SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Stand Up America Statement on Nikki Haley Presidential Announcement
Today, former Governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley announced she will run for president in 2024. Although Haley is the first person to challenge Trump for the Republican nomination, she is rumored to be joined by fellow MAGA extremist and Trump understudy, Ron DeSantis, and others are expected to join in the running as 2023 continues.
Stand Up America’s Executive Director, Christina Harvey, issued the following statement:
“Make no mistake: Nikki Haley is no moderate. From her support of Trump’s policy of putting children in cages and the regressive reproductive health policies she pushed as Governor of South Carolina to her opposition to federal voting rights legislation and her unwavering support of Donald Trump—even after he incited the January 6th insurrection—Nikki Haley has shown her true colors.
“When we needed leaders to stand up for our democracy and our freedoms, Haley fell in line with Donald Trump, again and again. She spent 2022 throwing her support behind election deniers across the country, including someone who was at the Capitol insurrection on January 6th. That’s exactly the opposite of what our country needs. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make her unique.
“Whether the Republican nominee is Nikki Haley, Donald Trump or someone else, there will likely be a MAGA Republican with a track record of undermining our democracy on the GOP ticket come November 2024.”Haley has long been a champion for right-wing causes. In her time as the UN ambassador, Haley led the U.S withdrawal from the U.N.’s New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants and defended the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy of separating migrant children from their parents. After the Jan 6 insurrection, Haley initially criticized Trump for inciting the mob, but later opposed impeachment, saying “They beat him up before he got into office. They’re beating him up after he leaves office. I mean at some point, I mean, give the man a break. I mean, move on.”
In her time as the Governor of South Carolina, Haley was vocal about her opposition to reproductive health care and gun safety measures. Despite her “moderate” persona, she continues to be a strong ally of Donald Trump and has continued to perpetuate MAGA misinformation.
Stand Up America was founded in 2016 as a digital-first grassroots community working to resist Donald Trump and his cronies’ corruption, racism, and his threats to our democracy. From 2017 to 2021, our members made 1.7 million calls to Congress to oppose the MAGA extremist agenda. In 2020, our volunteers contacted 25 million voters to help defeat Trump and elect Joe Biden to the presidency. In 2022, our team helped build a firewall for democracy ahead of 2024 by electing pro-democracy Secretaries of State in Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, and Nevada, passing key democracy ballot initiatives, and mobilizing our members to get out the vote for progressive candidates nationwide. In 2024, our community will continue mobilizing to elect candidates who will stand up for our freedoms and our democracy.
Stand Up America is a progressive advocacy organization with over two million community members across the country. Focused on grassroots advocacy to strengthen our democracy and oppose Trump's corrupt agenda, Stand Up America has driven over 600,000 phone calls to Congress and mobilized tens of thousands of protestors across the country.
LATEST NEWS
‘This Is a Lie’: Rubio Falsely Claims That There Is No US Blockade on Oil Entering Cuba
"The secretary knows very well the damage and suffering that the criminal oil siege he himself proposed to his president is causing the Cuban people today," said Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodríguez.
May 06, 2026
Peace advocates joined Cuba's top foreign relations official on Wednesday in accusing US Secretary of State Marco Rubio of blatantly lying about the existence of a blockade on oil exports to Cuba, which Rubio denied at a press briefing on Tuesday.
Anti-war group CodePink pointed to comments made by the US chargé d'affairs to Cuba, Mike Hammer, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 29 threatening other countries with tariffs if they provided the communist country with oil and accusing the Cuban government of harboring terrorists—a claim officials have vehemently denied.
"Now there's going to be a real blockade," said the diplomat at the time. "Nothing is getting in. No more oil is coming."
Cuba's primary source of fuel had been cut off earlier in January after the US invaded Venezuela, killed dozens of Venezuelans and Cubans while abducting President Nicolás Maduro, and took control of the country's oil supply.
However, on Tuesday Rubio claimed that Venezuela had freely decided to no longer supply Cuba with "free oil"—an apparent reference to a barter system agreed to by the two countries.
"This is a lie," said CodePink in response to Rubio's comments.
Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodríguez added that Rubio had "simply chosen to lie" about the Trump administration's policy, contradicting both Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
"In four months, only one fuel tanker has arrived in Cuba. All our suppliers are intimidated and threatened in violation of free trade rules and freedom of navigation," said Rodríguez.
