Miles Guo was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in federal prison on June 29 in a Manhattan Federal courtroom.

Outside the courthouse, hundreds of his supporters gathered, waiting for a man who had tried to delay his sentencing by claiming illness.

To those he defrauded, he will forever be the man who promoted fraudulent cryptocurrencies and investment schemes on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast and who was now ordered to forfeit $889 million in proceeds from his illegal schemes. 

To his followers, Guo was a fearless fighter against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In private, quite the opposite.  

According to reporting by Art Voice, the man who built a public empire denouncing communism was heard praising the CCP in private, telling aides “The CCP is great” and that “Communism is better than capitalism.”

Approximately 600 victims submitted letters to the court describing how Guo had scammed them, luring them into investments that ultimately vanished. More than 1,000 people worldwide were affected overall, according to trial evidence. 

U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres noted that Guo has shown no remorse and continues to deny responsibility.

Guo was convicted of racketeering conspiracy, securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. 

Prosecutors said he ran a criminal enterprise that defrauded his followers through deception, threats, and intimidation.

Guo fled China in 2014 amid Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, which, according to him, hurt people close to him, including a senior intelligence official.

Settling in New York, the self-exiled billionaire, who positioned himself as a fierce critic of communism, purchased a $67.5 million 15-room penthouse at the Sherry-Netherland and reinvented himself as one of the Chinese Communist Party’s most vocal critics in exile.

Guo, essentially a walking RICO case, forged a close alliance with War Room host Steve Bannon and used the podcast to promote fraudulent coins and investment schemes. The pair frequently highlighted their friendship on air to build listener trust, a strategy that contributed to Guo’s eventual 30-year prison sentence.

In 2020, the two men stood side by side and dramatically announced their plan to topple the Chinese Communist Party.

Their partnership was so tight that Bannon was later arrested aboard Guo’s luxury yacht on separate fraud charges tied to the We Build the Wall, a scheme he had heavily promoted on his War Room show.

Steve Bannon was named an unindicted co-conspirator in Miles Guo’s $1 billion fraud case, a detail that continues to raise questions about the depth of their collaboration and why the War Room has continued broadcasting amid the million-dollar scandals involving innocent listeners.

Prosecutors said Guo exploited his large following among conservative audiences and overseas Chinese, turning it into a series of fraudulent investment and cryptocurrency schemes. 

These included GTV Media, pitched as a groundbreaking anti-CCP television network that would deliver uncensored news free from Communist Party control. 

The ventures also encompassed the G|CLUBS membership club and the Himalaya Exchange, all heavily promoted on Steve Bannon’s War Room.

These enterprises raised more than $1 billion between 2018 and 2023, with trial evidence showing that approximately $550 million was stolen or misappropriated. Guo used the funds to purchase a $37 million yacht, a New Jersey mansion, a Lamborghini, designer clothing, and other luxuries.

Notably absent from the scene outside the courthouse was Guo’s longtime associate Steve Bannon. Many continue to question why Bannon has faced no charges related to these activities, despite his prominent role in promoting the ventures and the massive financial losses suffered by supporters, particularly within conservative circles.

Guo will now be transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his sentence.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), Chairwoman of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, chaired a high-profile House Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, titled “Mind Control and Accountability: Uncovering the Truth of the CIA’s MKULTRA Experiments.” The session examined the CIA’s notorious Cold War-era program and its lasting erosion of public trust.

Luna opened by emphasizing the need for transparency, linking the hearing to earlier declassified files and programs like Project Artichoke, which allegedly involved covert drugging through fake vaccines or medical procedures.

MKUltra ran from 1953 to approximately 1973. It involved unconsented human experiments using LSD, electroshock, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, and psychological torture on unwitting Americans, including prisoners, mental health patients, and civilians, as well as subjects abroad. The program was funded by U.S. taxpayers and authorized at the highest levels of the CIA.

Witnesses included historian Stephen Kinzer, author of Poisoner in Chief (which details the life of CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb), investigative journalist Tom O’Neill, author of Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties, and Dr. Elizabeth Ginexi, Ph.D., former senior program director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Ginexi focused on broader research ethics and issues of public trust.

A major focus was the deliberate destruction of evidence in 1973. 

As CIA Director Richard Helms prepared to leave office, he ordered the destruction of MKUltra files. An official CIA document states: “Over my stated objectives, the MKULTRA files were destroyed by the order of DCI [Director of Central Intelligence] Mr. Helms shortly before his departure from office.”

During the hearing, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna drew attention to the criminal destruction of records, stressing that the vast majority of MKULTRA files were deliberately kept from public view. 

