‘I’ in LGBTQIA+ means’ and ‘I have pronouns in my signature line.’

USDA also dispersed race-based grants, such as money for ‘LATINX Growers’ and ‘Black Women’s Regenerative Farming,’ according to the White House analysis. The analysis also indicated that the USDA spent $600,000 on research into the menstruation of biological males and $361,000 to support queer and trans farmers.

Similar DEI-related materials were found at the Department of Education, including a white board with bullet points about race-centric priorities. Below the heading ‘Projects’ was a bullet point that said ‘Black male resource doc,’ while ‘Goals of the Week’ included ‘Tighten up Black Ed Roundtable’ and ‘PAC pictures.’ Another box on the whiteboard said, ‘Black male political appointees.’ 

The Education Department under President Donald Trump has also slashed grants promoting racial hiring quotas and numerous teacher training sessions on topics like resisting ‘settler patriarchy’ and how America’s education system is one of the ‘settler-colonial realities.’

According to the administration’s analysis of its DEI cuts, almost 100 antisemitic incidents were left unresolved by the former Biden-Harris administration’s Office of Civil Rights within the Education Department. According to the analysis, staffers in the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights were also told by the last administration to ‘sit on’ a civil rights complaint against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. 

The Biden administration also reportedly neglected Freedom of Information Act requests about its DEI efforts. The White House’s analysis recorded as many as 4,000 outstanding requests sent to the Department of Labor, which, under President Joe Biden, promoted DEI-based hiring and mandatory training programs for staff.

The Health and Human Services Department also saw steep cuts to DEI programs during Trump’s first 100 days. 

At the National Institutes of Health alone, over $350 million in DEI projects were slashed, including grants for studying ‘multilevel and multidimensional structural racism’ and ‘gender-affirming hormone therapy in mice,’ among others.

In addition to all the cuts, the Trump administration has taken steps to rectify the Biden administration’s DEI focus. It ended DEI-related training courses within the DOT online learning management system and disabled an internal email feature at the Department of Transportation that let users list their pronouns. The administration did the same with other pronoun policies at other agencies.

The administration has also taken proactive steps at other agencies, such as removing DEI criteria from more than 2,900 supervisory performance standards at the Energy Department. At the Department of Interior, the agency’s ‘DEIA Council’ was terminated. It had a stated purpose of embedding diversity, equity and inclusion principles into ‘everything’ the agency does.

Trump’s crusade against DEI began on the first day of his second presidency with an executive order, ‘Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing.’ In the order, President Trump accused the Biden administration of forcing ‘illegal and immoral’ DEI programs on the American people. 

‘This was a concerted effort stemming from President Biden’s first day in office,’ Trump’s order insisted. 

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A former top aide in President Donald Trump’s first administration is arguing that Republicans raising taxes on wealthy Americans ‘makes no sense.’

Marc Short, the former chief of staff to ex-Vice President Mike Pence, was an integral part of negotiations for Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). He also served in Trump’s first White House as director of legislative affairs from 2017 to 2018.

‘Raising taxes on America’s highest earners and biggest job creators makes no sense. I don’t understand why there are some inside the current administration who are pushing Congress to raise the top rate, because again, these are America’s job creators,’ Short said.

‘So many small businesses file taxes as individuals. And so you’re actually going to be raising taxes on many small businesses, not just individuals.’

Congressional Republicans are working on a massive piece of legislation that Trump has dubbed his ‘big, beautiful bill,’ aimed at advancing his policies on tax, border security, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt.

The tax policy portion is expected to be the costliest, and House negotiators are working on identifying a number of areas to cut a total of at least $1.5 trillion to offset the new spending.

A source familiar with Trump’s thinking told Fox News Digital he’s considering allowing the rate on individuals making $2.5 million or more to revert from 37% to the pre-2017 39.6%. 

It will help pay for massive middle- and working-class tax cuts as well as protect Medicaid, the source said.

