Candidates for top U.S. national security and law enforcement jobs are being asked whether they believe President Donald Trump's claims that he won the 2020 election and about its aftermath, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.
Questions put to several current and former officials centered around the result of the election and the January 6, 2021, attacks on the Capitol, two issues that Trump has seen as matters of loyalty, the newspaper said, citing anonymous sources.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Two former officials who were being considered for intelligence jobs were asked whether the riot was “an inside job” and whether the 2020 election was “stolen," the report said. The officials were not selected for the jobs, though it was not clear whether there were other reasons for the rejections.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he wants to work on reducing the trade deficit with Japan, as he met with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House.
Ishiba said during the meeting that Toyota and Isuzu were planning additional investments in the United States.
The Hims & Hers Super Bowl advertisement is "illegal" due to the lack of a required disclaimer, according to a former consultant for major food and pharmaceutical companies, adding the ad's theme ripped off RFK Jr.'s "Make America Healthy Again" movement while promoting GLP-1 medications.
Calley Means, the founder of TrueMed, a company that enables tax-free spending on food and exercise, wrote on X:
This ad is illegal. Ads pushing drugs must communicate the risks of the product. This drug has pronounced side effects - but this ad promotes easy prescriptions for millennials as some kind of counter-cultural moral good. A patient advocacy group should sue - happy to help.
The Hims & Hers ad is themed around "Sick of the System" and criticizes the $160 billion weight loss industry. The ad shows a "life-changing" solution: affordable weight-loss drugs while completely ignoring the true core pillar of MAHA: eating clean, healthy food and exercising.
Means continued:
The fact that they are co-opting MAHA messaging is cynical BS. We don't have an obesity crisis because of a lack of Ozempic. It is because pharmaceutical companies have rigged out incentives to profit when we are sick.
On Friday, the New York Times reported that Senators Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and Roger Marshall, Republican of Kansas, sent a letter to the acting head of the Food and Drug Administration warning the ad "risks misleading patients."
"Nowhere in this promotion is there any side-effect disclosure, risk or safety information as would be typically required in a pharmaceutical advertisement," the senators wrote.
However, a Hims & Hers spokesperson told CNBC in a statement:
"We are complying with existing law and are happy to continue working with Congress and the new Administration to fix the broken health system and ensure that patients have choices for quality, safe, and affordable healthcare."
Hims & Hers' marketing department quite possibly made a bad move by attempting to hijack the MAHA movement by promoting weight-loss medications. MAHA advocates for clean, nutritious food—not low-cost, experimental weight-loss drugs as a solution to America's broken healthcare system
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) are expected to introduce the “No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act” on Feb. 6.
The pair serve on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and hope the bill will help prevent Americans from sharing sensitive, proprietary information with DeepSeek which could then be stored on servers in China accessible by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“The Chinese Communist Party has made it abundantly clear that it will exploit any tool at its disposal to undermine our national security, spew harmful disinformation, and collect data on Americans,” Gottheimer said in a prepared statement.
He added that the CCP could leverage its control over servers in China to steal American contracts, financial records, and other business documents commonly uploaded to DeepSeek’s chatbot.
“We must get to the bottom of DeepSeek’s malign activities. We simply can’t risk the CCP infiltrating the devices of our government officials and jeopardizing our national security.”
Texas has already banned DeepSeek from government devices in the state, and Taiwan, Italy, and Australia have done the same.
“Texas will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate our state’s critical infrastructure through data-harvesting AI and social media apps,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said. “Texas will continue to protect and defend our state from hostile foreign actors.”
DeepSeek has sparked data privacy concerns following the launch of its free open-source AI model in January. The app is controlled by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence, according to its privacy policy webpage.
Major security concerns about DeepSeek center on its censorship rules, possible copyright infringement, and compliance with Chinese regulations and laws that compel individuals and companies to cooperate with Chinese authorities in their intelligence work, such as by handing over data collected both inside and outside the country.
To that end, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Jan. 28 that the government is looking into the potential national security implications of the DeepSeek AI app.
Founded in 2023 by Chinese businessman Liang Wenfeng, DeepSeek stated the company adheres to Chinese laws and regulations, as well as “socialist core values.” Similarly, social media accounts linked to Chinese state agencies pushed narratives favoring DeepSeek prior to its mass proliferation through the U.S. marketplace earlier this month.
DeepSeek is not the first technology platform to export the CCP’s censorship and revisionist propaganda.
Social media giant TikTok came under fire for the same thing back in 2020, when it was found that the company’s platform suppressed content related to the CCP’s human rights abuses.
Nor is Gottheimer and LaHood’s bill the first legal response to DeepSeek in the U.S. government.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) filed his own Senate initiative in the wake of DeepSeek’s release. That effort aims to stop U.S.–China cooperation on AI development in toto by prohibiting AI products from being exported to or imported from the communist regime. The bill would also ban U.S. companies from investing in Chinese AI development.
Gottheimer and LaHood’s joint statement said that DeepSeek’s code shared user data with China Mobile, a state-owned telecommunications company that was banned in the United States for its ties to the CCP’s military wing.
“The national security threat that DeepSeek—a CCP-affiliated company—poses to the United States is alarming,” LaHood said.
