So, what is this, exactly?
After January 6th of this year and then the inauguration on January 20th, I realized I needed to do something. The pardoning of the January 6th insurrectionists might have been the catalyst that prompted me to action.
I assigned myself the masochistic task of documenting the events taking place under the Trump-Musk regime. Initially, I had no intention of making this record public, except to serve as a reminder to people in 2028 of what truly transpired in 2025.
However, several weeks into the project, I realized that more was necessary. Therefore, I am making this document publicly available. I will endeavor to update it regularly. Please read and share. (The formatting in the initial weeks is rough, but it improves by Week 5.) Consider it my “crazy wall.”
In the coming years, some will again try to re-write history, claiming wide-eyed, “That never happened.” When they do, point them here.
So it begins…
(This will become a very long document. It will be easier to navigate on a computer than on a phone. Sorry, young’uns. To jump to the bottom of the page:
- On Windows, use the "END" key.
- On a Mac, use the Function and Right Arrow keys. Extended keyboards have a dedicated "END" equivalent. It looks like a downward pointing arrow with an underscore.)
Before taking office, released his own cryptocurrency, to facilitate transfer of funds from anywhere without being traced
Pardoned 1500 insurrectionists
Declared the government recognizes only two genders, male and female
Sent ICE agents to hospitals, schools, and churches
Tried to cancel birthright citizenship - blocked by federal judge (14th Amendment)
Withdrew the US from WHO
Withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement
Removed security for Bolton, Hook, and Pompeo
Froze communication from CDC and other government agencies
Fired 17 federal agency oversight officials
Demanded NATO members to raise defense spending to 5% GNP. The US spends 3.5%.
Trump’s $500 Billion AI Project ‘Stargate’ Is Designed to Benefit One Company: OpenAI
Pressured Denmark directly to give up Greenland
Hesgeth approved for Secretary of Defense
Dismantled DEI in federal offices and demanded snitching https://bit.ly/3F2SzoX
Did not lower inflation
Did not end the war in Ukraine
Did not set tariffs on Canada, Mexico, OR China
Also:
Among other things, the administration has:
Initiated layoffs (called reductions in force, or “RIFs”) of employees in offices that do work related to strengthening accessibility, advancing equity, building diversity, promoting inclusion, or ensuring environmental justice.
Instituted a hiring freeze and reportedly rescinded job offers and internship offers.
Directed agencies to prepare lists of probationary employees and “promptly determine whether those employees should be retained at the agency.”
Asserted complete control over the Senior Executive Service, which it then demonstrated by firing and transferring members of the Senior Executive Service — the latter of which was “widely seen in the building as punishments likely to result in resignations.”
Expanded hiring authorities that make it easier to bring in employees who are loyal to the administration.
Issued new guidance that would pull a vast swath of the civil service into the new schedule P/C (formerly known as Schedule F) and purports to justify the president's attempted rescission of parts of OPM's 2024 regulations.
Purged inspectors general — many of whom were appointed during the first Trump Administration — in an action that the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) has identified as legally insufficient.
Canceled the bulk of telework and remote work arrangements, which may undermine workforce efficacy.
Disrupted critical scientific research by freezing or canceling certain travel, training, and meetings at the National Institutes of Health.
Dismantled and frozen funding for programs to strengthen the federal workforce, improve federal services, protect the safety of our troops, and support disabled veterans because they were designed to secure a more equitable society.
Undermined military readiness by directing the military to take steps toward implementing a service ban on transgender individuals, while disparaging those of you who risk your lives for our country.
Directed civil servants to report on each other, threatening adverse consequences for those who don’t.
And:
On the second full day of his second presidential term, Donald Trump ended a 2011 policy preventing Immigration and Customs Enforcement from making arrests at schools, hospitals, and places of worship; “It’s kind of a war,” said a reverend in Chicago of ICE’s actions, while Colombian president Gustavo Petro turned away two military planes carrying deported migrants, posted on social media that “A migrant is not a criminal,” and pointed out that there are at least 15,666 Americans living in Colombia without legal immigration status. - Harpers
Firing Inspectors General
Last Friday, President Donald Trump purged several agencies of their inspectors general, demanding that at least 17 people in the role immediately turn in their work laptops and ID badges. One of those IGs, Phyllis Fong at the US Department of Agriculture, decided not to leave, believing the order to be illegal. According to a report from Reuters, she was escorted from the building today by security. - Gizmodo
Allies including Ukraine also are struggling to save part of their security funding from the 90-day freeze, ordered by President Donald Trump last week. Trump also just paused federal grants and loans inside the United States. - AP
Here’s a list of VA programs that the Trump administration has put on the chopping block:
Project 2025
The Department of Justice announced yesterday that it has fired more than a dozen officials who worked on the criminal investigations into Trump. - Atlantic
Classified Documents
President Donald Trump’s administration is ending the case against his former co-defendants in the classified documents investigation brought by former special counsel Jack Smith. The Justice Department has stopped pursuing an appeal brought by Smith to revive the criminal charges against Trump’s employees. The appeal had also sought to defend the attorney general’s ability to appoint special prosecutors — a long-held authority that Trump’s administration has sought to undermine. - CNN
And then…
The White House Office of Management and Budget has rescinded the federal aid freeze, according to a memo obtained by CNN from a Trump administration official.
In his ongoing rampage against the laws of the land, Trump yesterday fired National Labor Relations Board acting chair Gwynne Wilcox — despite her congressional appointment not being up until 2028.
Sayonara NLRB
Wilcox’s firing closes down the NLRB because it’s left with just two members, and the Supreme Court has ruled that the Board needs at least three to issue any rulings. Trump also fired NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, leaving Board attorneys who investigate employee and employer complaints without any guidance. - Reich
Blame Obama
After a plane and helicopter collide, killing all passengers, Trump blames Dem DEI policies. Policies in place date to his first term in office. "Yesterday, for example, Trump blamed the tragic air crash on Biden and Obama initiatives to make the federal workforce more diverse, claiming they “came out with a directive — ‘too white’”, but that “we want the people that are competent.”" - Reich
Transportation
This is hardly the only impulsive attack on key transportation safety roles in the past two weeks:
Tariffs
News Alert: Trump will impose new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China on Saturday, White House says.
Trump slaps tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, starting a new trade war
President Donald Trump on Saturday officially announced new tariffs on imports from the United States’ top trade partners, paving the way for retaliation and a new trade war.
Foreign Aid
The website for USAID, the U.S. government agency that distributes foreign aid, went down on Saturday, and it’s unclear when it may return. The outage comes as every federal website has been ordered to erase forbidden words, though USAID’s outage could related to reports that Donald Trump plans to put most of the agency under control of the U.S. State Department, according to Reuters.
DEI and FAA
Here’s the issue with Trump’s fingering of Biden and Obama: the FAA began these diversity programs during his first term in office, according to the Washington Post. While reading through a Fox News article on live television, Trump listed conditions that he implied would disqualify people from being air traffic controllers: “hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism.” Trump clearly did not realize that the very thing he was rallying against is something he once – tangentially, at least – supported.
-Jalopnik
Just all of this:
More
Musk
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave representatives of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency access to the federal payment system late on Friday, according to five people familiar with the change, handing Elon Musk and the team he is leading a powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending. - NYT
Goodbye USAID
The website for the U.S. Agency for International Development went dark Saturday afternoon as lawmakers and aid workers, already reeling over the recent freezes to foreign assistance and the suspension of senior officials, braced for the possibility that the agency might be shut down. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43e7k26
Tariffs
Canada, Mexico and China account for more than a third of the products brought into the United States. Tariffs could lead to higher prices for consumers. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/business/trump-tariffs-canada-mexico-china.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20250202&instance_id=146438&nl=today%27s-headlines®i_id=67183385&segment_id=189918&user_id=d39a8a0bcae14549a82f2a212685b0c9
Consumer Protection
The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Rohit Chopra, was fired on Saturday, prematurely ending a five-year term that was scheduled to run through late 2026. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3EQcWph
Controlling Information
The New York Times, NBC News, NPR and Politico will be replaced (at the Pentagon) by outlets including the right-wing site Breitbart News as part of a “new annual media rotation,” a spokesman said. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/business/media/pentagon-press-corps.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20250202&instance_id=146438&nl=today%27s-headlines®i_id=67183385&segment_id=189918&user_id=d39a8a0bcae14549a82f2a212685b0c9
Health
Our Health in the Hands of a Man Who’d Make Us Sick https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/opinion/rfk-kennedy-vaccines.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20250202&instance_id=146438&nl=today%27s-headlines®i_id=67183385&segment_id=189918&user_id=d39a8a0bcae14549a82f2a212685b0c9
Scrubbing CDC Data
Already, content from the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, which includes data from a national survey, has disappeared; so have parts of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s Social Vulnerability Index and the Environmental Justice Index. The CDC’s landing page for HIV data has also vanished. And the agency’s AtlasPlus tool, which contains nearly 20 years of CDC surveillance data on HIV, hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections, and tuberculosis, is down. Several scientists I talked with told me they had heard directly from contacts at the CDC that the agency has directed employees to scrub any mention of “gender” from its site and the data that it shares there, replacing it with “sex.” https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/01/cdc-dei-scientific-data/681531/?utm_campaign=this-week&utm_content=20250202&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&lctg=65883f608460a2a4c308ea94&utm_term=This%20Week%20on%20TheAtlanticcom
No bucking Musk
The two top security officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development were put on administrative leave on Saturday night after refusing to give representatives of Elon Musk access to internal systems, according to three U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter.
And the agency’s chief of staff, Matt Hopson, a Trump administration political appointee who had started his job days ago, has resigned, two of the officials said. - NYT
Info purge
More than 8,000 web pages across more than a dozen U.S. government websites have been taken down since Friday afternoon, a New York Times analysis has found, as federal agencies rush to heed President Trump’s orders targeting diversity initiatives and “gender ideology.”
The purges have removed information about vaccines, veterans’ care, hate crimes and scientific research, among many other topics. Doctors, researchers and other professionals often rely on such government data and advisories. Some government agencies appear to have removed entire sections of their websites, while others are missing only a handful of pages. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/upshot/trump-government-websites-missing-pages.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Geography
Google renames Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America.
Trump threatens to “take” Gaza - and Palestinians would have no right to return.
Tariffs
The Dow plunges 600 points because now Trump's trade war is real
The U.S. slapped new tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, and both countries signaled plans to retaliate - Quartz
USAID Down
USAID Website Goes Offline as Trump Continues to Dismantle Government - Trump is purging information that doesn't suit his fascist worldview.
Everything here
Destroying America
Tariffs
The US paused tariffs on Canada and Mexico after negotiations.
The US imposed 10% tariffs on some Chinese products. China retaliated with tariffs of its own. The stock market took a dive.
All the madness - Gaza, FBI…
And don’t forget the eggs. $ $ $
A summary
No more FITF
Today, Bondi (Trump’s #2 AG nominee) disbanded the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) and cut back enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Then-director of the FBI Christopher Wray established FITF in 2017 to stop countries like Russia and China from interfering with American politics, as Russia had done in 2016 to help elect Trump. FARA required anyone accepting money from a foreign government to declare that connection, and was key in helping law enforcement agencies to dismantle foreign influence operations.
FBI
FBI turns over details of 5,000 employees who worked on January 6 cases to Trump Justice Department, as agents sue - CNN
Second Amendment
On Friday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order “protecting Second Amendment rights.” The order calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine all gun regulations in the U.S. to make sure they don’t infringe on any citizen’s right to bear arms. - Heather Cox https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-9-2025
Blagojevich Pardoned
Trump Grants Rod Blagojevich Full Pardon 5 Years After Releasing Him From Prison -Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/3EOS01T
New York City Mayor Eric Adams - Charges to be dropped
The Department of Justice is moving to drop the federal corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, according to a memo obtained by CNN. The memo, which was sent by Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, who is a former prosecutor in New York himself, instructed the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District, Danielle Sassoon, to dismiss the charges “as soon as is practicable.” - CNN
Tariffs
President Donald Trump on Monday imposed a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports into the United States with no exceptions or exemptions. - CNN
Pennies
Trump ordered the Treasury to stop making pennies.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Last weekend, the Trump-Musk regime shuttered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The federal government is no longer protecting consumers of financial products. Trump-Musk ordered all work to stop at the CFPB. Its X account was deleted and its homepage unplugged. CFPB employees who went to the building Sunday to retrieve things they needed to work remotely were turned away by security. - Reich
Federal Elections Commission and National Archives and Records Administration
Meanwhile, Trump has continued his purge of government employees he considers insufficiently loyal to him. On Friday he tried to get rid of Ellen Weintraub of the Federal Elections Commission, who contended that her removal was illegal. He also fired Colleen Shogan, the Archivist of the United States, head of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the government agency that handles presidential records. The archivist is the official responsible for receiving and validating the certified electoral ballots for presidential elections—a process Trump’s people tried to corrupt after he lost the 2020 presidential election. - Cox Richardson https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-10-2025
Office of Special Counsel
On Friday, Trump fired the head of the Office of Special Counsel, U.S. Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger. That office enforces federal whistleblower laws as well as the law that prohibits federal employees from engaging in most political activity: the Hatch Act. Congress provided that the special counsel can be removed only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office,” and today Dellinger sued, calling his removal illegal. ^ Cox Richardson https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-9-2025
Ukraine
The war continues, despite Trumps promise to end it on “day one.” He also was going to end violence in Chicago on day one - of his first term.
Nature
After Trump killed a report on nature, researchers push ahead with release. Major report was designed to answer the public's biggest questions on nature. - Ars https://bit.ly/42LObod
Fight back
22 states sue to block new NIH funding policy—court puts it on hold. The first Trump administration tried this, and Congress passed a rule to block it. - Ars https://bit.ly/4b34QWn
Snuffing out EPA
Staff placed on leave, map tool shut down in tumultuous week at EPA.
This week, 168 EPA staffers were put on administrative leave, with more layoffs expected. Several agency staffers described an atmosphere of fear and foreboding. - Harpers https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/epa-staff-let-go-tool-shut-tumultuous-week-rcna191218
Top FEMA Official Is Fired
Top FEMA Official Is Fired Over Payments for N.Y.C. Migrant Shelters: The Trump administration fired the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s chief financial officer and three others after Elon Musk misleadingly claimed the agency had used disaster relief funds for migrant services. - NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/nyregion/fema-fired-nyc-migrant-hotels.html
Not so fast…
CDC, Other Health Agencies Ordered to Restore Web Pages Removed Under Trump Directive. U.S. District Judge John Bates granted a temporary restraining order restoring the lost webpages, which included information on HIV. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3WZ0z0t
Fraud
When Trump was sworn into office, Musk’s six corporations were under more than 32 continuing investigations conducted by at least 11 federal agencies, according to a review by The New York Times. Most of these cases are now closed or likely to be closed soon, and the agencies that initiated them are being defanged by Musk and Trump. Which means Musk’s corporations are worth far more because they are no longer restrained by the government. And as their major shareholder, Musk is the big winner. -Reich https://bit.ly/40YAkbF
No to Ukraine in NATO
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that the war between Ukraine and Russia “must end,” that Kyiv joining NATO is unrealistic and that the US will no longer prioritize European and Ukrainian security as the Trump administration shifts its attention to securing the US’ own borders and deterring war with China. -CNN
Inflation
News Alert: US inflation heats up to 3% for first time since June - CNN
Greenland
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) introduced a new bill this week aiming to rename Greenland to “Red, White, and Blueland,” as President Trump seeks to acquire the island territory. - - The Hill
Diseducation
Elon Musk’s Team Decimates Education Department Arm That Tracks National School Performance. The Trump administration canceled $900 million in contracts overseen by the Institute of Education Sciences, which partners with scientists and education companies to compile and make public data about schools each year. Propublica https://bit.ly/42QGlJW
Rationing
Costco, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's are limiting how many eggs customers can buy. The fast-spreading bird flu is causing egg prices to reach an all-time high — and now an egg shortage at grocery stores - Quartz https://bit.ly/3EzRZPf
Tariff Chaos
President Donald Trump’s tariffs are adding “a lot of cost and a lot of chaos” to the auto industry, Ford (F -0.68%) CEO Jim Farley said Tuesday. - Quartzhttps://bit.ly/41a3OV8..
Dow down
The Dow plunges 400 points as inflation runs hotter than expected. The latest inflation data points to more challenges ahead for the Federal Reserve, with more tariffs coming soon - Quartz https://bit.ly/42RFWXC
Fighting back
CNN — Eight inspectors general whom Donald Trump fired from their federal agency watchdog posts are suing for their jobs back, adding to the legal scrutiny over Trump’s first weeks of decisions in the White House and raising questions about his political intentions. https://cnn.it/42UvIps
Just fuck me
Apple Maps now uses ‘Gulf of America’ name in US, will roll out globally soon.
Upside Down World
CNN — The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence. The vote was 52-48, mostly along party lines, though Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky joined Democrats in opposing the confirmation. https://cnn.it/42ReLMy
I can’t keep up!
Trump weighs in on Russia-Ukraine, judges, DOGE and more. Here's what he said in the Oval Office today
CNN - President Donald Trump made wide-ranging remarks on Wednesday to reporters gathered in the Oval Office.
He took questions about Russia’s war in Ukraine and his calls with both country’s leaders this morning, legal challenges facing his administration and his ongoing efforts to overhaul the federal government.
Tulsi Gabbard was also sworn in as director of national intelligence in the Oval Office by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Trump congratulated her on her confirmation.
Here’s what the president said:
Alleged corruption: The president suggested, without evidence, that Bondi should investigate federal agencies for offering kickbacks to contractors, telling reporters he planned to reveal what he described as widespread “tremendous fraud” during a news conference Thursday. The president also defended investigations being conducted by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Reciprocal tariffs: Trump said he plans to impose reciprocal tariffs soon. He said he could impose them “later on, or I may do it tomorrow morning.” The president said the tariffs will be, “Whatever they charge, we charge.”
Department of Education: Trump said he wants the Education Department to be closed “immediately,” calling it a “big con job.” Trump said last week he would like to close the department using an executive order but was quick to recognize he would need buy-ins from Congress and teachers’ unions.
The judicial system: While acknowledging he has to “follow the law,” Trump continued criticizing the judicial system for hindering his planned transformation of the federal government. Judges all over the country have handed down orders to pause or block many of Trump’s actions so far.
NATO: The president agreed with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that it isn’t practical for Ukraine to join NATO. “They’ve been saying that for a long time that Ukraine did not go into NATO, and I’m OK with that,” he said. Hegseth said earlier today that the war between Ukraine and Russia “must end” and that Kyiv joining NATO is unrealistic.
The war in Ukraine: Trump said he believes there will be a ceasefire “in the not-too-distant future. The US president talked with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier Wednesday. He said Putin wants the war to end, but when asked if he views Ukraine as an equal member of the peace process, Trump said, “I think they have to make peace.”
The price you pay
YOU figure out what’s happening here
DOGE Staffer Is Trying to Reroute FEMA Funds -Sources inside FEMA say DOGE representative Kyle Schutt gained access to FEMA’s proprietary software controlling payments.
DOGE has gained access to FEMA’s core financial management system, according to sources within FEMA, and “has been embedded for days now.” On February 10, a representative of DOGE, Kyle Schutt, gained access to FEMA’s proprietary software that runs FEMA Grant Outcomes (FEMA GO), according to FEMA staff and communications reviewed by Drop Site. FEMA GO is the system that “controls disaster grants as well as non-disaster grants throughout the country and territories.” Schutt also asked for the source code to FEMA’s Integrated Financial Management and Information System (IFMIS), which all approved FEMA grant payments go through.
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/doge-fema-funding-access-social-security-numbers
“Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again”
Today, the Federal Reserve released the first Consumer Price Index update of Trump’s term, finding 3 percent inflation. - The Atlantic https://bit.ly/3CMqyBo
Bend over, America
Trump Gives DOGE Broad Powers as GOP Announces Budget Designed to Screw Millions of Americans. The new Republican budget would add $3 trillion to the U.S. debt over the next ten years. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/42TMpS4
Welcome to Hell
Senate confirms RFK Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary - CNN https://cnn.it/3EyQL6O
RFK Jr. Won. Now What? America’s health is in the hands of an anti-vaccine conspiracist. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3WZoqNs
Congratulations, Measles
There's no vaccine to help America's body politic prevent the spread of unqualified cabinet confirmations. In a big (but, at this point, entirely unsurprising) win for measles, mumps, and whooping cough, the Senate has confirmed RFK Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary. Welcome to Gov in the Time of Cholera. "The 52-48 vote was largely along party lines, though Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky once again joined with Democrats to oppose the nomination. McConnell has now voted against three of Trump’s Cabinet nominees, more than any other Republican senator." (Nothing explains this era more clearly than the fact that Mitch McConnell is now the most moderate Republican.) - NextDraft https://bit.ly/3QiUU1p
On cue, Texas…
An outbreak of measles in one of Texas' least vaccinated counties continues to rapidly expand, with officials reporting 24 cases Tuesday, up from just nine confirmed on Friday.
According to an update by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), all 24 cases identified in the two-week-old outbreak are in unvaccinated people, 22 of which are under age 17. Nine of the patients (37.5 percent) required hospitalization. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/3Qia3zZ
Reciprocal Tariffs
‘Today is the big one’: Trump announces sweeping reciprocal tariffs. If Trump goes forward with the 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada that were pushed back until March 1, the total direct cost of the import taxes on Chinese, Mexican and Canadian goods would equate to a tax hike of more than $1,200 per year for the typical American household, Peterson Institute researchers have found. Reciprocal tariffs would likely add to that amount.- CNN https://cnn.it/4hANGlw
The Day the Ukraine War Ended
The conflict isn’t over, but its fate now appears clear.
Yesterday, the Senate confirmed former Representative Tulsi Gabbard as Trump’s new director of national intelligence. Gabbard has received scrutiny for her previous comments about Russia and has been accused by Democrats of adopting Kremlin talking points, including when she suggested, shortly after the war started, that Moscow had been provoked into invading Ukraine.
Her selection as DNI was praised by Russian state media, surely a first for anyone in the position. And in another act of symbolism on a day full of them, Trump hosted Gabbard’s swearing-in ceremony in the Oval Office late this afternoon. He then took a few questions, including one about whether he viewed Ukraine as “an equal member of this peace process.”
Trump paused.
“That’s an interesting question,” he finally said. “I think they have to make peace.”- Atlantic https://bit.ly/3WYnqJi
US relations with Europe will never be the same after Trump’s call with Putin
CNN — Europe’s American century is over.
Two geopolitical thunderclaps on Wednesday will transform transatlantic relations. Donald Trump’s call with Vladimir Putin brought the Russian leader in from the cold as they hatched plans to end the war in Ukraine and agreed to swap presidential visits. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, meanwhile, went to Brussels and told European allies to “take ownership of conventional security on the continent.” The watershed highlights Trump’s “America First” ideology and his tendency to see every issue or alliance as a dollars and cents value proposition. It also underscores his freedom from establishment advisors steeped in the foreign policy mythology of the West, who he thinks thwarted his first term.
Although Hegseth recommitted to NATO, something fundamental has changed. https://cnn.it/4k0nEtj
The Coming End of the International Order
Last night on CNN, discussing Donald Trump’s planned betrayal of Ukraine, John Bolton stated that Vladimir Putin “couldn’t be happier.”
“They’re drinking vodka straight from the bottle in the Kremlin,” Trump’s former national security adviser added. “A big day for Moscow.”
This morning in Moscow, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged that Moscow was “impressed” by the point of view of the new Trump administration. That’s a diplomatic way for him to put it. Yesterday was a victory for Moscow and for Putin. And it was a defeat for the United States and Ukraine, and for the international order and the cause of freedom. - William Kristol for The Bulwark https://www.thebulwark.com/i/157060142/the-coming-end-of-the-international-order
Et tu, Tim?
Apple has resumed advertising on Elon Musk’s X social network as of this week. Apple had halted all advertising on X back in November 2023 after Musk agreed with an antisemitic post on the platform. - 9to5Mac https://tinyurl.com/ytkx6afc
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
By Alex Lemonides, Seamus Hughes, Mattathias Schwartz and Lazaro Gamio
The legal clashes over President Trump’s blizzard of executive actions are intensifying, with new lawsuits and fresh rulings emerging day and night.
As of Feb. 12, 18 of those rulings have at least temporarily paused some of the president’s initiatives. Already, the administration has asked higher courts to intervene. Some of these cases could reach the Supreme Court in the weeks and months to come. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Qm3sER
Trump admin fires CDC 'disease detectives' as bird flu fears rise
Nearly half of an elite U.S. epidemiology program known as the "disease detectives" were dismissed by the Trump administration Friday, according to sources familiar with the matter, dealing a blow to public health efforts as fears rise over bird flu. - Japan Times https://bit.ly/4i21QMq
Layoffs Expand at Federal Agencies, Part of Trump Purge
The Trump administration accelerated plans for widespread work force cuts across the government on Friday, as employees at multiple federal agencies learned they would be losing their jobs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4gIAt8Z
Seeking a Mar-a-Lago Vibe, Trump Considers Paving Over Grass in Rose Garden
The president has been discussing plans to rip up the grass in one of the White House’s most iconic locations and put in a hard surface to serve as a patio like the one at his Florida home and club. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3QhiFHj
How Trump’s Directives Echo Project 2025
A slew of actions taken by President Trump during his first month in office bear the fingerprints of Project 2025, the right-wing blueprint for overhauling the federal government. During his campaign, Mr. Trump distanced himself from the plan, saying it was largely unfamiliar to him.
But The New York Times found more than 60 major moves that Mr. Trump and his administration have made in his first 23 days, including executive orders and agency memos, that align with proposals in the blueprint. - NYT https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/02/14/us/politics/project-2025-trump-actions.html
Trump Is Newly Unleashed on Trade, With Global Consequences
With less than a month in office, the president has pursued trade actions that could shatter the global trading system and dwarf the trade measures he took over his entire first term.
On Thursday, Mr. Trump proposed his most aggressive and consequential measure to date with a global rework of tariffs — a move that made it clear that the president would have no qualms about weaponizing tariffs and antagonizing trading partners to extract concessions. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4hW2laA
Letters from an American - Heather Cox Richardson
Trump wants to substantially cut the federal workforce. Here’s what it looks like.
While federal hiring has increased in recent years, federal workers, as a share of all American workers, remains at a historic low.
The latest executive order is part of a broader effort by DOGE to dramatically reduce government spending and a key part in the Trump administration’s broader agenda to assert power over a diminished federal government. But to substantially cut the budget, the bulk of savings would need to be found elsewhere: a 25 percent reduction in the federal workforce reduces federal spending by just 1 percent. - WaPo https://wapo.st/41f5TPE
Lawsuit to Stop Elon Musk From Decimating Government Gets a Tough Judge
"Trump has delegated virtually unchecked authority to Mr. Musk without proper legal authorization," according to the lawsuit.
Donald Trump’s administration has been hit with a flurry of lawsuits over the blatantly illegal actions it’s taken since the president was sworn in on Jan. 20. But one new case against Elon Musk, the billionaire who’s currently trying to dismantle federal agencies under the pretext of fighting “fraud,” may be a tough one for Trump’s wealthy goons. Because the case, first filed on Thursday, just landed in front of a judge who doesn’t suffer fools.
The case seeks to stop Musk from being able to issue any more orders, something that seems clear should be done immediately before he does more damage.
“Mr. Musk does not occupy an office of the United States and has not had his nomination for an office confirmed by the Senate,” the lawsuit reads. “His officer-level actions are thus unconstitutional. This Court should restore constitutional order and, consistent with the Appointments Clause, enjoin Mr. Musk from issuing orders to any person in the Executive Branch outside of DOGE and otherwise engaging in the actions of an officer of the United States, and declare that his actions to date are ultra vires and of no legal effect.”- Gizmodo https://bit.ly/41hiQbJ
Enshitification - VoteVets
The Trump administration is making a huge effort to convince the public that they’re not doing anything that might harm Veterans.
And, to be frank, it’s complete BS.
Just to start, nobody has forgotten Trump’s insults to the fallen, the wounded, and everyone who wore the uniform. “Suckers” and “losers” isn’t going to wash off, Donnie.
But let’s go through a quick list:
There’s actually a word for this, and it was coined by the same tech bros that Trump’s letting run the government: Enshitification.
In the tech world, enshitification is the gradual degradation of online platforms over time to extract maximum value for shareholders. In this case, it’s a gradual reduction in the quality of services Veterans depend on over time in an effort to push privatization.
Privatization of the VA is their end goal. Always has been. But fortunately, we’ve got some experience with this.
VoteVets has swatted down efforts by the GOP to privatize the VA for decades. We’ve beaten them back every time. What it takes to get this done is a united front — and it’s critical you stick with us. - VoteVets https://votevets.org/
Trump Taps Former Amazon Exec to Oversee Worker Safety
A former exec from the company known for its antagonism to labor rights may head the agency tasked with protecting America's workers. - Gizmodo (not The Onion) https://bit.ly/4hJ56MY
Adams Case Highlights: Justice Dept. Asks Judge to Dismiss Case, Capping Days of Drama
The move was preceded by a wave of resignations of prosecutors, each refusing to sign the motion and some criticizing the Justice Department order to do so in scathing terms. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4i31G7r
Fistfights, anthem boos in stormy U.S.-Canada ice hockey clash
Three fights in the first nine seconds and a chorus of deafening boos for the U.S. national anthem marked a stormy ice hockey clash between the United States and Canada in Montreal on Saturday.
An emotionally charged showdown between the star-studded line-ups of the North American rivals - which comes against a backdrop of political tension between the two neighboring countries - erupted into violence from the opening puck drop at Montreal's Bell Centre. - Japan Today https://bit.ly/3X1zMjS?
Europe will not be part of Ukraine peace talks, U.S. envoy says
Europe won't have a seat at the table for Ukraine peace talks, Donald Trump's lead Ukraine envoy said on Saturday, after Washington sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv.
Trump shocked European allies this week by calling Russian President Vladimir Putin without consulting them or Kyiv beforehand and declaring an immediate start to Ukraine peace talks. - Japan Today https://bit.ly/3EFJ8vr?
Trump Suggests No Laws Are Broken if He’s ‘Saving His Country’
President Trump on Saturday posted on social media a single sentence that appears to encapsulate his attitude as he tests the nation’s legal and constitutional boundaries in the process of upending the federal government and punishing his perceived enemies.
“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” Mr. Trump wrote, first on his social media platform Truth Social, and then on the website X. - NYT https://nyti.ms/40TtLXC
Trump administration firing FAA staff including safety workers despite recent crashes
The Trump administration has begun firing hundreds of employees at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), including some who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure, despite four deadly crashes since inauguration day. - Guardian https://bit.ly/4gFZcL2
Social Security head steps down over DOGE access of recipient information, sources say
AP — The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner has stepped down from her role at the agency over Department of Government Efficiency requests to access Social Security recipient information, according to two people familiar with the official’s departure who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Acting Commissioner Michelle King’s departure from the agency over the weekend – after more than 30 years of service – was initiated after King refused to provide DOGE staffers at the SSA with access to sensitive information, the people said Monday. https://cnn.it/4gOseIi
4 Top Officials to Resign Over Adams’s Cooperation With Trump
Four top New York City officials said they would resign after the Justice Department moved to dismiss Mayor Eric Adams’s corruption case in apparent exchange for his help with President Trump’s deportation agenda. The four officials — Maria Torres-Springer, the first deputy mayor, and Meera Joshi, Anne Williams-Isom and Chauncey Parker, all also deputy mayors — oversee much of New York City government, and their departure is poised to blow a devastating hole in the already wounded administration of Mayor Eric Adams. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kiuY3Z
Top Social Security Official Leaves After Musk Team Seeks Data Access
The top official at the Social Security Administration stepped down this weekend after members of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency sought access to sensitive personal data about millions of Americans held by the agency, according to people familiar with the matter. The resignation of Michelle King, the acting commissioner, is the latest abrupt departure of a senior federal official who refused to provide Mr. Musk’s lieutenants with access to closely held data. Mr. Musk’s team has been embedding with agencies across the federal government and seeking access to private data as part of what it has said is an effort to root out fraud and waste. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4b4qIRa
Washington Post Cancels Ad From Groups Calling for Trump to Fire Musk
An advertisement that was set to run in some editions of The Washington Post on Tuesday calling for Elon Musk to be fired from his role in government was abruptly canceled, according to one of the advocacy groups that had ordered the ad. Common Cause said it was told by the newspaper on Friday that the ad was being pulled. The full-page ad, known as a wraparound, would have covered the front and back pages of editions delivered to the White House, the Pentagon and Congress, and was planned in collaboration with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3CYZ7nZ
Trump Vowed to Clean Up Washington, Then His Team Hired a Man Who Pushed a Scam the IRS Called the “Worst of the Worst”
Even as he has vowed to eliminate “every dollar of waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal budget and operations,” the new acting administrator of the General Services Administration, Stephen Ehikian, has appointed a senior adviser whose firm used to specialize in tax transactions that a bipartisan Senate committee excoriated and that the IRS branded as “abusive” and among “the worst of the worst tax scams.” The adviser has been battling the tax agency in court over $4 billion in disallowed deductions for thousands of his clients. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3EHgYAi
“We’ve Been Essentially Muzzled”: Department of Education Halts Thousands of Civil Rights Investigations Under Trump
This week, the Trump administration terminated more than $900 million in contracts that mostly focused on education research and data on learning and the country’s schools. The cuts were made at the behest of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting crew, known as the Department of Government Efficiency, which said it also ended dozens of training grants for educators that it deemed wasteful. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4gLmgYL
U.S. and Russia Pursue Partnership in a Head-Spinning Shift in Relations U.S. and Russia Pursue Partnership in a Head-Spinning Shift in Relations
The United States and Russia moved toward a head-spinning reset of their relationship on Tuesday, agreeing to work together on ending the Ukraine war, financial investment, and re-establishing normal relations. The meeting between senior officials from both countries was a striking display of bonhomie after three years of American efforts to isolate Moscow for its 2022 invasion. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41m63oG
DOGE Claimed It Saved $8 Billion in One Contract. It Was Actually $8 Million.
The Department of Government Efficiency, the federal cost-cutting initiative championed by Elon Musk, published on Monday a list of government contracts it has canceled, together amounting to about $16 billion in savings itemized on a new “wall of receipts” on its website. Almost half of those line-item savings could be attributed to a single $8 billion contract for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. But it appears that the DOGE list vastly overstated the actual intended value of that contract. A closer scrutiny of a federal database shows that a recent version of the contract was for $8 million, not $8 billion. A larger total savings number published on the site, $55 billion, lacked specific documentation. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3EICc0G
Firings Expand at Interior Department With Purge of Probationary Workers
The Trump administration fired about 1,300 additional employees at the Interior Department over the holiday weekend, according to two people familiar with the matter, adding to the widespread purge of thousands of federal workers with probationary status that began last week. The Trump administration had also fired about 1,000 employees at the National Park Service, according to workers groups, bringing the total number of layoffs at the Interior Department to roughly 2,300. The firings affected many agencies that oversee public lands controlled by the federal government and are managed by the Interior Department. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4k9p4lB
Trump Cuts Target Next Generation of Scientists and Public Health Leaders
At the National Institutes of Health, the nation’s premier biomedical research agency, an estimated 1,200 employees — including promising young investigators slated for larger roles — have been dismissed. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two prestigious training programs were gutted: one that embeds recent public health graduates in local health departments and another to cultivate the next generation of Ph.D. laboratory scientists. But the agency’s Epidemic Intelligence Service — the “disease detectives” who track outbreaks around the world — has apparently been spared, perhaps because of an uproar among alumni after a majority of its members were told on Friday that they would be let go. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3X7XCKR
Federal Judge Refuses to Halt Destruction of U.S. Government by Elon Musk
A federal judge in Washington D.C. refused to grant a request brought by 14 attorneys general to block Elon Musk’s DOGE from accessing private information across several agencies and laying off huge segments of the federal workforce. Judge Tanya Chutkan, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, acknowledged DOGE was causing confusion in her ruling on Tuesday, but would not put a halt to the destruction of the country. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/418SM1l
DOGE Reportedly Cuts FDA Employees Investigating Neuralink
The purging of federal employees carried out by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) somehow just keeps cutting staffers involved in investigating Elon Musk’s companies. According to a report from Reuters, several employees at the US Food and Drug Administration who were tasked with managing reviews and applications related to Musk’s Neuralink received pink slips over the weekend. Per Reuters, 20 people who worked in the FDA’s office of neurological and physical medicine devices got axed as part of a broader effort being carried out by DOGE to cut down the federal workforce. Several of those employees worked directly on Neuralink, Musk’s company that produces brain-computer interfaces designed to be implanted in a human brain, and were tasked with reviewing clinical trial applications. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4beaDIU
Measles Is Rampaging Through Rural Texas: Dozens Sick, Hundreds Feared Infected
An outbreak of measles is currently raging in Texas. Health officials have documented dozens of cases over the past month, but the true tally may be substantially higher. On Friday, the Texas Department of State Health Services provided the latest update on the measles outbreak, which has been ongoing since at least mid-January. Within the last three weeks, there have been 48 cases reported in the rural South Plains region of Western Texas, mostly involving children and teenagers. The outbreak hasn’t shown signs of slowing down yet, though, and officials worry that hundreds of kids have actually been infected so far. -Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3X7Vi6y
Trump Pauses Enforcement of Law Banning Foreign Bribery
President Trump on Monday ordered a pause in the enforcement of a federal law aimed at curbing corruption in multinational companies, saying it creates an uneven playing field for American firms. The law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, makes it illegal for companies that operate in the United States to pay foreign government officials to secure business deals. Though the law was enacted in 1977, federal authorities have more heavily enforced it since around 2005, cracking down on bribery, especially in countries where it is a common business practice. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3CUZgc6
11-Year-Old Takes Own Life After Classmates Reportedly Threatened To Have Her Family Deported
An 11-year-old girl in Texas took her own life after she was allegedly harassed by classmates who threatened to call the authorities and have her family deported. - news break.com https://bit.ly/41nMVGP
Migrants, Deported to Panama Under Trump Plan, Detained in Remote Jungle Camp
The group of unauthorized migrants, which includes children, were bused to the camp late Tuesday night. “It looks like a zoo, there are fenced cages,” said one of the detainees. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4hKZZM1
Trump calls Zelensky ‘a dictator’ after Ukraine’s leader accuses him of living in ‘disinformation space’
CNN — US President Donald Trump called Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky “a dictator,” escalating a public war of words between the two leaders that started when Trump falsely accused Ukraine of starting the war with Russia. https://cnn.it/41meikj
White House posts video of immigrants in shackles, calls deportation footage ‘ASMR’
The White House on Tuesday afternoon posted a video online showing immigrants in shackles being prepared to board a deportation flight from Seattle. The video includes footage of a set of handcuffs and chains jingling as they are pulled from a basket containing other shackles and then laid out on the airport tarmac next to four other sets of restraints. The X post by the White House is titled, “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight.”
ASMR is a nonclinical term that stands for “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.” It refers to a pleasant, tingling feeling some people experience when watching videos featuring unusual sounds, like whispering or fingernails tapping on a surface. -CNBC https://cnb.cx/41nViBY
A Terrible Milestone in the American Presidency
Trump switches sides in the war for freedom.
This week, Donald Trump falsely accused Ukraine of starting a war against a much larger neighbor, inviting invasion and mass death. At this point, Trump—who has a history of trusting Russian President Vladimir Putin more than he trusts the Americans who are sworn to defend the United States—may even believe it. Casting Ukraine as the aggressor (and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator,” which Trump did today) makes political sense for Trump, who is innately deferential to Putin, and likely views the conflict as a distraction from his own personal and political agendas. The U.S. president has now chosen to throw America to Putin’s side and is more than willing to see this war end on Russian terms.
Repeating lies, however, does not make them true. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4i5JHgD
Trump Flips the Script on the Ukraine War, Blaming Zelensky Not Putin
When Russian forces crashed over the borders into Ukraine in 2022 determined to wipe it off the map as an independent state, the United States rushed to aid the beleaguered nation and cast its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, as a hero of resistance.
Three years almost to the day later, President Trump is rewriting the history of Russia’s invasion of its smaller neighbor. Ukraine, in this version, is not a victim but a villain. And Mr. Zelensky is not a latter-day Winston Churchill, but a “dictator without elections” who somehow started the war himself and conned America into helping. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3EXiFtk
Almost 90% of Japanese companies see Trump as bad for business, survey shows
Almost nine out of 10 Japanese companies expect U.S. President Donald Trump's policies to negatively affect business, a Reuters survey showed on Thursday, the clearest sign yet of mounting worry in the United States' top foreign direct investor. The results of the survey show how the prospect of higher tariffs and increased trade friction between the United States and China has clouded the outlook for companies in the world's fourth-largest economy. - Japan Today https://bit.ly/4bdUTWm
RFK Jr. Wastes No Time Revisiting Childhood Vaccine Policies
In his opening speech as HHS Secretary, Kennedy announced his commission will investigate the childhood vaccine schedule as a culprit of chronic disease.
Well that didn’t take long. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the just-enshrined director of the Department of Health and Human Services, has already signaled that he may try to change the country’s vaccination schedule for children. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3CMFrUo
USDA Scrambles to Rehire Bird Flu Experts After DOGE Laid Them Off
Nuclear safety workers faced a similar experience in recent days.
The hardworking folks at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are trying to rehire a number of federal employees who were laid off over the weekend. The employees were working on combating bird flu and were let go as part of a mass purge underway at every federal agency, spearheaded by American oligarch Elon Musk under the banner of DOGE, the “Department of Government Efficiency.” - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4hMiJdY
DOGE Cuts 9/11 Survivors’ Fund, and Republicans Join Democrats in Rebuke
After 20 percent of the World Trade Center Health Program staff was terminated last week, Democratic lawmakers were outraged. On Wednesday, Republican lawmakers joined them.
In a rare sign of pushback against President Trump, a coalition of congressional Republicans from the New York area rebuked the president for cuts to a federal program that administers aid to emergency workers and others suffering from toxins related to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4k6thGC
As Trump Turns Toward Russia and Against Ukraine, Republicans Are Mum
Congressional Republicans have mostly tempered their criticism or deferred to the president as he topples what were once their party’s core foreign policy principles.
As President Trump makes an abrupt pivot toward Russia, upending generations of American foreign policy, he is also defying members of his own party in Congress, many of whom have spent their careers arguing for a hawkish stance against Moscow and strong backing for allies in Europe facing its most immediate threats.
But the response from Republicans on Capitol Hill has been muted, in some cases to the point of silence. There has been little G.O.P. pushback on Mr. Trump’s efforts to draw closer to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia or blame Ukraine as he seeks to bringhttps://nyti.ms/3XcagJ0 a quick end to the war that began when Russia invaded the country. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3XcagJ0
Justice Dept. Official Suggests That Aiding Trump Outweighs Prosecutions
A senior Justice Department official suggested Wednesday that President Trump’s administration is justified in putting aside allegations of corruption against a public official if the official cooperates with the president’s political agenda.
The Justice Department official, Emil Bove III, raised the idea during a hearing on Wednesday at which a judge asked him to explain his rationale for abandoning a corruption case against New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams.
In response to questions from the Manhattan judge, Mr. Bove renewed his assertion that the prosecution should be dismissed because it was hindering Mr. Adams’s cooperation with Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown. - NYT https://nyti.ms/437qyGK
Why the Press is Too Weak to Stop Trump from Banning the AP
The Associated Press may not have the New York Times’s brand recognition or the Washington Post's august history. Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hanks, Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo are not playing AP journalists in movies. However, the AP is probably the country's most important and impactful news organization. As a wire service, the AP’s reporting is blasted to every outlet in the country. Reading a story about national news on your local news site? It’s from the AP. Hearing a summary of what’s happening in Washington on the local news or during drive-time radio? That’s from the AP. Their position in the White House press corps is so esteemed that the AP’s White House reporter has historically been entrusted with starting and ending the White House press briefing.
Donald Trump has banned the AP from covering the White House, attending the briefings, or traveling on Air Force One. Two of their reporters tried to participate in Trump’s event at Mar-a-Lago earlier this week and were denied entry. Trump is punishing the AP for the sin of refusing to use the term “Gulf of America” to describe the body of water heretofore known as the “Gulf of Mexico.” The AP’s rationale (other than the fact that randomly renaming a body of water is absurd) is that they are an international news organization and, therefore, need to use the internationally recognized term. - MessageBox https://bit.ly/4hLJJum
‘Devastating’ Trump Funding Cuts To Disrupt Diabetes, Cancer And HIV Research, UIC Faculty Say
UNIVERSITY VILLAGE — University of Illinois at Chicago professors and researchers are raising concerns about the “devastating” consequences of federal policies freezing or cutting federal funding for scientific and education research announced this month.
More than a dozen UIC professors, researchers and students protested President Donald Trump’s funding freeze efforts at a Tuesday rally organized by the UIC United Faculty union. They warned that funding cuts for scientific research in health and education could set the country back decades, halt ongoing research projects for chronic and life-threatening diseases such as diabetes, cancer and HIV and undermine all levels of education. - Block Club https://bit.ly/3D32Gtk
Trump loyalist Kash Patel is confirmed as FBI director by the Senate despite deep Democratic doubts
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday narrowly voted to confirm Kash Patel as director of the FBI, moving to place him atop the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency despite doubts from Democrats about his qualifications and concerns he will do Donald Trump’s bidding and go after the Republican president’s adversaries.
“I cannot imagine a worse choice,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told colleagues before the 51-49 vote by the GOP-controlled Senate. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the lone Republican holdouts.
A Trump loyalist who has fiercely criticized the agency, Patel will inherit an FBI gripped by turmoil as the Justice Department over the past month has forced out a group of senior bureau officials and made a highly unusual demand for the names of thousands of agents who participated in investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. - AP https://bit.ly/41t8XYN
Emergency Food, TB Tests and H.I.V. Drugs: Vital Health Aid Remains Frozen Despite Court Ruling
The Trump administration appears to be flouting a judge’s order pausing the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D.
Funds for vital health programs around the world remain frozen and their work has not been able to resume, despite a federal judge’s order that temporarily halted the Trump administration’s dismantling of the government’s main foreign aid agency. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3X6SdUj
Former N.F.L. Player Is Arrested After Protest Over MAGA Plaque
Chris Kluwe, a former punter for the Vikings, was arrested after speaking at a City Council meeting in Huntington Beach, Calif.
When he was an N.F.L. punter with the Minnesota Vikings, Chris Kluwe was known for speaking out. He hasn’t stopped in retirement.
Mr. Kluwe was arrested in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Tuesday night and charged with disrupting a CitHe was objecting to plans for a plaque celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Huntington Beach Central Library, which included the words “Magical,” “Alluring,” “Galvanizing” and “Adventurous” — the first letters of which spell “MAGA,” President Trump’s slogan meaning “Make America Great Again.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4gUOGQ2
Trump Cuts Protections for Haitians, Putting Them on Track for Deportation
The decision is the latest in President Trump’s sweeping crackdown on immigrants, including people whom the Biden administration had authorized to remain in the country.
The decision was signed this week by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and is the latest in President Trump’s sweeping crackdown on immigration, including people whom the Biden administration had authorized to remain in the country.
The Haitians affected by the decision had been living in the United States under Temporary Protected Status, which is intended to help people in the United States who cannot return safely and immediately to their countries because of a natural disaster or an armed conflict. More than 500,000 Haitians in the United States are eligible for the status. - NYT https://nyti.ms/412t1Q0
Coinbase Says S.E.C. Will Drop Crypto Lawsuit
The end of a court fight with the largest U.S. crypto company would be a big win for an industry that financially backed President Trump.
The S.E.C. sued Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto company, in 2023 on the grounds that the digital currencies sold on its platform constituted unregistered securities that put consumers at risk of financial harm. - NYT https://tinyurl.com/2fe37s66
The Ultimate Betrayal
America just switched sides in the Ukraine war.
Even though anyone with eyes could see this coming, Donald Trump’s recent moves with regard to Ukraine and Russia come as a huge blow. We are in the midst of a global fight between Western liberal democracy and authoritarian government, and in this fight, the United States has just switched sides and signed up with the authoritarian camp.
What Trump has said over the past few days about Ukraine and Russia defies belief. He has accused Ukraine of having started the war by not preemptively surrendering to Russian territorial demands; he has said that Ukraine is not a democracy; and he has said that Ukrainians were wrong to resist Russian aggression. These ideas are likely not ones he thought up himself, but come straight from the mouth of Vladimir Putin, a man Trump has shown great admiration for. Meeting in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the United States started a direct negotiation with Moscow that excludes both Ukraine and the Europeans, and has surrendered in advance two critical bargaining chips: acceptance of Russian territorial gains to date, and a commitment not to let Ukraine enter NATO. In return, Putin has not made a single concession. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/3D3EtD4
How the world changed in a month
Letters from an American - HEATHER COX RICHARDSON - February 20, 2025
On Monday, James Marriott of The Times, published in London, noted that the very stability and comfort of the post–World War II liberal order has permitted the seeds of its own destruction to flourish. A society with firm scientific and political guardrails that protect health and freedom, can sustain “an underbelly of madmen and extremists—medical skeptics, conspiracy types and anti-democratic fantasists.” - Cox https://bit.ly/41pdKdD
Elon Musk's DOGE is going after the agencies that regulate his companies
Federal agencies regulating Tesla, Neuralink, SpaceX, and X have all been impacted by DOGE - Quartz https://bit.ly/41rTOXy
Judge vacates upcoming Eric Adams corruption trial but appoints conservative attorney to argue against dropping the case
A federal judge has vacated the upcoming trial date for New York City Mayor Eric Adams, but declined to immediately dismiss the charges all together in a case that has roiled the Justice Department.
Judge Dale Ho, instead, is appointing conservative attorney Paul Clement to present arguments challenging the Justice Department’s decision to drop charges against Adams as he explores what his options are and if a dismissal is in the public interest.
The DOJ’s move to end the case against Adams has prompted an exodus of prosecutors who disagreed with the decision. Eight federal prosecutors, including the interim US attorney for the Southern District of New York, have resigned in protest. Four deputy mayors have departed City Hall as well. - CNN https://cnn.it/4ia06R3
Say what this is: a coup.
I want to talk today about the media’s coverage of the Trump-Vance-Musk coup.
I’m not referring to coverage by the bonkers right-wing media of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and its imitators.
I’m referring to the U.S. mainstream media — The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, National Public Radio — and the mainstream media abroad, such as the BBC and The Guardian.
By not calling it a coup, the mainstream media is failing to communicate the gravity of what is occurring. - Reich https://bit.ly/3ENADP4
Elon Musk ridiculed a blind person on X. Then a mob went to work.
Elon Musk attacked a blind man who criticized Musk’s DOGE service. Musk’s large online following amplified the attack.. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4iaLqRW
Trump’s honeymoon is over
New polling shows Trump’s approval ratings declining — and a number of major warning signs appearing. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4iaYg2p
See inside DOGE’s playbook for eliminating DEI
Documents obtained by The Washington Post detail step-by-step plans the U.S. DOGE Service developed to purge federal agencies of diversity, equity, and inclusion workers and offices. DOGE, which stands for Department of Government Efficiency, aims next to target hundreds of non-DEI workers and what they called “corrupted branches” of offices required by law, which protect civil and employment rights. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4k3vXVz
Elon Musk Rants Incoherently in Sunglasses While X Shadowbans His Pleading Baby Mama
February 20, 2025 was a big day for the world’s richest man and shadow President Elon Musk. He called an astronaut “fully retarded” during an online fight. The Wall Street Journal reported that his lawyers have been threatening companies with Federal regulatory problems if they don’t spend money advertising on X. And he capped off the day by ignoring the pleas of Grimes, mother of three of his children, as he took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference to mumble incoherently while wearing sunglasses and waving around a chainsaw. -Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4hOkOq2
National Park Service in Turmoil After 1,000 Staff Abruptly Cut
One thousand National Park Service staff in their probationary period were abruptly dismissed last week as the Trump administration moves forward with what officials say are cost-cutting measures across the federal government.
A National Parks Conservation Association release called for an immediate halt to the staffing cuts, citing their devastating impact on park visitors’ experience and the obvious impacts they will have on the affected staff. The sweeping cuts and a hiring freeze are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to slash the federal workforce working in the sciences and conservation.
The Department of the Interior is exempting 5,000 seasonal jobs from the hiring freeze, while terminating 1,000 permanent National Park Service staff roles. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4kpC1Ib
U.S. Government Removing EV Chargers From All Federal Buildings Because They Are ‘Not Mission-Critical’
As part of its continued efforts to own the libs, or get rid of anything President Trump does not like or understand, the General Services Administration is gearing up to remove electric chargers from all federal properties nationwide.
According to the GSA, the hundreds of chargers and estimated 8,000 plugs available for federal workers to charge their cars are “not mission critical.” The agency, which manages buildings owned by the federal government as well as vehicles, will also offload any EVs purchased under the Biden administration. - Gizmodo https://gizmodo.com/u-s-government-removing-ev-chargers-from-all-federal-buildings-because-they-are-not-mission-critical-2000566987
‘Constitutional Crisis’ Is an Understatement
Grasping the scale of President Donald Trump’s assault on American governance is no small matter. The administration is challenging laws, claiming the right to reinterpret the Constitution, questioning judges’ powers, and arrogating new powers to itself. Seeking to convey the gravity of the situation, many commentators have labeled what’s happening a “constitutional crisis.”
That’s a mistake—not because what’s happening is not serious, but because it is so serious. -Atlantic https://bit.ly/4bgw7F4
Stocks Notch Worst Week Since Trump’s Inauguration
Stocks slumped on Friday, with the S&P 500 wiping out almost all of its gains since President Trump took office last month, after a widely watched measure of how consumers feel about the economy showed mounting fears over stubborn inflation. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iaMPrG
DOGE’s Only Public Ledger Is Riddled With Mistakes
The figures from Elon Musk’s team of outsiders represent billions in government cuts. They are also full of accounting errors, outdated data and other miscalculations. - NYT https://nyti.ms/419ZKDd
Trump Plans to Use Military Sites Across the Country to Detain Undocumented Immigrants
The Trump administration is ramping up plans to detain undocumented immigrants at military sites across the United States, a significant expansion of efforts by the White House to use wartime resources to make good on the president’s promised mass deportations. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iaUMNj
Supreme Court Rejects, for Now, Trump’s Bid to Fire Government Watchdog
The Supreme Court, in its first decision on President Trump’s use of executive power in his second term, ruled on Friday that he cannot, for now, remove a government lawyer who leads the watchdog agency that protects whistle-blowers.
But the court’s brief, unsigned order indicated that it may soon return to the issue, noting that a trial judge’s temporary restraining order shielding the lawyer, Hampton Dellinger, is set to expire next week. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4hQEWru
They Worked to Prevent Death. The Trump Administration Fired Them.
Public health teams are being gutted, imperiling efforts to safeguard organ donation and prevent maternal and infant death. Many workers expressed fear at what would happen to the work they left behind. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/41a03xR
Trump Order Shifts the Financial Burden of Climate Change Onto Individuals
President Trump’s executive order eliminates the “social cost of carbon,” a measure used to quantify the economic impact of climate change. This shift would transfer the financial burden of climate change from polluting industries to individuals, as the costs of climate change, such as disaster cleanup and health impacts, are passed on to consumers. Without a social cost of carbon, it becomes difficult to enact regulations addressing climate change, potentially leading to increased costs for citizens in the form of higher insurance premiums, energy bills, and reduced productivity. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/41scVRq
Letters from an American - February 21, 2025 HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
ChatGPT summary - but please read in entirety, link below:
1. Elon Musk’s CPAC Appearance
French far-right leader cancels CPAC speech over Steve Bannon’s ‘Nazi’ salute
The French far-right leader Jordan Bardella on Friday morning cancelled a scheduled speech at the US Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, after Donald Trump’s former aide Steve Bannon flashed a fascist-style salute there hours before. - Guardian https://bit.ly/3Qv3bPS
How Meta's concessions to the right may have backfired
A new inquiry from the Federal Trade Commission suggests that apologizing for "censorship" may have only emboldened the company's conservative critics. - Platformer https://bit.ly/3EOZTEF
U.S. Doubles Down on Demand That Ukraine Sign Minerals Deal
The Trump administration is pushing Ukraine to sign a deal granting the U.S. mineral rights worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Ukrainian President Zelensky is open to a deal but believes it needs more work, particularly regarding security guarantees. The dispute has escalated tensions between the two leaders, with Trump criticizing Zelensky and Zelensky pushing back against Trump’s demands. - WSJ https://www.wsj.com/world/trump-ukraine-mineral-deal-sign-e2ff7d3f?st=AasSff
"Recoup the costs"
The sadism of American policy to war-torn Ukraine - Snyder Substack https://bit.ly/4i8aZmw
‘We Are Seeing Complete Destruction’: The Damage Done by the U.S.A.I.D. Freeze
When President John F. Kennedy asked Congress to establish the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1961, he rooted its mission in America’s strategic interests and its “moral obligations as a wise leader and good neighbor,” recognizing that poverty and instability threaten America’s prosperity and security. That convergence of interests and values, upheld across Republican and Democratic administrations, is now at risk. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Qzu9FW
Trump administration evicts former Coast Guard leader from her house with 3 hours notice
Trump fired Linda Fagan, the first female Coast Guard commandant, on his second day in office. A Trump official told her she had three hours to leave her house on Tuesday. - NBC News https://nbcnews.to/41v4O6F Trump to prepare facility at Guantanamo for 30,000 migrants
Trump Fires Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Two Other Military Officers
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump abruptly fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday, sidelining a history-making fighter pilot and respected officer as part of a campaign led by his defense secretary to rid the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks. - Time https://bit.ly/4bc11yg
Trump to prepare facility at Guantanamo for 30,000 migrants
WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he will order the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security to prepare a migrant detention facility at Guantanamo Bay for as many as 30,000 migrants.
The U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, already houses a migrant facility - separate from the high-security U.S. prison for foreign terrorism suspects - that has been used on occasion for decades, including to hold Haitians and Cubans picked up at sea.
Trump's border czar Tom Homan said later on Wednesday that the administration would expand the already existing facility and that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency would run it. - Reuters https://reut.rs/4ibPlxS
Federal employees told to justify jobs in email or Musk says they face dismissal
CNN — In President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s latest move targeting the federal workforce, employees began receiving emails Saturday afternoon asking them to explain what work they did last week, as Musk announced that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” - CNN https://cnn.it/41tkQxz
The Trump Backers Who Have Buyer’s Remorse
With every new policy and offhand remark, Trump belies the imaginary versions of himself that inspired many of his supporters. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4kfb0ac
DOGE HAS ‘GOD MODE’ ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT DATA
Doge has achieved “god mode.” That’s according to an employee in senior leadership at USAID, who told us that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency now has full, unrestricted access to the agency’s digital infrastructure—including total control over systems that Americans working in conflict zones rely on, the ability to see and manipulate financial systems that have historically awarded tens of billions of dollars, and perhaps much more. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4kfik5x
New York Belongs to Trump Now
The Trump administration’s meddling is a perversion of the principles of the Department of Justice, and at least six prosecutors in New York and Washington have resigned in protest. But more than that, it is an insult to the intelligence and common sense of New Yorkers. Today, a judge will hear from Justice Department lawyers and decide whether to grant the administration’s request. If the case is dropped, the mayor’s constituents will be deprived of the opportunity to see him held accountable, and they will be saddled with a mayor who is beholden not to the will of the people but to Trump. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3DizQVM
The Party of Reagan Is Selling Out Ukraine
Last week, Trump’s White House signaled a fundamental shift in relations with both Europe and Russia by stridently dismissing longtime democratic allies while looking to reestablish ties with the nuclear-armed autocracy to the east. The president prioritized a call with Putin over one with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and invited the Russian leader, and not the Ukrainian one, for multiple summit meetings. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ruled out Ukraine joining NATO or receiving substantial future American security guarantees as part of the negotiations to end the war. Vice President J. D. Vance upbraided European leaders for freezing the far right out of government in their nations. And then yesterday, at a Mar-a-Lago news conference, Trump chided Ukraine for the conflict, snapping, “You should never have been there,” and ignoring that it was Russia that had invaded. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/41hpmxY
How to find climate data and science the Trump administration doesn’t want you to see
Information on the internet might seem like it’s there forever, but it’s only as permanent as people choose to make it.
That’s apparent as the second Trump administration “floods the zone” with efforts to dismantle science agencies and the data and websites they use to communicate with the public. The targets range from public health and demographics to climate science. - Japan Today https://bit.ly/4gTx1s5
Chris Murphy Emerges as a Clear Voice for Democrats Countering Trump
The third-term senator from Connecticut is eschewing caution and throwing out the traditional political playbook as he seeks a broader audience for his critiques of the president and his agenda. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3QwkMa3
Republicans Face Angry Voters at Town Halls, Hinting at Broader Backlash
After a monthlong honeymoon for the G.O.P. at the start of President Trump’s term, lawmakers are confronting a groundswell of fear and disaffection in districts around the country. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4id0DSj
In Trump’s Alternate Reality, Lies and Distortions Drive Change
The United States sent $50 million in condoms to Hamas. Diversity programs caused a plane crash. China controls the Panama Canal. Ukraine started the war with Russia.
Except, no. None of that is true. Not that it stops President Trump. In the first month since he returned to power, he has demonstrated once again a brazen willingness to advance distortions, conspiracy theories and outright lies to justify major policy decisions. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3QyZCII
Why Isn’t Congress Doing Anything?
Under the GOP’s watch, Congress has put up virtually no resistance while Trump and Elon Musk have shut down agencies, sidelined thousands of federal employees, and stopped congressionally approved payments. Instead of protecting their constitutional authority over spending, Republicans have cheered Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and mocked Democrats for their protests. “In hopes of finding themselves,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Tuesday, “they’ve latched on to this new, shiny object called the rule of law.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3F4MzMkhttps://bit.ly/3F4MzMk
Macron tries to sway Trump as U.S. backs Russia over Ukraine in U.N. vote
French President Emmanuel Macron tried Monday to bend President Donald Trump back to the side of Kyiv and Europe, after an intense White House effort to end the war in Ukraine in which the U.S. leader blamed Ukraine, not Russia, for the invasion by the Kremlin three years ago. - WaPo [https://bit.ly/4iavy1A]
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON - Ukraine - February 24, 2025
Three years ago today, a massive influx of Russian troops crossed into Ukraine to join the troops that had been there since the 2014 invasion. At the time, it seemed that Russian president Vladimir Putin thought victory would be a matter of days, and observers did not think he was wrong. But Ukraine government officials pointedly filmed themselves in Kyiv, and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky refused to leave. Rejecting the U.S. offer of evacuation, Zelensky replied: “The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/41xJxJx
Neo-Nazis Seek Bitcoin Donations as They Prepare to Return to Trump’s America
The rightwing group seeks the creation of a white ethnostate.
A notorious neo-Nazi group appears to be building up its membership in the U.S., and it’s using cryptocurrency as a way to crowdfund its growth, The Guardian has reported. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3EWfHFK
Trump’s New Deputy F.B.I. Director Has It Out for the ‘Commie Libs’
When a New York jury found Donald Trump guilty on 34 felony counts last year, the conservative podcaster Dan Bongino made a veiled threat on social media. “The irony about this for the scumbag commie libs, is that the cold civil war they’re pushing for will end really badly for them,” he wrote. Liberals, said Bongino, had been playing at revolution, and would now get a taste of the real thing. “They’re not ready for what comes next.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3XgPY0S
Target put DEI on the chopping block. Then fewer customers showed up
Target locations across the U.S. saw a noticeable dip in visits the week following the announcement - Quartz https://bit.ly/4hUH0i6
21 federal employees just resigned "in protest" over DOGE's efforts
Twenty-one United States Digital Service technology staffers just resigned today in what is being seen as a mass protest resignation against the efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), according to a federal government employee with knowledge of the resignations. - CNN [https://cnn.it/41uoRls]
A Man Who Actually Stands Up to Trump
Zelensky’s very presence reprimands everyone who surrendered to Trump. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4kg5ofB
US joins Russia to vote against UN resolution condemning Russia’s war against Ukraine
The United States joined Russia to vote against a UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s war against Ukraine Monday in a stunning shift from years of US policy. - CNN https://cnn.it/3QylkfK
America’s Most Shameful Vote Ever at the U.N.
On Monday, for the third anniversary of Russia’s brutal lunge toward Kyiv, the Ukrainian government put forward a resolution in the General Assembly demanding Russia’s withdrawal of its forces and accountability for its war crimes as the basis of a “comprehensive, lasting and just peace.” Ninety-three countries supported the resolution; 65 abstained, including China. Among the 18 who opposed it were Russia, North Korea, Nicaragua, Belarus, Equatorial Guinea and, vomitously, Israel and the United States. - Bret Stephens, NYT https://nyti.ms/4gXOf7B
What Trump is really trying to do
In every part of the government that involves the use of force — the military, the investigation and prosecution of crimes, the authority to arrest, the capacity to hold individuals in jail — Trump is putting into power people who are more loyal to him than they are to the United States.
He has purged (or is in the process of purging) at the highest levels of the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the Inspectors General, and the FBI, anyone who is not personally loyal to him.
Trump is rapidly gaining a personal monopoly on the use of force. This is his most fundamental goal. This is the essence of tyranny. - Reich https://bit.ly/41wRheQ
3 Years After Russia’s Invasion, Hundreds Gather To Honor Ukraine — And Decry Lies About War
Ukrainian Americans prayed for war victims and peace while calling out recent lies spread by President Donald Trump. “The world must stand with Ukraine and tell the truth,” Cardinal Blase Cupich said. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/4hUg6H5
Days After DOGE Lands at the Agency, the FAA Says It’s Testing Starlink Equipment in Its Systems
It's yet another sign that Elon Musk is at the center of the new Trump government. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4gWzhim
Musk’s Starlink gets FAA contract, raising new conflict of interest concerns
The Federal Aviation Administration has agreed to use SpaceX’s Starlink internet system to upgrade the information technology networks it uses to manage US airspace, raising new concerns about conflicts of interest for CEO Elon Musk in one of his other roles, that of recommending funding cuts at federal agencies, including the FAA. - CNN https://cnn.it/4kcf0Ir
Consumer confidence plunges most in nearly 4 years as inflation fears escalate on Trump tariff threats
Consumer confidence declined sharply in February, notching its biggest monthly decline in nearly four years as uncertainty related to Trump's trade policy also lifted inflation expectations, according to new data released Tuesday morning. - Yahoo News https://yhoo.it/3F7Nony
Chicago South Side church hangs flag upside in protest of Trump administration
In the wake of what it calls dangerous policies from the Trump administration, a sometimes controversial pastor on the South Side is taking a stand. On Monday, he raised the American flag upside down as a symbolic protest for what he calls a "country in distress." His action was met with support and some protest. A congregation takes action in the face of turmoil. Parishioners of Saint Sabina Church in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood spent the morning outlining what is described as the chaos that has unfolded since President Trump took office. - CBS News https://cbsn.ws/3QAkT4E (SOU’ SIDE, JACK! ✊🏽)
Judge: US gov’t violated privacy law by disclosing personal data to DOGE
A federal judge today blocked DOGE from accessing personal data held by the US Department of Education and Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Today's ruling follows one on Friday in a different court that blocked DOGE's access to Department of Treasury information. The American Federation of Teachers and other "plaintiffs have shown that Education and OPM likely violated the Privacy Act by disclosing their personal information to DOGE affiliates without their consent," said the order issued today by US District Judge Deborah Boardman in the District of Maryland. "This continuing, unauthorized disclosure of the plaintiffs' sensitive personal information to DOGE affiliates is irreparable harm that money damages cannot rectify," she wrote. - Ars https://bit.ly/4bfHvke
Elon Musk's inability to listen to others is torching almost everything he touches
He has done so much harm in recent weeks, though, ranging from violent cuts on science research to, in a deeply Orwellian move, preparing to feed massive amounts of private information into unreliable generative AI for the purposes of making employment decisions that I no longer find him remotely reasonable. And I know that I am far from alone. - Gary Marcus https://bit.ly/4hUr0gf
Tesla Shares Fall 8% as Post-Election Surge Dissipates
The electric-car maker’s stock has had a bumpy ride since the victory of President Trump, who has given Tesla’s chief, Elon Musk, a role in Washington. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4gXOf7B
The House Wants to Pass Trump’s Agenda in One Big Bill. Here’s What’s in It.
