Luigi Mangione, suspected of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week, yelled out to the press and public as he was led to a Pennsylvania court Tuesday for his extradition hearing to New York.

“It’s completely out of touch and is an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience!” Mangione yelled as police officers escorted him, while wearing shackles, into the Blair County Court in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania.

Luigi Mangione, the suspected killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, yells to the press as he is taken into court for his extradition hearing:

“…completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people!” pic.twitter.com/wKymRxGvUW

It’s a statement sure to spark conspiracy theories and more discussions about Mangione’s motive. In court Tuesday, Mangione said he would challenge extradition to New York, where Thompson was shot outside of a midtown Manhattan hotel last Wednesday. Mangione is being held in Pennsylvania on charges related to his possession of a 3-D printed handgun and silencer, as well as multiple fake IDs and a U.S. passport.

Mangione’s motive has been highly scrutinized, with his complicated right-wing politics and a manifesto being pored over by media outlets. In recent years, according to online posts and one of his friends, Mangione suffered from severe back pain, and underwent surgery. His profile page on X had a picture of an X-ray showing screws in his spine.

Some Americans have reacted positively to the shooting due to widespread dissatisfaction with American health care, a sentiment allegedly shared by Mangione, who wrote in his manifesto that the U.S. has the “most expensive healthcare system in the world” but “ranks #42 in life expectancy.” Mangione’s legal proceedings promise to be closely followed and, if he is extradited to New York, will likely be a media circus.

Donald Trump promised Tuesday to give special treatment to billionaires.

“Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “GET READY TO ROCK!!!”

If this strangely broad offer sounds specially designed to delight billionaire and official presidential hanger-on Elon Musk, that’s probably because it is.

“This is awesome,” Musk replied in a post on X. Yeah dude, for you—and for any other government contractor or company that plans to fill the holes created by Musk and Trump’s plot to dissolve essential features of the federal government. Yeah, those guys stand to make a killing. How “awesome.”

It’s unclear what kinds of companies or individuals would be eligible for this offer, or what kinds of projects they would produce. It’s possible that Trump plans to implement this offer as part of “Drill, Baby, Drill!” his stupidly named plan to expand fossil fuel production and gut environmental protections.

For example, in return for a hefty investment from an energy company, Trump could revoke certain pollution controls that prevent corporations harvesting natural gas from contaminating groundwater supplies.

If this proposal is approved, the responsibility for executing his lofty promises and expediting production will fall to Lee Zeldin, the unqualified loyalist Trump has nominated to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

It’s also unclear whether this would affect existing programs incentivising investment, such as the much-beloved CHIPS Act, which created subsidies for semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. Trump recently called the CHIPS Act a “bad deal,” shortly before House Speaker Mike Johnson announced his intention to revoke it (though he later made a limp attempt to walk back that particular comment).

Crucially, it’s not apparent that Trump has the authority to make the offer in the first place—but he sure has done it before.

At a meeting at Mar-a-Lago in April, Trump promised oil executives and lobbyists that he would roll back crucial environmental regulations, in return for a small campaign contribution of $1 billion, according to The New York Times.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday on Trump’s mass deportation plans, Republican Senator John Kennedy, as is his wont, pestered a witness with questions he didn’t care to hear answers to.

The hearing, titled “How Mass Deportations Will Separate American Families, Harm Our Armed Forces, and Devastate Our Economy,” focused on the damaging effects of Trump’s proposed immigration agenda. But in one bizarre line of questioning, Kennedy asked the same question over and over again while pretending not to hear the answer.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) malfunctions during a hearing on mass deportations.

KENNEDY: Who in Texas had their knives out for Black immigrants? Give me a name. Give me a name.
AARON REICHLIN-MELNICK: ...My suspicion is Ken Paxton...
KENNEDY: Give me a name. Give me a name.… pic.twitter.com/YpjSOENpT9

Witness Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, testified that a mass deportation campaign could cost as........

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