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Jordan Libowitz
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Since assuming the presidency, Donald Trump has racked up more than 3,000 conflicts of interest from his refusal to divest from his businesses, according to a report released today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). CREW, which has closely monitored President Trump's conflicts of interest since the beginning of his presidency, has tracked interactions between the president, the Trump Organization, and those trying to influence government decisions and public policies, including members of Congress, industry groups, lobbyists and cabinet officials.
Since assuming the presidency, Donald Trump has racked up more than 3,000 conflicts of interest from his refusal to divest from his businesses, according to a report released today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). CREW, which has closely monitored President Trump's conflicts of interest since the beginning of his presidency, has tracked interactions between the president, the Trump Organization, and those trying to influence government decisions and public policies, including members of Congress, industry groups, lobbyists and cabinet officials.
Trump averages more than two conflicts of interest per day, an astonishing rate of corruption. CREW monitors the president's conflicts of interests by assigning them into five broad categories that showcase the president's willingness to blend his personal gain with his professional responsibilities. Highlights from CREW's tracking include:
"Every one of the more than 3,000 conflicts of interest that President Trump has incurred through his businesses raises new questions about whether he is making decisions in the interest of the American people or his own bottom line. Not only does he appear to be profiting from the presidency daily, but he is constantly facing new temptations to use his office for his own benefit," said CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder. "The president's decision to retain a financial interest in the Trump Organization sets a dangerous precedent for future presidents and officials who will be less inclined to separate their own interests from their public duties and to choose duty over corruption."
CREW's tracking defines a conflict of interest as any interaction between the Trump Organization and the federal government, U.S. state governments, and foreign governments, as well as interactions between the Trump Organization and special interests that try to influence the federal government. Using social media, news reports, White House press pool reports, speech transcripts, Freedom of Information Act requests, and other sources, CREW identifies, reviews, and fact checks each potential conflict of interest before including it in its tracking database. CREW uses the data from its tracking database to update its conflict tracker.
"The president has made it abundantly clear he has no intention of changing his behavior or separating his private business interests from his responsibilities as a public servant, so staying informed about the ways his private interests intersect with the presidency is more important than ever," said Bookbinder.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting ethics and accountability in government and public life by targeting government officials -- regardless of party affiliation -- who sacrifice the common good to special interests. CREW advances its mission using a combination of research, litigation and media outreach.
The lawsuit centers on Philippine laws stating that citizens have the right to a healthy environment.
Dozens of survivors of a "super typhoon" that struck the Philippines are suing fossil fuels giant Shell for its role in causing the climate emergency in a landmark lawsuit.
As reported by The Guardian, 66 victims of Typhoon Rai, a 2021 storm that killed more than 400 people and left millions more displaced, filed a lawsuit in the United Kingdom on Wednesday demanding that Shell provide them with financial compensation for their losses.
The Guardian noted that this is the first-ever civil complaint "to directly link polluting companies to deaths and personal injuries that have already happened in the Global South," as most other lawsuits against fossil fuel companies have been focused on potential future risks.
In the US earlier this year, a woman named Misti Leon sued several fossil fuel giants, arguing they were liable for the death of her mother, who died in an extreme heatwave in the Pacific Northwest in 2021.
The attorneys representing the victims in the Philippines case have invited Shell to respond to their allegations, and said they will file the case with the UK High Court by the end of the year if the two parties do not come to an agreement.
The lawsuit centers on Philippine laws stating that citizens have the right to a healthy environment, and it cites leaked internal documents from Shell that suggest it possessed full knowledge about the negative impact its activities are having on the climate.
Greg Lascelles, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the fact that Shell continued to aggressively expand its fossil fuel extraction operations "knowing the harm they would cause, coupled with deliberately misinforming the public, can be considered acting contrary to certain provisions of Filipino law."
A spokesperson for Shell told The Guardian that it is not fair to blame their company exclusively for the global climate emergency.
"The suggestion that Shell had unique knowledge about climate change is simply not true," they said. "The issue of climate change and how to tackle it has been part of public discussion and scientific research for decades."
One 1988 document from Shell cautioned that "by the time the global warming becomes detectable it could be too late to take effective countermeasures to reduce the effects or even to stabilize the situation," while another projected that "catastrophic weather events" could eventually trigger lawsuits against governments and oil companies.
"After all, two successive [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] reports since 1995 have reinforced the human connection to climate change," wrote Shell scenario planners.
Although the lawsuit against Shell is the first to directly link fossil fuel companies to recent climate disasters in the Global South, Climate Home News noted in a Thursday report that many legal experts believe that a ruling earlier this year from a court in Germany "confirmed that climate science can establish legal liability for damage caused by emissions."
Specifically, the court this past May found that companies can be held liable for climate damages, although it dismissed a specific claim from a Peruvian farmer who had sued German energy company RWE for allegedly putting his home at risk of floods due to melting glaciers.
As The Guardian reported at the time, the court ruled that polluters "must bear the costs in proportion to their share of... emissions" if they fail to take "preventative measures" to reduce environmental destruction.
The Missouri Republican introduced a bill to protect SNAP benefits during the government shutdown after supporting a budget package that contains the largest food aid cuts in US history.
Republican US Sen. Josh Hawley is once again posing as the defender of a program he recently voted to cut.
On Wednesday, the Missouri senator introduced legislation that would fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for the duration of the government shutdown as families across the country brace for benefit disruptions and cuts beginning as soon as November 1, potentially impacting more than 40 million people.
