🗞️Secretary Lutnick volunteers to testify about Epstein

In partnership with

March 3rd, 2026

What happened today 🇺🇸,

• Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, volunteered to testify before the House Oversight Committee on his past ties to Jeffrey Epstein

• CBS reported today that the U.S. military used Anthropic's Claude AI model during recent strikes on Iran and is continuing to use it, despite President Trump's Friday order banning federal use of the tool over Anthropic's refusal to drop safeguards against mass surveillance of Americans or fully autonomous weapons

• A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration's attempt to terminate New York City's congestion pricing program was unlawful, allowing the initiative which launched in January 2025 with a $9 toll for most vehicles entering Manhattan south of 60th Street during peak hours to continue

• Department Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the session focused on the two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by DHS immigration agents in Minneapolis, the ongoing DHS partial shutdown since mid-February, and mass deportation operations

• CMS Administrator, Dr. Mehmet Oz, has launched a fraud investigation into New York's $124 billion Medicaid program

• Apple unveiled the updated MacBook Air with the M5 chip, doubling base storage to 512GB SSD (up from 256GB) for faster read/write speeds and delivering up to 4x faster AI performance than M4 models, starting at $1,099

• Meta Platforms entered a multiyear AI content licensing agreement with News Corp, paying up to $50 million annually for at least three years to access U.S. and U.K. content

• U.S. uninstalls of the ChatGPT mobile app jumped about 295% day‑over‑day on Saturday, February 28th after news of OpenAI’s Department of Defense/War deal

• S&P down .94% / Nasdaq down 1.02% / DOW down .83%

• Drone strikes amid the Iran-U.S. conflict damaged three Amazon Web Services (AWS) facilities causing structural harm, power outages, fires, and water damage

• President Trump said that the U.S. is “cutting off all trade with Spain” in response to Spain yesterday blocking use of its bases for Iran strikes

• Two Iranian drones struck the U.S. Embassy compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, causing a limited fire and minor material damage but no casualties, as the embassy was unoccupied

• The Israeli Air Force struck the building housing Iran's Assembly of Experts (often called the Council of Experts), to deliberately disrupt an emergency session where they were picking a new Supreme Leader

Turn AI Into Extra Income

You don’t need to be a coder to make AI work for you. Subscribe to Mindstream and get 200+ proven ideas showing how real people are using ChatGPT, Midjourney, and other tools to earn on the side.

From small wins to full-on ventures, this guide helps you turn AI skills into real results, without the overwhelm.

Get Your Free Guide

Plus: A Gallup poll showing partisan satisfaction with the direction of the county during different presidencies

Please follow The Simple American on X @TSimpleAmerican x.com/Tsimpleamerican

Follow us on TikTok @simpleamerican

Quote of the day: “Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.”- Brian Tracy

Have a great night!

P.S. We love connecting with our readers so…

Please reply to this newsletter for more info on any news points in the letter, feel free to give us any feedback you have, or let us know what you want more of!