The TCJA lowered the tax rate for the top income bracket — currently $609,350 for single filers — to 37%, a cut that’s expiring at the end of this year.

Creating a new, higher tax bracket for people earning significantly more than that would help pay for extending the 2017 tax cuts as well as implementing Trump’s new priorities: eliminating taxes on tips, overtime pay and retirees’ Social Security checks.

But Short, who helped get the 2017 package passed, dismissed those new Trump priorities as short-sighted political sweeteners.

‘I feel like some of the administration’s new requirements are somewhat gimmicky. I’m not sure many Americans who earn their income based on tips are even paying taxes on those tips right now. And I think we should begin to extend that to say no tax on overtime,’ he said.

Short said those changes would create ‘a lot of additional hurdles for businesses to comply with.’

‘I think the no tax on Social Security, it seems like what we’re trying to do is different from 2017, when we passed the Tax Cuts and Job Act,’ he said. ‘We tried to simplify the tax code, make it flatter and fair for all Americans, as opposed to creating carve-outs for certain constituencies.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for a response to Short’s remarks.

Some conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity are also wary of a potential tax hike for the wealthy.

Richard Stern, director of the Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at the Heritage Foundation, said the group is opposed to efforts to raise tax rates to 40% or higher.

‘Congress needs to get its fiscal house in order, but it must do so by tightening its own belt, not by forcing American taxpayers to tighten theirs. A higher top tax rate would be counterproductive, discouraging hard work and entrepreneurship,’ Stern said.

Americans for Prosperity chief government affairs officer Brent Gardner said in a statement, ‘Raising taxes on any American should be completely off the table.’

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Former Vice President Mike Pence has a message for his old boss.

Pence is urging President Donald Trump, under whom he served as vice president in Trump’s first administration, not to raise the tax rate on wealthy Americans.

Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the signature domestic achievement of his first White House term, is scheduled to expire this year if it’s not extended by Congress.

The Trump White House and some congressional Republicans for weeks have mulled letting the tax reductions on the wealthy sunset as a way to pay for the rest of the tax cuts as well as Trump’s other pricey second-term priorities. 

 

And the president, during a Wednesday phone call, pushed House Speaker Mike Johnson to raise taxes on the highest income earners and close the carried interest loophole in the reconciliation process, Fox News Digital confirmed. The development was first reported Thursday by Punchbowl News.

A source familiar with Trump’s thinking said Trump is considering allowing the rate on individuals making $2.5 million or more to increase by 2.6%, from 37% to 39.6%.

But Pence, a fiscal conservative and budget hawk during his long political career in the House of Representatives, as Indiana governor and as vice president, strongly cautioned against upping the rates on the highest earners.

‘Any suggestion that I’ve heard among some in and around the administration that we raise the top margin rate, the so-called millionaires tax, would be an enormous tax increase on small business owners across America,’ Pence said. ‘It needs to be opposed.’

And the former vice president, in an interview with Fox News Digital this week, argued that ‘the majority of people that file taxes of a million dollars are simply individuals that own businesses, and they file their taxes as an individual, but then plow that money back into their company. If you raise that top margin, it would be an enormous tax increase on small business America.’

‘Let’s make all the Trump-Pence tax cuts permanent. That’s a way to really lay a foundation to grow the economy in the days ahead,’ Pence urged.

Pence, who was interviewed in Boston after receiving the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage award, gave ‘President Trump all the credit in the world for an historic victory last November, and for sparing the country one more liberal Democrat administration.’

He also praised Trump ‘not only for his victory, but for securing our southern border, for restoring morale and recruitment in our military, for taking the fight to the Houthis.’

But he argued that ‘I truly do believe that some of the other steps the president is taking away from that conservative agenda should be a concern that would work against his legacy and ultimately the success of our party or our country. And so we’re going to continue to be a voice against them.