Last week, President Trump lauded a House budget blueprint that would enable Congress to pass much of his legislative agenda in what he called “ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL.” That budget, which passed the House on Tuesday and will head to the Senate for approval, lays out targets for legislation that would extend tax cuts and increase the federal deficit. It would also almost certainly make major cuts to programs that serve the poor. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3QzXG2t
House Republicans advance plan for Trump's legislative agenda in dramatic turnaround
The House voted 217-215 to advance the GOP plan for President Donald Trump's legislative agenda Tuesday, after an all-day whip effort convinced a few Republican holdouts to come on board in a dramatic last-minute turnaround. - USA Today https://bit.ly/43d5MFL
‘I felt nothing but disgust’: Tesla owners vent their anger at Elon Musk
The tycoon’s links with Donald Trump and Germany’s far-right AfD have slammed the brakes on sales and put the car’s owners in a spin. On Tuesday, data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association showed sales of new Tesla cars almost halved in Europe last month. - The Guardian https://bit.ly/43diu7n
As G.O.P. Eyes Medicaid Cuts, States Could be Left With Vast Shortfalls
Cutting Medicaid spending, which is expected to be central to fulfilling the budget plan that House Republicans adopted Tuesday night, could result in millions of Americans across the country losing health coverage unless states decide to play a bigger role in its funding. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3D9hczK
Elon Musk’s business empire is built on $38 billion in government funding
Elon Musk and his cost-cutting U.S. DOGE Service team have been on a mission to trim government largesse. Yet Musk is one of the greatest beneficiaries of the taxpayers’ coffers. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3EVgG9f (“Parasite Class”)
Elon Musk Suggests He Alone Decides What Gets Funded in the Government
The billionaire oligarch accidentally admitted it's all up to his whims during a cabinet meeting. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3XmFddo
As DOGE Attacks Social Security, New Report Shows Elon Is One of the Government’s Biggest Beneficiaries
A new report shows that tech billionaire Elon Musk’s companies have sucked at least $38 billion out of the federal government’s coffers. The report, published by the Washington Post, makes the case that Musk’s corporate empire would not exist were it not for a flood of taxpayer money from the very government that the billionaire is currently attempting to dismantle. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4km0XjM
The Disturbing Question at the Heart of the Trump-Zelensky Drama
The drama going on between President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine raises one of the most disturbing questions I’ve ever had to ask about my own country: Are we being led by a dupe for Vladimir Putin — by someone ready to swallow whole the Russian president’s warped view of who started the war in Ukraine and how it must end? Or are we being led by a Mafia godfather, looking to carve up territory with Russia the way the heads of crime families operate? “I’ll take Greenland, and you can take Crimea. I’ll take Panama, and you can have the oil in the Arctic. And we’ll split the rare earths of Ukraine. It’s only fair.”
Either way, my fellow Americans and our friends abroad, for the next four years at least, the America you knew is over. The bedrock values, allies and truths America could always be counted upon to defend are now all in doubt — or for sale. Trump is not just thinking out of the box. He is thinking without a box, without any fidelity to truth or norms that animated America in the past. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4hURVIB
Trump Attacks Apple for Maintaining DEI Policies
President Trump is attacking Apple today over its stance on DEI policies that the administration has targeted aggressively since entering office. The company’s shareholders on Tuesday rejected an outside proposal to end its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies after Apple asked investors to vote down the idea. Apple said it does not have hiring quotas for specific demographics but may adjust its policies. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/41KgmmJ
Trump wants Apple to ‘GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS’
President Trump has calmly suggested that Apple should consider reevaluating its policies around diversity, equity, and inclusion, while making the case that meritocracy could yield better results and reduce workplace division. Wait, scratch that, President Trump has blasted Apple on social media in an all-caps message, demanding that “APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM.” - 9to5 Mac https://bit.ly/4bgZRS5
Measles Outbreak in Texas Turns Deadly as Parents Scramble for Shots
124 cases and 18 hospitalizations from measles have been reported in Texas and New Mexico, though the true tally is likely higher. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4ikrdJ9
Did Russia Invade Ukraine? Is Putin a Dictator? We Asked Every Republican Member of Congress
Two simple questions, few straight anshttps://bit.ly/3QHacNuwers. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3QHacNu
Tax Season Just Got More Confusing
The IRS was starting to modernize—then the Trump administration intervened. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3Xh7t1i
Chief Justice Allows U.S. to Continue Freeze on Foreign Aid Payments
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Wednesday night handed the Trump administration a victory for now in saying that the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department did not need to immediately pay for more than $1.5 billion in already completed aid work. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3D6T3Kf
Justice Dept. Nominees Suggest Some Court Orders Can Be Ignored
“There is no hard and fast rule about whether, in every instance a public official is bound by a court decision,” he said Wednesday. “There are some instances in which he or she may be lawfully bound and some instances where he or she may not be lawfully bound.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Xh7S3O
Agriculture Department Looks to Import Eggs as Prices Soar
As the price of eggs reaches record highs, the federal government is looking into importing more eggs from other countries and increasing funding for efforts to combat the spread of avian flu, the Agriculture Department said on Wednesday. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41zaoVl
Jobless claims spike, in worrisome sign for the US labor market
CNN — First-time applications for unemployment benefits rose much more than expected last week, a likely indication of some “noisy” data, but also a potential worrisome hint that cracks may be forming in America’s long-solid labor market. https://cnn.it/41g4NC9
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON - Letters from an American - February 27, 2025
An NBC News poll in September 2024 showed that only 4% of voters liked what was in Project 2025. It was so unpopular that Trump called parts of it “ridiculous and abysmal” and denied all knowledge of it.
But the policies coming out of the Trump White House are closely aligned with Project 2025 and, if anything, appear to be less popular now than they were last September. Under claims of ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been slashing through government programs that are popular with Republican voters like farmers, as well as with Democratic voters. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/41g0973
Trump threatens to double tariffs on China and says punishing Mexico and Canada tariffs will go into effect March 4
Mexico, China and Canada are America’s top three trading partners. Simultaneous tariffs on all three nations could lead to soaring prices for American consumers, especially at a time when inflation is already heating up. - CNN https://cnn.it/3EZ4iow
Trump says more tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico are coming soon
The president’s tariffs would increase costs for the many businesses that import goods from those nations, which are the U.S.’s closest trade partners. The U.S. imported almost $506 billion worth of goods from Mexico, $439 billion from China, and $413 billion from Canada in 2024, according to trade data.
Most, if not all, U.S. industries will be impacted by the tariffs, from retailers to restaurants to the automotive industry. The National Restaurant Association has warned that tariffs on Mexico and Canada could lead to higher menu prices, putting the burden on consumers, while cars could become more expensive by thousands of dollars. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3QB7yc6
Person Detained By ICE And ATF Agents During School Dropoff, Charter School Leaders Say
GAGE PARK — Principals at a charter school campus on Chicago’s Southwest Side told families Wednesday that an adult who was in a vehicle with two students was detained by federal immigration enforcement officials during school dropoff. - Block Club https://bit.ly/43hHGts
Thousands in Midwestern GOP Districts Attend Sanders' First Stops on Tour to Fight Oligarchy
After addressing more than 3,400 Nebraska residents in Omaha Friday evening, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday made his second stop on his National Tour to Fight Oligarchy—telling Iowa City, Iowa residents that "Trumpism will not be defeated by politicians inside the D.C. Beltway."
"For better or worse, that is not going to happen," said the Vermont Independent senator, whose broadly popular policy proposals have long been dismissed by Democratic leaders as unrealistic and radical while President Donald Trump has increasingly captured the attention of the working class Americans who would benefit most from Sanders' ideas. - Common Dream https://bit.ly/4gZ3zB1
Opinion | Trump’s Decision to Fire the JAG Generals Gives the Game Away
There is nothing normal or acceptable about Donald Trump’s decision to fire a slew of senior military leaders in the Pentagon. It’s a direct attack on the integrity of the American military. - French, NYT https://nyti.ms/3EVuNLI
Under DOGE, America’s VA Finds New Government ‘Waste’ Target: Chemotherapy for Vets
A new report shows that, as part of the Trump administration’s DOGE mission, the Department of Veteran Affairs tried to cancel contracts that would have supported chemotherapy and other cancer treatment for veterans. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3XlhVVe
6 big companies ditching DEI — and 6 that are sticking with it
From Target to Disney, companies are rolling back their diversity programs. But Apple, Costco, and others are holding firm. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3QI6iEl
Exclusive: US intel shows Russia and China are attempting to recruit disgruntled federal employees, sources say
Foreign adversaries including Russia and China have recently directed their intelligence services to ramp up recruiting of US federal employees working in national security, targeting those who have been fired or feel they could be soon, according to four people familiar with recent US intelligence on the issue and a document reviewed by CNN. -CNN https://cnn.it/4kdplnD
America's economy is flashing warning signs of a slowdown
The U.S. economy is beginning to show signs of a slowdown — and the situation is further complicated by President Trump’s back-to-back tariffs, which are increasing pressure on an already strained economy burdened by high inflation and interest rates. On Thursday, three key economic reports were released, all pointing to a softening economic landscape, reinforcing concerns that more challenging times are ahead. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3ETlY4P
At Least Now We Know the Truth
At least the Oval Office meeting held by President Donald Trump and Vice President J. D. Vance with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was held in front of the cameras. False friendliness in public by Trump and Vance, followed by behind-the-scenes treachery, would have been much more dangerous to the Ukrainian cause.
Instead, Trump and Vance have revealed to Americans and to America’s allies their alignment with Russia, and their animosity toward Ukraine in general and its president in particular. The truth is ugly, but it’s necessary to face it. - Atlantic Gift link: https://bit.ly/3Xlipuw
The Texas Measles Outbreak Is Even Scarier Than It Looks
During Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation hearings for health secretary, Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, practically begged him to acknowledge, however grudgingly, that vaccines don’t cause autism. It was the easiest layup ever, but Kennedy just wouldn’t go there. Maybe not so surprising, given that he had previously told a podcaster that he considers it his duty to tell random strangers that they shouldn’t vaccinate their babies. Cassidy, a medical doctor by training, voted to confirm him anyway. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Fd1vbe
Why Aren’t We in the Streets?
Last Friday night, minutes after President Donald Trump announced the firing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and a purge of the military’s top lawyers, I received an e-mail from my cousin in Los Angeles. “Why are we not in the streets?” she wrote. “The Germans even marched against Musk. The French would have barricaded every government building.” All week long I’ve been thinking of that message, composed in the heat of the moment after an unprecedented event that already seems forgotten amid all the subsequent unprecedented events. - New Yorker https://bit.ly/4bu0DeI
10 more reasons for modest optimism
Since I offered you 10 reasons for modest optimism last week, discontent with the Trump-Musk regime has surged even further. America appears to be waking up. Here’s the latest evidence — 10 more reasons for modest optimism. - Reich https://bit.ly/4igpm8n
Letters from an American - February 28, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
This afternoon, former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) posted: “Generations of American patriots, from our revolution onward, have fought for the principles Zelenskyy is risking his life to defend. But today, Donald Trump and JD Vance attacked Zelenskyy and pressured him to surrender the freedom of his people to the KGB war criminal who invaded Ukraine. History will remember this day—when an American President and Vice President abandoned all we stand for.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/41niWNL
Today’s disgusting scene
If you were shocked and disgusted by the scene in the Oval Office today, with Trump and Vance belittling and berating President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, you’re not alone. Fourteen Democratic governors have released a joint statement condemning what occurred:
“Donald Trump and JD Vance used the sacred Oval Office to berate President Zelensky for not trusting Vladimir Putin’s word. Americans must protect our strong democratic values on the world stage instead of undermining President Zelensky’s work to fight for his nation and the freedom of his people after being invaded by Russia.”
They speak for much of America. - Reich https://bit.ly/3EYyEYt
This Never Happened With an American President Before
What happened in the Oval Office on Friday — the obviously planned ambush of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine by President Trump and Vice President JD Vance — was something that had never happened in the nearly 250-year history of this country: In a major war in Europe, our president clearly sided with the aggressor, the dictator and the invader against the democrat, the freedom fighter and the invaded. - Friedman, NYT https://nyti.ms/3XiNbEj
A Day of American Infamy
Roosevelt and Reagan must be spinning in their graves, as are Churchill and Thatcher. It’s up to the rest of us to reclaim America’s honor from the gangsters who besmirched it in the White House. - Stephens, NYT https://nyti.ms/3QGBILi
It Was an Ambush
Leave aside, if only for a moment, the utter boorishness with which President Donald Trump and Vice President J. D. Vance treated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House today. Also leave aside the spectacle of American leaders publicly pummeling a friend as if he were an enemy. All of the ghastliness inflicted on Zelensky today should not obscure the geopolitical reality of what just happened: The president of the United States ambushed a loyal ally, presumably so that he can soon make a deal with the dictator of Russia to sell out a European nation fighting for its very existence. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4kmIkvS
How Elon Musk Executed His Takeover of the Federal Bureaucracy
What started as musings at a dinner party evolved into a radical takeover of the federal bureaucracy. It was driven with a frenetic focus by Mr. Musk, who channeled his libertarian impulses and resentment of regulatory oversight of his vast business holdings into a singular position of influence.
Without ceding control of his companies, the richest man in the world has embedded his engineers and aides inside the government’s critical digital infrastructure. Already, his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has inserted itself into more than 20 agencies, The New York Times has found. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43i9iyP
The DOGE Takeover Is Worse Than You Think
If you’ve felt overwhelmed by all the DOGE news, you’re not alone. You’d need too much cork board and yarn to keep track of which agencies it has occupied by now, much less what it’s doing there. Here’s a simple rubric, though, to help contextualize the DOGE updates you do have time and energy to process: It’s worse than you think. - Wired https://bit.ly/3F0Vb6J
Andrew Tate, Accused of Sex Trafficking, Is Trump’s Kind of Guy
On Thursday the influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate, until recently stuck in Romania amid an investigation into allegations including human trafficking and money laundering, arrived in Florida, apparently thanks to the good offices of Donald Trump’s administration.
The Tate brothers, British American dual citizens, have been accused of luring women to Romania and then forcing them to work as pornographic webcam performers. They are also being investigated for rape and human trafficking in Britain and were to be extradited there when the Romanian cases concluded. - Goldberg, NYT https://nyti.ms/3QEmTsq
The anti-Trump resistance begins to wake in earnest
After an initial period of stunned confusion, protesters are packing meetings, states are suing, and Democrats are preparing for a budget showdown. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3DgC882
The Trump Administration Said These Aid Programs Saved Lives. It Canceled Them Anyway.
The axing of some 10,000 programs has consigned untold numbers of children and refugees to death, officials say. Documents and interviews reveal that the State Department appears to have made the cuts without the careful review it described in court. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3DbZwDG
Pentagon Sending Combat Forces to the Border in Line With Trump Directive
The Pentagon is sending about 3,000 additional troops to the southwestern border, rushing to comply with President Trump’s order to increase the military’s role in stemming the flow of migrants into the United States. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3DeElRk
The Stock Market Was One of Trump’s Favorite Talking Points. Not Lately.
Mr. Trump has been relatively muted about stocks, even after the S&P 500 hit a record on Feb. 19. The S&P 500 has since fallen almost every day, and the index is now lower than it was when Mr. Trump took office on Jan. 20. Other indexes, including those more closely tied to the ebb and flow of the economy, have also fallen. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bnS1Gd
Musk and Republican Lawmakers Pressure Judges with Impeachment Threats
Democrats say the calls to remove judges who block Trump administration initiatives amount to intimidation. Some senior Republicans are also skeptical of the effort. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41C8qDD
Judge rules head of watchdog agency must keep his job; says Trump's bid to oust him was unlawful
The head of a federal watchdog agency must remain in his job, a judge in Washington ruled on Saturday, saying President Donald Trump's bid to remove the special counsel was unlawful. - Japan Today https://bit.ly/4hYYA4N?
The Putinization of America
e are barely a month into the second presidential term of Donald Trump and he has made his top priorities clear: the destruction of America’s government and influence and the preservation of Russia’s. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4kpofVA
The shame of it
After Trump and Vance’s disgraceful treatment of President Zelensky on Friday, some of you might feel ashamed of America. You might even feel ashamed to be an American.
The proper locus of shame is Trump and Vance. I’m ashamed that they, along with Elon Musk, are now leading our nation. I’m also ashamed that their Republican lackeys in Congress are enabling and encouraging them. I’m ashamed that Democrats in Congress are so supine. - Reich https://bit.ly/41BU2vm
Letters from an American - March 1, 2025 - HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
John Simpson of the BBC noted recently that “there are years when the world goes through some fundamental, convulsive change.” Seven weeks in, he suggested, 2025 is on track to be one of them: “a time when the basic assumptions about the way our world works are fed into the shredder.” - Cox Richardson and Anthony Blinken https://bit.ly/4h9bGuO
It Was an Ambush
Leave aside, if only for a moment, the utter boorishness with which President Donald Trump and Vice President J. D. Vance treated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House today. Also leave aside the spectacle of American leaders publicly pummeling a friend as if he were an enemy. All of the ghastliness inflicted on Zelensky today should not obscure the geopolitical reality of what just happened: The president of the United States ambushed a loyal ally, presumably so that he can soon make a deal with the dictator of Russia to sell out a European nation fighting for its very existence. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/41FR2hu
Brooks and Capehart on the implications of Trump’s altercation with Zelenskyy
New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart join Amna Nawaz to discuss the week in politics, including President Trump's public spat with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, if Europe can depend on the U.S. and new restrictions on the White House press corps. - PBS https://to.pbs.org/4h9ARh1
Chicagoans Rally For Ukraine After Trump, Zelensky ‘Fiasco’ At White House
RIVER NORTH —Thousands gathered at Water Tower Place Sunday in support of Ukraine, two days after a combative meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/4ijTNun
RFK Jr., America’s Leading Advocate for Getting Measles
“It’s not unusual.” That’s how Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist and secretary of Health and Human Services, described an ongoing measles outbreak in and around Texas that has already infected more than 100 people and killed one child. This incident is, in fact, unusual. Until this week, someone hadn’t died of measles in this country since 2015, and endemic spread of the virus was declared eliminated in the United States 25 years ago. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3FeW9w8
Trump Tests the Courts - An ambitious plan to expand the power of the presidency is just getting started.
Nothing could have prepared Americans for what the first 50-ish days of the second Trump administration have been like. Even some Cabinet members and Republican members of Congress seem caught off guard. But if you took time to look closely at Project 2025, the effort from the conservative Heritage Foundation to prepare for a new Republican administration, you’re probably a little less shocked than other people. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3EXp5ZM
In Trump’s Washington, a Moscow-Like Chill Takes Hold
A new administration’s efforts to pressure the news media, punish political opponents and tame the nation’s tycoons evoke the early days of President Vladimir V. Putin’s reign in Russia. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41k0s0F
Crowds protest near Vermont ski resort where JD Vance planned vacation with family
WAITSFIELD, Vt. (AP) — Crowds protesting Vice President JD Vance the day after an Oval Office blowout over Ukraine lined roadways Saturday near a Vermont ski resort where he planned a weekend vacation with his family.
Many of the hundreds of demonstrators held signs in support of Ukraine, while other anti-war protesters waved Palestinian flags or signs in support of immigrant rights. Protesters showed up at several locations in the area, including both sides of Route 100 in Waitsfield. - AP https://bit.ly/3DfMuF5
Trump’s Defense Secretary Hegseth Orders Cyber Command to ‘Stand Down’ on All Russia Operations
The policy shift represents a complete 180-degree turn from America’s posture over the past decade, which has consistently considered Russia one of the top cybersecurity threats. Credible reporting and government investigations have shown that Russia has hacked into U.S. systems countless times. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3Xqx8og
Congress Freaks Out Over Trump Administration’s Decision to Halt Cyber Operations Against Russia
Last week, The Record reported that Donald Trump’s new Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, had made the abrupt decision to pause all of the U.S. Cyber Command’s offensive cyber operations against Russia. A sudden departure from what has long been the U.S.’s posture towards its geopolitical foe, the decision has inspired a wave of backlash from lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle, many of whom don’t seem to know what to make of the decision. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3QK6T8k
Trump’s Tariffs (Starting Tomorrow) Could Raise Car Prices by as Much as $12,000
As many now understand, President Trump’s tariff plan serves as little more than a tax on consumers, even though the president’s aim is to punish Canada and Mexico, apparently over immigration and drug trafficking. With 25% tariffs on imports from the countries set to go into effect on Tuesday, new research shines light on just what it will mean for consumers trying to buy a new car: Prices on popular vehicles like crossover utility vehicles could rise by at least $4,000 or three times that amount for an electric vehicle. So much for ending inflation. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4h5j2Q6
WARNING: Elon Musk is crippling the future of the United States
America will never be the same. Science will take a huge hit; academic stars will leave; university reputations will crumble, and homegrown talent will be even harder to find.
Asia and Europe will profit. - Gary Marcus Substack https://bit.ly/3F3hVmI
Elon Musk Calls Social Security a Ponzi Scheme as He Destroys the U.S. Government
Elon Musk called Social Security a “Ponzi Scheme” in a discussion with podcaster Joe Rogan that was released online Friday. And it’s just the latest rhetorical assault by a member of the Trump regime on America’s social safety net as Musk continues to lay off thousands of federal workers and illegally stop payments at several government agencies. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/41inaGy
DOGE Claims Credit for Killing Contracts That Were Already Dead
Elon Musk’s group claimed credit for canceling procurement agreements that had been completed years earlier, the latest in a string of public errors on its site. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4i3tVTI
Trump Is Doing Real Damage to America
President Trump is doing damage to America that could take a generation or more to repair. The next election cannot fix what Trump is breaking. Neither can the one after that. - David French, NYT https://nyti.ms/3F4VsWs
Dow drops nearly 650 points on worries that Trump's latest tariffs will slow the economy more
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks tumbled Monday and wiped out even more of their gains since President Donald Trump ’s election in November, after he said that tariffs announced earlier on Canada and Mexico would take effect within hours. - MSN https://bit.ly/41B78sF
The Trump Administration Said These Aid Programs Saved Lives. It Canceled Them Anyway.
The axing of some 10,000 programs has consigned untold numbers of children and refugees to death, officials say. Documents and interviews reveal that the State Department appears to have made the cuts without the careful review it described in court. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3DbZwDG
Top New York City F.B.I. Agent Forced Out After Clash With Justice Dept.
James E. Dennehy had told agents to “dig in” in the face of the Trump administration’s culling of officials who investigated the Jan. 6 attack. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4in2QL6
Firing the ‘Conscience’ of the Military
Getting rid of the military’s top lawyers is not exactly a sign that the Trump administration wants to follow the law. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/43s99ZL
J. D. Vance Stopped Talking About Eggs
Last year, the vice president made prices a central theme of the GOP election campaign. Now that eggs cost more than ever, he’s gone quiet. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4bICoJX (Careful, he might start eating his neighbors’ pets.)
Senate confirms McMahon as Education secretary in party-line vote
She’s been tasked by Trump to ‘do a great job and put yourself out of a job’. The Senate voted 51-45 on Monday to confirm Linda McMahon as Education secretary to lead a department that President Donald Trump has instructed her to dismantle and eventually close. - Roll Call https://bit.ly/4koMy6g
U.S. Suspends All Military Aid to Ukraine, Trump Official Says
President Trump on Monday temporarily suspended the delivery of all U.S. military aid to Ukraine, senior administration and military officials said, just days after Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine had an explosive confrontation at the White House. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3DkIq6D
Trump's new tariffs take effect, escalating trade war
The tariffs include 25% duties on all Mexican goods and most Canadian goods, and 20% on goods imported from China. - Quartz https://bit.ly/41GdHtV
Trump enacts sweeping tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, opening door to painful trade war | CNN Business
CNN — President Donald Trump’s blanket 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada took effect on Tuesday, an extraordinary action aimed at bringing America’s top trading partners to heel. But it threatens to weaken the North American economy, including that of the United States, at a time of significant stress for inflation-weary consumers. - CNN https://cnn.it/41r6WuN
Struggling With Errors, DOGE Deletes Billions More From List of Savings
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has deleted hundreds more claims from its mistake-plagued “wall of receipts,” erasing $4 billion in additional savings that the group said it had made for U.S. taxpayers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43m5o84
Trump Suspends Military Aid to Ukraine After Oval Office Blowup
The directive, which takes effect immediately, affects more than $1 billion in arms and ammunition in the pipelines and on order. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3F6w1Us
Stocks Post Biggest Loss of the Year on Trump’s Tariff Plans
Stocks fell sharply on Monday afternoon after President Trump affirmed tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, dashing investors’ hopes of a last-minute reprieve and intensifying concern that the sweeping tariffs could hit corporate profits and fuel inflation. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ksxYui
Warren Buffett Rebukes Trump’s Tariff Plan in CBS Interview: ‘Act of War’
Warren Buffett, the famed investor who runs the sprawling conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, described tariffs as “an act of war” in an interview with CBS that aired on Sunday. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3D7RbB0
Warren Buffett on Trump tariffs: 'The Tooth Fairy doesn't pay 'em!'
Legendary investor Warren Buffett criticized planned U.S. tariffs on international trade partners, noting that the duties may hurt consumers. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3XrI4SG
Walmart CEO says sky-high food prices are causing 'frustration and pain.' Tariffs could hurt more
Rising costs and looming Trump tariffs are putting pressure on consumers and retailers alike. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4i25Exz
ICE Says It Will Reveal Who Was Arrested In Chicago ‘As Soon As Possible’ — Which Might Be Never
More than a month after much-publicized sweeps in Chicago, ICE still won’t say who they rounded up, what they’ve been arrested for or where they are. - Chicago Block Club https://bit.ly/4h7lcib
Dow Falls as Tariff Fears Ripple Through Economy
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell Tuesday after President Trump imposed tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada. The Dow declined about 0.9%. The S&P 500 slipped 0.6%, steepening its 2025 losses. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite erased its earlier drop to add 0.2% by midafternoon trading.
The declines were widespread, with economically sensitive corners of the market hit especially hard. Recent data has hinted at weakness: Consumer spending in January had its largest monthly drop in four years, while the Conference Board’s consumer-confidence index in February notched its biggest monthly decline since 2021. - MSN https://bit.ly/3XrJxbE
Trump’s AG Claims She Will Release More Epstein Docs, but They May Be Redacted for National Security
The search for radical "transparency" isn't going so well inside the new Trump White House. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/41mdKdf
RFK Jr sparks alarm after backing vitamins to treat measles amid outbreak
Health experts wary as US health secretary fails to endorse effective vaccines and instead calls them a ‘personal choice’ - Guardian https://bit.ly/3F6EiHQ
Why This Measles Outbreak Is Different
Measles is arguably the most contagious infectious disease that scientists know about. Researchers have estimated that, in a population where there’s zero immunity to measles, one infected person is going to infect roughly 12 to 18 other people. That is extremely high. In most cases, it is a respiratory infection that’s going to cause fever, cough, and rash, but it can also restrict breathing, cause complications such as pneumonia, and be deadly. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4hVgLIt
Letters from an American - March 3, 2025
As seemed evident even at the time, the ambush of Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office on Friday was a setup to provide justification for cutting off congressionally approved aid to Ukraine as it tries to fight off Russia’s invasion. That “impoundment” of funds Congress has determined should go to Ukraine is illegal under the terms of the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, and it is unconstitutional because the Constitution gives to Congress, not to the president, the power to set government spending and to make laws. The president’s job is to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” - Heather Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4i3kMKN
American Farmers Brace for Harm From Retaliatory Tariffs
Trade wars during President Trump’s first term slashed billions of dollars in U.S. agricultural exports. Farmers and trade groups expect an even bigger hit this time. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4hfgpep
Judge Rules Trump Can’t Fire Head of Federal Watchdog Agency Without Cause
A federal judge said that the president’s efforts to remove Hampton Dellinger, who leads the Office of Special Counsel, were unlawful. The agency protects whistle-blowers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43GIEQr
Judge Says Trump Administration Ordering Mass Firings Was Unlawful
A federal court ruled that the government’s human resources office unlawfully exceeded its authority by ordering agencies to fire thousands of probationary federal workers earlier this month. Judge William Alsup’s ruling Thursday is a blow to the Trump administration’s attempt to slash the federal workforce as part of an effort to transform the executive branch in President Donald Trump’s image. It’s one of the first rulings to describe Trump’s attempts to grind down the federal workforce as illegal. - Democracy Docket https://bit.ly/3F6H28h
Federal Judges Are Ordering Trump to Slow Down. Will He Listen?
Justice Department lawyers, confronting an onslaught of legal challenges, have made a case in court that expansive executive power inherent in the Constitution buttresses the lawfulness of President Trump’s aggressive unilateral actions.
Outside the courtroom, however, legal niceties have little to do with the strategies pursued by White House officials and their allies as they attack individual judges, question the legitimacy of the courts — and undermine the separation of powers that has been at the core of American governance since the nation’s beginning. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41M6F63
How DOGE’s Cuts to the IRS Threaten to Cost More Than DOGE Will Ever Save
The Trump administration claims gutting federal agencies will save money, but cutting the IRS means the government collects less taxes. “If you’re interested in the deficit and curbing it, why would you cut back on the revenue side?” one expert asks. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4brkHya
CIA director says US has paused intelligence support to Ukraine
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Wednesday that the US has paused intelligence support and weapons shipments to Ukraine following the clash in the Oval Office between President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump last Friday. - CNN https://cnn.it/41o4iG5
Supreme Court rejects Trump’s request to keep billions in foreign aid frozen
A divided Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration’s request to keep billions of dollars in foreign aid approved by Congress frozen. - CNN https://cnn.it/43uy7Y6
The biggest loser of Trump's trade war is the American consumer
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said tariffs will only “increase the economic pain” being felt by Americans, warning that some companies it represents could be forced out of business. The head of New York’s Federal Reserve Bank said tariffs are . (sic) “Where tariffs are very predictable is that it’s going to hurt consumers,” said Jack Zhang, a political science professor who runs the University of Kansas’ Trade War Lab. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4iswLSf
New Orleans Boos a Cybertruck Off a Mardi Gras Parade, Breaks One of Its Windows
People are showing their displeasure at Elon Musk by destroying Teslas and Tesla infrastructure across the country. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3D6SSPb
Cod liver oil embraced amid Texas measles outbreak; doctors fight misinfo
While public health officials would like to see a resounding endorsement of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine as the best way to protect children and vulnerable community members from further spread of the extremely infectious virus, Kennedy instead penned an Op-Ed for Fox News sprinkled with anti-vaccine talking points. - Ars https://bit.ly/4bs1jRM
Elon Musk’s $1 Spending Limit Is Paralyzing Federal Agencies
The DOGE-mandated credit card freeze is delaying shipments of critical supplies, stalling travel, and stopping employees from doing their jobs. - Wired https://bit.ly/4i5502h
Fact-checking 26 suspect claims in Trump’s address to Congress
President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday was vintage Trump: long, rambling and chock-full of stretched facts and dubious figures. Many of these claims have been fact-checked repeatedly, yet the president persists in using them. Here, in the order in which he made them, are 26 statements by the president that were untrue, misleading or lacked context. - WaPo https://bit.ly/41yyvma
Starliner Astronauts Refuse to Play Into Trump, Musk’s Ploy to Politicize ‘Rescue’ Mission
Following statements by Donald Trump that falsely claimed the Starliner crew was abandoned by the previous administration, the two astronauts refrained from yes-anding their president and turning the botched mission into a political tool. - Gizmodo https://bit.l[] https://bit.ly/4i3S0tz y/4i3S0tz
TRUMP, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY
Trump tried to steal the 2020 election. He shows no sign that he would accept a loss in the future. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/43nOO7A
Trump’s Tariffs Whack Trump Voters - Opinion
Mr. Trump’s tariff spree is the triumph of ideology over, well, common sense. Let’s hope the President soon comes to his senses. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/41vcNiQ
Tariff War Risks Sinking World Into New Great Depression, International Chamber of Commerce Warns
The world economy could face a crash similar to the Great Depression of the 1930s unless the U.S. rows back on its plans to impose steep tariffs on imports, a senior official at the International Chamber of Commerce warned. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/4by9oEC
Why Bully The National Park Service?
In an email sent down the chain by a Department of Interior Regional Finance Officer and viewed by Defector, agency administrative officers were alerted that "the spending threshold for all purchase and travel cards" would be reset the following day, to a new maximum of one dollar. - Defector https://bit.ly/4iuthyj
Some DOGE Staffers Are Drawing Six-Figure Government Salaries
Engineers and executives at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency are drawing healthy taxpayer-funded salaries—sometimes from the very agencies they are cutting. - Wired https://bit.ly/4isGacw
Deluge of Trump tariffs seen hitting household budgets
Consumer items ranging from avocados and strawberries to electronics and gasoline look poised for price hikes in the wake of President Donald Trump's tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. - Japan Today https://bit.ly/3QN9tKN
Supreme Court Rejects Trump’s Bid to Freeze Foreign Aid
The move came after Chief Justice Roberts temporarily paused a trial judge’s order requiring the administration to release more than $1.5 billion. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3F570J3
Veterans Affairs Department Plans to Eliminate More Than 80,000 Workers
The cuts would be a major escalation of the downsizing that has already occurred at the department, which provides health care and many other services to veterans. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4icOeOH
Trump just made it harder to pretend Elon Musk isn't running DOGE
His administration has argued in court that the DOGE Administrator Amy Gleason runs the group. Trump said otherwise. - Quartz https://bit.ly/41vdEQA
Trump preparing to sign order to dismantle Education Department
White House officials have prepared an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin the process of dismantling the department, the sources said. Trump could sign the document as early as Thursday, but plans had not yet been finalized. - CNN https://cnn.it/4ipSBFS
Stagflation could hit the economy next. Here's what it is and why it matters
Stagflation may be set for its first real return to the U.S. in about 50 years, as recent economic numbers point to a slowing labor market and continued stickiness in inflation. President Donald Trump’s new tariffs won’t help. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4i7SEpY
US employers cut more jobs last month than any February since 2009
The Trump administration’s massive federal cuts and swelling feelings of economic uncertainty helped fuel a recession-level spike in layoff plans last month, new data showed Thursday. US-based employers last month announced plans to slash 172,017 jobs, a 103% increase from a year ago and the highest February total since 2009, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas’s latest monthly job cuts report released Thursday. - CNN https://cnn.it/4inJENc
America’s Richest Oligarch Wants to Privatize USPS and Amtrak
Elon Musk said Wednesday that he wants to privatize the U.S. Postal Service and Amtrak, according to reports from multiple news outlets. And as the most powerful oligarch in the U.S.—a man who’s been given the chance to unilaterally dismantle whatever he likes under the guise of a pseudo-government agency called DOGE—the billionaire may get his wish soon. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4h5haXy
Canadian Officials Cancel Starlink Contract, Propose 100% Tariffs on Teslas
President Donald Trump has unleashed economic warfare on two of America’s most closely aligned trading partners (and political allies): Mexico and Canada. On Tuesday, the Trump administration put into effect its long-threatened tariffs on consumer goods from both of those countries, with the President claiming that the tariffs were necessary to stem the tide of illegal immigrants flowing into the United States. In response, those countries have instituted many of their own retaliatory tariffs and economic punishments on American products, including some targeted at Trump’s political partner, DOGE douchebag Elon Musk. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4kleYy9
Trump delays tariffs on Mexico, and Lutnick says Canada will likely also get a delay
President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a nearly one-month tariff delay on all products from Mexico that are covered by the USMCA free trade treaty, a significant walkback of the administration’s signature economic plan that has rattled markets, businesses and consumers. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also said Thursday that Trump will likely announce later in the day a one-month delay on all Canadian tariffs. - CNN https://cnn.it/3F48yDp
Trump hits pause on Canada and Mexico tariffs — again
Trump freezes his 25% tariffs on Mexican imports for one month
Trump freezes his 25% tariffs on Mexican imports for one month
President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada won’t apply to goods that comply with an existing trade agreement, giving companies a temporary reprieve.
“I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement,” Trump said on social media, referring to the trade deal he negotiated during his first term in office. “I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Claudia Sheinbaum.” - Quartz https://bit.ly/4bAaHTd
Judge Blocks Trump’s Funding Freeze, Saying White House Put Itself ‘Above Congress’
“Here, the executive put itself above Congress,” he wrote. “It imposed a categorical mandate on the spending of congressionally appropriated and obligated funds without regard to Congress’s authority to control spending.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iqxLpG
Trump Team Tests Job Candidates by Asking Who Won the 2020 Election
Job seekers are asked their views on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and tried to overturn the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. Trump pardoned hundreds of people convicted of crimes linked to the assault, which killed at least seven people and injured 150 police officers. He has called the day’s events a peaceful protest. - Yahoo-Bloomberg https://yhoo.it/4iwhtvz
Senate Votes to Strip CFPB of Ability to Regulate Platforms Like X
A key federal watchdog is being stripped of its power to oversee potential fraud and abuse in online payment platforms just as Elon Musk’s site, X, attempts to become one. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4hgswrG
Trump complains U.S.-Japan alliance unequal
President Donald Trump said Japan is not required to protect the United States militarily and makes "a fortune" from it economically, as he fired off an impromptu broadside at a key ally. - Japan Today https://bit.ly/3DA0tWp
Tariffs by Whim Keep Allies Off Balance, but Do the Same to Markets
Indeed, it appears that Mr. Trump is having enormous fun turning tariffs on and off like tap water. But others are developing a case of Trump-induced whiplash, not least investors, who sent stock prices down again on Thursday amid the uncertainty over what Mr. Trump’s inconstancy means for the global economy. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3DdQXIC
Trump's trade war and Elon Musk's DOGE caused a 245% surge in layoff announcements
The Trump administration’s trade policies and approach to government downsizing fueled the highest number of announced layoffs since the Great Recession.
U.S.-based employers said they would lay off more than 172,000 people last month, according to a new report from executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray, & Christmas. That’s a 103% increase compared to a year ago and a 245% increase from a month earlier. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3Xx6qKy
Letters from an American - March 6, 2025 - HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
This morning, Ted Hesson and Kristina Cooke of Reuters reported that the Trump administration is preparing to deport the 240,000 Ukrainians who fled Russia’s attacks on Ukraine and have temporary legal status in the United States. Foreign affairs journalist Olga Nesterova reminded Americans that “these people had to be completely financially independent, pay tax, pay all fees (around $2K) and have an affidavit from an American person to even come here.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3DxEdMP
How much damage has been done so far?
While Trump is intentionally creating chaos on numerous fronts, at the core of his actions is a dangerous undermining of America’s fundamental tradition of an executive kept in check and balanced by Congress and the courts. We see this expressed in real-time as Trump willfully ignores legislation and funding authorizations from Congress — including longstanding legal protections designed to ensure the health, safety, and security of the American people. And as he razes government agencies wholesale and purges thousands of federal workers to install unqualified, unvetted “yes” men and women in their places. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/3Xz1QeO
White House Cancels $400 Million in Grants and Contracts to Columbia
The Trump administration announced on Friday that it had canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, an extraordinary step that it said was necessary because of what it described as the school’s failure to protect Jewish students from harassment. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3QTJxgA
Mitch McConnell and the President He Calls ‘Despicable’
An audience with the former Republican leader - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3XBQPJH
The Pentagon’s DEI Panic
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered a massive review of DOD computer archives in an attempt to “align” the department with President Donald Trump’s directive to eliminate anything on government systems that could be related to DEI. At the Defense Department, this seems to mean scrubbing away any posts or images on military servers that might highlight the contributions of minorities, including gay service members. So far, according to the Associated Press, some 26,000 images have been flagged for deletion, including a photo of the Enola Gay, because … well, gay. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/41Q4pM4
Here Are Some Images the Pentagon Thought Were Too ‘Woke’ for You to See
The DoD has purged 26,000 images from its public database as part of a “digital content refresh.” - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4idX3Yu
Hegseth Has All the Wrong Enemies
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s appointment today of his personal lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, as a Navy commander in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps reflects not just the norm-breaking approach that Hegseth is bringing to the job, but an odious philosophy of warfare. Like his new boss at the Pentagon, Parlatore has a pattern of providing support to soldiers accused of grave misconduct, even war crimes. He notably represented Eddie Gallagher, a Navy SEAL court-martialed on charges including the murder of a captured fighter (though he was found guilty only of one, lesser charge), along with a second SEAL accused of serious sexual offenses. Elevating a lawyer with this record does not bode well for the armed services Hegseth hopes to build. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3F6M44r
Social Security Workers Aren’t Allowed to Read This Story
New internet restrictions at the embattled SSA have cut off access to WIRED, along with other “general news” websites like The Washington Post and The New York Times. - Wired https://bit.ly/3FnJIOG
These Words Are Disappearing in the New Trump Administration
As President Trump seeks to purge the federal government of “woke” initiatives, agencies have flagged hundreds of words to limit or avoid, according to a compilation of government documents. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3DfOqh4
Trump's 'shock and awe' agenda leaves Virginia businesses scrambling
The Fed is trying to peer through an increasingly foggy economic landscape to determine if Trump administration policy changes are likely to lead to new inflation pressures and the need for continued tight monetary policy, or to slower growth that might allow for rate cuts, or to the no-win alleyway where growth weakens and inflation stays elevated. - Reuters https://reut.rs/41zVddj
“Terrible, Thoughtless, and Reckless”: Inside the Firings at Big Bend National Park
Tourists are flocking to the 1,252 square miles of rugged terrain, where visitor safety is a primary concern. DOGE just slashed five employees from the already understaffed park. - Texas Monthly https://bit.ly/3XCkYIO
DOGE Cuts Efficiency Programs in the Name of ‘Efficiency’
Per Wired, Musk’s chainsaw-style of cutting has effectively cost the General Services Administration (GSA) and United States Digital Service (USDS) about 200 technologists—including at least 90 at 18F, a digital services agency started during the Obama administration that has quietly helped update and improve systems throughout the government, who got let go via email on a Saturday morning. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3FciRoS
Amid West Texas measles outbreak, vaccine resistance hardens
The life-threatening outbreak in West Texas starkly illustrates the stakes of slipping immunization rates and the ascension of vaccine skeptics, including Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to the highest levels of the public health establishment. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3FcQJ53
DOGE Is Replacing Fired Workers With a Chatbot
Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency are attempting to enact what some experts have called the “largest job cut in American history“—but don’t worry, these geniuses have a solution to pick up the significant amount of slack caused by letting go of tens of thousands of domain experts and civil servants all at once: a chatbot. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/43vbeE1
Scientists raise concerns as U.S. stops sharing air quality data from embassies worldwide
The U.S. government will stop sharing air quality data gathered from its embassies and consulates, worrying local scientists and experts who say the effort was vital to monitor global air quality and improve public health. - Japan Today https://bit.ly/3FkCEmb
‘You Can’t Pin Him Down’: Trump’s Contradictions Are His Ultimate Cover
President Trump’s shifting positions and outright lies have presented the American public with dueling narratives at every turn. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3FgGJrj
How Foreign Aid Cuts Are Setting the Stage for Disease Outbreaks
Organizations funded by the United States helped keep dangerous pathogens in check around the world. Now many safeguards are gone, and Americans may pay the price. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3XCryPC
Trump Allies Seek Pardons From an Emboldened White House
The new administration has created a system for awarding clemency that underscores the president’s grievances about what he sees as the political weaponization of the justice system. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3DEuYdO
DHS Detains Lead Negotiator of Columbia Gaza Solidarity Encampment, Claiming "Activities Aligned to Hamas"
On Saturday night, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents entered a student residential building at Columbia University in uptown New York and detained Mahmoud Khalil, one of the lead negotiators on behalf of pro-Palestine protesters at 2024’s Gaza solidarity encampment. In a sweeping attack on the First Amendment, the Trump administration said this week it would begin revoking visas of “Hamas sympathizers,” specifically citing Columbia University students. The detention followed a two-day targeted online campaign against Khalil by pro-Israel groups and individuals, including Columbia’s high-profile pro-Israel professor, Shai Davidai. - DropSite News https://bit.ly/3QWd21h
Massive turnout at Democratic lawmakers’ town halls as Republicans hide from voters
As Republicanlawmakers dodge in-person town halls, avoiding direct engagement with voters furious over the Trump administration’s devastating policies, LGBTQ+ Democrats like Washington Rep. Emily Randall and Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan are doing the opposite. They're meeting people where they are and making themselves accessible. - Advocate https://bit.ly/3QWdufZ
Israel says it is cutting off electricity supply to Gaza
Israel announced Sunday it is cutting off its electricity supply to Gaza. The full effects were not immediately clear, but the arid territory's desalination plants receive power for producing drinking water. Hamas called it part of Israel's “starvation policy." - Japan Today https://bit.ly/43BTSW1
Chaos at the V.A.: Inside the DOGE Cuts Disrupting the Veterans Agency
Clinical trials have been delayed, contracts canceled and support staff fired. With deeper cuts coming, some are warning of potential harms to veterans. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41UMJyT
Tribes and Students Sue Trump Administration Over Firings at Native Schools
More than one quarter of the staff members at the only two federally run colleges for Native students were cut in February. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3FtFyou
Utah Could Become the First State to Ban Fluoride in Public Water
A bill before the governor would prohibit adding fluoride to water systems. The move could affect children’s health, experts warned. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3FkDIGH
Blame Trump's tariffs for the stock market carnage, strategists say
President Donald Trump triggered Monday’s stock market sell-off with his shifting tariff policies, which are bad news if they’re tactical and even worse if they’re long-term strategies, market observers said. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4hpglsC
The Trump Slump is now
Recall that Trump was elected largely because Americans thought the economy was lousy and believed him when he said he’d fix it. Now, seven weeks after his inauguration, the bottom is falling out. Stocks are plunging. Treasury yields are falling. Consumer confidence is dropping. Inflation is picking up. - Reich https://bit.ly/41QwUJz
Dow falls by almost 900 points in market rout after Trump says he won’t rule out a recession
US stocks plunged, bitcoin stumbled and Wall Street’s fear gauge hit its highest level this year as concerns about President Donald Trump’s economic policy led to a widespread market selloff on Monday. - CNN https://cnn.it/4bHNA9j
Elon Musk Claims X Outage From ‘Massive Cyberattack’ Without Providing Evidence
X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has been suffering from outages all day Monday. And owner Elon Musk has finally said what’s behind it. Well, what he thinks is behind it. The billionaire oligarch says X is being hit with a “major cyberattack,” though he didn’t present any evidence to back up his claim. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4kCP3Sq
Trump Drops the Mask
The president’s latest positions on the Russia-Ukraine war reveal that he is indifferent to ongoing slaughter—indeed, he is willing to increase it. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/41YM6Ew
The Diseases Are Coming
DOGE’s slash-and-burn campaign has hit everything from the NIH to the National Weather Service. The cuts to global health, however, are especially alarming. It’s unclear what Musk thought would happen when he fed the U.S. Agency for International Development “into the wood chipper,” as he proclaimed with gleeful indifference on X, the social-media megaphone he owns. Ditto what Trump thought when he withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization and effectively muzzled the CDC. But the result has been that, in little more than a month, America has transformed itself from a preeminent global-health leader into an untrustworthy has-been. Undermining even one of these institutions would have posed a serious threat; gutting them all at once is an invitation for future outbreaks. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4kzuOVM
The Whistleblower for the Whistleblowers
As the leader of the Office of Special Counsel, Hampton Dellinger’s role was to get wrongfully fired civil servants back on the job—until he got fired himself. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3DIdVYj
Stocks Plunge as Recession Talk Gets Louder
Wall Street suffered its steepest decline of the year on Monday, a drop fueled by angst about the economy a day after President Trump refused to rule out the possibility that his policies could trigger a recession. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3QYDyqW
Europe Can’t Trust the U.S. Anymore
One Trump administration was a mistake; two Trump administrations will be read, correctly, as a divergence that can never be repaired. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3R0NU9K
Trump’s Policies Have Shaken a Once-Solid Economic Outlook
conventional measures, firing on all cylinders. Wages, consumer spending and corporate profits were rising. Unemployment was low. The inflation rate, though higher than normal, was falling.
Just weeks into Mr. Trump’s term, the outlook is gloomier. Measures of business and consumer confidence have plunged. The stock market has been on a roller-coaster ride. Layoffs are picking up, according to some data. And forecasters are cutting their estimates for economic growth this year, with some even predicting that the U.S. gross domestic product could shrink in the first quarter. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43Ahx9l
In Rural Texas, a Measles Outbreak Hasn’t Swayed Vaccine Skeptics
Even a measles outbreak and death isn’t enough to drive many residents into free vaccine clinics. While that is a personal choice, deeply entrenched vaccine skepticism affects us all. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/3Fm7ZVy
Kennedy Links Measles Outbreak to Poor Diet and Health, Citing Fringe Theories
In a recent interview, the health secretary also suggested that the measles vaccine had harmed children in West Texas, center of an outbreak. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bHiij0
Measles Is One Of The Most Contagious Diseases On Earth
Measles is more contagious than many of the diseases we take far more seriously in the media and halls of Congress. Measles infection can result in severe and sometimes permanent complications including pneumonia, lung damage, brain damage, and death. - Auntie Mavis Substack https://bit.ly/4bKYnj5 - Yahoo/Independent https://yhoo.it/41VtWU6
Trump Promised Americans Booming Wealth. Now He’s Changing His Tune.
As a presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump promised an economic “boom like no other.”
But eight weeks into his presidency, Mr. Trump is refusing to rule out a recession — a striking change in tone and message for a man who rode widespread economic dissatisfaction to the White House by promising to “make America affordable again.”
His comments come as the stock market is tumbling — the S&P 500 fell 2.7 percent Monday after falling 3.1 percent last week — and business leaders are spooked about the uncertainty over his tariffs. Even some Republicans, who fear retribution if they cross Mr. Trump, have started to raise concerns about his levies. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bNcSmz
Columbia Activist in Detention Was Public Face of Protest Against Israel
Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident of the United States, was arrested in his Manhattan apartment and sent to Louisiana. His detention sets up a fight over free speech. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43EGDE1
The Trump regime will arrest some of you in the middle of the night because you spoke your mind
Khalil did nothing illegal. He has not been charged with a crime. He expressed his political point of view — peacefully, non-violently, non-threateningly. That’s supposed to be permitted — dare I say even encouraged? — in a democracy.
So why is he in jail? - Reich substack https://bit.ly/3Fi6Uy7
The Dow plunges 890 points as recession fears mount. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 bleed even worse
Stocks fell sharply on Monday as Wall Street’s fears tied to President Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to pressure the market and investors wait for new economic data, especially inflation on Wednesday. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4ijOFXt
The Magnificent Seven tech stocks plummet as the Nasdaq marks worst day in three years
Tesla led the drop, but Meta, Apple and Nvidia were all down more than 4% intraday trading. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3DmSJHt
Letters from an American - March 10, 2025 - HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
Yesterday evening, on Air Force One, a reporter asked President Donald Trump if he is worried about a recession. “Who knows?” the president answered. “All I know is this: We’re going to take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, and we’re going to become so rich, you’re not going to know where to spend all that money. I’m telling you, you just watch. We’re going to have jobs. We’re going to have open factories. It’s going to be great.”
Today the stock market plunged. https://bit.ly/3DHrDL2
Canada Is Spooked
“We can give ourselves far, far more than Donald Trump can ever take away, but it will—it will take extraordinary efforts. It won’t be business as usual. We will have to do things we haven’t imagined before, at speeds we didn’t think possible. ... I know, I know that these are dark days, dark days brought on by a country we can no longer trust. We are getting over the shock, but let us never forget the lessons: we have to look after ourselves and we have to look out for each other. We need to pull together in the tough days ahead.” - Mark Carney, future Canadian PM - Persuasion https://bit.ly/4ixZfdq
Trump doubles tariffs on Canadian metals, causing Ontario to back down on electricity price hikes
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would double his planned tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% for Canada, a retaliation that prompted the provincial government of Ontario to back down on its planned surcharges on electricity sold to the United States. - AP https://bit.ly/3XI7mvG
After Trump threatens new tariffs on Canada, officials agree to renegotiate USMCA
After back-and-forth tariff threats that sent markets sharply lower Tuesday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Ontario Premier Doug Ford said they would meet Thursday to renegotiate the free trade treaty known as the USMCA. - CNN https://cnn.it/3FytkuP
China says it is ready for 'any type of war' with US
"If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we're ready to fight till the end," China's embassy said on X, reposting a line from a government statement on Tuesday. - BBC https://bbc.in/3XN0MEf
Trump is a traitor, and Europe is now alone
Washington has become the court of Nero, an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers, and a jester high on ketamine in charge of purging the civil service. This is a tragedy for the free world, but it is first and foremost a tragedy for the United States. Trump’s message is that there is no point in being his ally since he will not defend you, he will impose higher tariffs on you than on his enemies and will threaten to seize your territories while supporting the dictatorships that invade you. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3XIEgwc
‘Most Transparent Administration in History’ Is Shredding Documents and Ignoring FOIA
USAID ordered to destory classified records while DOGE has tried to operate in secret. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/41MJtV1
Trump’s Dismantling of NASA Has Officially Begun
NASA has begun implementing its reduction in force (RIF) approach, closing three offices and laying off staff in compliance with executive orders by the new administration that target the federal workforce. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3DC6T7E
Trump imposes sweeping 25% steel and aluminum tariffs. Canada and Europe swiftly retaliate
President Donald Trump imposed sweeping 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imported into the United States Wednesday, a policy aimed at leveling the playing field for US manufacturing but a move that threatens to drive up prices on a broad range of consumer and industrial goods for Americans. - CNN https://cnn.it/3R6jOBL
Trump Pulls Back Plans to Double Canadian Metal Tariffs After Ontario Relents
The president had threatened to hit Canadian metals with 50 percent tariffs but opted not to go ahead after Ontario lifted a charge on U.S. electricity. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iJ85ow
Ukraine Supports 30-Day Cease-Fire as U.S. Says It Will Resume Military Aid
The deal announced on Tuesday delivered new momentum to efforts to halt the fighting, with the ball for any truce now in Russia’s court, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ipus2t
Education Department Fires 1,300 Workers, Gutting Its Staff
The layoffs mean that the department will now have a work force of about half the size it did when President Trump took office. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43MYZTt
Tech Execs Are Pushing Trump to Build ‘Freedom Cities’ Run by Corporations
A billionaire-backed push to develop libertarian enclaves in Central America is being imported back to the United States, where its proponents want to lay the groundwork for their own privately run, corporately governed cities. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4kMQP3y
Trump’s Desperate Ploy for Greenland Majorly Backfires
Greenland’s parliamentary election results have thrown a massive wrench in Donald Trump’s fantasies of acquiring the mineral-rich territory. - Yahoo/New Republic https://yhoo.it/423EUqH
Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil will remain in ICE detention in Louisiana after first court hearing
Khalil was arrested and detained on Saturday over his role in protests against the Israel-Hamas war at Columbia University last spring. His green card was revoked by the Trump administration, his lawyer said, but New York federal Judge Jesse Furman blocked any immediate effort to deport Khalil until his attorneys and the federal government appear in court. - CNN https://cnn.it/4kPKV1s
X’s globe-trotting defense of ads on Nazi posts violates TOS, Media Matters says
On Monday, MMFA filed a complaint in a US district court in San Francisco, alleging that X violated its own terms of service by suing MMFA in Texas, Dublin, and Singapore. According to the TOS, MMFA alleged, X requires any litigation over use of its services to be "brought solely in the federal or state courts located in San Francisco County, California, United States." - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4bQQh8B
Project 2025 Tracker
Project 2025 Tracker began as a humble spreadsheet created by /u/rusticgorilla, combined with /u/mollynaquafina's vision for making this information accessible to everyone through a dedicated website. https://www.project2025.observer/
Introducing: The Musk Watch DOGE Tracker
New tool reveals Musk has overstated verified DOGE savings by at least 92%. - Muskwatch https://bit.ly/4bMawEs
‘I’m the Villain’: Recording Reveals Head of Social Security’s Thoughts on DOGE and Trump
"Have you ever worked with someone who’s manic-depressive?” - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3DNDLKw
Education Department Fires 1,300 Workers, Gutting Its Staff
The layoffs mean that the department will now have a work force of about half the size it did when President Trump took office. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3XOaZ3e
Are Schools Succeeding? Trump Education Department Cuts Could Make It Hard to Know.
At least 800 education department research employees and outside partners have lost jobs. The cuts will decimate research and data collection. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3DATdK7
Elon Musk Looks Desperate
How to lose $148 billion in less than two months. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/423Ixgj
Trump threatens 200% tariff on European alcohol as trade war escalates
President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to impose a massive tariff on European alcohol in response to the European Union’s retaliation against his steel and aluminum tariffs – a tit-for-tat escalation of a trade war that could easily get out of hand. - CNN https://cnn.it/3DGfZjA
Republicans Want to Make Hating Elon Musk a Crime
Discontent with Elon Musk has spurred a nationwide protest movement that aims to cut off the profits for the billionaire’s lucrative car business, EV maker Tesla. Now, Trump-aligned lawmakers are lobbying for the Justice Department to go after protesters in what seems like a blatantly oligarchic weaponization of the nation’s justice system. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3FvhgL1
How to Track the Flood of Bullshit Coming From Trump’s White House
During Donald Trump’s first term, Steve Bannon explicitly laid out what the administration’s strategy would be to get things done: “flood the zone with shit.” The theory is pretty simple: throw out as much bullshit as possible—knowing that there is only so much attention, outrage, and resistance that people can muster—and take wins while everyone else takes the bait. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3DAmDrL
Judge orders Trump administration to reinstate thousands of fired employees at VA, Defense Department and other agencies
A federal judge has ordered half a dozen federal agencies to “immediately” reinstate probationary employees fired last month as part of the Trump administration’s effort to rapidly shrink the federal workforce, calling the effort a “sham.” - CNN https://cnn.it/3DSk983
Judge Calls DOGE Firings a ‘Sham,’ Orders Thousands of Workers to Be Reinstated ‘Immediately’
A federal judge has dealt a blow to Elon Musk’s DOGE agenda. On Thursday, Judge William Alsup of San Francisco said that the firing of tens of thousands of federal probationary workers had been based on a “lie” and that the government had conducted the expulsions illegally—further calling the initiative a “sham.” Alsup ordered that the workers be reinstated immediately. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/41vwPtr
Trump Administration Must Rehire Thousands of Fired Workers, Judges Rule
A federal judge called the administration’s justification for the firings of workers with probationary status a “sham.” Another ruling barred the administration from carrying out future mass reductions. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kUcruP
Protesters arrested after storming Trump Tower to demand release of Mahmoud Khalil
The protest, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, began shortly after noon when demonstrators dressed in red shirts that read “Not in our Name” and “Jews Say Stop Arming Israel,” crammed into the Tower’s iconic golden atrium.
They chanted “Free Mahmoud Khalil” and unfurled banners that read “Never Again for Anyone”, “Jews Say Do Not Comply”, and “Come For One, Face Us All”, among others. - CNN https://cnn.it/4irbXue
Mahmoud Khalil’s Detention Is a Trial Run
The federal government has provided no evidence that Mahmoud Khalil has committed a criminal offense, and yet on Saturday night, he was taken by agents of the state from his home and renditioned to a detention facility where neither his pregnant wife nor his lawyer have had access to him. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4bDlFrm
Trump's Disappearing Of Mahmoud Khalil Should Be A Warning For Us All
Donald Trump’s supporters love to claim he’s a champion of “free speech” and “free expression.” It’s such an absurd notion that you almost have to ask, “Have you even listened to the guy?”
We all know that Trump is a weak, thin-skinned man-child who can’t handle criticism. He has done all he can to chill free speech that he doesn’t like through various punitive and retaliatory measures. - Big Picture https://bit.ly/3R8ugJ0
Trump asks Supreme Court to allow him to end birthright citizenship
For more than 150 years, courts have understood the 14th Amendment’s text to guarantee citizenship to anyone “born or naturalized in the United States,” regardless of the immigration status of their parents. A landmark Supreme Court precedent from 1898 affirmed that reading of the law, and the modern court hasn’t signaled any desire to revisit that holding. - CNN https://cnn.it/4kr0Jrt
Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order Reaches the Supreme Court
Lawyers for President Trump asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to lift a nationwide pause imposed on the president’s order ending birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and foreign residents. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ikMBhE
Elon Musk Makes Secret Visit to NSA After Saying Agency Needs ‘Overhaul’
The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed NSA officials, who say it “isn’t clear” whether Musk asked about any intelligence or military operations that may be deemed sensitive. Musk has a high-level security clearance, a point of controversy given the billionaire’s history of drug use and secret phone conversations with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4ia47W8
The U.S. Just Handed Ukraine a Clear Advantage
Maybe President Trump isn’t clamoring to push Ukraine under the bus after all. Tuesday’s meeting in Jeddah, between his top officials and their Ukrainian counterparts, ended with the Americans handing Kyiv a clear advantage—militarily and diplomatically—and putting Moscow in a tight, awkward spot. - Yahoo/Slate https://yhoo.it/4bQOctk
In No Hurry for Cease-Fire, Putin Demands Numerous Ukrainian Concessions
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday did not rule out a U.S. and Ukrainian proposal for a monthlong cease-fire, but he set down numerous conditions that would most likely delay any truce — or could make one impossible to achieve. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43U994C
Judge blocks Trump from enforcing 'chilling' order against law firm
At a hearing in federal court in Washington, D.C., U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the executive order. Ruling from the bench, Howell said the president's order against Perkins Coie is clearly intended to punish the firm, and likely violates its First, Fifth and Sixth amendment rights.
"Our justice system is based on the fundamental belief that justice works best when all parties have zealous advocates," she said. "That fundamental promise extends to all parties, even those with unpopular ideas or beliefs or causes disliked by President Trump." - NPR https://n.pr/3FxN8Pd
Tuberculosis Resurgent as Trump Funding Cut Disrupts Treatment Globally
The United States was the major funder of tuberculosis programs. Now hundreds of thousands of sick patients can’t find tests or drugs, and risk spreading the disease. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43L4guM
U.S. citizen child recovering from brain cancer removed to Mexico with undocumented parents
The family’s ordeal began last month, when they were rushing from Rio Grande City, where they lived, to Houston, where their daughter’s specialist doctors are based, for an emergency medical checkup. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4292ZMI
Stocks Tumble Into Correction as Investors Sour on Trump
On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 1.4 percent. After weeks of selling, the index is now down 10.1 percent from a peak that it reached less than one month ago and is in a correction — a Wall Street term for when an index falls 10 percent or more from its peak, and a line in the sand for investors worried about a sell-off gathering steam. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4itLMDx
It Isn’t Just Trump. America’s Whole Reputation Is Shot.
President Trump does not seem to notice or care that if you betray people, or jerk them around, they will revile you. Over the last few weeks, the Europeans have gone from shock to bewilderment to revulsion. This period was for them what 9/11 was for us — the stripping away of illusions, the exposure of an existential threat. The Europeans have realized that America, the nation they thought was their friend, is actually a rogue superpower. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bs32GN
Federal Workers Union Sues Trump Administration to Preserve T.S.A. Contract
America's largest federal employees’ union filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the Homeland Security Department and its leadership to stop the Trump administration from canceling a collective bargaining agreement for Transportation Security Administration workers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bsA1KZ
DOGE Makes Its Latest Errors Harder to Find
Elon Musk’s group obscured the details of some new claims on its website, despite promises of transparency. But The Times was still able to detect another batch of mistakes. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41QFZRp
Judge Orders Musk and His Team to Turn Over Records and Answer Questions
A federal judge in Washington has ordered Elon Musk and operatives involved with his Department of Government Efficiency to hand over documents and answer questions about its role in directing mass firings and dismantling government programs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4hzbyoE
Trump Threatens 200% Tariff on Champagne and Wine From Europe
President Trump escalated his trade war with the European Union on Thursday, threatening 200 percent tariffs on European wine and champagne that deepened anxiety among businesses and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3DK7sMy
Trump may make your next bottle of champagne or wine a lot more expensive
President Donald Trump’s latest bid to tackle the European Union’s “hostile and abusive” trading practices is to tack new duties on alcohol imports. Not only would that make European wine more expensive for consumers, but it could devastate the restaurant business. - Quartz https://bit.ly/41xPrZV
Letters from an American - March 13, 2025 - HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
It is an astonishing thing to watch a single man hamstring the United States economy. It is also astonishing to watch Republican senators try to convince the American people that a falling stock market and contracting economy is a good thing. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/41NUNjH
How Trump’s Trade War Will Make Your Groceries Even More Expensive
Climate change and bird flu are already driving up food prices. Trump's tariffs are about to make it even worse. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4ixaDGp
Are we on the road to repression? Or ruin?
Donald Trump has every intention of building a lasting, competitive authoritarian regime. He and the people around him want to tilt the playing field of politics so dramatically that they can’t realistically be removed from office. Democracy is a system where, eventually, people in power lose elections. Trump’s statements indicate he wants to get rid of that last bit.
Over the past two months, every American has seen the horrifying truth: he could absolutely succeed. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/4hc7R8j
Inside Elon Musk’s ‘Digital Coup’
Musk’s loyalists at DOGE have infiltrated dozens of federal agencies, pushed out tens of thousands of workers, and siphoned millions of people’s most sensitive data. The next step: Unleash the AI. - Wired https://bit.ly/3Fz70Bt
Three months into 2025, US measles cases surpass total for 2024
Three months into 2025, the United States has surpassed the total number of measles cases in the country for all of last year.
The high number of cases is driven by a multi-state outbreak that has reached nearly 300 cases. As of Friday, Texas has reported 259 cases this year, New Mexico has tallied 35 cases and Oklahoma reported two. Experts say this is probably a severe undercount. - CNN https://cnn.it/4hfuSHw
GOP lawmaker booed at North Carolina town hall, escorted from building
North Carolina Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards was confronted by angry constituents during a town hall meeting on Thursday night about President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's sweeping cuts across the federal government. - ABC News https://bit.ly/4knBXbP
Arlington Cemetery website scrubs links about Black and female veterans
Arlington National Cemetery has scrubbed information about prominent Black, Hispanic and female service members and topics such as the Civil War from its website, part of a broader effort across the Defense Department to remove all references to diversity, equity and inclusion from its online presence.
A cemetery spokesperson confirmed Friday that it removed internal links directing users to webpages listing the dozens of “Notable Graves” of Black, Hispanic and female veterans and their spouses. - MSN https://bit.ly/4i54CRt
What Trump and Musk Want With Social Security
The idea that millions of dead Americans are receiving Social Security checks is shocking, and bolsters the argument that the federal bureaucracy needs radical change to combat waste and fraud. There’s one big problem: No evidence exists that it’s true. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3FtjHOj
Consumer Sentiment Tanks as Americans Expect More Pain Ahead
Consumer sentiment in the U.S. sank this month, as worries intensify over what the tariffs, government layoffs, funding cuts and immigration restrictions that President Trump has introduced might mean for the economy.
The University of Michigan’s closely watched index of consumer sentiment nosedived another 11% to 57.9 in mid-March from 64.7 last month, continuing a downward trend that has taken hold since Trump took office. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/41uuG1c
Vice President Vance gets booed at the Kennedy Center
Symphony orchestra audiences aren't known for their rowdiness but Thursday night's concert at the Kennedy Center by the National Symphony Orchestra was a brief exception. As Vice President Vance and second lady Usha Vance entered the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, audience members booed loudly. Videos of the episode have gone viral on social media. - NPR https://n.pr/3FyIReg
Elon Musk Shared, Then Removed a Post Absolving Dictators for Genocide
The post falsely claimed that Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Mao Zedong were not responsible for the murders of millions of people, but rather public sector workers were. - https://nyti.ms/3XQjcE8
What’s being lost with the DOGE cuts? These fired feds can tell you.
Doctors and scientific researchers. Data analysts looking for spending efficiencies at the Education Department. Building managers responsible for finding the best air filters for a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention campus in Georgia. All these people, along with tens of thousands of other federal workers, lost their jobs in recent weeks as the Trump administration has rapidly shrunk the federal workforce in the name of cutting “fraud, waste and abuse.” - WaPo https://wapo.st/41QmGHR
Republicans to Trump: Maybe rethink the whole tariff thing, please?
Few Republicans are truly vouching for Trump’s tariffs, and many hint at a hope that they just go away. - WaPo https://wapo.st/41rO5Qp
Here’s what Russia has demanded to end its war in Ukraine
The Trump administration is pushing Russia to agree to a Ukraine ceasefire and peace talks. Here is what Moscow has said it wants. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3Rae35Z
Trump says ‘decisive’ military action against Houthis in Yemen is underway
President Trump says he has ordered a “decisive” military action against Houthi rebels in Yemen, opening a new salvo against the Iran-backed group that has targeted shipping lanes in the Red Sea. Trump said the US would deploy “overwhelming lethal force” against the group “until we have achieved our objective.” - CNN https://cnn.it/4hdoLn1
Trump invokes sweeping wartime authority to target members of Venezuelan gang
The Trump administration Saturday invoked a sweeping wartime authority, which has been used only three times before, to speed up the deportations of migrants affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The little-known 18th-century law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, gives the president tremendous authority to target and remove undocumented immigrants. The law is designed to be invoked if the US is at war with another country, or a foreign nation has invaded the US or threatened to do so. For that reason, legal experts have argued it would face an uphill battle in court. - CNN https://cnn.it/4kSzOF1
Rubio says South African ambassador ‘no longer welcome’ in US
He (Rasool) said that the Make America Great Again movement was a response “not simply to a supremacist instinct,” but to shifts in US demographics “in which the voting electorate in the USA is projected to become 48% white and that the possibility of a majority of minorities is looming on the horizon.” - CNN https://cnn.it/3FJOIgL
Trump Orders Attacks on Militant Sites in Yemen and Issues a Warning to Iran
The air and naval strikes on targets controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi fighters were intended to open up international shipping lanes in the Red Sea. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Re1kzh
With Massive Airstrikes on Yemen, Trump Intensifies Undeclared War Against the Poorest Country in the Arab World
Dozens of civilians were killed in U.S. bombings across Yemen as Trump vows to unleash “overwhelming lethal force” to stop the Houthi naval blockade targeting Israel’s war on Gaza. -
DropSite https://bit.ly/4hh07lA
Trump’s Grievance-Filled Speech Makes Clear His Quest for Vengeance Is Personal
The sole offense of those President Trump singled out in remarks at the Justice Department appeared to have been trying to hold him accountable for his actions. - NYT
Trade War Retaliation Will Hit Trump Voters Hardest
As President Trump imposes tariffs on products from countries around the world, foreign governments are answering back with tariffs of their own. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ibjwFP
The GOP’s Fears About Musk Are Growing
Some Republicans are starting to worry about what DOGE could mean for them and their constituents. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4izPICw
Trump Is Unleashing a Chaos Economy
Americans hold all sorts of views on tariffs. Some are opposed on free-market grounds. Others are in favor for reasons of national security or to bring back American manufacturing. Those debates are part of a normal democratic process. But President Donald Trump’s first weeks in office have shown that a principled discussion over tariff policy is simply not on the agenda, because the administration’s tariff policy is nonsense. What we have is chaos. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3FBcTOF
RFK Jr. Has Already Broken His Vaccine Promise
The health secretary is quietly undermining America’s vaccination infrastructure. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4hGVils
Trump administration deports hundreds of immigrants even as judge orders their removals be stopped
The Trump administration has transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations under an 18th century wartime declaration targeting Venezuelan gang members, officials said Sunday. Flights were in the air at the time of the ruling. - Japan Today https://bit.ly/3RfBZVD?