Helms personally instructed Dr. Sidney Gottlieb to destroy “all files pertaining to drug research and associated activities.” Four people spent an entire day tearing up and burning approximately 152 files. Gottlieb also had his personal papers destroyed. The head of the CIA’s own Records Center protested the destruction in writing but was overruled.

No accountability followed. Helms received only a $2,000 fine for lying to Congress on an unrelated matter and collected his government pension until his death. Gottlieb faced no prison time. 

No victims received formal U.S. government compensation. As Luna and witnesses stressed, this constituted obstruction of justice and criminal destruction of federal records.

Much of what we know today survived by accident. In 1977, a FOIA request uncovered seven misfiled boxes that revealed 149 subprojects, involvement with 80 institutions, and 185 non-government researchers, along with significant CIA funding, including $375,000 for a hospital “safe house” used for unwitting subjects.

Historian Stephen Kinzer described MKUltra as “extreme medical torture.” He testified that Gottlieb operated with a de facto “license to kill,” using “expendables.” Kinzer emphasized cases like Frank Olson and warned of modern risks from advances in neuroscience and AI.

Investigative journalist Tom O’Neill noted that the 1977 congressional hearings misled the public by claiming MKULTRA was a “failure.” He pointed to documents showing the program’s goals of inducing trance states, amnesia, and programmed behavior. O’Neill detailed disturbing connections involving Dr. Louis Jolyon West, including West’s examination of Jack Ruby following the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald.

When asked whether Jack Ruby and Charles Manson were assets of the intelligence agencies, O’Neill replied: 

“In my expert opinion, I’ve never been able to prove that Jack Ruby was an asset of the intelligence agencies. I believe this is something else. The Warren Commission investigation was led by Allen Dulles, the former CIA director who authorized and ran MKUltra. He was fired by President Kennedy. The liaison to the Commission for the CIA, the one who handled all the information going back and forth, was Richard Helms, who was a direct supervisor [of these programs]. They knew that Dr. West was capable of what they had paid him to do and what he had reported to them that he could do, including inducing mental disorders in people. That was never disclosed to the Commission, as far as anyone knows. So I believe that West was put in there to keep Jack Ruby from telling his story.”

O’Neill also referenced broader links involving CIA Directors Allen Dulles and Richard Helms to the Warren Commission, noting that “the CIA was deeply involved in shaping the official narrative.”

Lawmakers, including Rep. Tim Burchett, pressed witnesses on whether similar mind-control or behavioral manipulation techniques could still be in use today. The witnesses reported seeing no direct evidence of an active MKULTRA-style program, but noted that such methods have likely evolved alongside advances in technology.

O’Neill said he “couldn’t imagine” the agency simply stopped, while Kinzer highlighted how modern neuroscience and artificial intelligence could make such capabilities more feasible than ever. Burchett also inquired about potential connections to recent high-profile incidents, including the assassination attempt on former President Trump by Thomas Crooks and the killing of Charlie Kirk. Witnesses declined to speculate on specific individuals but left open the possibility that similar techniques could continue in new forms.

This hearing was the first major congressional revisit of MKUltra since the 1970s, shining new light on one of the darkest chapters in CIA history.

Rep. Luna and the witnesses condemned the MKULTRA experiments as crimes against humanity. They called for ending remaining redactions, full declassification, victim accountability, and safeguards against recurrence.

She has committed to further CIA follow-up, including examining newly discovered boxes of MKUltra-related files, and pledged that the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets would continue pushing for complete transparency.

Obamacare enrollment fell by nearly 3 million in 2026, dropping from a peak of 22.1 million last year to 19.2 million as of February, according to federal data released June 26. The decline has reignited the national fight over whether the program is truly making healthcare affordable — or simply hiding waste, fraud, and dependency behind taxpayer-funded subsidies.

Democrats immediately blamed President Donald Trump and Republicans, claiming the decline proves that premiums are becoming unaffordable. KFF reported that average monthly premiums rose from $113 in 2025 to $178 in 2026, while benchmark silver premiums increased about 25 percent. But the Trump administration and conservative health policy experts argue the real story is program integrity.

During the pandemic-era emergency, Obamacare enrollment ballooned after verification rules were relaxed and automatic reenrollment expanded. Those policies created a perfect opening for improper sign-ups, including people receiving subsidies they did not qualify for.

According to the administration, roughly 2.9 million enrollees were blocked from receiving improper subsidies, while estimated fraudulent enrollments fell from 5.6 million last year to 2.6 million. CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz pushed back on Democratic attacks, saying many policies were tied to “fake people” or enrollees who never used the coverage.