‘I really do believe that for prosperity … for the success of our country, we need to stick to those time-honored principles of strong defense, American leadership on the world stage, less government, less taxes, traditional moral values and the right to life, and I’m going to be a voice for that,’ Pence added.

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The Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James, Fox News has learned.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed that a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia sent out subpoenas related to accusations that James misrepresented a single-family home in Virginia as her primary residence to obtain more favorable loan terms.  

News of the federal probe follows a criminal referral from the Trump administration’s Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte, who requested the DOJ investigate James over that matter and another incident in which she allegedly misrepresented the number of livable units in a multifamily Brooklyn house to once again obtain better loan terms. 

‘These baseless and long-discredited allegations, put to rest by my April 24 letter to the Department of Justice, are suddenly back in the news just days after President Trump publicly attacked Attorney General James,’ James’ attorney, Abbe Lowell, said Thursday. 

‘This appears to be the political retribution President Trump threatened to exact that AG Bondi assured the Senate would not occur on her watch. If prosecutors are genuinely interested in the truth, we are prepared to meet false claims with facts.’

After Pulte’s criminal referral was sent to the Justice Department, specifically U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Lowell followed up with his own letter to Bondi and the Justice Department, accusing the president of seeking ‘political retribution.’ 

James has been part of a group of Democratic attorneys general who have sued to halt many of Trump’s orders during his first few months in the Oval Office. 

Additionally, James was the catalyst behind Trump becoming the first U.S. president sentenced as a felon. She was the lead prosecutor in a case she brought against Trump and the Trump Organization that alleged Trump and his company falsified business records to obtain more favorable loan terms.

Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and was ordered to pay $350 million in penalties and is appealing the conviction.

‘The stunning hypocrisy of President Trump’s complaint that the Justice Department had been ‘politicized’ and ‘weaponized’ against him is laid bare as he and others in his administration are now asking you to undertake the very same practice,’ Lowell wrote in his letter to Bondi.

Lowell, in his letter, pointed to instances when Trump has called for revenge and instances when the president has personally attacked James. 

Lowell also responded to the allegations, including the claim James listed a home in Virginia as her primary residence while serving as a state official in New York. According to Lowell, James had no intention of using the property as a primary residence, and her indication of this in a power-of-attorney letter was a mistake. Lowell pointed out there were other documents in which James indicated to her lender that the Virginia home would not be her primary residence. 

James is also accused of fraud for allegedly inflating the number of livable units in a multifamily Brooklyn home to receive better interest rates. Lowell accuses Pulte of disregarding updated documentation listing the residence as a four-unit multifamily residence and instead pointing to a certificate of occupancy from 2001. 

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President Donald Trump said he does not know his new nominee for U.S. surgeon general, telling reporters Thursday that he relied upon the recommendation of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Trump withdrew the nomination of his first pick for surgeon general, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, this week and instead nominated Dr. Casey Means. The president, upon announcing her nomination, said she has ‘impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials.’ 

When asked Thursday about Means and why he tapped her for the role, the president said Kennedy recommended her. 

‘Because Bobby thought she was fantastic, brilliant woman who went through Stanford — wanted to be academic instead of physician,’ the president said. 

‘I don’t know her, I listened to Bobby,’ Trump added. ‘I think she’ll be great.’ 

Means, a vocal ‘Make America Healthy Again’ proponent, played a significant role in helping shape the administration’s agenda surrounding health alongside her brother, Calley Means. 

She has made a name for herself as a wellness influencer alongside her brother. In 2024, both Casey and Calley co-wrote a book about the chronic disease epidemic titled ‘Good Energy,’ and Casey is also the co-founder of a health-tech company called Levels.

Calley Means was previously tapped by the administration to serve as a top special advisor to Kennedy. 

It is unclear why Nesheiwat’s nomination was pulled. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for more information and did not immediately receive a response. 

Meanwhile, in a follow-up post on X, Nesheiwat also said she was ‘looking forward’ to continuing to support Trump while working closely with Kennedy ‘in a senior policy role.’ 