White House Denies Violating Judge’s Order in Deporting Venezuelans
The Trump administration denied on Sunday that it had violated a court order by deporting hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to a prison in El Salvador over the weekend, saying that the president had broad powers to quickly expel them under an 18th-century law meant for wartime. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3FuxeVB
The End of the University as We Know It
The rumors had been building for months: The Trump administration was coming for the universities. In the weeks after the president issued the first executive orders of this term, the effects rippled through my academic world: A Rutgers conference on H.B.C.U.s was canceled; graduate students on visas asked a professor I know if it was safe for them to travel; a colleague at a public university texted about an undergraduate crying in his office, worried about the job landscape. There was news of endangered climate projects, grant pages disappearing (and sometimes later reappearing) as people were applying to them and forestalled scientific programs of all kinds, including one at Columbia’s maternal health center studying how to reduce America’s maternal mortality rate. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41yTkOj
Trump Halted an Agent Orange Cleanup. That Puts Hundreds of Thousands at Risk for Poisoning.
In mid-February, Trump administration leaders received a desperate warning from their diplomats posted in Vietnam, one of the most important American partners in Asia. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4hd4SfX
Retail sales came in weaker than expected, another bad sign for the US economy
Spending at US retailers last month was much weaker than expected, in a troubling sign that the American shopper could be starting to tap out. - CNN https://cnn.it/4iaGyg0
Trump's 'tit-for-tat' trade war with Europe threatens $9.5 trillion worth of business
No other two regions on the planet are as integrated as the U.S. and Europe, according to a new report. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3DZjWjv
Right-Wing State and Local Govs Seek to Follow in Elon’s Footsteps and DOGE Themselves
Elon Musk is attempting to destroy the federal government by crippling the agencies that deliver public services, keep Americans’ air and water clean, tell us what the upcoming weather looks like, and protect us from predatory corporations. Conservative governments across the country are so impressed with this effort that they, too, want to destroy themselves and screw over their constituents. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/43QXdk8
First They Came for Columbia
Like many autocrats before him, Donald Trump has launched what could be a devastating attack on universities. - Harvard Crimson https://bit.ly/4id9C6B
Exclusive: How the White House ignored a judge's order to turn back deportation flights
The Trump administration says it ignored a Saturday court order to turn around two planeloads of alleged Venezuelan gang members because the flights were over international waters and therefore the ruling didn't apply, two senior officials tell Axios. - Axios https://bit.ly/4hiKhH1
Trump's border czar: "I don't care what the judges think"
President Trump's border czar Tom Homan on Monday doubled down on the decision to defy a court order that barred the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members. - Axios https://bit.ly/4hiPPkW
Trump claims Biden's pardons for Jan. 6 committee are 'void' because he used an autopen
Trump has argued that the committee members are guilty of unspecified “major crimes.” - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4hjYcg1
Justice Department Stonewalls Federal Judge Over Deportation Flights
The Trump administration on Monday stonewalled a federal judge seeking answers about whether the government had violated his order by deporting more than 200 people over the weekend, including those officials identified as members of a Venezuelan criminal gang. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3DS9pql
Trump Discussion With Putin to Focus on What Ukraine Will Lose
He will, in essence, be negotiating over how large a reward Russia will receive for its 11 years of open aggression against Ukraine, starting with its seizure of Crimea in 2014 and extending through the full-scale war Mr. Putin started three years ago. White House aides have made clear that Russia will certainly retain Crimea — in one of those odd twists of history, the location of the weeklong Yalta Conference in February 1945 — and strongly suggested it would get almost all of the territory it holds. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41ZSIkG
Trump’s Unwelcome News to Auto Chiefs: Buckle Up for What’s to Come
The line fell silent.
In a phone call from the Oval Office, President Trump had just delivered unwelcome news to three of America’s most powerful auto executives: Mary Barra of General Motors, John Elkann of Stellantis and Jim Farley of Ford.
Everyone needs to buckle up, Mr. Trump said on the call, which took place in early March. Tariffs are going into effect on April 2. It’s time for everyone to get on board. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iB3RiU
Social Security Employees Warn of Damage From DOGE
Current and former employees, both Republican and Democratic, are raising alarms about the damage cost-cutting efforts could do to the agency’s ability to serve the public. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bXS8so
Legal Experts Question Trump’s Authority to Cancel Columbia’s Funding
When President Trump issued an ultimatum to Columbia University — canceling $400 million in funding and demanding an overhaul of its admissions and disciplinary rules — it launched the institution into an extraordinary crisis.
According to legal scholars, it may have also violated the law and the Constitution. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ik5CRS
There Is No Method to Trump’s Madness. He’s Simply Insane.
His defenders try to apply reason to his erratic, nonsensical decisions. That’s a fool’s errand—but fools abound in this administration. - New Republic https://bit.ly/42db0jO
Letters from an American - March 16, 2025 - HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
Yesterday, President Donald Trump reached back to 1798 for authority to expel five people he claims are members of a Venezuelan gang. Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act as the legal basis for the expulsion. The Alien Enemies Act was one of four laws from 1798 that make up the so-called Alien and Sedition Acts. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4hhz9Kr
Telling the federal judiciary to “fck off”
After a federal judge pressed the Trump administration to provide evidence by 5 pm today about whether the White House had violated the court’s order in deporting migrants with little to no due process, so-called border czar Tom Homan said that the flights would continue regardless. “We’re not stopping,” he said. “I don’t care what the judges think.” - Reich https://bit.ly/41z5F54
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts pushed back on President Donald Trump’s escalating rhetoric against the federal judiciary on Tuesday in an unusual and brief statement.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a statement released by the Supreme Court. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.” - CNN https://cnn.it/4c0PBxD
What Trump Means by ‘Impartial Justice’
On Friday, President Donald Trump delivered an unusual speech at the Justice Department. Between fulminating against his political adversaries and long digressions about the late basketball coach Bob Knight, Trump declared, “We’re restoring fair, equal, and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law.”
Then his administration spent the weekend proving otherwise. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3RfKC2v
Trump Administration Live Updates: Chief Justice Rebukes Calls for Judge’s Impeachment After Trump Remark
Trump rebuke: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. rebuked an idea raised by President Trump in a rare public statement after the president called for a judge’s impeachment on Monday. “Impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Justice Roberts wrote, hours after Mr. Trump referred to the judge, James E. Boasberg, as a “Radical Left Lunatic” in a social media post and called for his removal. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kZVOhi
Trump’s further descent into dictatorship
This morning, he issued a bellicose post against a federal judge who’s trying to constrain him. It’s part of an increasing attempt by Trump and Musk to threaten judges with violence. - Reich https://bit.ly/4if8kIf
ICE Illegally Arrested 22 People In The Midwest Since Trump Took Office, New Lawsuit Alleges
CHICAGO — Immigration and civil liberties advocates based in Chicago are suing federal authorities over the arrests of 22 people in the Midwest – including one U.S. citizen – since President Donald Trump took office. - Chicago Block Club https://bit.ly/4bWeV7S
Report: mRNA vaccines are in RFK Jr’s crosshairs; funding in question
Federal support for mRNA vaccine research appears in jeopardy after KFF Health News reported Sunday that officials at the National Institutes of Health have directed scientists to remove all references to the lifesaving technology from their grant applications. All such research is now under direct scrutiny from health secretary and long-time anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Arstechnica https://bit.ly/41Dh6IY
Trump Pulls Secret Service Protection From Hunter and Ashley Biden
The president posted on social media that Hunter Biden would lose his security detail “effective immediately” and also identified the country he was vacationing in. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kzrOZA
Trump Administration Highlights: Judge Seeks to Rein In Musk as Chief Justice Rebukes Impeachment Threats
Impeachment rebuke: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. issued a rare public statement to rebuke an idea raised by President Trump hours after the president said a federal judge hearing a deportation case should be impeached. “Impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” he wrote, after Mr. Trump said the judge, James E. Boasberg, should be removed. The judge has been trying to determine whether the White House ignored a court order. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43TpMgQ
Latest Polls: Do Americans Approve of President Trump?
(Think? - TS) - NYT https://nyti.ms/41AB6Mf
Trump expels Democratic regulators at FTC
President Donald Trump ousted the Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of firings at agencies designed to be insulated from the White House. - Politico https://politi.co/4hCp2Qt
After call with Trump, Putin agrees to pause attacks on Ukraine’s energy and infrastructure targets
The two men’s conversation, their second since Trump entered office, appeared unsuccessful in convincing Putin to sign off on the 30-day truce that Trump has endorsed and Ukraine has agreed to. Instead, the White House said a narrower pause on hitting energy targets would go into place, while technical teams begin sorting out other areas in negotiations. - CNN https://cnn.it/4416tCi
What John Roberts’s Rebuke of Trump Left Out
In pushing back against Trump’s attack on a federal judge, the chief justice neglected to mention the substantive dispute of the case. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4himc31
How Elon Musk Executed His Takeover of the Federal Bureaucracy
The operation was driven with a frenetic focus by the billionaire, who channeled his resentment of regulatory oversight into a drastic overhaul of government agencies. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3FAmpBH
Musk’s Team Evicts Officials at the U.S. Institute of Peace
A bubbling dispute broke into a dramatic standoff that ended with police involvement and the Department of Government Efficiency taking up residence at the independent agency. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4icAx2r
Amid ‘DEI’ purge, Pentagon removes webpage on Iwo Jima flag-raiser
Pages celebrating Navajo code talkers and other minority service members were also erased. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4ilaHcC
'Segregated facilities' are no longer explicitly banned in federal contracts
After a recent change by the Trump administration, the federal government no longer explicitly prohibits contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms and drinking fountains. - NPR https://n.pr/41YhoKr
Ceasefire shatters as Israel pounds Gaza with wave of deadly strikes
Gaza’s fragile ceasefire was shattered early Tuesday as Israel carried out what it described as “extensive strikes” on Hamas targets. After the ceasefire ended, far-right Israeli politician Itamar Ben Gvir said he would rejoin the government. Separately, several Arab nations accused Israel of violating the ceasefire. - CNN https://cnn.it/3FFmS5u
Elon Musk and DOGE Lost a Big Case. What It Means for Tesla Stock and 3 More Things to Know.
U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang ruled that Musk can make DOGE act, which means he is effectively itsthe head. That means Musk should have been nominated by the president and faced Senate confirmation. The White House argued that Musk is a senior advisor and special government employee. - Barrons/Apple News https://stocks.apple.com/A_1ei6ruXTL-tvFKq697Jiw
Musk’s Role in Dismantling Aid Agency Likely Violated Constitution, Judge Finds
It appears to be the first time a federal judge has acted to constrain Elon Musk, a top adviser to President Trump. The judge also ordered agency functions be partially restored, though that relief could be temporary. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4hmTpuh
Trump says he was being a ‘bit sarcastic’ when he promised to end Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours
Trump was asked about the vow he repeatedly made on the campaign trail during an interview for the “Full Measure” television program as his administration is still trying to broker a solution 54 days into his second term. - AP https://bit.ly/4hp4gnw
Putin Agrees to Limits on Energy Targets but Not Full Ukraine Cease-Fire
In a call with President Trump, Russia’s leader agreed to pause strikes on energy infrastructure. Ukraine also appeared willing to accept such a halt, though it fell short of the unconditional cease-fire the country had already agreed to. - NYT https://nyti.ms/421uJSb
Israel Resumes Strikes on Gaza, Killing Hundreds, as Cease-Fire Breaks Down
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had ordered the aerial attacks after Hamas’s “repeated refusal” to release the remaining hostages it holds. “This is just the beginning,” he said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kAAf71
Judge Blocks Policy That Would Expel Transgender Troops
The order allows soldiers to keep serving in the military under rules established by the Biden administration. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4in2fcU
Two Transgender Girls, Six Federal Agencies. How Trump Is Trying to Pressure Maine Into Obedience.
On a Monday last month, after a conservative Maine legislator expressed outrage on Facebook about a transgender girl winning a high school pole vaulting event, the hammer of the federal government began to swing.
By Friday of that week, Feb. 21, President Donald Trump singled out Maine’s governor during a White House event and threatened to cut off the state’s federal funding. “See you in court,” Gov. Janet Mills shot back. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4iElqyG
Trump Says a Recession Might Be Worth the Cost. Economists Disagree.
President Trump and his advisers say his policies may cause short-term pain but will produce big gains over time. Many economists are skeptical of those arguments. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iFvo2P
‘What This Does Is Throw Open the Door for Corruption’: Trump Illegally Fires Two FTC Commissioners
President Donald Trump has illegally fired two of the five commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission. The commissioners were Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter, the Democrats on what is supposed to be a bipartisan commission that oversees the FTC. And that will allow Trump to tremendously weaken the FTC, which oversees consumer protection and competition laws. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/421vOtd
Trump is trying to save Tesla from the anti-Elon Musk crowd
As protests — peaceful and violent — against Tesla (TSLA+5.27%) CEO Elon Musk show no signs of slowing down, the White House is stepping in.
“If you’re going to touch a Tesla, go to a dealership, do anything, you better watch out because we’re coming after you,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said last week on Fox Business Network (FOXA+0.88%). Her boss, President Donald Trump, has vowed that violent protestors are “going to go through hell.” - Quartz https://bit.ly/4c3LFfq
The Fed keeps interest rates steady — but turns gloomier about the economy
The Federal Reserve kept interest rates on hold on Wednesday as expected, but it raised its inflation and unemployment forecasts, trimmed its GDP projection and slowed the pace of the sale of some assets from its balance sheet. The CPI outlooks for this year and next are now 2.7% and 2.2%, respectively. - Quartz https://bit.ly/41Za0yL
Letters from an American - March 18, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
On Saturday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered that the Trump administration stop deporting anyone from the United States under the authority of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act and that the planes carrying individuals to prison in El Salvador be turned around. Despite the order, the administration declined to bring the planes back, and administration officials appeared to mock the order, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio reposting the message of Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele that read, “Oopsie… Too late,” along with a laughing emoji. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3Y4GjuH
More of Trump’s descent into dictatorship
Two illegal firings that will increase prices for consumers and concentrate more power in Trump’s hands — unless the courts stop him. - Reich https://bit.ly/4ihKonw
White House Plans to Pause $175 Million for Penn Over Transgender Policy
The decision is the latest clash between a university and the administration as it pushes schools to end diversity programming and adopt stricter discipline, among other things. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4hzSRRY
Judge Says Khalil’s Deportation Case Can Be Heard in New Jersey
The Trump administration has sought to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate, though he is a legal permanent resident and has not been charged with a crime. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4hD66RQ
With Orders, Investigations and Innuendo, Trump and G.O.P. Aim to Cripple the Left
Executive actions intended to cripple top Democratic law firms. Investigations of Democratic fund-raising and organizing platforms. Ominous suggestions that nonprofits aligned with Democrats or critical of President Trump should have their tax exemptions revoked. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iP1rgy
Defiance and Threats in Deportation Case Renew Fear of Constitutional Crisis
Legal scholars say that the nation has reached a tipping point and that the right question is not whether there is a crisis, but rather how much damage it will cause. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iLw8nr
Stephen Miller Has a Plan
Miller’s approach is different this time. He has unleashed an everything-at-once policy storm modeled after the MAGA guru Stephen K. Bannon’s “flood the zone” formula. Drawing on policy ideas worked up in conservative think tanks during the four years between Trump’s terms, Miller’s plan has been to fire off so many different proposals that some inevitably find a friendly court ruling, three administration officials told us. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4jafZHZ
Georgetown Postdoc the Latest to Be Detained by ICE as Crackdown on Campus Speech Widens
Dr. Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow in peace and conflict studies at Georgetown University, was detained by Department of Homeland Security agents on his way home from teaching an evening class on March 17. Suri, an Indian citizen, is a fellow at the Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, an interfaith research center housed at the school's D.C. campus. Around 8PM that day, he was approached by a group of individuals wearing face coverings who identified themselves as DHS agents, according to court filings. The agents, who detained him near his home in Arlington, Virginia, informed him that the U.S. government had revoked his J-1 visa—a non-immigrant visa for foreign nationals participating in educational and cultural exchange programs. - Dropsite News https://bit.ly/4hB9MDD
Trump Is Still Trying to Undermine Elections
So far, it’s a tossup which of the Trump Administration’s wrecking balls will prove most destructive: the one that accelerates global warming, the one that abandons our allies, the one that torches the economy, or the one that compromises public health. Yet all of these are distractions from the President’s long-standing pet project: decimating free and fair elections. It may be that we have become so accustomed to hearing Donald Trump’s false claims about rigged elections and corrupt election officials that we have become inured to them, but in the past seven weeks he has pursued a renewed multilateral program to suppress the vote, curtail the franchise, undermine election security, eliminate protections from foreign interference, and neuter the independent oversight of election administration. And, as with the rest of Trump’s calamitous agenda, he is doing it in full view of the American people. - New Yorker https://bit.ly/4cacy1H
Musk uses immigration and claims of voter fraud to sell Social Security Administration cuts
Musk has cast the idea as one that’s primarily about immigration, falsely claiming that undocumented immigrants are fraudulently accessing hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of entitlements, including Social Security, Medicaid and disability programs, as part of a Democratic scheme for votes. - NBC News https://nbcnews.to/4kPEagh
Judges Fear for Their Safety Amid a Wave of Threats
President Trump’s angry call on Tuesday for the impeachment of a federal judge who ruled against his administration on deportation flights has set off a string of near-instant social media taunts and threats, including images of judges being marched off in handcuffs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4itgv3O
Musk Donates to G.O.P. Members of Congress Who Support Impeaching Judges
Amid a controversy over whether President Trump will abide by court rulings, Elon Musk gave the maximum to the campaigns of Republicans who back ousting judges who impede the administration. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kPEvzz
Trump Has Gone From Unconstitutional to Anti-Constitutional
An anti-constitutional act is one that rejects the basic premises of constitutionalism. It rejects the premise that sovereignty lies with the people, that ours is a government of limited and enumerated powers and that the officers of that government are bound by law. - Bouie, NYT https://nyti.ms/4kQ5ACO
Trump's policies might cause a deep recession and stagflation, study says
President Donald Trump’s policies on trade, government employment and immigration will cause an unnecessary economic recession if they’re fully or almost fully enacted, while also boosting inflation, according to the UCLA Anderson Forecast. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4ith0Le
Trump’s Appetite for Revenge Is Insatiable
No one can say they didn’t know.
During his first official campaign rally for the 2024 Republican nomination, held in Waco, Texas, Donald Trump vowed retribution against those he perceives as his enemies.
“I am your warrior,” he said to his supporters. “I am your justice. For those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
Sixty days into Trump’s second term, we have begun to see what that looks like. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4ithctW
The Cost of the Government’s Attack on Columbia
American universities have given the country prosperity and security. The Trump administration’s attack on academic freedom endangers all of that. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/41TZhFG
How Republicans Learned to Love High Prices
After spending most of the 2024 campaign blaming Democrats for inflation and insisting that tariffs don’t increase prices, Donald Trump and his allies have a new economic message: High prices are good. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4l3pevg
Killing Grants That Have Saved Lives: Trump’s Cuts Signal End to Government Work on Terrorism Prevention
Tens of millions of dollars slated for violence prevention have been cut or are frozen as DOGE steamrolls the national security sector. “This is the government getting out of the terrorism business,” said one grant recipient. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4bPukXP
The biggest upward redistribution of wealth in history is coming soon
Trump’s tariffs will especially hurt lower-income Americans, while his tax cuts will especially benefit the wealthy. - Reich Sustack https://bit.ly/41RBd6n
Bird flu continues to spread as Trump’s pandemic experts are MIA
As bird flu continues to rampage in dairy farms and poultry facilities around the country, the office tasked with coordinating the federal government's response to pandemic threats, including bird flu, has been sidelined by President Trump and sits nearly empty, according to CNN.
The White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR)—established by a congressional statute in 2022 in response to failures during the COVID-19 pandemic—used to include a staff of around 20 people. Now, only one staffer remains, and it's unclear who they report to. The OPPR director has been moved to the National Security Council (NSC). - Arstechnica https://bit.ly/4hD8LLk
Elon Musk Sends Huge Contributions to 7 Republicans Who Want to Impeach Judges
Elon Musk has taken to attributing any decision that goes against the wishes of the Trump administration to being part of a “judicial coup,” and he’s already putting money behind Congressional candidates who also find the concept of checks and balances to be distasteful. According to the New York Times, Musk has already made the maximum individual donation to seven Republican Congressional candidates who have shown a willingness to support impeaching or punishing judges. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4hJ1Wbe
French Researcher Denied Entry to U.S. for Disliking Trump: Report
A French researcher was denied entry to the U.S. over text messages on his phone that were critical of President Donald Trump, according to several reports from media outlets in France. An FBI investigation was reportedly launched into the scientist, and it’s just the latest sign that America’s slide into authoritarianism is going to have serious ramifications for academic research in the near future. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4kOvvL5
Finland again ranked happiest country in world; U.S. falls to its lowest-ever position
When it comes to decreasing happiness — or growing unhappiness —the United States has dropped to its lowest-ever position at 24, having previously peaked at 11th place in 2012. The report states that the number of people dining alone in the United States has increased 53% over the past two decades. - Japan Today https://bit.ly/4iNQ2xx
Americans are unhappy. Here are the 5 happiest countries in the world
The Nordic countries of Finland, Denmark, and Iceland once again topped the list of the happiest countries in the world, while the United States failed to recover from last year’s historic drop out of the top 20, the World Happiness Report revealed. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4bXsaFE..
Administration’s Details on Deportation Flights ‘Woefully Insufficient,’ Judge Says
A federal judge in Washington edged closer on Thursday to holding the Trump administration in contempt for possibly having violated his ruling pausing the deportation of scores of Venezuelans under a rarely invoked wartime statute.
In a sternly written order, the judge, James E. Boasberg, told the administration to explain to him by Tuesday why officials had not violated his instructions when they allowed two flights of immigrants to continue on to El Salvador even after he directed the planes to return to the United States.
Judge Boasberg also called out efforts by the Justice Department to repeatedly stonewall his attempts to get information about the timing of the flights over the weekend. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41RC8nl
Administration Officials Believe Order Lets Immigration Agents Enter Homes Without Warrants
“It undermines fundamental protections that are recognized in the Fourth Amendment, and in the due process clause,” said Christopher Slobogin, a law professor at Vanderbilt University. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4hvQ789
Trump's Politically Insane Decision to Shut Down the Dept. of Education
At a White House ceremony, Trump signed an executive order abolishing the Department of Education. This move could not be more politically toxic. Eliminating the Department of Education may break through in ways that the destruction of USAID, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Institute of Peace did not. Unlike those agencies, there is a long history of GOP efforts to eliminate the Education Department and excellent public opinion research on the subject. - Message Box https://bit.ly/4bPw1EF
A Warning for Columbia University
Surrendering to the Trump administration’s $400 million ransom demand would be a disaster for higher education and for the United States. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4kQFxeI
Musk Celebrates Death of the ‘Departmen (sic) of Education’ With Meme
Elon Musk, the billionaire oligarch currently destroying the U.S. federal government, celebrated President Donald Trump’s executive order on Thursday that is seeking to destroy the Department of Education in an appropriately stupid and immature fashion. Musk shared a meme with X about the move that misspelled the word “department” in the Department of Education. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4iSc5mU
Avoid U.S. stocks while 'chaos monkeys' run the show, economist says
“We have a very radical president doing very radical things very quickly, with little or no economic coherence,” McWilliams told Quartz in an interview. “There’s no world in which a large dominant global player turns its back on its trading partners and gets rich. He’s not on a pathway to making America great.” - Quartz https://bit.ly/4iLAR8F
Department of Buffoonery
The most uneducated buffoon in history stands at a podium, bloated with self-importance, lips pursed like a carnival barker ready to sell turd milk to the unsuspecting. He grins—a grotesque smirk stretched across his face—as he scrawls his name onto a hollow decree, a sham celebration of the dismantling of knowledge itself. The Department of Education falls, not with a bang, but with wheezing verbs, suffocated under the weight of his own staggering ignorance. - Bill King https://bit.ly/4izn0Ce
A farewell to courts?
How Trump is trying to break the legal system — and how to respond. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/4kL6Rep
DOGE’s Cuts at the USDA Could Cause US Grocery Prices to Rise and Invasive Species to Spread
Thousands of US Department of Agriculture employees, including food inspectors and disease-sniffing-dog trainers, remain out of work, leaving food to rot in ports and pests to proliferate. - Wired https://bit.ly/4iSkHK5
‘This Is Worse’: Trump’s Judicial Defiance Veers Beyond the Autocrat Playbook
“Honest to god, I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Steven Levitsky, a Harvard political scientist and coauthor of “How Democracies Die” and “Competitive Authoritarianism.”
“We look at these comparative cases in the 21st century, like Hungary and Poland and Turkey. And in a lot of respects, this is worse,” he said. “These first two months have been much more aggressively authoritarian than almost any other comparable case I know of democratic backsliding.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4hRpjiV
This Is Fascism - What Trump’s affection for El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele reveals about the fallen state of American democracy.
When President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador eagerly volunteered to receive 261 deportees the Trump administration had possibly illegally airlifted from the U.S. in mid-March, he instantly became one of the biggest stars in American conservative politics. After the planes landed, disgorging alleged members of Venezuelan and Salvadoran gangs, Bukele wallpapered his X profile with shout-outs from Elon Musk, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Jr., Matt Gaetz, U.S. Senators Mike Lee and Eric Schmitt, and Libs of TikTok, among others. “Thank you to El Salvador and, in particular, President Bukele,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social. When Judge James Boasberg ordered the flights carrying the deportees to return home, Bukele posted, “Oopsie … Too late,” followed by the “tears of joy” emoji. - New York Magazine https://nym.ag/41K8zny
NORC’s Live Crime Tracker Shows Major Crime Declines in 2024
New analysis finds unprecedented drop from 2023 rates across multiple crime categories in 49 U.S. cities. - NORC https://bit.ly/4bWLdjq
Trump suggests sending Tesla vandals to El Salvador prisons
President Trump on Friday suggested sending anti-Tesla protesters to a notorious prison in El Salvador if convicted. - Axios https://bit.ly/4hvT20B
FBI scales back staffing, tracking of domestic terrorism probes, sources say
The FBI has cut staffing in an office focused on domestic terrorism and has scrapped a tool used to track such investigations, in a shift that could undermine law enforcement’s ability to counter white supremacists and anti-government extremists, according to sources familiar with the matter. - Yahoo/Reuters https://yhoo.it/4iTYHyD
There Is a Way for Democrats to Stop Trump and Save America
You are meant to feel powerless. That is what a strongman wants: to make you feel as if nothing can stop the takeover of your country. - Rhodes/NYT https://nyti.ms/4iTZkbt
As Trump Broadens Crackdown, Focus Expands to Legal Immigrants and Tourists
U.S. border officials are using more aggressive tactics at ports of entry as the administration scrutinizes green card and visa holders who have expressed opposition to its policies. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4itY3YR
Texas Measles Outbreak May Continue for a Year, Officials Say
Vaccination efforts have faltered, and many residents have turned to alternative treatments endorsed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4hJ6azC
America’s Economic Exceptionalism Is on Thin Ice
Can America stay exceptional?
Economists and investors are increasingly asking that question as growth forecasts and the stock market slide. The answer, which matters a lot for American businesses and households, is no longer a clear “yes.” - Patterson/NYT https://nyti.ms/4bVopjU
Elon Musk Is Corrupting More Than Just Government
It is painfully obvious that we should be concerned about Silicon Valley’s growing influence over the United States government. - Wu/NYT https://nyti.ms/4iPkEPe
Trump and DOGE Propel V.A. Mental Health System Into Turmoil
A chaotic restructuring order threatens to degrade services for veterans of wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iUlIC1
How Elon Musk’s DOGE Cuts Leave a Vacuum That China Can Fill
The Department of Government Efficiency is shuttering organizations that Beijing worried about most, or actively sought to subvert. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4c9kDne
Who Will Defend the Defenders of the Constitution?
The Domino’s pizzas arrived at the homes of federal judges without explanation. The message was clear: We know where you live. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41Wfb2l
With New Decree, Trump Seeks to Cow the Legal Profession
President Trump broadened his campaign of retaliation against lawyers he dislikes with a new memorandum that threatens to use government power to punish any law firms that, in his view, unfairly challenge his administration. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4l1VLlm
Musk Is Positioned to Profit Off Billions in New Government Contracts
The boost in federal spending for SpaceX will come in part as a result of actions by President Trump and Elon Musk’s allies and employees who hold government positions. Supporters say he has the best technology. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ivKisx
Trump says any country buying Venezuelan oil will face a 25% tariff
“Venezuela has been very hostile to the United States and the Freedoms which we espouse. Therefore, any Country that purchases Oil and/or Gas from Venezuela will be forced to pay a Tariff of 25% to the United States on any Trade they do with our Country,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Trump claimed, without evidence, Venezuela has “purposefully and deceitfully” sent criminals, including violent individuals and members of gangs like Tren de Aragua, to the United States. - CNN https://cnn.it/4hMDYvz
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to block ruling reinstating thousands of fired probationary federal employees
The emergency appeal is the administration’s latest attempt to get the nation’s highest court to intervene on its behalf as lower courts frustrate – even on a temporary basis – key parts of President Donald Trump’s second term agenda. - CNN https://cnn.it/423lbGF
If Trump can disappear them, he can disappear you.
With no court to verify anything the Trump regime alleges, you could be arrested and sent to a prison in El Salvador for having views the regime dislikes. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4iCcQAM
The shame of Columbia University
In surrendering to Trump, it's opening all universities to Trump's tyranny. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4j1uVIg
Letters from an American - March 20, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
It seems as if the Trump administration is rushing to tear apart as much as it can as opponents of its wholesale destruction of the United States government organize to stop them. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4iCsmg1
U.S. Turned Away French Scientist Over Views on Trump Policies, France Says
The French authorities said the academic had been traveling to a conference near Houston when border officials blocked his entry because of conversations found on his phone. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4j2xyts
Trump's attack on the American mind
Behind his closure of the Education Department and his assault on higher education, science, libraries, and museums lie the oligarchs of the techno-state. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4kSXsBD
U.S. Says Social Security Recipients Need to Visit Offices to Get Benefits as DOGE Closes Offices Nationwide
As Elon Musk’s DOGE targets the Social Security Administration for cuts and reorganization, the agency is rolling out new rules for benefit recipients that could spur chaos and dysfunction at the agency.
This week, the agency announced that it will no longer allow new benefit recipients to verify their identities over the phone. Instead, those participants will either have to use an online ID verification software or, if that doesn’t work, make a visit to a government field office to do it in person. Similarly, returning benefit recipients who want to update their direct deposit information will either have to pass the online ID verification process or visit a government office. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4bXP8fP
NIH Ends Future Funding to Study the Health Effects of Climate Change
The guidance, which was distributed to several staffers last week, comes on the back of multiple new directives to cut off NIH funding to grants that are focused on subjects that are viewed as conflicting with the Trump administration’s priorities, such as gender identity, LGBTQ+ issues, vaccine hesitancy, and diversity, equity and inclusion. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4iBOV4n
Officials Included Journalist in Group Chat on Yemen Attack Plans in Extraordinary Breach
The White House confirmed an extraordinary breach of security involving top government officials — including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — who discussed plans for military strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen in a group chat on a commercial messaging app that inadvertently included the top editor of The Atlantic. President Trump denied knowing about it. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kTBfTX
The Judiciary’s Last Stand
President donald trump is at war with the rule of law in the United States. His assault is already the most hostile and sustained political attack on America’s legal and law-enforcement institutions since the Civil War. It is a war he declared before he began his first term, and one he pursued with tenacity once in office. It even had its own call to arms on January 6, 2021, or so many of his supporters believed. Exiled temporarily from the White House, Trump spent four years vowing to continue this war if he were reelected, and he has made good on that promise, targeting the foundations of almost every institution of law and justice within his reach as the chief executive. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4c3T26O
Trump targets lawyers who he says file 'frivolous' lawsuits against his administration
A new memo from President Donald Trump that authorized the attorney general and the homeland security secretary to sanction law firms that file lawsuits they deem “frivolous" is a major escalation of his intensifying assault on law firms, legal experts and former Justice Department officials told NBC News. - Yahoo/NBC https://yhoo.it/422Ipg0
Trump administration accidentally texted secret bombing plans to a reporter
"Shocking recklessness" in leak of detailed Yemen bombing plan in Signal chat. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/3R8N5vT
A Conversation With Jeffrey Goldberg About His Extraordinary Scoop
How The Atlantic’s editor in chief found himself in a group chat with Trump-administration officials who were planning an attack on Yemen. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/420dbpR
Trump’s Defense Secretary Accidentally Texted Yemen War Plans to the Head Editor of The Atlantic
It's unclear whether the incident represents a breach of the Espionage Act. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3FAGRlU
Stunning Signal leak reveals depths of Trump administration’s loathing of Europe
If Europe wasn’t already on notice, the extraordinary leak of deliberations by JD Vance and other top-level Trump administration officials over a strike against the Houthis in Yemen was another sign that it has a target on its back. - Guardian https://bit.ly/3FQulP2
Americans Demand Breathalyzer Be Attached to Pete Hegseth’s Phone
In an emotional apology at the Pentagon, Hegseth said that someone in his position “should never drink and text, and so I am giving up texting.” - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4iQaJt5
The Hypocrisy of Pete Hegseth (If Hypocrisy Were Still a Thing)
But her emails. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/43W8OhR
In his second term, Trump fuels a ‘machinery’ of misinformation
In her first briefing as White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt said she was "committed to telling the truth from this podium every single day.” Moments later she announced that the new administration had blocked a $50 million contract for condoms in Gaza.
"That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money,” she said.
It was also a preposterous claim, improbable on its face and quickly debunked. There were millions in federal grants awarded to prevent sexually transmitted diseases in Gaza, but in the province in Mozambique, not the Palestinian territory. - Japan Times/NYT https://bit.ly/4hKee2I
Library Advocates Rally as Trump Targets Federal Funding
An executive order has demanded that the Institute of Museum and Library Services be eliminated to the maximum extent allowed by law. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41Lrz6v
Your Retirement Portfolio Is Like Kindling. Trump Just Lit a Match.
Our stock market is starting to crack. Investor confidence is rapidly dissipating. And changes in the way Wall Street works mean that the impact on your retirement portfolio could be far more severe than you may realize. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iFYXRX
Long waits, waves of calls, web crashes: Social Security is breaking down
The Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days this month because the servers were overloaded, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging in to their online accounts. In the field, office managers have resorted to answering phones in place of receptionists because so many employees have been pushed out. Amid all this, the agency no longer has a system to monitor customer experience because that office was eliminated as part of the cost-cutting efforts led by Elon Musk.
And the phones keep ringing. And ringing. - Yahoo/WaPo https://yhoo.it/3Y3Yl06
Why Social Security is in the worst crisis since its founding in 1935, and what you can do about it
Hint: Not because it's running out of money, nor fraud, nor administrative costs. - https://bit.ly/43r4GX5
The Voice of America Falls Silent
President Trump’s efforts to mute Voice of America and other U.S.-government-funded international broadcasters may not have received as much attention as his many other sallies, perhaps because these media outlets do not broadcast within the United States and so are not well known. But stifling America’s voice around the world carries serious consequences: It strips the United States of one of its most venerable and effective instruments of soft power. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Y2AFJv
IRS Predicts DOGE Lost Half a Trillion Dollars for the USA
The Post reports today that the IRS’ internal projections estimate that the DOGE-driven disruptions to the IRS since the inauguration are on track to have reduced tax receipts by more than $500 billion by April 15th. This, to be clear, is not a final tally. It’s not April 15th yet. - TPM https://bit.ly/4iHlpu8
The Nonviolent Movement That's Hitting Elon Musk Where It Hurts Most
Here's how to get involved with #TeslaTakedown events around the country. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4j5Vg88
Americans' expectations for the economy hit their lowest level in 12 years
Americans continue to sour on the US economic outlook as uncertainty around President Trump's policies and higher prices weigh on consumer sentiment. - Yahoo https://yhoo.it/3Y6dVIH
The Big Chill
Trump’s attacks on the four pillars of civil society will succeed unless the pillars demonstrate courage and take collective action against the attacks. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4l8vwtE
The Pentagon Sent Out a Warning Against Using Signal Right Before Yemen Group Chat Fiasco
In its memo warning against using Signal, the Pentagon wrote, “Russian professional hacking groups are employing the ‘linked devices’ features to spy on encrypted conversations.” - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/41NiiuH
Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal
The administration has downplayed the importance of the text messages inadvertently sent to The Atlantic’s editor in chief. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/42k57S0
Inside Pete Hegseth’s Rocky First Months at the Pentagon
Even before he disclosed secret battle plans for Yemen in a group chat, information that could have endangered American fighter pilots, it had been a rocky two months for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cg6Awc
The Trump Team’s Denials Are Laughable
The president’s officials must know that what they did in the Signal group chat was wrong—and dangerous. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/43xM9bP
The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans
U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/44bfqsO
Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal
The administration has downplayed the importance of the text messages inadvertently sent to The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4cfBzsj
The Five Scandals (and One Fascinating Political Insight) of Signalgate
Today, after 24 hours where the Trump administration stonewalled and lied about the full scope of “Signalgate,” The Atlantic went ahead and published the full group chat, including operational details and a participants’ list that it had previously withheld because Jeffrey Goldberg and Shane Harris turn out to be more responsible with the nation’s secrets than the most senior members of the president’s Cabinet. - Doomsday Scenario https://bit.ly/4hQY3kj
Russia and Ukraine Agree to Stop Fighting in Black Sea, White House Says
The deal was limited, and it was not clear when or how it would start. The Kremlin also demanded some Western sanctions be lifted first. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4j2lsjE
Formula, Fries and Froot Loops: Washington Bends to Kennedy’s ‘MAHA’ Agenda
Public health leaders are horrified by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s approach to measles, but government and industry are responding to him. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3FFkE65
PBS and NPR Prepare for Showdown With Congress
Top executives from the public media networks are bracing for a hearing on Wednesday organized by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42gBVv8
Consumer expectations hit a 12-year low
Two key economic indicators — consumer confidence and home sales — are flashing warning signs - Quartz https://bit.ly/4caUhRI
How Elon Musk’s SpaceX Secretly Allows Investment From China
As a U.S. military contractor, SpaceX sees allowing Chinese ownership as fraught. But it will allow the investment if it comes through secrecy hubs like the Cayman Islands, court records say. “It is certainly a policy of obfuscation,” an expert said. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3DUs2de
Americans Are Buying an Escape Plan
The international rich aren’t trying to come here, so much as Americans are trying to get out. U.S. citizens now represent the majority of clients looking for an exit, through foreign citizenship, permanent residence, or a visa that allows them to live abroad. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3QRHfPc
Supreme Court upholds rules requiring background checks for ‘ghost guns’ (WHOA! - TS)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Biden-era federal regulations on “ghost guns,” mail-order kits that allow people to build untraceable weapons at home – handing gun control groups a rare win at the conservative high court. - CNN https://cnn.it/425Pj3Y
RFK Jr. claws back $11.4B in CDC funding amid wave of top-level departures
More heavy blows are landing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to reports Tuesday that reveal a wave of high-level departures from the country's beleaguered health agency. The agency is also losing $11.4 billion in funding for responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was largely doled out to chronically underfunded state health departments. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/3Rkngsv
Trump Administration Abruptly Cuts Billions From State Health Services
States have been told that they can no longer use grants that were funding infectious disease management and addiction services. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4hLmYG9
The ad biz is bracing for slower growth this year — and the economy's to blame
Ad sales for traditional media are expected to fall 7.2% this year. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3QSR3Zj
Report: Feds Put Notorious Anti-Vaxxer in Charge of Autism Study
The wolves have firmly taken charge of the henhouse. The federal government has reportedly chosen David Geier, a notorious vaccine skeptic, to lead its upcoming study examining an already debunked link between vaccination and autism. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/425Gk2G
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to freeze dozens of teacher training grants
President Donald Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to allow it to freeze millions of dollars in grants to states for addressing teacher shortages over allegations that the money was being used on programs that take part in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. - CNN https://cnn.it/42k5xb2
Mom of child dead from measles: “Don’t do the shots,” my other 4 kids were fine
The interview downplayed the disease, maligned vaccines, touted unproven treatments. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4iYPxRi
Foreign Spies to Team Trump: 👊🇺🇸🔥
If you’re running the security directorate of a hostile nation, savor this moment. It’s never been easier to steal secrets from the United States government. Can you even call it stealing when it’s this simple? The Trump administration has unlocked the vault doors, fired half of the security guards and asked the rest to roll pennies. Walk right in. Take what you want. This is the golden age. - Shachtman/NYT https://nyti.ms/4iXXfuW
Mike Johnson floats eliminating federal courts as Trump faces judicial pressure
Republican House speaker Mike Johnson suggested potentially defunding, restructuring or eliminating US federal courts as a means of pushing back against judicial decisions that have challenged Donald Trump’s policies.
“We do have the authority over the federal courts, as you know. We can eliminate an entire district court,” Johnson said. - Guardian https://bit.ly/3XydKG1
Senate Majority Leader Pushes Estate Tax Repeal in GOP Bill Talks
Senate Majority Leader John Thune pitched a full repeal of the estate tax Wednesday, setting as a priority the elimination of the levy on the fortunes of some of the wealthiest Americans as Republicans draft a massive economic package. - MSN https://bit.ly/41PV9I4
DOGE staffer 'Big Balls' provided tech support to cybercrime ring, records show
The best-known member of Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service team of technologists once provided support to a cybercrime gang that bragged about trafficking in stolen data and cyberstalking an FBI agent, according to digital records reviewed by Reuters. - Yahoo/Reuters https://yhoo.it/4kYzXqB
Live Updates: Trump Announces 25 Percent Tariffs on Imported Cars and Parts
The measure is intended to bring car factories to the United States but could increase prices for consumers significantly. The president said the tariffs will start next week. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4j2CHBx
U.S. to End Vaccine Funds for Poor Countries
A 281-page spreadsheet obtained by The Times lists the Trump administration’s plans for thousands of foreign aid programs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ceMUJ8
‘Trump Slump’ Looms as Foreign Visitors Rethink Travel to U.S.
A growing number of travelers say they are worried about feeling unwelcome or unsafe in America and are reluctant to support the economy of a country that may be destabilizing other nations. - NYT https://nyti.ms/427JV0a
Trump Administration Live Updates: Cuts of 10,000 Jobs at Health Agency Reflect Kennedy’s and Trump’s Priorities
Drastic reductions at the Health and Human Services Department announced Thursday will shrink and reshape Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agency. The layoffs of 10,000 workers together with previous buyouts and early retirements leave the department with about 62,000 employees, the agency said. The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be among the hardest hit. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3FGSI1A
The War Chat Leak Was Dumb but Pete Hegseth’s Denials Are Dumber
The war chat leak episode—in which details of a recent bombing mission were sent from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to head editor of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg—has got to be one of the funniest White House fuckups of all time. Instead of admitting that they fucked up, however, Hegseth and his government allies have conjured up a series of increasingly ludicrous arguments in an attempt to justify what happened. At the same time, Hegseth has sought to attack and demonize Goldberg and The Atlantic for simply reporting on the information that Hegseth, himself, sent to the journalist. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/444gGOv
America Is Watching the Rise of a Dual State
For most people, the courts will continue to operate as usual—until they don’t. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4hVIGXX
Bondi Suggests Signal Chat Episode Is Unlikely to Be Criminally Investigated
The attorney general said the focus should be on the success of the U.S. military strike in Yemen, not on military information being shared in advance in a group text among top officials. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4l2sd7b
The Leaked Signal Chat, Annotated
On Wednesday, The Atlantic published a fuller look at the contents of the messages in this group chat, including sensitive details about U.S. strikes that experts say almost certainly were highly classified before the strikes were carried out. To reflect the new information, marked “new,” additional messages have been included and further material has been added to some existing messages. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3FK5Q69
It’s Not Easy Being (Marjorie Taylor) Greene
Greene gaveled the proceeding to order at 10 a.m. “Today, we are looking at the more than half a billion dollars federal taxpayers spend annually to fund public radio and television,” she said in her opening statement. She vowed to grill the witnesses about their oversight of “radical left-wing echo chambers,” and accused the CEOs of perpetrating a “communist agenda” and being fine with “sexualizing and grooming children.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3FFuIMz
Independent Agencies Never Stood a Chance Under Trump
“What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence” in the federal government “and seize them,” Russ Vought told The New York Times in 2023. As the Trump administration’s first two months prove, he wasn’t bluffing.
Back then, Vought was a leading figure in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s effort to provide a blueprint for a Republican presidency. Now Vought is the head of the Office of Management and Budget—which he’s described as “a president’s air-traffic control system”—and Donald Trump is following Project 2025’s plans to quash any part of the executive branch that doesn’t bend to his will. One key step in that plan is coaxing the Supreme Court to throw out a ruling that has shaped the government for 90 years. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/423v474
Independent Agencies Never Stood a Chance Under Trump
If the president and his team have their way, much of the executive branch will be transformed from watchdogs or independent actors into the president’s foot soldiers. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/423v474
Everything's gone 'loco'
“I know exactly what I’m doing.”
It was an unprompted declaration from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, made all the more notable since all available evidence suggests the exact opposite. Hegseth spent the week trying to expunge the fact that he shared classified information about US military strikes in Yemen in a group chat — to which national security adviser Mike Waltz had, amazingly, added a journalist - Meanwhile in America https://cnn.it/4hQNTjG
U.S. auto industry stunned by tariffs meant to save it
The 25 percent tariffs on automobiles announced by President Donald Trump are meant to revitalize American industry, but Detroit's giants were stunned Thursday by their scale and faced a beating on Wall Street. - Japan Today https://bit.ly/4cgzITY
Trump’s car taxes on Americans
Trump said worldwide automobile taxes, er, tariffs, will come into effect next week, on April 3, alongside Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs, due April 2. The new 25 percent tariff will be applied to auto parts, as well. - Reich https://bit.ly/3G0gkOP
Trump’s Tariffs Leave Automakers With Tough, Expensive Choices
Carmakers are likely to face higher costs regardless of how they respond to President Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on cars and auto parts. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4hUkPYD
Judge Moves to Prevent Hegseth, Waltz and Others From Deleting Houthi Texts
A federal judge in Washington on Thursday ordered several Trump administration officials who participated in a Signal group chat discussing the details of a pending attack on Yemen to preserve all of the messages they exchanged on the app in the days leading up to strikes. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4hYMZBU
Drones, Mines and Snipers: Ukraine’s Front Line Is a World Away from Peace Talks
For soldiers and commanders on the edge of battle, any talk about a lasting cease-fire still feels like a dangerous fantasy. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ccGFp6
Trump Threatens Europe and Canada if They Band Together Against U.S.
In a late-night social media post, the president said he would impose “large scale” tariffs if Canada and the European Union allied to “do economic harm” to America. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3DPhj3Y
The Group Chat Saga Exposes a Stunning Hypocrisy
Add to the list: The mother lode of hypocrisy. After the Trump administration denied that any classified material was shared in the group chat, The Atlantic published the conversation nearly in full, redacting only the name of a C.I.A. employee. If the story was bad before, it’s now worse. And one thing is clear: In Trump world, the rules often — maddeningly — seem to apply only to other people. - Flipovic/NYT https://nyti.ms/3YcO6GT
Mike Waltz Left His Venmo Friends List Public
A WIRED review shows national security adviser Mike Waltz, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and other top officials left sensitive information exposed via Venmo—until WIRED asked about it. - Wired https://bit.ly/42bG3vh
Trump's tariffs may cause toilet paper supply to unroll, Bloomberg reports
The U.S. supply of toilet paper may come unspooled. President Donald Trump’s increased tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber could have the unintended effect of disrupting production of the bathroom essential, Bloomberg News reports. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4cipQt0
Trump can’t fire us, FTC Democrats tell court after being ejected from office
Two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission who were fired by President Trump sued him today, saying their removals are "in direct violation of a century of federal law and Supreme Court precedent."
"Plaintiffs bring this action to vindicate their right to serve the remainder of their respective terms, to defend the integrity of the Commission, and to continue their work for the American people," said the lawsuit filed by Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya in US District Court for the District of Columbia. - Arstechnica https://bit.ly/3XFOmy5
Elon Musk and Trump win fight to keep DOGE’s work secret
Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) don't have to turn over information related to their government cost-cutting operations, at least for now, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. - Arstechnica https://bit.ly/42mpnCu
City, State Expecting To Lose Half A Billion Dollars For Public Health As Trump Cuts Swell
Federal funds from the axed pandemic-era grants were being used for lab testing, vaccine clinics and to track and investigate possible outbreaks, city officials said Friday. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/4clLtIU
Elon Musk Pressured Reddit CEO During Moderator Revolt Over Nazi-Style Salute: Report
Moderators at more than 100 Reddit communities banned links to X after Elon Musk’s infamous Nazi-style salutes back in January, a rather understandable reaction to seeing public displays of violent fascist ideology. The billionaire oligarch very publicly complained about Reddit in the middle of the controversy, but we now learn that Musk wasn’t just whining on X. The Tesla CEO was also privately pressuring the CEO of Reddit to help him out by apparently silencing critics of the Trump regime, according to a new report from The Verge. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3FYRRJH
This Is the Land of Wolves Now
Masked agents snatching people off the street. Government officials using caged prisoners for propaganda videos. We are the villains. - The Bulwark https://bit.ly/3QV7og1
The disappearing of Rumeysa Ozturk is something I never thought I’d see in America
Masked federal agents in an unmarked vehicle snatched a Tufts student off the street for an op-ed she wrote in a college newspaper. - Inquirer https://bit.ly/3XFSrlL
Hillary Clinton: How Much Dumber Will This Get?
It’s not the hypocrisy that bothers me; it’s the stupidity. We’re all shocked — shocked! — that President Trump and his team don’t actually care about protecting classified information or federal record retention laws. But we knew that already. What’s much worse is that top Trump administration officials put our troops in jeopardy by sharing military plans on a commercial messaging app and unwittingly invited a journalist into the chat. That’s dangerous. And it’s just dumb. - Clinton/NYT https://nyti.ms/4hXo7ua
Dow closes more than 700 points lower and the S&P 500 is on track for its worst quarter since 2022
US stocks tumbled Friday and a broad selloff gripped Wall Street as investors digested slightly stubborn inflation data and weakening consumer sentiment while wrestling with continued tariff anxiety. - CNN https://cnn.it/4hVQ0CX
Stocks Fall as Inflation Anxiety Dampens Mood on Wall Street
The S&P 500 index dropped 2 percent as investors weighed hotter-than-expected inflation data and braced for President Trump’s next round of tariffs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3DWXt6Q
Letters from an American - March 28, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
“Another wipeout walloped Wall Street Friday,” Stan Choe of the Associated Press wrote today. The S&P 500 had one of its worst days in two years, dropping 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 715 points, losing 1.7% of its value. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.7%. On Tuesday, news dropped that the administration’s blanket firings and wildly shifting tariff policies have dropped consumer confidence to a low it has not hit since January 2021. Today’s stock market tumble started after the Commerce Department released data showing that consumer prices are rising faster than economists expected. - Cox Richardson https://nyti.ms/4hUkPYD
The Gleeful Cruelty of the White House X Account
On March 18, the official White House account on X posted two photographs of Virginia Basora-Gonzalez, a woman who was arrested earlier this month by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The post described her as a “previously deported alien felon convicted of fentanyl trafficking,” and celebrated her capture as a win for the administration. In one photograph, Basora-Gonzalez is shown handcuffed and weeping in a public parking lot. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4iGQuOq
Judges block Trump executive orders targeting law firms tied to Mueller probe
Two federal judges in separate rulings late Friday froze parts of President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting the law firms Jenner & Block and WilmerHale, both firms linked to the Robert Mueller investigation Trump has sought to punish. - CNN https://cnn.it/3RqVx9F
Final Cuts Will Eliminate U.S. Aid Agency in All but Name
The staff of U.S.A.I.D. will be reduced to some 15 legally required positions. The agency employed about 10,000 people before the Trump administration entered office. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3E0RPk4
DOGE Plans to Rewrite Entire Social Security Codebase in Just ‘a Few Months’: Report
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is planning to migrate the Social Security Administration’s computer systems from the COBOL programming language to something more modern, according to a new report from Wired. And while it’s not yet clear what Musk’s band of dipshits plans to do exactly, Wired reports they aim to do it within “a few months,” a laughably audacious timeline for such a task. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4jgBeb7
Long waits, waves of calls, website crashes: Social Security is breaking down
A flood of cuts led by Elon Musk has sent the agency into chaos as a new commissioner prepares to take charge. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3Rqi4mW
Internal White House document details layoff plans across U.S. agencies
Federal officials are preparing for agencies to cut between 8 and 50 percent of their employees as part of a Trump administration push to shrink the federal government, according to an internal White House document obtained by The Washington Post that contains closely held draft plans for reshaping the 2.3-million-person bureaucracy. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4jas6EE
Make No Mistake: Trump and Musk are Going After Social Security
In all three of his presidential campaigns, Donald Trump ran putatively to the Left of his party on Social Security. Where previous Republicans talked about privatization and raising the retirement age, Trump pledged to protect Social Security at all costs. In the 2024 primary, he destroyed the once-promising (but perhaps always doomed) candidacy of Ron DeSantis by attacking him for wanting to cut Social Security.
It was all bullshit. - Message Box https://bit.ly/3Ye02Z1
Don’t Assume Trump Is Joking About a Third Term
Why am I so sure that Trump is not, as The New York Times assures me, joking when he discusses a third term? Well, for one rather literal-minded reason, because he told NBC News “I’m not joking” in a recent interview. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/42ngSqR
A letter from America’s former lawyers
Each of us strongly condemns President Trump’s and the Department of Justice’s recent campaign of intimidation and retaliation against lawyers and law firms, including the Executive Orders targeting Perkins Coie, Covington & Burling, Paul Weiss, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale; Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigations specifically targeting particular law firms; and recent threats against lawyers who appear opposite the federal government. These executive actions are an affront to the Constitution and the rule of law. They undermine our legal system, the pursuit of justice, and our democracy. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/4j2bWxm
The Wall Street Journal Rakes RFK Jr. Over the Coals for Anti-Vaccine Efforts at HHS: ‘Our Worst Fears’ Are ‘Coming True’
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been secretary of Health and Human Services for all of six weeks, but he’s already vindicating his critics,” began the Journal. “First he downplayed a measles outbreak in Texas. Then he reportedly hired a trial-lawyer ally to work on a government study of the link between vaccines and autism. Now he has pushed out a top Food and Drug Administration official because he helped accelerate approval of the Covid vaccines.” - Mediate https://bit.ly/4iQyTnf
No More Mr. Nice Guy. In Fighting Trump, Canada Presents ‘Mr. Elbows’
In Canada’s escalating feud with the U.S., people here are rallying around the sharp elbows of hockey legend Gordie Howe. Another hockey icon, Wayne Gretzky, is getting an ice-cold shoulder. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/3FNyuTU
The Double Standard at the Center of the Signal Debacle
“Incidents like this make my job significantly harder,” a Department of Defense operations security, or OPSEC, official told us this week, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity. “When senior leadership disregards OPSEC and security protocols without consequences, it undermines the work we do to enforce these standards.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4iPaQoC
Texas Never Wanted RFK Jr.’s Unproven Measles Treatment
Kennedy made a show of shipping vitamin A to measles-stricken communities. The state’s public-health department didn’t take up the offer. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4hY2fyY
Why DOGE Could Actually Increase the Deficit
Some of Musk’s haphazard cuts will produce tiny savings in terms of salary while forfeiting much larger ones down the road, costing the government money. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3XHMMvA
The NIH’s Most Reckless Cuts Yet
Ending clinical trials with no warning can put patients at risk. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3XCszHx
Trump threatens bombing if Iran does not make nuclear deal
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program. - Japan Today https://bit.ly/3FRPWqq
Goldman Sachs says Trump tariffs will mean higher inflation and greater recession risk
President Donald Trump has sounded more hawkish on trade in recent days after previously downplaying his plans for new tariffs set to be announced this week, according to a new report. It comes as Goldman Sachs (GS+0.14%) economists have increased their forecasted odds of a recession over the next 12 months, from 20% up to 35%. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4iZ5oQs
Our Law Firm Won’t Cave to Trump. Who Will Join Us?
President Trump this month issued an executive order clearly intended to destroy the venerable law firm Perkins Coie, a firm that has zealously represented clients large and small for more than a century. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42ds3ku
Trump’s U.S.A.I.D. Cuts Hobble Earthquake Response in Myanmar
While China, Russia and other nations have rushed emergency response teams to the devastated country, the U.S., once a leader in foreign aid, has been slow to act. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iZ70cY
White House Takes Highly Unusual Step of Directly Firing Line Prosecutors
Two prosecutors were dismissed out of the blue, notified by a terse one-sentence email stating no reason for the move other than that it was on behalf of the president himself. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lczH7F
Trump Official Was Reportedly Involved in Other Questionable Signal Chats
The Trump administration made itself look more incompetent and dysfunctional than usual last week when the Secretary of Defense accidentally texted details of a secret bombing mission in Yemen to the head editor of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg. “Signalgate”—as it has come to be known—has spurred fresh scrutiny of the White House, as concerns swirl over the team’s ridiculous approach to OPSEC. Now, a new report claims that the official responsible for the debacle was also involved in other secret conversations on the app. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3QVjp5f
Federal agencies reviewing nearly $9 billion in contracts, grants with Harvard over antisemitism concerns
The departments of Education; Health and Human Services; and the US General Services Administration announced Monday they are reviewing $8.7 billion in grants and more than $255 million worth of contracts between Harvard, its affiliates and the federal government, according to a news release. - CNN https://cnn.it/3QZpJsw
The worst stock market hit from tariffs could still be coming, strategist says
“The market hasn’t wanted to see the tariffs as a real thing,” Norton told Quartz. “Investors aren’t prepared for the ideological scenario.” Permanently higher tariffs would directly boost companies’ costs, eating into profits and forcing investors to reassess stocks’ valuations, she said. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3YeiBfD
U.S. Presses French Companies to Comply With Trump’s Anti-Diversity Policies
A letter from the American Embassy in France gave firms that do business with the U.S. government five days to indicate their agreement. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jhh7ti
Why Trump Says He’s ‘Not Joking’ About a Third Term
Donald Trump’s interest in seeking an unconstitutional third term as president, like many of his most dangerous or illegal ideas, began as a joke. Trump would muse on the stump that he deserved an extra term because he was robbed of his first (by Robert Mueller’s investigation) or his second (by imagined vote fraud in 2020) without quite clarifying his intent. But in an interview with NBC News this weekend, and then in remarks on Air Force One, Trump said he was completely serious about at least exploring the notion. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3E3TAgw
Stocks Mark Worst Month in Years as Trump’s Tariffs Loom
Markets around the world have wavered as fear and uncertainty over tariffs and trade wars rattle investors. The S&P 500 just recorded its worst month since 2022, shedding 5.8 percent in March. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44aMQYH
No Toilet Paper and No Privacy: Returning to the Office, Federal Workers Walk Into Chaos
President Trump has described his new in-office requirement as a way to ensure workers are doing their jobs. He sees potentially leading more employees to quit as an added benefit. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43vStjW
Trump Administration Has Begun a War on Science, Researchers Say
Some 1,900 leading researchers accused the Trump administration in an open letter on Monday of conducting a “wholesale assault on U.S. science” that could set back research by decades and that threatens the health and safety of Americans. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ldmxXY
Trump Is About to Bet the Economy on a Theory That Makes No Sense
My local bookstore has been taking advantage of me for years. I have run a trade deficit, giving it money with nothing but books in return. At the same time I have been taking advantage of my employer, running a trade surplus with it as it gives me a salary with nothing but educational services in exchange. - Furman/NYT https://nyti.ms/4cgk0s2
Europe warns Trump: We have ‘a strong plan’ for retaliation against tariffs
Europe has “a strong plan” for striking back at the United States in response to Donald Trump’s tariff hikes “if necessary,” a top official said Tuesday on the eve of a long-anticipated announcement of massive import levies by the US president. - CNN https://cnn.it/4iUhFFJ
Asia must unite to survive Trump 2.0
U.S. President Donald Trump has raised the specter of economic and geopolitical turmoil in Asia. While individual countries have few options for pushing back against Trump’s transactional diplomacy, protectionist trade policies and erratic decision-making, a unified region has a fighting chance. - Japan Times https://bit.ly/4cdVR5j
TCE Is Linked to Heart Defects in Babies, Cancer and Parkinson’s. Republicans in Congress Want to Reverse a Ban on It.
The toxic substance, used in dry cleaning and manufacturing, has been linked to a host of serious health problems. A Biden-era ban on the chemical has faced multiple challenges since Trump took office. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4jeK4WO
Magnificent 7 stocks slide as Trump tariff fears rattle markets again
The market’s highest-performing tech stocks, the Magnificent 7, mostly slid on Monday amid worries over President Donald Trump’s tariffs. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4454Bso
‘It’s a bloodbath’: Massive wave of job cuts underway at US health agencies
A massive wave of job cuts got underway at US health agencies Tuesday, with some employees receiving early-morning emails saying their jobs were eliminated and some unable to access the building when they arrived at work. - CNN https://cnn.it/43uUnkS
DOGE accesses federal payroll system and punishes employees who objected
Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has gained access "to a payroll system that processes salaries for about 276,000 federal employees across dozens of agencies," despite "objections from senior IT staff who feared it could compromise highly sensitive government personnel information" and lead to cyberattacks, The New York Times reported today. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4lekSl0
23 states, DC sue Trump administration over billions in lost public health funding
Democratic attorneys general and governors in 23 states and Washington, DC, have filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Health and Human Services and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., alleging that the department’s sudden rollback of $12 billion in public health funding was unlawful and harmful. - CNN https://cnn.it/3DSae2C
An ‘Administrative Error’ Sends a Maryland Father to a Salvadoran Prison
The Trump administration acknowledged in a court filing Monday that it had grabbed a Maryland father with protected legal status and mistakenly deported him to El Salvador, but said that U.S. courts lack jurisdiction to order his return from the megaprison where he’s now locked up. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/42fnIO3
THE TOP GOAL OF PROJECT 2025 IS STILL TO COME
Project 2025 has proved to be a good road map for understanding the first months of Donald Trump’s second term, but most of the focus has been on efforts to dismantle the federal government as we know it. The effort to restore traditional families has been less prominent so far, but it could reshape the everyday lives of all Americans in fundamental ways. Its place atop the list of priorities is no accident—it reflects the most deeply held views of many of the contributors—though the destruction of the administrative state might end up imperiling the Trump team’s ability to actually carry out the changes the authors want. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3FOKBAe
Letters from an American - March 31, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
But Seward’s missive demonstrated a historical truism: when one country invades another, it usually reflects the problems of the invader’s domestic politics, no matter what the justification for the invasion is. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3FOKBAe
The Looming Constitutional Showdown Between Trump And The Courts
But what good is a federal court order if it can’t be enforced or simply won’t be obeyed? Will the court start to hold officials in contempt? And what happens if the White House simply starts pardoning anyone who is found in contempt? - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4cdZKqV
Cory Booker Slams Trump’s Policies in Marathon Senate Floor Speech
Senator Cory Booker, visibly tired but still upright at a lectern on the Senate floor, was deep into the second day of a speech criticizing the Trump administration on Tuesday, a show of physical and oratorical stamina that he hoped would spotlight what he called a “crisis” facing the United States under President Trump.
Mr. Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, began speaking at 7 p.m. on Monday and was still going more than 22 hours later, laying into the Trump administration’s cuts to government services and its crackdown on immigrants.
“This is not right or left, it is right or wrong,” Mr. Booker said on Tuesday afternoon, his voice still strong. “This is not a partisan moment, it is a moral moment. Where do you stand?” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cgoIpI
America’s Future Is Hungary
MAGA conservatives love Viktor Orbán. But he’s left his country corrupt, stagnant, and impoverished. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4chetBl
The CDC Has Been Gutted
Thousands of CDC employees who worked on things like preventing HIV and lead poisoning have been told they were subject to a reduction in force. Experts say people will die. - Wired https://bit.ly/42iAtaF
How Trump Supercharged Distrust, Driving U.S. Allies Away
Trust is very hard to build and easy to destroy. America and its partners are caught in a spiral of distrust. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43vTnNp
Trump’s Crypto Inc.
He and his family are reaping a fortune from his presidency — starting with cryptocurrencies. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4jkeCXg
Trump Regime Used Gmail Accounts to Discuss Sensitive Plans: Report
But her emails. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4iVogQe
Letters from an American - May 27, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
The craziness going on around us in the first two months of the second Trump administration makes a lot more sense if you remember that the goal of those currently in power was never simply to change the policies or the personnel of the U.S. government. Their goal is to dismantle the central pillars of the United States of America—government, law, business, education, culture, and so on—because they believe the very shape of those institutions serves what they call “the Left.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3G3pc6h
So Much for the MAGA Divorce
The nativist right is starting to make peace with Elon Musk. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3FNJAby
Letters from an American - April 01, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Today Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) made history.
For more than 25 hours he held the floor of the Senate, not reading from the phone book or children’s literature, as some of his predecessors have done, but delivering a coherent, powerful speech about the meaning of America and the ways in which the Trump regime is destroying our democracy. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4cq9Cy0
Liberal Wins Wisconsin Court Race, Despite Musk’s Millions
Susan Crawford defeated Brad Schimel for a State Supreme Court seat in a race that shattered spending records and maintained a liberal majority on the court. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3DRVpx3
Cory Booker Condemns Trump’s Policies in Longest Senate Speech on Record
The New Jersey senator spent much of his speech, which ended after more than 25 hours, assailing the Trump administration. He eclipsed Strom Thurmond’s filibuster of a civil rights bill in 1957. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43E9Uis
Trump’s Tariffs Are Coming, but at a Cost to U.S. Alliances
President Trump is already showing signs of concern that his targets may team up against him. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4hYAFRU
Millions of Women Will Lose Access to Contraception as a Result of Trump Aid Cuts
The United States was a key supplier of contraceptives in many developing countries. The Trump administration has ended that support. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jihljW
Tesla sales plunge: Biggest decline in history
Tesla sales plunged 13% in the first three months of this year, the largest drop in deliveries in its history, as backlash against CEO Elon Musk and growing competition took a large bite out of demand for its EVs. - CNN https://cnn.it/3XI0GxO
Judge Ends Eric Adams Case, but Sharply Criticizes Trump’s Justice Dept.
