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CNN
an hour ago
- Politics
- CNN
Army Secretary withdraws West Point job offer to former Biden official amid pressure from far-right activist
Joe Biden Activism Job market Federal agencies FacebookTweetLink Army Secretary Dan Driscoll on Wednesday ordered the US Military Academy at West Point to rescind an offer of employment to a former top national security official who served under President Joe Biden, announcing the move in a post on X — the latest example of the Pentagon's political leadership dictating staffing and curriculum at the nation's military academies. Jen Easterly, a West Point graduate who served as the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency under Biden, was named by the academy on Tuesday as the new Robert F. McDermott Distinguished Chair in the Department of Social Sciences. Her appointment was announced by West Point in since-deleted posts on X and LinkedIn. Before they were deleted, the announcements drew the attention of far-right activist Laura Loomer, who on Tuesday tagged Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in a post on X calling Easterly a 'Biden holdover who worked to silence Trump supporters under Biden.' Easterly did not a return request for comment. In 2023, House Judiciary Committee Republicans accused CISA under Easterly's leadership of 'surveillance' and 'censorship' because of its focus on fighting disinformation online and countering foreign malign influence operations. 'Looks like some of your underlings are trying to screw you,' Loomer wrote on Tuesday. 'Who the hell is doing the hiring over at DOD @DeptofDefense? It's horrendous.' On Wednesday, Driscoll posted a memorandum on X that said West Point will be terminating its 'gratuitous service agreement' with Easterly; that it will be pausing 'non-governmental and outside groups from selecting employees of the Academy'; and that Driscoll will be requesting 'an immediate top-down review' of West Point's hiring practices. Loomer responded with a clapping emoji. In response to Driscoll's post, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on X that 'we're not turning cadets into censorship activists. We're turning them into warriors & leaders. We're in the business of warfighting. Our future officers will get the most elite training so that America can continue to dominate on the battlefield.' 'We won the election, you lost,' Parnell said in response to a reporter who pointed out that Trump administration political appointees are increasingly playing direct roles in decisions made by the military academies. Driscoll's interference follows other interventions made by the Pentagon's political leadership in the affairs of the country's service academies — including at West Point. A tenured professor of philosophy at West Point wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times in May that he was resigning after 13 years at the school because it was 'suddenly eliminating courses, modifying syllabuses and censoring arguments to comport with the ideological tastes of the Trump administration.' The professor, Graham Parsons, wrote that West Point was interpreting Hegseth's order 'broadly,' and conducting 'a sweeping assault on the school's curriculum and the faculty members' research.' In response to Parson's op-ed, Hegseth posted on X, 'You will not be missed Professor Parsons,' and the DoD's rapid response account called Parsons 'woke.' Shortly thereafter, the Pentagon ordered all military academies to identify and remove books from their libraries that deal with issues such as race, gender ideology, and other 'divisive concepts' that are now considered 'incompatible with the department's core mission,' CNN reported at the time. In a separate memo released around the same time, Hegseth also said there will be 'no consideration of race, ethnicity, or sex' in admissions to US military academies, which will focus admissions 'exclusively on merit.' The memo ordered the service academies to rank candidates, starting with the 2026 admissions cycle, 'by merit-based scores,' accepting the highest-ranking candidates in each nomination category. And earlier this year, the US Naval Academy removed nearly 400 books from its main library in an attempt to comply with President Donald Trump's executive order in January mandating the removal of all 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' content from K-12 schools, which Hegseth later said also applied to military academies. Shortly thereafter, the Naval Academy canceled a lecture that author Ryan Holiday was scheduled to give to students there last month after he refused to remove slides from his planned presentation that criticized the academy's decision to remove the books, CNN has reported. CNN's Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.