"Our kids deserve to eat," Hawley said in a statement, blaming Democrats for the shutdown even as his party refuses to support an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, sending insurance premiums soaring.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told reporters this week that Democrats "want Americans to have healthcare and food."
"The Republicans, evidently, don't care whether they have either," Warren added.
Hawley's statement on the new legislation did not mention his support for President Donald Trump's signature budget package, which included the largest SNAP cuts in US history, affecting millions across the nation—including many children.
The looming SNAP benefit cuts due to the government shutdown are set to compound the impacts of food aid cuts from the Trump-GOP budget law. The Trump administration is currently pressuring states to swiftly implement the law's draconian SNAP changes, including more expansive work requirements.
Hawley's new bill, titled the Keep SNAP Funded Act, marks the second time this year that the Missouri Republican has come to the defense of a program that he has helped attack. Just two weeks after helping pass the Trump-GOP budget package, which contains around $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over the next decade, Hawley unveiled legislation aimed at repealing some of those cuts.
The bill went nowhere in the Republican-controlled Senate.
It's unclear whether Hawley's SNAP legislation will suffer the same fate. The Republican senator said if GOP leaders don't agree to bring it up for a vote, he intends to try to pass it via unanimous consent.
Dozens of states have said they have begun sending out notices informing SNAP recipients that they won't receive benefits next month if the shutdown continues, and food pantries across the nation are preparing for a surge in demand.
Legislation like Hawley's isn't necessary to ensure that SNAP recipients continue receiving at least partial benefits as the shutdown drags on, experts at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) stressed earlier this week.
"Nearly two-thirds of the funds needed for a full month of benefits are available in SNAP's contingency fund and must be used when regular funding for SNAP runs short," wrote CBPP's Dottie Rosenbaum and Katie Bergh. "The administration must release those funds immediately as SNAP law requires, to ensure that families can put food on the table next month."
As of this writing, the Trump administration has made no indication it plans to release those funds.
In addition to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said the senator, "you've got a lot of great young people right now in the Progressive Caucus in the House... And that gives me a lot of optimism about our political future."
Despite the Trump administration's increasing assaults on immigrant communities, the political left, and the rule of law, US Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday said he is optimistic "about our political future" when he looks at progressive leaders including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In excerpts of the latest episode of "The Axios Show" by the news outlet Axios, which is set to be released in full on Friday, Sanders (I-Vt.) weighed in on the recent news that Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is considering a presidential run in 2028.
When host Alex Thompson asked him whether Ocasio-Cortez would be a "formidable" candidate, Sanders replied, "I think she would."
He added that a number of other Democratic elected officials would also be good candidates, and said the congresswoman's future political moves are "her decision to make." Ocasio-Cortez has also been named as a potential challenger to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in 2026.
Sanders spoke about Ocasio-Cortez's ability to connect with voters she meets in person.
"I've been out on the streets with her, people come up, and how she responds to people is so incredibly genuine and open," he said. "It's just something that's a gift that she has. It's a quality that she has, she's a great speaker out there."
While progressive electoral successes like Ocasio-Cortez's have often been dismissed by centrist Democrats and Republicans who claim left-wing candidates don't have appeal outside of deep-blue urban areas like New York City, the congresswoman—who's often called by her nickname, AOC—has received warm receptions in conservative, rural parts of the country, including when speaking to crowds of thousands with Sanders on his Fighting Oligarchy Tour this year.
"She comes from the working class, she was a kid who was cleaning houses with her mother," he said. "She knows what it's like not to have any money and she’s going out, fighting for working families all over this country."
Sanders emphasized that the Democratic Party has an increasingly deep bench of left-wing political leaders, naming Reps. Greg Casar (Texas), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), and Maxwell Alejandro Frost (Fla.).
"I do want to say, it's not just Alexandria," he said. "You've got a lot of great young people right now in the Progressive Caucus in the House...I mean literally dozens... And that gives me a lot of optimism about our political future."
Sanders also spoke about Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, who is running a campaign focused on lifting up the working class in the primary against multiple candidates, including Gov. Janet Mills, as the party aims to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
Platner has been the subject of controversy in recent days over deleted Reddit posts he wrote in the past and a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol—one that he got while serving in the military and that didn't prevent him from being approved to reenlist. He announced Wednesday that he had gotten the tattoo covered with another image, before continuing his campaign with a town hall where he spoke to hundreds of Maine voters.
When Thompson asked Sanders about Platner's controversies, he answered that he is "not overly impressed by a squad of media running around saying, 'What do you think about the tattoo on Graham Platner's chest?'"
"Between you and me, there might be one or two more important issues," he said before speaking about the progressive oyster farmer's impressive campaign rallies and the "dark period" he went through in the past.
"He went through some very difficult experiences in the military," said Sanders. "Seeing his friends killed... He went to the VA and by the way, he says they rebuilt his life. He went into a dark period in his life. I suspect that Graham Platner is not the only American to have gone through a dark period."
📺 EXCLUSIVE: On the latest episode of The Axios Show, @SenSanders defends Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, saying there might be "one or two more important issues" than the Marine veteran's tattoos.
"I'm not overly impressed by a squad of media running around… pic.twitter.com/mYic6tC0j4
— Axios (@axios) October 22, 2025
"The guy that I saw up on the stage in Portland, Maine, rather a brilliant guy," said the senator. "Really a strong fighter for the working class, very articulate, very smart and what he said is, 'Yeah, I went through a dark period and said stupid things. I am not the person that I was back then.'"
"And I think as a nation," he added, "especially given the fact that we have a president who was convicted of 34 felonies, maybe we have to do a little bit of forgiveness."