Judge Dale E. Ho refused to let the government leave open the prospect of reinstating charges against the mayor. But he acknowledged the president’s power to determine the fate of prosecutions. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42eY77G
Social Security Website Crashes as DOGE-Linked Disruption at the Agency Continues
Elon Musk's organization has been monkeying with America's retirement system, with no positive results so far. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/42eYcbu
Trump just massively escalated his trade war. Here’s what he announced
President Donald Trump is stepping up his massive global trade war, a move that’s certain to weigh on Americans’ wallets and could push the US economy into a painful recession. - CNN https://cnn.it/3QZTKs8
New Lawsuit Claims Musk and His Super PAC Still Owe Canvassers Millions of Dollars
A former canvasser for Elon Musk’s America PAC operation—which mobilized voters to sign a sketchy “petition” during last year’s presidential election—has sued the billionaire, accusing him and his political organization of failing to pay him at least $20,000. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3RuNgl0
Dems Celebrate Elon’s Humiliation After MAGA Loss in Wisconsin
Elon Musk spent $20 million in Wisconsin trying to elect a MAGA judge to the state Supreme Court, just to lose by 10 points on Tuesday. And there are already reports that Musk’s time in the White House may be limited due to President Donald Trump’s patience wearing thin. But if you ask leaders of the Democratic Party, who see the billionaire oligarch as electoral poison, they want Musk to keep campaigning for Republicans. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4jfqo52
Trump Might Actually Dump Elon After Embarrassing Defeat in Wisconsin
President Donald Trump may finally be getting rid of Elon Musk soon, according to a new report from Politico. And while this isn’t the first time rumors like this have surfaced from the depths of the White House, there’s more reason to believe the hype this time. Why? The conservative judge that Musk spent $20 million trying to get elected in Wisconsin got absolutely shellacked in his election on Tuesday. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3E1vtPw
Democrats’ win in Wisconsin court race also is a big loss for Elon Musk
Musk and his affiliated groups sunk $21 million into flipping the Wisconsin Supreme Court to conservative control, only to see his candidate defeated by 10 percentage points on Tuesday. The losing margin was four points larger than that of the only other Republican on the same statewide ballot, who was not tied to Musk’s money. - AP https://bit.ly/3FQAUBn
Democrats’ anti-Musk campaign pays off in Wisconsin
Democrats held onto their majority on Wisconsin’s state supreme court on Tuesday, while Republicans retained two deep red House seats in Florida by margins lower than in previous elections. - Semafor https://bit.ly/3FMGrsK
Trump Tells Inner Circle That Musk Will Leave Soon
President Donald Trump has told his inner circle, including members of his Cabinet, that Elon Musk will be stepping back in the coming weeks from his current role as governing partner, ubiquitous cheerleader and Washington hatchet man. - Politico https://politi.co/42sCH8o
Trump’s Day of Reckoning
The president’s allies are privately acknowledging that he is in a rough stretch. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3DTAucZ
C.D.C. Cuts Threaten to Set Back the Nation’s Health, Critics Say
The reorganization that began on Tuesday will scale back an agency that has been a public health model around the world. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3E1BMTd
Unmarked Vans. Secret Lists. Public Denunciations. Our Police State Has Arrived.
“It’s the unmarked cars,” a friend who grew up under an Argentine dictatorship said. He had watched the video of the Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil’s abduction. In the video, which Khalil’s wife recorded, she asks for the names of the men in plainclothes who handcuffed her husband.
“We don’t give our name,” one responds. “Can you please specify what agency is taking him?” she pleads. No response. We know now that Khalil was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3E7acE8
Japan says U.S. tariffs may break WTO rules
Japan slammed Thursday as "extremely regrettable" U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping new tariffs, saying they may break WTO rules and the two countries' trade agreement.
Japanese firms are the biggest investors in the United States but Tokyo has failed to secure an exemption, with Trump announcing a hefty 24-percent levy on Japanese imports. - Japan Today https://bit.ly/42hYSNy
With U.S. absent, China steps in for earthquake-hit Myanmar
After a 7.7 magnitude earthquake shook Myanmar on Friday, killing more than 3,000 people, international rescuers rushed into the devastated Southeast Asian country.
The most ubiquitous among them have been Chinese relief workers, whose blue and orange uniforms appear across videos circulating on social media. - Japan Times https://bit.ly/43JyzCh
DOGE drove layoff announcements to their third-highest-ever level in March
More than 275,000 layoffs were announced last month, reaching a level not seen since the pandemic, according to a new report published Thursday.
The biggest culprit was one particular employer: The federal government.
The federal government announced plans to axe 216,215 jobs, accounting for nearly 80% of the 275,240 layoffs announcements made by US employers in March, according to Challenger Gray & Christmas’ latest report. It’s the third-highest monthly total behind April 2020 (671,129) and May 2020 (397,016). - CNN https://cnn.it/4ijpIuJ
Letters from an American - April 02, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson (MUST READ)
Just five months ago, on October 19, 2024, The Economist ran a special report on America’s economy. That economy was, the magazine said, “the envy of the world.” Today, stock market futures plummeted after President Donald J. Trump announced that he will impose a 10% tariff on all imports to the United States, with higher rates on about 60 countries he claims engage in unfair trade practices, including China, Japan, Vietnam, and South Korea, as well as the European Union.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost more than 1,000 points upon the news, falling by 2.5%; the S&P 500 dropped 3.6%. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3QXOtkO
Trump's new tariffs put the Federal Reserve on the spot over interest rates — with stagflation looming
The trade war is likely to both depress the economy and boost inflation, requiring different responses from the central bank. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3EhMOnf
Trump Administration Threatens to Withhold Funds From Public Schools
The Trump administration threatened on Thursday to withhold federal funding from public schools unless state education officials verified the elimination of all programs that it said unfairly promoted diversity, equity and inclusion. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43FUXfO
Trump's new tariffs would be laughed out of a high school economics class, analyst says
“If a 9th grader in high school presented this tariff chart to a teacher in a basic economics class the teacher would laugh and say sit down and work on the assignment,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, who oversees technology firm coverage, said in a Thursday note to clients. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4hX4Hp9
Did an LLM help write Trump’s trade plan? (MUST READ)
Pentagon watchdog launches probe of Hegseth Signal messages
The acting Inspector General of the Defense Department will review Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal in a group chat with other key national security officials to discuss military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen last month, the IG’s office announced on Thursday. - CNN https://cnn.it/43ETd6u
Did Trump Use ChatGPT to Determine Disastrous New Tariffs?
Following President Trump’s announcement of sweeping global tariffs on Wednesday, users on social media were quick to try and decipher the math behind them. On top of a baseline 10% tariff against the entire world, individual countries will face additional tariffs based on how “unfairly” Trump believes they are treating the U.S. It turns out, however, that the White House may have used rudimentary suggestions from a chatbot to come to its calculations. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4ji4e2a
Letters from an American - April 03, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Today, former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers posted: “It’s now clear that the Trump Administration computed reciprocal tariffs without using tariff data. This is to economics what creationism is to biology, astrology is to astronomy, or RFK thought is to vaccine science. The Trump tariff policy makes little sense EVEN if you believe in protectionist mercantilist economics.”
Trump and DOGE Are Destroying U.S. Public Health Agencies From the Inside OutPresident Donald Trump isn’t done ripping the country’s public health agencies to shreds. The Trump administration, via the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has reportedly ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to cut over a third of its spending on contracts by mid-April. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3FTI9Zn
White House Fires Several Members of Trump’s National Security Council
The firings come as right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer raised concerns to Trump about the allegiance of some of his staff. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/4cfhF0h
What to know about Laura Loomer, Trump's conspiracy theorist ally
Far-right activist Laura Loomer was at President Trump's side as he campaigned and is now visiting the Oval Office. Trump previously claimed he's unaware of the conspiracy theories Loomer promoted. - Axios https://bit.ly/43zkfMs
How The GOP Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love Tax Hikes
Our first clue that Donald Trump was going to take us off the cliff with his new tariff rollout, announced yesterday, was during a Fox News interview last week. Peter Navarro, Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, desperately spun the coming tariffs, saying with a straight face:
“The message is that tariffs are tax cuts, tariffs are jobs, tariffs are national security, tariffs are great for America, tariffs will make America great again.” - Think Big Picture https://bit.ly/42e0bgf
Head of National Security Agency and Cyber Command Is Ousted
No reason was given for the removal of Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, but the far-right activist Laura Loomer had called for his ouster in a meeting with President Trump, an official said. -NYT https://nyti.ms/4lfIx4l
Dow futures tumble 1,000 points on fear Trump's tariffs will spark trade war: Live updates
Stock futures cratered Thursday after President Donald Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs of at least 10% and even higher for some countries, raising the risks of a global trade war that hits the already sputtering U.S. economy. - CNBC https://apple.co/42cJcLf
China imposes 34% reciprocal tariffs on imports of US goods in retaliation for Trump’s trade war
China said Friday that it will impose reciprocal 34% tariffs on all imports from the United States from April 10, making good on a promise to strike back after US President Donald Trump escalated a global trade war. - CNN https://cnn.it/3RzWVqB
Trump Just Bet the Farm
What is it that Trump, with his grievance-filled gut, doesn’t understand? The time we live in today, though far from perfect or equal, is nevertheless widely viewed by historians as one of the most relatively peaceful and prosperous in history. We are benefiting from this pacific era in large part because of a tightening web of globalization and trade, and also because of the world’s domination by a uniquely benign and generous hegemon called the United States of America that is at peace and economically interwoven with its biggest rival, China. - Friedman/NYT https://nyti.ms/3QZMDzU
A Stunned World Reckons With Economic Fallout From Trump’s Tariffs
Not even America’s closest trading partners were spared by a policy broadside that spooked investors and left policymakers scrambling to formulate responses. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jmlnYp
Trump Fires 6 N.S.C. Officials After Oval Office Meeting With Laura Loomer
During the 30-minute meeting, the far-right activist excoriated National Security Council officials in front of the president and Michael Waltz, the national security adviser. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44b9LmE
Trump Administration Set to Pause $510 Million for Brown University
The administration has now targeted five schools’ federal funding as part of a pledge to combat what it considers to be antisemitism on university campuses. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cglEK6
The Job Market Has Been Resilient. The Trade War Could Be Its Undoing.
For three years, the U.S. economy has been buffeted by rapid inflation, high interest rates and political instability at home and abroad. Yet it has proved surprisingly resilient, supported by the sturdy pillars of robust consumer spending, a rising stock market, and healthy balance sheets for households and businesses alike.
But one by one, those pillars have begun to crack under the weight of tariffs and uncertainty. The all-out global trade war that President Trump declared on Wednesday could be enough to shatter what had arguably been the economy’s final source of support, the strong job market. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jnzlcH
The Russians are coming
While imposing biting trade tariffs on 185 countries this week, the Trump administration quietly lifted travel sanctions on one of Vladimir Putin’s closest advisers so he could come to Washington for talks. - CNN https://cnn.it/4j5Wn83
Fed Chair Jerome Powell warns that Trump's tariffs could mean higher inflation and slower growth
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Friday that he expects President Donald Trump’s tariffs to raise inflation but that the central bank won’t move to change interest rates until it has a better picture of the impact.
“It is now becoming clear that tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected, and the same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth,” Powell said at the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing conference. “The size and duration of these effects remain uncertain.” - Quartz https://bit.ly/3FVm0K8
The autocrat has no clothes
Trump had one strategy. “Shock and awe.”
It’s the “why” behind all the rampant lawlessness. Why the administration is deporting legal immigrants without due process or in retaliation for speech. It’s why Elon Musk seeks to destroy entire agencies and rip away Congress’s power of the purse. Why the president is repeatedly testing defiance, not just of laws passed by Congress, but also orders from the courts. Why Trump is so brazenly targeting universities and scientific research. Why he is threatening law firms out of representing disfavored clients. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/420aYMk
President Trump Says Chip Tariffs Coming ‘Very Soon’
President Trump’s sweeping global tariffs have rocked the stock market since being announced on Tuesday, with just about every major tech company down double-digits. Semiconductors were largely spared from an immediate impact, however, as chips from Taiwan and other nations were exempted. Most electronics sold in the United States are powered by chips made in Asia, meaning tariffs would have a significant impact on prices. But Trump told a White House press pool on Thursday that tariffs on semiconductors will be imposed “very soon.” - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/42FZBs7
Supreme Court Lets Trump Suspend Grants to Teachers
The Supreme Court on Friday let the Trump administration temporarily suspend $65 million in teacher-training grants that the government contends would promote diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, an early victory for the administration in front of the justices. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ldY2Kl
Trump and DOGE Defund Program That Boosted American Manufacturing for Decades
President Donald Trump says taxing imports will strengthen domestic manufacturing. Hours before announcing new tariffs, his administration cut support for centers that help US firms do just that. - Wired https://bit.ly/4cnmjti
Judge orders US government to return man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador by end of Monday
The Trump administration conceded in a court filing Monday it mistakenly deported the Maryland father of three “because of an administrative error,” but said it could not bring him back because he is in Salvadoran custody. It appeared to mark the first time the administration has admitted an error related to its recent deportation flights to El Salvador, which are now at the center of a fraught legal battle. - CNN https://cnn.it/3XOON9n
Trump Is Openly Bragging About Crashing the Stock Market
The video shows that Trump is deluded that his tariffs are going to succeed and is pushing any source that backs him up. The TikTok account that the video comes from lacks credibility, as it doesn’t even have a bio and seems to only post summary videos of news events without any indication of who is making them. Meanwhile, the stock market continues to plummet and Americans continue to worry about their jobs. - New Republic https://bit.ly/42xhNFa
Your Life Will Never Be the Same After These Tariffs
These tariffs are going to hurt. A lot. By my calculations, this round of tariffs may be 50 times as painful as the ones Donald Trump instituted in his first term. That means they are going to reshape your life in much more fundamental ways. - Wolfers/NYT https://nyti.ms/3RBIOB6
Felon Freed by Trump Is Sent Back to Prison After Child Assault Charge
A violent felon whose sentence was commuted by President Trump was arrested Friday and charged with violating the terms of his supervised release after he was accused of a string of crimes that included assaulting a 3-year-old child. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cuXjk0
‘What Is Our Country Becoming?’ Four Columnists Map Out Where Trump Is Taking America.
Patrick Healy, the deputy Opinion editor, hosted an online conversation with four Times Opinion columnists about how President Trump is changing America. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42nmwYR
Recession trade engulfs Wall Street on tariff fight
In every corner of the financial markets, from stocks to bonds to commodities, money managers are sending Donald Trump the same unmistakable message: The trade war he unleashed is threatening to set off a worldwide recession — and fast. - Japan Times https://bit.ly/3FWsYi0
These Tariffs Are a Democratic Crisis, Not Just an Economic One
This new tariff regime hits almost every imaginable product, from electronics and machinery to apparel and agriculture, sparing only a few strategic imports like certain metals, semiconductors, and energy resources. The president claims these “reciprocal tariffs” will counter foreign protectionism and fix “unfair” trade deficits that have “hollowed out” U.S. manufacturing. In reality, the tariffs were set by a crude formula tied to bilateral trade gaps, not actual tariffs being imposed by foreign countries—math that one analyst called “nonsensical … with zero relationship to real policies.” - Persuasion https://bit.ly/4cqM8Ja
Letters from an American - April 04, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said today that Trump’s tariffs are “highly likely” to increase inflation and risk throwing people out of work. Economists at JPMorgan now place the odds of global recession at 60% unless the tariffs are ended. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4iVvALs
Trump Regime Gives FEMA Chief a Lie Detector Test Because That’s Just the Reality We Live in Now
The acting head of FEMA was recently given a lie detector test to determine if he leaked information to the press about the Trump regime’s plans to destroy the federal disaster agency, according to a new report from Politico. And while that may seem like a really bizarre thing to do to a senior official who’s supposed to be conducting crucial government work, it’s just another footnote in America’s rapid descent into fascism. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3XLdcwt
Doug Emhoff publicly criticizes his law firm for coming to agreement with Trump administration
Speaking at a charity gala dinner Thursday night in Los Angeles, former second gentleman Doug Emhoff condemned the decision by his law firm to preemptively come to an arrangement with the Trump administration to avoid an executive order targeting the firm, sources tell CNN. - CNN https://cnn.it/44chX68
Angry protesters from New York to Alaska assail Trump and Musk in 'Hands Off!' rallies
Crowds of people angry about the way President Donald Trump is running the country marched and rallied in scores of American cities Saturday in the biggest day of demonstrations yet by an opposition movement trying to regain its momentum after the shock of the Republican’s first weeks in office. - Japan Today / AP https://bit.ly/4i8z508
Jamie Dimon sounds the alarm bell on tariffs
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has issued a blunt warning about President Donald Trump’s tariff policy: It threatens to raise prices, drive the global economy into a downturn and weaken America’s standing in the world. - CNN https://cnn.it/42CW4M0
Mass Protests Across the Country Show Resistance to Trump
Demonstrators packed the streets in cities and towns to rail against government cutbacks, financial turmoil and what they viewed as attacks on democracy. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3E9Rqfk
Trump Weakens U.S. Cyberdefenses at a Moment of Rising Danger
When President Trump abruptly fired the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command on Thursday, it was the latest in a series of moves that have torn away at the country’s cyberdefenses just as they are confronting the most sophisticated and sustained attacks in the nation’s history. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3XRsdgf
Republicans Like to Cut Taxes. With Tariffs, Trump Is Raising Them.
The Republican Party embarked this week on a haphazard experiment in economic policymaking, wagering that the United States can weather a monumental tax increase in the form of broad tariffs on imported goods as long as Congress also cuts taxes on income. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3E82sBL
Trump’s Tariffs Are Designed to Backfire
According to President Donald Trump, April 2, 2025—the day he unveiled his executive order implementing global tariffs—will be remembered as a turning point in American history. He might be right. Unfortunately, April 2 is more likely to be remembered as a fiasco—alongside October 24, 1929 (the stock-market crash that kicked off the Great Depression), and September 15, 2008 (the collapse of Lehman Brothers)—than as the beginning of a new era of American prosperity. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/42mbseF
The real reason we’re in a national emergency
It’s hard to remember that only 10 weeks ago, the American economy was quite good, our foreign relations were on the whole positive, we were on the way to dealing with climate change with subsidies for wind and solar energy, and we still lived in a democracy.
Today, all that is disappearing. The economy is in acute danger, our relationships with traditional allies are collapsing, we’re subsidizing fossil fuel polluters, and we’re turning into a dictatorship.
This has happened in part because of Trump’s continuing creation of fake national emergencies. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/43R0sbD
Donald Trump Really Is a Lot Dumber Than We Thought. Like, a Lot!
His reading of American history is shockingly stupid, even for him. - New Republic https://bit.ly/4lv54dR
After a Blowout Week, Wall Street Decision Makers Brace for More Chaos
Anger at President Trump for a brash and chaotic rollout of tariffs that erased trillions of dollars in value from the stock market in two days. Anxiety about the state of the private equity industry and other colossal funds with global investments. Frustration among Wall Street’s elite at their sudden inability to influence the president and his advisers.
And fear of what may come next. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3FYJvlo
Tariffs will bring higher gadget prices and 'dark days' for tech, analysts say
Trump’s widespread tariffs will “cause an economic Armageddon” that could “take the U.S. tech industry back a decade” while “China steamrolls ahead,” according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3E99iqH
Take Trump Seriously About Greenland
The United States grabbing land from an ally sounds like the stuff of a Netflix political thriller. But every American should contemplate three realities about Donald Trump’s aggressive desire to acquire Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4i8wnrl
Letters from an American - April 06, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
After President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements on April 2 wiped $5 trillion dollars from the stock market, the Republican Party is scrambling. - Cox Richardson https://nyti.ms/3RIbatq
Second U.S. child dies of measles, almost 650 ill: officials
A measles outbreak has killed a second child in the southwestern United States, authorities said Sunday, with almost 650 people now infected as the highly contagious disease spreads. - Japan Today / AFP https://bit.ly/3G3YQRR
Trump Has Everything Under Control
Gail Collins: OK, Bret, I know you can’t tell the future, but give me a prediction. Will President Trump’s tariffs go down as one of the 100 worst decisions in presidential history? 50? 10?
Bret Stephens: As an economic matter, possibly the worst presidential decision ever. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3RMLVGl
How a False Report on 90-Day Tariff Pause Made Markets Swing Wildly
The report, that President Trump was considering a pause on his expansive tariffs, spread on social media and was amplified by CNBC and Reuters. The White House called the claim “fake news.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3RIbatq
The speech police: Chairman Brendan Carr and the FCC’s news distortion policy
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr is taking a hard line against broadcast TV stations accused of bias against Republicans and President Trump. To pressure broadcasters, Carr is invoking the rarely enforced news distortion policy that was developed starting in the late 1960s and says the FCC should consider revoking broadcast licenses. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4ljxtn7
Trump Exposes Own Kindergarten-Level Understanding of Economics
Zeteo News’s editor-in-chief Mehdi Hasan wrote on X Sunday that Trump was “an ignoramus the like of which we have not seen in our lifetimes. Wharton must be so embarrassed.” - New Republic https://bit.ly/3YmMpqs
Trump Plans $92 Million Military Parade—Honoring Himself
Donald Trump is pulling straight from the dictator’s playbook. - New Republic https://bit.ly/3G2Mg5p
Wall Street Starts to Speak Out Against Trump’s Tariffs
For weeks, as the contours of Trump’s sweeping tariff plans came in and out of focus, Wall Street’s leaders kept any concerns they had to themselves. Now, after a three-day market meltdown that has erased trillions of dollars in value from U.S. stocks, some are speaking out, including those who have been vocal supporters of Trump. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/3G2Mp8X
Trump Created an Economic Sinkhole. He Doesn’t Care
There is no strategy behind the tariff chaos — it’s all about personal grievances and settling scores. - O’Brien/Bloomberg https://bloom.bg/4coWFUZ
Turns Out Trump Lied About Those Deportations to El Salvador
60 Minutes’ Cecelia Vega on Sunday confirmed what anyone who’s been paying attention already suspected: An overwhelming majority of the Venezuelan men that Trump deported to a Salvadoran megaprison have no criminal record whatsoever. Yet the president continues to call them Tren de Aragua gang members and terrorists to legitimize his invoking of the Alien Enemies Act. - New Republic https://bit.ly/3EdazwR
Just Like the Old Trump
The past couple of weeks have shown that the White House truly has no idea what it’s doing. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4cpkbB6
The Trump White House Cited My Research to Justify Tariffs. It Got It All Wrong.
My first question, when the White House unveiled its tariff regime, was: How on earth did it calculate such huge rates? Reciprocal tariffs, after all, are supposed to treat other countries the way they treat us, and foreign tariffs on American goods are nowhere near these levels. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3XPMWB7
The 'Trump recession': Most CEOs are expecting a downturn, survey says
An alarming 69% of CEOs said they anticipate that the U.S. will fall into a recession — and they’re placing the blame squarely on President Donald Trump and his tariffs. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4jpdxgL
BlackRock's Larry Fink says most CEOs think a recession is already here
“Most CEOs I talk to would say we are probably in a recession right now,” BlackRock (BLK -1.52%) CEO Larry Fink said at an event for the Economic Club of New York on Monday, in remarks reported by CNBC. - Quartz https://bit.ly/44gMiAs
Insurrection Act Explained: Trump Admin Deciding Whether to Invoke 1807 Law (MUST READ)
Nearly halfway through the 90-day deadline set by one of President Donald Trump's first executive orders upon reentering office, top national security officials are preparing a report on the U.S. southern border, which could determine whether Trump invokes the Insurrection Act of 1807. - Newsweek https://bit.ly/4jq1jEG
Americans face a 'Category 5 Price Storm' from China tariffs, analyst says
The tariffs would “essentially take the U.S. tech industry back a decade in the process while China steamrolls ahead,” Wedbush said. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3G3Fw7q
Laura Loomer Has the Dumbest Possible Conspiracy Theory for the Anti-Trump Protests
Our reality just keeps getting stupider.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans protested against President Donald Trump this past weekend in cities big and small across the country. But people like billionaire Elon Musk and right-wing influencer Laura Loomer are convinced these protests couldn’t possibly be organic. In fact, Loomer has claimed that she found evidence the protests are being coordinated by shadowy foreign entities. And her conspiracy theories would be absolutely hilarious if Loomer wasn’t wielding real power inside the White House right now by getting top security officials fired. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4iWxqMc
Trump Threatens 104% Tariffs on China as the Mad King Plays Chicken With the Global Economy
The president just keeps introducing more chaos. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4cnRhBH
Supreme Court backs Trump for now on fired probationary federal employees
The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to keep several thousand probationary federal employees it is attempting to fire off the payroll while lower courts weigh whether the downsizing efforts are legal, the latest in a series of wins for the White House at the conservative high court. - CNN https://cnn.it/4jnxMLJ
Wall Street Bursts With Anger Over Tariff ‘Stupidity’
“The global economy is being taken down because of bad math,” the hedge fund manager William A. Ackman posted Monday morning on X. He added, “The President’s advisors need to acknowledge their error before April 9th and make a course correction before the President makes a big mistake.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/423Y141
I.R.S. Agrees to Share Migrants’ Tax Information With ICE
The agreement is a major departure from the Internal Revenue Service’s previous stance encouraging migrants to file their taxes. - NYT https://nyti.ms/423bYPJ
Tariffs on China set to rise to at least 104% on Wednesday, White House says
President Donald Trump is set to impose an astounding 104% in levies across all Chinese imports on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Tuesday. This comes on top of Chinese tariffs that were in place prior to Trump’s second term. - CNN https://cnn.it/426yfMH
Trump Weighs Bombing Mexico—Because Everything Else Is Going So Well
No words.
US freezes funding for Cornell, Northwestern University in latest crackdown
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to block federal funding for schools over pro-Palestinian campus protests as well as other issues such as diversity, equity and inclusion programs and transgender policies. - Reuters https://reut.rs/3YuxxGy
Federal judge says White House’s punishment of Associated Press is unconstitutional
The White House’s decision to punish The Associated Press by eliminating its access to President Donald Trump’s events, the Oval Office and Air Force One is unconstitutional, a federal judge said Tuesday. - CNN https://cnn.it/4i8h2Hf
Trump’s massive ‘reciprocal’ tariffs upend global trade
Despite rattled financial markets, threats of retaliation and some of President Donald Trump’s biggest supporters encouraging him to back off his signature economic policy, he didn’t give in. His administration piled on heaps of new “reciprocal” tariffs Wednesday on dozens of American allies and adversaries alike, aiming to — as he claims — restore fairness and boost American manufacturing. - CNN https://cnn.it/4iaarMF
‘Just a Mess’: Staff Cuts, Rushed Changes and Anxiety at Social Security
President Trump promised not to touch Social Security, but as Elon Musk’s team trims staff and plans cuts to phone services, the system is groaning under the pressure. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3El3Z7B
Trump Administration Freezes $1 Billion for Cornell and $790 Million for Northwestern, Officials Say
The funding pause involves mostly grants from and contracts with the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education and Health and Human Services, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the unannounced decision. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4i9zn6M
Wall Street Bursts With Anger Over Tariff ‘Stupidity’
“The global economy is being taken down because of bad math,” the hedge fund manager William A. Ackman posted Monday morning on X. He added, “The President’s advisors need to acknowledge their error before April 9th and make a course correction before the President makes a big mistake.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ie1fH6
Markets Slide Again in Afternoon Slump as Trade Tensions Escalate
Another chaotic day of trading on Wall Street ended with a late slide in stock prices, with little letup in the escalating trade tensions and economic anxiety caused by President Trump’s tariffs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3RJdzEb
All Federal Experts on H.I.V. Prevention in Children Overseas Were Dismissed
Mother-to-child H.I.V. transmission takes an enormous toll in low-income countries. The Trump administration has laid off the officials who worked to solve the problem. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44lW5oZ
There’s Nothing Real About Trump’s ‘Real America’
Even by the ugly standards of this administration, the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia stands out.
A Salvadoran migrant and metal worker in Maryland with no criminal record other than traffic violations and illegal entry into the country, he was arrested by immigration authorities in March and deported to one of the notorious prisons of his homeland, in contravention of a U.S. immigration judge’s order. The government acknowledged the “administrative error” — an Orwellian euphemism for a Kafkaesque nightmare — but petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal judge’s order requiring his return on Monday. The same day, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked the lower court’s order so it can have time to consider the case. - Stephens/NYT https://nyti.ms/44kxDUW
The Trump administration told crypto cops to ignore 'unwitting' regulatory violations
President Donald Trump’s crypto-industry backers notched another win this week, as the administration instructed federal prosecutors to “no longer target virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services, and offline wallets for the acts of their end users or unwitting violations of regulations.” - Quartz https://bit.ly/3GhkCl2
Letters from an American - April 8, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Markets fell again. By the end of the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen by another 320 points, or 0.8%, a 52-week low. The S&P 500 fell 1.6% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.2%.
Rob Copeland, Maureen Farrell, and Lauren Hirsch of the New York Times reported today that over the weekend, Wall Street billionaires tried desperately and unsuccessfully to change Trump’s mind on tariffs. This week they have begun to go public, calling out what they call the “stupidity” of the new measures. These industry leaders, the reporters write, did not expect Trump to place such high tariffs on so many products and are shocked to find themselves outside the corridors of power where the tariff decisions have been made. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4i6cL77
Trump World Makes the Case Against Trump
Last November, Republican Representative Troy Nehls of Texas told reporters that “if Donald Trump says tariffs work, tariffs work. Period. Because Donald Trump is really never wrong.” This expression of faith in the great leader is a precept of MAGA-ism. The pigs in Animal Farm had a similar way of thinking: “Comrade Napoleon is always right.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3EkvvCa
About 90% of Migrants Deported to El Salvador Had No US Criminal Record
Trump administration officials have described the men deported to El Salvador prisons last month as "the worst of the worst," suggesting they were gang members involved in murder, rape and kidnapping. The reality is that of 238 migrants - mostly Venezuelan — that officials accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang and expelled to the Central American country in mid-March, just a small fraction had ever been charged with serious crimes in the US. - MSN/Bloomberg https://bit.ly/4cu4FE7
DOGE Is About to Get DOGE’d
While it often seems that no one is watching the watchmen under the Trump administration, a new report from Wired suggests there is at least one agency still keeping tabs on the Department of Government Efficiency and its seemingly unfettered reach into the guts of government. The publication, citing government records and sources, revealed that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) launched an investigation back in March into how Elon Musk’s pseudo-agency has been handling data in the offices that it has pried its way into. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4j9ldUC
Trump tariffs are 'an Armageddon scenario' for U.S. tech, analyst says
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives called the tariffs the worst U.S. policy mistake since the Great Depression-era Smoot-Hawley tariffs. https://bit.ly/42qKLpb
Some fund managers worry Trump 'might be insane,' analyst says
Fundstrat Global Advisors' Thomas Lee said he's had conversations with fund managers who think the president's actions aren't rational and go beyond politics. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3GhLj9b
DOGE to Shutter DOJ Tax Division
I didn’t know this until this morning. And I’m surprised it hasn’t gotten more press attention. We know that DOGE is in the process of gutting the IRS. According to internal IRS estimates reviewed by The Washington Post, this internal sabotage is already estimated to have cost the U.S. Treasury more than $500 billion in revenues that otherwise would have been raised by April 15th. But it doesn’t stop at the IRS. DOGE is also in the process of essentially closing down the Tax Division at the Department of Justice. - TPM https://bit.ly/3G2cR2B
Judge orders White House to allow AP access to news events
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump White House to let Associated Press journalists return to the Oval Office and other spaces immediately to cover news events, ruling it was unlawful to block the news service in a dispute over its choice of words. - NPR https://n.pr/3RbXYNt
Trump and Netanyahu Steer Toward an Ugly World, Together
There was a time when a meeting between the president of the United States and the prime minister of Israel brought only pride to both Israeli and American Jews, who saw two democratic leaders working together. Well, I know that I am not alone when I say that pride is not the emotion that welled up in me on seeing the chummy picture of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu meeting in the Oval Office on Monday. It was disgust and depression. - Friedman/NYT https://nyti.ms/4cxs6ws
IRS chief to quit over immigrants’ tax data sharing with ICE
The acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service is resigning over a deal to share immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the purpose of identifying and deporting people illegally in the U.S., according to two people familiar with the decision. - Fast Company https://bit.ly/42FL0Oh
We Should All Be Very, Very Afraid
Of all the lawless acts by the Trump administration in its first two and a half months, none are more frightening than its dumping of human beings who have not had their day in court into an infamous maximum-security prison in El Salvador — and then contending that no federal court has the authority to right these brazen wrongs. - Chemerinsky/Tribe/NYT https://nyti.ms/42GANB9
‘Totally Silly.’ Trump’s Focus on Trade Deficit Bewilders Economists.
“It’s totally silly,” Dani Rodrik, an economist who studies globalization at Harvard University, said of Mr. Trump’s focus on bilateral deficits. “There’s no other way to say it, it makes no sense.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/42o81nx
The Cost of Chaos
Step one: Start a pointless, globe-encompassing trade war, rationalized solely by your own boneheaded innumeracy. Step two: Tank the markets. Step three: Pare the war back to a hot conflict with one of the United States’ most important trading partners and a warm conflict with every other country on Earth. Step four: Watch the market rebound and declare victory. That’s the art of the deal, when it comes to President Donald Trump’s tariffs and trade policies. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4jwtFgA
There Was Never a Master Plan
To plainly state what is going on right now would make you sound delusional. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3G5MV69
‘Can This Be Right?’: Reddit’s Small Business Community Is Freaking Out Over Trump’s Tariffs
President Donald Trump has dubiously claimed he wants to be the champion of America’s working class, but his new trade policies seem more likely to kill small businesses and put plenty of working men and women out of a job. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3Yru9fC
Elon Musk Calls Peter Navarro a ‘Moron’ as Trump’s Tariffs Leave Americans Nervous
Elon Musk spent Tuesday morning slinging insults at one of President Donald Trump’s top trade advisors Peter Navarro. The billionaire oligarch referred to Navarro as a “moron” who’s “dumber than a sack of bricks,” dubbing him “Peter Retarrdo,” as new reports surface that Musk is privately lobbying to put a stop to Trump’s tariffs on goods coming from almost every country in the world. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/427IFeT
What Trump Just Cost America
I have many reactions to President Trump’s largely caving on his harebrained plan to tariff the world, but overall, one reaction just keeps coming back to me: If you hire clowns, you should expect a circus. And my fellow Americans, we have hired a group of clowns. - Friedman/NYT https://nyti.ms/3EquvMI
Trump Signs Orders Punishing Those Who Opposed His 2020 Election Lies
President Trump on Wednesday signed executive orders punishing two officials from his first administration and an elite law firm, continuing a campaign of retribution that he has gleefully carried out since his inauguration. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3EjJwA0
Trump Reverses Course on Global Tariffs, Announcing 90-Day Pause
President Trump on Wednesday abruptly reversed course on steep global tariffs that have roiled markets, upset members of his own party and raised fears of a recession. Just hours after he put punishing levies into place on nearly 60 countries, the president said he would pause them for 90 days.
But Mr. Trump did not extend that pause to China, opting instead to raise tariffs again on all Chinese imports, bringing those taxes to a whopping 125 percent. That decision came after Beijing raised its levies on American goods to 84 percent on Wednesday afternoon in an escalating tit-for-tat between the world’s largest economies. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jrMCRj
Trump Has Targeted These Universities. Why?
President Trump has set his sights on defunding colleges, singling out some of the world’s wealthiest schools in what critics say is an attack on academic freedom. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3G6PRzq
Trump’s Education Chief Linda McMahon Repeatedly Calls AI ‘A1’ in School Speech 🤦🏾♂️
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon is currently working to shut down the Department of Education at the behest of President Donald Trump, leaving her plenty of time to talk on panels about the future of schools—or lack of a future, as it were. McMahon’s appearance at the ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego this week included a rather amusing mix-up. McMahon repeatedly referred to AI by the name “A1.” Yes, just like the steak sauce. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/44q3KTh
Social Security Administration Reverses Decision to Cut Phone Services After Outcry
Once again, the Trump admin is pulling back from a dumbass move. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3EjKk80
Trump Blinked
For the past few days, investors, foreign leaders, and members of Congress have gradually gotten more and more frantic about the Trump administration’s huge tariffs. The White House, meanwhile, projected equanimity. “They feel like everything is going according to plan,” an adviser told Politico.
And then, suddenly, the plan— if there ever was one—changed. This afternoon, President Donald Trump announced a partial pivot on social media. On the one hand, he ratcheted up tariffs on China to 125 percent. On the other hand, he announced that he was reducing tariffs on “more than 75” other countries to 10 percent for the next 90 days. In an odd wrinkle, this appears to also mean new tariffs on Canada and Mexico, which will now be subject to a 10 percent rate, having been previously exempted from this round of tariffs—though they will still be subject to a 25 percent tariff imposed earlier. https://bit.ly/4cEeTC3
Trump’s EPA Plans to Stop Collecting Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data From Most Polluters
Climate experts expressed shock and dismay at the move. “It would be a bit like unplugging the equipment that monitors the vital signs of a patient that is critically ill,” one said. - Propublica https://bit.ly/42pRH5N
Revolt brews against RFK Jr. as experts pen rally cries in top medical journal
Health experts took to one of the country's leading medical journals to pen searing rebukes of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s first weeks as the country's top health official—and they called upon their colleagues to rise up to fight the misinformation and distrust they allege Kennedy, a long-time anti-vaccine advocate, is fomenting. - Arstechnica https://bit.ly/4idAClw
Inside Trump’s Plan to ‘Get’ Greenland: Persuasion, Not Invasion
President Trump’s longtime goal of claiming Greenland for America has shifted from rhetoric to official U.S. policy as the White House moves forward on a formal plan to acquire the Arctic island from Denmark. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3RgHZ0u
House Passes G.O.P. Budget After Conservative Revolt Collapses
A critical bloc of fiscal hawks dropped its opposition after a pledge from the top Senate Republican that his chamber would embrace far deeper cuts than the measure would require. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3RaxyLY
Secretary Brain Worm: RFK Jr. Tells Trump We’ll Know the ‘Cause’ of Autism by Fall
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the head of the Department of Health and Human Services, made a series of absurd statements during a cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump on Thursday, including a claim that he would reveal the “cause” of autism by September, teasing the reveal like a new product launch for the fall. And Trump seemed very impressed. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3G6PfJZ
Due Process for Me, Not for Thee
Donald Trump has benefited greatly from America’s constitutional protections, but he seeks to deprive others of them. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/42Fehsl
Supreme Court Sides With Wrongly Deported Migrant
A trial judge had ordered the Trump administration to take steps to return the migrant, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, from a notorious prison in El Salvador. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cwApbN
Stocks Fall as Tariff Pause Fails to Quell Wall Street’s Worries
Thursday’s drop brought a continuation of the chaotic trading conditions and sharp losses that have characterized the stock market since President Trump’s announcement last week of steep tariffs across the nation’s trading partners. As stocks slid again, the wild swings in government bonds caught the attention of policymakers who are watching to ensure that one of the most crucial financial markets in the world continues to function smoothly. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3RLjjxf
US consumer sentiment plummets to second-lowest level on records going back to 1952
Consumer sentiment plunged 11% this month to a preliminary reading of 50.8, the University of Michigan said in its latest survey released Friday, the second-lowest reading on records going back to 1952. April’s reading was lower than anything seen during the Great Recession. - CNN https://cnn.it/3Rf8ovO
Trump Threatens Again To Cut All Federal Funding To Sanctuary Cities, Including Chicago
The city expects $3.5 billion in federal funding this year and will “defend Chicagoans from any unconstitutional or unlawful attempts to strip residents of the funding,” a spokesperson for Mayor Brandon Johnson said Thursday. - https://bit.ly/4j8XT9y
Social Security Lists Thousands of Migrants as Dead to Prompt Them to ‘Self-Deport’
By placing migrants in Social Security’s “death master file,” the Trump administration is seeking to cut off their access to credit cards, bank accounts and other financial services.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has moved aggressively to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were allowed into the country under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jd2o30
One giant leap towards authoritarian rule in the United States
In the midst of the tariffs, an even bigger story is brewing: Trump is attempting to take over American Universities. My jaw dropped when I read this one. - Marcus Substack https://bit.ly/4j3fUpz
How not to look away
Every day the cruelty feels more intentional. Now the acting ICE director speaks of wanting to build a deportation system “like Amazon Prime, but with human beings.” The Social Security Administration is trying to get legal immigrants to “self-deport” by classifying them as if they had died, thereby cutting them off from banking services. Migrants with no criminal records are indefinitely detained in a brutal, third-country prison camp in El Salvador on the U.S. government’s behalf (and dime). All the while, the administration produces reality-TV-esque content glamorizing the crackdowns. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/4csslch
The Supreme Court Just Set Up a Potentially Huge Clash with Trump
The Supreme Court upheld a lower-court ruling that ordered the administration to "facilitate" the return of a Maryland man whom the administration has admitted it wrongly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Very notably, the high court order featured no dissents, even from the most Trump-aligned justices. That made the court at least appear unanimous in ruling against the administration. - MSN/WaPo https://bit.ly/42sQQkG
What Do You Tell a College Student Graduating Into This America?
It’s a hell of a thing to be surrounded by college seniors a month away from heading out into this new America, a land of malice and madness. My fellow professors and I are supposed to have nuggets of optimism at the ready, gauzy and gooey encomiums about infinite possibilities, the march of progress and that apocryphal arc, the one that bends toward justice. But all I’ve got is the metastasizing pit of fear in my own gut. - Bruni/NYT https://nyti.ms/3Rhwkyx
F.B.I. Suspends Employee on Patel’s So-Called Enemies List
The employee was a longtime counterintelligence analyst who had worked on the F.B.I.’s investigation examining Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lvLspS
Social Security Admin Reportedly Moving All Communication to X, the Everything App
Good luck getting your grandparents on X. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3EmWZHl
Many lawyers who argue for Trump at Supreme Court are heading for the exit
At least half of the front-line lawyers in the elite Justice Department office that represents the Trump administration at the Supreme Court are preparing to leave or have already announced their departures — an unusually high amount of turnover at a time of intense litigation involving the president’s initiatives. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3YwuH3Q
Trump border czar’s town stood up for 3 kids detained by ICE — and won
In the New York village of Sackets Harbor, teachers launched a days-long effort to secure the release of three students. Less than two weeks later, the students were back in their classrooms. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3YtkSDO
Vance’s whopper on alleged Social Security fraud
In March, Leland Dudek, the agency’s acting commissioner, told reporters that the agency loses $100 million a year to direct-deposit fraud. That sounds like a lot of money, but Social Security doles out $1.6 trillion in benefit payments a year, with 99.3 percent of those payments made via direct deposit.
Put another way, only 0.00625 percent of Social Security benefits are lost to direct-deposit fraud, with 0.0025 percent (40 percent) via Social Security’s 800 number. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3GjfDQO
Apple, Nvidia, and Microsoft can 'breathe a huge sigh of relief' after Trump's China tariff exemptions
The ever-growing U.S. tariffs on imports from China won’t bite Big Tech so badly after all, after the Trump administration late Friday laid out significant exemptions from its wider trade war that include smartphones, laptop computers, chips, and more. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4lvLT3u
CDC Can’t Help Fix Milwaukee Schools Lead Poisoning Problem After Cuts
The Trump administration’s cuts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the head of the Department of Health and Human Services, have gutted vital health programs in recent months. And the public is slowly learning about the ramifications of these moves that will make Americans sicker and less able to respond to threats to public health. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4j8NFWw
Letters from an American - April 11, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
On April 4, Trump fired head of U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) and director of the National Security Agency (NSA) General Timothy Haugh, apparently on the recommendation of right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who is pitching her new opposition research firm to “vet” candidates for jobs in Trump’s administration. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4lpXHEt
As Trump cracks down on immigration, U.S. citizens are among those snared
For one man, it happened when he stepped out of a Chicago pizza shop after an afternoon of job hunting. For a 10-year-old girl and her siblings, it began at a Border Patrol checkpoint in South Texas as their family rushed to the hospital. For a man in Virginia, it started with immigration agents surrounding his truck, guns in hand.
All those people are U.S. citizens who were detained, deported or otherwise swept up in immigration enforcement actions under the Trump administration’s intensifying crackdown. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3Glb7RR
Sunday thought (MUST READ
Fighting the regime’s cruelty. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3YlLgzJ
Letters from an American - April 12, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Secrets on Signal, Tariffs, Retribution. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3RjpKrj
Elon Musk Inking Multibillion-Dollar Pentagon Deal Amid DOGE Cuts
Billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX and United Launch Services, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has gained a multibillion-dollar Pentagon contract for U.S. Space Force rocket launches on Friday. - Newsweek https://bit.ly/3G5ZjD4
Why Dems Must Call Out Trump's Authoritarianism
Last week in the Oval Office, surrounded by his cabinet and the media, President Donald Trump signed two executive orders that instructed his Department of Justice to investigate two individuals for the crime of criticizing the regime. Miles Taylor is a former Trump staffer who anonymously wrote an op-ed criticizing Trump before going public and becoming a vocal critic of Trump. Christopher Krebs was a cybersecurity official in the first Trump Administration who dared to push back on the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen. - The Message Box https://bit.ly/42uFs7U
American Rendition: Rümeysa Öztürk’s Journey From Ph.D. Scholar to Trump Target Languishing in Louisiana Cell
Surveillance video from March 25 shows her walking to dinner in Somerville, Massachusetts, near the Tufts campus, chatting on the phone with her mother when she is swarmed by six masked plainclothes officers. Öztürk screams.
Within three minutes, she’s bundled into an unmarked car and whisked away, a jarring scene that showed the nation what President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign looks like on the street level: federal agents ambushing a Muslim woman who co-wrote an op-ed in a college newspaper. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3RLcgEL
Politicians Shouldn’t Get to Delete Inconvenient Facts
Researchers logging onto the website Data.gov in January discovered a digital void where roughly 2,000 data sets were once cataloged. No warning, no explanation — just the quiet deletion of knowledge. Not long after that, historical pages focused on Black soldiers vanished, as did a website about Jackie Robinson and, bizarrely, one about a plane with “gay” in its name.
President Trump’s administration has targeted information curated by government agencies, erasing vast swaths of knowledge. While database updates and website changes are routine, this is probably the first time Americans are witnessing deletion weaponized on a large scale as a political tool. These deletions undermine basic good government — and the historical record. Democratic governments need far more robust legal frameworks and safeguards for data that is essential to citizens’ well-being. Scientific practices may change, policies may shift, and history may be debated, but the record of government should endure, regardless of who holds power. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42tgi9S
Unmarked vans and secret lists. The police state has arrived.
ICE’s aggressive actions and reports of secretive arrests harken to more repressive times - Japan Times/NYT https://bit.ly/4ifivvD
Trump 'fully fit' to serve as commander in chief, his doctor says after recent physical
Trump again passed a Montreal Cognitive Assessment test, a short screening test to assess different brain functions, Barbabella wrote. The test includes remembering a list of spoken words and listening to a list of random numbers and repeating them backward, among other questions. - Japan Today https://bit.ly/4jaQE0D?
DOGE Is Far Short of Its Goal, and Still Overstating Its Progress
Elon Musk now says his group will produce only 15 percent of the savings it promised. But even that estimate is inflated with errors and guesswork. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42w8u7b
Maine Governor, Staring Down Trump, Says She Is Unfazed by ‘Loud Men’
Observers of her political rise — and some who have sparred with her — say Gov. Janet Mills’s refusal to bow to President Trump is right in character. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GbLvXO
A Devastating Trade Spat With China Shows Few Signs of Abating
President Trump’s rapidly escalating trade war with China has resulted in eye-watering tariffs on products exchanged between the countries and scrambled prospects for many global businesses that depend on the trade. And there is no end in sight. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lvrZpe
Trump Signals New Tariffs on Chips, Calling Exclusions Temporary
President Trump signaled on Sunday that he would pursue new tariffs on the powerful computer chips inside smartphones and other technologies, just two days after his administration excluded a variety of electronics from the steep import taxes recently applied on goods arriving from China. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3G8YWaS
Consumer confidence craters as recession fears grow
According to preliminary data released Friday by the University of Michigan, consumer sentiment has declined 11% since March. This marks the fourth consecutive monthly decline and a 30% decrease since December 2024. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4cCucvd
Trump Cuts Millions In Funding To Chicago Museums, Cultural Groups
Illinois Humanities lost about $2 million in funding, or one-third of its annual budget, which leaders say could impact the future of free programs, festivals and resources for arts organizations in Chicago and across the state. - Chicago Block Club https://bit.ly/3Y2odcW
Trump Administration Updates: U.S. and El Salvador Won’t Return Wrongly Deported Man
During a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office, President Trump also said that he was open to sending American citizens convicted of violent crimes to President Nayib Bukele’s prison in El Salvador. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3YyNxY9
Tesla Stops Selling U.S.-Made Vehicles In China Because Of Tariffs
Prospective Tesla buyers in China will have to solider on without the possibility of getting a new Model S or Model X. Both vehicles are imported from Tesla's factory in the U.S., and the Chinese government has imposed some pretty steep tariffs on imports from America after President Trump started a trade war for no good reason. - JALPONLIK https://bit.ly/4cxw8Ff
Trump’s New Plan for Acquiring Greenland Is UBI for Its Residents—on Americans’ Dime: Report
It just gets crazier and crazier. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3G5ynDl
The Constitutional Crisis Is Here
Between the path of outright defiance of the Supreme Court and following its order to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador’s infamous Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), the Trump administration has chosen a third way: pretending it is complying while refusing to do so. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4cuW04i
Letters from an American - April 13, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
This evening, lawyers for the Department of Justice told a federal court that the administration does not believe it has a legal obligation to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States, despite a court order to do so.
Trump Makes Dark Promise on Deportations to El Salvador
But the majority of the more than 200 immigrants he’s already sent to El Salvador were not murderers or drug dealers. They were ordinary people without criminal records, victim to the Trump administration’s baseless lies about their pasts. https://bit.ly/4jChezO
No evidence linking Tufts student to antisemitism or terrorism, State Dept. office found
Days before masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk to deport her, the State Department determined that the Trump administration had not produced any evidence showing that she engaged in antisemitic activities or made public statements supporting a terrorist organization, as the government has alleged. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4jwxVMT
Trump calls for deporting some citizens to El Salvador, testing US law
President Donald Trump said on Monday he wants to deport some violent criminals who are U.S. citizens to Salvadoran prisons, a move that experts said would violate U.S. law. - Reuters https://reut.rs/4ijMlz8
Harvard Will Fight Trump’s Demands
Harvard will not comply with the Trump administration’s demands to dismantle its diversity programming, limit student protests, and submit to far-reaching federal audits in exchange for its federal funding, University President Alan M. Garber ’76 announced in a message to affiliates Monday afternoon. - The Crimson https://bit.ly/4lEKTdx
Trump Administration Will Freeze $2 Billion After Harvard Refuses Demands
On Monday afternoon, Harvard became the first university to refuse to comply with the administration’s requirements, setting up a showdown between the federal government and the nation’s wealthiest university. By the evening, federal officials said they would freeze $2.2 billion in multiyear grants to Harvard, along with a $60 million contract. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43UtVRP
Kleptocracy, Inc.
As the stock markets crashed on Friday, April 4, Donald Trump left Washington, D.C. He did not go to New York to consult with Wall Street. He did not go to Dover, Delaware, to receive the bodies of four American servicemen, killed in an accident while serving in Lithuania. Instead, he went to Florida, where he visited his Doral golf resort, which was hosting the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament, and stayed at his Mar-a-Lago club, where many tournament fans and sponsors were staying too. His private businesses took precedence over the business of the nation. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4jeClZb
Columbia Activist Arrested by ICE at His Appointment for Citizenship
Mohsen Mahdawi, an organizer of pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year at Columbia University, was detained by immigration officials on Monday after arriving for an appointment in Vermont that he thought was a step toward becoming a U.S. citizen, his lawyers said. - https://nyti.ms/3ErCvNB
They Followed the Rules. Now Thousands of Migrants Are Told, ‘Leave.’
The Biden administration allowed 900,000 people to use an app to schedule appointments to cross the border. Emails over the last few days told them to leave or face deportation. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4je6WGi
Inside Trump’s Pressure Campaign on Universities
“What if we never pay them?” Mr. Trump casually asked, according to a person familiar with the conversation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private discussion. “Wouldn’t that be cool?” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lohmo6
Poof! There Goes America’s Competitive Advantage in a Warming World
Allow me to catch you up on how America is faring in the fight against climate change: not well. President Trump is attacking the country’s environmental rules in a way that he never did in his first term. He’s trying not only to repeal rules limiting air and water pollution but also to undo the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate climate pollution — even whether it can define carbon dioxide as a pollutant. - Meyer/NYT https://nyti.ms/3RP12PF
Letters from an American - April 14, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Today, U.S. president Donald J. Trump met in the Oval Office with the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, along with a number of Cabinet members and White House staff, who answered questions for the press. The meeting appeared to be as staged as Trump’s February meeting with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky, designed to send a message. At the meeting, Trump and Bukele, who is clearly doing Trump’s bidding, announced they would not bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia home, defying the U.S. Supreme Court.
Bukele was livestreaming the event on his official X account and wearing a lapel microphone as he and Trump walked into the Oval Office, so Trump’s pre-meeting private comments were audible in the video Bukele posted. “We want to do homegrown criminals next…. The homegrowns.” Trump told Bukele. “You gotta build about five more places.” Bukele appeared to answer, “Yeah, we’ve got space.” “All right,” Trump replied. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4lyqxCm
Visitors to U.S. Take Extreme Precautions as Trump Continues March of Fascism
The U.S. is not a safe place to visit (or live) right now. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4cz4kjv
Trump Dares the Supreme Court to Do Something
Donald Trump took one step closer to openly defying an order from the Supreme Court today—effectively daring the justices to defend the law or pack up and go home. - Atlantic Donald Trump took one step closer to openly defying an order from the Supreme Court today—effectively daring the justices to defend the law or pack up and go home. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/44p6MHq
NOAA scientists scrub toilets, rethink experiments after service contracts end
Federal scientists responsible for monitoring the health of West Coast fisheries are cleaning office bathrooms and reconsidering critical experiments after the Department of Commerce failed to renew their lab’s contracts for hazardous waste disposal, janitorial services, IT, and building maintenance. - Ars Technica https://bit.ly/3GoBLJB
The Voice of America Falls Silent
The battle of the airwaves was vital for promoting freedom during the Cold War. Trump abandons it at our peril. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/3ErDtJJ
Harvard’s Decision to Resist Trump Is ‘of Momentous Significance’
But a fight with the nation’s oldest, richest and most elite university is a battle that President Trump and his powerful aide, Stephen Miller, want to have. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4je8dNA
What Harvard Learned From Columbia’s Mistake
If cooperation and even capitulation don’t get you anywhere, why give in to the Trump administration’s demands? - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4jrizZW
‘Alien Enemies’ or Innocent Men? Inside Trump’s Rushed Effort to Deport 238 Migrants
The Trump administration sent them to a prison in El Salvador under a wartime act, calling them members of a Venezuelan gang. But a New York Times investigation found little evidence of criminal backgrounds or links to the gang. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4igffjy
ThIs Lawyer Defended Republicans and Democrats. His Candor Cost Him His Job
When a judge expressed outrage that the first Trump administration had "spirited away" a mother and daughter in the middle of a hearing on their asylum claims, Justice Department lawyer Erez Reuveni didn't argue.
"I don't disagree with the sentiment, Your Honor," the Justice Department lawyer told U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in August 2018. He said he had only just learned the pair had just been put on a plane and would do "everything we can" to get them back. - MSN https://bit.ly/42we6ON
Despite a court order, White House bars AP from Oval Office event
Despite a court order, a reporter and photographer from The Associated Press were barred from an Oval Office news conference on Monday with President Donald Trump and his counterpart from El Salvador, Nayib Bukele. - AP https://bit.ly/42LCUUk
Chaos
The American oligarchy is petrified by Trump’s economic chaos but careful not to criticize him directly. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3GcrQXJ
Phase Two Will Be Worse Than DOGE
First came the chaos. Next comes the retribution. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/42TttCg
Trump Administration Highlights: Judge Scolds Government for Doing ‘Nothing’ to Return Deported Man
The stern words came during a hearing in Federal District Court in Maryland, where Judge Xinis said that she intended to force Trump officials to answer questions — both in writing and in depositions — about what they had done so far to get the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, out of the prison. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Y36jqv
Trump Threatens Harvard’s Tax Status, Escalating Billion-Dollar Pressure Campaign
President Trump threatened Harvard University’s tax-exempt status on Tuesday after the school rebuffed his administration’s demands for a series of policy changes, a dramatic escalation in the feud between the president and the nation’s richest and oldest university. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GuA3GD
‘Alien Enemies’ or Innocent Men? Inside Trump’s Rushed Effort to Deport 238 Migrants
The Trump administration sent them to a prison in El Salvador under a wartime act, calling them members of a Venezuelan gang. But a New York Times investigation found little evidence of criminal backgrounds or links to the gang. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jkovo9
Columbia Vows to Reject Any Trump Deal That Erodes Its Independence
Columbia University, which has faced criticism for not striking a more defiant stand against efforts by the Trump administration to set its agenda, showed signs late Monday of adopting a tougher tone. In a note sent to the campus, the acting president pledged that the school would not allow the federal government to “require us to relinquish our independence and autonomy.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jpntaA
Trump DOJ sues Maine over refusing to comply with ban on transgender athletes in high school sports
The lawsuit, which alleges that Maine is violating Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination at schools that receive federal aid, is the latest action in a public feud between the Trump administration and Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat. - CNN https://cnn.it/44uKggk
I Have Never Been More Afraid for My Country’s Future
So much crazy happens with the Trump administration every day that some downright weird but incredibly telling stuff gets lost in the noise. A recent example was the scene on April 8 at the White House where, in the middle of his raging trade war, our president decided it was the perfect time to sign an executive order to bolster coal mining. - Friedman/NYT https://nyti.ms/3RUr8Rg
CVE security program used by Apple and others has funding removed
The CVE security program used to track vulnerabilities in both hardware and software has had its federal funding removed with immediate effect. Apple is one of a number of tech giants who rely on the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) program to identify security flaws in their products. - 9 to 5 Mac https://bit.ly/4jFeth9
Trump’s playbook is Viktor Orbán’s
A few days ago I had breakfast with my old friend John Shattuck, who, as president of Central European University in Budapest, saw firsthand how Viktor Orbán took over Hungary’s democracy and turned it into an authoritarian state. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/44wENFL
Letters from an American - April 13, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
This evening, lawyers for the Department of Justice told a federal court that the administration does not believe it has a legal obligation to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States, despite a court order to do so. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/42Qt4R7
Letters from an American - April 15, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
As Bower said, we all know what’s going on, but it’s impossible right now to know which individual is responsible for the stonewalling. For that matter, Bower added, those speaking for the administration usually deny personal knowledge of the case, simply saying they have been made aware of the facts they are representing. Judge Xinis called for two weeks of fact finding to determine if the Trump regime is following her orders that it facilitate his return. The judge told Abrego Garcia’s lawyers that they may conduct four depositions and apply for two more, make up to 15 document requests, and up to 15 interrogatories (these are lists of written questions that must be answered under oath and in writing). - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/42Ed4QW
Boasberg finds ‘probable cause exists’ to hold Trump administration in contempt for violating orders on deportation flights
US District Judge James Boasberg ruled Wednesday that “probable cause exists” to hold Trump administration officials in criminal contempt for violating his orders in mid-March halting the use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members. - CNN https://cnn.it/3RrSe26
White House calls NPR and PBS a “grift,” will ask Congress to rescind funding
The Trump White House is proposing to eliminate most federal funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and issued a statement yesterday alleging that NPR and PBS "spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as 'news.'" - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4cDHCa9
Fed Chair Powell gives starkest warning yet on potential economic consequences from tariffs
Powell said “the level of the tariff increases announced so far is significantly larger than anticipated” and that the lingering uncertainty around tariffs could inflict lasting economic damage. With Trump’s tariffs putting the economy on a path toward weaker growth, higher unemployment and faster inflation — all at the same time — the Fed is also facing a situation it hasn’t dealt with in about half a century. - CNN https://cnn.it/4lBlGAn
Trump White House budget proposal eviscerates science funding at NASA
According to the "passback" documents given to NASA officials on Thursday, the space agency's science programs would receive nearly a 50 percent cut in funding. After the agency received $7.5 billion for science in fiscal-year 2025, the Trump administration has proposed a science topline budget of just $3.9 billion for the coming fiscal year. - Ars Technica https://bit.ly/42R9AMb
It Certainly Looks Like Elon Musk’s ‘Legion’ of Kids Is Bigger Than Anyone Imagined
Last summer, we reported that billionaire Elon Musk had at least 12 children. Since then, the world has learned that Musk officially has at least two other children, bringing the grand (known) total to 14. However, according to a new report, there could be more, as the unhinged oligarch has reportedly been known to send his semen to women he doesn’t even know. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3YuI8l9
DHS threatens to revoke Harvard’s eligibility to host foreign students amid broader battle over universities’ autonomy
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sent Harvard “a scathing letter demanding detailed records on Harvard’s foreign student visa holders’ illegal and violent activities by April 30, 2025, or face immediate loss of Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification,” her agency said Wednesday in a news release that refers to antisemitism but does not detail specific incidents. - CNN https://cnn.it/3EBWU2r
Trump blasts Fed Chair Powell, saying his ‘termination cannot come fast enough’
President Donald Trump on Thursday ratcheted up his criticism against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, calling for his “termination” for not cutting interest rates quickly enough. His comments come one day after the central bank chief delivered a stark warning about the effect of Trump’s sweeping tariffs on the economy. - CNN https://cnn.it/3Gi0Upx
Maryland Senator Unable to Secure Meeting With Deported Immigrant in El Salvador
Mr. Van Hollen’s trip was the latest chapter in an intensifying political battle over the case of Mr. Abrego Garcia, who was removed from the United States last month in what immigration officials acknowledged was an error. Although the Supreme Court has instructed the U.S. government to facilitate his return, both American and Salvadoran authorities have so far refused to do so. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iH9uvD
Trump says Fed Chair Jerome Powell's 'termination cannot come fast enough'
“The ECB is expected to cut interest rates for the 7th time, and yet, ‘Too Late’ Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is always TOO LATE AND WRONG, yesterday issued a report which was another, and typical, complete ‘mess!’” Trump said in an early-morning post on his social media site, Truth Social. He was referring to the European Central Bank, which cut interest rates shortly after Trump’s post. - Quartz https://bit.ly/44yRoIy
Trump Team Eyes Politically Connected Startup to Overhaul $700 Billion Government Payments Program
A little-known firm with investors linked to JD Vance, Elon Musk and Trump could get a piece of the federal expense card system — and its hundreds of millions in fees. “This goes against all the normal contracting safeguards,” one expert said. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/44wdQlt
Refusing To Lift a Finger for Justice - By leaving Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, the administration has lurched into dark new territory.
In a court filing on March 31, the Trump administration acknowledged that an “administrative error” led to the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father who fled to the United States aged 16 to escape gang violence in El Salvador. Garcia was granted protected legal status by an immigration judge in 2019, due to threats to his life from the Barrio 18 gang. Having admitted its error, the Trump administration now claims Garcia is a member of the gang MS-13 whose return would pose a risk to public safety. The administration is refusing to bring him back to America. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/42iDKYD
Mortgage rates climb to highest level in two months as Trump’s tariffs continue to rock markets
The average rate on a standard, 30-year fixed mortgage was 6.83% in the week ending April 17, up from 6.62% a week ago, mortgage financing provider Freddie Mac said Thursday. That’s the largest one-week jump in mortgage rates in nearly a year. - CNNhttps://cnn.it/42M4mAq
Government IT whistleblower calls out DOGE, says he was threatened at home
A government whistleblower told lawmakers that DOGE's access to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) systems went far beyond what was needed to analyze agency operations and apparently led to a data breach. NLRB employee Daniel Berulis, a DevSecOps architect, also says he received a threat when he was preparing his whistleblower disclosure. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/3GhZ1Jk
Trump’s Three Unwinnable Wars: China, Harvard, and the Supreme Court
Encouraged by the ease with which many big American institutions have caved in to their demands, the Trump regime — that is, the small cadre of bottom-feeding fanatics around Trump (Vance, Musk, Vought, Miller, and RFK Jr.) along with the child king himself — have overreached.
They’ve dared China, Harvard, and the Supreme Court to blink.
But guess what? They’ve met their matches. None of them has blinked — and they won’t. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4jhTGAz
Supreme Court to hear arguments in May in challenge to Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship
Though Trump was raising what the administration described as a “modest” request to limit lower court orders against his plans, the court’s decision to hear arguments in the case was nevertheless remarkable and historic. A win for Trump would allow him to enforce a policy that a lower court described as “blatantly unconstitutional” throughout most of the nation. - CNN https://cnn.it/4lCn1XN
Trump’s next move to silence free speech is coming
If the administration’s actions of the past several weeks are a guide, we should expect it to come in the form of yet another executive order, this time targeting not law firms but civil society groups, and potentially the donors that fund them. If following the overseas playbook, it would accuse such groups of being anti-American, or of operating in bad faith under the guise of public service. It would likely direct the IRS to strip them of their tax-exempt status and instruct federal agencies to investigate them for vaguely defined wrongdoing.
This would not be a move designed to uphold the law. It would be designed to punish dissent. If it happens, it should be seen clearly for what it is: not a defense of democracy and free speech, but an attack on them.
If President Trump tries such an executive order, the intent will be to send a message: Criticize me or seek to hold me accountable — and I will destroy you. It would be a transparent abuse of power, one that echoes the worst tendencies of illiberal regimes across the globe. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/4cL3QHs
AMERICA’S MAD KING
The president has grown more impulsive, more vindictive, and more anarchic. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4jgvKxc
Seth Rogen attack on Trump edited out of science awards show coverage
A pointed criticism of President Trump’s policies on science by Seth Rogen was edited out of the filmed coverage of an annual science awards show, it has emerged. - Guardian https://bit.ly/4lJk342
Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Failed Negotiations to End Antitrust Case
The FTC wanted $30 billion to drop its case. Zuckerberg offered much less and hoped Trump would back him up. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/4jEK9mM
Law Firms Made Deals With Trump. Now He Wants More From Them.
To avoid retribution, big firms agreed to provide free legal services for uncontroversial causes. To the White House, that could mean negotiating trade deals — or even defending the president and his allies. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4imdT6U
Judge: 'Probable cause' to hold U.S. in contempt over Alien Enemies Act deportations
Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia ruled Wednesday that there is "probable cause" to find the Trump administration in criminal contempt of court for violating his order last month to immediately pause any deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. - NPR https://n.pr/42zbiAA
What happens if a president and the federal government fail to follow a judge's orders?
The Trump administration has been accused of ignoring or flat-out defying recent federal court orders, with two judges now weighing contempt findings against officials. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/42BWYqV
Trump Admin Deports Teen With No Criminal Record to El Salvador Prison: Report
Wilmer Gutiérrez last saw his son the morning of Feb. 24. Later that day, his nephew called to tell him that 19-year-old Merwil Gutiérrez had been arrested just steps from their shared apartment in the Bronx. “The officers grabbed him and two other boys right at the entrance to our building,” he recalled. “One said, ‘No, he’s not the one,’ like they were looking for someone else. But the other said, ‘Take him anyway.’” - Yahoo/Rolling Stone https://yhoo.it/3EECmq5
Maryland Senator Meets With Wrongly Deported Man in El Salvador
Senator Chris Van Hollen said on Thursday night that he had met in San Salvador with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man whose wrongful deportation to El Salvador last month has become a flashpoint in the immigration debate and fueled a standoff between the Trump administration and the courts.
Mr. Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, shared a photo of the two men speaking on Thursday evening, hours after the senator had been denied entry to the prison where Mr. Abrego Garcia was being held. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ipZIh9
Columbia Activists Are Being Detained. Protesters Demand Answers.
Hundreds of college students, faculty members and others took to the streets of New York City and to the campus of Columbia University on Thursday to protest the federal detention of organizers of pro-Palestinian demonstrations and what they regard as an assault on higher education. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jEKmq2
What’s Happening Is Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal.
In the beginning there was agony. Under the empires of old, the strong did what they willed and the weak suffered what they must.
But over the centuries, people built the sinews of civilization: Constitutions to restrain power, international alliances to promote peace, legal systems to peacefully settle disputes, scientific institutions to cure disease, news outlets to advance public understanding, charitable organizations to ease suffering, businesses to build wealth and spread prosperity, and universities to preserve, transmit and advance the glories of our way of life. These institutions make our lives sweet, loving and creative, rather than nasty, brutish and short.
Trumpism is threatening all of that. It is primarily about the acquisition of power — power for its own sake. It is a multifront assault to make the earth a playground for ruthless men, so of course any institutions that might restrain power must be weakened or destroyed. Trumpism is about ego, appetite and acquisitiveness and is driven by a primal aversion to the higher elements of the human spirit — learning, compassion, scientific wonder, the pursuit of justice. - Brooks/NYT https://nyti.ms/3Y9Xmf8
Trump’s War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More
By slashing teams that gather critical data, the administration has left the federal government with no way of understanding if policies are working — and created a black hole of information whose consequences could ripple out for decades. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3S0ZEcI
The Only Consistent Thread of Trumpism
This administration embodies a new type of conservatism centered on the impulse to destroy. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/4jKFNdX
The ICE Man Cometh
Trump’s Gestapo is here. It operates throughout the country. It can suddenly arrest anyone, with no crime alleged, and deport them for permanent imprisonment overseas. Will anyone stop this? - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/3Y8rgjQ
Head of I.R.S. Is Ousted in Treasury’s Power Struggle With Elon Musk
Mr. Bessent had complained to Mr. Trump this week that Mr. Musk had done an end run around him to get Mr. Shapley installed as the interim head of the I.R.S., even though the tax collection agency reports to Mr. Bessent, the people familiar with the situation said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cF5eeB
A Startling Admission From a G.O.P. Senator: ‘We Are All Afraid’
“We are all afraid,” Ms. Murkowski said, speaking at a conference in Anchorage on Monday. After pausing for about five seconds, she acknowledged: “It’s quite a statement. But we are in a time and a place where I certainly have not been here before. I’ll tell you, I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that’s not right.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/44u9MCj
A Fourth Circuit Judge Warns Against Reducing The Rule Of Law To Lawlessness
Thursday afternoon, the Fourth Circuit issued a decision, its second, in the Abrego Garcia case. After the district judge, Paula Xinis, ordered expedited discovery into whether the government had failed to comply with the Supreme Court’s order to facilitate his release and return to the United States, the Trump government filed a petition for mandamus. We’ve discussed this writ before. The party that files it asks a higher court to tell a lower court it’s doing something wrong and to either stop doing it or start doing something the court had declined to do. Here, the government wanted to put a stop to the fast-tracked discovery plan Judge Xinis had put into motion. - Civil Discourse https://bit.ly/3RlWDng
There is no Rubicon
In 49 BC, Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River in his march on Rome. That moment, for ancient historians, marked the death of the Roman Republic.
