Best of the ‘Media Buzz Meter': Trump Pulls Surgeon General Nominee After Attack by Laura Loomer
This 'Media Buzz Meter' first aired on May 8th, 2025 … Howie Kurtz on Trump announcing a trade deal made with the United Kingdom, Trump withdrawing his nominee for Surgeon General and dozens of students being arrested for pro-Palestinian protests.
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Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's Vetting Official Hasn't Been Fully Vetted for His Own Security Clearance
President Donald Trump's man in charge of vetting staff has not yet been fully vetted himself for a security clearance five months into the second Trump administration. Sergio Gor is the director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. He is tasked with vetting thousands of executive branch employees. However, Gor has not yet submitted paperwork on his own background for a permanent clearance, according to a report from the New York Post which cited multiple sources. Gor's office is responsible for assessing candidates for approximately 4,000 political appointees including recruiting and screening candidates as well as dealing with security clearances and conflicts of interests. Some 1,600 of the positions require Senate confirmation. The powerful Trump aide has yet to turn in his Standard Form 86, or SF-86, the more than 100-page background investigation form required for a security clearance, three administration sources said. The extensive form covers citizenship, employment history, relatives, foreign contacts and travel, financial activities, drug use and more. Gor, 38, is reportedly from Malta. However, an official there could not confirm his birthplace, and Gor declined to provide it to the Post besides to say it was not Russia. Gor is a close MAGA ally of Trump and his son Don Jr. with whom he co-founded Winning Team Publishing in 2021. The top Trump aide also once worked as a booker for Fox News and as a spokesperson for Sen. Rand Paul. He also served as officiant and DJ at Matt Gaetz's wedding in 2021, according to Vanity Fair. While his work largely takes place behind the scenes at the White House, Gor made headlines earlier this month for being the person behind the move to withdraw Jared Isaacman's nomination to lead NASA and clashing with While he does not have a permanent security clearance, the Trump staffer does have an interim security clearance. Gor opposed the use of the SF-86 during the presidential transition and was concerned with Trump picks being weeded out by the 'deep state.' A source told the Post that he was 'actively working to convince everyone' that the form wasn't necessary and Trump could provide the clearance through executive authority. A White House official claimed Gor had completed the form and noted his interim clearance, which is given while background checks are completed. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the Post of 'engaging in baseless gossip.' White House counsel David Warrington also told the Post that Gor is 'fully compliant with all applicable ethical and legal security clearance is active, any insinuation he doesn't maintain a clearance is false.'
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
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Musk Savages ‘Snake' Trump Aide as Their White House Feud Erupts
Elon Musk publicly ripped into a top White House aide who fueled his falling out with President Donald Trump. Tensions had already been building between Musk and Trump before the SpaceX chief left the White House. Things got ugly, however, after Sergio Gor, the director of the presidential personnel office, encouraged Trump to rescind his nomination for Jared Isaacman—Musk's personal friend—to lead NASA. The New York Post revealed this week that even though Gor is in charge of vetting thousands of executive branch employees, he himself hasn't been fully vetted. Five months into the second Trump administration, he hasn't even submitted the paperwork for his own permanent security clearance. 'He's a snake,' Musk wrote on his social media platform X late Wednesday in response to the Post's report. According to the Post, Gor, 38, developed a grudge against Musk, 53, after the Tesla chief—who as head of the government cost-cutting task force DOGE was a de facto member of Trump's Cabinet—'humiliated' him in front of other Cabinet members for not staffing the administration quickly enough. 'Sergio was upset about Elon dressing him down at the meeting and said he was going to 'get him,'' a source told the paper. At the time, Musk and Trump were still on friendly terms, but Gor was openly gleeful whenever Tesla stock plunged, according to the report. After Musk's special government employee status expired, forcing him to leave the White House, Gor reportedly got his revenge on Musk by convincing Trump to pull Isaacman's nomination just days before the Senate was scheduled to vote on the appointment. The administration blamed the move on Isaacman's previous donations to Democrats, but the billionaire financial technology executive said he didn't think that was the real reason, considering his donation history had long been in the public domain. After the nomination was pulled, Musk—who poured more than $250 million into the president's re-election campaign—began publicly trying to tank the president's flagship 'big beautiful' budget bill. Surprisingly little is known about Gor, including his birthplace, according to the Post. He declined to tell the paper where he was born, except to say that it wasn't Russia. It's previously been reported that he was born in Malta, but an official there couldn't confirm that information, the paper said. Together with Donald Trump Jr., Gor co-founded a publishing company that published several of Trump's books following the end of President Trump's first term, according to the New York Times. In a statement to the Daily Beast, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, 'Sergio Gor is a trusted adviser to President Trump and he has played a critical role in helping President Trump staff the most talented administration in history.' Gor's office is responsible for assessing candidates for about 4,000 political appointees, including handling security clearances and conflicts of interest. Gor, however, has yet to turn in Standard Form 86, the 100-page background investigation form required for a security clearance, according to the Post. The form covers citizenship, employment history, relatives, foreign contacts and travel, financial activities, drug use, and more. Despite three sources saying otherwise, a White House official claimed Gor had completed the SF-86 form and noted that he has an interim security clearance, which is given while background checks are completed. Leavitt accused the Post of 'engaging in baseless gossip.'
