Pete Ricketts

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Key Figures

Senators Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Chris Coons (D-DE), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) advanced the SAFE Chips Act in February 2026 to lock current AI chip export controls into statute, preventing the Trump administration from unilaterally relaxing restrictions on advanced AI accelerators sold to China for 30 months. The bill required the Commerce Department to brief congressional committees before any proposed changes, following reports that Trump officials were considering relaxing Biden-era controls to advance trade negotiations with Beijing.

President Trump's social media account shares a video on February 6, 2025 — during Black History Month — that shows Barack Obama and Michelle Obama with their heads digitally superimposed on the bodies of apes in a jungle scene while "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" plays. Trump's White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially defends the video, calling it a "King of the Jungle" meme depicting Trump as a lion and Democrats as Lion King characters. The video is taken down after bipartisan backlash. Trump tells reporters aboard Air Force One that he "just looked at the first part" of the video and didn't see the ape imagery. He refuses to apologize. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), the only Black Republican in the Senate, writes: "Praying it was fake because it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House." GOP Senators Pete Ricketts, Roger Wicker, and Representative Mike Lawler also condemn the post. No staffer is disciplined. The incident continues the decadeslong pattern of Republican officials circulating racist imagery depicting Black political figures as primates.

Historic flooding along the Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi River basins made 2019’s inland flooding the year’s dominant disaster cost. NOAA reported that the combined cost of Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi River flooding reached about $20 billion, nearly half the total cost of all 2019 billion-dollar disasters. The Trump administration approved disaster declarations across affected states, while the damage exposed long-term weaknesses in levees, farms, barge traffic and floodplain development.