Today, 22 centuries later, the line isn’t so clear. Democracies don’t die in a single moment. Instead of armed coups, modern autocrats incrementally and deliberately chip away at the constraints on power until they become effectively all-powerful. Whether in Putin’s Russia or Orbán’s Hungary, there was no hard division between democracy and autocracy; it wasn’t too late until, in retrospect, it was. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/42tnBOI
Trump’s DOJ Sends Intimidating Letters to Medical Journals for Supposedly Being ‘Partisan’
The U.S. Department of Justice has sent letters to medical journals for supposedly being “partisan,” heavily suggesting that they’re spreading misinformation and are influenced by “funders” rather than medical science. Gizmodo has confirmed that the journal CHEST, a peer-reviewed publication on pulmonary care published by the American College of Chest Physicians, received a letter this week. And MedPage Today reports that at least two other journals have received similar intimidating letters. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4cCR3qi
Judge Limits DOGE’s Grubby Hands From Grabbing Social Security Administration Data
Elon Musk and company’s apparent desire to suck up as much personal information as they can about Americans has hit another snag. U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander issued a preliminary injunction that will at least temporarily prevent staffers from the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing sensitive data on millions of Americans while working within the Social Security Administration. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4lFkQCI
Trump is wrapping up 100 days of historic failure - (MUST READ)
America has seen ruinous periods, but never when the president was the one knowingly causing the ruin. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4jlpLY8
Read Conservative Judge’s Full Opinion Rebuking Trump Administration Over Abrego Garcia Case
A federal appeals court issued a unanimous decision on Thursday rejecting an appeal by the Trump Administration after a district court judge ordered sworn testimony from officials over their refusal to comply with her previous Supreme Court-affirmed order for the Administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia—an El Salvadoran national who was living in Maryland with his U.S. citizen wife and U.S. citizen children and whom the Administration previously Trump calls Fed Chair Jerome Powell 'a major loser' as attacks rattle markets admitted to mistakenly deporting to a notorious El Salvadoran prison under the unproven allegation of gang ties. - Time https://bit.ly/4isZfuF
Letters from an American - April 16, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
In El Salvador today, authorities denied Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) a meeting or a phone call with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man the Trump regime sent by “administrative error” to the terrorist prison CECOT. Abrego Garcia is Van Hollen’s constituent, and the senator promised his family to try to get him released. That Salvadoran officials cannot or will not produce him raises concerns about his well-being. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4irG2JE
Letters from an American - April 17, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Today, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) posted a picture of himself with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man whom the Trump administration says it sent to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador through “administrative error” but can’t get back, and wrote: “I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4jF6r7V
Trump Is Flirting With Economic Disaster
By threatening the independence of the Federal Reserve, the president risks undermining many of his key goals. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3YAhrv1
Trump Officials Blame Mistake for Setting Off Confrontation With Harvard
An official on the administration’s antisemitism task force told the university that a letter of demands had been sent without authorization. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42lqMcB
Supreme Court temporarily pauses deportations under Alien Enemies Act
The Supreme Court early Saturday morning paused the deportation of immigrants potentially subject to the Alien Enemies Act, freezing action in a fast-developing case involving a group of immigrants in Texas who say the Trump administration was working to remove them. - CNN https://cnn.it/3GjGZq6
Kennedy’s Vaccine Hypocrisy Is Unsustainable
Any hopes that Mr. Kennedy’s noxious views on vaccines would moderate with responsibility were always wishful thinking. It may be impossible to change his course, but that doesn’t mean those in positions of leadership shouldn’t try. - Mazer/NYT https://nyti.ms/43WiMjw
Trump goes to war with the Fed
Donald Trump's simmering discontent with the U.S. Federal Reserve boiled over this week, with the president threatening to take the unprecedented step of ousting the head of the fiercely independent central bank.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants rate cuts now to help stimulate economic growth as he rolls out his tariff plans, and has threatened to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell if he does not comply, putting the bank and the White House on a collision course that analysts warn could destabilize U.S. financial markets. - Japan Times https://bit.ly/4iIYePn
‘Shame!’ Protesters Nationwide Rally Again to Condemn Trump Policies.
Thousands of demonstrators rallied at hundreds of events on Saturday to speak out against the president’s handling of immigration, civil liberties, job cuts and many other issues. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ivGWoB
What Trump Isn’t Telling You About His Trade War With China
The most heated trade war is with China, and it’s there that I fear Trump has particularly miscalculated. He seems to be waiting for President Xi Jinping to cry uncle and demand relief, but that’s unlikely; instead, it may be the United States that will be most desperate to end the trade conflict. - Kristoff/NYT https://nyti.ms/4irA8s7
This Is How Far Vance Will Go to Sell a Lie
On Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance wrote a long defense of the administration’s anti-immigrant rendition program, slamming critics who want the White House to obey a court order to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. It is a notable example of the lengths the White House has gone to try to deceive the public as it deals with political fallout from its open defiance of the federal judiciary. - Bouie/NYT https://nyti.ms/3YE6qsI
Our Foreign Students Are Terrified, and They’re Right to Be
International students are a vital and enriching presence on any campus. They are drawn to the United States for our academic excellence and free exchange of ideas. But over the past few months, current and prospective international students — as well as university faculty members — have felt increasingly unwelcome in this country, as over 1,000 students have had their visas revoked or their immigration statuses terminated. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jsQr9l
Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the Fourth Circuit just weighed in on Trump. Welcome to the Resistance, your Honor.
There are moments when stories and messages break through the noise, even in a time when chaos agents in the Trump administration have come at us with everything, hoping to flood the zone and overwhelm the public. - Kuo Substack https://bit.ly/4iq4ScO
Pete Hegseth is a National Security Risk
Who could possibly have guessed that appointing a weekend cable anchor with a reported drinking problem and an array of ethical concerns would have gone poorly? - Message Box News https://bit.ly/3Eqnqfo
DOGE is gutting the watchdog created to protect consumers from financial fraud
The Trump administration is all but eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), firing nearly 90% of its employees, according to several reports. About 1,500 of the agency’s 1,700 workers will be let go, Fox Business (FOXA+1.90%) reported. Employees started receiving layoff notices on Thursday. -Quartz https://bit.ly/4cIiBdO
Trump Is Promising to Lower Drug Prices. Don’t Count on It
The Trump administration pledged this week to substantially reduce the high prices Americans commonly pay for their prescription drugs. It’s a promise that will undoubtedly come up short. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4izZtAd
Hegseth Said to Have Shared Attack Details in Second Signal Chat
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed information about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March 15 in a private Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, according to four people with knowledge of the chat. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42rDoyY
Trump Administration Draft Order Calls for Drastic Overhaul of State Department
A draft of a Trump administration executive order proposes a drastic restructuring of the State Department that includes eliminating almost all of its Africa operations and shutting down embassies and consulates across the continent, according to American officials and a copy of the document. - NYT https://nyti.ms/443fsTL
After Meeting Wrongly Deported Man, Van Hollen Accuses Trump of Defying Courts
Senator Chris Van Hollen on Sunday accused the Trump administration of “outright defying” court orders to return a wrongly deported Maryland man whom Mr. Van Hollen met with in El Salvador last week, and he urged the administration to stop releasing unfavorable records about the man. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iCuH9V
Stocks tumble and dollar hits three-year low as Trump bashes Powell again
US stocks ended the day sharply lower Monday and the dollar tumbled as investors assessed continued tariff uncertainty and the implications of President Donald Trump’s ongoing mission to try and oust Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. - CNN https://cnn.it/44ai0zs
Your Data in DOGE’s Hands
In its attempt to remake the federal bureaucracy, the Trump administration appears guided by three imperatives: Eliminate programs and agencies that do not fit into its agenda; exercise direct control over the remaining agencies; and enforce policies by coordinating across agencies. Political scientists sometimes refer to America as a “many-handed” state, where one hand does not necessarily know what the other hand is doing. The new goal is to punch towards a common opponent and throw multiple haymakers at once. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/4lMgDgK
Who Were Those Gullible People Who Believed Donald Trump’s Bullsht?
His campaign promises, from peace in Ukraine to “beautiful” tariffs, were truly unbelievable. And yet, somehow, many people believed him. His campaign promises, fhttps://bit.ly/430pFzhrom peace in Ukraine to “beautiful” tariffs, were truly unbelievable. And yet, somehow, many people believed him. - New Republic https://bit.ly/430pFzh
Kristi Noem’s Bag, With Security Badge and $3,000, Is Stolen
The homeland security secretary was dining at a Washington, D.C., restaurant. She also lost her passport and keys. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42Nvj6L
Trump Calls Concern Over Hegseth’s 2nd Signal Chat Episode ‘Waste of Time’
The president said he had confidence in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after The New York Times reported that he had shared details about a military strike in another group chat. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iu486A
Elon Musk’s DOGE Seems to Be Losing Steam as He Prepares to Retreat to Tesla
Weird how chaos seems to follow him. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4jLQSeB
Harvard Sues Trump Administration Over Threats to Cut Funding
Harvard, the world’s wealthiest university, sued the Trump administration on Monday, fighting back against its threats to slash billions of dollars from the school’s research funding as part of a crusade against the nation’s top colleges. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jMN9gO
Harvard sues the Trump administration, taking the fight over federal funding and academic freedom to court
University President Alan M. Garber said in a letter to the Harvard community that the administration’s recent actions — including a $2.2 billion federal funding freeze at Harvard, with even more money potentially on the line — “have stark real-life consequences for patients, students, faculty, staff, researchers, and the standing of American higher education in the world.” - CNN https://cnn.it/3YPDwWH
How Trump Worship Took Hold in Washingtonhttps://bit.ly/4cJGzp8
The President is at the center of a brazenly transactional ecosystem that rewards flattery and lockstep loyalty. - New Yorker https://bit.ly/4cJGzp8
Opinion | Former Top Pentagon Spokesperson Details ‘Month From Hell’ Inside the Agency
The total chaos at the Department of Defense is becoming a major distraction for the Trump administration, writes John Ullyot. - Politico https://politi.co/4 Harvard sues the Trump administration, taking the fight over federal funding and academic freedom to court iu4oT6
ICE Can’t Enter Rikers for Now, Judge Rules
After meeting with President Trump’s border czar, Mayor Eric Adams supported allowing U.S. immigration authorities to reopen offices at Rikers Island. - NYT https://nyti.ms/448dTUH
Protesters Chain Themselves to Columbia Gates, Calling for Activists’ Release
University’s campus gates at 116th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in New York on Monday afternoon, protesting the detention of two Palestinian student activists by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. They were part of a larger contingent that sat down outside the gate. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GoWxJi
Trump's economic approval ratings have never been worse
The CNBC All-America Economic Survey found that the economic optimism that ushered in Trump’s inauguration has disappeared. More Americans now believe the economy will get worse than at any moment since 2023, accompanied by deepening pessimism about the stock market, which has seen sharp sell-offs and volatility around Trump’s tariffs. The poll, which surveyed 1,000 Americans, resulted in numbers only slightly better than CNBC’s final polling when Trump first left office in 2020. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4cMCUqB
Trump calls Fed Chair Jerome Powell 'a major loser' as attacks rattle markets
Stocks and the dollar plunged on rising concerns over the independence of the Federal Reserve. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3GqsCjR..
Controversial doc gets measles while treating unvaccinated kids—keeps working
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a person infected with measles is considered contagious from four days before the rash appears to four days after it appears. The virus is among the most infectious known to humans. It spreads in the air and can linger in the airspace of a room for up to two hours after an infectious person is present. Up to 90 percent of people who lack immunity—either from prior infection or vaccination—will get sick upon an exposure. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4jGZT8K
Even a Republican Congressman Is Turning on Pete Hegseth After Signalgate 2.0
Sources told NPR that the White House is actively searching for Hegseth's replacement. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/44EEHMk
RFK Jr. Spews Even More Nonsense on Autism, Covid in Latest Interview
During a radio interview this past Sunday, RFK Jr. argued that autism was worse than the pandemic because "COVID killed old people." - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4jBf1EU
Rubio unveils first stage of major State Department overhaul
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday rolled out the first stage of a major plan to reorganize the US State Department with changes that will eliminate 132 domestic offices, cut around 700 positions in Washington, DC, and close offices focused on war crimes and global conflict, according to a senior State Department official and documents obtained by CNN. - CNN https://cnn.it/4cNaGfx
White House Doubles Down On Claims Gas Hit $1.98 A Gallon This Week, Despite Reality
Donald Trump went in front of reporters on Wednesday and claimed gas hit $1.98 a gallon this week "...in a couple of states." Not only did this not happen (and would have been big news if it had) but, when the reality of gas prices was pointed out, the White House doubled down on the claim while getting a dig in at reporters, who apparently don't own cars and all live in a "big city bubble." - Jalopnik https://bit.ly/4lRS7Lo
Under Hegseth, Chaos Prevails at the Pentagon
The defense secretary’s inner circle is in disarray, and distrust is growing among civil servants and senior military officials. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jQxai4
As Elon Tries to Avoid the Spotlight, Climate Activists Brazenly Vandalize Tesla Dealership
FreedomNews.TV documented protesters with the non-violent protest group hitting up a Tesla showroom in Manhattan on Tuesday, using spray paint to leave messages in opposition to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Demonstrators sprayed “Fuck DOGE” and “We do not consent” among other generally anti-Musk positions on the building as part of an Earth Day demonstration. It’s a pretty daring campaign given the Trump administration’s stated goal to crack down on those who vandalize Tesla dealerships and threats to hit the worst offenders with terrorism charges. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3EmytWY
As RFK Crusades to ‘Make America Healthy,’ FDA Suspends Milk Quality Tests
Reuters reports that, under Kennedy, the Food and Drug Administration has announced it will suspend a quality control program that tests milk and other dairy products. The outlet cites emails from the FDA’s Division of Dairy Safety to report that the shuttered program, which involves proficiency testing for grade “A” raw milk and other dairy products, will no longer operate. Proficiency testing ensures that America’s network of food safety labs operates consistently with federal standards. Milk products have (historically) needed to comply with federal requirements to be considered Grade “A.” - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4iu5RJ6
Details Hegseth Shared on Signal Came From a Secure Site
Information about U.S. strikes in Yemen that the defense secretary put in two group chats came from Central Command, according to two people familiar with the chats. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jGf8i8
Elon Musk Vows to Spend Less Time in Washington as Tesla’s Profit Drops 71%
The carmaker reported the sharp decline in quarterly earnings after its brand suffered because of its chief executive’s role in the Trump administration. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lMUezI
Trump pretends he never suggested potentially firing the Fed’s Jerome Powell
The president might want to admit that he’s retreating, but it’ll probably be awhile before he echoes his own rhetoric about the Fed chair's “termination.” - MSNBC https://on.msnbc.com/3RvJic7
Judge Blocks Trump Effort to Dismantle Voice of America
The judge also ordered the government to halt its efforts to shut down two other government-funded outlets, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44HoQwy
‘60 Minutes’ Chief Resigns in Emotional Meeting: ‘The Company Is Done With Me’
“60 Minutes” has faced mounting pressure in recent months from both President Trump, who sued CBS for $10 billion and has accused the program of “unlawful and illegal behavior,” and its own corporate ownership at Paramount, the parent company of CBS News. - NYT https://nyti.ms/431CLwc
3 Adams Case Prosecutors Resign Rather Than Express Regret to Justice Dept.
They had been placed on administrative leave after refusing to abandon the corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams. “We will not confess wrongdoing when there was none,” they wrote. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GBn6Lc
National Science Foundation Terminates Hundreds of Active Research Awards
The agency targeted grants focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as research on misinformation. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cMFXPz
The Trump Administration’s War on Children
The administration is quietly putting America’s children at risk by cutting funds and manpower for investigating child abuse, enforcing child support payments, providing child care and much more. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3ENXuu2
Exclusive: a Nature analysis signals the beginnings of a US science brain drain
Data from the Nature Careers global science jobs platform show that US scientists submitted 32% more applications for jobs abroad between January and March 2025 than during the same period in 2024. At the same time, the number of US-based users browsing jobs abroad increased by 35%. - Nature https://go.nature.com/4cNo3vX
Donald Trump’s war on children
It’s been largely lost in the cacophony over President Donald Trump’s tariffs and vendettas against universities, but administration officials have been gutting services that keep children alive and well. These include programs that feed kids, teach them the alphabet, provide them medical care, guarantee their rights and shield them from abuse. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3ECpvF6
4-year-old migrant girl, other kids go to court in NYC with no lawyer: 'The cruelty is apparent'
The parties included a 7-year-old boy, wearing a shirt emblazoned with a pizza cartoon, who spun a toy windmill while the judge spoke. There was an 8-year-old girl and her 4-year-old sister, in a tie-dye shirt, who squeezed a pink plushy toy and stuffed it into her sleeve. None of the children were accompanied by parents or attorneys, only shelter workers who helped them log on to the hearing. - Gothamist https://bit.ly/3SbHRQ9
Which Past Fascist Does Trump Most Resemble? The Incompetent One.
Donald Trump’s narcissism bears a striking resemblance to Benito Mussolini’s. Which does not bode well. - New Republic https://bit.ly/3S5366h
Elon Musk’s Pledge to Step Away From DOGE Sounds Like Word Games
The long and the short of it: We’ll believe Musk is actually leaving government when we see it. Trump and Musk both say a lot of things that don’t turn out to be true. Tesla didn’t respond to an email Wednesday asking for more details about Musk’s plan to supposedly step away from DOGE. But that’s not a surprise, given the fact that the company dissolved its media relations department in 2020. Gizmodo will update this post if, by some miracle, we hear back. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4jJ5YlL
Pete Hegseth Is Running Out of Excuses
Hegseth was always manifestly unqualified for the job of defense secretary. Set aside the serial infidelity, the accusations of alcohol abuse (which he has denied), and the questions about extremist views: Even without these, he had nowhere near the résumé to run the armed forces. Though he is a veteran, Hegseth had not otherwise worked in government, and the organizations he had run were tiny, especially compared with the Department of Defense. He was picked because he looked good on TV, where he’d been a Fox News personality, and was loyal to the president. especially compared with the Department of Defense. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/44Hsfvf
Trump’s Plan to Sell Out Ukraine to Russia
Donald Trump said on the campaign trail that he would make peace between Ukraine and Russia in a day. Three months later, he’s behind schedule, and his plan now is to end the fighting quickly by selling out Ukraine and its people to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The proposal that Trump, Vice President J. D. Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are pushing is not a framework for peace, but a rich and bloody reward to Moscow for three years of aggression and war crimes. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3YiHrv4
U.S. official backs off promise to solve cause of autism by September
A top U.S. science official has backed away from a bold promise made by Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr to reveal the cause of autism by September. - ASFP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/3EGr1WB?
Trump Pressures Ukraine to Accept a Peace Plan That Sharply Favors Russia
President Trump and his top aides demanded on Wednesday that Ukraine accede to an American-designed proposal that would essentially grant Russia all the territory it has gained in the war, while offering Kyiv only vague security assurances. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42HFxp2
A Subdued Musk Backs Away From Washington, but His Project Remains
The Department of Government Efficiency has already made an immense imprint on the government, but it has not come close to Elon Musk’s pledge of cutting $1 trillion. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jGv4ks
China Has an Army of Robots on Its Side in the Tariff War
Enormous investments in factory equipment and artificial intelligence are giving China an edge in car manufacturing and other industries. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jnmuHz
They Criticized Musk on X. Then Their Reach Collapsed.
When Mr. Musk purchased X in 2022, he promised to create a free speech haven and named himself a “free speech absolutist.”
Critics still feared that Mr. Musk would use his control of the app to pick and choose his favorites, amplifying voices he admired while suppressing people or topics he loathed.
The New York Times found three users on X who feuded with Mr. Musk in December only to see their reach on the social platform practically vanish overnight. The accounts are the starkest signs yet that Mr. Musk or others at the company have the power to punish critics and that they may be willing to use it, startling free speech advocates who hoped that the billionaire would be their champion. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Grg6R3
Trump Plans Private Dinner for Largest Buyers of $TRUMP Crypto
President Donald Trump launched his own cryptocurrency just before taking office in January in one of the most blatantly unethical financial schemes from any U.S. president of the modern era. And while the $TRUMP memecoin hasn’t gotten as much attention lately compared to his other wildly unethical endeavors, that could change next month. Because the president is hosting a private dinner for people who’ve purchased the most $TRUMP. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3YSkmiX
Trump's Crypto Corruption Scheme Goes into Overdrive
This event is wholly corrupt—it is an opportunity for people to buy access to the President of the United States without any regulation, oversight, or transparency. It’s bribery pure and simple. - Message Box https://bit.ly/447SuuN
Dems Have Questions About Trump’s Dinner With His Meme Coin Holders
According to CNBC, Senators Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren sent a letter on Friday to the US Office of Government Ethics requesting an investigation into whether Trump offering dinner to anyone who puts enough money into his meme coin amounts to a violation of federal ethics rules. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3Et5LUm
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to let it enforce ban on transgender service members for now
The military ban was announced by Trump earlier this year and would have taken effect late last month, but several lower courts issued rulings against it before it could be implemented. - CNN https://cnn.it/4iDujrA
Elon Musk’s Pledge to Step Away From DOGE Sounds Like Word Games
Elon Musk sounded extremely depressed on Tesla’s earnings call Tuesday after the EV company reported a 71% drop in profits last quarter. But one of the big headlines you’re seeing everywhere is this claim that Musk is leaving his role in President Donald Trump’s government as the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). And while it’s something Musk really did say, it’s worth taking a closer look at the exact words he used. Because just like everything else the billionaire oligarch promises, this claim needs to be treated with some healthy skepticism. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4cQFlbO
Courts Block Trump From Withholding School Funds Over D.E.I., for Now
In three cases, federal judges paused the administration’s effort to cut off money from public schools with diversity and equity programs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cQFqw8
Congressional Republicans Might Set Off the Debt Bomb
Congressional Republicans have approved the most fiscally irresponsible budget resolution since the modern budget process began five decades ago. It allows Congress to slash taxes by $5.3 trillion and expand spending by $517 billion over the decade. This $5.8 trillion addition to the deficit (plus interest) would exceed the cost of the 2017 tax cuts, 2020 CARES Act, 2021 American Rescue Plan, and 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—combined. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4jvUIJh
Trump’s Plan to Sell Out Ukraine to Russia
Donald Trump said on the campaign trail that he would make peace between Ukraine and Russia in a day. Three months later, he’s behind schedule, and his plan now is to end the fighting quickly by selling out Ukraine and its people to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The proposal that Trump, Vice President J. D. Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are pushing is not a framework for peace, but a rich and bloody reward to Moscow for three years of aggression and war crimes. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/446Ouus
‘This Is Not How We Do Science, Ever’
One of the most notable things about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, a federal agency tasked with “improving the health, safety, and well-being of America”—is how confidently he distorts the basics of health, safety, and well-being. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/42GCgaZ
Is This Trump’s Mitterrand Moment?
The French President saved his government by giving up socialism. It’s a precedent for tariffs. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/44HVePD
Trump Is Paying A Price For His Reign Of Error
The incompetence of Trump and his administration was wholly predictable, of course—and in fact was widely predicted. After all, Trump not only had a disastrous first term, his nominees to top posts this term have lacked basic qualifications. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/42OQDbM
The Project 2025 Presidency
After Donald Trump won in November, I sat down to read all 922 pages of Project 2025. As I write in my new book, what I discovered was more radical and more interesting than I’d expected. It predicted much of what we’ve seen in the first three months of the second Trump administration—and much of what’s to come, including the dismantling of federal climate research that’s started to take shape in recent weeks. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4iEzJ5M
Trump Takes Aim at Democrats’ Online Fundraising Platforms
President Trump has decided to target the online fundraising websites that power a majority of Democrats’ political campaigns. In an executive order on Thursday, the Trump administration initiated a plan to investigate ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s primary grassroots fundraising tool. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3SemkGx
Wisconsin Judge Arrested, Accused of Shielding Immigrant From Federal Agents
The decision to charge a sitting state court judge is a major escalation in the Trump administration’s battle with local authorities over deportations. The administration has demanded, under threat of investigation or prosecution, that local officials not impede federal efforts to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, and the arrest sent a message that the administration intends to take a harder line with those that do. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3RB77PF
Voters See Trump’s Use of Power as Overreaching, Times/Siena Poll Finds
Voters believe President Trump is overreaching with his aggressive efforts to expand executive power, and they have deep doubts about some of the signature pieces of his agenda, a New York Times/Siena College poll found. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3REvNa5
Inspector General Probes Whether Trump, DOGE Sought Private Taxpayer Information or Sensitive IRS Material
A Treasury Department inspector general is probing efforts by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to obtain private taxpayer data and other sensitive information, internal communications reviewed by ProPublica show. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3YkoQ1H
U.S. Restores Legal Status for Many International Students, but Warns of Removals to Come
The Trump administration on Friday abruptly moved to restore thousands of international students’ ability to study in the United States legally, but immigration officials insisted they could still try to terminate that legal status despite a wave of legal challenges. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42Q5l2v
Trump and China can't even agree on if Trump and China are having trade talks
Trump says Xi called him, but Chinese officials deny there have been any trade talks. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3RAuWXS
Trump backs down in legal fight over canceling international students’ status records for now
The Trump administration is backing down from a multi-state legal fight over sweeping actions taken by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement that potentially terminated the immigration status of thousands of international students studying in the United States. - CNN https://cnn.it/4jsS7zJ
Fearing Trump’s Visa Crackdown, College Students Race to Scrub Op-Eds
Campus newspapers confront ethics debates as international students try to remove their names and opinions from past articles. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/3S5AyJU
Trump is destroying 100 years of competitive advantage in 100 days
Cuts to research and attacks on universities are handing global leadership to China. -WaPo https://wapo.st/3RBBDZO
Inside the Fiasco at the National Security Council
Firings and leadership challenges have destabilized an institution that has little margin for error. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4juYJh2
Big brands are officially worried about American shoppers
The companies that make our food and home essentials are officially sounding alarms about what lies ahead for the U.S. shopper. - NPR https://n.pr/4lPUq1m
What Elon Musk Didn’t Budget For: Firing Workers Costs Money, Too
An expert on the federal work force estimates that the speed and chaos of Mr. Musk’s cuts to the bureaucracy will cost taxpayers $135 billion this fiscal year. https://nyti.ms/3EBvytw
Courts Block Trump From Withholding School Funds Over D.E.I., for Now
In three cases, federal judges paused the administration’s effort to cut off money from public schools with diversity and equity programs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44HZ1MR
Trump keeps contradicting himself on tariffs, making a fragile world economy nervous
What should one believe? The sure bet is that uncertainty will persist in ways that employers and consumers alike expect to damage the economy and that leave foreign leaders scratching their heads in bewilderment. - AP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/42MC4pn?
2-year-old U.S. citizen appears to have been deported 'with no meaningful process'
The Trump administration appeared to have deported a 2-year-old U.S. citizen "with no meaningful process," a federal judge said Friday, as the child's father sought to have her returned to the United States. - Reuters/Japan Today https://bit.ly/4ivpUXD
Trump Claims He’s Negotiating With China on Trade. China Says Otherwise.
President Trump said that “we’re meeting with China” on tariffs, comments aimed at soothing jittery financial markets. But Chinese officials say no talks have taken place. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Ezjxop
Trump Budget to Take Ax to ‘Radical’ Safety Net Programs
A draft document outlines steep cuts or the elimination of funding for programs that provide child care, housing assistance, foreign aid and health research. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3RAZk4w The Terrifying Prospect of Trump’s Peace Plan for Ukraine
The Terrifying Prospect of Trump’s Peace Plan for Ukraine
Days after threatening to abandon peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, the Trump administration last week produced the outlines of a proposal to end the war between the two countries. The proposal, which is being viewed as President Trump’s “final offer,” completely blindsided Ukraine and America’s European allies, and for good reason: It heavily favors the aggressor. Ukraine has already rejected it. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3YNf3Bk
Elon Musk had the government in his grasp. Then it unraveled.
The billionaire head of the U.S. DOGE Service clashed with Trump Cabinet officials well before he announced he would soon head back to Tesla. -WaPo https://wapo.st/4cTDCT2
The view from the right
We’re on the cusp of a national wave of outrage that transcends the old political labels. This hardly means that died-in-the-wool Trumpers will change their minds. But it does give America’s business leaders who have so far remained silent or even supported Trump — the CEOs of America’s biggest corporations, the captains of our largest financial institutions, the heads of media empires — enough cover to come out against this dangerous and despicable regime. Will they? - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3REjmLq
Ineptitude, incompetence, stupidity, and chaos
All this ineptitude in just the last few weeks reveals that the Trump regime is coming apart. Incompetence is everywhere. The regime can’t keep military secrets. It can’t maintain financial stability. It can’t protect children from measles. It cannot protect America. While we need to continue to resist Trump’s authoritarianism, we also need to highlight his utter inability to govern America. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3ErJ8Qc
Letters from an American - April 24, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Trump won the presidency by assuring his base that he was a strong leader who could impose his will on the country and the world. Now he is bleating weakly at Putin. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4jY3fEK
Letters from an American - April 26, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Early yesterday morning, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sent three U.S. citizens aged 2, 4, and 7 from Louisiana, including one with Stage 4 cancer, to Honduras when they deported their mothers. The three are children of two different mothers who were arrested while checking in with the government as part of their routine process for immigration proceedings. The women and their children were not permitted to speak to family or lawyers before being flown to Honduras. The cancer patient was sent out of the country without medication or consultation with doctors although, according to Charisma Madarang and Lorena O'Neil of Rolling Stone, ICE agents were told of the child’s medical needs. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4izT7kp
The first 100 days: Why we must mobilize
Today is the start of the 14th week of the odious Trump regime. Wednesday will mark its first 100 days. The U.S. Constitution is in peril. Civil and human rights are being trampled upon. The economy is in disarray. At this rate, we won’t make it through the second hundred days. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/42vSFPk
Trump DOJ Threatens Wikipedia’s Nonprofit Status Over Alleged ‘Propaganda’
Between scrubbing government websites of information about everything from vaccine efficacy to LGBT health matters and the ongoing war with higher education, the Trump administration seems to have a problem with freely available information that doesn’t align with its particular ideology. That war on knowledge appears to have extended to Wikipedia. Earlier this week, a Trump appointed attorney sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation accusing it of allowing the spread of propaganda and threatening its nonprofit status. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4370tao
Trump Pardons Executive Whose Family Sought to Publicize Ashley Biden’s Diary
The pardon of Paul Walczak, who had been convicted of tax crimes, comes as the president uses clemency to reward allies and swipe at perceived enemies.- NYT https://nyti.ms/4cYo5BC
Kleptocracy, Inc.
In a law-abiding administration, personal finances wouldn’t be an important part of the public debate. But this administration’s leaders have decided that laws and norms of behavior that have held for a century or more don’t apply to them. The Republican-led Congress has so far decided not to enforce them either. It’s now up to the media, to outside organizations, and to whistleblowers to keep reporting the slide into kleptocracy to the public and to the courts, to make sure that remaining laws are enforced. It’s up to the Democratic Party to follow the lead of opposition movements in other kleptocracies and to put corruption at the center of their arguments. Before it’s too late, everyone who can do so must communicate what is happening: American government, American foreign policy, and American trade policy are slowly being transformed, not to benefit Americans but to benefit the president, his family, and his friends. Only voters can stop them. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4jo29C6
Tyrants like Trump always fall – and we can already predict how he will be dethroned
All this points to one conclusion: as a tyrant, let alone as president, Trump is actually pretty useless – and as his failures, frustrations and fantasies multiply, he will grow ever more dangerously unstable. Trump’s biggest enemy is Trump. Those who would save the US and themselves – at home and abroad – must employ all democratic means to contain, deter, defang and depose him. But right now, the best, brightest hope is that, drowning in hubris, Trump will destroy himself. - Tisdall/Guardian https://bit.ly/4cSNOv7
Lawyer for MyPillow Founder Filed AI-Generated Brief with ‘Nearly 30’ Bogus Citations
In a situation that is already adequately stupid, there is always room for things to get stupider, as this week it was reported that Lindell’s lawyer was in hot water for having filed a legal brief that was written with generative AI. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4jDl8sI
How the Trump Administration Flipped on Kilmar Abrego Garcia
Officials were developing a plan to get him back to the United States. Why did they stop? - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3GpAGS7
Trump Administration Loosening Safety Requirements For Self-Driving Vehicles
The Trump administration says it plans to speed up to the deployment of self-driving vehicles on public roads by getting rid of some of the safety requirements that kept folks like you and me safe. They also want to ease requirements for reporting safety incidents. Great. I'm sure this has nothing to do with the plans for autonomous vehicles Tesla CEO Elon Musk laid out at an earnings call earlier this week or the fact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration probed Tesla's Full Self-Driving software while President Biden was in office. - Jalopnik https://bit.ly/3YSJOop
Trump’s Biggest Beneficiary: Himself
It’s all a sorry and sordid picture, a president who had already set a new standard for egregious and potentially illegal behavior hitting new lows with metronomic regularity. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42QeSXf
Trump’s Tariffs Prompt Wave of Lawsuits as States and Businesses Fight Back
Nearly four weeks into a costly global trade war with no end in sight, Mr. Trump is facing a barrage of lawsuits from state officials, small businesses and even once-allied political groups, all contending that the president cannot sidestep Congress and tax virtually any import at levels to his liking. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cWeCKX
100 Days. That’s All It Took to Sever America From the World.
America’s strength has always been connected to the fact that it comprises people from everywhere who chose not to be defined by a ruler or to fear the future. At a time when power in the world is becoming more diffuse, our shifting demographics should be seen as a strength, not something to be feared or suppressed through a reactionary politics that shuts out the world. If we continue down that path, the procession of civilization will leave us behind, in a fearful, diminished and impoverished place. If we recover our sense of agency, we can re-engage the world as a part of it — neither hegemon nor hostile. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iEkUjs
Three Opinion Writers on the Havoc Kennedy Has Wreaked So Far
Alexandra Sifferlin, a health and science editor for Times Opinion, hosted a written conversation with the Opinion columnist Ross Douthat and the Opinion writers Jessica Grose and David Wallace-Wells about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s first two months as secretary of health and human services. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42RY1mT
One Hundred Days of Ineptitude
There were many more moments of chaos and cruelty to come, but now we know that Trump’s first term, his initial attempt at authoritarian primacy, was amateur hour, a fitful rehearsal. The reflexes and ambitions were all there; he just didn’t know yet what he was doing. - New Yorker https://bit.ly/3YgUgWM
Defending Jan. 6 Rioters, Investigating Democrats: How Ed Martin Is Weaponizing the DOJ for Trump
As interim U.S. attorney in D.C., Martin has fired career prosecutors, dropped Capitol riot cases and launched sweeping probes into Trump’s political enemies. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3YlWmEH
U.S. citizen children, including 4-year-old with cancer, taken to Honduras on mother's deportation flight, legal advocates say
Two U.S. citizen children were sent on their mother’s deportation flight to Honduras without the opportunity to speak with attorneys, leaving a 4-year-old boy with Stage 4 cancer without access to his medication, according to the National Immigration Project. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4lRIT1w
After 100 Days, Most Americans Hate What Elon Musk Is Doing to the Government
Only 35% of Americans approve of the way Musk is handling his job in the Trump administration, according to polling conducted by Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos. Fifty-seven percent of Americans say they disapprove of Musk. And if you don’t like what Musk is doing, you really don’t like it, with 46% strongly disapproving of Musk’s job rather than just “somewhat” disapproving. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3ErMqmw
DOGE Was Bad. Schedule F Will Be Worse.
In the waning days of the first Trump administration, the White House announced a plan to convert an estimated 50,000 government employees to a status similar to political appointees—meaning that they would become “at will” hires who serve purely at the president’s pleasure. Schedule F, as this plan was known, was never implemented then and was revoked immediately under Joe Biden’s presidency. But now the policy is back, formally resurrected by executive order on April 18. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/44XwTp0
Read The Atlantic’s Interview With Donald Trump
What follows are substantial excerpts from our conversation, condensed and edited for clarity. Our main goal in the interview was to encourage the president to analyze his unprecedented political comeback, and explain the way he is now wielding power—including the question of whether he sees any limits to what a president can do. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3YWK068
‘I RUN THE COUNTRY AND THE WORLD’
Donald Trump believes he’s invincible. But the cracks are beginning to show. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4lXl5Ju
Gore on Trump
Earlier today, I asked rhetorically: When it comes to the necessity of speaking out against this dangerous and detestable regime, where are Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and where are their vice presidents, Al Gore and Dick Cheney? When I wrote this I had not come across a particularly powerful speech Al Gore delivered last week in San Francisco at Climate Week. My error. Here it is, in full: - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4jBA0HV
Is a recession coming? Here's what JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and other banks and economists say
There are numerous signs that the economy is already weakening amid trade war whiplash and stock market volatility. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4iBZR0V
The ‘Recklessness Itself Sends a Message’: 35 Legal Experts Assess Trump’s Return
In his first hours back as president, Donald J. Trump did an extraordinary thing: He made a direct assault on the Constitution. He declared that his government would no longer treat U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants or children of lawful, temporary immigrants as citizens, as the 14th Amendment commands. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jUCErP
Trump's first 100 days - in numbers
We measure this presidency so far on polling, actions, economy and immigration. - BBC https://bbc.in/3YpMbPE
Elon Musk's work for Trump is really unpopular, poll says
The Tesla CEO's role as head of DOGE makes has him more disliked than the president. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3Yt2Dyx
Empty shelves are coming, Apollo economist says — and so is a 'voluntary' recession
Major retailers will soon file for bankruptcy as a recession takes hold, economist Torsten Slok predicts. -Quartz https://bit.ly/4d23VXh
The White House slams Amazon for 'hostile and political act' after report it will list tariff price hikes
Amazon denied a report that it didn't want to shoulder the blame with consumers for the cost of Trump's tariffs Amazon denied a report that it didn't want to shoulder the blame with consumers for the cost of Trump's tariffs. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3GBR0z5
US economy goes into reverse from Trump’s abrupt policy shifts
The US economy just had its worst quarter since 2022 as President Donald Trump’s significant policy changes unnerved consumers and businesses. - CNN https://cnn.it/4jASDeT
Trump Grants Carmakers Some Relief From His Punishing Tariffs
Most levies on imported cars and car parts will remain in place, but automakers have secured some relaxation of the trade policy. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42SBCG0
A Mother and Father Were Deported. What Happened to Their Toddler?
The Trump administration sent the mother of a 2-year-old to Venezuela and the father to a Salvadoran prison. Their daughter remains somewhere in the United States. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iIECum
White House Panics After Report Claims Amazon Will Display Tariff Prices
"This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” the White House Press Secretary said. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3EP6lf6
White House-Amazon Spat Culminates in Trump Calling Bezos ‘Very Nice’
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, attacked the retail giant over a report that suggested Amazon would highlight tariff-related price increases. Amazon said it was “not going to happen.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iKftj9
Lab Animals Face Being Euthanized as Trump Cuts Research
Animal testing remains a fundamental part of biomedical research. But as funding evaporates, mice, rats and even monkeys may be euthanized. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42YpKT6
Trump Is About to Steal My Friend’s Christmas — and Yours
One hundred days into this administration, Dane isn’t happy. “With Trump I thought, maybe, there might be a method to the madness,” he told me on Saturday. “I’m concerned now that there is madness to his method.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3YmKx1a
‘Did I Miss Something?’: Online Shoppers Shocked as Trump Tariffs Jack Up Prices 145%
China-based online retailer Temu started adding “import charges” for orders being sent to the U.S. in recent days, often more than doubling the cost. The charges are all thanks to President Donald Trump’s tariffs. And American customers are not too happy about any of it. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3EPrO7K
100 Days of Ressentiment
Donald Trump’s disregard for law—and thirst for revenge—mean worse is to come. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/3GCxtOZ
Trump's response as the stock market sinks and the economy shrinks: Blame Biden
The current president's deflection, as GDP shrinks and recession fears rise, came after he took credit for a rising market under Biden - Quartz https://bit.ly/3GwMli5
Letters from an American - April 29, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Trump set out to destroy the modern American state, gutting the civil service and illegally shuttering federal agencies, as well as slashing through government programs. His team has withdrawn the U.S. from its global leadership and rejected democratic allies in favor of autocrats like Russia’s Vladimir Putin. At home he has imitated those autocrats, ignoring the rule of law and rendering migrants to prison in El Salvador without due process, and using the power of the state to threaten those he perceives as his enemies. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3RJWMkv
Supreme Court Seems Open to a Religious Charter School in Oklahoma
The justices have allowed vouchers for religious schools and required equal treatment in tuition programs. But direct government payments to religious public schools pose a new test. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44kZSTM
Trump’s Maximalist Assertion of Presidential Power Tests the Rule of Law
Mr. Trump, pursuing a confrontational style of presidential politics, has unleashed an assault on counterweights to his authority: attacking judges, sidelining Congress’s role in making decisions about taxes and spending, steamrolling internal limits on the executive branch and using the levers of government to try to force outside centers of power like law firms and universities to submit to his will. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iMUwnR
This week's Neville Chamberlain Award goes to
Sorry to intrude on you again today but I need to add this week’s winner of the Neville Chamberlain Award, given to the most cowardly effort to appease a tyrant. But this week’s bigger winner is Jeff Bezos. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4iEgTvr
Day 100: Where we are now
Trump is losing in court, losing the public, losing over and over, which ultimately means he's losing the one thing critical to the success of autocrats: momentum. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/3GCyzu5
The Polls Are Sending Trump a Message
“People are very happy with this presidency,” President Donald Trump said in an interview with The Atlantic last week. “I’ve had great polls.”
That wasn’t true then, and it’s even less true now. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3GD7PtG
Why Trump Is Giving Putin Everything He Wants
If the U.S. president holds all the cards, why hasn’t he won any concessions from Russia? - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3YOAMJp
The Autism Epidemic That Never Was
RFK Jr.'s scientific illiteracy has led the ignorant down a dangerous path. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/42Yv09i
The most important lesson of Trump’s first hundred days
No modern president has done as much as Trump has done in his first hundred days — to trash human rights, undermine our alliances, threaten the independence of our universities and the press, stymie progress on climate change, decimate our civil service, shaft the poor, harm the working class, worsen the economy, and leave much of our government in tatters. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4iTqIpG
Behind Trump’s Deal to Deport Venezuelans to El Salvador’s Most Feared Prison
New details deepen questions about the deportations, showing that El Salvador’s president pressed for assurances that the migrants were really members of the Tren de Aragua gang. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GA8dc5
Donald Trump might actually believe these Calibri labels are real MS-13 tattoos
For several weeks, President Donald Trump and his administration have been grasping for evidence that a man his administration deported and imprisoned in error is a dangerous gang member, and the effort has now reached what may be an untoppable peak: the President repeatedly insisting in an in-person interview that an obvious text label that says MS13 in the Calibri typeface is an actual tattoo. - Verge https://bit.ly/4jDAmhe
Schrödinger’s Detainees
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is one of hundreds of prisoners in El Salvador who have been denied their day in court. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3ENohXG
The Conservative Case Against Trump’s Latest Power Grab
IN JUST A FEW MONTHS, Americans have seen how much harm can be done by an unconstrained president who no longer needs the electorate to achieve his aims. Lawful residents of the United States “disappeared” off the streets and whisked away to foreign prisons without due process. Private law firms and universities coerced into surrendering their historic independence. Unpredictable tariffs roiling markets, raising prices, and wreaking havoc on the global economy. - Bulwark https://bit.ly/43bPufR
Trump’s Cuts to Science Funding Could Hurt U.S. Economy, Study Shows
Reducing federal support for research and development could cause long-run economic damage and reduce government revenue. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4k4eV90
‘This Is What We Were Always Scared of’: DOGE Is Building a Surveillance State
Elon Musk may be stepping back from running the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, but his legacy there is already secured. DOGE is assembling a sprawling domestic surveillance system for the Trump administration — the likes of which we have never seen in the United States. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3EQ0BBV
RFK Jr. Goes Full Tinfoil, Pledges to Stop Chemtrails in Latest Dr. Phil Interview
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has gone full conspiracy buff. In a recent interview with Dr. Phil, the Secretary of Health and Human Services vowed to combat the entirely fabricated threat of chemtrails. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4jZYlab
Letters from an American - April 30, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
This morning the Bureau of Economic Analysis released a report showing an abrupt reversal in the U.S. economy. Gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the total market value of goods and services, shrank from a healthy 2.4% in the last quarter of 2024 to -0.3% in the first quarter of 2025. The shift is the first time in three years that the economy has contracted. The slump appears to have been fueled by a surge in buying overseas goods before Trump’s tariffs hit. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4lX6VrP
RFK Jr. rejects cornerstone of health science: Germ theory
With the rise of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., brain worms have gotten a bad rap.
A year ago, the long-time anti-vaccine advocate and current US health secretary famously told The New York Times that a parasitic worm "got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died." The startling revelation is now frequently referenced whenever Kennedy says something outlandish, false, or offensive—which is often. For those who have followed his anti-vaccine advocacy, it's frightfully clear that, worm-infested or not, Kennedy's brain is marinated in wild conspiracy theories and dangerous misinformation.
While it's certainly possible that worm remnants could impair brain function, it remains unknown if the worm is to blame for Kennedy's cognitive oddities. For one thing, he was also diagnosed with mercury poisoning, which can cause brain damage, too. As prominent infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said last June in a conversation with political analyst David Axelrod: "I don't know what's going on in Kennedy's head, but it's not good." - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/3YqU5rW
Trump-appointed judge says president’s use of Alien Enemies Act is unlawful in first-of-its-kind ruling
US District Judge Fernando Rodriguez of the Southern District of Texas said Trump had unlawfully invoked the sweeping 18th century wartime authority to speed up some deportations. His decision means Trump cannot rely on the law to detain or deport any alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua within his district. - CNN https://cnn.it/42XZ8kW
Mike Waltz Joins an Unhappy Fraternity
For weeks, Washington has been waiting to see how long National Security Adviser Michael Waltz could hold on. The answer, we now know, was 101 days. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3EK8gSg
Trump-appointed federal judge rejects use of Alien Enemies Act in Venezuelan deportations
Trump-appointed federal judge rejects use of Alien Enemies Act in Venezuelan deportations. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4k06viP
White House launches Drudge-style website to promote Trump
Why it matters: The site, called White House Wire, represents the administration's latest effort to circumvent the mainstream media and present itself in a positive light. - Axios https://bit.ly/3Sg7M9w
Wait, That’s Unconstitutional
Making sense of Trump's all-out assault on the foundations of our system. - Big Picture https://bit.ly/4lZdtq2
Report: RFK Jr.-Led HHS Has Shut Down Federal Lab Studying the World’s Scariest Germs
The Trump administration looks to be surrendering in the war against germs. A new report from Wired reveals the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has shuttered a federal lab dedicated to studying some of the deadliest infectious diseases in the world.
According to Wired’s report, published Wednesday, the Integrated Research Facility in Frederick, Maryland was ordered to completely cease its experimental research by April 29. The facility has long researched the treatment and prevention of “high consequence” infectious diseases, including Ebola and Lassa fever. The facility’s ultimate fate is uncertain at this time. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/44kIRcj
Pam Bondi Claims Trump Saved 75% of Americans From a Fentanyl Overdose
"Are you ready for this, media?" the attorney general asked, but what followed was a heaping pile of horsecrap about a very serious subject. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/44PdaYD
Ukraine and the US have finally signed a minerals deal. What does it include?
After months of tense negotiations, the U.S. and Ukraine signed a deal that is expected to give Washington access to the country’s critical minerals and other natural resources, an agreement Kyiv hopes will secure long-term support for its defense against Russia. - AP https://bit.ly/3Yslrhm
The Alien Enemies Act does NOT give Trump authority to abduct and deport
A federal judge today ruled that Trump doesn’t have authority to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport Venezuelan migrants without a hearing.
It’s a major blow to the regime’s deportation blitz, which has so far summarily removed 130 immigrants residing in the United States to a brutal prison in El Salvador. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4jCw5ul
‘We won’t back down’: Resistance against Trump continues with hundreds of May Day protests
Organizers said more than a thousand events are planned across the country for Thursday, including large-scale demonstrations in major cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City and Washington, D.C. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who’s been crisscrossing the nation as part of his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is set to speak at an event in Philadelphia. - MSNBC https://on.msnbc.com/4lZeePU
At a Dubai Conference, Trump’s Conflicts Take Center Stage
A deal for a state-backed Emirati firm to use a Trump-affiliated digital coin was announced in a panel that included the president’s son and his business partner, who promised, “This is only the beginning.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Si9Uxv
Orders to Investigate Columbia Protesters Raised Alarms in Justice Dept.
A top Trump appointee in the Justice Department ordered an aggressive investigation in the last several months of student protesters at Columbia University, raising anger and alarm among career prosecutors and investigators who saw the demand as politically motivated and lacking legal merit, people familiar with the episode said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4m5S6DF
Federal Judge Strikes Down Trump’s Use of Alien Enemies Act to Deport Venezuelans
A federal judge on Thursday permanently barred the Trump administration from invoking the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century wartime law, to deport Venezuelans it has deemed to be criminals from the Southern District of Texas, saying that the White House’s use of the statute was illegal. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43aJXWS
The Fight Against Trump Isn’t a Movement, but It’s Gaining Momentum
Despite lacking a unified message or strategy, Democrats, universities, law firms and other institutions are starting to push back harder against the administration. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3YrmJJq
There Is a Way Forward: How to Defeat Trump’s Power Grab
The first 100 days of President Trump’s second term have done more damage to American democracy than anything else since the demise of Reconstruction. Mr. Trump is attempting to create a presidency unconstrained by Congress or the courts, in which he and his appointees can override written law when they want to. It is precisely the autocratic approach that this nation’s founders sought to prevent when writing the Constitution. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iHnPba
Trump says the government will revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status
President Donald Trump says Harvard University will be stripped of its tax-exempt status, redoubling an extraordinary threat amid a broader chess match over free speech, political ideology and federal funding at the Ivy League school and across American academia. - CNN https://cnn.it/3EQW8yQ
A top business group asks Trump for tariff changes to 'stave off a recession'
"Many small businesses will suffer irreparable harm,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3GAICjr
'DOGE is a way of life,' Elon Musk says. 'Like Buddhism'
“DOGE is a way of life. Like Buddhism,” Musk told reporters Wednesday. “Is Buddha needed for Buddhism?” - Quartz https://bit.ly/3YuNtbX
DOGE’s 19-Year-Old Staffer ‘Big Balls’ Appears With Elon on Fox News
Fox News’s Jesse Watters, a man so morally repugnant his own mother disinvited him from Thanksgiving dinner, sat in on a DOGE meeting Wednesday to huff Elon Musk’s farts. Video from that meeting was aired Thursday night, and while it wasn’t particularly enlightening, given you can’t trust anything Musk says these days, it did provide a rare glimpse at one of Musk’s young henchmen. Edward Coristine, more commonly known by the nickname Big Balls, chimed in during the meeting. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3RMgwUQ
Photo Shows Mike Waltz Using Signal in Wednesday’s White House Cabinet Meeting
Today, the Trump administration announced that national security advisor Mike Waltz would be leaving the White House after the disastrous Signal debacle last month. Waltz never seems to have learned his lesson, however, as a photo taken just yesterday shows Waltz using the app while in a meeting at the White House. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4k3StNe
How Trump’s Proposed Budget Will Gut Public Health in America
If passed, the White House's budget will slow down medical research and worsen public health problems like the drug overdose crisis. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/42VpAf4
A Middle Eastern Firm Is Making a $2 Billion Investment Using Trump’s Crypto
The Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial announced Thursday that its stablecoin will be used to complete a $2 billion transaction between MGX, an investment firm owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, and cryptocurrency exchange Binance. You really can’t even begin to count just how many conflicts of interest are taking place in the above sentence, but we’ll try. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/42ZKhqa
Trump Issues New Executive Order to Eliminate Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
During his second campaign trail, Donald Trump threatened to continue his war against the media (or, as he fondly calls us, “the enemy of the American people”). Although Trump is barely over 100 days into his second term, he’s fulfilled those promises. Now, Trump is attacking public media by eliminating federal funding for NPR and PBS, which will impact hundreds of local stations across the country. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4iHJksn
Trump Says ‘Internet People’ Are ‘Kissing My Ass’ in Bizarre School Speech
“If you look at some of these internet people, I know so many of them. Elon is so terrific. But I know now all of them, you know, they all hated me in my first term. And now they’re kissing my ass.” - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4iHJksn
Trump turns civil rights upside down in ‘biggest rollback’ since Reconstruction
The government under President Donald Trump is bending the arc of US history in a new direction, away from the civil rights focus of the past 60 plus years.
Addressing or even acknowledging racial injustice toward people of color is out.
Separating church and state is out, according to Trump.
Exposing anti-Christian bias and being ‘anti-woke’ is in.
The Department of Justice division created by the landmark 1957 Civil Rights Act to defend American’s rights has a new mission: rooting out anti-Christian bias, antisemitism and “woke ideology,” the head of the division, Harmeet Dhillon, recently told conservative commentator Glenn Beck. - CNN https://cnn.it/3YtdaK9
Senate overturns EPA rule on seven highly toxic air pollutants
If also passed by the House as expected, the action will be the first time Congress has weakened protections under the Clean Air Act. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3RQ20LH
A White House Briefing Straight From North Korea
For three days this week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has invited MAGA-friendly influencers to ask her questions during a dedicated press briefing. The results should be deeply embarrassing for everyone involved. We all enjoy getting together with like-minded people to kvetch about petty grievances in our professional lives—that’s what keeps bars open—but most of us would have the sense not to do so in the White House, in front of cameras. The first rule of the new-media briefing is that your question should include either personal thanks to her for inviting you, or a pro forma denunciation of the legacy media. The second rule of the new-media briefing is that your question should be, in the five words that conference organizers most dread, “more of a statement, really.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4k6Owr8
Americans Really Dislike Trump. But They’re About to Truly Hate Him.
As The New Republic’s Alex Shephard wrote this week, there are a lot of good reasons to believe Trump’s standing with the American people hasn’t hit bottom yet, the main one being that the worst is yet to come. The president, Shephard writes, “is still stubbornly clinging to tariffs, which inevitably will cause product shortages and rising costs in the near future—not to mention a potential recession, the odds of which are worryingly high.” - New Republic https://bit.ly/3YW6Cnm
The Great Pushback
Yesterday’s May Day demonstrations across America showed that the opposition to Trump continues to grow.
Hundreds of thousands of people swelled in resistance to his dictatorial agenda. Not just in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., but also in small communities that voted overwhelmingly for Trump.
The size and breadth of these demonstrations will almost certainly lead to larger national mobilizations. On Sunday, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said, “It’s time to fight everywhere and all at once. Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now.” - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4d3SJJB
Letters from an American - May 1, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
In his recent interview with Trump, Terry Moran of ABC News revealed that Trump has a problem with a disconnect between his actions and the country’s principles. Trump had a copy of the Declaration of Independence installed in the Oval Office, and Moran asked the president what it means to him. Trump’s answer made it clear he has never read the document. “Well, it means exactly what it says,” he answered. “It's a declaration, it’s a declaration of unity, and love and respect and it means a lot. And it's something very special to, to our country.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3RJZIxH
A Gutted Education Department’s New Agenda: Roll Back Civil Rights Cases, Target Transgender Students
During its first 100 days, as the Trump administration has dismantled the Education Department, one of its biggest targets has been the civil rights arm. Now, Education Secretary Linda McMahon is “reorienting” what’s left of it. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4jE00lT
Trump Asks Supreme Court to Let DOGE View Social Security Data
A federal judge in Maryland found that scrutiny of the agency’s sensitive information systems by Elon Musk’s team appeared to violate federal privacy laws. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4d1HJfX
C.I.A. to Cut More Than 1,000 Positions Over Several Years
The C.I.A. plans to cut more than 1,000 staff positions through attrition over the next few years as the Trump administration shrinks the federal government, according to officials briefed on the plans. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jBkQCn
Trump Seeks to Eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts
The president’s budget proposal also called for getting rid of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4iPTZ4z
In Suits and Ties, Lawyers Protest Trump’s Attacks on the Legal System
The National Law Day of Action, which drew roughly 1,500 people in New York City, was organized to resist the president’s threats against judges and the nation’s jurisprudence. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4m0GVfk
Kennedy Orders Search for New Measles Treatments Instead of Urging Vaccination
The decision to put more resources into potential treatments, rather than urging vaccination, could have grave consequences at the center of the outbreak. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ES7kLy
Elon Musk’s Grok AI Has a Problem: It’s Too Accurate for Conservatives
Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot created by Elon Musk’s xAI, was supposed to be the “anti-woke” AI that would satisfy the MAGA masses by doing what other chatbots refuse to do, like…spreading election misinformation and saying racial slurs. But increasingly, Trump-y X users who ask Grok to explain things to them are disappointed to learn the AI doesn’t see things their way and won’t reaffirm all their misguided beliefs (you have to use ChatGPT’s latest sycophantic update for that). - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4k8r6lb
Trump’s first 100 days, in 10 charts
As President Donald Trump passes his 100th day back in office, some key features of this presidency are already coming into focus: the colossal amount of money he raised to celebrate his inauguration; his historic use of executive orders from day one to quickly reshape government; the market slump in reaction to his tariff policies; and his 100-day approval rating, lower than any seen in nearly a century. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3ROD1s7
How Tesla Could Skirt Trump’s Tariffs While Everyone Else Pays Up
President Trump’s sweeping tariff changes have stirred up considerable economic uncertainty and confusion. Higher import duties will affect at least some products in virtually every industry, but some sectors face steeper consequences than others. Automakers, in particular, could struggle as regulators crack down on imported cars and parts, with the notable exception of Tesla, the electric car company led by close Trump confidant and DOGE master Elon Musk. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/43nwcDp
Trump backlash helps Australia’s leader to historic reelection
For the second time in a week, voters in a prominent U.S. ally angered by President Donald Trump punished conservatives and reelected a left-leaning incumbent. - Bloomberg/Japan Times https://bit.ly/3EYaflS
Trump posts AI-generated photo of himself as pope, drawing internet outrage
The irreverent posting drew instant outrage on X, including from Republicans against Trump, a group that describes itself as "pro-democracy conservative Republicans fighting Trump & Trumpism." The group reposted the image, calling it "a blatant insult to Catholics and a mockery of their faith". - Reuters/Japan Times https://bit.ly/4m1HipR?
Car Prices Expected to Rise as Tariffs on Parts Kick In
Tariffs on imported parts will have a broad impact because all vehicles use components made abroad. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4d26Oal
Proof Trump Has No Idea How the Trade Deficit Works
There are many reasons President Trump should not be pushing Congress to pass huge tax cuts, but here’s one you may not have heard: Budget deficits and trade deficits are twins. When the former go up, so, generally, do the latter. So at the same moment Mr. Trump is upending the global economy in a feckless attempt to eliminate America’s trade deficit, he’s essentially pressuring Congress to increase it. - Furman/NYT https://nyti.ms/4cYhG9k
The National Endowment for the Arts Begins Terminating Grants
The endowment told arts organizations that it was withdrawing or canceling current grants just hours after President Trump proposed eliminating the agency in the next fiscal year. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3RR27Xn
’I don't know': Trump pleads ignorance on the supreme law of the land
U.S. President Donald Trump said in remarks airing Sunday that he does not know whether he must uphold the U.S. Constitution, the nation's founding legal document. -AFP-Jiji / Japan Times https://bit.ly/4mawrds
Trump, in a new interview, says he doesn't know if he backs due process rights
President Donald Trump is circumspect about his duties to uphold due process rights laid out in the Constitution, saying in a new interview that he does not know whether U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike deserve that guarantee. - AP / Japan Today https://bit.ly/43mtpLD?
Trump Says ‘I Don’t Know’ When Asked About Due Process and Upholding Constitution
President Trump repeatedly said he didn’t know when asked in a TV interview whether every person on American soil was entitled to due process, as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43dQAGZ
Proud Boys’ Ex-Leader Thanks Trump for Pardon at Mar-a-Lago Encounter
Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, said he personally thanked President Trump on Saturday night for issuing a pardon that cut short the 22-year prison term he was serving in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4m4T2br
CEOs to Trump: It's time to make a trade war deal
The bloom is very much off the rose when it comes to the business community’s embrace of President Donald Trump’s second term. With his imposition of steep tariffs on virtually every country around the globe threatening to tip the United States into a recession, CEOs are pleading with the president to start making those deals he likes to boast about.
Quartz https://bit.ly/4kdmR7P
Letters from an American - May 4, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
In his oath of office, Trump vowed to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
When Welker pointed out that the Constitution guarantees due process, Trump suggested he could ignore it because honoring due process was too slow. “I don’t know,” he said. “It seems—it might say that, but if you’re talking about that, then we’d have to have a million or 2 million or 3 million trials,” he said. “We have thousands of people that are—some murderers and some drug dealers and some of the worst people on Earth.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4jPU1us
Trump’s attack on the film industry is a sign of xenophobic contempt
By insisting tariffs on films at least partly produced outside the US, the president is trying to limit the important worldview of cinema - Guardian https://bit.ly/3ZbD6Kl
Hegseth orders Pentagon to cut number of senior generals by 20%
Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, questioned Hegseth’s rationale for the cuts and warned dismissing top officers without “sound justification” could “cripple” the military. - CNN https://cnn.it/4k4A42w
Trump says he will reopen Alcatraz for the 'most ruthless and violent' prisoners
President Trump says he is ordering federal agencies to rebuild and reopen Alcatraz — the notorious maximum security prison that closed more than 60 years ago. - NPR https://n.pr/3RWD1q8
Letters from an American - May 5, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
No one is reopening the island of Alcatraz as a federal prison. Officials closed it in 1963, after 29 years of operation, because it was too expensive to operate: more than three times as expensive as any other federal prison. Since then, it has become one of the most popular sites of the National Park Service, located as it is in San Francisco Bay, easily accessible by ferry. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3F4G4tn
Trump Sons’ Deals on Three Continents Directly Benefit the President
A contest of sorts has played out across Europe, the United States and the Middle East in recent days as President Trump’s two older sons have pursued a blitz of family moneymaking ventures capitalizing on their father’s name and power, each seemingly trying to outdo the other. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kf3Cux
Trump Administration Asks Court to Dismiss Abortion Pill Case
The request echoes the position the Biden administration took in the case in January, surprising some observers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GMwJXK
Trump Signs Executive Order to Limit Funding for Controversial Gain-of-Function Research
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday that seeks to limit federal funding for gain-of-function research, which is used to study how pathogens can become more harmful by causing mutations in the lab. The EO was signed by the president in the Oval Office of the White House, with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other top health officials by Trump’s side, who all tried to suggest the covid-19 pandemic originated from a leak at a research facility in China that was conducting gain-of-function research. They falsely claimed the so-called lab leak theory was the consensus view among scientists. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4kf43VH
Airport Detentions Have Travelers ‘Freaked Out’
Fears of being detained are in overdrive, even if the Trump administration insists that they’re overblown. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3GNAkVy
The ‘Significant Risk’ That Republicans Tank the Economy
One of President Donald Trump’s greatest political strengths has suddenly become a weakness. He won a second term in large part because voters believed he could boost the economy. Instead, Trump has shrunk it, and his tariffs have sent both the stock market and consumer confidence tumbling. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3F7S2Cr
Elon Musk’s Most Alarming Power Grab
Can anyone stop his space-based internet? - Atlantic https://bit.ly/43eOZ3B
Trump says good parts of US economy are ‘Trump economy,’ bad parts are ‘Biden economy’
Trump recently completed his first 100 days in office, with 66% of Americans saying they are pessimistic (29%) or afraid (37%) about the economy, according to a CNN/SSRS poll released Monday. Just 34% say they feel enthusiastic or optimistic. Overall, 69% of the public considers an economic recession in the next year to be at least somewhat likely, including 32% who say that’s very likely. - CNN https://cnn.it/4kdrLBL
Congressional Republicans Have Two Bad Options
Even though Trump has gone around Congress in many ways, Republicans are now debating a bill that is, in scale and potential impact on the deficit, much larger than anything we’ve seen in the past few years. This bill would extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts at a cost to taxpayers of some $5 trillion. It would surge funding for Trump’s southern-border plan. It would increase military spending. It might reduce or eliminate taxes on tips, overtime pay, and Social Security benefits. It’s a really big deal, and it’s a big question mark whether and when they might get it done, in large part because the GOP can’t agree on how—or even whether—to offset that $5 trillion price tag. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/43ag3Rw
Trump’s Latest NIH Purge Kills the National Cancer Hotline
The federal government is continuing to hollow out its research centers. The National Institutes of Health has carried out a second, unexpected round of layoffs across its various departments, including staff at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3Si8Z0h
Trump Administration Plans to Send Migrants to Libya on a Military Flight
Human rights groups have called conditions in the country’s network of migrant detention centers “horrific” and “deplorable.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3RW4JDi
Supreme Court Lets Trump Enforce Transgender Troop Ban as Cases Proceed
Lower courts had blocked the policy, saying it was not supported by evidence and violated equal protection principles. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43nJQYa
Was First Amendment Violated in Student Arrests? Trump Lawyer Won’t Say.
During a Tuesday hearing on the fate of two international students facing deportation, an appeals court judge asked a key question of the Trump administration. Does it believe the students’ speech is protected by the Constitution?
A government lawyer, Drew Ensign, declined to discuss the issue. “Your honor, we have not taken a position on that,” he said, adding, “I don’t have the authority to take a position on that.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3YFF0Tn
Trump’s Order to Sanitize Black History Meets Institutional Resistance
Efforts to take the focus off the nation’s racial past in compliance with President Trump’s wishes face resistance from those determined to preserve it. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4d7WSfz
Trump’s Return to Power Elevates Ever Fringier Conspiracy Theories
At every level of government, authority figures are embracing once-extreme ideas, including that the Earth is flat or that the state controls the weather. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4m9Kik0
Why Did the N.Y.P.D. Hand Over a Sealed Arrest to Homeland Security?
U.S. officials asked for records about a New Jersey woman’s summons, issued at a Columbia University protest. Now the information is part of her deportation proceeding. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GJ279H
The trade war is making America more reliant on foreign goods, not less — at least for now
The U.S. trade deficit widened more than expected in March, rising to $140.5 billion — a 14% jump from February’s revised $123.2 billion, according to new data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3F2qZbR
Trump’s Dumbest Economic Message Yet
He’s tanking the economy—and blaming your kids’ toy box. - Message Box https://bit.ly/43noNF1
Letters from an American - May 6, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
In a follow-up story to last night’s information about the Trump family’s cryptocurrency corruption, MacKenzie Sigalos of CNBC reported today that 58 crypto wallets have made more than $10 million each on Trump’s meme coin, gathering a total of $1.1 billion in profits. But 764,000 wallets, mostly owned by small holders, have lost money. Meanwhile, since January the meme’s creators have pocketed more than $324 million in trading fees. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3YGjEFA
Buy American? No Thanks, Europe Says, as Tariff Backlash Grows.
A shifting perception of the United States amid President Trump’s trade war is prompting Europeans to pivot decisively away from U.S. goods and services. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kglUM7
The Missing Branch
In an era of intense constitutional combat, Congress is nowhere to be found. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3F0dt8B
Facing serious new allegations, Pete Hegseth advances purge of Pentagon leaders
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's shambolic tenure has gone from bad to worse to cover-your-eyes embarrassing over the last week. - MSNBC https://on.msnbc.com/438GlDM
Exclusive-Order by Hegseth to cancel Ukraine weapons caught White House off guard
Roughly a week after Donald Trump started his second term as president, the U.S. military issued an order to three freight airlines operating out of Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and a U.S. base in Qatar: Stop 11 flights loaded with artillery shells and other weaponry and bound for Ukraine. - Reuters/Yahoo https://yhoo.it/4iXukHc
Trump Says Obama Center A ‘Disaster’ Due To ‘Woke’ Workers In Baseless Rant
President Donald Trump blamed former President Barack Obama for hiring inexperienced, diverse workers, leading to cost overruns on the project. Obama Foundation officials dismissed Trump’s claims as false. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/4mo3V8m
Prices and unemployment are heading up. Everything else is going down.