CNN
an hour ago
- Politics
- CNN
Army Secretary withdraws West Point job offer to former Biden official amid pressure from far-right activist
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll on Wednesday ordered the US Military Academy at West Point to rescind an offer of employment to a former top national security official who served under President Joe Biden, announcing the move in a post on X — the latest example of the Pentagon's political leadership dictating staffing and curriculum at the nation's military academies. Jen Easterly, a West Point graduate who served as the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency under Biden, was named by the academy on Tuesday as the new Robert F. McDermott Distinguished Chair in the Department of Social Sciences. Her appointment was announced by West Point in since-deleted posts on X and LinkedIn. Before they were deleted, the announcements drew the attention of far-right activist Laura Loomer, who on Tuesday tagged Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in a post on X calling Easterly a 'Biden holdover who worked to silence Trump supporters under Biden.' Easterly did not a return request for comment. In 2023, House Judiciary Committee Republicans accused CISA under Easterly's leadership of 'surveillance' and 'censorship' because of its focus on fighting disinformation online and countering foreign malign influence operations. 'Looks like some of your underlings are trying to screw you,' Loomer wrote on Tuesday. 'Who the hell is doing the hiring over at DOD @DeptofDefense? It's horrendous.' On Wednesday, Driscoll posted a memorandum on X that said West Point will be terminating its 'gratuitous service agreement' with Easterly; that it will be pausing 'non-governmental and outside groups from selecting employees of the Academy'; and that Driscoll will be requesting 'an immediate top-down review' of West Point's hiring practices. Loomer responded with a clapping emoji. In response to Driscoll's post, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on X that 'we're not turning cadets into censorship activists. We're turning them into warriors & leaders. We're in the business of warfighting. Our future officers will get the most elite training so that America can continue to dominate on the battlefield.' 'We won the election, you lost,' Parnell said in response to a reporter who pointed out that Trump administration political appointees are increasingly playing direct roles in decisions made by the military academies. Driscoll's interference follows other interventions made by the Pentagon's political leadership in the affairs of the country's service academies — including at West Point. A tenured professor of philosophy at West Point wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times in May that he was resigning after 13 years at the school because it was 'suddenly eliminating courses, modifying syllabuses and censoring arguments to comport with the ideological tastes of the Trump administration.' The professor, Graham Parsons, wrote that West Point was interpreting Hegseth's order 'broadly,' and conducting 'a sweeping assault on the school's curriculum and the faculty members' research.' In response to Parson's op-ed, Hegseth posted on X, 'You will not be missed Professor Parsons,' and the DoD's rapid response account called Parsons 'woke.' Shortly thereafter, the Pentagon ordered all military academies to identify and remove books from their libraries that deal with issues such as race, gender ideology, and other 'divisive concepts' that are now considered 'incompatible with the department's core mission,' CNN reported at the time. In a separate memo released around the same time, Hegseth also said there will be 'no consideration of race, ethnicity, or sex' in admissions to US military academies, which will focus admissions 'exclusively on merit.' The memo ordered the service academies to rank candidates, starting with the 2026 admissions cycle, 'by merit-based scores,' accepting the highest-ranking candidates in each nomination category. And earlier this year, the US Naval Academy removed nearly 400 books from its main library in an attempt to comply with President Donald Trump's executive order in January mandating the removal of all 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' content from K-12 schools, which Hegseth later said also applied to military academies. Shortly thereafter, the Naval Academy canceled a lecture that author Ryan Holiday was scheduled to give to students there last month after he refused to remove slides from his planned presentation that criticized the academy's decision to remove the books, CNN has reported. CNN's Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.