‘My focus continues to be on improving the health and well-being of all Americans, and that mission hasn’t changed,’ Nesheiwat concluded in her public social media remarks.  

Nesheiwat is the sister-in-law of recently fired National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, whom the president indicated he will now be nominating to be the next ambassador to the United Nations after dropping his initial nominee, New York GOP Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. 

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Amid firings and government shake-ups, the Trump administration has repeatedly been assigning additional job roles to Cabinet members and other officials, Fox News Digital found. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was charged on May 1 with serving as Trump’s national security advisor after the president announced he had nominated former National Security Council chief Mike Waltz to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. 

Rubio’s roles in the administration now include leading the State Department; serving as acting archivist of the United States after Trump ousted a Biden-era appointee; serving as acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development as the admin works to dissolve the independent agency by September; and taking the helm as the interim national security advisor. 

But Rubio is not alone in taking on multiple roles within Trump’s second administration. Fox News Digital looks back on the various Trump Cabinet members and officials who are wearing multiple hats as the president works to realign the federal government to track with his ‘America First’ policies. 

Marco Rubio 

Rubio and the Trump administration have come under fire from Democrats for the secretary of state holding multiple high-profile roles in the second administration, including Democrats sounding off on the national security council shake-up on Sunday news shows. 

‘There’s no way he can do that and do it well, especially since there’s such incompetence over at DOD with Pete Hegseth being secretary of defense and just the hollowing out of the top leadership,’ Illinois Democrat Sen. Tammy Duckworth said on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation.’ ‘There’s no way he can carry all that entire load on his own.’

‘I don’t know how anybody could do these two big jobs,’ Democrat Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said Sunday on CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’

When asked about the trend of Trump officials wearing multiple work hats, the White House reflected in comment to Fox News Digital on former President Joe Biden’s ‘disaster of a Cabinet.’ 

‘Democrats cheered on Joe Biden’s disaster of a Cabinet as it launched the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, opened the southern border to migrant criminals, weaponized the justice system against political opponents, and more,’ White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital. ‘President Trump has filled his administration with many qualified, talented individuals he trusts to manage many responsibilities.’ 

The Trump administration has previously brushed off concern over Rubio holding multiple roles, most notably juggling both his State Department leadership and serving as acting national security advisor. Similarly, former President Richard Nixon in 1973 named then-National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger to simultaneously serve as secretary of state. 

‘You need a team player who is very honest with the president and the senior team, not someone trying to build an empire or wield a knife or drive their own agenda. He is singularly focused on delivering the president’s agenda,’ an administration official told Politico. 

Rubio’s multiple national security roles come as war continues between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, and recently launched attacks from India on Pakistan. 

‘I am monitoring the situation between India and Pakistan closely,’ Rubio said in a Tuesday X post. ‘I echo @POTUS’s comments earlier today that this hopefully ends quickly and will continue to engage both Indian and Pakistani leadership towards a peaceful resolution.’

As Rubio juggles multiple roles, the Trump administration’s foreign policies have closely involved special envoys, most notably Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East.

Witkoff is a former real estate tycoon and longtime ally of Trump’s whose focus in the Trump administration has been on negotiating with Russia amid its war against Ukraine and leading talks with Iran regarding its nuclear program. Witkoff was notably credited with helping secure the release of U.S. schoolteacher Marc Fogel from a Russian prison in February.

Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment on Rubio’s multiple roles but did not receive a response. 

Kash Patel

FBI Director Kash Patel, who railed against the ‘deep state’ and vowed to strip corruption from the federal law enforcement agency ahead of his confirmation, was briefly charged with overseeing the of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in February after the Biden-era director resigned in January. 

Patel was later replaced by Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll as acting ATF director in a job change that was publicly reported in April. 

‘Director Kash Patel was briefly designated ATF director while awaiting Senate confirmations, a standard, short-term move. Dozens of similar re-designations have occurred across the federal government,’ the White House told Reuters in April. ‘Director Patel is now excelling in his role at the FBI and delivering outstanding results.’