But here’s the question: Will consumers and workers realize Trump is the cause? And if they do, will they remember this by the November 2026 midterm elections? - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/436KlV7
US Border Agents Are Asking for Help Taking Photos of Everyone Entering the Country by Car
The request for information, or RIF, says that CBP already has a face recognition tool that takes a picture of a person at a port of entry and compares it to travel or identity documents that someone gives to a border officer, as well as other photos from those documents already “in government holdings.” - Wired https://bit.ly/4kbbtsV
RFK Jr.’s HHS Orders Lab Studying Deadly Infectious Diseases to Stop Research
NIAID’s Integrated Research Facility is one of the few federal facilities charged with studying Ebola. Tuesday afternoon, all of its work was put on indefinite pause by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s department. - Wired https://bit.ly/3H3yC2a
Trump Finally Drops the Anti-Semitism Pretext
The latest letter to Harvard makes clear that the administration’s goal is to punish liberal institutions for the crime of being liberal. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/44zFPRr
MAGA Beauty Is Built to Go Viral
A few weeks ago, a South Carolina woman wearing stilettos and raw-edged jeans got into an expletive-laced shouting match with a man in the aisle of a beauty store. This fracas went viral on multiple social media platforms, which would be totally unremarkable — just another day of verbal aggression, social unrest and cosmetic consumption on the internet.
But the incident made it to People magazine because the woman is Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina. She and the constituent, who was asking her when she’d be holding her next town hall, recorded the encounter and posted it. - Grose/NYT https://nyti.ms/4kAPD2z
Letters from an American - May 7, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Alarm appears to be rising about how the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) is consolidating data about Americans. Hannah Natanson, Joseph Menn, Lisa Rein, and Rachel Siegel wrote in the Washington Post today that DOGE is “racing to build a single centralized database with vast troves of personal information about millions of U.S. citizens and residents.” In the past, that information has been carefully siloed, and there are strict laws about accessing it. But under billionaire Elon Musk, who appears to direct DOGE although the White House has said he does not, operatives who may not have appropriate security clearances are removing protections and linking data. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/42WdXpq
DOGE Aide Who Helped Gut CFPB Was Warned About Potential Conflicts of Interest
Before he helped fire most Consumer Financial Protection Bureau staffers, DOGE’s Gavin Kliger was warned about his investments and advised to not take any actions that could benefit him personally, according to a person familiar with the situation. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3F0jIcC
Trump announces trade deal with the U.K.
President Donald Trump on Thursday announced the first trade deal following his blitz of tariffs, as the U.S. and the United Kingdom agreed to an accord amid Trump’s growing trade war with China and other countries. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3Sz5XVg
NASA scrambles to cut ISS activity due to budget issues
"The Budget reduces the space station’s crew size and onboard research, preparing for a safe decommissioning of the station by 2030 and replacement by commercial space stations," stated the budget request for fiscal year 2026. "Crew and cargo flights to the station would be significantly reduced. The station’s reduced research capacity would be focused on efforts critical to the Moon and Mars exploration programs." - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4ddd1Rb
U.S. Surgeon Nominee
Reporter: “You just announced a new nominee for the U.S. Surgeon General who never finished her residency and is not a practicing physician. Can you explain why you picked her to be America's top doctor?”
Trump: “Because Bobby thought she was fantastic…I don't know her.” - The Bulwark on Bluesky - https://bit.ly/4ddd1Rb
Trump says he's dropping Ed Martin’s nomination amid bipartisan opposition
Since Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the president has sent some truly outlandish nominees to the Senate for confirmation. In a handful of instances — Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, et al. — there were a smattering of GOP “no” votes, but in nearly every instance, the Republican-led institution ended up confirming Trump’s choice, following the White House’s demands.
Ed Martin, however, proved to be a bridge too far. - MaddowBlog https://on.msnbc.com/3ZhLV5p
Bill Gates Accuses Elon Musk of ‘Killing the World’s Poorest Children’ With DOGE Cuts
Bill Gates is not impressed by Elon Musk’s work with the Department of Government Efficiency. In an interview with the Financial Times, he described Musk’s work as hurting the most vulnerable people on the planet. “The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one.” He repeated that line a bit more directly in conversation with the New York Times, stating that while Musk could go on to become a great philanthropist, saying, “In the meantime, the world’s richest man has been involved in the deaths of the world’s poorest children.” - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3S0LGI8
AILEEN CANNON IS WHO CRITICS FEARED SHE WAS
The judge handling Trump’s classified-documents case has shown that she’s not fit for the task. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/43d8lpw
The Disturbing Rise of MAGA Maoism
China may well come to dominate the next century—because President Donald Trump is taking a page from the most famous Chinese leader of the previous one. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4d9Cafi
Trump, in a major concession, says the tariff on China should be 80% — but will leave it up to Bessent
President Donald Trump on Friday set negotiating terms for his administration’s first discussions with China, which are set to take place in Geneva this weekend.
In a series of posts on Truth Social, Trump appeared to lay out his demands — and concessions — for the meeting between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and their Chinese counterparts. Trump said China must import more US goods, and in return, he believes the United States should lower its 145% tariff on most Chinese goods to 80%. - CNN https://cnn.it/4kkhsMn
Scientists Hail This Medical Breakthrough. A Political Storm Could Cripple It.
Therapies involving mRNA, a key to Covid vaccines, hold great potential in treating several diseases, but some lawmakers want to ban them and the government is cutting funding. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kdGiNJ
Tariffs are already unleashing 'crony capitalism' and it’s 'terrifying,' Ken Griffin says
One of the Republican Party’s top donors is sounding the alarm that President Donald Trump’s tariffs could open the door for corruption. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4kfKQ6i
As the world goes to hell, Trump is living his best life
The president has no permanent alliances, only personal financial interests. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4dfFWUG
‘The President Has No Idea What He’s Talking About’: Trump Slams The Digital Equity Act as ‘Racist’ and ‘Unconstitutional’
In another unhinged social media rant, President Donald Trump once again demonstrated that words really don’t mean anything anymore. This time, Trump directed his ire at a Biden-era program intended to bridge the digital divide. On Truth Social, Trump announced his intention to end the Digital Equity Act while labeling it as “racist” and “unconstitutional”. - Gizmodo http://bit.ly/4dey3P3
The White House’s unreality window
There’s an idea in political science called “the Overton window.” It’s the range of policy ideas generally considered acceptable. When leaders propose radical ideas, they can shift the window in one direction or another.
Modern autocrats employ this dynamic to an extraordinary new degree. They don’t just put forward radical ideas, they make claims that seem inconsistent with any shared conception of reality. In waging a war on truth, authoritarians like Trump don't so much shift the window — they obliterate it. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/3GMCvbJ
Senate passes “cruel” Republican plan to block Wi-Fi hotspots for schoolkids
Senate vote nullifies FCC hotspot-lending program for kids without broadband. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4km9fHz
Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk freed from immigration detention
Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University doctoral student and Turkish national, was released from federal custody on Friday, hours after a judge in Vermont ordered the Trump administration to free her. Accompanied by her lawyer, Öztürk walked out of the immigration detention center in rural Louisiana where she's been detained for more than six weeks, since masked federal agents picked her up on a suburban Boston street as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on pro-Palestinian student activists. - NPR https://n.pr/4mdwoNS
Federal judge temporarily halts Trump's sweeping government overhaul
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, a Clinton appointee, came after a hearing Friday in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions, nonprofits and local governments. - NPR https://n.pr/44zbPoX
Judge halts drastic cuts to agencies being done under Trump executive order
Senior District Judge Susan Illston on Friday evening granted a temporary restraining order sought by federal employee unions, local governments and outside organizations that rely on federal services, who argued the administration was acting outside the bounds of the law. The judge’s order, which lasts two weeks, blocks the administration’s approval or implementation of plans –- known as Agency RIF and Reorganization Plans, or ARRPs – for conducting mass layoffs and for shrinking or eliminating entire components of an agency. She is also pausing any orders from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, cutting programs or staff in accordance with Trump’s executive order and the related directives. - CNN https://cnn.it/44v9oDN
Trump involved in discussions over suspending habeas corpus, sources say
One of Trump’s top aides, Stephen Miller, confirmed publicly Friday that the administration was “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus, adding that it “depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.” - CNN https://cnn.it/3YDf3Uz
An American Pope Emerges as a Potential Contrast to Trump on the World Stage
Pope Leo XIV’s focus on refugees and his pluralistic background may offer a different view of U.S. values from the president’s America First approach. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4keIMeP
Tufts Student Arrested by ICE Is Released From Detention
The student, Rumeysa Ozturk, was being detained in Louisiana. A federal judge said her detention threatened to chill the speech of millions of noncitizens and ordered her release. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jUJE8J
Republican Agenda Hits Familiar Obstacle: State and Local Taxes
A small group of Republicans is threatening to torpedo President Trump’s agenda over the state and local tax deduction, long a headache for both parties. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4j36r0K
DOGE’s Zombie Contracts: They Were Killed but Have Come Back to Life
The Times found that federal agencies have revived dozens of contracts that Elon Musk’s group still publicly listed as canceled, inflating what it has saved. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4klrDAh
U.S. pushes nations facing tariffs to approve Musk’s Starlink, cables show
The satellite business, owned by billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, had been seeking access to customers in Lesotho. But it was not until Trump unveiled the tariffs and called for negotiations over trade deals that leaders of the country of roughly 2 million people awarded Musk’s firm the nation’s first-ever satellite internet service license, slated to last for 10 years. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4d9E1AM
Letters from an American - May 9, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Yesterday afternoon, President Donald Trump withdrew his nomination for interim U.S. attorney Ed Martin to become U.S. attorney in Washington D.C., the top federal prosecutor in the nation’s capital. A Missouri political operative with no experience as a prosecutor, Martin defended the January 6 rioters and fired the prosecutors who had worked on their cases, threatened to investigate Democrats and critics, and hosted a notorious antisemite on his podcast. His nomination proved too much for Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), who joined all the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee to oppose his confirmation, deadlocking the committee and blocking the nomination. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/43hLsBH
As Trump family's Gulf empire grows, rulers seek influence, arms and tech
Ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's Gulf visit next week, his son Eric was promoting his crypto firm in Dubai, while Don Jr prepared to talk about "Monetizing MAGA" in Doha.
Last month, the Trump Organization struck its first luxury real estate deal in Qatar, and released details of a billion-dollar skyscraper in Dubai whose apartments can be bought in cryptocurrency. - AFP-JIJI / Japan Times https://bit.ly/3YLLf8p
Trump, Raking In Cash, Expands His Power in the G.O.P. Money World
President Trump is harnessing the Republican Party’s all-encompassing deference to him to exert even greater control over the G.O.P. big-money world, which had long been one of the party’s final remaining redoubts of Trump skepticism. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3H8v4M6
The Biggest Medicaid Cut Left for House Republicans Would Hit Red States Hardest
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that major cuts to the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion were off the table. Now, the largest cut left among their whittled-down options would disproportionately hurt states that supported Mr. Trump in the 2024 election. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43xPuqI
THE TOP GOAL OF PROJECT 2025 IS STILL TO COME
“Freedom is a fragile thing, and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction,” Ronald Reagan said in 1967, in his inaugural address as governor of California. Kevin D. Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, approvingly quotes the speech in his foreword to Project 2025, the conservative think tank’s blueprint for the Trump administration. Roberts writes that the plan has four goals for protecting its vision of freedom: restoring the family “as the centerpiece of American life”; dismantling the federal bureaucracy; defending U.S. “sovereignty, borders, and bounty”; and securing “our God-given individual rights to live freely.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4jXcXrl
Trump Reportedly Fires Head of US Copyright Office
Earlier this week, the US Copyright Office issued a massive report in part expressing support for content creators and raising concerns about how artificial intelligence systems utilize copyrighted material in training. On Saturday, the head of that office, Shira Perlmutter, was fired by Donald Trump, according to CBS News. The firing also followed Trump’s axing of Carla Hayden, the head of the Library of Congress, of which the US Copyright Office is one department. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4kihowi
Trump announces he’ll sign executive order that aims to cut drug prices
President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he plans to resurrect a controversial policy from his first term that aims to reduce drug costs by basing payments for certain medicines on their prices in other countries. - CNN https://cnn.it/430zNrZ
Israel Plunges Into Darkness
After 19 months of war in Gaza, the Israeli government has decided to march deeper into the quagmire.
Israel has announced its intention to take and retain a significant part of the Gaza Strip. Call-up orders are going out to tens of thousands of already exhausted reservists. The battered, hungry population of Gaza is to be forced into an even smaller part of the narrow enclave. The lives of the remaining Israeli hostages are in greater danger than ever. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4dfSvza
US and China agree to drastically roll back tariffs in major trade breakthrough
The United States and China agreed Monday to drastically roll back tariffs on each other’s goods for an initial 90-day period, in a surprise breakthrough that has de-escalated a punishing trade war and buoyed global markets. - CNN https://cnn.it/3Zjt6yN
The Trump budget cuts that could hurt the economy for a long time
A 25% cut in federal spending on research and development could blow a $1 trillion hole in America's GDP. - Quartz https://bit.ly/44FHsNE
Trump Is Poised to Accept a Luxury 747 From Qatar for Use as Air Force One
The plan raises substantial ethical issues, given the immense value of the lavishly appointed plane and that Mr. Trump intends to take ownership of it after he leaves office. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3YMXbXl
In Trump’s America, All Parents and Children for Themselves
For almost 50 years, parents of students with disabilities have relied on federal oversight to ensure that their children receive a fair education. But under the proposed budget, money earmarked for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) comes with a promise to limit the federal government’s role in education and provide states with greater flexibility, which could mean drastically reducing oversight of how states use that money. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4m8NaOa
The Grift That Keeps on Grifting
But one thing almost all Americans are firmly against — even many loyal Trumpers — is bribery. And Trump is taking bigger and bigger bribes. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3SAbwTs
The U.S. and China called a trade war truce. Here's what to know
Stocks rallied as the U.S. and China both drastically slashed their reciprocal tariffs and agreed to a 90-day trade war pause. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3GY6xcF
Dow soars 1,100 points after Trump team and China dramatically lower tariffs
US stocks surged on Monday after President Donald Trump’s top trade officials brokered a surprisingly dramatic de-escalation in trade tensions with China over the weekend, dropping tariffs to much lower levels, which some economists say could stave off a US recession. - CNN https://cnn.it/43i1paK
Industry groups are not happy about the imminent demise of Energy Star
It’s a voluntary program launched during a Republican administration, endorsed by manufacturers, and well-recognized by US consumers, who have saved an estimated $500 billion over the past 33 years guided by its familiar blue label.
But President Donald Trump’s administration has decided the Energy Star program has got to go. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/43hfhlQ
Trump Blinked ‘Big Time’ on China Trade, Taking Worst Case Off Table
U.S. and China’s agreement to ratchet back retaliatory tariffs and hit a 90-day pause to talk trade sent markets soaring by taking the ugliest scenario—a messy and quick decoupling of the two economies—off the table. That doesn’t mean no damage has been done. - Barron’s https://bit.ly/3YOoyAh
Trump Paused Some China Tariffs, but Stuff From Shein and Temu Will Remain Expensive
On Monday, the United States and China made a joint statement announcing a new stage in the trade war that temporarily pauses the tariffs the two nations imposed on each other earlier this year. For the next 90 days, China will ease duties on US imports from 125% to 10%. Over the same timeframe, the US will decrease tariffs on Chinese imports from 145% to 30%. Excluded from this deal, however, are Chinese shipments worth less than $800, which will be taxed at a rate of 120%, or a flat rate of $100 per postal item. Starting on June 1st, that $100 fee will double to $200. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/430AWzN
Trump Says Only a ‘Stupid Person’ Wouldn’t Take a Free Plane From Qatar
President Donald Trump defended his plan to accept a $400 million plane from Qatar to use as Air Force One during a press conference at the White House Monday morning. The “great gesture,” as Trump called it, would be one of the most galling acts of corruption in modern history, all in plain sight. But Trump seems to think that it’s not actually corrupt as long as public officials don’t hide it behind closed doors. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4mdDSRf
Auction to Dine With Trump Creates Foreign Influence Opportunity
The sale of face-to-face access to President Trump using the Trump family’s own cryptocurrency has done more than benefit him financially, though it has certainly done that.
Mr. Trump announced last month that leading buyers of a digital coin his family is marketing would be rewarded with a private dinner with him at one of his golf courses and that the very top bidders would win a tour of the White House.
The auction, which ends Monday, has set off a spectacle that has drawn bipartisan criticism, triggered a suspicious trading pattern, and left a sitting United States president wide open to attempts to corruptly influence him. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mdE4zX
Trump naming his former defense attorney as acting Librarian of Congress
Blanche, who represented Trump in his hush money trial, already holds the number two position at the Justice Department. His interim appointment represents another example of administration officials juggling multiple posts. - Axios https://bit.ly/4dmtnaf
Trump’s Huge Tariff Hoax
A return of manufacturing and mining jobs won’t make Americans great again. Good-paying jobs will.
The easiest and best ways to raise the pay of working-class Americans are to (1) strengthen unions, (2) raise the minimum wage (which hasn’t been increased since 2009), (3) expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (a wage subsidy) for lower-income workers, and (4) institute a universal basic income.
Will Trump do any of these things? No chance in hell. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4kjcyit
Xi defiance pays off as Trump meets most China trade demands
Xi Jinping’s decision to stand his ground against U.S. President Donald Trump could hardly have gone any better for the Chinese leader. - Bloomberg / Japan Times https://bit.ly/3GUznL8
Trump Wants to Cut Medicaid; Here's How Dems Can Stop Him
Dems can make Republicans feel real heat for cutting Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. - Message Box https://bit.ly/4mhCi0B
Trump’s Plan to Take Jet From Qatar Heightens Corruption Concerns
The second Trump administration is showing striking disdain for onetime norms of propriety and for traditional legal and political guardrails around public service. It is clearly emboldened, in part because of the Supreme Court’s ruling last year that granted immunity to presidents for their official actions and because of the political reality that Mr. Trump’s hold on the Republican Party means he need not fear impeachment. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kjVqcm
Tariff Truce With China Demonstrates the Limits of Trump’s Aggression
President Trump’s triple-digit tariffs on Chinese products disrupted global trade — but haven’t appeared to result in major concessions from Beijing. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZjuRvT
Why Trump Suddenly Declared Victory Over the Houthi Militia
The militant group in Yemen was still firing at ships and shooting down drones, while U.S. forces were burning through munitions. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42Z3N7t
Copyright Office head fired after reporting AI training isn’t always fair use
Cops scuffle with Trump picks at Copyright Office after AI report stuns tech industry. - NYT https://bit.ly/439S6Lv
Germ-theory skeptic RFK Jr. goes swimming in sewage-tainted water
Over the weekend, America's top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., shared pictures on social media of himself fully submerged in the sewage-tinged waters of Rock Creek in Washington, DC. His grandchildren were also pictured playing in the water.
The creek is known for having a sewage overflow problem and posing a health hazard to any who enter it. The National Park Service, which manages the Rock Creek Park, strictly bars all swimming and wading in Rock Creek and the park's other waterways due to the contamination, specifically "high levels of bacteria." - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/3S90lB8
FCC commissioner writes op-ed titled, “It’s time for Trump to DOGE the FCC“
A Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission is proposing a DOGE-style overhaul of the agency's operations, including large cuts to the Universal Service Fund that subsidizes broadband deployment and access. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4kp6sx7
Trump administration cuts another $450 million in grants to Harvard, on top of $2.2 billion already frozen
“(E)ight federal agencies across the government are announcing the termination of approximately $450 million in grants to Harvard, which is in addition to the $2.2 billion that was terminated” previously, the White House’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism said Tuesday morning in a statement that called Harvard’s campus “a breeding ground for virtue signaling and discrimination.” - CNN https://cnn.it/4dnOlW4
Block Club Chicago Sues ICE Over Immigration Arrest Records
Federal immigration officials still haven’t released records showing how many people they rounded up during January sweeps in Chicago or what happened to them afterward. - Chicago Block Club https://bit.ly/45bFJzC
GOP Senator Introduces Bill to Make All Porn a Federal Crime, Following Project 2025 Playbook
Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) recently introduced the Interstate Obscenity Definition Act (IODA), which would effectively criminalize all pornography nationwide by legally redefining what it means to be obscene. For years, “obscenity” has been all but a defunct legal category that narrowly defines speech that remains unprotected by the First Amendment. Lee would explode this legal category, expanding it to encompass virtually all visual representations of sex. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4j6PWAT
Trump Says Only a ‘Stupid Person’ Wouldn’t Take a Free Plane From Qatar
President Donald Trump defended his plan to accept a $400 million plane from Qatar to use as Air Force One during a press conference at the White House Monday morning. The “great gesture,” as Trump called it, would be one of the most galling acts of corruption in modern history, all in plain sight. But Trump seems to think that it’s not actually corrupt as long as public officials don’t hide it behind closed doors. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4kltN2E
The single stupidest statement about Trump ever made
RFK Jr.: “Elizabeth Warren or Robert Reich saying that President Trump is on the side of the oligarchs, there has never been a president more willing to stand up to the oligarchs than President Donald Trump.” - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/459TY8c
The Real MediScam
Yesterday, the GOP announced where these cuts would come from. And to no one’s surprise, the big target is Medicaid, which provides health benefits for the poorest Americans. After making empty promises that they wouldn’t touch Medicaid, they’ve come at it with a sledgehammer, looking to knock some $715 billion out of Medicaid costs. - Big Picture https://bit.ly/4miZRWF
Letters from an American - May 12, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
The biggest news over the weekend was silence: the silence of Republicans. They refused to disavow White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s statement that the administration is looking at suspending the writ of habeas corpus, that is, essentially declaring martial law. They have also stayed quiet after the administration announced it was planning to accept a gift of a $400 million luxury Boeing 747-8 plane from the Qatari royal family. President Donald J. Trump would use the plane as Air Force One during the rest of his presidency and take it with him when he leaves office. - - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4miZRWF
America Is the Land of Opportunity—For White South Africans
Trump has frozen refugee admissions and cut off resettlement funding, but he has made an exception for white South Africans, who he says are victims of racial discrimination. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3S5VBfq
RIP American innovation
It’s fun to be from the most inventive country on Earth. Even when Team U.S.A. fails to medal in table tennis at the Olympics, even when the U.S. president starts a war based on fabricated weapons of mass destruction or raises tariffs on champagne, an American traveling abroad can still take pride in being from the nation that spawned the internet and GPS, and has the most Nobel laureates curing deadly diseases, making intelligent machines and shedding light on the dark secrets of the universe.
But, alas, even this trustworthy badge of honor is fraying — and might fall apart. - WaPo https://wapo.st/43xCH7F
Trump Can Use Alien Enemies Act Against Venezuelan Gang, Judge Rules
The ruling, applying only to detainees held in western Pennsylvania, is the first to uphold the president’s invocation of the wartime act. But it requires that detainees be given 21 days’ notice. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GSzt5N
Federal School Voucher Proposal Advances, a Milestone for Conservatives
“We are against giving people tax breaks to defund public schools,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest education union.
She pointed out that while Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans have said they want to invest in work force education, artificial intelligence education and other priorities for student learning, they have consistently proposed cutting funding to public schools, which educate nearly 90 percent of American students. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43xg0Ay
An Agency Tasked With Protecting Immigrant Children Is Becoming an Enforcement Arm, Current and Former Staffers Say
The Office of Refugee Resettlement’s welfare mission appears to be undergoing a stark transformation as President Donald Trump seeks to ramp up deportation numbers, current and former officials told ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4kkSTi6
This isn't a stock market rally. It's a scramble
Stocks claw their way back to flat and recession fears are fading. But beneath the surface, investor conviction is nowhere to be found. - Quartz https://bit.ly/45ehXmG
US drug overdose deaths saw an unprecedented drop in 2024, but federal cuts could threaten momentum
In a statement about the latest data on overdose deaths, the CDC specifically highlighted the importance of “sustained funding to support prevention and surveillance activities like the Overdose Data to Action program.” - CNN https://cnn.it/4jbbJHD
THE END OF RULE OF LAW IN AMERICA
The 47th president seems to wish he were king—and he is willing to destroy what is precious about this country to get what he wants. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3YNXocP
They stormed the Capitol. Now they’re selling merch.
A man convicted of beating police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack now sells $50 “J6 Hostages” T-shirts and is launching a 22-stop nationwide “Freedom Tour.” - WaPo https://wapo.st/4308zBL
Letters from an American - May 13, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
While President Donald Trump’s billionaire sidekick Elon Musk has said he is pulling back from his work with the “Department of Government Efficiency,” he is with Trump today in Saudi Arabia, along with representatives from leaders from some of the biggest companies in the United States. The business executives are looking for Saudi investments. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/438oDQw
The World Is Wooing U.S. Researchers Shunned by Trump
As President Trump guts American research institutions, world leaders see a “once-in-a-century brain gain opportunity.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4j61qEH
The Trump Administration Leaned on African Countries. The Goal: Get Business for Elon Musk.
As the Trump administration has gutted foreign aid, U.S. diplomats have pressed governments to fast-track licenses for Starlink and arranged conversations between company employees and foreign leaders. In cables, U.S. officials have said that for their foreign counterparts, helping Starlink is a chance to prove their commitment to good relations with the U.S. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4kGObf5
Walmart warns price hikes are coming as earnings take a hit from tariffs
Walmart (WMT +0.77%) posted a solid first quarter Thursday — with a big “in this economy” caveat — as digital sales, membership fees, and ad revenue all delivered double-digit growth. But after weeks of tariff anxiety, chief financial officer John David Rainey is making headlines with a clear warning: Higher prices are coming if new duties on Chinese goods take effect. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4k3X4zo
At Supreme Court, a Once-Fringe Birthright Citizenship Theory Takes the Spotlight
For more than a century, most scholars and the courts have agreed that though the 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution after the Civil War, it was not, in fact, all about slavery. Instead, courts have held that the amendment extended citizenship not just to the children of former slaves but also to babies born within the borders of the United States. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4k5loAY
How do Republicans plan to cut health coverage? Two basic ways.
The House reconciliation plan’s provisions add up to millions more going without insurance. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4jZxnjm
Trump Budget Cuts Hobble Antismoking Programs
The elimination of a key C.D.C. office has slashed funding to states for help lines used by thousands to stop smoking and vaping. - NYT The elimination of a key C.D.C. office has slashed funding to states for help lines used by thousands to stop smoking and vaping.
Supreme Court Wrestles With Limiting Judges’ Power in Birthright Citizenship Case
Several of the justices appeared torn between two concerns. They appeared skeptical that single district judges should have the power to freeze executive actions throughout the nation.
But they also seemed troubled by the legality — and consequences — of the executive order underlying the case: an order issued by President Trump on his first day in office ending birthright citizenship, or the granting of automatic citizenship to all babies born in the United States. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4j5iEBY
Personalization, The Vastly Bigger Story Behind the Pimpmobile Jet Bribe
Now in fairness, trade delegations have always played a role in these visits. But this is at a totally, totally different level. In fact, if you step back, you see that this entire visit isn’t mostly about U.S. foreign policy at all. Trump is bringing “his” CEOs and everyone is cutting deals. And as the top dog, Trump is cutting his too — and to be clear, not as President of the United States, but as Trump. Eric Trump has already been in Qatar inking a whole slew of new deals with the country’s royal family. - Talking Points Memo https://bit.ly/42Zp1SJ
Walmart Becomes Biggest Retailer Yet to Pass Through Tariff Price Increases
Retail goliath Walmart WMT -0.50% on Thursday said it plans to raise prices this month and early this summer, when tariff-affected merchandise hits its store shelves. Some prices already have increased.
WSJ https://on.wsj.com/3EVhMSL
Gabbard fires 2 top intelligence officials, changes who preps Trump’s daily brief
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired two veteran intelligence officials because they oppose President Donald Trump, her office said, coming a week after the release of a declassified memo written by their agency that contradicted statements the Trump administration has used to justify deporting Venezuelan immigrants. - PBS https://to.pbs.org/3SFaUfg
The Process That’s Due
The Constitution clearly guarantees “due process” to all “persons.” The Constitution’s 5th Amendment says “no person shall … be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law.” The word “person” makes no distinction between citizens and noncitizens. (The 14th Amendment makes this applicable to the states as well.) - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4kyjgRM
Trump's So-Called 'Free' $400 Million Plane Would Actually Cost Taxpayers Nearly $1 Billion
How would a free plane end up costing taxpayers so much money? Well, since it's a plane that's already in service and currently owned by another country — one Trump previously said has "historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level," even — it's a flying national security nightmare. Checking it for bugs and other security vulnerabilities alone would reportedly require tearing the thing down to the studs and evaluating every single component before putting it all back together. If Qatari intelligence wants to know our state secrets, it needs to read Pete Hegseth's Signal chats like every other foreign intelligence agency. - Jalopnik https://bit.ly/4kbhF4T
Akazawa's dilemma: no tariff deal or a half-baked deal
Tariff negotiations between Japan and the United States quickly went from fast track and MAGA hat photo ops in the Oval Office to a long game with no end in sight, one that some academics and economic observers see possibly devolving into an unpleasant and unproductive stalemate. - Japan Times https://bit.ly/4ks2ALG
Outsourcer in Chief: Is Trump Trading Away America’s Tech Future?
Big deals to sell chips to the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia have divided the U.S. government over whether they could be remembered for shipping cutting-edge A.I. overseas. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43DXeXg
The Birthright Citizenship Case Could Split the Country in Two
On Day 1 of his second term, President Trump signed an executive order attempting to rewrite the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and end birthright citizenship as we know it. The order said that children of immigrants would no longer receive U.S. citizenship unless one of their parents had already been naturalized or had a green card. This meant that the children of Dreamers and many other immigrants who have lived their whole lives in the United States would no longer be born citizens.
Within 24 hours, multiple lawsuits were filed to challenge the order. On Feb. 5, Judge Deborah L. Boardman of the U.S. District Court in Maryland issued a nationwide injunction stopping the federal government from putting this unconstitutional policy into effect. Since then, every court to consider this issue has ruled that Mr. Trump’s order should not go into effect. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jkVIiy
There’s a Darker Reason Trump Is Going After Those Law Firms
Every year, The American Lawyer publishes a scorecard ranking big law firms by the amount of pro bono service they provide. In 2024 the top firms on the list were Jenner & Block, Covington & Burling and WilmerHale, whose lawyers collectively donated over 400,000 hours to cases advancing the rights of L.G.B.T.Q. people, helping immigrants gain asylum and fighting voter disenfranchisement, among other causes.
These firms now top a different list: law firms targeted by the Trump administration’s executive orders. This is no accident. These orders use the pretense of punishing Mr. Trump’s perceived enemies to pursue the far more comprehensive goal of controlling pro bono work, the lifeblood of legal aid and public-interest law organizations, which depend on pro bono support to promote access to justice and defend the values of liberal democracy. This targeting replaces the ideal of pro bono publico, literally “for the public good,” with pro bono Trump. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43ebKpF
Jerome Powell warns of more frequent 'supply shocks' — and interest rates that stay higher for longer
During his opening remarks at the Federal Open Market Committee 2025 review on Thursday, Powell indicated that longer-term interest rates are to remain higher due to economic volatility. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4mNU2kD
Deere's slump shows the real economy is slowing down
Forget the Nasdaq: If you want to know how the soil-and-seed, dirt-and-diesel economy is doing, ask John Deere. Hint: It's not great. - Quartz https://bit.ly/45sSc27
LEAKED: Acting FEMA Director’s Plan for "FEMA 2.0"
During today’s town hall, when Richardson was asked “which is more important, the President's will or the interests of the American people?” Richardson told staff “to me, they're the same thing.” Rambling at times, Richardson spoke about putting “a large part of response and recovery down to the states,” and conducting “mission analysis,” which involves identifying “all of the laws that govern FEMA,” and limiting operations only to what is required by law. Richardson calls the new mission and direction for the federal agency “FEMA 2.” When asked about DOGE’s involvement in FEMA, Richardson told staff that he wrote a memo to DOGE today, saying, “you don't make any decisions” for FEMA. - Drop Site https://bit.ly/44NS4tO
Forget trade talks: Trump says the U.S. will just tell countries their tariff rates (again)
Trump said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick will “be sending letters out” that will “be telling people what they will be paying to do business in the United States.” - Quartz https://bit.ly/4kAKcR8
Trump Is Erdoğan on Steroids
As a scholar of Turkey, I spent years watching President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s rise—and, I’ll admit, I once believed in the promise. I had reservations about his Islamist roots, but his vows to fight corruption, reduce poverty, and expand freedoms seemed like the antidote to Turkey’s democratic fragility. For a moment, it felt like real progress.
But in hindsight, those so-called reforms were not designed to strengthen democracy—they were designed to dismantle it from within. I ignored the early warning signs. Two decades later, Erdoğan has delivered the opposite of what he pledged: Turkey now ranks among the most corrupt countries in the world, with widespread institutional capture and the erosion of basic liberties. What’s alarming is how quickly I now see that same authoritarian playbook unfolding in my adopted home, the United States, only with more speed and aggression. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/4kbiwT7
Trump lashes out at Bruce Springsteen after he called president ‘treasonous’
Springsteen, 75, made headlines earlier this week for his pointed criticism of the Trump administration at his concert in Manchester, England, kicking off his “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour. - MSNBC https://on.msnbc.com/4dsq2pS
Transcript: Here's what Bruce Springsteen had to say about Trump in Manchester, UK
I'll have more to say about this after it sinks in. But I will say that no one does righteous indignation like Bruce Springsteen. And he is certainly indignant about what he feels like the Trump administration is doing to the country he loves. - Blogness, Pete Chianca https://bit.ly/4dD9hbW
Trump suspends asylum system, leaving immigrants to face an uncertain future
They arrive at the U.S. border from around the world: Eritrea, Guatemala, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ghana, Uzbekistan and so many other countries.
They come for asylum, insisting they face persecution for their religion, or sexuality or for supporting the wrong politicians.
For generations, they had been given the chance to make their case to U.S. authorities.
Not anymore. - AP https://bit.ly/3H9eFY0
Promise to Kill DEI, and Trump’s FCC Will Approve Anything
Verizon's $20 billion deal to buy Frontier got approved once the company agreed to end DEI programs. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/43nXHhn
Trump's '$200 Billion' Boeing-Qatar Deal Worth Less Than Half What He Claims
It's difficult to imagine that Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg was pleased that his company was caught in the crossfire of President Trump's ill-advised tariff war with China. The President signed a trade agreement with Qatar on Wednesday to seemingly seal a $200 billion order with Qatar Airways for widebody Boeing airliners. The deal might make up for jeopardizing the American aviation giant's future in Asia, but that figure stated by Trump is incorrect by a massive margin. The correct value is $96 billion, confirmed by the White House later that day. - Jalopnik https://bit.ly/44NIqYb
Supreme Court Retains Block on Using Wartime Law to Deport Venezuelans
The Trump administration will not be allowed to deport a group of Venezuelan detainees accused of being members of a violent gang under a rarely invoked wartime law while the matter is litigated in the courts, the Supreme Court said on Friday. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3SlHfYv
U.S. Downgraded by Moody’s as Trump Pushes Costly Tax Cuts
Now all three major credit rating firms no longer give the United States their best rating. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Hqajvu
White House eased China tariffs after warnings of harm to ‘Trump’s people’
The president has backtracked repeatedly on his tariff policies, creating a whiplash with downsides and few clear benefits so far. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3SlHAdJ
Trump vs. the Supremes
Yesterday the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump regime cannot deport a group of Venezuelans while the matter is being litigated in the courts. The regime can’t merely allege that they’re members of a violent gang; it must give them sufficient time to challenge their deportations. And it can’t merely assume that the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act gives it authority. Both the facts of these cases and the law have to be hashed out in lower courts. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3ZsKlOg
Letters from an American - May 16, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
MAGA world is performing over-the-top outrage over a photo former Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey posted on Instagram, where he has been teasing a new novel. The image shows shells on a beach arranged in a popular slogan for opposing President Donald J. Trump: “86”—slang for tossing something away—followed by “47”, a reference to Trump’s presidency. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3ZAp318
Trump Urges Walmart to Absorb Tariffs After Retailer Says It Could Raise Prices
Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, is just one of several companies that have said they will be forced to pass on the costs of President Trump’s global tariffs to consumers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43azXx0
Are Trump's Voters Starting to Sour on Him?
Two new polls suggest a critical slice of the electorate regret their vote. - Message Box https://bit.ly/43J8AtY
Trump’s legislative agenda clears key committee vote after weekend of negotiations
The House Budget Committee voted Sunday night to advance President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda, with the sweeping bill clearing a key hurdle while setting up a potentially contentious series of votes with hardliners this week. - CNN https://cnn.it/43ubjWP
Trump Is Destroying a Core American Value. The World Will Notice.
In the late 1980s, Joseph Nye, the Harvard political scientist who died this month, developed the concept of soft power. His central premise, that the United States enhances its global influence by promoting values like human rights and democracy, has guided U.S. foreign policy for decades across both Republican and Democratic administrations.
President Trump has made clear that he fundamentally rejects this vision. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43SVQAb
Consumer sentiment nears rock bottom over fears of higher prices
The University of Michigan's preliminary May numbers show increased anxiety over tariffs, inflation, and trade policy. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3SmMx62
Trump said Walmart earned billions more than expected. Here's why that's preposterous
President Donald Trump claimed over the weekend that Walmart (WMT) made “BILLIONS OF DOLLARS” more than expected last year. That’s not just wrong — it’s preposterous on multiple levels. In fact, you could say Walmart is one of the least likely companies in the world to deliver surprise windfalls. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4jfDNJR
Trump-world admits it: America pays for tariffs
President Donald Trump has long insisted that the on-again, off-again tariffs he’s imposed will be fully paid by other countries at no cost to Americans. But both Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trump himself undercut that case over the weekend. - Quartz https://bit.ly/43r96eU
FEMA Shifts Disaster Burden to States in Wake of Deadly Tornadoes
As the U.S. South reels from a scourge of deadly tornadoes and braces for hurricane season, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) says it is shifting recovery responsibility to the states. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4kDychN
Letters from an American - May 18, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Tonight, late on a Sunday night, the House Budget Committee passed what Republicans are calling their “Big, Beautiful Bill” to enact Trump’s agenda although it had failed on Friday when far-right Republicans voted against it, complaining it did not make deep enough cuts to social programs. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/43K9F4L
Trump administration to pay $5 million to family of Jan. 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt
The Trump administration will pay nearly $5 million to the family of Ashli Babbitt, the Trump supporter who was shot and killed while in the mob breaching the House Speaker's Lobby on Jan. 6, 2021.
Metropolitan Police Department Officer Dan Hodges, who was also on duty at the Capitol on Jan. 6, said in a statement that Babbitt was "a conspiracy theorist armed with a lethal weapon and combat training, breaking into a secure area of the Capitol who did not heed orders to cease from law enforcement." - CBS https://cbsn.ws/4jkdTF2
Letters from an American - May 19, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
The House Rules Committee will take up the Republicans’ omnibus bill this week. Illustrating their confidence that the American people support this 1,116-page measure enacting much of MAGA’s wish list, the committee has set its meeting for Wednesday, May 21, 2025…at 1:00 in the morning (not a typo). The Republicans are trying to advance Trump’s entire agenda—from massive logging on public lands to slashing Medicaid—in one giant bill under a process known as “budget reconciliation,” which means it cannot be filibustered in the Senate. That means it needs only Republican votes to pass. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3FsfUkt
Supreme Court Lets Trump Lift Deportation Protections for Venezuelans
The Supreme Court on Monday let the Trump administration, for now, remove protections from nearly 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants who had been allowed to remain in the United States without risk of deportation under a program known as Temporary Protected Status. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mwF8yS
Head of CBS News Is Forced Out Amid Tensions With Trump
Wendy McMahon, the president of CBS News and Stations, had allied herself with Bill Owens, the “60 Minutes” executive producer who recently resigned. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Z1FZgW
The U.S. Under Trump: Alone in Its Climate Denial
When the Trump administration declared two weeks ago that it would largely disregard the economic cost of climate change as it sets policies and regulations, it was just the latest step in a multipronged effort to erase global warming from the American agenda.
But President Trump is doing more than just turning a blind eye to the fact that the planet is growing hotter. He is weakening the country’s capacity to understand global warming and to prepare for its consequences. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZyMJmu
White House officials wanted to put federal workers ‘in trauma.’ It’s working.
In interviews, more than 30 former and current federal workers told The Washington Post that the chaos and mass firings had left them feeling devalued, demoralized and scared for themselves and the country. Many described problems they’d never experienced before: insomnia, panic attacks, suicidal thoughts. Others with a history of mental struggles said they’d found themselves pushed into terrifying territory. -WaPo https://wapo.st/4kb01y3
‘I Even Believe He Is Destroying the American Presidency’
The targets of President Trump’s assaults include the law, higher education, medical research, ethical standards, America’s foreign alliances, free speech, the civil service, religion, the media and much more. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dCb3Ke
America’s College Towns Go From Boom to Bust
Many state universities are losing more students every year, failing the local economies they once fostered. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/44Srdg9
Why Moody’s picked now to downgrade the United States
The United States has officially lost its perfect credit rating. On Friday, Moody’s, for the first time in its history, downgraded U.S. government bonds from the gold star rating of “AAA” to “AA1,” the silver medal equivalent. This wasn’t a total surprise. S&P and Fitch had already lowered the U.S. rating, so this was Moody’s catching up to the crowd. But make no mistake: Moody’s didn’t just pick a random Friday in May to make this move. Moody’s wanted to send a message to Republicans in Congress: Rethink the tax bill. Or, better yet, don’t do it. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4dvXPPf
RFK Jr.: 'I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me'
Skirting a question on an issue that has gained him support and stoked opponents, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Wisconsin Democrat Rep. Mark Pocan during a hearing before a House committee he thinks Americans should not be taking medical advice from him. - USA Today https://bit.ly/3H8vfat
Trump’s Newest Crackdown on Dissent
Assault charges against a Democratic member of Congress look more like intimidation than law enforcement. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4jjFYw3
Trump’s New Position on the War in Ukraine: Not My Problem
In a reversal, President Trump appears to have backed off joining a European push for new sanctions on Russia, seemingly eager to move on to doing business deals with it. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kBB8vk
Justice Dept. Opens Inquiry Into Cuomo, Singling Out Another Political Target
After killing a criminal case against Mayor Eric Adams, the Trump administration has begun investigating his chief rival in the New York City mayoral race over his testimony about the pandemic. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3SYkOst
Noem Incorrectly Defines Habeas Corpus as the President’s Right to Deport People
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, bungled answers on Tuesday about habeas corpus, incorrectly asserting that the legal right of people to challenge their detention by the government was actually the president’s “constitutional right” to deport people. -NYT https://nyti.ms/4kxxemS
‘I Even Believe He Is Destroying the American Presidency’
The targets of President Trump’s assaults include the law, higher education, medical research, ethical standards, America’s foreign alliances, free speech, the civil service, religion, the media and much more. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Z1HX0L
Target just sent up a giant red flag about the U.S. consumer
A 30% stock plunge, collapsing store traffic, and margin pressure all point to the same thing: Affluent shoppers are rattled and recession fears are rising. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4mxX1gD
Justice Department ends police reform agreements and halts investigations into major departments
The Trump administration is moving to dismiss federal oversight agreements in Louisville and Minneapolis reached following the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor and police killing of George Floyd, and dropping investigations into several major US police departments.
The move, announced by the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, reflects the administration’s opposition to agreements that require reforms of police departments where the DOJ found a pattern of misconduct. -CNN https://cnn.it/4mnBdUW
Billionaire Man-Child Elon Musk Gives His Most Petulant Interview to Date
Musk repeatedly insulted the interviewer for asking completely normal questions about his businesses like Tesla and SpaceX, and he became extremely defensive when asked about his role in President Donald Trump’s government as the head of DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The billionaire oligarch even called the interviewer, UK broadcaster Mishal Husain, an “NPC,” meaning a non-playable character in a video game. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4mxOvy6
Official Pushed to Rewrite Intelligence So It Could Not Be ‘Used Against’ Trump
New emails document how a top aide to Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, ordered analysts to edit an assessment with the hope of insulating President Trump and Ms. Gabbard from being attacked for the administration’s claim that Venezuela’s government controls a criminal gang. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZwY8TW
Under RFK Jr., COVID shots will only be available to people 65+, high-risk groups
Under the control of anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Food and Drug Administration is unilaterally terminating universal access to seasonal COVID-19 vaccines; instead, only people who are age 65 years and older and people with underlying conditions that put them at risk of severe COVID-19 will have access to seasonal boosters moving forward. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4mwmVBx
If Justice Dept. Can’t Prosecute Trump’s Foes, It Will ‘Shame’ Them, Official Says
In recent days, Ed Martin, the self-described “captain” of the Justice Department’s “weaponization” group, made a candid if unsurprising admission: He plans to use his authority to expose and discredit those he believes to be guilty, even if he cannot find sufficient evidence to prosecute them — weaponizing an institution he has been hired to de-weaponize, in the view of critics. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mxOJ8q
Trump confronts South African president, pushing claims of genocide
Trump amplified false claims and pressed South Africa’s president to protect White farmers, in a meeting originally meant to focus on trade. - WaPo https://wapo.st/43MK9Mk
Trump Lectures South African President in Televised Oval Office Confrontation
President Trump showed a video and leafed through printouts that he falsely claimed showed widespread persecution of white South Africans. The country’s president tried to correct the record. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jkvAUP
The Establishment Clause doesn’t have an asterisk
This morning at 9:00 AM the Office of the Secretary of Defense sent out what appears to be a building wide email to the entire Pentagon inviting everyone to a “Christian prayer service and worship” in the Pentagon auditorium.
Not the chapel. The auditorium.
This is a clear and direct violation by a Cabinet member of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and is a direct violation of military norms, traditions, and regulations by the senior official of the entire military. - On Democracy https://bit.ly/3SYoOsZ
Pete Hegseth Leads Christian Prayer Service in the Pentagon
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth led a Christian prayer service in the Pentagon’s auditorium on Wednesday morning, during working hours, in which President Trump was praised as a divinely appointed leader.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth led a Christian prayer service in the Pentagon’s auditorium on Wednesday morning, during working hours, in which President Trump was praised as a divinely appointed leader. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4my0XOr
The Trump Administration’s Favorite Answer
In their unawareness, these officials are taking their lead from the president. Trump once promised, “I alone can fix it,” but now he has a different message: I have no idea.
Given this pattern, it’s little surprise that when NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Trump, “Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?” he had a less-than-reassuring answer: “I don’t know.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4dE6Wxo
Judge Finds U.S. Violated Court Order With Sudden Deportation Flight to Africa
Lawyers for some of the eight migrants deported Tuesday said they were told they were being sent to South Sudan. People familiar with the flight said it had landed for the time being in Djibouti. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kALOKD
What you need to share about the “one big beautiful” ugly horrible bill
The old professor in me thinks the best way to convey to you how utterly awful the so-called “one big beautiful bill” passed by the House last night actually is would be to give you this short 10-question exam. (Answers are in parentheses, but first try to answer without looking at them.) - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4dBPPfu
What’s in Trump and Republicans’ giant tax and immigration bill?
The legislation would cap future expansion of SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program formerly known as food stamps, and pass on more of the cost for administering the program to state governments, potentially forcing local officials to decide whether to cut benefits or dig into their state and municipal budgets. Twenty-eight states with higher rates of improper payments would be required to shoulder 25 percent of benefits costs in addition to 75 percent of administrative costs. Currently, states only pay half of the program’s overhead and do not contribute to benefits. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3SQcT0i
The Largest Upward Transfer of Wealth in American History
House Republicans voted to advance a bill that would offer lavish tax cuts for the rich while slashing benefits for the poor. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/45nCK7q
The hidden provision in the Big Ugly Bill that makes Trump king
With this single provision, in other words, Trump will have crowned himself king. No Congress and no court could stop him. Even if a future Congress were to try to stop him, it could not do so without the power of the courts to enforce their hearings, investigations, subpoenas, and laws. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4jl3yIY
Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades
The National Science Foundation, which funds much of the fundamental scientific research at American universities, is awarding new grants at the slowest pace in at least 35 years.
The funding decreases touch virtually every area of science — extending far beyond the diversity programs and other “woke” targets that the Trump administration says it wants to cut. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dtjoQc
Judge Blocks Trump Administration From Dismantling Education Department
A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Trump’s executive order aimed at dismantling the Education Department and ordered officials to reinstate thousands of fired employees in a ruling that was at least a temporary setback for the president and his plans.
The decision from Judge Myong J. Joun of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts was a preliminary injunction, meaning it will remain in force until the case is resolved or a higher court overturns it. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4klufOT
NOAA Warns of Brutal Atlantic Hurricane Season, as Trump Slashes the Agency
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its outlook for the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season today, predicting “above-normal” storm activity. The news comes amid concerns that sweeping staff cuts and policy shifts may impact the agency’s preparedness. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/43xxQSS
Trump's DOJ Is Now Coming For Members Of Congress
Last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi demonstrated just how far Trump’s Justice Department would go with the arrest of Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan for allegedly “obstructing an official proceeding and concealing a person from arrest.” As Bondi made clear in an explicit warning to judges at the time, if they in any way thwart Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, “we will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you.”
But if you thought the Justice Department targeting judges was bad, it was just the beginning. Trump’s hand-picked U.S. Attorney just arrested Democratic Representative LaMonica McIver for allegedly “assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement” during a scuffle outside a New Jersey ICE facility. - Big Picture https://bit.ly/4jl3IA4
Trump’s Biggest “Fuck You” Yet to Higher Education and the Rest of the World
He and his regime are mounting an assault on the American mind. Why? Because ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3Hr6HcE
Trump Administration Says It Is Halting Harvard’s Ability to Enroll International Students
The latest move intensifies the administration’s attempt to upend the culture of higher education by directly subverting the ability of one of the nation’s premier universities to attract the best and brightest students from all over the world. That capability, across all of academia, has long been one of the greatest sources of academic, economic and scientific strength in America. -NYT https://nyti.ms/3Z3zytH
Letters from an American - May 21, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson But the center of the bill is indeed related to money: it is the $3.8 trillion extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which disproportionately benefit the wealthy and corporations. Yesterday the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said that Americans in the lowest tenth of earners will lose money under the measure while people in the top five percent of earners will see a tax cut of $117.2 billion, more than 20% of the tax cuts in the bill.
Poorer Americans take a hit from the bill because it cuts federal healthcare and food assistance programs to partially offset the costs of the tax cuts. Cuts to Medicaid are expected to leave at least 9 million people without healthcare coverage. Cuts of about 30% to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would be “the biggest cut in the program’s history,” Ty Jones Cox, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, told Lorie Konish of CNBC. They would cut about $300 billion from the program through 2034. More than 40 million people, including children, seniors, and adults with disabilities, receive food assistance.
Yesterday the CBO reported that the measure will add $2.3 trillion to the deficit over ten years, and noted that when a budget adds too much to the federal deficit, it triggers cuts to Medicare (not a typo) under the Pay-As-You-Go law. The CBO explains that those cuts are limited by law to 4% but would still total about $490 billion from 2027 through 2034. - Cox Richardson https://nyti.ms/3Z3zytH
Letters from an American - May 22, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
The racism and the corruption are coming together tonight as the top 220 holders of the $TRUMP coin join the president at a private dinner. A Bloomberg analysis of the top 25 wallets shows that 19 are owned by individuals from outside the United States, and many of the winners are companies looking for access to the president. Many of them dumped their $TRUMP coins as soon as they made the cut for the dinner. - Cox Richardson https://nyti.ms/3Z3zytH
Federal judge halts Trump administration ban on Harvard’s ability to enroll international students
US District Court Judge Allison Burroughs ruled hours after the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college filed suit Friday. Harvard argued revocation of its certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program was “clear retaliation” for its refusal of the government’s ideologically rooted policy demands. - CNN https://cnn.it/3HbbIpW
Judges Keep Calling Trump’s Actions Illegal, but Undoing Them Is Hard
Courts are serving as a rare check on President Trump, but judicial orders to unwind his actions can be easier said than done. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mynBGA
Bad news for Trump’s Golden Dome: He can’t build it without Canada
The president would need to rely on Ottawa to track Chinese and Russian missiles that could come at the U.S. from over the horizon. - Politico https://politi.co/3H4QWIy
Project 2025’s Architects Are Close to Achieving a Major Goal
To understand how much the American right has changed, consider its journey from fiercely resisting President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s efforts to expand executive power to surpassing them. A Supreme Court opinion yesterday gave Donald Trump a big win by allowing him to fire members of the so-called independent regulatory agencies. (At least, they used to be independent.)
The majority ruled that the president could remove these officials for now, with arguments to come later. The opinion is not conservative in any meaningful sense. It essentially overturns 90 years of precedent, and it does so using the Court’s “shadow docket,” which means an unsigned opinion delivered typically without oral arguments. Although couched in mild terms as a stay on lower-court rulings, this ruling—if it holds—will signal a radical shift that heralds a new era of big government. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4duiGCe
Letters from an American - May 23, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
A presidential administration traditionally publishes the president’s words promptly to establish a record. The Trump White House, in contrast, says removing the transcripts will enable people to get a better sense of Trump by watching his videos. But it’s likely closer to the truth that Trump’s appearances since he took office have been erratic, and removing the transcripts will make it harder for people to read his nonsensical rambles.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The Trump White House is the most transparent in history,” but of course, it’s objectively not. White House officials have made it impossible to tell who is making decisions at the Department of Government Efficiency, for example, or who gave the order to render migrants to El Salvador. Now the president’s words, too, will be hidden.
Trump’s erratic behavior was on full display this morning when he announced that he will impose a 50% tariff on goods from the European Union on June 1, suggesting he is frustrated because his promises of a new trade deal have failed to materialize. Trump had threatened to stop negotiating and simply dictate terms, and that is apparently the direction he’s moving. “I’m not looking for a deal,” he said this afternoon. “We’ve set the deal—it’s at 50%.” Trump also threatened a 25% tariff on Apple products unless the company begins to make the iPhone in the U.S. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/43bOuZg
A Kansas family farm, barely getting by, grapples with Trump’s cuts
“For every farmer I’ve talked to, this has been earth-shattering and life-changing,” said Bryan Zesiger, a winemaker and former Republican state Senate candidate who runs a tasting room just steps from the farmers market. “I don’t know what they were supposed to achieve, but from our perspective, you just hurt a lot of people.” - WaPo https://wapo.st/3FqgQFZ
How Trump's trade war is upending global economy
U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff decisions since he took office on January 20 have shocked financial markets and sent a wave of uncertainty through the global economy. - Reuters/Yahoo https://yhoo.it/4mBtXFi
Stocks Slide on Deficit and Tariff Concerns
Wall Street had its worst week since early April after President Trump said he would impose steep tariffs on E.U. goods and targeted Apple with a tax on foreign-made iPhones. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Sl6nyv
Trump's moves seen threatening key sources of U.S. 'soft power'
U.S. President Donald Trump's attempt to block Harvard University, with its global reputation for academic excellence, from enrolling international students adds to a growing list of measures that risk severely undercutting American "soft power." - Japan Times https://bit.ly/3Sl6oT5
Teaching America’s Authoritarian Rollercoaster In Real Time
This past semester, I taught a seminar titled “Trump 2.0.” to undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania.
I will be honest: it was a deeply unsettling experience.
I’ve never taught a course remotely like this one. I doubt very many people have. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/4jgUSmV
The Only Consistent Thread of Trumpism
But stepping back a bit from the relentless and anarchic daily news cycle to take in the whole of what’s transpired since January 20, something else becomes apparent: The administration is governing in an overwhelmingly negative way. The president and his team are out to destroy, like demolition experts sent into a high-rise housing project to level the buildings, leaving a vast vacant lot. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/43ERJYm
Trump Is Immensely Vulnerable
Drawing upon these lessons from my last column, here are what I see as the most promising lines of attack for his critics: - NYT https://nyti.ms/4my1PTo
Pivoting From Tax Cuts to Tariffs, Trump Ignores Economic Warning Signs
In report after report, economists this week predicted that Mr. Trump’s signature tax package could add well over $3 trillion to the national debt. Some found that the measure is unlikely to deliver substantial economic growth, and could enrich the wealthiest Americans while harming the poorest, millions of whom could soon lose access to federal aid for food and health insurance. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45oGDZI
A new phase of Trump neofascism
In the Oval Office, before cameras and journalists, Trump openly lied to the president of South Africa about alleged violence against white South Africans. The Trump regime has also granted refuge to white South Africans while continuing to bar or deport people of color who desperately need refuge.
The regime told Harvard it can no longer enroll foreign students and that its existing foreign students must transfer to another university or lose their legal status in the United States.
Trump auctioned off a personal dinner to foreigners who poured money into his own crypto business. He has also accepted Qatar’s gift of a $400 million “flying palace” (it’s also just for him — no other president in future years can use it).
At Trump’s insistence, House Republicans have passed a giant bill that would, if enacted, be the largest redistribution of income and wealth in American history — from the poor and working class to the rich and super-rich. The bill includes a poison pill that eliminates the power of courts to hold officials in contempt for disregarding court orders. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4jh0RIg
The Largest Upward Transfer of Wealth in American History
House Republicans worked through the night to advance a massive piece of legislation that might, if enacted, carry out the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history.
That is not a side effect of the legislation, but its central purpose. The “big, beautiful bill” would pair huge cuts to food assistance and health insurance for low-income Americans with even larger tax cuts for affluent ones. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/44UceSX
There Is No Dignity in Capitulation
American Masters, an award-winning documentary series in its 39th season on PBS, promises to tell “compelling, unvarnished stories” about the nation’s most important cultural figures. The program’s most recent story, though—Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse, about the cartoonist-author of Maus, the Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic novel depicting the Holocaust, and a self-described “poster boy for books being censored”—seemed to need a bit more varnish on its approach to Donald Trump. In April, two weeks before it aired on PBS stations, a 90-second segment of the film in which Spiegelman referred to the president’s “smug and ugly mug” was cut from the film at the behest of public-media executives. (The details of this incident were first reported by Anthony Kaufman for Documentary magazine.) - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4dy13S3
For Trump, Civil Rights Protections Should Help White Men
“They’re conveying that white men are the most discriminated against people in American society,” she added, “and therefore entitled to affirmative action.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3FvSIln
Trump administration moves to cancel all remaining federal contracts with Harvard
The White House is directing federal agencies to cancel all remaining contracts with Harvard University – about $100 million in all, two senior Trump administration officials told CNN – the latest barb against the school as it refuses to bend to the White House’s barrage of policy demands amid a broader politically charged assault on US colleges. - CNN https://cnn.it/43MSpff
Russia Intensifies Attacks on Ukraine as U.S. Steps Back
With diplomatic efforts to reach a cease-fire appearing remote, and President Trump apparently abandoning the process, Russia has been escalating its assaults on Ukrainian cities and on the battlefield. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mAKLMy
Letters from an American - May 26, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
President Donald J. Trump’s erratic behavior was on display this weekend in two public speeches: one to this year’s graduates at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and the other at Arlington National Cemetery. While both speeches are traditionally nonpartisan, Trump indicated he would make them partisan when he wore a red MAGA hat at West Point. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3ZCpo3k
Why Are They Hiding Their Faces?
The Department of Homeland Security has its stated reasons for why its agents are donning face coverings. Let’s start there and punch some holes in why it’s still wholly unacceptable. Then we’ll walk through some of the real reasons—from the cowardly to the terrifying—that they are hiding their faces. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4keehpH
THE NEW DARK AGE
The warlords who sacked Rome did not intend to doom Western Europe to centuries of ignorance. It was not a foreseeable consequence of their actions. The same cannot be said of the sweeping attack on human knowledge and progress that the Trump administration is now undertaking—a deliberate destruction of education, science, and history, conducted with a fanaticism that recalls the Dark Ages that followed Rome’s fall. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3Sn6mtW
Trump Pardoned Tax Cheat After Mother Attended $1 Million Dinner
Paul Walczak’s pardon application cited his mother’s support for the president, including raising millions of dollars and a connection to a plot to publicize a Biden family diary. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43F3YUH
As Trumps Monetize Presidency, Profits Outstrip Protests
The president and his family have monetized the White House more than any other occupant, normalizing activities that once would have provoked heavy blowback and official investigations. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3SWqyTE
CDC can no longer help prevent lead poisoning in children, state officials say
Amid the brutal cuts across the federal government under the Trump administration, perhaps one of the most gutting is the loss of experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who respond to lead poisoning in children. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/45soE4z
Marshals’ Data Shows Spike in Threats Against Federal Judges
Data gathered by the law enforcement agency responsible for judicial security showed 162 judges faced threats between March 1 and April 14. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mDc6O6
U.S. Ships Championed by Trump Cost 5 Times as Much as Asian Ones
President Trump and members of Congress want to revive U.S. shipbuilding with subsidies and penalties against Chinese-built ships. But there are obstacles. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kM9H21
THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY’S WORLD-HISTORICAL HEIST
uring his first presidency, Donald Trump collected millions of dollars of other people’s money. He charged the taxpayer nearly $2 million to protect him during the hundreds of times he visited his own properties. He accepted millions of dollars of campaign-related funds from Republican candidates who sought his favor. His businesses collected at least $13 million from foreign governments over his first term in office.
When it was all over, Trump apparently decided he had been thinking too small. In his first term, he made improper millions. In his second term, he is reaching for billions: a $2 billion investment by a United Arab Emirates state-owned enterprise in the Binance crypto exchange using the Trump family’s stablecoin asset. An unknown number of billions placed by Qatar in a Trump-family real-estate development in that emirate, topped by the gift of a 747 luxury jet for the president’s personal use in office and afterward. Government-approved support for a Trump golf course in Vietnam while its leaders were negotiating with the United States for relief from Trump tariffs. Last week, Trump hosted more than 200 purchasers of his meme coin, many of them apparently foreign nationals, for a private dinner, with no disclosure of the names of those who had paid into his pocket for access to the president’s time and favor. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3SqJUAg
How to Hide a 350-Foot Megayacht
Russian oligarchs use the offshore system to shield their luxury assets. The Trump administration is ending an effort to find and seize them. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Z6MPlm
Beware: We Are Entering a New Phase of the Trump Era
The United States in the last four months has felt like an unremitting series of shocks: executive orders gutting civil rights and constitutional protections; a man with a chain saw trying to gut the federal government; deliberately brutal deportations; people snatched off the streets and disappeared in unmarked cars; legal attacks on universities and law firms.
Unlike the Russian autocratic breakthrough (or, for that matter, the Hungarian one, which has apparently provided some of Donald Trump’s playbook), the transformation of American government and society hasn’t been spread out over decades or even years. It’s been everything everywhere all at once.
And now that has become familiar. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45vP2dX
The White House keeps promising ‘lifesaving’ aid that’s not coming
“We’re going to be doing foreign aid. We’re going to be doing humanitarian relief, disaster relief,” Rubio told his former Senate Foreign Relations Committee colleagues. “We’re going to be doing all the things we’ve done before. Maybe not some of the same projects, but we’re going to be doing all of it.”
There’s just one problem: They’re not doing it. Despite months of assurances by Rubio that the administration planned to maintain “lifesaving” aid, there has been a catastrophic halt to programs that — by any reasonable definition — prevent people from dying or being brutally harmed. - WaPo https://wapo.st/45ti6CP
RFK Jr. says he may bar scientists 1 Zoom out zom publishing in top medical journals
"We're probably going to stop publishing in the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and those other journals because they're all corrupt," Kennedy said during an appearance on the "Ultimate Human" podcast. He also described the journals as being under the control of pharmaceutical companies. - WaPo/MSN https://bit.ly/43zssP1
Trump Pardons Reality-Show Couple Convicted of $36 Million Fraud
President Trump on Wednesday pardoned the reality television stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were convicted three years ago of evading taxes and defrauding banks of more than $30 million to support their luxurious lifestyle. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kfkYHY
‘Stop the Steal’ in U.S. History Class
President Trump will never recant his baloney about how the 2020 election was stolen, but given his decisive victory in 2024, the GOP could now at least let his falsehoods fade into obscurity. Oklahoma is keeping them alive by echoing Mr. Trump’s fantasy in its new standards for high-school social studies classes. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/43QTRxa
Trump admin tells Supreme Court: DOGE needs to do its work in secret
The Department of Justice today asked the Supreme Court to block a ruling that requires DOGE to provide information about its government cost-cutting operations as part of court-ordered discovery. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4dDKBzH
Letters from an American - May 27, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Political scientist Adam Bonica noted last Friday that Trump and the administration suffered a 96% loss rate in federal courts in the month of May. Those losses were nonpartisan: 72.2% of Republican-appointed judges and 80.4% of Democratic-appointed judges ruled against the administration.
The administration sustained more losses today. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4jtIrEr
Universities Can Do Research as Long as It’s ‘In Sync’ With Trump Administration, Education Secretary Says
As the Trump administration continues its attack on higher education, Education Secretary Linda McMahon has laid out some guidance for how universities can keep the attack dogs at bay: just share the values of the administration and do exactly as it asks. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4kic2lq
The Administration Takes a Hatchet to the NSC
At 4:20 p.m. on the Friday before Memorial Day, Brian McCormack, the National Security Council chief of staff, sent an email to more than 100 staffers telling them that they had 30 minutes to clear out their desk. Nearly all were people the Trump administration had hired to the NSC.
President Donald Trump has been gunning for the NSC since 2019, during his first term in office, when two staffers filed a whistleblower complaint about his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and got him impeached. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/43Sz2S4
Trump Short-Circuits Over Wall Street's 'TACO' Slogan: 'Trump Always Chickens Out'
"Don't ever say what you said," President Donald Trump told a reporter when asked about Wall Street's new saying. "That’s a nasty question." - HuffPost https://bit.ly/4ksn8nG
US court blocks Trump from imposing the bulk of his tariffs
A federal court on Wednesday ruled that President Donald Trump overstepped his authority to impose sweeping tariffs that have raised the cost of imports for everyone from giant businesses to everyday Americans. - CNN https://cnn.it/4jqknlF
Elon Musk says his "time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end"
Musk’s post comes after he raised concerns about President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending cuts package, saying in an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” that he believes it would raise the US budget deficit and undercut efforts by DOGE. - CNN https://cnn.it/4joPIoI
U.S. trade court blocks Trump's global tariffs, dealing major blow to agenda
The vast majority of U.S. President Donald Trump’s global tariffs were deemed illegal and blocked by the nation's trade court on Wednesday, dealing a major blow to a pillar of his economic agenda. - Bloomberg/Japan Times https://bit.ly/3ZEfu1f
Trump Tariffs Ruled Illegal by Federal Judicial Panel
A panel of federal judges on Wednesday blocked President Trump from imposing some of his steepest tariffs on China and other U.S. trading partners, finding that federal law did not grant him “unbounded authority” to tax imports from nearly every country around the world. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dGqgKb
A Disillusioned Musk, Distanced From Trump, Says He’s Exiting Washington
Elon Musk took a swipe at President Trump’s signature domestic policy legislation, saying it would add to the national deficit. He complained to administration officials about a lucrative deal that went to a rival company to build an artificial-intelligence data center in the Middle East. And he has yet to make good on a $100 million pledge to Trump’s political operation. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jiXNv7
U.S. Will ‘Aggressively’ Revoke Visas of Chinese Students, Rubio Says
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday evening that the Trump administration would work to “aggressively revoke” visas of Chinese students, including those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or who are studying in “critical fields.”
He added that the State Department was revising visa criteria to “enhance scrutiny” of all future applications from China, including Hong Kong. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jmVPdi
A Missouri Town Was Solidly Behind Trump. Then Carol Was Detained.
For 20 years, Carol Hui has served waffles, raised her children and embraced the small town of Kennett, Mo. Her detention and pending deportation to Hong Kong has hit the community hard. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44UvQX6
Musk ‘Disappointed’ With Major Trump Policy Bill, Saying It Will Increase Deficit
Elon Musk criticized the far-reaching Republican bill intended to enact President Trump’s domestic policy agenda, saying it would undermine the administration’s own efforts to shrink federal spending. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mxmlU1
To Win Pardons, Trump Allies Echo His Claims of Political Prosecutions
When they pleaded guilty, the three men took responsibility for crimes.
Brian Kelsey acknowledged his involvement in an illegal campaign cash scheme. Paul Walczak expressed “so much shame” for his tax fraud. Daniel Rodriguez wrote a letter to “apologize from the heart” to a police officer he assaulted with a stun gun.
But when they or their allies pushed for pardons from President Trump, they argued that they — like him — had been unfairly targeted by prosecutors because of their politics. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HhNREX
Elon Musk disses Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' for growing the national debt
In an excerpt of a new CBS interview released late Tuesday, Musk expressed dismay over the sizable price tag of the legislation. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently projected the bill would add $3.8 trillion to the national debt over a decade. Musk argued it would undercut the work of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which he spearheaded to slash the federal workforce and hollow out government agencies. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3HiHdOY
Walmart, Ford, and more companies raising prices because of tariffs
“When a single tariff announcement can erase trillions in market value overnight, who can blame finance leaders for tossing their annual forecasts out the window?” Sunil Rajasekar, CEO of fintech platform Billtrust, tells Quartz. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3FeB0D1
Letters from an American - May 28, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Judges continue to decide cases against Trump, with a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of International Trade ruling today that President Donald J. Trump’s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs are illegal. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/43HVpsf
From Alpha To Beta: Trump's "Strong Leader" Persona Is Crumbling
Trump's performative strength can no longer hide the profound weakness of his presidency. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4kEQ4Zn
RFK Jr.’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Report Cites Fake Studies
NOTUS reporters spent five days combing through the 522 citations in the report. They found dozens of broken links and studies with missing or incorrect authors. There were also issues with citations having the wrong issue numbers for the journals they appeared in, according to NOTUS.