San Francisco Chronicle
40 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
How Trump has targeted Harvard's international students — and what the latest court ruling means
President Donald Trump and his administration have tried several tactics to block Harvard University's enrollment of international students, part of the White House's effort to secure policy changes at the private, Ivy League college. Targeting foreign students has become the administration's cornerstone effort to crack down on the nation's oldest and wealthiest college. The block on international enrollment, which accounts for a quarter of Harvard's students and much of its global allure, strikes at the core of Harvard's identity. Courts have stopped some of the government's actions, at least for now — but not all. In the latest court order, a federal judge on Friday put one of those efforts on hold until a lawsuit is resolved. But the fate of Harvard's international students — and its broader standoff with the Trump administration — remain in limbo. Here are all the ways the Trump administration has moved to block Harvard's foreign enrollment — and where each effort stands. Homeland Security tries to revoke Harvard's certification to host foreign students In May, the Trump administration tried to ban foreign students at Harvard, citing the Department of Homeland Security's authority to oversee which colleges are part of the Student Exchange and Visitor Program. The program allows colleges to issue documents that foreign students need to study in the United States. Harvard filed a lawsuit, arguing the administration violated the government's own regulations for withdrawing a school's certification. Within hours, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston put the administration's ban on hold temporarily — an order that had an expiration date. On Friday, she issued a preliminary injunction, blocking Homeland Security's move until the case is decided. That could take months or longer. The government can and does remove colleges from the Student Exchange and Visitor Program, making them ineligible to host foreign students on their campus. However, it's usually for administrative reasons outlined in law, such as failing to maintain accreditation, lacking proper facilities for classes, failing to employ qualified professional personnel — even failing to 'operate as a bona fide institution of learning.' Other colleges are removed when they close. Notably, Burroughs' order Friday said the federal government still has authority to review Harvard's ability to host international students through normal processes outlined in law. After Burroughs' emergency block in May, DHS issued a more typical 'Notice of Intent to Withdraw' Harvard's participation in the international student visa program. 'Today's order does not affect the DHS's ongoing administrative review,' Harvard said Friday in a message to its international students. 'Harvard is fully committed to compliance with the applicable F-1 (student visa) regulations and strongly opposes any effort to withdraw the University's certification.' Trump has sought to ban U.S. entry for incoming Harvard students Earlier this month, Trump himself moved to block entry to the United States for incoming Harvard students, issuing a proclamation that invoked a different legal authority. Harvard filed a court challenge attacking Trump's legal justification for the action — a federal law allowing him to block a 'class of aliens' deemed detrimental to the nation's interests. Targeting only those who are coming to the U.S. to study at Harvard doesn't qualify as a 'class of aliens,' Harvard said in its filing. Harvard's lawyers asked the court to block the action. Burroughs agreed to pause the entry ban temporarily, without giving an expiration date. She has not yet ruled on Harvard's request for another preliminary injunction, which would pause the ban until the court case is decided. 'We expect the judge to issue a more enduring decision in the coming days,' Harvard told international students Friday. At the center of Trump's pressure campaign against Harvard are his assertions that the school has tolerated anti-Jewish harassment, especially during pro-Palestinian protests. In seeking to keep Harvard students from coming to the U.S., he said Harvard is not a suitable destination. Harvard President Alan Garber has said the university has made changes to combat antisemitism and will not submit to the administration's demands for further changes. The administration has stepped up scrutiny of Harvard scholars' and students' visas In late May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed U.S. embassies and consulates to start reviewing social media accounts of visa applicants who plan to attend, work at or visit Harvard University for any signs of antisemitism. On Wednesday, the State Department said it was launching new vetting of social media accounts for foreigners applying for student visas, and not just those seeking to attend Harvard. Consular officers will be on the lookout for posts and messages that could be deemed hostile to the United States, its government, culture, institutions or founding principles, the department said, telling visa applicants to set their social media accounts to 'public.' In reopening the visa process, the State Department also told consulates to prioritize students hoping to enroll at colleges where foreigners make up less than 15% of the student body, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to detail information that has not been made public. Foreign students make up more than 15% of the total student body at almost 200 U.S. universities — including Harvard and the other Ivy League schools, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal education data from 2023. Most are private universities, including all eight Ivy League schools. Some Harvard students are also caught up in the government's recent ban against travel to the U.S. by citizens of 12 nations, mostly in Africa and the Middle East. The Trump administration last weekend called for 36 additional countries to commit to improving vetting of travelers or face a ban on their citizens visiting the United States. International students make up half the students at some Harvard programs Harvard sponsors more than 7,000 people on a combination of F-1 and J-1 visas, which are issued to students and to foreigners visiting the U.S. on exchange programs such as fellowships. Across all the schools that make up the university, about 26% of the student body is from outside the U.S. But some schools and programs, by nature of their subject matter, have significantly more international students. At the Harvard Kennedy School, which covers public policy and public administration, 49% of students are on F-1 visas. In the business school, one-third of students come from abroad. And within the law school, 94% of the students in the master's program in comparative law are international students. The administration has imposed a range of sanctions on Harvard since it rejected the government's demands for policy reforms related to campus protests, admissions, hiring and more. Conservatives say the demands are merited, decrying Harvard as a hotbed of liberalism and antisemitism. Harvard says the administration is illegally retaliating against the university. ____