Daniel Driscoll 

Driscoll was sworn in as the 26th secretary of the Army in February. The secretary of the army is a senior-level civilian official charged with overseeing the management of the Army and also acts as an advisor to the secretary of defense in matters related to the Army. 

It was reported in April that Driscoll was named acting ATF director, replacing Patel in that role. 

‘Mr. Driscoll is responsible for the oversight of the agency’s mission to protect communities from violent criminals, criminal organizations, and the illegal trafficking of firearms, explosives, and contraband. Under his leadership, the ATF works to enforce federal laws, ensure public safety, and provide critical support in the investigation of firearms-related crimes and domestic and international criminal enterprises,’ his ATF biography reads. 

Ahead of Trump taking office, Republican Reps. Eric Burlison of Missouri and Lauren Boebert of Colorado introduced legislation to abolish the ATF, saying the agency has worked to strip Second Amendment rights from U.S. citizens. 

The ATF has been tasked with assisting the Department of Homeland Security in its deportation efforts under the Trump administration. 

Doug Collins 

Former Georgia Republican Rep. Doug Collins was sworn-in as the Trump administration’s secretary of Veterans Affairs in February, a Cabinet-level position tasked with overseeing the department and its mission of providing health, education and financial benefits to military veterans. 

Days after his confirmation as VA secretary, Trump tapped Collins to temporarily lead two oversight agencies: the Office of Government Ethics and the Office of Special Counsel. 

The Office of Government Ethics is charged with overseeing the executive branch’s ethics program, including setting ethics standards for the government and monitoring ethics compliance across federal agencies and departments. 

The Office of Special Counsel is charged with overseeing and protecting the federal government’s merit system, most notably ensuring federal whistleblowers don’t face retaliation for sounding the alarm on an issue they’ve experienced. The office also has an established secure channel to allow federal employees to blow the whistle on alleged wrongdoing. 

The Office of Special Counsel also enforces the Hatch Act, which bans executive branch staffers, except the president and vice president, from engaging in certain forms of political activity

Russell Vought 

Trump named his former director of the Office of Management and Budget under his first administration, Russell Vought, to the same role in his second administration. Vought was confirmed as the federal government’s budget chief in February. 

Days later, Vought was also named the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  

The CFPB is an independent government agency charged with protecting consumers from unfair financial practices in the private sector. It was created in 2010 under the Obama administration after the financial crash in 2008. Democrat Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren originally proposed and advocated for the creation of the agency.

The CFPB came under fierce investigation from the Department of Government Efficiency in February, with mass terminations rocking the agency before the reduction in force initiative was tied up in court. 

Ric Grenell 

President Donald Trump’s former ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence under his first term, a pair of roles held at separate times in the first administration, currently serves as president of the Kennedy Center and special presidential envoy for special missions of the United States. 

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts serves as the national cultural center of the U.S. Trump notably serves as the center’s chair of the board, with Grenell saying the center will see a ‘golden age’ of the arts during Trump’s second administration through productions and concerts that Americans actually want to see after years of the performing arts center running in the red. 

Trump named Grenell as his special presidential envoy for special missions to the United States in December before his inauguration, saying Grenell will ‘work in some of the hottest spots around the world, including Venezuela and North Korea.’

In this role, Grenell helped lead the administration through its response to the wildfires that tore through Southern California in the last days of the Biden administration through the beginning days of the Trump administration. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on the administration officials working multiple high-profile roles as opposed to appointing or nominating other qualified individuals but did not receive a response. 

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Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., was one of the final senators to question OpenAI chief Sam Altman during Thursday’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing, and the subject of both Three Mile Island and the Democrat’s penchant for Carhartt outerwear came up.

Fetterman said that as a senator he has been able to meet people with ‘much more impressive jobs and careers’ and that due to Altman’s technology, ‘humans will have a wonderful ability to adapt.’

