Federal Watchdog Warns Trump’s Biggest Megaprison Is Rife With Abuse

A sweeping report released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office found that the government spent millions of dollars more than necessary on Camp East Montana in Texas, and somehow still failed to meet its contractual requirements with regard to health care, room and board, and safety.

The GAO found that ICE’s expedited contract award and construction negatively affected the acquisition and planning of the country’s largest detention center, located on the U.S. Army base at Fort Bliss, resulting in millions of dollars in wasteful spending.

The Army spent up to $11.5 million on detainee services for an empty facility between August 1 and August 15 alone, according to the report. When Camp East Montana’s 1,600 detainees eventually arrived, the Army continued to pay the full cost for its capacity of 5,000 inmates.

By the time ICE took over the facility in October, the Army had paid an estimated $423,000 for meals it did not need. In keeping with the Army’s contract, ICE continued to pay the amount for a full capacity: roughly $7.1 million between October 1 and March 12.

More disturbing than the waste, however, are the horrific conditions at the facility. Despite the extra millions being poured into Camp East Montana, the facility’s former contractor, Acquisition Logistics LLC, which had no experience in detention services, still failed to provide a clean, safe environment for detainees.

ICE reports found food service issues and that the contractor had failed to conduct required daily cleaning of dormitories—with some officers offering detainees cookies in return for cleaning their own spaces—resulting in unsanitary conditions. The contractor also did not meet health services requirements: It failed to provide tuberculosis skin tests, comprehensive health assessments, or treatment plans for detainees with HIV or diabetes.

In some instances, the failures at Camp East Montana proved deadly. In February, ICE issued a discrepancy report for the death of a detainee whose death was ruled a homicide by asphyxia. The contractor had failed to provide use of force and death reports to ICE, and evidence was “missing or destroyed,” the GAO report found.

In March, ICE issued another discretionary report concerning the suicide of a detainee in January, who did not receive proper monitoring. After exhibiting suicidal risk factors, the detainee was kept in a medical holding room, not a suicide safe cell, and was left unattended. The contractor also failed to respond to ICE concerns that there were no vision panels on the door to maintain line of sight.

The report mentioned another particularly disturbing incident in January when a contracted security guard lost their loaded firearm in the facility—and as of March, the weapon had not been recovered.

The GAO’s report confirms everything we’ve feared about Donald Trump’s concentration camps. It is a stark warning about the administration’s plan to proceed with the construction of even more megaprisons to hold immigrants—despite ongoing legal challenges, local pushback, and a federal watchdog investigation.

President Trump went to the New York Knicks game while two U.S. soldiers were missing after Iran shot down their helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz.

According to the timeline released by the U.S. CENTCOM, Iran downed two pilots operating a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter around 5:33 p.m. E.T. Trump was on his own helicopter on the way to Manhattan to share a VIP box in Madison Square Garden with his billionaire friend James Dolan at 7:02 p.m. The pilots weren’t rescued till nearly 30 minutes later.

One would think that the president would be made aware of a successful attack on a U.S. helicopter shortly after it happened, which would mean Trump found it more important to be at a Knicks game than to worry about the search for missing Americans.

Trump did seem to know about the attack after the Knicks game ended, telling media that the pilots were “fine” and that a report would be out the next day.

Even if he somehow wasn’t aware before he flew to the Knicks game, that poses bigger questions, like: Who is calling the shots if not the commander in chief?

“I have just been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump posted Tuesday afternoon, implying he was unaware of the attack for over 12 hours. “There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

A fund used to support Social Security retirement benefits is expected to expire in 2032, according to a new trustees report released by the Social Security Administration Tuesday.

The new expiration date for the Old Age and Survivors Insurance fund, or OASI fund, is three months earlier than what the SSA projected last year. The change comes as a result of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which was passed in July 2025. The bill lowered the ordinary income tax rate on Social Security benefits, which supports the funds.

Seventy-one million people receive monthly Social Security payments. The AARP, a nonprofit representing older Americans, determined that Social Security provides 43 percent of seniors with a majority of their income. 

“Congress needs to act,” AARP CEO Myechia Minter-Jordan wrote in a statement. “Americans have worked hard and paid into Social Security their entire lives, and they deserve to count on it when they retire. No family should see any cuts to what they’ve earned in Social Security.”

Social Security isn’t being scrapped anytime soon, but the OASI fund provides it with a serious amount of its money; if the fund is allowed to expire, 12 percent of retirement benefits will be lost. Social Security for one person would be cut $500 per month, on average, and in 29 states, losses would be even greater, according to research from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Congress can move money around to fill the funding gap and even combine the OASI fund with other funds. But merging funds just means taking money directed toward one set of recipients and giving it to another—certainly not a permanent solution.

While Trump has promised both on the campaign trail and in office not to cut Social Security benefits, his largest policy bill is poised to do exactly that. His administration is also pursuing legislation that would cut off disabled Americans from their SNAP benefits, after abandoning similar plans last year due to media backlash.  

One of Jeffrey Epstein’s assistants testified before the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday and claimed to know nothing about the billionaire sex offender’s crimes. 

Lesley Groff told members of Congress that she believed the massage appointments she made for Epstein were for massage therapists and not the women and girls he was exploiting, CNN reports. She called Epstein a master manipulator who kept his crimes a secret from her, saying that he didn’t sexually abuse her. Both Epstein and his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, allegedly told Groff not to associate with their friends and colleagues, insisting that their business wasn’t her concern. 

Groff has been saying this since 2021. Back then, her lawyers announced that she had “never witnessed anything improper or illegal” and was “heartbroken” for Epstein’s victims. 

But Epstein survivors thought Groff’s words Tuesday were a cop-out. Many of them had told the FBI that Groff was the person they’d call to reach Epstein and schedule massages. Epstein would abuse women during those massage sessions, they said. According to emails from the government’s Epstein files, Groff also booked Epstein’s domestic and international travel. She was listed as a potential co-conspirator as part of the non-prosecution deal Epstein cut in 2008 with the federal government.  

“One of the hardest parts for survivors is hearing the people who were closest to Epstein claim they saw nothing,” Sharlene Rochard, one of Epstein’s victims, told CNN. “That doesn’t match my experience. Survivors deserve answers, not claims of ignorance.”

The Trump administration is attacking the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—which helps maintain federal laws against workplace discrimination—for apparently violating the Constitution.

The Justice Department on Tuesday accused the EEOC of pressuring “employers to engage in race-based decisionmaking” and enforcing guidelines that “contemplate liability based on disparate effects alone, without regard to an employer’s likely intent.”

“[The EEEOC] creates a near insurmountable presumption [that] unlawful discrimination exists where there are any differences in outcomes in certain circumstances among different races, sexes, or similar groups,” the DOJ press release reads, mimicking the language commonly used by conservatives to attack any kind of program intended to address centuries of racial discrimination.

The DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel attacked the EEOC’s consideration of “disparate impact,” holding employers liable for discrimination when policies disproportionately harm people of a certain race, ethnicity, or gender.

Now employers can use aptitude tests, criminal background checks, and other potentially problematic tools without fear of being charged with discrimination.

This story has been updated.