Miami Herald
5 hours ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Veteran trader reboots SoFi stock price target after earnings
If you played college football 30-odd years ago, Anthony Noto was probably one of the last men you wanted to see heading your way. And if he hit you hard enough, he was probably was the last man you saw. At least for a little while. While at West Point, Noto was a star linebacker on the U.S. military academy's football team and he earned All East Linebacker and Academic All-American titles and received the Toyota Leadership Award in the 1990 Army-Navy Game. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter He led the team with 129 tackles and still ranks in the top 15 all-time Army single season tackles, and ranked third in the record books for caused fumbles in a season-including a single game high of 24 tackles in a win against Vanderbilt. After football, Noto went on to tackle the business world, a career path that included stints at Goldman Sachs, the National Football League and Twitter-before Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk X'ed it up. Noto is now the CEO of SoFi Technologies (SOFI) , which beat Wall Street's second-quarter earnings forecasts and raised its full year revenue outlook. "Our success in the second quarter is clear validation of our strategy and execution," the fintech's chief executive said during the company's earnings call. "And, as you can see, we are just scratching the surface of the tremendous opportunities for growth that exist across each of our products and segments." More Tech Stocks: Analyst who correctly predicted Rocket Lab stock surge resets forecastVerizon Q2 earnings report surprises with remarks on tax reformFund manager who forecast Nvidia stock rally reboots outlook An incredible resume, to be sure, but TheStreet Pro's Stephen Guilfoyle knew Noto was exceptional way back when he saw him back on the gridiron. "I told you this guy was good years ago," he wrote, quoting himself in his latest column. "I saw him play college ball for Army. He made literally every tackle." SoFi's stock has been storming down the field for quite a while with shares up nearly 213% from a year ago. The stock was climbing 9% at last check. Looking at the results, the San Francisco-based SoFi earned 8 cents with net adjusted revenue up 44% to $858 million. "These numbers all easily beat expectations, with EPS comparing quite nicely to $0.01 for the year-ago period, while reflecting year-over-year revenue growth of 43% (GAAP) or 44% (adjusted)," Guilfoyle said, describing SoFi as a "longtime Sarge-fave and core 'Stocks Under $10' holding. William Blair, which kept an outperform rating on the stock, said Wall Street is only starting to appreciate the extent and speed of the company's "disruptive" digital banking offerings. The firm said that it believes traditional banks will "rapidly" lose market share to SoFi as the company expands its savings, spending, lending, investing, and advice offerings "We feel great about the business," Noto told analysts. "It's operating in all cylinders. The results show that. Our outlook shows that for 2025. I think our biggest challenge beyond 2025 quite frankly is deciding what not to do." For the full year, SoFi now expects to generate adjusted net revenue of about $3.375 billion, Guilfoyle said, up from its prior guidance of $3.235 billion to $3.31 billion "and well above the $3.29 billion that Wall Street had in mind." "SoFi made waves in June when the firm announced that it would return to the world of cryptocurrency, reversing a decision to exit that market in 2023," he noted. Related: Veteran trader has blunt words for SoFi's latest move Noto told analysts that "we are at an unprecedented point in time with two technology supercycles taking place." "We are excited to once again be able to provide members with the ability to buy, sell and hold a selection of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum," he said. "In a recent survey of our members who invest in crypto, we found that 60% would prefer to work with a nationally licensed bank like SoFi over their current primary crypto exchange." In addition, Noto said SoFi is also making use of artificial intelligence. "We're implementing and testing AI applications across our business from enhancing back office processes like dispute resolution and filing suspicious activity reports to improving how we interact with our members to help them get their money right and we brought on teams of engineers to drive these efforts forward," he said. In reviewing SoFi's stock chart, Guilfoyle said relative strength remains quite robust but has come out of a technically overbought condition. "Last week's high of $22.74 now becomes the pivot," he said referring to the price level calculated from the previous trading day's high, low, and closing prices. Guilfoyle raise his price target for SoFi Technologies to $29 from $26. "I use dollars and cents for low-priced stocks," he said. "SoFi is no longer a low-priced stock; hence we just use dollars, making $23 the new pivot for me. Already the high price target price on Wall Street, we are increasing our target further this morning." Related: Veteran fund manager who forecast S&P 500 crash unveils surprising update The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Fox News
5 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Decision to remove West Point crest from chapel Bibles reversed by secretary of the Army
EXCLUSIVE: The secretary of the Army has ordered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to restore the school's crest on the Bibles at the West Point Cadet Chapel, reversing a Biden-era decision to not include the crest when replacing the Bibles. "Since the founding of West Point and before, generations of cadets, officers, and Soldiers have drawn strength and inspiration from God's word," Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll said in a Friday statement to Fox News Digital. "The decision to remove the Academy's historic crest from the Bibles in the Cadet Chapel is yet another example of the previous administration pushing far-left politics into our military institutions. I am directing West Point to reverse this decision immediately and restore this important symbol of Duty, Honor, Country." Driscoll's statement comes after Fox News Digital first reported that a conservative judicial and government watchdog group had filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit Tuesday against the Department of Defense over documents regarding why the crest was absent from the new Bibles. A spokesperson for West Point declined to provide comment to Fox News Digital on Friday. Judicial Watch first submitted a FOIA request in December 2024 seeking records related to the Bibles, after the MacArthur Society, a group for West Point graduates concerned about potential politicization at the military academy, notified them of the removal of the crest from the Bibles. When asked for comment about the new Bibles, a spokesperson for West Point told Fox News Digital that the chapel's Bibles now feature the name of the military academy. "The bibles purchased for the West Point Cadet Chapel are emblazoned with 'The United States Miliary Academy, West Point, New York,'" the spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital Wednesday. Judicial Watch filed the original FOIA request to learn more about the decision, due to concerns that the military academy is seeking to eliminate ties with what the group labels "traditional values." But after receiving no response for the documents, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the Department of Defense for the documents Tuesday. "Judicial Watch's heavy lifting gets results," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a Friday statement to Fox News Digital. "Goes to show again how our lawsuits exposing corruption can fix corruption. The US Army and West Point can't go wrong in honoring God." The Pentagon told Fox News Digital that it does not comment on pending litigation. Combining religious content or symbols with military material has faced backlash historically. In 2012, all four branches of the military pulled approval for a military series of Holman Christian Standard Bibles that had been sold in military exchanges amid concerns that the series indicated that the Bible served as the official religious text of the military services, according to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. The West Point crest has undergone several iterations but historically has included an eagle above the school's mascot, the Black Knights. West Point is one of several U.S. military academies that train students to become military officers.
