Army Secretary: Defense industry "conned" Pentagon into buying more expensive weapons - National & International News - FRI 14Nov2025 -

Army Secretary: Defense industry “conned” Pentagon into buying more expensive weapons.

Trump rolls back tariffs on some foods amid complaints of high prices.

DOJ to open Epstein probe targeting Democrats and Trump foes.

Army Secretary: Defense industry “conned” Pentagon into buying more expensive weapons

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said this week that the US’s major defense contractors and weapons suppliers have “conned the American people and the Pentagon” into paying more for military hardware when there were cheaper and equally effective options available. Driscoll also admitted that the incentive structure created by the Pentagon’s own procurers have contributed to the problem.

Driscoll advocates diversifying the Pentagon’s suppliers to include other viable commercially-available options, rather than wholly sticking to equipment made specifically for the US military. This will also make procurement more flexible and make the Pentagon less beholden to certain manufacturers.

Recently, the Pentagon has announced more investment drone technology, an area where other global military forces have outpaced the US. These platforms are much cheaper to produce than any fighter jet and have operated effectively in battlefield scenarios.

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DOJ to open Epstein probe targeting Democrats and Trump foes

Following damaging revelations from a tranche of Jeffrey Epstein’s emails released this week, President Trump has ordered the Department of Justice to re-open its Epstein probe, with a focus on the late financier and sex trafficker’s connections with prominent Democrats and financial institutions. In a TruthSocial post, Trump specifically mentioned former President Bill Clinton, Larry Summers (an economist who served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations), and Reid Hoffman (a major Democratic party donor and “bundler“).

Clinton is known to have flown on Epstein’s private jet on several occasions prior to Epstein’s 2008 sex crimes conviction. During Summer’s tenure as president of Harvard (2001-2006), Epstein gave generously the university, as he did to many major academic institutions. Hoffman, founder of the professional social networking platform LinkedIn, has acknowledged meeting with Epstein multiple times while fundraising for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2015, Hoffman threw a dinner party which included Epstein as well as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Tesla and SpaceX mogul Elon Musk, and Palantir founder Peter Thiel.

Trump’s post also mentioned “J.P. Morgan” and “Chase” separately, although these institutions merged in 2000 to form JPMorgan Chase. In 2023, Epstein victims won a $290 million settlement against JPMorgan Chase. The victims accused the multinational bank of continuing to do business with Epstein and facilitating his sex crimes despite internal warnings about his conduct.

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Trump rolls back tariffs on some foods amid complaints of high prices

President Trump has announced a reduction on tariffs for some imported foods including beef, coffee, fruits and other agricultural goods. Trump won a decisive victory last year by promising to bring down ballooning prices on goods Americans buy every week. His tariff program has instead had the opposite effect. Moreover, officials in Trump’s own Labor Department recently admitted that the nationwide crackdown on undocumented migrants (particularly agricultural workers) has contributed to supply shocks and price increases on domestic produce.

Voters’ displeasure with growing food bills has been evident in polling for several months. Economic complaints were also prevalent in exit polls in recent elections where Democrats won decisive victories over Republicans. Trump’s announcement also after people on public food assistance have faced weeks of uncertainty due to the government shutdown.