Trump’s New $1.8 Billion Pot of Money, and a Deadly Mosque Attack in California
5/19/202610 min
Plus, a North Korean soccer team hits the road.
Here’s what we’re covering:
Justice Dept. Sets Up $1.8 Billion Fund That Could Funnel Money to Trump Allies, by Glenn Thrush, Andrew Duehren and Alan Feuer
Trump Threatens Iran and Then Pulls Back, All in the Same Day, by Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt
The Iran War Is Crippling One of the World’s Wealthiest Nations, by River Akira Davis
Suspect’s Mother Warned Police of Missing Guns Before Mosque Attack, by Tim Arango, Neil Vigdor and Pooja Salhotra
Elon Musk Loses $150 Billion Suit Against OpenAI and Sam Altman, by Cade Metz and Mike Isaac
A North Korean Soccer Team Makes a Rare Visit to South Korea, by Choe Sang-Hun
Tune in every weekday morning, and tell us what you think at: theheadlines@nytimes.com.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
We gave Times employees a preview of Crossplay from New York Times Games, and here's what they had to say.
River Akira Davis0:05
I can finally play with other people.
Donald Trump· Soundbite0:08
I'm pretty competitive. It's fun to beat friends and coworkers.
River Akira Davis0:11
I have a J for 10 points.
Speaker 00:14
I'm guessing Tanga is not a word. Let's see. Tanga is a word. Oh.
River Akira Davis0:18
As an English as a second language speaker, I like to learn new words.
Speaker 00:23
Crossplay, the first two-player word game from New York Times Games. Download it for free today.
Will Jarvis· Host0:29
[instrumental music] From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Will Jarvis in for Tracey Mumford. Today is Tuesday, May 19th. Here's what we're covering.
Speaker 40:39
Donald Trump is setting up a $1.7 billion political slush fund for the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers and his other political lieutenants and hangers on.
Will Jarvis· Host0:54
In Washington, critics are blasting a highly unusual fund that was announced yesterday by the Trump administration. The White House said the nearly $2 billion pot of money will be used to compensate people who claim they were persecuted during the Biden administration. The fund creates a pipeline that could be used to funnel taxpayer money to President Trump's allies, and was quickly criticized by Democrats and others as a presidential slush fund. The head of a nonprofit legal watchdog, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, called the fund's creation, quote, "One of the single most corrupt acts in