Jack Teixeira: US intelligence leaks suspect ‘had more online friends than real friends’
In his garden there was, what else, but a ‘gaming chair’.
The seat sits outside and unoccupied on the North Dighton property of Jack Teixeira – a nod, perhaps, to the secrets scandal that he perpetrated through a gaming platform online.
It is upholstered aggressively in red and black, a growling accessory in a gaming world that unmutes the unheard.
Does the chair belong to him? Maybe.
And maybe its sports car-style carried an appeal to the airman, who called himself “OG” online – original gangster.
Jack Teixeira liked an audience, that much seems clear. He was prepared to risk everything – his liberty, at least – to get it.
“He was a quiet kid. He had more online friends than real friends,” Ben Rapoza told Sky News.
Ben, 18, attended the same high school as Teixeira but didn’t know him well. In North Dighton, it’s a challenge to find anyone who was familiar with its infamous son.
Until now.
Everyone in this rural Massachusetts town now knows ‘Jack Teixeira – the story.’
Jack Teixeira
“It definitely puts Dighton on the map,” said Ben. “Something like this is a little crazy for Dighton, it’s usually quiet, not much usually goes on, it was definitely a shock when I found out about it.
“The fact that he got his hands on that (Pentagon documents) is a little crazy to me, too.”
Read more:
A who’s who of US intelligence leakers
You don’t need powerful algorithms to go viral
The full, crazy story of the airman who blew a hole in US national security will be told, in time.
For now, it seems to shape as a modern digital cliche – a recluse swaggering through cyberspace, high on attention and blind to the black hole ahead.
In small town America, it’s an everyday story of the internet – this one has consequences everywhere.
Elon Musk says he has created a new political party – the America Party –
after asking his followers if he should do so in an online poll.
It follows his public falling out with Republican President Donald Trump.
On Friday, the billionaire had asked his followers on X whether a new US political party should be created.
On Saturday evening he wrote on the same platform: “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!
“When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy.
“Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”
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Trump threatens to ‘put DOGE’ on Musk
The world’s richest man made the announcement just one day after President Trump signed a tax-cut and spending bill into law on Friday, which Musk had fiercely opposed.
Musk had previously said we would form and fund a new political party to unseat lawmakers who supported the bill.
From bromance to bust-up
The Tesla boss backed Trump’s election campaign with more than a quarter of a billion dollars, later rewarded with a high profile role running the newly created department of government efficiency (DOGE).
But observers of the two men, both with huge wealth and reputations, wondered how long the bromance would last.
Donald Trump gave Musk a warm send-off in the Oval Office in May. Pic: Reuters
In May Musk left the role, still on good terms with Trump but criticising key parts of his legislative agenda.
After that, the attacks ramped up, with Musk slamming the sweeping tax and spending bill as a “disgusting abomination” and Trump hitting back in a barbed tit-for-tat.
Trump earlier this week threatened to cut off the billion-dollar federal subsidies that flow to Musk’s companies, and said he would even consider deporting him.
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