He told Altman that some Americans are worried about AI on various levels, and he asked the executive to address it.

In response, Altman said he appreciated Fetterman’s praise.

‘Thank you, Senator, for the kind words and for normalizing hoodies in more spaces,’ he said.

‘I love to see that. I am incredibly excited about the rate of progress, but I also am cautious,’ Altman said about the Democrat’s particular question.

‘I think this is beyond something that we all fully yet understand where it’s going to go. This is, I believe, among the biggest … technological revolutions humanity will have ever produced. And I feel privileged to be here.’

Fetterman also questioned Microsoft Vice Chair Brad Smith on concerns over the proliferation of data centers making utility costs for Pennsylvanians and Americans go up.

‘For me, energy security is national security,’ he said, citing the use of renewable energy and fossil fuels. 

‘My focus is also that I want to make sure that ratepayers in Pennsylvania really hit too hard for throughout all of this,’ he said, as many mid-Atlantic states are seeing an increase in land purchases for data centers that new tech like AI requires.

While the construction of such centers does create jobs, he said, those roles are often temporary.

He went on to note how Microsoft is seeking to revive a reactor on Three Mile Island in Dauphin County, which infamously melted down decades ago, and carbon-neutral means to power data centers and more.

‘I’ve been tracking the plan to reopen TMI (Three Mile Island). My own personal story is I had to grab my hamster and evacuate during the meltdown in 1979,’ he said.

‘You might assume that I was anti-nuclear, and I actually am very supportive of nuclear because that’s an important part of the stack if you really want to address climate change.’

‘But I know that’s to power Microsoft’s data center. And I really appreciate that, but if I’m saying now, if we’re able to commit that, the power purchase agreement, it’s not going to raise electricity for Pennsylvania families.’

Smith replied that in data center construction, Microsoft plans to invest in the power grid an equivalent amount to the electricity it will use so that it is not tapping into constricted supply.

‘No. 2, we’ll manage all of this in a way that ensures that our activity does not raise the price of electricity to the community,’ he said.

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Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter died Thursday at his home in New Hampshire at the age of 85, the Court announced Friday.

‘Justice Souter was appointed to the Court by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, and retired in 2009, after serving more than 19 years on the Court,’ it said in a statement.

‘Justice David Souter served our Court with great distinction for nearly twenty years. He brought uncommon wisdom and kindness to a lifetime of public service. After retiring to his beloved New Hampshire in 2009, he continued to render significant service to our branch by sitting regularly on the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit for more than a decade. He will be greatly missed,’ Chief Justice John Roberts said.

Souter was described by the Associated Press as a ‘reliably liberal vote on abortion, church-state relations, freedom of expression and the accessibility of federal courts.’

Upon his retirement in 2009, President Barack Obama chose Sonia Sotomayor to take his seat.

The Supreme Court said Souter was born in Melrose, Mass., on Sept. 17, 1939. 

He graduated from Harvard College and also received degrees from Oxford University and Harvard Law School.

Souter then rose up the ranks to become Attorney General of New Hampshire in 1976.

‘In 1978, he was named an Associate Justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire, and was appointed to the Supreme Court of New Hampshire as an Associate Justice in 1983. He became a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on May 25, 1990,’ the Supreme Court said Friday.

‘In addition to hearing cases on the First Circuit, Justice Souter participated in civics education curriculum reform efforts in New Hampshire during his retirement,’ it also said. 

Fox News’ Bill Mears and Shannon Bream contributed to this report.

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Krispy Kreme stock plunged 24% on Thursday morning after the doughnut chain said it is “reassessing” its rollout with McDonald’s and pulled its full-year outlook in part due to economic “softness.”

Krispy Kreme is not planning to launch its doughnuts in any additional McDonald’s locations in the second quarter, suspending a nationwide rollout. As of March 30, more than 2,400 of the burger chain’s roughly 13,500 domestic locations carried Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

“I remain confident in the long-term national opportunity, but we need to work together with them to identify levers to improve sales,” Krispy Kreme CEO Josh Charlesworth said.