He also pointed to Trump's new executive order, signed last Friday, which imposed new sanctions on Cuba's energy, finance, and security sectors and threatened to further isolate Cuba from international finance systems by authorizing sanctions on foreign banks that conduct major transactions with designated Cuban entities.
"The secretary knows very well the damage and suffering that the criminal oil siege he himself proposed to his president is causing the Cuban people today," said Rodríguez.
In late March, Leavitt said that an oil tanker from Russia had been permitted by Trump to reach Cuba for "humanitarian reasons," but denied there had been any policy change regarding allowing international fuel shipments to be sent to the island.
Decisions about shipments “are being made on a case-by-case basis,” said Leavitt at the time. "There has not been a formal change in sanction policy.”
Since Trump ramped up the blockade in January—intensifying a sanctions policy that the US has imposed on Cuba for more than six decades—nearly 100,000 Cubans, including about 11,000 children, have been left waiting for surgeries as the fuel shortage has led to rationing and frequent blackouts that have impacted the healthcare system. Healthcare workers have reported shortages of syringes, antibiotics, and IV supplies.
The Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR) also found last month that Trump's tightened sanctions and policies regarding Cuba, starting in his first term, have contributed to an “unprecedented increase” in the country's infant mortality rate, which soared 148% from 2018-25.
“It is clear that the increase in sanctions is responsible for this huge increase in infant deaths,” said Alex Main, director of international policy at CEPR, on Wednesday. “The oil blockade has been especially inhumane, disrupting the operation of ventilators, inhalers, and other crucial medical equipment and crippling emergency transportation. More than 80% of Cuba’s electricity is based on oil and oil products.”
US lawmakers who visited the island in April denounced the oil blockade as "cruel collective punishment" that has caused a water shortage, forced businesses and schools to shut down, and left cancer patients without lifesaving medications.
"Rubio is willfully lying" about the blockade, said Mexico City-based journalist José Luis Granados Ceja.
At Tuesday's press conference, after denying the blockade exists, Rubio pivoted to the Trump administration's position that Cuba's "economic model doesn't work" and blamed the country—whose healthcare system and literacy rates are frequently ranked higher than those of the US—for the crisis it's facing.
"Incompetent communists run that country. They don’t know how to fix it," said Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants. "So it’s an unacceptable status quo, and we’ll be addressing it."
While joining Israel in waging war on Iran in recent months, the Trump administration has repeatedly suggested it hopes to take military action against Cuba.
Last Friday, the president said the US military "will be taking [Cuba] over almost immediately."
On Wednesday, CEPR and YouGov released a new poll that found 64% of Americans oppose a US military takeover of Cuba.
"This should make President Trump think twice about another ‘war of choice,’” said Mark Weisbrot, senior economist and co-director of CEPR. “Almost all of the experts on Cuba would laugh at the idea that Cuba presents a security threat to the United States. And the war against Iran has already cost Trump and his party significant support.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump Counterterrorism Strategy Puts 'Anti-Fascists' on Par With ISIS, Al-Qaeda
"The global War on Terror has come home."
May 06, 2026
The Trump administration on Wednesday released an official counterterrorism strategy that puts "anti-fascist" organizations on par with terrorist organizations such as Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
In outlining its strategy, the document argues that the US faces three "major type" of terrorist threats: "Legacy Islamiast Terrorists," such as al-Qaeda and ISIS; "Narcoterrorists" that sell illegal drugs; and "Violent Left-Wing Extremists, including Anarchists and Anti-Fascists."
When it comes to the purported domestic left-wing threats, the document says the administration will "prioritize the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist."
"We will use all the tools constitutionally available to us to map them at home," the document adds, "identify their membership, map their ties to international organizations like Antifa, and use law enforcement tools to cripple them operationally before they can maim or kill the innocent."
The document makes no mention of the threat posed by members of right-wing groups such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, many of whom received pardons from President Donald Trump in 2025 for their role in violently storming the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
A report published last year by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that, while left-wing political violence has grown since Trump's first election in 2016, it "remains much lower than historical levels of violence carried out by right-wing and jihadist attackers."
Journalist Ken Klippenstein reported on Wednesday that the strategy "is the brainchild of White House counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka, an eccentric figure I have reported on, who last year hinted at terrorism charges being levied for political opponents of the administration."
Digging into the details of the document, Klippenstein said it was essentially a strategy for prosecuting "pre-crime," which he noted "aims to build cases against people for what they might do, most ominously based on speech or beliefs."