Fox News
6 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
West Point Bible crest controversy spurs Pentagon lawsuit from conservative watchdog
NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! FIRST ON FOX: A conservative judicial and government watchdog group has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Defense over documents related to a controversy surrounding the U.S. Military Academy at West Point crest on Bibles in the West Point Cadet Chapel. Judicial Watch originally submitted a FOIA request in December 2024 for documents related to the Bibles, after the MacArthur Society, a group for West Point graduates concerned about potential politicization at the military academy, tipped them off to the potential removal of the crest. The original request for the documents said: "Upon information and belief, the West Point Crest has appeared on the cover of the Bibles in the West Point Chapel since 1984, but circa December 2024, the Crest has been removed from the Bibles." It's unclear why the crest was removed, prompting Judicial Watch to file the original FOIA request to learn more about the decision, amid concerns that the military academy is seeking to wipe out any affiliation with what the group calls "traditional values." Mixing religious material with military paraphernalia has come under scrutiny in the past. For example, all four branches of the military yanked approval in 2012 for a military series of Holman Christian Standard Bibles that were sold at military exchanges, due to concerns that the series signaled the Bible was the official religious text of the military services, according to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. The West Point crest has undergone multiple variations, but historically has featured an eagle above the school's mascot, the Black Knights. A spokesperson for West Point told Fox News Digital that the chapel's Bibles now feature the name of the military academy. "The bibles purchased for the West Point Cadet Chapel are emblazoned, 'The United States Miliary Academy, West Point, New York,'" the spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. The Department of Defense told Fox News Digital it does not comment on pending litigation. WEST POINT DECISION TO CUT 'DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY' FROM MISSION STATEMENT UNDER FIRE AGAIN' Even so, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit for the documents pertaining to the Bibles Tuesday after receiving no response for the requested records. "It appears the Biden administration and its leftist accomplices were determined to sever all connections between West Point and traditional values," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "They added divisive DEI programs to the curriculum and removed 'Duty, Honor, Country' from the Military Academy's mission statement. Now, we learn they removed the West Point crest from Bibles in the West Point Chapel. It's a wonder they didn't remove the Bibles." This isn't the first time West Point has come under scrutiny from the conservative watchdog. HEGSETH QUIPS '99.9%' OF DEI INITIATIVES ARE GONE FROM THE MILITARY UNDER TRUMP'S WATCH In May, Judicial Watch claimed that West Point engaged in a "cover up" scheme when it altered its mission statement in 2024 from "duty, honor, country" to "Army Values." According to the watchdog group, the change was part of an effort to advance a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) agenda. Even so, West Point's mission statement has been changed nine times in the past century, and the words "duty, honor, country" didn't make it into West Point's mission statement until 1998. When asked about the mission statement change in May, an Army spokesperson directed Fox News Digital to West Point Superintendent Lt. Gen. Steven Gilland's original announcement: "Our absolute focus on developing leaders of character ready to lead our Army's Soldiers on increasingly lethal battlefields remains unchanged." West Point is one of several U.S. military academies that trains students to become military officers. TRUMP DOD CREATES TASK FORCE TO ABOLISH DEI OFFICES THAT 'PROMOTE SYSTEMIC RACISM'