Over the last year, Krispy Kreme shares have shed more than 70% of their value, dragging the company’s market value down to less than $600 million.

Truist downgraded the stock on Thursday from buy to hold.

“We are shocked by the speed at which the story fell apart,” Truist analyst Bill Chappell wrote. ”… We no longer have high conviction in management’s previously stated strategy and execution of these initiatives, and it will likely take several quarters before we or investors can regain confidence.”

The two restaurant companies announced more than a year ago that Krispy Kreme doughnuts would be sold in all McDonald’s U.S. locations by the end of 2026. The rollout began roughly six months ago.

While the beginning phases were promising, sales fell below projections, Krispy Kreme executives said on Thursday.

As consumers worry about the broader economy and a potential recession, they have been pulling back their spending at restaurants. McDonald’s reported a 3.6% decline in its U.S. same-store sales for the first quarter. McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said that the fast-food industry’s traffic fell as middle- and low-income diners visited restaurants less frequently.

For Krispy Kreme, profitability appears to be the key reason for slowing the rollout with McDonald’s.

“However, we are seeing that after the initial marketing launch demand dropped below our expectations requiring intervention to deliver sustainable, profitable growth,” Charlesworth told analysts on the company’s conference call.

“We are partnering with McDonald’s to increase sales by stimulating higher demand and cutting costs by simplifying operations,” he added. “At the same time, we are reassessing our deployment schedule together with McDonald’s as we work to achieve a profitable business model for all parties.”

Krispy Kreme reported a net loss of $33 million for the quarter ended March 30.

To supply all of McDonald’s U.S. restaurants, Krispy Kreme was investing in expanding capacity quickly, which weighed on profits. In the last year, the company has reported three quarters of net losses.

The company uses a “hub and spoke” model that lets it make and distribute its treats efficiently. Production hubs, which are either stores or doughnut factories, send off freshly made doughnuts every day to retail locations such as grocery stores and gas stations. Krispy Kreme is looking to prune its unprofitable locations, which could affect up to 10% of its U.S. network.

Krispy Kreme also pulled its 2025 outlook, citing “macroeconomic softness” and uncertainty around the schedule for the McDonald’s partnership.

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A group of investors sued UnitedHealthcare Group on Wednesday, accusing the company of misleading them after the killing of its CEO, Brian Thompson.

The class action lawsuit — filed in the Southern District of New York — accuses the health insurance company of not initially adjusting their 2025 net earning outlook to factor in how Thompson’s killing would affect their operations.

On Dec. 3 — a day before Thompson was fatally shot — the company issued guidance that included net earnings of $28.15 to $28.65 per share and adjusted net earnings of $29.50 to $30.00 per share, the suit notes. And on January 16, the company announced that it was sticking with its old forecast.

The investors described this as “materially false and misleading,” pointing to the immense public scrutiny the company and the broader health insurance industry experienced in the wake of Thompson’s killing.

The group, which is seeking unspecified damages, argued that the public backlash prevented the company from pursuing ‘the aggressive, anti-consumer tactics that it would need to achieve’ its earnings goals.

‘As such, the Company was deliberately reckless in doubling down on its previously issued guidance,’ the suit reads.

The company eventually revised its 2025 outlook on April 17, citing a needed shift in corporate strategy — a move that caused its stock to drop more than 22% that day.

‘The company denies any allegations of wrongdoing and intends to defend the matter vigorously,’ a UnitedHealthcare spokesperson said in a statement.

Thompson’s fatal shooting on the streets of New York City in broad daylight sent shockwaves across the nation.

Luigi Mangione, the 27-year-old man accused of the killing, has pleaded not guilty to federal and state charges against him. The legal defense fund for Mangione surpassed the $1 million mark in donations on Tuesday.

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