At the end of his analysis, Klippenstein warned that the document makes clear "the global War on Terror has come home."
The counterterrorism strategy document builds on the framework established by National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7), a directive signed by Trump in September that demanded a “national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts.”
Rights groups have for months been sounding the alarm about the implications of NSPM-7, which they said could be used to initiative a widespread crackdown against the Trump administration’s critics.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'You Have Unleashed Chaos': Dems Push Trump to Come Clean on Scale of Economic Destruction From Iran War
"Americans deserve to know whether your administration considered the many ways your war would increase the day-to-day cost of living," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the president.
May 06, 2026
A group of US House Democrats is demanding that President Donald Trump be transparent with the American public about the extent to which his administration planned for the dramatic price hikes caused by the war in Iran over the past two months.
"You have unleashed chaos, undermined our national security, and escalated the conflict by threatening war crimes, including wiping out an entire civilization and destroying civilian infrastructure," says the letter sent to the president on Wednesday by the five Democrats, who all serve leading opposition roles in House committees.
The letter was signed by Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform; Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), the ranking member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce; Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), the ranking member of the Agriculture Committee; Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the Natural Resources Committee; and Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), the senior House Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee.
Gas is over $6 bucks a gallon in parts of California. Instead of lowering prices, President Trump is spending a billion dollars a day on a war with no mission and no end in sight. What happened to America First?
— Robert Garcia (@RobertGarcia) May 5, 2026
The Democrats accused Trump of having launched the war "without coherent or realistic strategic objectives," and without a plan in the event that Iran restricted travel through the Strait of Hormuz, which has led to economic havoc.
"The impacts of your war will be felt for years, and the consequences of your reckless decision to drag America into war are increasingly falling on the American public," the lawmakers said.
They cited reports that consumer prices are now growing faster than at any point in nearly two years, with no sign of slowing down due to a 50% spike in crude oil prices, which has also driven gas prices above $4.50 per gallon on average across the US, up more than $1 from the war's beginning.
These oil shocks have rippled through the economy, raising the cost of airline tickets, home utilities, shipping, and numerous consumer goods. The blockage of the strait has also hampered fertilizer shipments, leading to spikes in food prices.
The lawmakers also noted the cost of the actual war to US taxpayers, which was reportedly about $2 billion per day during the first week of attacks.
While the Pentagon has claimed the war has only cost about $25 billion since it began in late February, Stephen Semler, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, estimates that when armament use, troop deployments, and other factors are considered, the true cost over 60 days has been more than $71 billion, almost three times higher.
Trump said during a press conference on Tuesday that when he decided to launch the war, he expected price increases to be even worse than they turned out to be.
"I also thought oil would go up to $200, $250, maybe $300, and I knew it would be short-term, but I thought it would go. I looked today, it's, like, at $102," he said, referring to the price of a barrel of oil. "That's a very small price to pay for getting rid of a nuclear weapon from people who are really mentally deranged."
The American public does not seem to agree. Trump's approval rating has plummeted to unseen lows since the war began, with just 35% now approving of his handling of the economy, according to an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll out Wednesday.
The same poll found that more than 8 in 10 said gas price hikes were straining their household budgets, and a majority (63%) blamed Trump for the increases. Roughly the same percentage said the overall economy was not working well for them personally, while 61% said they believed the war in Iran had done more harm than good.
The Democratic lawmakers inquired about the extent to which the Trump administration had prepared for Iran to cut off the Strait of Hormuz, which they said had been "long predicted" by experts.
They pointed to statements by administration officials, including US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, who said just over a week before the war was launched that, thanks to Trump's "energy dominance agenda," prices would likely only "blip," as they had during June's 12-day war.
They also cited reports that Trump "did not consult" with Wright, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, or Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to assess the likely impacts of an attack on oil markets.
The lawmakers noted predictions from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in March that the war will push inflation to 4.2% this year, up from 2.6% the previous year. Analysts have predicted that an increase in inflation to just 3% would cost the average household with $5,000 in monthly expenses an extra $1,800 per year.
Asking Trump to provide documents detailing the White House's communications with executive agencies, the lawmakers said, "Americans deserve to know whether your administration considered the many ways your war would increase the day-to-day cost of living, and what steps you are now taking to protect Americans from the fallout of your foolhardy rush to war."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular