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Lawmakers are stalled on funding the Department of Homeland Security as airport delays mount. View More

watch nowVIDEO3:1203:12Trump deploys ICE agents to airportsPolitics President Donald Trump on Thursday announced he would circumvent Congress and unilaterally pay Transportation Security Administration agents, as lawmakers continues to negotiate funding for the Department of Homeland Security.Trump's move, announced via TruthSocial, could at least temporarily ease the tension that has been building for weeks in U.S. airports as TSA agents went without pay and security lines grow long. It could also clear the way for Congress to leave town at the end of this week for a pre-scheduled two-week recess."Because the Democrats have recklessly created a true National Crisis, I am using my authorities under the Law to protect our Great Country, as I always will do!," Trump posted. "Therefore, I am going to sign an Order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation, and to quickly stop the Democrat Chaos at the Airports."The move raises questions for the ongoing DHS negotiations, with other subagencies like the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Patrol still without funding.Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Trump's move "takes the immediate pressure off. But, you know, it's a short-term solution.""The Democrats have made it very clear that they have no interest in funding any of the law enforcement functions [of DHS]," Thune told reporters Thursday night.Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told reporters at the Capitol shortly after Trump's announcement that he had just spoken to Trump on the phone."The president is doing absolutely the right thing. he's showing leadership at a time the Democrats are continuing to fight against the... freedom-loving people of the country," Barrasso said.Barrasso blamed Democrats for failing to come to the table Thursday after Republicans offered a "last and final" proposal to reopen the agency, including funding for all of DHS except for a portion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's operations.Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee, denied the charge, saying Democrats had been involved in talks all day and questioning Trump's unilateral approach."His national emergency is that he can't cut a deal? He's a bad negotiator. I don't think that's grounds for a national emergency," Murphy told reporters.Trump's announcement came hours after he urged Congress at a cabinet meeting to find a quick resolution to the shutdown that's leading to increasing headaches for air travelers."They need to end the shutdown immediately, or we'll have to take some very drastic measures," Trump said from the White House.He didn't at the time describe what measures he would take or detail his role in negotiations to resume funding DHS. But the Wall Street Journal reported that some Senate Republicans were pushing Trump to declare a national emergency to free-up funds and pay TSA workers. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, on Thursday suggested that a Trump intervention might be possible."I'm not going to go into the details, other than to say that there is funding that can be used perfectly legally to pay TSA, to pay the rest of the coast guard, for example," Collins told reporters at the Capitol.In a statement later Thursday, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said "it is true that the White House is having discussions about a number of ideas to blunt the impact of the Democrat shutdown crisis, but no preparations or plans are currently underway.""The best and easiest way to pay TSA Agents is to fund DHS." Leavitt said.The DHS shutdown has dragged on for more than a month and has disrupted air travel, though lawmakers still appeared to be at an impasse before Trump's announcement.Thune told reporters Thursday that Democrats have received Republicans' "last and final offer," according to MS Now. Thune declined to provide details of the latest offer, but said the White House had "been involved on the back and forth that has occurred overnight."Murphy declined to share details of the offer with reporters earlier in the day, but said, "I don't know whether it can land." Read more CNBC politics coverageTrump says Iranian negotiators ‘better get serious soon, before it is too late’Reps Ro Khanna and Tim Burchett to push fraud probe across all 50 statesPrediction market bets on sports, election, war would be verboten under new legislation With recess looming this Friday and TSA lines growing, negotiations ramped up recently, leading to a brief period of optimism earlier in the week.A group of Senate Republicans met with Trump at the White House of Monday and came out with what they heralded as a compromise proposal: funding for 94% of DHS, except for the enforcement and removal arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But Democrats — who have withheld their support for funding the agency since February, not long after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis during an immigration crackdown — dismissed the proposal because it did not contain the ICE operational changes they had long sought. Those changes include requiring immigration agents to acquire judicial warrants before entering private property and banning the use of masks.Republicans roundly rejected a Senate Democratic counteroffer on Wednesday that included some of those proposals.MS Now reported that the latest proposal is similar to the one the GOP already pitched earlier this week. It would fund all of DHS except for ICE's enforcement and removal operations. And it would include language to try to address Democratic concerns that other divisions of DHS could also carry out those enforcement and removal functions.In addition to extending the shutdown, the negotiations standoff raises the specter of cutting into the recess that was supposed to begin at the end of this week. Thune told reporters Wednesday that it was an "open-question" whether lawmakers would be able to leave town as planned.The White House signaled on background earlier this week that it was on board with the GOP plan to reopen DHS, but Trump has so far not publicly thrown his weight behind the proposal.On Monday, the Trump administration sent ICE agents to airports to assist TSA. Trump on Wednesday suggested he may also deploy National Guard members to airports for additional help. With the clock ticking, some Republican lawmakers had floated a proposal to fund only TSA.Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he would introduce a bill to do exactly that and said he expected his Republican colleagues to support it. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said there was general agreement on funding TSA, but that Democrats were trying to get clarity on how to fund the agency without also funding ICE.Senate Democrats have repeatedly forced votes to fund all parts of DHS aside from ICE, Murphy pointed out."We've been offering that on the floor every day. So of course we would fund TSA alone," Murphy said.Thune, however, said a TSA-only approach would not solve the larger problem."You have FEMA out there.  You've got the Coast Guard. You have all these other important agencies," Thune told reporters on Thursday.— Emily Wilkins contributed to this story. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Meta is increasing investment at a data center in El Paso, Texas, to $10 billion from $1.5 billion, as the company ramps up spending on AI infrastructure. View More

In this articleAMDMSFTGOOGLAMZNFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a keynote speech during the Meta Connect annual event, at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024.Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters Meta is boosting its spending commitment on a forthcoming AI data center in West Texas by more than sixfold to $10 billion, with an aim to reach 1 gigawatt of capacity by the time the facility comes online in 2028, the company said on Thursday.The data center being built in El Paso will lead to the creation of 300 new jobs, Meta said, with more than 4,000 construction workers required at its peak. The company also said it's committed to adding over 5,000 megawatts of clean power to the grid, and will ease the water burden by working with specialized nonprofits to bring fresh water to the area."Since breaking ground last year, we have been proud to call El Paso home and are committed to being a good neighbor," the company said in a blog post on Thursday. When Meta started construction at the 1.2-million-square-foot site in October, its planned investment was $1.5 billion. Gary Demasi, Meta's vice president of data center development, revealed the steppedup investment at an annual Borderplex Alliance summit in El Paso.Meta is ramping up its spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure as the company and its hyperscaler peers try to meet what they say is unprecedented and soaring demand for computing resources. In its latest earnings report in January, Meta said capital expenditures for the year would reach up to $135 billion. But unlike tech rivals Google, Amazon and Microsoft, Meta doesn't have a cloud infrastructure business, and its hefty spending is garnering extra scrutiny from Wall Street. The stock is down 17% for the year, including a drop of 8% on Thursday that followed two stinging defeats in court this week related to the company's failure to adequately police Facebook and Instagram. Meta has been cutting costs elsewhere as it pours resources into AI. On Wednesday, the company confirmed to CNBC that hundreds of layoffs are coming across Facebook, global operations, recruiting, sales and its virtual reality division. Meta is building a 1GW AI data center in El Paso, Texas, shown here in March 2026, five months after groundbreaking.Courtesy: Meta But its data center expansion continues.Meta has a total of about 30 data centers, including new ones in the works, with 26 of the facilities in the U.S. The El Paso site is its third in Texas. The company is also spending heavily on chips and systems to fill the new data centers. In February, the company signed massive deals with Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, and this week committed to become the first customer for Arm's new data center processor. Meta also recently unveiled four new versions of its in-house MTIA accelerators that the company first disclosed to the public in 2023.As a flurry of AI data centers spring up across the country, the projects have increasingly faced backlash from nearby residents, largely due to fears about water availability and surging electricity costs. The New York Times reported that taps ran dry in a Georgia county after Meta broke ground on a $750 million data center there in 2018.Meta said on Thursday that it's working on eight water restoration projects in Texas, including partnering with water rights nonprofit DigDeep to bring "clean, running water for the first time" to over 100 homes.The new data center will be liquid-cooled, using a closed-loop system that recycles water. Meta projects the site's water use will be similar to a typical golf course in the region.— CNBC's Jonathan Vanian contributed to this report. WATCH: How Amazon built its biggest AI data center in a year, now powering Anthropic watch nowVIDEO16:5516:55Amazon's biggest AI data center comes online, powering Anthropic without NvidiaTech Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

A new survey by Vanderbilt University found that most Nashville residents don't want Boring Company tunnels in their city. View More

A modified Tesla Model X drives in the tunnel entrance before an unveiling event for the Boring Co. Hawthorne test tunnel in Hawthorne, California, December 18, 2018.Robyn Beck | Pool | Reuters When Elon Musk's Boring Company announced plans in July to build 20 miles of tunnels in Nashville to carry passengers to and from downtown to the airport in Tesla cars, Republican Governor Bill Lee touted the project as "transformative."Eight months later, residents appear less enthusiastic. A new survey from Vanderbilt University, which is located in Nashville, found that 51% of residents residents disapprove of plans for the so-called Music City Loop when they're aware of Musk's involvement. "The public's support for Elon Musk's tunnel project is heavily influenced by partisanship," Vanderbilt said on its website, regarding the poll. Local opposition to construction rose to 51% from 35% "when Musk's name is explicitly mentioned in the question."Musk became a prominent and controversial figure in politics in 2024, when he spent around $300 million to propel Donald Trump back to the White House, and then worked in the early days of the president's second tenure in the White House, slashing the size of the federal government and cutting key programs. The Boring Company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.Earlier this month, Metro Nashville Council members voted to formally oppose the Music City Loop. However, the state's Republican leadership has given Musk's company permission to dig under state highways throughout the city.Tennessee is now weighing a bill that could give the state the power to take fees from such projects, and to direct federal transit grants to the state's preferred projects. The bill, if enacted in its current draft, could also give the state and project operators the power to regulate underground transit systems, leaving municipalities like Nashville with little recourse to address fires or other emergencies, and workplace safety or pollution concerns. City council members in Nashville and residents who opposed the Music City Loop expressed concern about The Boring Company's track record in public hearings. As ProPublica previously reported, citing public records, when Musk's tunneling venture built its "loop" at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the company racked up an "extraordinary number of violations," covering a wide array of problems such as missed inspections, unpermitted construction, water pollution and worker injuries.Those who supported The Boring Company in public hearings praised Music City Loop's potential to create construction jobs in the city, and hoped the tunnels would alleviate traffic congestion in Nashville.The Boring Company this week announced that it its targeting more U.S. cities — including Baltimore, Dallas and New Orleans — for tunnel development. The company is running its business development efforts as a contest, the Tunnel Vision Challenge, promising winners a "free" one-mile tunnel. The Baltimore Ravens, who had entered the challenge and won, turned down Musk's offer after initial meetings with the company.WATCH: Musk merger complicates SpaceX IPO watch nowVIDEO3:5003:50Musk merger complicates SpaceX IPOTechCheck Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Kevin Warsh's nomination as chair of the Federal Reserve has been in limbo because of a criminal investigation of Chair Jerome Powell. View More

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts and ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, during a hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, March 26, 2026.Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | Getty Images Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent a blistering letter to Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh on Thursday, predicting he would serve as a "rubber stamp for President Trump's Wall Street First Agenda," and accusing him of having learned "nothing from your failures" during a prior stint at the central bank.Warren, D-Mass, in the letter reported first by CNBC, told Warsh that his record as a member of the Fed's Board of Governors from 2006 until 2011 — which included the 2008-09 financial crisis and Great Recession — "should disqualify you from a promotion.""But President Donald Trump has vowed that 'anybody that disagrees with' him 'will never be the Fed Chairman,' " Warren noted. "And you, apparently, have passed his test," she added."As Fed Chair, you will be responsible for directing economy-altering policies that have seriousconsequences for American workers and communities," Warren wrote. "However, your track record leading up to, during, and after the 2008 financial crisis raises significant concerns about your ability to do so."The letter, which CNBC obtained before it was publicly released, asked Warsh pointed, detailed questions about 10 different subject areas to be answered for his confirmation hearing at the Senate Banking Committee, where Warren is the ranking Democrat.But those queries were buried at the bottom of what reads as a scathing, eight-page indictment of his tenure at the Fed, and what she called his advocacy "against tougher safeguards intended to prevent big bank failures and taxpayer bailouts" after he left the central bank."I write to better understand what, if anything, you've learned from your failure to prioritize American families over Wall Street before, during, and after the 2008 financial crisis while serving as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System," Warren said in the letter's first sentence. "Rather than implementing policies to improve the lives of the American public, you ignored the obviously excessive risk-taking on Wall Street; worked tirelessly to bail out large financial institutions after their bets blew up the economy; and advocated for policies that would have further harmed the millions of Americans who lost their jobs, were thrown out their homes, and saw their life savings evaporate," she continued.Warsh did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC about the letter. Read more CNBC politics coverageTrump says Iranian negotiators ‘better get serious soon, before it is too late’Reps Ro Khanna and Tim Burchett to push fraud probe across all 50 statesPrediction market bets on sports, election, war would be verboten under new legislation Warsh's nomination is in limbo as Warren's fellow Banking Committee member, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., has said he would effectively block the nomination from being considered by the full Senate until a criminal investigation of Fed Chair Jerome Powell is resolved.Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, has indicated she has no intention of dropping that probe. Pirro's office is seeking to reverse a ruling on March 11 by a federal judge in Washington, blocking subpoenas issued to the Fed as part of its investigation of Powell, which is purportedly focused on cost overruns of the pricey renovation of the Fed's headquarters and testimony about that project to the Banking Committee.District Court Judge James Boasberg, in his order quashing those subpoenas, wrote, "There is abundant evidence that the subpoenas' dominant (if not sole) purpose is to harass and pressure Powell either to yield to the President or to resign and make way for a Fed Chair who will."Trump has repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, pressured Powell and the entire Board of Governors to cut interest rates more quickly and deeply than they have since Trump reentered the White House in January 2025.Powell earlier in March said he would remain as chair pro tem if Warsh is not confirmed by May, when Powell's term as chair expires.In her letter to Warsh on Thursday, Warren said that when he began his service on the Board of Governors, there were "warning signs of the coming crisis" in the subprime home-lending market."Yet rather than using the Fed's powerful supervisory and regulatory authorities to address the severe consumer and financial stability risks posed by subprime mortgages, you defended and even implicitly promoted these products," Warren wrote."Astonishingly, in December 2007, you agreed that "subprime mortgages have gotten a bad namein this environment," she wrote. "You also promoted derivatives and other forms of 'financial innovation' as vehicles to disperse risk and make the financial system safer.""Again, you were wrong."Warren said that during the resultant financial crisis, "you appear to have prioritized the interests of large financial institutions ahead of the American public.""Your eagerness to bail out Wall Street, including through taxpayer-assisted megamergers, was not surprising, given the seven years you spent as a Morgan Stanley mergers and acquisitions executive prior to joining the George W. Bush Administration," Warren wrote."It has been well-documented that you played a central role helping to arrange numerous [multibillion-dollar] bailouts and even obtained an ethics waiver to deal directly with Morgan Stanley, which received the special regulatory approvals from the Fed on an expedited basis necessary to access additional emergency support."The senator said Warsh also advocated for higher interest rates at the time, "further imperiling an ailing economy" that was hemorrhaging jobs."Your monetary policy record shows a repeated failure to accurately assess the impact of inflation on the American economy," Warren wrote."It appears you have learned nothing from your failures," she wrote."Since leaving the Fed, you have advocated against tougher safeguards intended to prevent big bank failures and taxpayer bailouts."— CNBC's Matt Peterson contributed to this article. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

The venture capitalist said he will still be a part of the White House's Technology committee and will help push Trump's AI plan forward. View More

Crypto czar David Sacks speaks to the media outside the White House ahead of a White House Crypto Summit in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 7, 2025. Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters Venture capitalist David Sacks is stepping aside from his role as artificial intelligence and crypto czar for President Donald Trump.Sacks told Bloomberg on Thursday that he has "used up" his 130 days as a special government employee and is joining the President's Council of Advisers on Science & Technology."I think moving forward as co-chair of PCAST, I can now make recommendations on not just AI but an expanded range of technology topics," he said. "So yes, this is how I'll be involved moving forward."PCAST is a federal advisory committee composed of outside industry and academic experts that provides evidence-based recommendations to the president on technology, scientific research, and innovation policy.Sacks has been a prominent figure in the White House since Trump began his second term and frequently had the ear of the president.Sacks is a longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur, operator and startup investor, who is currently a partner at Craft Ventures, which he co-founded in 2017.Sacks said Thursday that he will still work to push forward Trump's AI framework, which was released last week. Last fall, Sacks said the Trump administration does want to make permitting and power generation easier for companies, and that the goal is to facilitate rapid infrastructure buildouts without raising residential electricity rates.Last March, a White House memo revealed that Sacks sold over $200 million in digital asset-related investments. watch nowVIDEO4:2604:26White House AI Czar David Sacks talk Pres. Trump's order limiting state regulation on AIClosing Bell: Overtime Read more CNBC tech newsMeta's court defeats add to Zuckerberg's recent woes, represent 'watershed event' for social mediaMeet Figure AI: The company behind the humanoid robot hosted by Melania TrumpA Google AI breakthrough is pressuring memory chip stocks from Samsung to MicronElon Musk calls for Delaware judge to recuse herself in lawsuits, alleging bias Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

President Donald Trump, in his latest jibe at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, called him a "moron,' and blasted him over keeping interest rates too high. View More

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell participates in a board meeting at the Federal Reserve on March 19, 2026 in Washington, DC. Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images The Federal Reserve Board of Governors urged a judge to reject prosecutors' request that he reconsider his recent decision to block subpoenas issued in a criminal investigation of Chair Jerome Powell over pricey renovations of the Fed's headquarters and his congressional testimony about that.The Fed's lawyers, in a court filing unsealed Thursday, told Judge James Boasberg that the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia failed to come even remotely close to meeting the legal threshold for its motion for reconsideration."The Motion for Reconsideration ... does not even mention — let alone meet — the demanding legal standard that applies to the extraordinary relief it seeks," the Fed's lawyers wrote in the motion in U.S. District Court in Washington.The attorneys said "reconsideration is warranted only" when there has been a change in the law related to the issues in the case, when there is new evidence, or if "there is a need to correct clear error or prevent manifest injustice." None of those have occurred, the lawyers said."The Motion [by prosecutors] does not try to clear these high hurdles, resorting instead to mischaracterizations of the Court's opinion ... and the record on which it rests," the lawyers wrote.The Fed's argument was expected, given that the board sought to block the subpoenas to the central bank in the first place, having said that they and the criminal probe were mere pretexts to get Powell to agree to cut interest rates more quickly and more sharply, as President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded. "Moron at the Fed" Trump, during comments to reporters at the White House on Thursday, called Powell a "moron at the Fed."That echoed similar past scathing remarks Trump has made about the chair, which Boasberg quoted at length in his decision as evidence that, "In sum, the President spent years essentially asking if no one will rid him of this troublesome Fed Chair."Trump also railed on Thursday over the cost overruns of the Federal Reserve building's renovations, and griped that he was getting sued for demolishing the White House's East Wing to build a ballroom, while Powell appeared to be escaping legal liability.It is not clear when Boasberg will rule on the dueling motions, or whether U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro will drop her office's investigation of Powell if she loses her bid to get the judge to reverse his March 11 ruling. Pirro's office, in its March 12 motion for reconsideration, argued that Boasberg's ruling "applied an incorrect legal standard, erred with respect to certain significant facts, and overlooked other relevant facts."It is extremely rare for a judge to reverse a ruling in such cases and also rare for appellate courts to overturn such decisions.Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., has promised to block Kevin Warsh's confirmation to succeed Powell as Fed chair until the probe ends.Boasberg, in his blistering ruling, quashed two subpoenas served by Pirro's prosecutors on the Fed's board, which sought records about the multi-billion-dollar project to renovate the central bank's headquarters, and Powell's testimony to a Senate committee in which he "briefly discussed those renovations." Renovation work continues on the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building, the main offices of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, Dec. 9, 2025.Andrew Harnik | Getty Images News | Getty Images The judge agreed with the Fed board's argument that the subpoenas were issued for an improper purpose."There is abundant evidence that the subpoenas' dominant (if not sole) purpose is to harass and pressure Powell either to yield to the President or to resign and make way for a Fed Chair who will," Boasberg wrote in the ruling. "We don't know" any evidence of fraud by Powell That decision was issued more than a week after Boasberg asked a prosecutor at a sealed court hearing, "What evidence is there of fraud or criminal misconduct in relation to the renovations?"The prosecutor, G.A. Massucco-LaTaif, replied, "We do not know at this time," an unsealed transcript of the proceeding shows."However, there are 1.2 billion reasons for us to look into it," added Massucco-LaTaif, referring to the dollar amount of cost overruns of the project. Read more CNBC politics coverageTrump says Iranian negotiators ‘better get serious soon, before it is too late’Reps Ro Khanna and Tim Burchett to push fraud probe across all 50 statesPrediction market bets on sports, election, war would be verboten under new legislation "And I would submit to the Court that a $1.2 billion overrun of cost ... doesn't seem right," said the prosecutor, who leads the criminal division of Pirro's office. "That's the GDP [Gross Domestic Product] of some smaller countries, yet we are going to overlook it as, oh, it's just overrun because it's a historical building? That doesn't seem right," Massucco-LaTaif said. "And are we prohibited from looking into it? That would seem to, you know, put a chilling effect on any investigation the government ever did."Boasberg, in his written ruling, called prosecutors' arguments for the subpoenas "a tenuous assertion of a legitimate purpose.""In its briefing, the Government's sole justification for investigating the renovation is that it went 'far over budget, raising the specter of fraud,'" Boasberg wrote. "But buildings often go over budget. That fact, standing alone, hardly suggests that a crime occurred.""Nor is there any reason to think that this project was especially prone to fraud," the judge wrote, noting that the Fed's "independent Inspector General ... has had full access to project information on costs, contracts, schedules, and expenditures and receives monthly reports on the construction program.""He audited the renovation several years ago and raised no concerns about fraud," Boasberg noted.Trump, in his comments Thursday at the White House, blasted the cost of the renovations and their slow progress."I would have done that building for $25 million; it's going to cost maybe $4 billion," Trump said. "I passed that building the other day. It's a 'see-through.' You know what 'see-through' means? There's no walls up.""But the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is a joke, by the way, they didn't sue that building, Trump said."They sue me. I get sued. This could only happen to Trump," the president said."But they don't sue the guy whose interest rates are too high. That's why we call him too late. His name is Jerome Powell," Trump said."We call him Jerome 'Too Late' Powell and done a terrible job so you can have crummy little walls, a flat little ceiling eventually, but right now, you don't have anything, and nobody sues this guy." Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Several changes await MLB after this season, including its CBA's expiration, new media partners, and potential expansion and league realignment. View More

watch nowVIDEO3:1803:18Why this MLB season could be the last before major changes for the leagueCNBC Sport Thursday's Opening Day may be the calm before the storm for Major League Baseball. The league's collective bargaining agreement with its players expires at the end of this season. Owners, with the commissioner's backing, are almost sure to push for a salary cap (which would likely come with a salary floor to get players to the negotiating table). MLB owners have never been able to get a cap passed by the players union. It's unclear if the end of the 2026 season will lead to a different result, but MLB Players Association Interim Executive Director Bruce Meyer told ESPN last month he expects a lockout is "all but guaranteed."In addition to the CBA's expiration, there are major shifts underway for baseball media rights. One-third of the league's teams didn't have local TV deals in place for this season until this week. Nine MLB teams – the Washington Nationals, Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, Miami Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals, and Detroit Tigers – announced Wednesday their brand new MLB-operated team channels will be carried by DirecTV. Most of those teams had previously been part of Main Street Sports (previously Diamond Sports Group), which operates FanDuel Sports Networks (previously Bally Sports). That entity has been teetering with liquidation, and the teams terminated their contracts with the company due to missed payments earlier this year. Get the CNBC Sport newsletter directly to your inboxThe CNBC Sport newsletter with Alex Sherman brings you the biggest news and exclusive interviews from the worlds of sports business and media, delivered weekly to your inbox.Subscribe here to get access today. A 10th team, the Atlanta Braves, is launching a new network called BravesVision. The Braves and Charter's Spectrum announced a multiyear distribution agreement earlier this week. MLB ideally wants the rights to all 30 teams in its control by the end of the 2028 season so that it can sell the in-market local games as a national package to a streamer. That would become the modern replacement to regional sports networks, and it would likely be a new, coveted package for streaming services such as ESPN and Amazon Prime Video.Also at the end of the 2028 season, MLB's national media rights for all of its packages will expire, allowing the league to redistribute games to its partners and potentially select new ones. NBC, ESPN, Fox and a combined CBS/Turner have dominated national rights for the past few decades. "The key in media negotiations now is having all of your rights available," MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told me last year. "If you have all of your content – all of your playoffs, all of your regular season – available, there will be buyers, and I'm confident there will be buyers at a higher price for us."Manfred has even floated the idea of expanding to 32 teams and realigning the league geographically, upending or even eliminating the American and National leagues that have existed for more than 100 years.  Soaring TV ratings It's, of course, unclear how much of this hypothetical change will actually come to fruition. But the potential for transformation at MLB is greater than at any of the other Big 4 professional leagues in the U.S. And yet, baseball isn't struggling — on the contrary. The implementation of the pitch clock in 2023 has led to shorter games, rising attendance and higher TV ratings.  Rob Manfred, Commissioner of the MLB, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, U.S., on July 9, 2025.David A. Grogan | CNBC More than 50 million people in the U.S., Canada and Japan watched Game Seven of the World Series last year – the most-watched baseball game in 34 years. MLB recently wrapped up the World Baseball Classic – a global preseason tournament – which captured nearly 11 million viewers on Fox and Fox Deportes for its final game.MLB team valuations rose 13% from last year. The average MLB team is now worth $2.95 billion, according to CNBC Sport data.Still, the profitability of the league is in far worse shape than it is for the NFL, NBA and NHL, according to CNBC's calculations. In 2025, MLB's 30 teams had an EBITDA — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — margin of under 2%. Team average revenue was $426 million with average EBITDA of $7 million, including non-MLB ballpark events. In contrast, the comparable margin for the NFL was 20%; the NBA, 21% and the NHL, 22%, according to CNBC's most recent valuations.The new CBA at the end of this season could be the first significant step toward a very different MLB. But, similar to the WNBA, which announced its new CBA earlier this week, MLB must ensure negotiations to get a new labor agreement don't jeopardize a wave of positive momentum. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

About 59 million caregivers provide care for loved ones, representing $1.01 trillion in total economic value annually, according to a new AARP report. View More

Alistair Berg | Digitalvision | Getty Images About 59 million Americans provided care for an adult family member, neighbor or friend in 2024, according to a new report from the AARP Public Policy Institute.Their efforts added up to 49.5 billion hours of care, representing $1.01 trillion in total economic value annually, the report estimates. The Public Policy Institute is the policy research arm for the AARP, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization representing individuals ages 50 and older.Family caregivers usually provide long-term services and supports, nearly all of which are unpaid, the research found. The average hourly value for that work was $20.41 in 2024.Their labor includes essential care for adults like managing medications, coordinating care appointments and assisting with other needs like bathing, dressing and navigating insurance claims, Myechia Minter-Jordan, CEO of AARP, said during a press briefing on the research."Many are doing all of this while working, while raising children and trying to stay afloat, both financially and emotionally," Minter-Jordan said. watch nowVIDEO4:2604:26How to prevent burnout and financial stress when caring for an elderly parent or relativePersonal Finance The $1.01 trillion economic value of family caregiving exceeded the $932 billion total in federal, state and local Medicaid spending and $557 billion total in out-of-pocket health spending, according to AARP.This is the seventh report AARP has done on caregiving costs. Its first report estimated that the economic value of caregiving in 2006 was $350 billion, with an average hourly value of $9.63."Behind every data point in our report is a person, a daughter, a husband, a grandchild, a neighbor," Nancy LeaMond, chief advocacy and engagement officer at AARP, said during the press briefing. "They deserve some financial relief." How policy changes may help defray costs In the recent presidential election, both Democratic and Republican nominees said they were in favor of financial support for family caregivers, LeaMond said. The AARP is hopeful lawmakers and candidates who aspire to take office will address the issue ahead of the midterm elections, she said.In some states, there has been progress. In 2026, 12 states have considered legislation to provide caregiver tax credits, according to the AARP.In 2023, Oklahoma became the first state to provide a caregiver tax credit, followed by Nebraska in 2024. Read more CNBC personal finance coverageFamily caregivers now provide $1 trillion worth of care annually, AARP findsHigher gas prices from Iran war could offset Trump's bigger tax refundsSingle women see homeownership as 'a wealth-building tool,' economist saysAmid March Madness, NY Fed highlights sports betting toll on credit healthSocial Security benefits can top $100,000 a year for some couplesIran war may further 'chill' an already frozen job market, economist saysMore than 7 million student loan borrowers are in a defunct payment planLawmakers warn of price gouging amid Iran war — experts point to supply shocksDonating from your IRA has tax advantages. A bipartisan bill may expand optionsBlackRock CEO Fink: Trump accounts may be 'significant' wealth-building toolThe uneven cost of tariffs: Why some households will pay more than othersWhen it comes to private credit, 'some caution is reasonable,' advisor says'War tax resistance' gains attention amid Iran conflict, but IRS penalties applyAverage IRS tax refund is up 10.8%, new filing data showsCNBC's Financial Advisor 100: Best financial advisors, top firms ranked The AARP is also advocating for federal legislative proposals that may help defray families' caregiving costs. The bipartisan Credit for Caring Act calls for a $5,000 tax credit for families to offset caregiving expenses. Meanwhile, the Lowering Costs for Caregivers Act, another bipartisan effort, would let caregivers use their health savings or flexible spending accounts for qualified medical expenses on behalf of parents or parents-in-law.Both bills have been with the House Ways and Means Committee since early 2025. 'It's almost like an epidemic' AARP's new $1 trillion figure for the economic value of family caregiving is likely an underestimate, said Carolyn McClanahan, a physician and certified financial planner who is also the founder of Life Planning Partners in Jacksonville, Florida."The amount of personal caregiving that happens, it's almost like an epidemic," said McClanahan, who is a member of the CNBC Financial Advisor Council.Families can partially plan for the event that a loved one may someday need care, McClanahan said, but you don't ever know who's really going to need that attention. While the majority of people do need caregiving at some point, some may die before they ever need care, she said. When clients reach their late 50s or early 60s, McClanahan said she usually has a discussion with them to start planning for how they will get care if they need it. "The thing for families to do is to talk about the possibility in advance," McClanahan said, including planning who will provide the care and how they will be compensated. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Meta suffered stinging defeats in two separate trials involving child safety that underscore shifting public sentiment toward the social media industry. View More

In this articleMETAFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Meta CEO and Chairman Mark Zuckerberg arrives at Los Angeles Superior Court ahead of the social media trial tasked to determine whether social media giants deliberately designed their platforms to be addictive to children, in Los Angeles, on Feb. 18, 2026.Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images Meta suffered stinging rebukes in two high-profile court cases this week, adding to the company's challenges as it tries to navigate an increasingly complex social media environment while also chasing rivals in artificial intelligence.Both trials — one in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the other in Los Angeles — pointed to the struggles Meta has faced to adequately police Facebook and Instagram, which remain the company's primary cash engines due to their dominant position in digital advertising. Jurors in Santa Fe determined on Tuesday that Meta misled users about the safety of its social apps when it comes to children being targeted by online predators. A day later, a jury in LA ruled against Meta and Google's YouTube in a personal injury trial, determining that their negligence was a "substantial factor" in causing mental health-related harms to a plaintiff identified as K.G.M., or Kaley.Timothy Edgar, a lecturer at Harvard Law School, characterized the outcomes as "a major watershed event" that "represent a big shift in how Americans are viewing Big Tech.""It's kind of the culmination of many years of growing skepticism," Edgar said. watch nowVIDEO2:3902:39LA jury orders Meta, Google to pay $6 million in social media addiction trialClosing Bell: Overtime Wall Street has been showing signs of skepticism for very different reasons, pushing Meta's stock down 17% this year, including a drop of 8% on Thursday. Investors are growing skeptical of the company's scattershot AI strategy and its ongoing high costs. Meta plans to pour up to $135 billion into capital expenditures this year, even as its AI models are far behind rivals Google, OpenAI and Anthropic, and the company hasn't shown a significant new revenue opportunity in the market. On Wednesday, Meta announced hundreds of layoffs across multiple units, including Reality Labs, which oversees virtual reality, augmented reality and AI-powered wearable devices. Those cuts follow a January round of layoffs at Reality Labs that impacted 10% of the division, equaling over 1,000 employees.While the verdicts this week represent a sharp and public criticism of Meta's operations, the financial penalties are merely a slap on the wrist for a company with a $1.5 trillion market cap and over $60 billion in annual net income. In the New Mexico case, the jury ruled that Meta must pay $375 million in damages, while jurors in L.A. determined that Meta and YouTube will be required to pay a total of $6 million in combined compensatory and punitive damages, with Meta covering 70% of the amount. Both Meta and YouTube expressed disappointment with the verdicts and said they would appeal. A Meta spokesperson pointed out that the jury in the L.A. case awarded the plaintiff less than 0.5% of what the lawyers were requesting. In New Mexico, Linda Singer, an attorney representing the state, urged jury members to impose a civil penalty against Meta that could top $2 billion. Bellwether case The precedent may be more concerning than the money, as there are a a host of forthcoming social media safety and addiction trials involving Meta and its peers. Lexi Hazam, an attorney representing plaintiffs like school districts in a federal social media trial expected to commence in Northern California this summer, said she expects additional financial penalties. Hazam noted that the case is one of several in the state involving personal injury from social media. "This was a person who had mental health harms, and these numbers we think are certainly appropriate and have the desired effect of compensating for her harms and punishing the two defendants in an appropriate manner in an individual case," Hazam said after the verdict. The rulings also point to a potential reckoning with the Section 230 provision of the Communications Decency Act that governs free speech. New Mexico attorney general Raúl Torrez, who spearheaded the state's case against Meta and a similar ongoing lawsuit involving Snap, told CNBC on Tuesday that "there's a distinct possibility that these cases motivate Congress to re-examine Section 230 and, if not eliminate it, dramatically revise it.""I think juries awarding penalties and holding companies accountable are an important signal to policy makers in D.C. that there is an urgency in the community that needs to be addressed around these issues," Torrez said. watch nowVIDEO3:4903:49If Section 230 was eliminated it would be absolutely devastating for the internet: social media expert Andrew SelepakPower Lunch U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a supporter of overhauling Section 230, and said the latest verdicts bolster his case. "These back-to-back decisions in New Mexico and California show that Big Tech has become Big Tobacco," Durbin said in a statement, referring to the 1990s, when tobacco companies were forced to pay billions of dollars for lying to the public about their products' harms. "Now, it's time for Congress to sunset Section 230 once and for all."Harvard Law's Edgar said there's a good chance these cases find their way to the Supreme Court on free speech grounds. While Edgar said the verdicts are "consistent with the overall backlash against Big Tech," he added that there could be "unintended consequences."Edgar said people may look back in a decade or two and say, "The internet used to be a free, robust and wide-open place, and now it's been tamed and regulated by the fact that people are afraid of what they say online, and I'm worried about that."WATCH: Meta, YouTube found liable in social media addiction case. watch nowVIDEO1:1701:17Meta, YouTube found liable in social media addiction caseThe Exchange Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Jim Cramer dismisses Meta's underperformance amid child safety litigation — and instead, considers whether to buy more shares. View More

The slump in Meta Platforms — exacerbated by two social media court defeats this week — could be setting up as a buying opportunity. Meta shares sank more than 8% on Thursday after a Los Angeles jury late Wednesday found the company (and Google's YouTube) negligent in the case of a woman who alleged she became addicted to apps as a kid. Damages totaling $6 million were awarded, with Meta on the hook to pay 70% of them. On Tuesday, a jury in Santa Fe, New Mexico , held Meta liable for $375 million in civil damages for violating state consumer protection laws. Meta said it will appeal the Santa Fe ruling and explore its options in the California case. (Google parent Alphabet said it will appeal the California verdict.) "If you decide that you're going to sell Meta because it looks like this is going to be tobacco, it's not going to be tobacco," Jim Cramer said Thursday on CNBC, referencing the years of Big Tobacco lawsuits and subsequent government regulation of the industry as unlikely outcomes for Big Tech. "Tobacco hid it for years," Jim said, arguing tech companies have been "quite open" about the risks of social platforms. Meta has been our worst-performing megacap tech stock in March, losing more than 15%. Investors are "going to regret" selling Meta stock, Jim added, pointing out that earnings next month could be great and/or CEO Mark Zuckerberg could announce more layoffs. Either one of both could spark a rally. "We're very close to needing to buy some," Jim told Club members, considering the recent decline as a way to pick up more shares on the cheap. The stock currently trades at a forward price to earnings estimates of 18 times compared to its five-year average of 23 times. META YTD mountain META stock performance YTD. What's at stake This week's decisions against Meta challenge long-standing legal protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which has historically shielded social media companies from liability tied to user-generated content. The California case is the first time a jury treated social media platforms as defective products designed to exploit young users. More than 3,000 similar suits are pending in California courts, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Jim said he does not like to see plaintiffs piling on the tech companies, recalling the stampede of talc litigation against former Club stock Johnson & Johnson . "It's what [lawyers] do. They rove and find someone that they think they can beat, then they get a lot of different people signing up, then they go for mass tort litigation and make a lot of money," explained Jim, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1984 but went right to Wall Street instead of being a lawyer. "That's been the pattern with these, whether it be asbestos or whether it be what happened with J & J with talc," he said, suggesting Meta and other tech companies are being targeted because "they're deep-pocketed." To be sure, Jim warned that if the cases continue, investors should brace for volatility in Meta stock. From a financial standpoint, Bank of America estimates teen users account for roughly 1% of Meta's revenue, suggesting limited exposure even if usage among younger audiences declines. However, an avalanche of verdicts against the company could lead to forced remedies that could disadvantage the company well beyond sales fundamentals. Bottom line Jim overall favors the optimistic view that Meta is positioned for growth as CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues to make aggressive long-term bets and decisive changes at the company in the age of AI. That includes new compensation structures tied to stock performance, potentially allowing top executives to benefit if shares rally explosively in the coming years. Meta also announced hundreds of layoffs across several divisions this week, including its Reality Labs unit. While "the optics aren't good," Jim framed the move as consistent with Meta's history of tightening costs during uncertain economic times. "Yes, he did lay off some people. Are we supposed to think that that's bad? Every time he lays off people, he's made even more money." At the same time, Meta is ramping up spending elsewhere. The company expects capital expenditures between $115 billion and $135 billion this year, largely tied to building out AI infrastructure. It's that surge in spending – more than the legal battles – that has been the primary pressure on the stock so far this year. Jim has said in the past that Meta and the rest of the megacaps must keep spending in order not to be left behind in AI. The Club maintains a buy-equivalent 1 rating on Meta and $825-per-share price target. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long META, GOOGL. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.