“DeepSeek’s generative AI program acquires the data of U.S. users and stores the information for unidentified use by the CCP. Under no circumstances can we allow a CCP company to obtain sensitive government or personal data,” he added.
President Trump has spoken to Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the phone to try to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war, he told The Post in an exclusive interview aboard Air Force One Friday.
“I’d better not say,” said Trump when asked how many times the two leaders have spoken.
But he believes Putin “does care” about the killing on the battlefield.
In an exclusive interview with The Post aboard Air Force One Friday, President Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone as he is trying to negotiate with him to end the Ukraine war.AFP via Getty Images
“He wants to see people stop dying,” said Trump.
“All those dead people. Young, young, beautiful people. They’re like your kids, two million of them – and for no reason.”
The three-year-old war “never would have happened” if he had been president in 2022, Trump asserted.
“I always had a good relationship with Putin,” he said, unlike his predecessor.
“Biden was an embarrassment to our nation. A complete embarrassment.”
Trump said he has a concrete plan to end the war.
“I hope it’s fast. Every day people are dying. This war is so bad in Ukraine. I want to end this damn thing.”
Addressing National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who joined him in his study aboard Air Force One Friday night, the president said: “Let’s get these meetings going. They want to meet. Every day people are dying. Young handsome soldiers are being killed. Young men, like my sons. On both sides. All over the battlefield.”
Trump didn’t precisely mention how many times the two leaders have conversed but claims Putin “does care” about the killing on the battlefield.AP
Vice President Vance will meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference next week.
Trump has said he wants to strike a $500 million deal with Zelensky to access rare-earth minerals and gas in Ukraine in exchange for security guarantees in any potential peace settlement.
On Iran, Trump told The Post: “I would like a deal done with Iran on non-nuclear. I would prefer that to bombing the hell out of it. . . . They don’t want to die. Nobody wants to die.”
“If we made the deal, Israel wouldn’t bomb them.”
But he would not reveal details of any potential negotiations with Iran: “In a way, I don’t like telling you what I’m going to tell them. You know, it’s not nice.”
“I could tell what I have to tell them, and I hope they decide that they’re not going to do what they’re currently thinking of doing. And I think they’ll really be happy.”
“I’d tell them I’d make a deal.”
As for what he would offer Iran in return, he said, “I can’t say that because it’s too nasty. I won’t bomb them.”
President Trump has formulated a plan to force New York to “kill” congestion pricing in Manhattan through the federal Department of Transportation, he told The Post in an exclusive interview.
Among potential penalties available to the agency are withholding millions of dollars in funding and reopening the environmental review process that authorized the toll under the Biden administration.
Trump also vowed to rid Big Apple streets of bike lanes and criminal migrants, the president told The Post in an exclusive interview.
He is hopeful that his “respect” for Gov. Hochul in their ongoing discussions will result in a mutually beneficial deal on the unpopular toll.
“Out of respect” for the governor, Trump refused to divulge details of at least two phone conversations the pair have had about ending the unpopular $9 tax on vehicles entering Manhattan during peak hours south of 60th Street, known as the Congestion Relief Zone.
Trump believes he and Hochul can still make a deal over ending the levy, which he slammed as “destructive to New York.”
“I think it’s really horrible, but I want to discuss it with her at this point,” he said. “If I decide to do it, I will be able to kill it off in Washington through the Department of Transportation.
“It’s a lot of power.”
At risk is part of the $36 billion in five-year federal transportation funding to New York state that extends to the end of 2026. Other federal grants might also be affected if Trump pounces on what New Yorkers are calling the congestion con.
Trump hopes that Gov. Kathy Hochul can work out in their ongoing discussions that could result in a mutually benefit deal to eliminate the unpopular new tax.Michael Nagle
The toll went into effect last month and the program’s revenues are ticketed for public transit infrastructure and arrest the decline in subway ridership by forcing people out of their cars.
But Trump says it’s only hurting business in his hometown.
“Traffic is way down because people can’t come into Manhattan and it’s only going to get worse,” he said. “People don’t know about it until they get the bill.”
Trump argued that New York “should focus on safety and cleanliness in the subway,” citing cases of straphangers being pushed onto the tracks by “thugs.”
“Cleanliness and efficiency are good but they gotta get tough on the thugs. They can’t be nice.” Hochul has boasted that congestion pricing has reduced traffic, as intended. But Trump says that is not a positive sign:
“That’s because no one’s coming to the city.”
Trump also revealed to The Post that he wants to use his power to remove one of the biggest contributing factors to traffic congestion in the first place — bike lanes.
German medical packaging maker Gerresheimer on Friday said it was in early-stage discussions with private equity investors over a potential sale of the company, adding that it would evaluate any offers in the best interest of the company.
Earlier on Friday, Bloomberg News report said the company was working with advisers to gauge interest from possible buyers, adding that Warburg Pincus, EQT AB and KKR are among suitors that have been studying the business. Its shares jumped as much as 15% after the news.
"Such discussions are still in a very preliminary stage. It is not foreseeable at this point in time whether a public takeover offer will actually be made," the company said in a statement.
Activist investor Ricky Chad Sandler had bought a 5.43% stake in the German medical packaging maker in October 2024.