But the most damning instances were at least seven studies that simply didn’t exist. For instance, the MAHA Report claims that drug advertising has led to a rise in ADHD and depression prescriptions being written for children. But try to find the study that’s cited in the report for that claim: Findling, R. L., et al. (2009). Direct-to-consumer advertising of psychotropic medications for youth: A growing concern. Journal of Child and Adolescent Pyschopharmacology, 19(5), 487-492. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4580VH3
'Make America Healthy Again' report cites nonexistent studies: authors
At least four of the studies cited in a flagship White House report on children's health do not exist, authors listed in the document told AFP Thursday, casting doubt on the paper outlining U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s agenda. - AFP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/4dM5Mjk?
Musk Leaves Washington Behind but With Powerful Friends in Place
Mr. Musk is leaving his government position after weeks of declining influence and increasing friction with both President Trump and shareholders of his own private companies. But Mr. Trump on Thursday suggested that he was still aligned with one of his chief political patrons, saying that he would appear with Mr. Musk at the White House on Friday afternoon for a news conference. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kJi9ig
Trump Officials Intensify Attacks on Judges as Court Losses Mount
Even by the judge-bashing standards of the Trump administration, the White House’s sharp reactions this week to court decisions curtailing its agenda appeared to intensify a strategic effort to undermine confidence in the judiciary.
“Trump’s attack on the judges is an attempt to undo the separation of powers,” Ty Cobb, a lawyer who defended Mr. Trump in a special counsel investigation in his first term, said in an interview. “It’s an attempt to take what is three coequal branches and make it one dominant branch.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HyfREh
Harvard Wins Initial Court Fight to Keep Its International Students
A federal judge said she would issue a temporary order that would prevent the Trump administration from blocking the school’s ability to enroll international students. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dHtn4J
If Trump Walks Away From Ukraine Now, He Looks Weak, and Putin Wins
An American withdrawal would only encourage a new military push by Mr. Putin, who has staked his authoritarian rule on bringing Ukraine to heel and seizing its territory. Nor would Ukraine surrender. It has developed ways to hold back Russian forces, including through a domestic defense industry that may produce a few million drones this year. Other European powers, including Britain, Germany and France, will also continue to support Ukraine. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4e0JkTT
Trump’s Flurry of Pardons Signals a Wholesale Effort to Redefine Crime
President Trump is employing the vast power of his office to redefine criminality to suit his needs — using pardons to inoculate criminals he happens to like, downplaying corruption and fraud as crimes, and seeking to stigmatize political opponents by labeling them criminals.
In the past few days, Mr. Trump has offered pardons or clemency to more than two dozen people embraced by his obstreperous right-wing base, or favored by people in his orbit. Most are political allies, some are former officeholders accused of abusing power for personal gain, and almost all were convicted of white-collar crimes like fraud, tax evasion and campaign finance violations — not far removed from accusations Mr. Trump himself has faced. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kPHLKF
Trump Administration Knew Vast Majority of Venezuelans Sent to Salvadoran Prison Had Not Been Convicted of U.S. Crimes
The Trump administration knew that the vast majority of the 238 Venezuelan immigrants it sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in mid-March had not been convicted of crimes in the United States before it labeled them as terrorists and deported them, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security data that has not been previously reported. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4dGNkZj
U.S. Cancels Contract With Moderna to Develop Bird Flu Vaccine
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly questioned the safety of mRNA technology, which is used in the company’s shot. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Hyj9r7
Judge blocks Trump administration's effort to bar Harvard from enrolling international students
A federal judge said that she would issue a preliminary injunction that would allow Harvard to continue enrolling international students — halting, at least for now, the Trump administration's efforts to ban the practice. - NPR https://n.pr/43BczHS
US State Department orders embassies to ‘immediately begin additional vetting’ for anyone seeking a visa to travel to Harvard
The “additional vetting” is comprised of “a complete screening of the online presence” of the applicants who wish to travel to Harvard, which will serve as a pilot for expanded social media screening and vetting visa applicants across the board.
“Such applicants include, but are not limited to prospective students, students, faculty, employees, contractors, guest speakers, and tourists,” the diplomatic cable signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and seen by CNN said. - CNN https://cnn.it/4kJksly
On the Campaign Trail, Elon Musk Juggled Drugs and Family Drama
Mr. Musk’s drug consumption went well beyond occasional use. He told people he was taking so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that it was affecting his bladder, a known effect of chronic use. He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. And he traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall, according to a photo of the box and people who have seen it. - CNN https://nyti.ms/43TchNM
Supreme Court Allows Trump Administration, for Now, to End Biden-Era Migrant Program
The administration had asked the court to allow it to end deportation protections for more than 500,000 people facing dire humanitarian crises in their home countries. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44WGU66
Trump allies expect he’ll double down on tariffs after sweeping court block
Judges agreed that under the IEEPA, Trump can't just declare a "national emergency" and impose tariffs when there is no "unusual and extraordinary" threat and tariffs aren't targeted to "deal with" that specific threat. - - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4kHMiOZ
Elon Musk’s Legacy Is Disease, Starvation and Death
There is one place, however, where Musk, with the help of his minions, achieved his goals. He did indeed shred the United States Agency for International Development. Though a rump operation is operating inside the State Department, the administration says that it has terminated more than 80 percent of U.S.A.I.D. grants. Brooke Nichols, an associate professor of global health at Boston University, has estimated that these cuts have already resulted in about 300,000 deaths, most of them of children, and will most likely lead to significantly more by the end of the year. That is what Musk’s foray into politics accomplished. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4klnkp3
The bully gets punched in the nose
More and more Americans are summoning the courage to fight back against President Donald Trump. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4kjQEMq
Trump Admits ‘Elon’s Really Not Leaving’ During DOGE Press Conference
President Donald Trump held a bizarre press conference with Elon Musk in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday, ostensibly to wave goodbye to the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But both Trump and Musk essentially admitted that the billionaire oligarch wasn’t really going anywhere, at least when it comes to his influence on the federal government. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4mGaT8E
Worrying Covid-19 Variant Hits the U.S. Just in Time for Summer
The World Health Organization singled out the growing emergence of NB.1.8.1 in its latest status report on covid-19 Wednesday. Scientists have also recently detected NB.1.8.1 in California and other states. Though NB.1.8.1 isn’t dramatically different from existing variants, the WHO warns that covid-19 remains a high public health risk. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4dHfTWp
Death, Sexual Violence and Human Trafficking: Fallout From U.S. Aid Withdrawal Hits the World’s Most Fragile Locations
Exclusive State Department records show: As the Trump administration abandons its humanitarian commitments, diplomats are reporting that the cuts have led to violence and instability while undermining anti-terrorism initiatives. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3ZaZmnN
Supreme Court allows Trump administration to end humanitarian status for some migrants
The move to grant a stay in the case means that the Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who were granted temporary parole under the program known as CHNV would lose their temporary legal status to be in the U.S. — and could potentially be deported while the case plays out in the lower courts. - ProPublica https://n.pr/3HjZ1sK
Children zip-tied at San Antonio immigration court in new crackdown
At least three migrant children were taken into custody and restrained with zip ties at the San Antonio Immigration Court, located at 800 Dolorosa Street, on Thursday, May 29, according to multiple sources.
The incident was captured on video by an immigration attorney, who then shared the footage with attendees of an immigration law conference being held this week at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio Riverwalk Hotel by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., or CLINIC.
The children — two boys and a girl who appeared to be between the ages of 9 and 12 years old — were detained and zip-tied, along with adults who appeared to be relatives, after an immigration judge had dismissed their case, according to Carolina Rivera, an immigration attorney who serves as a federal advocate and liaison for CLINIC. That dismissal should have meant they were no longer subject to removal proceedings, Rivera said. - My San Antonio https://bit.ly/4mDe54S
RFK Jr.’s fluoride ban would ruin 25 million kids’ teeth, cost $9.8 billion
Despite decades of data proving its efficacy at protecting teeth from decay—particularly children's teeth—two states have now banned the use of fluoride in public water, and communities around the country have followed suit or are considering doing the same. The current US health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is known for his anti-vaccine advocacy and for peddling conspiracy theories, has pledged to remove fluoride from US water.
Now, a pair of researchers at Harvard—Sung Eun Choi and Lisa Simon—have modeled exactly what will happen in the US if Kennedy follows through on his pledge: The number of cavities and decayed teeth in American children and teens (ages 0–19) will increase by an estimated 7.5 percentage points over the first five years. That means there will be 25.4 million more rotten teeth in the mouths of children and teenagers. The dental bills for the added decay will total at least $9.8 billion in that time. Other costs, such as loss of work among parents, were not included, making the financial estimate conservative. But children will also be more miserable, with an estimated loss of 2.9 million quality-adjusted life years.
After 10 years, the number of additional decayed teeth would be 53.8 million at a cost of $19.4 billion. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/3FzbJDB
Trump nominates official with ties to antisemitic extremists to lead ethics agency
As NPR reported earlier this month, Jewish civil rights leaders have raised concerns about Ingrassia's ties to extremists, particularly in light of the administration's stated commitment to fighting antisemitism. The Trump Administration recently promoted Kingsley Wilson to the role of Pentagon press secretary over the objection of the American Jewish Committee, which said Wilson was "unfit" for government service, because she shared "antisemitic conspiracy theories lifted right out of the neo-Nazi playbook." The White House has justified the attempted deportation of international students and the withholding of billions of dollars in funding to universities as parts of a plan to combat antisemitic hate. - NPR https://n.pr/43GhIOS
President Alan Garber's Welcome - Harvard Commencement 2025
“Welcome.” - YouTube https://bit.ly/45xSTam
The TACO Presidency
Now, in May 2025, Wall Street is all over the “TACO trade,” another instance of people realizing they shouldn’t take the president at face value. “TACO” is short for “Trump always chickens out.” Markets have tended to go down when Trump announces new tariffs, but investors have recognized that a lot of this is bluffing, so they’re buying the dip and then profiting off the inevitable rally. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4knCnhX
Letters from an American - May 30, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Musk. Tariffs. Immigration - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3T7QcEZ
C.D.C. Contradicts Kennedy and Keeps Advice That Children May Get Covid Shots
Days after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that Covid shots would be removed from the federal immunization schedule for children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated advice that largely countered Mr. Kennedy’s new policy. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Z61qxu
Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans
Creating detailed portraits of Americans based on government data is not just a pipe dream. The Trump administration has already sought access to hundreds of data points on citizens and others through government databases, including their bank account numbers, the amount of their student debt, their medical claims and any disability status. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kDUiBf
Tech Bro Had to Go
Elon Musk came to Washington with a chain saw and left with a black eye. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3T6n692
Blow to Biden-era Program Plunges Migrants Into Further Uncertainty
A Supreme Court ruling on Friday ended temporary humanitarian protections for hundreds of thousands of people. But it is unclear how quickly many could be deported. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3FwwMqq
World Scientists Look Elsewhere as U.S. Labs Stagger Under Trump Cuts
With the welcome mat withdrawn for promising researchers from around the world, America is at risk of losing its longstanding pre-eminence in the sciences. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mXuYaS
Really, Secretary Rubio? I’m Lying About the Kids Dying Under Trump?
To deny the reality of dying children not only insults the memory of children starving to death in Sudan and Yemen and Afghanistan; it also insults the intelligence of Americans. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jwZ3uP
In Trump Immigration Cases, It’s One Thing in Public, Another in Court
When the administration’s attorneys appear before the court, and top officials are required to provide sworn testimony, the administration is more restrained and tethered to facts. Department of Justice attorneys insist that the administration is following judicial orders in good faith. They recognize errors made by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even if they attempt to diminish their significance. And they provide data and logistical details about ICE deportations that they do not otherwise release voluntarily.
Outside of court, President Donald Trump and his top aides depict deportees as terrorists and gang leaders regardless of whether they’ve been convicted of a crime. They admit no mistakes. And if judges rule unfavorably, they denounce them as “communists” and “lunatics” and suggest that they won’t respect their rulings. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4kRjNPc
J. D. Vance’s Bargain With the Devil
George Packer on ambition, corruption, and the making of Trump’s political heir. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3FC5pLA
Elon Musk came to Washington wielding a chain saw. He leaves behind upheaval and unmet expectations
But no one has been prosecuted for the fraud that Musk and Trump said was widespread within the government. Musk reduced his target for cutting spending from $2 trillion to $1 trillion to $150 billion, and even that goal may not be reached. - AP/Japan Times
Trump pulls Isaacman nomination for space. Source: “NASA is fed.”
"NASA's budget request is just a going-out-of-business mode without Jared there to innovate," a former senior NASA leader said. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/3SxhgNW
Gabbard considering ways to revamp Trump's intelligence briefing
One idea is to make the briefing, which according to his schedule Trump has been taking less often than his predecessors, a video that looks like Fox News. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/3T2HZSu
Letters from an American - June 01, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Even as government agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramp up their arrests and confrontations, the lug nuts on the wheels of the White House bus continue to loosen. - Cox Richardson https://nbcnews.to/3T2HZSu
The Trump Administration Targets Congress—Again
For the second time in less than a month, the Trump administration has used law enforcement to directly target Congress. And for the second time in less than a month, Congress is showing that it doesn’t have the desire or ability to defend itself. Republicans are mostly unwilling to do anything to stand up to Donald Trump, and Democrats are incapable of exerting either formal or informal political power. The Constitution’s checks and balances are premised on each branch wanting to protect its powers. What happens if that’s not the case? - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4krIIJd
A Stephen Miller Staffer and Tough Talk: Inside Trump’s Latest Attack on Harvard
The department signaled that it was reviewing claims of discrimination against white men at The Harvard Law Review, and accused the renowned publication of destroying evidence in an open investigation. The administration demanded that Harvard “cease and desist” from interfering.- NYT https://nyti.ms/4dMnWS9
America is the biggest loser in Trump's trade war, OECD says
The global economy is slowing. In a sharply downgraded forecast released Tuesday, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned that President Donald Trump’s volatile yet sweeping tariff policies are inflicting greater damage than expected, with the effects more concentrated in the U.S. than anywhere else. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3ZjcOGl
Louisiana House Passes Legislation to Fight Weather-Controlling ‘Chemtrails’
Tinfoil hats are back out amongst Louisiana legislators. Last week, lawmakers in the House passed a bill to ban “chemtrails” in the state. What are those, exactly? Oh, you know. The white lines left behind by aircraft that conspiracists insist are chemicals released by the government or other agencies for potentially nefarious purposes. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4kQdbQQ
Pardons for Sale, Free Jets, and Crypto Schemes: Why Trump’s Corruption Doesn’t Stick
Trump is the most corrupt President in history, here's why he keeps getting away with it. - The Message Box https://bit.ly/3FAlktU
Trump’s Vicious Attack on the American Mind
He wants America to be ignorant because ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4jCkt9Q
Letters from an American - June 2, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
The Republicans’ giant budget reconciliation bill has focused attention on the drastic cuts the Trump administration is making to the American government. On Friday, when a constituent at a town hall shouted that the Republicans’ proposed cuts to Medicaid, the federal healthcare program for low-income Americans, meant that “people will die,” Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) replied, “Well, we are all going to die.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/43rURYy
FEMA Scraps New Hurricane Plan and Reverts to Last Year’s
With hurricane season kicking off this month, Richardson told staff Monday that the agency would be returning to the same guidance for hurricane response as last year. Some were confused how that would be possible, given the agency had already eliminated key programs and sharply cut its workforce. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/4dSKdxA
U.S. Scientists Warn That Trump’s Cuts Will Set Off a Brain Drain
As the United States cuts budgets and restricts immigration, China and Europe are offering researchers money and stability. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43QqN80
We are witnessing the suicide of a superpower
On June 14 — the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army and, not so coincidentally, the 79th birthday of President Donald Trump — a gaudy display of U.S. military power will parade through Washington. No doubt Trump thinks that all of the tanks and soldiers on display will make America, and its president, look tough and strong.
But the planned spectacle is laughably hollow. Even as the president wants to showcase U.S. military power, he is doing grave and possibly irreparable damage to the real sources of U.S. strength, including its long-term investment in scientific research. Trump is declaring war on science, and the casualty will be the U.S. economy. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4kVgCWK
Elon Is Out, and We Should Take the Win
The richest man in the world, reviled Trump ally and backer Elon Musk, has finally left the building. The guy who gutted the federal workforce under “DOGE,” who cut off U.S. aid to millions of starving people leading to an estimated 300,000 deaths worldwide, and who sought to use his social media platform and fortune to make Nazis great again, is heading back to run his rocket and car companies, tail between his awkward leaping legs. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4krQYsw
The Three Huge Lies Trump is Telling Republican Senators about his Medicaid Cuts — to finance a big tax cut mostly for the wealthy
Trump is busily working the Senate this week in an effort to get his Big Ugly Bill across the finish line. Given the Republicans’ close margin in the Senate, he can afford to lose only three Republican senators.
But Republican senators don’t like the idea of cutting Medicaid — many of their constituents depend on it — and they’re balking at the huge deficit-busting price tag (which, of course, includes a giant tax cut mostly for the wealthy). - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/43rn55M
FEMA Is Not Prepared
Who manages the disaster if the disaster managers are the disaster?
That’s a question that the people of the United States may have to answer soon. As hurricane season begins in the U.S., the Federal Emergency Management Agency is in disarray. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3SDp2Wv
Trump’s Gilded Gut Instinct
Wall Street analysts recently began joking that the best way to predict the behavior of President Trump — and make money in the process — was by practicing the “TACO trade,” which stands for “Trump always chickens out.” You can always bet on Trump rolling back a reckless tariff.
This mocking of Trump’s inconsistency, which drives him nuts — “Don’t ever say what you said,” he told a reporter who asked him about it — not only is accurate but also deserves to be more widely applied. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3T9cDK4
Elon Musk Calls Trump Policy Bill a ‘Disgusting Abomination’
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Mr. Musk wrote on X. He called the domestic policy bill “massive, outrageous, pork-filled,” adding that it would “massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit” and that “Congress is making America bankrupt.” NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZcLDwU
Trump’s Tariffs Expected to Drag Down the Global Economy
President Trump’s trade war is expected to slow growth in the world’s leading economies, including the United States, this year and in the years to come, unless world leaders can resolve their differences over trade. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mO3QuD
Elon Musk Takes a Chainsaw to Trump's Big Beautiful Bill
Trump spent most of this week trying to corral the Senate to pass his plan to cut taxes for the rich — and pay for it by taking food and health care from the poorest Americans. He met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, spoke with Senators Josh Hawley and Ron Johnson (who oppose the bill in its current form), and spent the morning digitally browbeating Rand Paul. - The Message Box https://bit.ly/4dKrrIA
House GOP ‘big, beautiful bill’ would increase the deficit by $2.4 trillion, CBO says
The CBO analysis also adds fuel to Democrats’ and budget watchdogs’ claims that the package, which aims to fulfill Trump’s agenda, would worsen the nation’s fiscal outlook while providing big tax cuts for the wealthy. - CNN https://cnn.it/3ZKwD9t
How Trump’s megabill transfers wealth in the US
Low-income Americans will feel the effect of changes to aid programs, while the wealthy will see most of the windfall from tax cuts, according to multiple assessments. - CNN https://cnn.it/4kJv57K
US Education Department threatens Columbia University’s accreditation over campus antisemitism concerns
US Education Department threatens Columbia University’s accreditation over campus antisemitism concerns. - CNN https://cnn.it/4kVWSSQ
Sen. Democrats Call for Stop to Funneling Money to Starlink in States
From potentially illegal giveaways to shady trade deals, Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s relationship has drawn a lot of scrutiny. Now, Democrats are honing back in on potential backdoor deals for the benefit of Musk’s satellite internet constellation. In a recent letter, Senate Democrats claimed the Trump administration is withholding broadband grants to funnel money to Starlink. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3ZGnDCD
The Disappearing Funds for Global Health
In all, the N.I.H., the world’s premier public funder of medical research, has ended 1,389 awards and delayed sending funding to more than 1,000 additional projects, The Times found. From the day Mr. Trump was inaugurated through April, the agency awarded $1.6 billion less compared with the same period last year, a reduction of one-fifth. (N.I.H. records for May are not yet comparable.) - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZhuIt8
ICE Mass Arrests Spark Chaos In South Loop As Activists Fight To Disrupt Operation
At least 10 people were arrested at check-ins under an ICE monitoring program for immigrants, and an alderman said he was thrown to the ground by agents while protesting the arrests. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/45ui6CT
Trump signs proclamation to suspend visas for new Harvard international students
The proclamation temporarily blocks the entry of nearly all new international Harvard students under visas most use to study at US universities or participate in academic exchange programs. It also directs the Secretary of State “to consider revoking” those visas – known as F, M and J visas – for current Harvard students who meet the proclamation’s “criteria,” the White House said in a statement. - CNN https://cnn.it/45cx6VM
Trump signs proclamation to ban travel from 12 countries
The ban will fully restrict entry of nationals from 12 countries: Afghanistan; Myanmar, also known as Burma; Chad; Republic of the Congo; Equatorial Guinea; Eritrea; Haiti; Iran; Libya; Somalia; Sudan; and Yemen.
People from seven countries will have partial restriction: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. - CNN https://cnn.it/4jIwE57
U.S. private sector hiring sharply slows, drawing Trump ire
U.S. private sector hiring hit its slowest pace since 2023 in May, according to data Wednesday from payroll firm ADP, significantly missing expectations in a month where all eyes are on the effects of President Donald Trump's trade war.
Private sector employment rose by 37,000 jobs last month, slowing from the 60,000 figure in April, and missing a Briefing.com expectation of 115,000. - AFP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/4jBBVeA?
‘We Don’t Want Them’: Trump Signs Travel Ban on Citizens From 12 Countries
The travel ban revives an effort from President Trump’s first term that led to chaos and court battles. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3TbhJWc
Trump Orders Investigation of Biden and His Aides
The executive order is the latest effort by President Trump to stoke outlandish conspiracy theories about his predecessor and question the legality of his actions in office. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kTpegr
U.S. Vetoes U.N. Resolution Demanding Immediate Gaza Cease-Fire
The United States was the only member to vote against the measure; the other 14 members of the Council, including Russia, voted in favor, once again highlighting Washington’s isolation on the global stage over its policy of unconditional support of Israel. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45bfiKE
Trump Pushes to Restrict Harvard’s International Students From Entering U.S.
The university called it “yet another illegal retaliatory step” from an administration that has sought ways to circumnavigate the courts in its push to bar foreign students. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45KcTGR
Trump Escalates Attack on Columbia by Threatening Its Accreditation
The Trump administration escalated its attack on Columbia University on Wednesday by taking a warning shot against its accreditation, a key credential that U.S. universities need to receive federal student aid. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3FQnyFo
E.P.A. Workers Are Unsettled as ICE Makes Arrests in Their Building
Officials with the federal Environmental Protection Agency have admonished their workers not to interfere with arrests by immigration officers in a downtown Manhattan building where the agency has offices, underscoring tension among federal employees as President Trump escalates his crackdown on immigrants. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jFK5D0
Trump Budget Eliminates Funding for Crucial Global Vaccination Programs
The budget proposal, submitted to Congress last week, proposes to eliminate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s global health unit, effectively shutting down its $230 million immunization program: $180 million for polio eradication and the rest for measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases. The budget plan also withdraws financial support for Gavi, the international vaccine alliance that purchases vaccines for children in developing countries. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kSkgQV
The Trump Pardons Are Out of Control
President Trump has been on a pardon spree that shows no signs of slowing. In recent weeks alone, he pardoned or granted clemency to two former Republican politicians convicted of tax evasion, a reality-show couple convicted of fraud whose daughter spoke at the Republican National Convention, another tax cheat whose mother raised millions of dollars for Mr. Trump’s presidential campaigns and a far-right “constitutional” sheriff who accepted bribes for deputy credentials. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4knf1ZI
Layoffs are surging as 2025 becomes the year of the pink slip
U.S. employers announced almost 100,000 job cuts in May, up an eye-watering 47% from the same month last year, according to new data released Thursday morning by the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4dTYt9d
The Trump Administration Is Spending $2 Million to Figure Out Whether DEI Causes Plane Crashes
When President Donald Trump blamed diversity, equity, and inclusion programs for the deadly January crash at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, some aviation officials were appalled. Some were simply perplexed. But few officials inside the Federal Aviation Administration took the president’s remarks seriously. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4jFKm90
The GOP’s New Medicaid Denialism
Unable to defend their health-care cuts on the merits, congressional Republicans have pivoted to magical thinking. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4mLXImV
The Secret History of Trump’s Private Cellphone
“Who’s calling?” the president asks as he answers call after call from numbers he doesn’t know. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/43Jq0Wd
“The Intern in Charge”: Meet the 22-Year-Old Trump’s Team Picked to Lead Terrorism Prevention
One year out of college and with no apparent national security expertise, Thomas Fugate is the Department of Homeland Security official tasked with overseeing the government’s main hub for combating violent extremism. One year out of college and with no apparent national security expertise, Thomas Fugate is the Department of Homeland Security official tasked with overseeing the government’s main hub for combating violent extremism. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/45dSsSy
Trump threatens to cancel Musk's government contracts as feud boils over
President Trump suggested he could cancel billions of dollars of government contracts with Elon Musk's companies, accusing his former adviser and biggest political donor of going "crazy." - Axios https://bit.ly/4ky1jDw
Elon Says Trump Is ‘in the Epstein Files’ as Their Relationship Publicly Implodes
Everyone knew the day would come when the relationship between Elon Musk and Donald Trump actually imploded. And that day is finally here, with Musk going scorched-Earth and now saying Trump is in the “Epstein Files,” a reference to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4dPNHRz
There's More To Trump's 'Mission From God' Meme Than Meets The Eye
Trump's latest Christian nationalist dog whistle is a dangerous call to arms. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/43zMNFj
Elon Musk Goes Nuclear
From the moment Elon Musk bounded onstage, midriff bared, to campaign for Donald Trump, cynics predicted that the two men’s egos were too large to allow for a lasting alliance. Improbably, however, the bond persisted, despite the rocky rollout of the U.S. DOGE Service, disagreements over legislation, and even covers of The New Yorker and Time that seemed designed to troll Trump and drive a wedge between the men. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3Fs1uB7
Trump Threatens Musk Contracts as Feud Escalates
Last year alone, companies owned by Elon Musk were promised $3 billion across nearly 100 different government contracts with 17 federal agencies. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ky1T4a
Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump’s Order Curtailing Foreign Students at Harvard
A federal judge late Thursday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s latest effort to prevent Harvard from enrolling international students, stalling President Trump’s first bid to directly use the power of the presidency against the university. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dTZWML
After Muscling Their Bill Through the House, Some Republicans Have Regrets
The sprawling legislation carrying President Trump’s domestic agenda squeaked through the House with one vote to spare, but some Republicans now say they didn’t realize what they voted for. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kNAnzc
RFK Jr. Is Opening the Alternative Medicine Floodgates
Kennedy plans to make it easier for people to take unregulated, potentially unsafe treatments like stem cell and chelation therapy. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3ZjhZ9a
Universities have no choice
Trump aims to eliminate research and teaching not directed by politics — which is to say, to destroy higher education entirely. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/444iOFt
Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades
The National Science Foundation, which funds much of the fundamental scientific research at American universities, is awarding new grants at the slowest pace in at least 35 years. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3TgT0ja
VIKTOR ORBÁN’S WAR ON INTELLECT
As the Hungarian prime minister systematically undermined his own country’s education system, one institution stood defiant: a university in the heart of Budapest, founded by George Soros. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/43Fbdf6
The Super Bowl of Internet Beefs
The sun rises every morning. Spring turns to summer. Water is wet. Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s relationship has ended with a post about Jeffrey Epstein. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/45i8MBX
Trump administration races to fix a big mistake: DOGE fired too many people
Early this spring, the Food and Drug Administration fired nearly 50 workers in the Office of Regulatory Policy — only to turn around and order them back to the office with one day’s notice. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4jCFDEY
Inside the Trump-Musk Breakup
Trump and Elon Musk, two billionaires with massive egos and combustible temperaments, had forged an unlikely friendship over the past year, one built on proximity, political expediency, and, yes, a touch of genuine warmth. Relations between the president and his top benefactor had grown somewhat strained in recent weeks, as Trump began to feel that Musk had overstayed his welcome in the West Wing. Musk had suggested privately that he could stay on at the White House, an offer that Trump gently declined, two people familiar with the situation told us. (They, like others we talked with for this story, spoke anonymously in order to share candid details about a sensitive feud.) But Musk was still given a gracious send-off last Friday—complete with a large golden, albeit ceremonial, key—aimed at keeping the mercurial tech baron more friend than foe.
The peace didn’t last even a week. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4mSjs0b
Trump Is Wearing America Down
The first time President Donald Trump tried to institute a travel ban to prevent large numbers of immigrants and visitors from reaching the United States, back in 2017, massive protests erupted at major airports across the country. This time, at least so far, there has been nothing of the sort. The disparity in reactions helps illustrate how habituated Americans have become to a president who wields his power with discriminatory intentions. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/458OhaH
Justices Grant DOGE Access to Social Security Data and Let the Team Shield Records
The Supreme Court on Friday let members of the Department of Government Efficiency, formed by Elon Musk, have access to sensitive records of many millions of Americans held by the Social Security Administration. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jGyUd9
Buildup to a Meltdown: How the Trump-Musk Alliance Collapsed
President Trump’s decision to pull a close associate of Elon Musk’s out of the running to lead NASA helped doom an extraordinary partnership. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Tjgi85
U.S. Returns Abrego Garcia From El Salvador to Face Criminal Charges
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the man at the center of a political and legal maelstrom after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, was flown back to the United States on Friday to face charges of transporting undocumented migrants. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3TeVZbW
Trump Administration Asks Justices to Clear the Way for Cuts to Education Department
Lawyers for the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to allow it to move ahead with plans to dismantle the Education Department by lifting a lower court order that had prevented department workers from being fired. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kGYVdq
Jobs Report Bolsters Fed’s Patient Approach on Rate Cuts, Drawing Trump’s Ire
Mr. Trump told reporters in the evening that his pick for the next chair of the Fed was coming soon and that he had a pretty good idea of whom he would select for the role, which Jerome H. Powell will vacate next May. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kUFqhd
Coal and Gas Plants Were Closing. Then Trump Ordered Them to Keep Running.
The grid operators that draw power from the plants said they never asked for them to remain open, and consumers may have to absorb extra costs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kvQVvT
Trump v. Musk
There simply was never going to be room for both of these malignant narcissists in the White House. But no one anticipated how each would cyber-bully the other from his own social media site with ever-escalating barbs. It was at once a hilarious end to a doomed political marriage and a flashing signal something is truly broken about our country. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4mLPpqZ
Letters from an American - June 06, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Police State. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/45a0pYY
Trump Says He Has No Desire to Mend His Relationship With Musk
President Trump said on Saturday that he believed his relationship with Elon Musk was over after the two sparred publicly on social media this week, and he warned there would be “serious consequences” if Mr. Musk financed candidates to run against Republicans who voted in favor of the president’s domestic policy bill. -NYT https://nyti.ms/43RPgJQ
Trump Administration Says National Guard Will Be Deployed to L.A. Protests
In Paramount, Calif., about 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, protesters clashed with federal immigration agents by a Home Depot near a residential area where many Latinos live. Law enforcement officials used rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades to disperse protesters. People were coughing, and one woman poured milk on herself after she was hit with pepper spray. The authorities also blocked off exits to prevent people from reaching the area. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3SE5lhl
A Comprehensive Accounting of Trump’s Culture of Corruption
At the gala dinner President Trump held last month for those who bought the most Trump cryptocurrency, the champion spender was the entrepreneur Justin Sun, who had put down more than $40 million on $Trump coins. Mr. Sun had a good reason to hope that this investment would pay off. He previously invested $75 million in a different Trump crypto venture — and shortly after the Trump administration took office in January, the Securities and Exchange Commission paused its lawsuit against him on charges of cryptocurrency fraud.
The message seemed obvious enough: People who make Mr. Trump richer regularly receive favorable treatment from the government he runs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ktSDhf
China’s Quiet Win: Outmaneuvering U.S. for Africa’s Future Leaders
The Trump administration’s recent tightening of visas for international students has raised fears that the United States could lose its status as a top destination for higher education. But for tens of thousands of students in Africa, that shift was already happening. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mXCLp6
Macron Will Visit Greenland This Month, Defying Trump
In a challenge to President Trump’s vow to take control of Greenland, President Emmanuel Macron of France will visit the enormous Arctic island on June 15 with the aim of “contributing to the reinforcement of European sovereignty.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/43SCdYP
Buyer With Ties to Chinese Communist Party Got V.I.P. Treatment at Trump Crypto Dinner
He Tianying outside the White House on May 23. Mr. He is a member of an advisory body that seeks to broaden the Communist Party’s influence and solicit support from influential people in Chinese society. -NYT https://nyti.ms/3HKCntK
Hope After Trump
On balance, I think the United States can recover from Trump at home. I’m less confident that the United States can fix the Trumpian mess internationally. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZXV3fR
Trump says Musk has 'lost his mind' as feud fallout mounts
U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that Elon Musk had "lost his mind" but insisted he wanted to move on from the fiery split with his billionaire former ally.
The blistering public break-up between the world's richest person and the world's most powerful is fraught with political and economic risks all round. - AFP/Japan Times https://bit.ly/43UBwyk?
Trump Threatens Musk with ‘Very Serious Consequences’ if He Funds Democrats
The feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump seems to have gone from a full boil to a simmer over the weekend, but don’t rule out the possibility of the heat getting turned up again. In a conversation with NBC News, Trump said he has no interest in making nice with Musk right now, but did make it clear that if the billionaire decides to switch parties and back Democratic candidates, “he’ll have to pay consequences for that.” - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3SL8pZ8
For Trump, This Is a Dress Rehearsal
Ordering the National Guard to deploy in Los Angeles is a warning of what to expect when his hold on power is threatened. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3ZQKlry
Trump Is Using the National Guard as Bait
President Donald Trump is about to launch yet another assault on democracy, the Constitution, and American traditions of civil-military relations, this time in Los Angeles. Under a dubious legal rationale, he is activating 2,000 members of the National Guard to confront protests against actions by ICE, the immigration police who have used thuggish tactics against citizens and foreigners alike in the United States.
By militarizing the situation in L.A., Trump is goading Americans more generally to take him on in the streets of their own cities, thus enabling his attacks on their constitutional freedoms. As I’ve listened to him and his advisers over the past several days, they seem almost eager for public violence that would justify the use of armed force against Americans. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3FR5ScT
What to Know About the Immigration Protests in Los Angeles
Hundreds of members of the California National Guard deployed to Los Angeles on Sunday, called in by President Trump against the wishes of Gov. Gavin Newsom. The National Guard troops appeared to largely refrain from engaging with demonstrators, even as federal immigration and homeland security officers and the city police fired crowd-control munitions at the protesters. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kyFm7b
Newsom Criticizes Hegseth for Saying Marines Could be Mobilized in California
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California sharply criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said that active duty Marines could be mobilized as part of the federal government’s response to protests against immigration raids in the Los Angeles area. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mT0o23
The Trump Reality Show Just Got Weirder
On Thursday, right around the time of the online breakout of a feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump that resembled a “Real Housewives” reunion show, we were treated to another episode of what has become the president’s favorite reality TV reboot. Call it “The Apprentice: World Leaders,” and in this latest installment, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, appeared alongside Mr. Trump, displaying a sophisticated instinct to hold his ground and emerge unscathed during his visit to the gilded zoo of the Oval Office. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jFn2be
Trump’s Police State
On Friday morning, federal agents from ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Drug Enforcement Administration conducted raids across Los Angeles, including at two Home Depots, a doughnut shop, and a clothing wholesaler, in search of workers they suspected of being undocumented immigrants.
They arrested 121 people. - Reich Substack - https://bit.ly/4kWR6QL
Letters from an American - June 08, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Flatbed train cars carrying tanks rolled into Washington, D.C., yesterday in preparation for the military parade planned for June 14. On the other side of the country, protesters near Los Angeles filmed officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) throwing flash-bang grenades into a crowd of protesters. The two images make a disturbing portrait of the United States of America under the Donald J. Trump regime as Trump tries to use the issue of immigration to establish a police state. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4jFn6Yw
Whose side is the U.S. on? Doubts strain alliances
Military solidarity and trade wars don’t mix. - Bloomberg/Japan times https://bit.ly/3FS9NGf
California governor calls Trump National Guard deployment in LA unlawful
California National Guard troops arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday to quell demonstrations over President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement, as the state's Democratic governor called their deployment unlawful.
The National Guard began deploying as demonstrations over federal immigration raids continued for a third day in Los Angeles, culminating in confrontations between protesters and police. - Reasuters/Japan Today https://bit.ly/3SJn3ju?
Ted Cruz bill: States that regulate AI will be cut out of $42B broadband fund
"Under the committee's proposal, states would be barred from enforcing their own AI protections as a condition of receiving broadband funds meant to expand Internet access to underserved communities," the group said. Public Citizen advocate J.B. Branch said that "with this move, Republicans are telling millions of Americans: 'You can have broadband but only if your state gives up the right to protect you from AI abuses.'" - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/45hkZH0
If Musk Really Did Strand Astronauts In Space Over His Feud With Trump The U.S. May Have To Turn To Russia To Get Them Back
The spat between Elon Musk and Donald Trump over the President's "big, beautiful bill" reached a public boiling point on Thursday with a flurry of furiously typed social media posts. In one post, the SpaceX CEO threatened to immediately decommission the company's Dragon spacecraft. With the Boeing Starliner still struggling to be certified to fly, the threat poses a unique dilemma for NASA because the Crew Dragon is the agency's only means of shuttling astronauts to and from the International Space Station. - Jalopnik https://bit.ly/4n0oDez
Massive Tech Layoffs May Be the Fault of a 2017 Trump Tax Cut
It turns out that a little-known provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 altered a longstanding loophole, known as Section 174, that allowed the tech industry to offload the cost of its research and development operations onto the federal government. Prior to the TCJA, tech companies could deduct 100 percent of the costs of R&D, allowing tech businesses the freedom to commit significant resources towards innovation. Bloomberg reports that, as Congress sought to find a way to offset the cost of giving big tax cuts to billionaires, one place where they discovered fat to trim was the tech industry’s R&D funding. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3HDi0Pm
RFK Jr. removes all current members of CDC vaccine advisory committee
The entirety of the 17-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the vaccine schedule and required coverage of immunizations, will be retired and replaced with new members, Kennedy announced in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. The HHS secretary has authority to appoint and dismiss ACIP members, who typically serve four-year cycles. But removing the entire panel prematurely is unprecedented. - CNN https://cnn.it/4k6x2uB
June 9, 2025 - Los Angeles protest news
On the ground: Protesters and police are still facing off in Los Angeles, with standoffs currently in the Arts District and Little Tokyo. Moments ago, police escorted a CNN crew out of one of these protest zones. Throughout the day, police used flash bangs and rubber bullets to disperse protesters after objects were thrown at them. Anti-ICE protests have occurred across the country. - CNN https://cnn.it/4jQz7ui
Trump Administration More Than Doubles Federal Deployments to Los Angeles
In an announcement, the Pentagon did not make clear why it would need an additional 2,000 National Guard troops. But more worrying to state and city officials, legal experts and Democrats in Congress was the use of active-duty Marines. By tradition and law, American military troops are supposed to be used inside the United States only in the rarest and most extreme situations. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43K98jC
Kennedy Removes All C.D.C. Vaccine Panel Experts
The C.D.C.’s vaccine advisers wield enormous influence. They carefully review data on vaccines, debate the evidence and vote on who should get the shots and when. Insurance companies and government programs like Medicaid are required to cover the vaccines recommended by the panel. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mQa4u2
Seven Hidden Ways Trump’s Megabill Would Remake America
Whatever else can be said against the One Big, Beautiful Bill, the 1,037-page legislation carrying President Trump’s domestic agenda, at least the grandiosity of its name reflects the grandiosity of its ambition. Far more expensive than the pandemic stimulus package Mr. Trump signed in his first term, the bill would provide some $3.8 trillion in tax cuts that favor the wealthy, paid for by cutting over a trillion dollars from government programs and borrowing most of the rest. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3FTH3wU
Mayor Bass of Los Angeles Blames Immigration Raids for Inflaming Tensions
“Why were there raids?” she asked. “We had been told that he was going to go after violent criminals. It wasn’t a drug den; it was a Home Depot.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4l2mc9F
Trump Calls Protesters in Los Angeles ‘Insurrectionists’
The description could become a rationale for invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act, which would give the president broad authority to use the military to deal with violence. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kAUSzn
Trump Bill’s Caps on Grad School Loans Could Worsen Doctor Shortage
President Trump’s policy agenda would make deep cuts in government health plans and medical research, and, critics say, could also make finding a doctor more difficult. The Republicans’ major domestic policy bill restricts loans that students rely on to pursue professional graduate degrees, making the path to becoming a physician harder even as doctor shortages loom and the American population is graying. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3FZiSx3
This Is What Autocracy Looks Like
Since Donald Trump was elected again, I’ve feared one scenario above all others: that he’d call out the military against people protesting his mass deportations, putting America on the road to martial law. Even in my more outlandish imaginings, however, I thought that he’d need more of a pretext to put troops on the streets of an American city — against the wishes of its mayor and governor — than the relatively small protests that broke out in Los Angeles last week.
In a post-reality environment, it turns out, the president didn’t need to wait for a crisis to launch an authoritarian crackdown. Instead, he can simply invent one. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43EBLi0
It May Feel Like the 1960s, but It’s Worse
Many of us who lived through the 1960s are tempted to seek similarities between then and now. We see the acute polarization of the nation, the warring ideologies, the National Guard deployed against demonstrators, the presidents who abuse power, the sense of America losing its bearing. Whereas President Richard Nixon’s silent majority battled flower power and “commies,” President Trump’s MAGA assails wokeness and the radical left. Whereas students closed down campuses over Vietnam, students now — or at least a year ago — rose up over Gaza. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4l3fr7y
Global economy on track for worst decade since 1960s, World Bank warns
The World Bank expects Trump’s barrage of new tariffs on America’s trading partners to whittle down global economic growth to its lowest level since the 2008 financial crisis when discounting worldwide recessions, according to a report released Tuesday. - CNN https://cnn.it/4kyzIC5
Sowing confusion in LA with the military
Late Saturday, against the wishes of California’s governor, the president federalized the National Guard and deployed them to Los Angeles to respond to protests against a wave of immigration raids in the city.
Yesterday afternoon, the Secretary of Defense ordered a 700-person Marine Corps battalion to join the federalized National Guard troops in Los Angeles.
This is all extremely unusual. And it is extremely troubling. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/3ZrYr2C
The DOGE 100: Musk Is Out, but More Than 100 of His Followers Remain to Implement Trump’s Blueprint
The people behind DOGE are largely men in their 20s and 30s, most of whom bring no government experience to the task. Many of them previously worked in finance. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/43Y9x0G
The White House Marching Orders That Sparked the L.A. Migrant Crackdown
After deportations fell short of President Trump’s campaign promises, federal agents summoned to a meeting in Washington were told to ‘just go out there and arrest illegal aliens’ - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/45RPDqw
Fake Images and Conspiracy Theories Swirl Around L.A. Protests
Misleading photographs, videos and text have spread widely on social media as protests against immigrant raids have unfolded in Los Angeles, rehashing old conspiracy theories and expressing support for President Trump’s actions.
The flood of falsehoods online appeared intended to stoke outrage toward immigrants and political leaders, principally Democrats.
They also added to the confusion over what exactly was happening on the streets, which was portrayed in digital and social media through starkly divergent ideological lenses. Many posts created the false impression that the entire city was engulfed in violence, when the clashes were limited to only a small part. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HEwgHn
Lawmakers Traded Stocks Heavily as Trump Rolled Out ‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs
From April 2, when Trump launched the sweeping tariffs, to April 8, the day before he paused many of them, more than a dozen House lawmakers and their family members made more than 700 stock trades, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of disclosure filings. Top stocks purchased in that “Liberation Week” period, by the number of trades listed in the disclosures, included MKS Instruments and JPMorgan Chase, while the most sold stocks included Honeywell International and Visa. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/4k6zRvH
Feds Reportedly Sent a Predator Drone to Spy on LA Protesters
As Trump’s shock troops invade Los Angeles, his administration is using every tool at its disposal to attack and surveil the political protests taking place in the city’s streets. That apparently includes the use of a Predator drone, which 404 Media reports was spotted by an aviation tracker as it zoomed over the city. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3FP9b4s
Trump’s Big, Beautiful Birthday Parade
This coming Saturday, June 14, America will host several competing events. Across the nation, with over 100 pro-democracy groups participating, there are 1,500 rallies planned for the “No Kings” day of defiance. In Chicago, the most respected American-born leader, Pope Leo VIX, will livestream an address to the world from a sold-out stadium.
And in Washington D.C., Donald Trump is throwing himself a birthday parade. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/43ZY40y
The Protests Are Just Starting
Large demonstrations were effective during Trump’s first term. The same could be true now. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4ek4lJn
Trump’s Gross Misuse of the National Guard
Donald Trump just did what no other president has ever done in the context of urban unrest: He sent federal troops to a state without a request from the governor. By federalizing California National Guard members on Saturday, the president abrogated Governor Gavin Newsom’s authority over his own Guard. During both previous instances of a presidential order to deploy National Guardsmen to American cities—the Los Angeles riots in 1992 and the Hurricane Katrina response in 2005—the state’s governor was overseeing a public-safety apparatus that had been overwhelmed. Trump, seizing on unlawful behavior that included vandalism, violence, and refusing to disperse during protests against ICE raids in L.A., announced that 2,000 reservists would be deployed to the city, unilaterally and contra Newsom’s advice. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/43HkZ1R
The Coward Goes to War Against America
The man who launched an attempted coup on the United States in 2020 and instigated an insurrection at the Capitol that resulted in five deaths now claims that people in Los Angeles are launching an insurrection. They’re not. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3SRkagy
Letters from an American - June 9, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
At 10:19 last night, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted on social media: “Stand with ICE. Pass the Big Beautiful Bill.”
And there it is. The Republicans’ “One Big, Beautiful Bill” is the MAGA regime’s attempt to replace the American government we’ve had since the 1930s with one that reflects the antidemocratic values of Project 2025. The measure is unpopular. According to a new CBS News/YouGov poll, 60% of Americans think the bill will help wealthy people, while 54% think it will hurt poor people. Forty-seven percent think it will hurt the middle class, while only 31% think it will help the middle class. As Simon Rosenberg of Hopium Chronicles noted, it’s “stunning how badly Trump and the Rs have lost the debate on what their reconciliation bill will do.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3SQr99x
An Uproar at the NIH
More than 300 officials, from across all of the NIH’s 27 institutes and centers, have signed and sent a letter to Bhattacharya that condemns the changes that have thrown the agency into chaos in recent months—and calls on their director to reverse some of the most damaging shifts. Since January, the agency has been forced by Trump officials to fire thousands of its workers and rescind or withhold funding from thousands of research projects. Tomorrow, Bhattacharya is set to appear before a Senate appropriations subcommittee to discuss a proposed $18 billion slash to the NIH budget—about 40 percent of the agency’s current allocation. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3FZlj2F
Thousands Of Chicagoans Take To The Streets To Protest ICE Raids, Trump Immigration Policies
Another protest against the Trump administration is being planned Saturday for Daley Plaza as part of a nationally coordinated series of demonstrations. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/3HGFYJn
Trump’s tariffs can remain in place for now, but appeals court fast tracks a summer resolution
The decision came after the Trump administration appealed the Court of International Trade’s ruling finding the president exceeded his authority to impose country-wide tariffs claiming a national emergency. - CNN https://cnn.it/3ZtJj4I
Trump Declares Dubious Emergencies to Amass Power, Scholars Say
To hear President Trump tell it, the nation is facing a rebellion in Los Angeles, an invasion by a Venezuelan gang and extraordinary foreign threats to its economy.
Citing this series of crises, he has sought to draw on emergency powers that Congress has scattered throughout the United States Code over the centuries, summoning the National Guard to Los Angeles over the objections of California’s governor, sending scores of migrants to El Salvador without the barest hint of due process and upending the global economy with steep tariffs.
Legal scholars say the president’s actions are not authorized by the statutes he has cited and are, instead, animated by a different goal. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4e14UYg
Appeals Court Pauses Order to Give Deported Venezuelans Due Process
The ruling, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, came one day before the administration was supposed to outline for a lower-court judge how to allow nearly 140 deported Venezuelans to challenge their expulsion. The men, accused of being members of a violent street gang called Tren de Aragua, are being held in a maximum-security Salvadoran prison. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43F9rfp
World Bank sounds the alarm as tariff wars bite into global growth
The World Bank has slashed its global growth forecast, warning that President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the resulting political uncertainty are dragging the world economy to its weakest non-recessionary pace since 2008. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4l50iCO
Letters from an American - June 10, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Today President Donald J. Trump made it clear that the provocations he and his administration are escalating in Los Angeles and now elsewhere are using the issue of immigration to suppress dissent entirely. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4l48XFx
The Silence of the Generals
Trump’s supporters and his party will excuse his behavior at Fort Bragg the way they always have, the same way that indulgent parents shrug helplessly at their delinquent children. But senior officers of the United States military have an obligation to speak up and be leaders. Where is the Army chief of staff, General Randy George? Will he speak truth to the commander in chief and put a stop to the assault on the integrity of his troops? Where is the commander of the airborne troops, Lieutenant General Gregory Anderson, or even Colonel Chad Mixon, the base commander? - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4kHhZsj
This Is What Trump Does When His Revolution Sputters
I doubt very much that Donald Trump knows a lot about the methods of Bolsheviks or Maoists, although I am certain that some of his entourage does. But he is now leading an assault on what some around him call the administrative state, which the rest of us call the U.S. government. This assault is revolutionary in nature. Trump’s henchmen have a set of radical, sometimes competing goals, all of which require fundamental changes in the nature of the American state. The concentration of power in the hands of the president. The replacement of the federal civil service with loyalists. The transfer of resources from the poor to the rich, especially rich insiders with connections to Trump. The removal, to the extent possible, of brown-skinned people from America, and the return to an older American racial hierarchy. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/442PJJr
The secret police descending on Small Town, U.S.A.
As unrest and military troops overtake Los Angeles, terrifying scenes are also unfolding in smaller communities around the country. They, too, are being invaded by what resembles a secret police force, often indistinguishable from random thugs. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3SQF2oi
Canada MP DESTROYS Trump in MAJOR SPEECH Before Meeting
Stay Out of Canada. -YouTube https://bit.ly/3HGInDT
Chicago Braces For Surge In Immigration Raids As Mayor Brandon Johnson Urges City To ‘Resist’
The mayor’s chief of staff said federal agents received notice to deploy to five Democrat-led cities, including Chicago — where recent actions have already drawn thousands to the streets in protest. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/45ZuUky
I’m a Vaccine Expert. Here’s What Keeps Me Up at Night About Kennedy’s Policies.
The number of changes to vaccine policy in the United States in recent weeks is dizzying — and we’ve just hit Code Red.
The federal government has sown confusion by changing recommendations for Covid-19 vaccines, ending contracts for mRNA technology research and firing the entire congressionally authorized panel that guides the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine decisions. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jPbzpJ
STEPHEN MILLER TRIGGERS LOS ANGELES
During a lull in the chanting outside the federal building targeted by protesters in downtown Los Angeles this week, I walked up behind a hooded young man wearing a mask and carrying a can of spray paint. He began to deface the marble facade in big black letters. when tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty—Thomas Jefferson, he wrote, adding his tag, SMO, in smaller font. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4kEOes9
Why Trump Is Losing His Trade War
He picked a stupid fight with the whole world. The bad results are all on him. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3HExB15
RFK Jr. announces 8 appointees to CDC vaccine panel—they’re not good
The appointments are likely to increase concern that federal vaccine recommendations will be corrupted and lead to Americans losing access to lifesaving vaccines. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/43ZRUO4
Soldiers screened for appearance and politics ahead of Trump visit
“If soldiers have political views that are in opposition to the current administration and they don’t want to be in the audience then they need to speak with their leadership and get swapped out,” according to a unit message obtained by Military.com. - Army Times/Yahoo News https://yhoo.it/3FYrdB8
Troops and marines deeply troubled by LA deployment: ‘Morale is not great’
California national guards troops and marines deployed to Los Angeles to help restore order after days of protest against the Trump administration have told friends and family members they are deeply unhappy about the assignment and worry their only meaningful role will be as pawns in a political battle they do not want to join. - Guardian https://bit.ly/4l0J4q0
Trump’s Use of National Guard in Limbo After Court Rulings
A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the federal government’s mobilization of the California National Guard to protect immigration agents from protesters in Los Angeles. He ruled that the Trump administration had illegally taken control of the state’s troops and ordered them to return to taking orders from Gov. Gavin Newsom. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3G4D6Wa
Calif. Senator Forcibly Removed and Handcuffed After Interrupting Noem
Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat of California, was forcibly removed on Thursday from a news conference being held by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and handcuffed after he interrupted Ms. Noem at a federal building in West Los Angeles. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Zvpw50
Democrats Can (And Must) Win the Fight Over Trump's Response to the Protests in LA
The past week has been filled with images that once seemed impossible to fathom coming from the United States of America. The U.S. military is patrolling the streets of Los Angeles to provide cover for ICE agents conducting raids on Home Depots, taco stands, and other businesses. Five hundred Marines have been deployed to L.A. and are training for urban combat in American cities — all to suppress a small number of violent protesters in a sea of nonviolent ones. - Pfeiffer Substack https://bit.ly/3HI0ZTX
Letters from an American - June 12, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
At a press conference for Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in Los Angeles today, Noem’s security assaulted Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), dragged him into the hallway, forced him to the floor, and handcuffed him as he tried to ask the secretary a question. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3HI0ZTX
Donald Trump wants a conflagration
The president is running out of time to consolidate power.
We’re now almost a quarter of the way through the 119th Congress, the two-year period where his party is guaranteed complete control of the federal government. He has signed essentially no legislation into law (executive orders may be harmful, but they are not the same thing). His singular legislative priority, the reconciliation bill, is struggling after his top lieutenant, Elon Musk, broke with the administration and attacked the bill. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/4jKbinP
In Twist, U.S. Diplomacy Served as Cover for Israeli Surprise Attack
U.S. negotiations with Iran aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear program were widely seen as an important way to preserve regional peace. They ended up being the perfect cover for a surprise Israeli attack. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/4n1SgMD
Democratic Sen. Padilla forcibly removed from DHS press conference in Los Angeles
Noem was in Los Angeles to discuss immigration enforcement actions in the city and ongoing protests over those efforts. Padilla attempted to ask a question during the event before he was forced to the ground by federal agents and handcuffed before being released, Padilla told reporters later. - NPR https://n.pr/3HFS71i
The Manhandling of Alex Padilla Was a Red-Line Moment for America
This is the essence of Trumpism: Go intentionally overboard, and then lie about it and try to reverse reality. - New Republic https://bit.ly/3SOSfxR
Why are the media ignoring growing resistance to Trump?
Protest actions like ‘Hands Off’ and ‘No Kings’ are sweeping across the US. But the media are barely paying attention. - Guardian https://bit.ly/442bSr8
Trump’s $12 Billion Tourism Wipeout
US President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies have cut into travel worldwide. The simmering trade war, the crackdown at the border and the rollback of LGBTQ rights—capped by a ban on visitors from a dozen countries announced on June 4—have led to tens of thousands of canceled trips. With travelers choosing alternate destinations, the American economy will lose out on $12.5 billion this year, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council—which will widen the trade deficit, because economists count spending by visitors to the country as an export. Here’s a look at the toll the president’s policies have taken on travel, in nine charts. - Bloomberg https://bloom.bg/4lcuonX
RFK Jr. sent Congress 'medical disinformation' to defend COVID vaccine schedule change
"It is so far out of left field that I find it insulting to our members of Congress that they would actually give them something like this. Congress members are relying on these agencies to provide them with valid information, and it's just not there," said Dr. Mark Turrentine, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine. - NPR https://n.pr/4e4SaQq
Trump Shifts Deportation Focus, Pausing Most Raids on Farms, Hotels and Eateries
The decision suggested that the scale of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign — an issue that is at the heart of his presidency — is hurting industries and constituencies that he does not want to lose. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4n3Plmu
Handcuffing a U.S. Senator Is a Warning
Because it took place at a media event, the incident was recorded clearly on video, and it’s shocking. Nearly as disturbing as the footage is the fact that even though the incident is on tape, the Trump administration attempted to lie baldly about what happened. Officials said Padilla never identified himself as a senator and that security personnel thought he was an attacker; video shows him audibly identifying himself and wearing a u.s. senate shirt. They said he lunged at Noem; video shows nothing of the sort. (If only Noem’s security detail had been so vigilant when her purse was stolen in April.) - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4jPqEaA
Trump Ripping Up the Free Trade Playbook Comes With $1 Trillion Cost
By 2030, Bloomberg Economics forecasts, if Trump’s current tariff regime endures, the global economy will be $1 trillion smaller than it would have been had the US remained in the TPP. More than a third of that loss would come because of a smaller US economy, the analysis finds, with the US share of global trade tumbling even as China’s stays steady. The consequence for Americans: 690,000 fewer jobs. - Bloomberg https://bit.ly/3ZyXvJI
Trump’s Decision to Send Troops to California Is His Do-Over of 2020
In 2020, as racial justice protests swept through the country over the murder of George Floyd, President Trump was itching to deploy the military to crush the unrest. He was talked out of it by his top national security advisers, who feared that such a decision would be viewed as moving toward martial law. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4l2mZY1
Chicago’s ‘No Kings’ March Sees Huge Crowds Shut Down The Loop To Protest President Donald Trump
Around 75,000 people peacefully marched in the “No Kings” protest, which was part of a series of nationwide demonstrations against the Trump administration, organizers said. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/402v5b8
U.S. Image Declines in Many Nations Amid Low Confidence in Trump
U.S. President Donald Trump receives mostly negative ratings in a new Pew Research Center survey of 24 nations. More than half in 19 of these countries say they lack confidence in Trump’s leadership of world affairs. -PEW Research https://pewrsr.ch/43LiTOu
How L.A. Raids Ignited a New Fight Over Immigration
Los Angeles is home to the country’s largest population of undocumented immigrants. So when President Trump’s immigration raids arrived, many expected trouble. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HARJBg
As Trump Celebrates Army’s Founding, His Critics Take to the Streets
President Trump held a military parade the same day that hundreds of protests took place, in what amounted to a split-screen show of force. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45TU5oH
In Minnesota, America’s Luck Ran Out
The United States is a fraying society, torn apart by polarization, intense disagreement, and ratcheting extremism. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4e5JAAV
‘Trump Inc.’: Filings Show Staff Profited From Being in the President’s Orbit
A constellation of companies and groups paid President Trump’s supporters before they took jobs in his White House, according to new disclosure statements. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43NKoXH
‘Golden Share’ in U.S. Steel Gives Trump Extraordinary Control
Administration officials secured a deal that will give the president unusual influence over a private company, and could serve as a model for other deals. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jRAJ6Y
An American Fight With Mexico Won’t Go Well
Ms. Sheinbaum has been a reliable partner to Washington since she took power last Oct. 1, putting pressure on drug cartels and their human smuggling networks and giving President Trump one of his few clear wins by helping reduce the flow of undocumented migrants and fentanyl heading north. She has helped ease bilateral tensions over trade and tariffs while, unlike other world leaders, managing to avoid personal confrontations with Mr. Trump. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44bZRjk
Trump Orders ICE To Expand Deportations In Chicago, Other Democrat-Led Cities
Trump’s order comes at an already tense time: Chicago saw tens of thousands of people march against the president and his anti-immigrant policies at Saturday’s No Kings rally, and local leaders are bracing for more raids. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/4n2Ffm0
Why Won’t the Pentagon Own Up to Trump’s Latest Move?
The administration is oddly bashful about its most recent attempt to campaign against symbols of “wokeness.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4jPAPvR
Trump’s FTC may impose merger condition that forbids advertising boycotts
The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly pitching a merger condition that would forbid advertising agencies from boycotting platforms based on political content, in a move that could benefit Elon Musk's X social network and President Trump's own Truth Social platform.- ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/3FI8JF7
The Most Regressive Bill in, well, History
The giant Trump Republican bill now before the Senate — Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” — cuts taxes for high earners and reduces benefits for the poor and working class. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3GayYEb
Trump’s New Cash Grab Is a Gold iPhone Lookalike That’s Worse Than Any Budget Android
If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the years, it’s that President Donald J. Trump loves two things: gold furniture and using his status as U.S. president to make money. And now, to everyone’s detriment, Trump is apparently combining those two passions into a mobile device that you can buy with real American tender. It gives me no pleasure to introduce to you all: the Trump phone. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3HJjmIo
Photos: ‘No Kings’ Protests Across America
Yesterday, according to estimates by event organizers, millions marched in protest against the Trump administration, including its recent controversial immigration-enforcement raids. Hundreds of “No Kings” demonstrations took place in cities and towns throughout the U.S. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/43ONcni
Photos: See No Kings protests around the country
The 50501 Movement, which stands for 50 states, 50 protests, one movement, said the nationwide protests are aimed at calling attention to what they say are authoritarian actions of the Trump administration. - NPR https://n.pr/3HGvlGr
‘No Kings’ Protests Across the United States
Large crowds across the country have gathered to protest the Trump administration — in major cities like Philadelphia, Atlanta, New York and Chicago, as well as in smaller, rural communities. The “No Kings” rallies, as the demonstrations were known, were planned for the same day as a military parade in Washington, D.C., that President Trump scheduled for the Army’s 250th anniversary, which also coincides with his 79th birthday. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZzHcMR
Photos of anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ demonstrations across the US
Demonstrators gathered in parks and plazas across the U.S. to protest against President Donald Trump. The “No Kings” rallies were organized in nearly 2,000 locations nationwide, including cities, towns, and community spaces. - AP https://bit.ly/4n9QucA
The Bureaucrat and the Billionaire: Inside DOGE’s Chaotic Takeover of Social Security
The drama offers a case study in how Elon Musk’s team sought to run a critical government agency through misinformation and social media blasts — and how longtime employees responded. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4l88dz3
Was Someone Trolling Trump by Playing Creedence’s Draft-Dodger-Slamming ‘Fortunate Son’ at His Military Parade? Or Is It Just the Further Death of Irony?
That’s the question some were asking on social media after the event, spearheaded by President Donald J. Trump, which featured the repeated playing of Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s classic “Fortunate Son” — a song that virtually the entire world knows by now was written during the Vietnam era as a slam against wealthy draft dodgers. The assumption being made by at least a few tweeters was that this had to be some kind of deliberate trolling of the president by someone on the music selection team who just has it in for him. Because if you were going to make a top 10 list of songs that Trump should not want to have played at any of his events — but most of all not at a military-themed ceremony — “Fortunate Son” would certainly be No. 1. - Variety https://bit.ly/4e5Iyot
Trump wanted a military spectacle. Instead, he got a history lesson.
The Army’s 250th birthday parade was not the grand military spectacle that many anticipated, and for that Americans can breathe a momentary, measured sigh of relief.
It was a family-friendly conclusion to a celebratory day, with events on the Mall and fireworks at the end. What had been billed as an overwhelming display of military might turned out to be a linear history lesson, from the early days of revolution to the age of robotic dogs and flying drones. A narrator made sense of it all over loudspeakers and for those watching the live stream on television, with a script that rarely strayed from the Army’s disciplined sense of itself as a lethal fighting machine in the service of democracy and the Constitution. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3FYtTyP
The Trump Mobile T1 Phone looks both bad and impossibleIt’s supposedly made in the US, cheap, and coming this fall. I doubt it all.
Here is a roughly complete list of all the things we know for sure about the first phone made for the new Trump Mobile wireless provider: it’s called the T1 Phone 8002 (gold version). It costs $499, and you can reserve one now with a $100 down payment. It is, according to the website, coming in September. - Verge https://bit.ly/3SSeD9F
US CDC Official in Charge of COVID, RSV Data Resigns Ahead of Vaccine Meeting
The scientist, Dr. Fiona Havers, told colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday that she no longer had confidence that the COVID and RSV data would be used "objectively or evaluated with appropriate scientific rigor to make evidence-based vaccine policy decisions," according to an email seen by Reuters. - Reuters https://bit.ly/45rc8mb
Trump to leave G7 summit early; says removing Russia from group was a mistake
The G7 has struggled to find unity over conflicts in Ukraine and between Israel and Iran as Trump overtly expressed support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and has imposed tariffs on many of the allies present. - Reuters/Japan Today https://bit.ly/4ldfj5r?
The Army Was the Only Life She Knew. Trump’s Trans Ban Cast Her Out.
Maj. Erica Vandal’s superiors called her “a superb officer.” The president said transgender soldiers like her lack the “honesty,” “humility” and “integrity” to serve. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4e6JjNV
Trump Has Reawakened the Resistance
Before this Saturday’s enormous nationwide No Kings protests, Leah Greenberg, a founder of Indivisible, one of the groups behind the demonstrations, worried that too many people had lost faith in their collective ability to stop Donald Trump from remaking America in his tawdry autocratic image. Her group realized that they needed “to reverse the sense that Trump is inevitable, that he’s going to win,” she told me. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kK444B
Trump Renews Embrace of Putin Amid Rift With Allies
President Trump opened his remarks at the Group of 7 gathering of industrialized nations by criticizing the decision to expel Russia from the bloc after Moscow’s 2014 “annexation” of Crimea. - NYT https://nyti.ms/445UUsg
‘The Age of Trump’ Enters Its Second Decade
It has been 10 years now, as of Monday, since Donald J. Trump descended to the lobby of his namesake tower to announce his campaign for president. Ten years of jaw-dropping, woke-busting, scandal-defying, status quo-smashing politics that have transformed America for good or ill in profoundly fundamental ways. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4e3appe
Trump’s Trade and Tax Policies Start to Stall U.S. Battery Boom
Battery manufacturing began to take off in the United States in recent years after Congress and the Biden administration offered the industry generous incentives.
But that boom now appears to be stalling as the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers try to restrict China’s access to the American market. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HJB3HO
The Trumps Promote a New Crypto Venture: Bitcoin Mining
The debut of American Bitcoin, a mining firm backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., has heightened the ethical concerns swirling around the Trump presidency. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3TsEp4o
Trump Created the Chaos; Dems Must Make Him Own It
The news over the last week has rarely been more awful. The U.S. military is patrolling our streets as a show of contrived political force. Masked federal agents are arresting mothers in front of their small children. A U.S. Senator is handcuffed for having the temerity to do his duty on behalf of his terrorized constituents. In Minnesota, a gunman dressed as a police officer assassinated a Democratic lawmaker and her husband and shot another lawmaker and their spouse. - The Message Box https://bit.ly/4jP8S7v
Americans cut back sharply on their spending last month amid tariffs
Americans are feeling a hangover from their tariff-fueled buying frenzy early in the spring.
Retail sales fell by 0.9% in May from the prior month, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, down sharply from April’s downwardly revised 0.1% decline. That was the steepest monthly decline since January and worse than the 0.7% decrease economists projected in a poll by data firm FactSet. - CNN https://cnn.it/4jVNIVg
Trump Renews Embrace of Putin Amid Rift With Allies
President Trump opened his remarks at the Group of 7 gathering of industrialized nations by criticizing the decision to expel Russia from the bloc after Moscow’s 2014 “annexation” of Crimea. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45OCQW7
Trump officials reverse guidance exempting farms, hotels from immigration raids
The Department of Homeland Security on Monday told staff that it was reversing guidance issued last week that agents were not to conduct immigration raids at farms, hotels and restaurants — a decision that stood at odds with President Donald Trump’s calls for mass deportations of anyone without legal status. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4l9utZj
Terminated NIH grants must be restored, judge orders
A federal judge Monday ordered the National Institutes of Health to restore grants that the agency cut based on gender ideology or diversity, equity and inclusion, calling the terminations illegal. - AXIOS https://bit.ly/409WasY
Brad Lander Is Arrested by ICE Agents at Immigration Courthouse
Mr. Lander, the New York City comptroller and a candidate for mayor, was handcuffed as he tried to steer a man past Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HNvJmM
G7 leaders forge on without Trump; Canada aids Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived at the Group of Seven summit on Tuesday, securing new aid from host Canada for the war against Russia after U.S. President Donald Trump left early due to developments in the Middle East.
The G7 wealthy nations struggled to find unity over the conflict in Ukraine after Trump expressed support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and having imposed tariffs on many of the allies present. - Reuters/Japan Today https://bit.ly/45wDiYL?
Trump calls for Iran's 'unconditional surrender' as Israel-Iran air war rages on
U.S. President Donald Trump called on Tuesday for Iran's "unconditional surrender" and warned U.S. patience was wearing thin, but said there was no intention to kill Iran's leader "for now", as the Israel-Iran air war raged for a fifth day. - Reuters/Japan Today https://bit.ly/3TCu3Pn?