From a conservative perspective, the enrollment drop is not a healthcare disaster — it is evidence that Trump’s reforms are draining the swamp inside Obamacare. Real affordability will not come from endless subsidies and loose oversight. It will come from restoring accountability, fighting fraud, and freeing Americans from a broken government-run system.

Liberal economist Paul Krugman is finally discovering what President Trump warned about for years—that unchecked Chinese trade hollows out Western industry. In a recent Bloomberg Television interview, Krugman said conditional tariffs on Chinese cars are “probably going to be necessary” in Europe, arguing that they cannot allow its auto industry to be wiped out by Beijing-backed competition.

That is a remarkable shift from one of the left’s most prominent voices for neoliberal free trade. Krugman has repeatedly attacked President Trump’s tariff agenda, calling parts of it chaotic, illegal, and economically misguided. But when it comes to Chinese vehicles flooding Western markets, even Krugman now admits the old globalization playbook no longer works.

Krugman cautioned against completely shutting Chinese cars out, however, saying that could hurt consumers. But he also said national security and massive market disruption from the red menace cannot be ignored, especially when an industry as important as autos is at stake. This is vindication for how President Trump has shifted the Overton Window on trade.

Tariffs are now on the table on a global basis as the economic elites are forced to admit their effectiveness. President Trump was able to articulate this reality as the establishment was in the tank for China. But now that the public has soured on Chinese dominance, they are forced to change their tune. Beijing has always used subsidies, industrial policy, slave labor, and devious strategic pressure to dominate critical sectors — from electric vehicles to batteries, software, and manufacturing.

The choice is not between free trade and protectionism. The real choice is between defending American and Western industry or surrendering it to the evil aims of the totalitarian and repressive Chinese Communist Party. Krugman may not say it directly, but his message is an endorsement of President Trump’s economic policies. President Trump was right to take China seriously, and it cannot be denied any longer.

Senate Republicans are opening a new front in President Trump’s war on waste, fraud, and abuse, launching an Anti-Fraud Task Force aimed at stopping criminals from looting federal programs at taxpayer expense. The effort is being led by Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri, who says fraud has become “organized theft on a national scale.”

He is joined by Republican Sens. Roger Marshall, Tommy Tuberville, Katie Britt, Ashley Moody, Tim Sheehy, Pete Ricketts, Marsha Blackburn, and Ron Johnson. Their mission is to find the weak points in federal programs, expose the fraud rings exploiting them, and force Congress to take responsibility for the money it authorizes.

Sen. Johnson warned that federal fraud may range anywhere from $250 billion to $1 trillion a year with the nature of the federal bureaucratic goliath lending itself to widespread graft. And once that money is gone, taxpayers rarely get it back.

That is why Republicans are making the point that prevention — not after-the-fact prosecution — must be the priority. The Senate effort mirrors the Trump administration’s anti-fraud campaign led by Vice President JD Vance. Vance’s noble efforts have already flagged nearly $6.3 billion in government contracts tied to potentially fraudulent businesses and forced hundreds of companies to prove they are legitimate, introducing the alien concept of accountability into the system.

In May, it also withheld $1.4 billion in federal funding from home health and hospice providers suspected of wrongdoing. This is exactly what our lawmakers in Washington should be doing: protecting working Americans from fraudsters, grifters, and bureaucratic negligence, instead of taking orders from lobbyists and special interests to give themselves more power at our expense. The Trump administration is rapidly changing the culture in Washington D.C., and the days of treating taxpayer money like a slush fund are over.

President Donald Trump has issued a sweeping executive memorandum aimed at delivering what his administration calls the largest deregulatory action in American history, taking direct aim at costly environmental rules that have driven up vehicle prices and restricted Americans’ ability to repair their own cars, trucks, and equipment.

The order directs the Environmental Protection Agency to expand “freedom to fix” protections by clarifying, within 30 days, what vehicle owners may lawfully do when repairing emissions systems on their own vehicles. It also tells the EPA to consider deprioritizing civil enforcement against Americans who make good-faith efforts to restore vehicles to their original configuration.

At the center of the order is a direct challenge to California’s outsized control over aftermarket parts. The memorandum argues that the California Air Resources Board has become a costly, backlogged bottleneck, with approvals taking more than a year and effectively allowing one state to dictate national repair options.

The order also instructs EPA to encourage alternative testing and certification pathways for aftermarket parts that comply with the Clean Air Act, while protecting manufacturers’ intellectual property and cracking down on cheap foreign knockoffs. From a conservative perspective, this is a major win for consumers, farmers, mechanics, small businesses, and American manufacturers.

It pushes back against green bureaucracy, restores practical repair rights, and puts affordability ahead of climate-driven red tape. President Trump is living up to his promise to undo environmental regulations that have killed free markets and consumer choice.