Trump Is Driving Off Investors and Threatening the Dollar’s Reign
There is no better barometer of global investors’ repudiation of President Donald Trump’s policies than the dollar. Since he took office, it’s lost more than 10% of its value against the euro, pound and Swiss franc and is down against every single major currency in the world.
The last time the dollar plunged this much, this fast was in 2010, when the Federal Reserve was frantically printing money to prop up the economy in the wake of the financial crisis. - Bloomberg https://bloom.bg/43RQaaL
House Policy Bill Would Add $3.4 Trillion to Debt, Swamping Economic Gains
House Republicans’ sprawling package to cut taxes and slash federal safety-net programs would add about $3.4 trillion to the debt, according to nonpartisan congressional analysts, who reported on Tuesday that the minor gains in economic growth under the bill would not offset its full fiscal impact. - NYT https://nyti.ms/43OFZng
Even Trump's Base Doesn’t Want War with Iran
The apocryphal idea that Trump is an anti-war candidate has been at the center of his political appeal since 2016. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd infamously cemented this false notion with the headline Hillary the Hawk, Donald the Dove. Trump falsely claimed to have opposed the Iraq War, attacked the Bush’s for the wars, and ran as an isolationist who wanted to minimize American involvement in foreign wars. In 2024, he pledged to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and keep the U.S. out of conflicts in the Middle East. - The Message Box https://bit.ly/3ZE3TiU
US Steel, once America’s biggest company, is now under foreign ownership
Nippon Steel has finalized its deal to buy 100% of US Steel, the iconic steelmaker that was once the world’s most valuable company and a cornerstone of American industrial might. - CNN https://cnn.it/3Ty6Cqs
Trump Administration Will End L.G.B.T.Q. Suicide Prevention Service
The Trevor Project, a nonprofit that has provided that specialized support to L.G.B.T.Q. callers to the 988 suicide prevention hotline, said Wednesday that it had received a stop-work order for that service, effective July 17, and provided a copy of the order to The New York Times. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3FLmNOb
RFK Jr. is coming for your vaccines
Last November, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that, as secretary of health and human services, he would not “take away anybody’s vaccines.” If you believed him, you were duped. - Verge https://bit.ly/3G2XVkW
How Trump Shifted on Iran Under Pressure From Israel
Beyond the lives lost and destruction wrought, the crisis has also laid bare schisms within Mr. Trump’s party between those inclined to reflexively defend Israel, America’s closest ally in the region, and those determined to keep the United States from getting further mired in the Middle East’s cycle of violence. - NYT https://nyti.ms/40egnOn
The Trump Crackdown on Elected Officials
The arrest of Brad Lander in New York was the latest incident in a pattern of increasingly aggressive actions that the Administration has taken against Democrats. - New Yorker https://bit.ly/4kIIYDG
A Quiet Betrayal: The Largest Public Lands Sell-Off in Modern History
This week, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee released a budget reconciliation bill that would make more than 250 million acres of national public lands eligible for sale. If passed, it would mark the largest such sell-off in modern American history. - Goldbeck Substack https://bit.ly/3TBbECw
Senior Voters Are Turning Out In Force To Protest Trump—And Could Be Democrats' Secret Weapon
In 2016, seniors made up just 16% of the electorate and went for Trump by 7%. Two years later, they were 26% of the electorate, voting for Republicans by just 2 points, which led Democrats to win 40 seats with a 7% blue wave victory over Republicans. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4necgfi
All 17 fired vaccine advisors unite to blast RFK Jr.’s “destabilizing decisions”
All 17 experts ousted from the federal vaccine advisory committee have spoken out about the drastic changes that anti-vaccine advocate and current US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made since taking office. Those changes include unilaterally restricting access to COVID-19 vaccines and summarily firing the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which had guided federal vaccine policies for more than 60 years. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/401fs3Z
Cybersecurity takes a big hit in new Trump executive order
Cybersecurity practitioners are voicing concerns over a recent executive order issued by the White House that guts requirements for: securing software the government uses, punishing people who compromise sensitive networks, preparing new encryption schemes that will withstand attacks from quantum computers, and other existing controls. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/449nJDW
The MAGA Coalition Has Turned on Itself
The MAGA movement usually displays remarkable unity in attacking the left. But Israel’s military assault on Iran has splintered President Donald Trump’s coalition, as rival factions fight over the true meaning of an “America First” foreign policy. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3SZrHtO
The Tyrant Test
A leader who uses military force to suppress his political opposition ought to lose the right to govern. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/40faAIi
Economists estimate new tariff costs to range between $2,000 to $12,000 per vehicle
Anderson Economic Group started analyzing the costs of tariffs imposed on a variety of vehicles sold in the United States as soon as Trump signed his latest executive orders on auto tariffs, Patrick Anderson, CEO of the consulting firm, told the Detroit Free Press. - USA Today https://bit.ly/4n2jJ0G
Judge deems Trump's cuts to National Institutes of Health illegal
The federal judge said the NIH violated federal law by arbitrarily canceling more than $1 billion in research grants because of their perceived connection to DEI initiatives. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4lcObU3
Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds Are on Track to Run Out in Less Than a Decade. Here’s What to Know
Social Security and Medicare are expected to need to cut monthly benefits in less than a decade as the trust funds for both programs are on track to run dry earlier than previously predicted. - Time https://bit.ly/4ntrmxF
Social Security’s Finances Erode Further, Risking Benefit Cuts
The Social Security program faces a longstanding financing shortfall that, if left unaddressed, would slash millions of retirees’ crucial monthly benefit payments in just eight years. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4k0uON5
Supreme Court Upholds Tennessee Ban on Transgender Care for Minors
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a Tennessee law that prohibits some medical treatments for transgender youths, rejecting arguments that it violated the Constitution and shielding similar laws in more than 20 other states.
The decision, which came amid the Trump administration’s fierce assaults on transgender rights, was a bitter setback for their proponents, who only five years ago celebrated a decision by the court to protect transgender people from workplace discrimination. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4k3dmHM
Maybe Trump and Miller Don’t Understand Americans as Well as They Think They Do
Most everyone other than apologists and professional contrarians would agree at this point that President Trump aims to make the United States a personalist autocracy, where his whims are policy and his will is law. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44rxoac
Trump railed against socialism in his campaign. He's flirting with it as president
Trump has been comfortable deploying the power of government to achieve specific economic outcomes, diverging from the GOP's traditional free-market approach. - Quartz https://bit.ly/466vo8G
U.S. orders social media vetting for student visa applicants
The U.S. State Department has ordered a review of student visa applicants’ social media presence and told them to make their profiles public, stepping up measures to restrict foreign nationals’ entry to American campuses over national security concerns. - Bloomberg/Japan Times https://bit.ly/3G6rKkE
The Trojan Horse Will Come for Us Too
The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East offer Americans a glimpse into the battles of the future—and a warning. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4k1LQuj
Trump Travel Restrictions Bar Residents Needed at U.S. Hospitals
Limits on travel and visa appointments have delayed or prevented foreign doctors from entering the country for jobs set to begin in weeks. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3TEhHpX
Trump EPA May Undo Ban on Cancer-Causing Asbestos
In 2024, the Biden administration issued a ban on the last type of asbestos still used in the United States due to its links to cancer. The Trump administration isn’t so sure that we need to protect people from such things. Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency will delay the ban on the material and reconsider the rule entirely. Because, hey, when has a little cancer ever hurt anyone? - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/44c1Gwy
Record Debt Limit Increase Would Break Republican Precedent
A proposed $5 trillion debt limit increase could make it hard for Republicans to maintain their fiscal hawk credibility. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4leUtmf
Juneteenth Goes Uncelebrated at White House as Trump Complains About ‘Too Many’ Holidays
Juneteenth, the holiday that marks the end of slavery in the United States, has been celebrated at the White House each June 19 since it was enshrined into law four years ago. But on Thursday, it went unmarked by the president — except for a post on social media in which he said he would get rid of some “non-working holidays.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3FN3xQn
In Deep Red Iowa, Ukrainians Found Home and Community. Now Their Fate Is in Limbo.
The Trump administration suspended a temporary humanitarian program for Ukrainians. Now many are losing their ability to work, and fear deportation. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4naN21h
ICE Imposes New Rules on Congressional Visits
The policy says that ICE field offices are not subject to a federal law that allows members of Congress to make unannounced oversight visits to immigration facilities that “detain or otherwise house aliens.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3G530cy
Senator Padilla: This Is How an Administration Acts When It’s Afraid
If this administration is willing to handcuff a U.S. senator, imagine what it is willing to do to any American who dares to speak up.
If that’s what can happen when the cameras are on, imagine what is already happening in communities across the country when the cameras are off.
Today it’s immigrants on the receiving end of Donald Trump’s outrage machine. Tomorrow it could be anyone. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44aN4gK
Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil is released after spending over three months at a Louisiana detention center
Khalil, a lawful permanent resident who is married to a US citizen and has not been charged with a crime, was one of the first arrestees in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown targeting student activism. As his case dragged on for over 100 days, several other student activists targeted for deportation by the Trump administration were released. - CNN https://cnn.it/4k0doQM
The Reagan-Appointed Judge Fast-Tracking Trump to Trial
“I have never seen government racial discrimination like this,” Judge Young said on Monday, excoriating the Trump administration in a lengthy speech from the U.S. District Court in Boston. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HT4JCs
Federal judge indefinitely blocks Trump administration from cutting off Harvard’s ability to host foreign students
The preliminary injunction issued by US District Judge Allison Burroughs extends a temporary block the judge had issued last month against the administration after it revoked the school’s certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which allows it to host foreign students and scholars. International students make up roughly a quarter of the school’s student body. - CNN https://cnn.it/3T2RAsD
Trump says Harvard has acted ‘appropriately’ and deal could soon be announced
“Many people have been asking what is going on with Harvard University and their largescale improprieties that we have been addressing, looking for a solution. We have been working closely with Harvard, and it is very possible that a Deal will be announced over the next week or so,” Trump said in a late afternoon post to social media. - CNN https://cnn.it/3TFZ2tT
Court blocks Louisiana law requiring schools to post Ten Commandments in classrooms
The ruling Friday marked a major win for civil liberties groups who say the mandate violates the separation of church and state, and that the poster-sized displays would isolate students — especially those who are not Christian. - AP https://bit.ly/44pIAEh
Japan scraps ‘two-plus-two’ meeting with U.S. over defense spending demand, report says
Tokyo abruptly scrapped annual “two-plus-two” security talks involving the allies’ top diplomats and defense chiefs less than two weeks before the meeting after the U.S. asked Japan to hike its defense budget to 3.5% of gross domestic product, the Financial Times reported Friday, citing unidentified sources. - Japan Times https://bit.ly/45AjO5w
Tuition Increases and Layoffs Are Coming to a Broad Set of Universities
Schools say the Trump administration’s cuts to higher education are forcing them to consider extreme cost-cutting measures, even as more students than ever are heading to college this year. - NYT https://nyti.ms/404yM0f
How Trump Treats Black History Differently Than Other Parts of America’s Past
Since taking office in January, President Trump has tried to reframe the country’s past involving racism and discrimination by de-emphasizing that history or at times denying that it happened. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3TxM01B
What’s Inside a 10th Floor ICE Office? New York Democrats Want to Know.
Nine members of Congress are accusing the federal authorities of blocking their right to examine conditions at what is supposed to be a temporary stop for detained immigrants. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lCvt8T
ICE Agent or Just Some Person?
There’s a dress code to help you make that determination. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/441TwXi
Trump Claims Success After Bombing Key Iran Nuclear Sites
American warplanes and submarines attacked three key nuclear sites in Iran early Sunday, bringing the U.S. military directly into Israel’s war and prompting fears that the strikes could lead to more dangerous escalations across the Middle East. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3G90CS4
Senate Official Rejects Food Aid Cuts Proposed by Republicans in Megabill
The ruling by the parliamentarian sent G.O.P. lawmakers back to the drawing board to cover the costs of President Trump’s domestic policy bill. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lia04z
With Decision to Bomb Iran, Trump Injects U.S. Into Middle East Conflict
Neither Mr. Trump nor the Pentagon immediately provided evidence of his claim to have wiped out infrastructure that Israel’s leadership has long said could soon produce a nuclear weapon. And even as the president celebrated what he called “a spectacular military success,” he urged Iran to agree to peace terms or face further assaults. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ne8r9D
U.S. attacks three nuclear sites in Iran, widening Mideast conflict
U.S. President Donald Trump said American bombers struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites and threatened more attacks if Tehran doesn’t capitulate, pulling the U.S. directly into the country’s conflict despite his longtime promises to avoid new wars. - Bloomberg/Reuters/Japan Times https://bit.ly/4kTE1Iv
Nations react to U.S. strikes on Iran with calls for diplomacy
The U.S. strike on Iran fueled fears that Israel's war with Tehran could escalate to a wider regional conflict, and other countries began reacting Sunday with calls for diplomacy and words of caution. - AP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/4ee9hzf?
The United States Bombed Iran. What Comes Next?
President Donald Trump has done what he swore he would not do: involve the United States in a war in the Middle East. His supporters will tie themselves in knots (as Vice President J. D. Vance did last week) trying to jam the square peg of Trump’s promises into the round hole of his actions. And many of them may avoid calling this “war” at all, even though that’s what Trump himself called it tonight. They will want to see it as a quick win against an obstinate regime that will eventually declare bygones and come to the table. But whether bombing Iran was a good idea or a bad idea—and it could turn out to be either, or both—it is war by any definition of the term, and something Trump had vowed he would avoid. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3I7vzqd
Isn’t Trump Supposed to Be Anti-War?
Donald Trump returned to office as president in January with both democratic legitimacy and a mandate to accomplish what he’d promised during his campaign. One of his promises was clear, consistent, and unmistakable: to put “America First” by ending our involvement in risky and expensive overseas conflicts. Yet Trump’s recent support for Israel’s escalating attacks on Iran—and his intimations that the United States may become directly involved in the conflict—suggests that he is well on the way to betraying his anti-war mandate. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4jZmtcn
As U.S. Enters Israel’s War Against Iran, the Region Fears What’s Next
The fight between two well-armed Mideast powers has their neighbors worried about the conflict spreading, a concern only deepened by U.S. involvement. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4njgqT6
Right-Wing Violence Is Not a Fringe Issue
It is simply a fact that the far right has been responsible for most of the political violence committed in the United States since the start of the 21st century, with particular emphasis on the past 10 years of American political life. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ei2NQ3
‘I Feel Like I’ve Been Lied To’: When a Measles Outbreak Hits Home
Twenty-five years after measles was officially declared eliminated from the United States, this spring marked a harrowing time of rediscovery. A cluster of cases that began at a Mennonite church in West Texas expanded into one of the largest outbreaks in a generation, spreading through communities with declining vaccination rates as three people died and dozens more were hospitalized from Mexico to North Dakota. Public health officials tracked about 1,200 confirmed cases and countless exposures across more than 30 states. People who were contagious with measles boarded domestic flights, shopped at Walmart, played tuba in a town parade and toured the Mall of America. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HTbP9Z
American Democracy Might Not Survive a War With Iran
The current debate over bombing Iran is surreal. To begin with, bombardment is unlikely to lead to a satisfactory outcome. If history has shown one thing, it is that achieving a lasting resolution by bombing alone is almost impossible. There was a reason the United States sent ground forces into Iraq in 2003, and it was not to plant democracy. It was that American officials believed they could not solve the problem of Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs simply by bombing. They had tried that. The Clinton administration bombed Iraq for four days in 1998. At the end, they had no idea what they had destroyed and what they hadn’t. They certainly knew they had not put a permanent end to the program. In 2003, if George W. Bush thought he could have permanently ended Saddam’s weapons programs by bombing alone, he would have taken that option. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4eitRhW
The Dogs of War
The United States is now at war with Iran.
A single person — Donald J. Trump — has released the dogs of war on one of the most dangerous countries in the world, and done it without the consent of Congress, our allies, or even a clear explanation to the American people.
Anyone who has doubted Trump’s intention to replace American democracy with a dictatorship should now be fully disabused. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3G9cWSf
Letters from an American - June 21, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
“NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
In The Atlantic, foreign affairs scholar Tom Nichols noted: “President Donald Trump has done what he swore he would not do: involve the United States in a war in the Middle East.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3I7wbw1
The Trump Family Is Quietly Building a Crypto Empire
Just a few years ago, Donald Trump called crypto a “scam” and “dangerous.” Today, from the Oval Office, he champions it as the future of finance. This dramatic pivot is backed by a rapidly growing ecosystem of cryptocurrency ventures tied directly to the Trump family, creating an unprecedented network of potential conflicts of interest. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/40hRKAe
“A New Line Crossed”: The U.S. Provokes Iran With Attacks on Nuclear Sites
On Saturday night, U.S. warplanes attacked three Iranian nuclear sites, marking the first time the U.S. has attacked on Iranian soil in the decades-long cold war between the two countries. President Trump’s announcement, posted on Truth Social, stated that the U.S. had attacked the nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan in a bombardment dubbed “Operation Midnight Hammer.” The escalation was met with jubilation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had relentlessly pushed for the operation. Likewise, Trump’s hardline supporters praised the act of war, while across the spectrum in the U.S., many officials and segments of the public have expressed condemnation—whether on constitutional grounds, or because of opposition to the US entering a potential forever war with a country of 90 million people. - Drop Site https://bit.ly/3FRKJzs
Weight loss drugs are blowing up the U.S. trade deficit. Trump is blaming Ireland
Eli Lilly and other drug companies appear to have significantly increased orders in recent months in an attempt to get ahead of trade-policy chaos. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3T5cPKn
Shifting Views and Misdirection: How Trump Decided to Strike Iran
Mr. Trump’s “two weeks” statement was just one aspect of a broader effort at political and military misdirection that took place over eight chaotic days, from the first Israeli strikes against Iran to the moment when a fleet of B-2 stealth bombers took off from Missouri for the first American military strikes inside Iran since that country’s theocratic revolution in 1979. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZLSSfv
How the Attacks on Iran Are Part of a Much Bigger Global Struggle
There are so many things to say in the wake of the U.S. bombing of three key Iranian nuclear facilities that it is easy to get lost in the gripping details. So for now, let me try to step back and explore the global, regional and local forces shaping this story. What’s really going on here? - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HRXM4t
A remarkable message
I’m told that the following message, which I received earlier today, purporting to be from Liz Cheney, is a hoax. She didn’t send it. It’s an excellent and important message nonetheless. (Several of you say it originated with Dr. Pru Lee.) - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/45Co0ln
Trump Wants to ‘Make Iran Great Again’
Having switched from discouraging Israeli military strikes against Iran to joining them, he appears to now be toying with broader ambitions. (Trump offers few endorsements stronger than calling something “politically incorrect.”) But the writer of the Claremont Review essay, a prominent right-wing intellectual, warned about such projects. “We know how that worked out. Regimes were changed all right, but not into democracies,” he wrote. “And some of them—e.g., the one in Afghanistan—20 years later changed back to the same regime American firepower had overthrown in 2001.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3ZK2VBO
Attacking Iran Without Congress’s Blessing Leaves Citizens With No Recourse
Before Donald Trump ordered the bombing of nuclear sites in Iran, he was warned that, to quote Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, the Constitution does not permit the president “to unilaterally commit an act of war” against a nation that hasn’t first struck America. After the attack, Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland declared Trump’s actions “a clear violation of our Constitution—ignoring the requirement that only the Congress has the authority to declare war.” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York stated, “It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4k5H0wd
Trump has no strategy
My friends in the Iranian diaspora, like many ordinary Iranians, have mixed feelings. On the one hand, they are worried about what might happen to family and friends inside the country. On the other hand, “people hold the regime responsible for the attack,” one wrote to me. She told me that the slogan ‘This is not our war’ was trending on Iranian social media. Persuasion has published an article by an anonymous Iranian that I thought perfectly captured this ambivalence. - Anne Applebaum https://bit.ly/4lnGeeX
The government can deport a group of migrants to South Sudan, the Supreme Court says.
Leila Kang, a lawyer with Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, which represents migrants in the case, said the court’s order would have devastating consequences.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling leaves thousands of people vulnerable to deportation to third countries where they face torture or death, even if the deportations are clearly unlawful,” she said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44jqiU0
Trump’s Strikes on Iran Were Unlawful. Here’s Why That Matters.
Acting on President Trump’s orders, the U.S. military conducted a strike early Sunday morning against three Iranian nuclear facilities. Few knew of the strikes in advance. Mr. Trump did not seek advance approval from Congress or the U.N. Security Council, as required by law. The unlawful strikes have thus laid bare the dangerous absence of any effective legal constraints — whether domestic or international — on the decision of the American president to use deadly force anywhere in the world. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kjd67S
Judge Blocks Trump Proclamation Barring Harvard’s International Students
President Trump had sought to bar the students using a law designed to safeguard national security. In a strongly worded ruling on Monday, Judge Allison D. Burroughs sided with lawyers for Harvard who had argued that such presidential power was intended to be used against foreign enemies, not international students. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ekOxWo
Trump hails ‘love, peace’ in Middle East as Iran missiles send Israelis to shelters
“Israel & Iran came to me, almost simultaneously, and said, ‘PEACE!’ I knew the time was NOW. The World, and the Middle East, are the real WINNERS!” Trump writes on Truth Social. - Times of Israel https://bit.ly/3ZQGOcV
Trump lashes out at Israel as his Middle East truce appears to falter
“Israel, as soon as we made the deal they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before,” he said as he departed Washington for a NATO summit in the Netherlands. “The biggest load that we’ve seen.” - CNN https://cnn.it/44yVfVB
Trump’s Cease-Fire Announcement Catches His Own Top Officials by Surprise
President Trump abruptly announced a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Iran after speaking to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Iranian officials, with Qatar helping to mediate, a senior White House official said Monday. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GjTWAx
Tweet Storms and Bunker Busters—War in a Time of Trump
Donald Trump’s latest meltdown in response to “ceasefire” violations by both Iran and Israel but especially Israel brings out the uncanny quality of everything that has happened over the last week — the simultaneous existence of a very real hot war with what amounts to a social media campaign. They’re both happening. They’re clearly interacting with each other. But the dynamics of the two are so separate, distinct, operating according to totally different rules that watching the two together looks deeply unreal. - TPM https://bit.ly/4k3ZvRv
Justice Dept. Leader Suggested Violating Court Orders, Whistle-Blower Says
Emil Bove III, a Trump judicial nominee, voiced his intent to disobey court orders as others stonewalled and misled judges, according to a complaint. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lJGcyn
The New Assault on Abortion Is Quieter — But Just as Dangerous
Three years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a new front has opened in the fight to maintain access. - Bloomberg https://bloom.bg/3HZmWhw
Trump Administration to End Protections for 58 Million Acres of National Forests
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the Clinton-era rule barring road construction and logging was outdated and “absurd.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HWM88x
Letters from an American - June 23, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
In a timeline of Trump’s decision to drop 12 of the reportedly 20 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs the U.S. military possessed on Iran, New York Times reporters confirmed what Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo judged from the beginning: Trump wanted in on the optics of what seemed to be Israel’s successful strikes against Iran. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3IdvXUc
NYC mayoral candidate Brad Lander arrested at immigration court
New York City Comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested by federal agents at an immigration court Tuesday after he linked arms with a person authorities were attempting to detain. - AP https://bit.ly/4neEXZj
Strike Set Back Iran’s Nuclear Program by Only a Few Months, U.S. Report Says
Preliminary classified findings indicate that the attack sealed off the entrances to two facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3G7KrVc
The Tyranny of ‘Big Balls’ Has Come to an End
The 19-year-old dipshit is moving on from DOGE work. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3TEVN5Y
Senate passes GENIUS Act—criticized as gifting Trump ample opportunity to grift
Democrats warn stablecoin bill could enable unprecedented government corruption. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4k9Ii9u
Letters from an American - June 24, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
According to early assessments by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) of the damage caused by the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the strikes did not destroy the main parts of the Iran’s nuclear program and probably set it back by only a few months. The DIA is the intelligence arm of the Pentagon. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/44weXRQ
U.S. Army Purple Heart veteran forced to self-deport from Hawaii
After nearly losing his life in combat, Sae Joon Park was told by ICE he had three weeks to return to South Korea. - Hawaii News https://bit.ly/443qwjh
Purple Heart Army veteran self-deports after nearly 50 years in the U.S.
For 55-year-old U.S. Army veteran Sae Joon Park, this was the hardest moment of his life. Not getting shot in combat. Not the years battling post-traumatic stress disorder or addiction. Not prison. It was leaving the U.S., a country he called home for nearly five decades. - NPR https://n.pr/46eX4YY
Despite promise to remove 'worst of the worst,' ICE has arrested only 6% of known immigrant murderers
After six months of aggressive immigration enforcement and promises to focus on deporting violent criminals, the Trump administration has arrested and detained a small fraction of the undocumented immigrants already known to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as having been convicted of sexual assault and homicide, internal ICE data obtained by NBC News shows. - NBC/Yahoo https://yhoo.it/45Jnxhd
ICE holding a record 59,000 immigrant detainees, nearly half with no criminal record, internal data show
The federal statistics show nearly half — or 47% — of those currently detained by ICE lack a criminal record and fewer than 30% have been convicted of crimes, a sign of the widening scope of President Trump's escalating crackdown on illegal immigration. On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump vowed to expel dangerous criminal migrants, though top officials in his administration have said no one in the U.S. illegally will be immune from deportation. - CBS https://cbsn.ws/3ZN8tvh
A SHOT IN THE DARK - FIGHTING TRUTH AND NAIL
On Fox News, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt explained that “Nobody knows what it means to accomplish peace through strength better than President Trump. He is the one who came up with that motto and that foreign policy doctrine.” Of course, peace through strength doesn’t actually mean bombing other countries, it means not having to. And though it will surely shock many Fox News viewers, Trump didn’t invent the doctrine or the motto. Roman Emperor Hadrian seems to have first dibs around 1900 years ago. In America, the doctrine of peace through strength has been around since George Washington was delivering his state of the union addresses, and the phrase peace through strength has been an Air Force motto since 1944, was a core message of Barry Goldwater’s 1964 campaign, is on the side of a US aircraft carrier, has been used as a book title, and was most famously deployed by Ronald Reagan (who was also the first presidential candidate with the campaign slogan, Let’s Make America Great Again). This is all a long way of saying that this administration is addicted to lying—whether that means relatively small lies about who came up with a doctrine or a slogan or really big lies across just about every policy issue. The constant lying makes it even more difficult—especially in the short term—to analyze the causes and effects of the massive decision to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. - NextDraft https://bit.ly/3HZfKSC
The Problem With Trump’s Cease-Fire
The problem is that the cease-fire is not linked to a diplomatic agreement with Iran on the future of its nuclear program. Trump apparently sees no need for further negotiation, because the military strikes were, to him, an unqualified success. But as the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Sunday morning, assessing the damage to the sites will take some time. A preliminary assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency found that the strikes had failed to destroy some core components of the nuclear program, CNN reported today. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/44BjfHF
RFK Jr. says US won’t donate to global vaccine effort
Gavi leaders are in Brussels on Wednesday for the organization’s pledging summit, where they are hoping to raise $9 billion for the 2026-2030 period. This will allow another 500 million childhood vaccinations and save at least 8 million lives by 2030, Gavi’s plan said. - Politico https://politi.co/44mu67d
Promise of Victory Over H.I.V. Fades as U.S. Withdraws Support
A new drug that gives almost complete protection against the virus was to be administered across Africa this year. Now, much of the funding for that effort is gone. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4nnnxtD
Trump says NATO defence spend rising to 5% of GDP is 'big win' for US and the West
On his way to the summit in The Hague, Trump said: "There's numerous definitions of Article 5, you know that right?" - BBC https://bbc.in/3TPH4oR
A Military-Ethics Professor Resigns in Protest
Seven years ago, Pauline Shanks Kaurin left a good job as a tenured professor at a university, uprooted her family, and moved across the country to teach military ethics at the Naval War College, in Newport, Rhode Island. She did so, she told me, not only to help educate American military officers, but with a promise from the institution that she would have “the academic freedom to do my job.” But now she’s leaving her position and the institution because orders from President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, she said, have made staying both morally and practically untenable. Remaining on the faculty, she believes, would mean implicitly lending her approval to policies she cannot support. And she said that the kind of teaching and research the Navy once hired her to do will now be impossible. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3Gj8d0k
Trump Reportedly Cuts Funding for Publisher of Prestigious Nature Journals and Scientific American Magazine
Trump’s attack on Springer shouldn’t come as too much of a shock. Earlier this year, the Department of Justice sent letters to medical journals for being “partisan” in the eyes of the administration, in part for promoting “woke” science, like saying climate change is real or that trans people exist. Prior reports indicated that CHEST, a peer-reviewed publication on pulmonary care published by the American College of Chest Physicians, as well as several other publications, received threatening letters accusing them of publishing work influenced by “advertisement (under postal code) or sponsorship (under relevant fraud regulations).” - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/45JrWkm
What America Can Learn From Iran’s Failure
The regime’s predicament shows what happens when conspiracies, rather than reality, shape decision making. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4k9OsGA
The U.S. Is Going Backwards on Vaccines, Very Fast
Vaccine experts in the United States have long considered the case on thimerosal closed. A chemical preservative that stamps out contamination in vaccine vials, thimerosal was removed from most U.S. shots more than two decades ago over worries that its mercury content could trigger developmental delays. But those concerns—as well as baseless claims that thimerosal causes autism—have been proved unfounded, many times over. “We took care of this 20 years ago,” Kathryn Edwards, a pediatrician and vaccine expert at Vanderbilt University, told me. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3HZgbfI
Trump compares Iran air strikes to bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki
His comments followed reports by Reuters and other media outlets on Tuesday revealing that the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency had assessed that the strikes had set back Iran's nuclear program by just a few months, despite Trump and administration officials saying it had been obliterated. - Reuters/Japan Today https://bit.ly/4l26CeJ?
U.S. intel says strikes did not destroy Iran nuclear program
A classified preliminary U.S. intelligence report has concluded that American strikes on Iran set back Tehran's nuclear program by just a few months -- rather than destroying it as claimed by President Donald Trump. - AFP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/3HZwn0y?
Trump’s Name Could Adorn Tel Aviv Hotel, Becoming a Symbol or a Target
On the first night that Iran sent missiles whistling across Tel Aviv, one struck deep in a trendy neighborhood that is home to the Israel Defense Forces headquarters, two luxury shopping malls — and a soaring hotel that has caught the eye of President Trump’s family. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4luEK2x
N.I.H. Memo Pauses Cancellations of Medical Research Grants
The directive, in a memo issued Tuesday, came after two court rulings that questioned the Trump administration’s swift cuts to funding. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Te6FI6
How Awful Is the Republican Megabill? Here Are Four of the Worst Parts.
But that bill — the one and only major legislative effort of Trump 2.0 — is the most regressive, least populist policy package in memory. With its distinctive mix of tax cuts laser-focused on the rich and spending cuts that most hurt middle- and low-income Americans, it would shift more resources up the income ladder than any bill passed since scorekeepers started keeping track. And when voters learn what it would do — even Republican voters — they recoil from it. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZRCoCv
Final GDP estimate for the first quarter confirms Trump’s tariff blitz is weighing on growth even more than previously thought.
The U.S. economy shrank by 0.5% in the first quarter of 2025, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday, revising down its previous estimate of a 0.2% drop. It’s the sharpest, ugliest contraction since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and a stark reversal from 2.4% growth in the fourth quarter 2024. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4emWP0f
The Website for Trump’s All-American Smartphone No Longer Promises It’s ‘MADE IN THE USA’
Earlier this month, the Trump Organization revealed its latest profit-making scheme: the T1, a golden iPhone knockoff that has aptly been dubbed the “Trump phone.” Alongside the new device, the Trumps launched a wireless mobile network called T1 Mobile, which purports to offer unlimited talk, text, and data. Given that Trump is the “America First” president, it was very on-brand for the company to promise that the devices would be manufactured domestically. Given that manufacturing a functioning modern smartphone in the US is prohibitively expensive, that always seemed like a lofty promise. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4em0xY1
Supreme Court lets red states target Planned Parenthood funding
The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked Planned Parenthood from suing South Carolina over the state’s decision to pull the organization’s Medicaid funding because it provides abortions, a decision that could prompt other red states target the organization and make it harder for other Medicaid beneficiaries to choose their doctor. - CNN https://cnn.it/44lOftS
SHAKA AND AWE
Americans can all sleep a little easier tonight. Another dangerous illegal immigrant is off the streets. In this case, the streets are in Hawaii. The removal is tied to events of more than fifteen years ago when the immigrant spent some time in jail after getting addicted to crack and missing a court date. Wait, it gets worse. This story includes violence and automatic weapons, too. The immigrant blames his addiction on the PTSD he suffered after being seriously injured in a shoot-out. That shoot-out took place in Panama where the immigrant, serving in the US Army, earned a purple heart after being shot in the back. - NextDraft https://bit.ly/4l27CiZ
Norwegian Tourist Detained By ICE Then Sent Home From Newark Airport For Having Bald JD Vance Meme On His Phone
The 21-year-old says he was pulled aside by border control and thrown in a holding cell. He was then subjected to what he described as "abuse, of power and harassment," according to the Daily Mail. Mikkelsen says agents asked him questions about drug trafficking, terrorist plots and right-wing extremism without giving him any reason as to why this was all happening. He also claimed the officers threatened him with a $5,000 fine or five years in prison if he refused to give them the password to his cell phone. - Jalopnik https://bit.ly/4lM6kIX
RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Panel Votes Against Thimerosal Flu Shots, Citing Debunked Risks
The vast majority of research has failed to show any link between thimerosal and autism or other neurological issues. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4l0aiNX
Trump’s Deportation Goals Are Unrealistic
In March, President Donald Trump was preparing to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to deport noncitizens. This use of the law, which was passed in 1798 and previously used to intern Japanese Americans during World War II, was unprecedented, and Emil Bove III, a top Justice Department official, was concerned that it was illegal. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3GcMQOr
'Daddy' goes home happy
The NATO summit successfully found a way to mitigate the alliance’s greatest threat — not Vladimir Putin — but Donald Trump.
How did they do it? With oodles of flattery and fantasy budgetary tricks. - CNN https://cnn.it/4l9qcpp
The U.S. economy contracted sharply to start 2025 — worse than previously thought
The U.S. economy shrank by 0.5% in the first quarter of 2025, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday, revising down its previous estimate of a 0.2% drop. It’s the sharpest, ugliest contraction since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and a stark reversal from 2.4% growth in the fourth quarter 2024. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3I3Ll5L
Most CFOs expect Trump's big bill to become law despite GOP turmoil
Around 86% of CFOs believe the bill will be reworked in Congress but it will eventually reach Trump's desk. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4eszbzq
U.S. Attorney General calls Mexico a “foreign adversary”
The Donald Trump administration continues to escalate pressure on Mexico. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee that Mexico is on a list of “foreign adversary” countries. - Mexico Daily Post https://bit.ly/4eBh3n6
Kennedy’s New Advisers Rescind Recommendations for Some Flu Vaccines
Critics saw in the move the beginnings of a more restrictive approach to providing vaccines to Americans. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3G2KstD
Trump Justice Dept. Pressuring University of Virginia President to Resign
The Justice Department has demanded that James E. Ryan step down to help resolve a civil rights investigation into the school, three people familiar with the matter said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kfVBF8
Supreme Court Sides With Trump Admin, Limits Nationwide Injunctions
In a 6-3 decision, the high court found that federal judges exceeded their authority in imposing universal blocks on Trump’s birthright citizenship order. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4lvHqgb
In Birthright Citizenship Case, Supreme Court Limits Power of Judges to Block Trump Policies
The ruling clears a major hurdle to President Trump’s agenda and could reshape American citizenship, at least temporarily, as lower court challenges proceed. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4l45WFo
University of Virginia President Resigns Under Pressure From Trump Administration
The Justice Department had demanded that James E. Ryan step down in order to help resolve a civil rights investigation into the school. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44FzO5e
The alarming rise of US officers hiding behind masks: ‘A police state’
Across the country, armed federal immigration officers have increasingly hidden their identities while carrying out immigration raids, arresting protesters and roughing up prominent Democratic critics. - Guardian https://bit.ly/44p21fr
Key Member of Musk’s DOGE Moves to Social Security
Edward Coristine (aka Big Balls), the 19-year-old who was hired by Elon Musk to help slash the government bureaucracy, has become a public symbol of his team. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Tk0L8e
Gavin Newsom sues Fox News for defamation and demands $787m
In the new lawsuit, filed on Friday, Newsom accuses the Fox host Jesse Watters of falsely claiming Newsom lied about a phone call with Donald Trump, who recently ordered national guard troops into Los Angeles. - Guardian https://bit.ly/40pPyXt
Senate Rejects Democratic Measure to Limit Trump’s Ability to Strike Iran Again
The Senate on Friday blocked a Democratic resolution that would have forced President Trump to go to Congress for approval of further military action against Iran, dealing a blow to efforts to rein in his war powers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kYe5LE
The National Debt Is Already Causing Bigger Problems Than People Realize
The fear of a future crisis is distracting attention from the problems that the government’s dependence on debt is already causing. We, the people, are spending a staggering amount of money each year to borrow money. The interest payments on the federal debt now exceed the government’s spending on the military. They are roughly equal to the annual cost of Medicare. The sum is more than the government spends on anything except Social Security. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZUp947
Harvard Announces a Contingency Plan for Some of Its International Students
Borrowing from lessons learned during the Covid pandemic, both the Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Business School have said that some of their international students will be able to take advantage of online and remote learning options to finish their Harvard degrees, should they be barred from entering the country. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46m27qG
Fearing Tax Increases and Trump, G.O.P. Toils to Pass a Bill With Plenty to Hate
The sweeping measure Senate Republican leaders hope to pass has many unpopular elements they despise. But they face a political reckoning on taxes and the scorn of the president if they fail. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4khVkBU
The Supreme Court’s Intolerable Ruling
What can individual federal courts immediately do when the president issues a blatantly unconstitutional order? The Supreme Court gave its answer on Friday morning: Not much. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lvIdOb
Those hoping for Mexico-US conflict “will be disappointed,” Sheinbaum says: Thursday’s mañanera recapped
People who want to see the Mexico-US relationship deteriorate "are going to be disappointed ... there will be a good relationship," President Sheinbaum said Thursday. - Mexico News Daily https://bit.ly/44rnGDS
How Trump Upended 60 Years of Civil Rights in Two Months
An assault on federal protections may bring about a new era of unchecked discrimination. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lxpEJM
With Supreme Court Ruling, Another Check on Trump’s Power Fades
The court tied the hands of judges at a time when Congress has been cowed and internal executive branch constraints have been steamrolled. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kjMGTt
Israel and U.S. Smashed Iran Nuclear Site That Grew After Trump Quit 2015 Accord
Nuclear experts say the president’s rejection of the restrictive deal forced him to neutralize an Iranian threat of his own making. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lvKCIM
In the Quest to Shrink NASA, Trump Forgets National Security
The choice before us is stark: cut support to NASA and shrink from the unknown, or step boldly toward it and champion the agency to take us there. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lxpQsu
Letters from an American - June 28, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Last night just before midnight, Republicans released their new version of the omnibus budget reconciliation bill. It is a sign of just how unpopular this bill is that they released the new version just before midnight on a Friday night, a time that is the graveyard of news stories. - Cox Richardson https://nyti.ms/4lxpQsu
U.N. Inspector Says Iran Could Be Enriching Fuel Again in a ‘Matter of Months’
The assessment widens the divide with President Trump, who has claimed that Tehran has given up its nuclear ambitions after a U.S. attack. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3G81k26
Appeals Court to Consider Trump’s Use of Alien Enemies Act
The case before one of the most conservative courts in the country is likely to be the first to reach the Supreme Court. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4nIH202
The Worst Bill in History
Trump’s giant budget-busting, Medicaid-shattering, shafting-the-poor-and-working-class, making-the-rich-even richer bill is a travesty. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/46mEqOU
Letters from an American - June 29, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Tariff economy, real extent of damage in Iraq, cuts in programs for low-income Americans, and Senate parliamentarian cites budget violations. - Cox Richardsonhttps://bit.ly/3I9GMXo
A List of Nearly Everything in the Senate G.O.P. Bill, and How Much It Would Cost or Save
The tax and domestic policy bill passed by Senate Republicans on Tuesday includes hundreds of provisions, including extended and expanded tax cuts and significant cuts to Medicaid, food benefits and other programs. It would add more than $3 trillion to the national debt. To become law, it still needs to gain a second passage through the House and be signed by the president. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44sDOF8
Surprise Tax in G.O.P. Bill Could Cripple Wind and Solar Power
Wind and solar companies were already bracing for Congress to end federal subsidies. But the Senate bill goes even further and penalizes those industries. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ki9frm
How the G.O.P. Bill Saves Money: Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork
Instead of directly reducing benefits for the poor, Republicans are making them harder to get and to keep. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kg4Sxf
Why Is Trump Returning MS-13 Leaders to El Salvador? 5 Takeaways From the Times Investigation.
When Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, agreed earlier this year to imprison deportees from the United States, he had a specific request of the Trump administration: the return of top MS-13 leaders in American custody. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4er29iW
Star witness against Kilmar Abrego García was due to be deported. Now he’s being freed.
The Trump administration has agreed to release from prison a three-time felon who drunkenly fired shots in a Texas community and spare him from deportation in exchange for his cooperation in the federal prosecution of Kilmar Abrego García, according to a review of court records and official testimony. - WaPo https://wapo.st/40zffF7
Forecasters to Lose Hurricane Satellite Data at the Worst Possible Time
In an abrupt move that blindsided meteorologists and public officials on Wednesday, June 25, the Navy’s Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) announced it was shutting down the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s (DMSP) data processing system on June 30 due to a “significant” cybersecurity risk. Owned by the Department of Defense (DoD), DMSP weather satellites have provided forecasters with critical storm data since the 1960s. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4kguDgI
Trump Insults America—Again
The president of the United States seems to have no interest in appealing to a national sense of pride or honor. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4ldzcd2
Why Factories Are Having Trouble Filling Nearly 400,000 Open Jobs
For every 20 positions, there’s one qualified candidate, says one manufacturing chief executive. Some of President Trump’s policies are likely to exacerbate the problem. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lhl3f6
The Dollar Has Its Worst Start to a Year Since 1973
The United States’ currency has weakened more than 10 percent over the past six months when compared with a basket of currencies from the country’s major trading partners. The last time the dollar weakened so much at the start of the year was 1973, after the United States had made a seismic shift that had ended the linking of the dollar to the price of gold. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44tl48a
How to Wreck the Nation’s Health, by the Numbers
After decades as a physician studying the factors that determine our risks of getting sick and how long we live, I am convinced that the actions of the Trump administration will cost lives. Researchers like me know the data. For years we have warned that Americans have shorter life expectancies and higher disease rates than people in other high-income countries.
Now, the poor health of Americans is about to get worse. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lAx5jo
Vaccine makers are facing seismic changes in U.S. policy
A federal panel filled with vaccine skeptics has bewildered public health experts and thrown vaccine makers into turmoil. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3I6KOA1
Will the Big Ugly Bill Cost the GOP the Senate?
This morning, the United States Senate passed one of the cruelest, most immoral, stupidest, and politically unpopular pieces of legislation in the country’s nearly 250-year history. Every Democrat voted against it, and all but 3 Republicans voted for it. Somehow, the supposedly less radical Senate Republicans took a terrible bill and made it even worse. The legislative process was an abomination. No one has read the bill text, and passage involved a series of legislative bribes to get people like the once-honorable Lisa Murkowski to sell out her values and her country. - The Message Box https://bit.ly/4eu381X
Letters from an American - July 01, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
"This is the most deeply immoral piece of legislation I have ever voted on in my entire time in Congress,” said Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT). - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4lwzKKC
Republicans test a new red line: Denaturalization
The Trump administration opened the door on Monday to formally examining Zohran Mamdani’s US citizenship — part of a growing effort to target the immigration status of a wide range of individuals. - Semafor https://bit.ly/3GpALp6
At least 17 million Americans would lose insurance under Trump plan
The Senate version of President Donald Trump’s massive tax and immigration spending plan would wipe out many of the strides made by the Affordable Care Act in reducing the number of uninsured Americans, resulting in at least 17 million Americans losing their health coverage, according to nonpartisan estimates and experts. - WaPo https://wapo.st/40sSVwP
They Didn’t Have to Do This
In their heedless rush to enact a deficit-exploding tax bill so massive that they barely understand it, Senate Republicans call to mind a scene in The Sopranos. A group of young aspiring gangsters decides to stick up a Mafia card game in hopes of gaining the mobsters’ respect and being brought into the crew. At the last moment, the guys briefly reconsider, before one of them supplies the decisive argument in favor of proceeding: “Let’s do it before the crank wears off.” After that, things go as you might expect. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4l631vX
A Big, Bad, Very Ugly Bill
“Beautiful” it is not. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3Ic9qqV
Iran Likely to Have Moved Nuclear Components Ahead of Fordow Attack: Iranian Nuclear Scientist
Despite the Trump administration's claims, Iran's nuclear program has not been "totally obliterated." - Drop Site News https://bit.ly/3IoOGMC
The GOP Senate Chose Trump Over The American People—How Big A Price Will They Pay?
When it comes to Trump's 'Big Beautiful' budget bill, the fish rots from the head. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/44bfAAf
Trump Withholds Nearly $7 Billion for Schools, With Little Explanation
The money, which was allocated by Congress, helps pay for after-school programs, support for students learning English and other services. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4l9CiP8
Trump calls Japan 'very spoiled' as he floats idea of imposing 30% or 35% tariff
"I'm not sure we're going to make a deal. I doubt it," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, calling Japan "very tough" and "very spoiled." - Japan Times https://bit.ly/44tmGyZ?
Over 14 million people could die from U.S. foreign aid cuts: study
The funding cuts "risk abruptly halting -- and even reversing -- two decades of progress in health among vulnerable populations," warned study co-author Davide Rasella, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal). - AFP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/4kkltjc?
Poorest Americans Dealt Biggest Blow Under Senate Republican Tax Package
Small improvements in taxes are overshadowed by cuts to health insurance and other federal aid, resulting in a package favoring the wealthy. - NYT https://nyti.ms/40n9xq7
Trump Pauses Some Weapons Transfers to Ukraine
The White House cited Pentagon concerns that some American arms stockpiles were dwindling too low. Among the affected weapons were air defense systems, bombs, missiles and artillery rounds. -NYT https://nyti.ms/4nv0sVZ
Penn Agrees to Limit Participation of Transgender Athletes
In a deal with the Trump administration, the University of Pennsylvania will not allow transgender women to participate in women’s sports. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lbdqqt
U.S. Judge Blocks Deportation of Haitian Migrants
Judge Brian Cogan’s order prevented the Trump administration from ending special immigration protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4nwmhEB
Republican Bill Puts Nation on New, More Perilous Fiscal Path
Among the most expensive pieces of legislation in years, the Republican bill could reshape the country’s finances for a generation. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3TGEAcJ
Trump’s True Colors, Revealed
“You can very safely say,” Bobby Kogan, the senior director of federal budget policy at the liberal Center for American Progress, told The Washington Post, that “this is the biggest cut to programs for low-income Americans ever.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4knOvi2
Trump’s America Is Beginning to Look More Like China
Donald Trump’s return to office has made clear that in important respects — democratic erosion, the fixation on strong borders, the curbing of free speech and numerous other examples — America is starting to look a bit more like China. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44oLpEt
We’ve Never Seen Health Care Cuts This Big
A preliminary estimate from the Congressional Budget Office projects that the bill would reduce federal spending for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s provisions by more than $1 trillion over a decade, resulting in nearly 12 million more people becoming uninsured by 2034. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3TQdboy
Major reports about how climate change affects U.S. removed from federal websites
Legally mandated U.S. national climate assessments seem to have disappeared from the federal websites built to display them, making it harder for state and local governments and the public to learn what to expect in their backyards from a warming world. - AP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/3ZVtF2k?
The private sector lost a brutal number of jobs last month
Private employers cut 33,000 jobs in June, according to fresh data on private payroll numbers from ADP — the worst showing in more than two years (since March 2023) and a surprise move in the wrong direction. After months of sluggish but steady hiring, the engine appears to have stalled.
The numbers came in sharply below economists’ expectations, which aimed for gains between 95,000 and 103,000. It's a stark reversal from May’s revised modest growth of 29,000 jobs (down from 37,000). - Quartz https://bit.ly/3I4Cyk5
Who Investigates If Chicago Cops Help ICE? City Officials Still Debating ‘Unprecedented’ Situation
Nearly a month after federal immigration agents arrested at least 10 people during surprise check-ins at a South Loop office, city agencies are still trying to figure out who’s responsible for investigating whether Chicago police improperly aided the effort. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/4khiYOD
The Hyper-Presidency
Five months into his second term, it is clear that Donald Trump is trying to remake American executive power in fundamental ways. He has taken a series of actions that openly violate the law, and complied with court orders only begrudgingly, often with significant foot-dragging. Meanwhile, he is undermining the authority of the courts rhetorically. The result is not a clear “constitutional crisis,” but instead an erosion of the system of checks and balances that underpins our constitutional order. It offers a vision of executive power that is outsized and personal, and will leave a poisonous legacy. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/4l2G4tE
RFK Jr.’s health department calls Nature “junk science,” cancels subscriptions
According to the news outlet, spokespeople for NASA and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed that agency scientists would no longer have access to Springer Nature journals. A USDA spokesperson said that it "has cancelled all contracts and subscriptions to Springer Nature. The journal sic is exorbitantly expensive and is not a good use of taxpayer funds." A government spending database also shows the Department of Energy (DOE) has dropped contracts with the publisher. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/3GkN5ac
White House works to ground NASA science missions before Congress can act
In another sign that the Trump White House is aggressively moving to slash NASA’s science programs, dozens of mission leaders have been asked to prepare "closeout" plans by the end of next week. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/44rRJuT
What to Know About Alligator Alcatraz: The Deportation Center Surrounded by 30,000 Alligators
A cluster of temporary structures large enough to hold up to 3,000 illegal immigrants and 1,000 staff members now stands next to a runway 10,499 feet long and 150 feet wide. The facility was paid for largely by the Department of Homeland Security. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4lDPcVE
How Trump's tax cut and spending megabill would impact SNAP recipients
With the House of Representatives holding procedural votes on President Donald Trump's giant tax and immigration bill Wednesday, Congressional Democrats and food security nonprofits are calling attention to its potentially drastic changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that could cost millions of low-income families crucial food assistance in every state. - ABC https://bit.ly/4lIDYPL
Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioter Who Threatened Police Joins Justice Dept.
The pardoned rioter, a former F.B.I. agent who was charged with encouraging the mob that stormed the Capitol, is a counselor to Ed Martin, the director of the so-called weaponization committee. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lAJQKB
Iran suspends cooperation with UN nuclear watchdog
Iran has formally suspended cooperation with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, a move likely to deepen fears that Tehran may be more determined than ever to pursue an atomic bomb. - Senator https://bit.ly/3GvswYD
Letters from an American - July 01, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Just after noon today, the Senate passed its version of the budget reconciliation bill. All Democrats and Independents voted no. Three Republicans—Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina—joined the Democrats in voting no. That left the bill at 50–50. Vice President J.D. Vance cast the deciding vote, pushing the measure through the Senate and sending it back to the House to vote on the changes made by the Senate. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/40p03uv
EPA employees accuse Trump administration of 'ignoring' science
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is "ignoring the scientific consensus to benefit polluters," hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency employees said in a letter of dissent this week, accusing the government of undermining the EPA's core mission.
The scathing letter, signed by more than 200 current and former officials and their supporters, accused EPA chief Lee Zeldin of enacting policies dangerous to both humans and the environment. - AFP/Japan Times https://bit.ly/4nwLBdH?
Judge Rejects Trump’s Attempt to Stop Asylum Claims at Border
The judge wrote that neither the Constitution nor federal immigration law gave the president the authority to “adopt an alternative immigration system.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3I6v14h
Top F.D.A. Official Overrode Scientists on Covid Shots
Records show that a top U.S. regulator rejected the recommendations of agency experts and limited the use of Covid vaccines. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3I4W6EW
Trump and Republicans Mislead on Policy Bill’s Effect
The president and his allies in the Senate have cited inaccurate claims about their tax and policy bill. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kpNlCx
Face It. Trump Is a Normie Republican.
It is, perhaps, the longest-standing priority of the modern Republican Party to starve the welfare state, lower taxes as much as possible and spend what little federal revenues remain on internal and external security. With his “big beautiful bill,” Trump is doing, in a real sense, what any Republican president would do. That he cloaks this in the rhetoric of populism should not blind us to what’s actually happening. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46cabuj
We Both Served as Treasury Secretary. We Know This Bill Is Dangerous.
Donald Trump as a candidate promised his policies wouldn’t add to the debt. Before taking office, he vowed “to restore fiscal sanity to our nation.” His “big, beautiful bill” does the opposite. - NYT https://nyti.ms/40xa2Oa
The private sector lost a brutal number of jobs last month
The U.S. labor market just hit a serious speed bump.
Private employers cut 33,000 jobs in June, according to fresh data on private payroll numbers from ADP — the worst showing in more than two years (since March 2023) and a surprise move in the wrong direction. After months of sluggish but steady hiring, the engine appears to have stalled. - Quartz https://bit.ly/44eFrY8
Private Sector Shed 33,000 Jobs in June, Far Short of Market Estimates
Hiring in the private sector contracted in June, marking the first decline since March 2023, which suggests the U.S. labor market’s softness may be accelerating. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4l6kLaA
The US economy added a stronger-than-expected 147,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate fell to 4.1%
The economy added a stronger-than-expected 147,000 jobs in June, and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1% from 4.2%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Thursday. - CNN https://cnn.it/44ccFr4
The Senate passed the GOP domestic policy bill that includes giant cuts to clean energy — and experts say it will make energy costs rise
The new Senate bill takes an axe to popular tax credits for clean-energy initiatives in the electric-vehicle, home-efficiency, and manufacturing sectors. Under the legislative changes, wind and solar tax credits are pegged to be repealed immediately. The bill also curbs tax credits for residential homes and commercial buildings that made them more energy efficient. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4kfyJWl
The violent arrest of Narciso Barranco, a Mexican gardener in the United States, has caused international outrage
His story has caused sadness and rage among Mexicans and Americans alike. As a Mexican migrant in California, he has lived on US soil for more than 30 years, started a family, and earned a living as a gardener. He has two sons serving in the Marines and a war veteran, all of whom have served the United States armed forces. After a recent raid, Narciso was violently detained by ICE agents. - Mexico Daily Post https://bit.ly/3IrcZJS
Pardoned Jan. 6 Defendant Sentenced to Life in Prison for FBI Murder Plot
Edward Kelley was sentenced on July 2 in federal court in Knoxville after being convicted of conspiracy to murder federal employees, solicitation to commit violence, and threatening a federal official, court filings show. Prosecutors said previously that Kelley created a “kill list” of FBI agents involved in investigating his Jan. 6 conduct and discussed attacks using car bombs and drones. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3I9nqBP
‘We Live in a Surveillance State’: Reddit Users Explode Over Reports of ICE’s New Face and Fingerprint Scanning App
A new mobile tool used by ICE is sparking fear and fury online, and Reddit users are not holding back. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4kq1HDh
Jeffries Breaks Record in Hourslong Speech Opposing Trump’s Policy Bill
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Democrat and minority leader, delayed a final House vote with an impassioned speech that lasted nearly nine hours. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3TjNAEp
Tax Cuts Now, Benefit Cuts Later: The Timeline in the Republican Megabill
At the core of Republicans’ newly finalized domestic policy package is an important political calculation. It provides its most generous tax breaks early on and reserves some of its most painful benefit cuts until after the 2026 midterm elections. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3I9nJMZ
As Trump Broadens Crackdown, Focus Expands to Legal Immigrants and Tourists
U.S. border officials are using more aggressive tactics, which the administration calls “enhanced vetting,” at ports of entry to the United States, prompting American allies like Germany to update their travel advisories. At the same time, the administration is targeting legal immigrants who have expressed views that the government believes threaten national security and undermine foreign policy. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3IarUYW
Abrego Garcia Was Beaten and Tortured in El Salvador Prison, Lawyers Say
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March, was beaten, deprived of sleep and psychologically tortured during the nearly three months he spent in Salvadoran custody, according to court papers filed on Wednesday evening by his lawyers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44gD0nO
No One Is Illegal On Stolen Land—ICE Versus the Indigenous in MAGA's America
The truth is, Indigenous peoples are being targeted by ICE across the United States. Eliminating Black and brown immigrants is their primary goal, after all. And most of the immigrants coming from points south of the United States’ border are Indigenous peoples. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/46tiAJJ
Trump Expects Paramount to Run Conservative PSAs Following Hush Money Payments
Earlier this week, the company came to a preliminary settlement agreement with Donald Trump in a case where the President accused the company of deceptively editing a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris in 2024. That settlement (which has been described by some as “bribery” with intent to get Trump to green light Paramount’s attempted merger with Skydance Media) pays Trump $16 million. Trump’s legal team also claimed another condition of victory: It expects Paramount to allocate tens of millions of dollars to running “advertisements, public service announcements and other broadcasts” that support conservative causes, according to the Wall Street Journal. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4kvUykP
Supreme Court Lets Trump Deport Eight Migrants to South Sudan
The court’s order followed a broader one last month allowing removals to countries with which migrants have no connections. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4koCPLO
E.P.A. Suspends 144 Employees After They Signed a Letter Criticizing Trump
The agency said its actions were warranted because the employees had signed the letter using their official titles and because the letter had denigrated the agency’s leadership. “The Environmental Protection Agency has a zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging and undercutting the administration’s agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November,” the E.P.A. press secretary, Brigit Hirsch, wrote in an email. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lEGczn
How Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Make China Great Again
Can you hear it — that loud roar coming from the East? It’s the sound of 1.4 billion Chinese laughing at us.
The Chinese simply can’t believe their luck: that at the dawn of the electricity-guzzling era of artificial intelligence, the U.S. president and his party have decided to engage in one of the greatest acts of strategic self-harm imaginable. They have passed a giant bill that, among other craziness, deliberately undermines America’s ability to generate electricity through renewables — solar, battery and wind power in particular. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Gf6jy2
How Bad Is This Bill? The Answer in 10 Charts.
With unusual speed, and despite an armada of controversial provisions, Congress has birthed a sprawling, nearly 900-page policy bill stuffed with hundreds of changes that will bestow trillions of dollars in tax cuts on the rich and special interests while slicing deeply into social programs relied on by millions of Americans.
Much like President Trump’s 2017 tax bill, it will add substantially to the deficit and the debt without providing any meaningful impetus to economic growth. But this time, it will be much worse. This legislation will pile about $3 trillion onto the deficit over the next 10 years, double the amount its predecessor was expected to generate. And it lacks provisions that could significantly boost economic growth. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4eI2A92
A modest gain beat Wall Street expectations. But flatlining demand for white-collar workers and more troublesome signs come as Trump attacks Fed Chair Jerome Powell anew
Total nonfarm employment rose by 147,000, a modest gain that beat Wall Street's expectations and kept the unemployment rate at 4.1%. Beneath the surface, however, the labor market looks to be flashing early signals of structural strain, particularly for white-collar workers and workers of color. - Quartz https://bit.ly/44XHb7l
This is Fascism
Trump’s 940-page Big Ugly Bill was passed today by the House and is now on the way to the White House for Trump’s signature.
It is a disgrace. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3Iy1n7S
Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Is Already Hurting Health Care Facilities
The bill is projected to strip health insurance from 17 million people. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/405xXUQ
Supreme Court Clears the Way for Deportations to South Sudan
The Supreme Court issued an order late on July 3 that cleared the way for the federal government to deport illegal immigrants to third countries to which they have no prior connection. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4nBqsPq
Trump set to start notifying countries of tariffs up to 70%
U.S. President Donald Trump said he had signed letters to 12 countries outlining the various tariff levels they would face on goods they export to the United States, with the "take it or leave it" offers to be sent out on Monday. - Bloomberg/Reuters/Japan Times https://bit.ly/3IuIId8
Trump Signs Signature Policy Bill at Independence Day Event
President Trump triumphantly highlighted tax cuts in the legislation while downplaying cuts to Medicaid and other assistance for poor Americans. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3IvkOy9
Trump Is Waging War on His Own Citizens
No president in the history of the Republic has used the word “America” as effectively as Donald Trump — not as a symbol to invoke unity but as kerosene to keep the home fires of our culture wars burning. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lrf8DW
States Brace for Added Burdens of Trump’s Tax and Spending Law
The ink is not even dry on the far-reaching domestic policy law that President Trump signed on Friday, and already state governments are bracing for impact as Washington shifts much of the burden for health care, food assistance and other programs onto them. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kJxi2Z
Court Rejects Effort to Keep Migrants From Being Sent to South Sudan
The transfers to South Sudan will mark a victory for the Trump administration, which has made harshness a hallmark of its immigration enforcement agenda and has publicly criticized those federal judges who have tried to rein it in. The White House has called Judge Murphy a “far-left activist.” Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of staff, accused Judge Murphy of engaging in a “judicial coup” for requiring that the men stay in U.S. custody and be given the chance to express a reasonable fear of being tortured in South Sudan. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3TMwBed
White House to Start Notifying Countries About Tariffs, Trump Says
After striking only a few trade deals since declaring a 90-day pause in April, President Trump said he would announce new duties starting Friday. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4exCzJa
Joe Rogan Feels Trump Betrayed Him on Immigration
The podcast king, once a prominent supporter of Donald Trump, denounced the president’s aggressive deportation tactics on his wildly popular podcast. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4ljES5o
Elon Musk Forms a New Political Party to Challenge Trump and the Republicans
As he had previously vowed, Tesla CEO Elon Musk officially announced the formation of a new, third political party on Saturday, July 5, 2025. This dramatic move comes just hours after President Donald Trump signed his “One Big Beautiful Bill” into law, a sweeping budget measure that implements massive spending cuts and eliminates nearly all federal climate and clean energy programs, legislation Musk staunchly opposed. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4eCr57r
Jeff Flake: The Republican Fever Must Break
Eight years ago, I stood on the floor of the Senate and announced that I would not run for re-election. I spoke then of a fever in our politics, a fever that I hoped would soon break. I noted that in today’s Republican Party, anything short of complete and unquestioning loyalty to President Trump — then in his first term — was deemed unacceptable and suspect. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44j2nFF
‘Tears My Heart to Pieces’: North Carolina Braces for Medicaid Cuts
President Trump’s domestic policy law jeopardizes plans to reopen one rural county’s hospital — and health coverage for hundreds of thousands of state residents. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Ihod3J
Elon Musk Says He Will Start a New Political Party
Mr. Musk, once a close ally of President Trump’s who in recent weeks has repeatedly bickered with him, had not filed paperwork as of Saturday evening for the new party, though he added in a separate post that the America Party would be active in elections “next year.” No immediate signs suggested that Mr. Musk was working to establish his party quickly. Any new entity would be required to be disclosed to the Federal Election Commission. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lidrsE
Now the Second (and Worse) Stage of Trump’s Police State
Trump’s Big Ugly Bill delivers $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement. This is on the scale of supplemental budgets passed by the United States when we enter war. ICE will add 10,000 agents to the 20,000 already on the streets. Its annual budget for detentions will skyrocket from $3.4 billion in the current fiscal year to $45 billion until the end of the 2029 fiscal year. That’s a 365 percent increase. Funding for ICE detentions will exceed funding for the entire federal prison system. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/45Sod3W
Trump Declares Musk a ‘Train Wreck’ After Party Launch
The friendship that once saw Elon Musk serve in the White House is officially and explosively over. In a lengthy and personal tirade posted to Truth Social on Sunday, President Donald Trump unloaded on his former ally, expressing his profound disappointment and casting Musk as an ungrateful and confused figure who has gone “completely ‘off the rails.'” - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3Tt6SXV
What Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Means for Your Wallet
Spanning nearly 1,000 pages, the measure includes permanent tax changes and provisions affecting families, seniors, and businesses. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3IgUoQG
Trump announces new tariffs of up to 40% on a growing number of countries
President Donald Trump cranked up the pressure Monday on America’s trading partners, firing off letters to heads of several countries, informing them of their new tariff rate. But at the same time, Trump took some of the edge off by signing an executive action Monday to extend the date for all “reciprocal” tariffs, with the exception of China, to August 1. - CNN https://cnn.it/466QBj3
Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide and there’s no ‘client list,’ Justice Department says
After months of touting the impending release of new, blockbuster information on accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, the Justice Department announced in a memo Monday that there is no evidence he kept a “client list” or was murdered.
The Justice Department also does not plan to release any new documents in the matter, it said Monday.
The admission reneges on promises from President Donald Trump, who previously spoke about releasing more governmental files on the disgraced financier, as well as go against years of conspiracy theories pushed by the right wing. - CNN https://cnn.it/466QLXH
TAKE OFF THE MASK, ICE
The federal government should prohibit the wearing of masks by ICE agents and require them to properly identify themselves. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3TvB84w
The U.S. Is Switching Sides
Donald Trump is giving Vladimir Putin every incentive to keep killing Ukrainians. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4lJu5RA
RFK Jr promotes food company he says will make Americans healthy; their meals are ultraprocessed
The meals contain chemical additives that would render them impossible to recreate at home in your kitchen, said Marion Nestle, a nutritionist at New York University and food policy expert, who reviewed the menu for The AP. Many menu items are high in sodium, and some are high in sugar or saturated fats, she said. - AP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/46BowAr?
US Measles Cases Surge to Highest Levels in 6 Years
As of July 7, there have been 1,277 reported cases of the virus, according to figures released by the Maryland-based medical school. That surpasses the previous record of 1,274 cases in 2019. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3GERMeZ
The Ruthless Ambition of Stephen Miller
The crisis, from the immigration raids that sparked the protests to the militarized response that tried to put the protests down, was almost entirely of Mr. Miller’s making. And it served as a testament to the remarkable position he now occupies in Mr. Trump’s Washington. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who reportedly accompanied Mr. Miller on his visit to ICE headquarters, seems to defer to him. “It’s really Stephen running D.H.S.,” a Trump adviser said. The attorney general, Pam Bondi, is so focused on preparing for and appearing on Fox News that she has essentially ceded control of the Department of Justice to Mr. Miller, making him, according to the conservative legal scholar Edward Whelan, “the de facto attorney general.” And in a White House where the chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is not well versed or terribly interested in policy — “She’s producing a reality TV show every day,” another Trump adviser said, “and it’s pretty amazing, right?” — Mr. Miller is typically the final word. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kvDNpW
U.S. Will Try to Deport Abrego Garcia Before He Faces Trial, Justice Dept. Says
The plan directly contradicted the White House, which last month described as “fake news” reports of plans to re-deport Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3IlRXMJ
Medical Societies Sue Kennedy and H.H.S. Over Vaccine Advice
Six leading medical organizations filed a lawsuit on Monday against Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, and the federal Department of Health and Human Services, charging that recent decisions limiting access to vaccines were unscientific and harmful to the public. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4nGHvj5
Now You See Josh Hawley, Now You Don’t
The Missouri Republican showed as much on Jan. 6, 2021, when he gave that infamous clenched-fist salute to the unruly mob bound for the Capitol — go get ’em, tigers! — then sprinted like terrified prey through the halls of Congress to evade them. He later wrote and plugged a book titled “Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs.” It extolled virility, valor, grit. All the qualities that he embodied on that heroic day. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ksaZys
DOJ Releases Video of Jeffrey Epstein’s Jail Cell, but There’s a Minute Missing
People are understandably upset that it seems like folks at the DOJ aren’t being transparent about what happened to Jeffrey Epstein, since high-profile figures like FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino were so insistent that any files be released. Now these men insist Epstein really did kill himself and MAGA-world can’t seem to figure out why. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/40CEiqY
360,000 Illinois Residents To Lose Food Assistance Due To Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ Pritzker Says
New work requirements for SNAP benefits and shifting funding burdens to the states will strip food assistance from thousands of unhoused people, veterans and older residents, Gov. JB Pritzker’s office warned. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/44ne7ab
Trump Administration Ends Deportation Protections for 76,000 From Honduras, Nicaragua
Monday’s decision is the latest in several temporary protected status revocations issued by the Trump administration in recent weeks. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4ksdMrm
Trump Imposes Reciprocal Tariffs on Japan, South Korea, and 12 Other Countries
President Donald Trump on July 7 issued letters announcing reciprocal tariffs on a slate of countries set to take effect on Aug. 1, including 25 percent tariffs on Japan and South Korea, as he pressed ahead with unilateral trade measures against nations that have not yet reached agreements with his administration. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3TwfaOM
How to Know When the Frog Has Boiled
Autocracy in America won’t unfold the way you expect. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/4nAbWaF
Trump Hires Scientists Who Doubt the Consensus on Climate Change
The three scientists joined the administration after it dismissed hundreds of experts who were assessing how global warming is affecting the country. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4eFzNSl
Who’s Running American Defense Policy?
It’s not the president, at least not on most issues. Trump’s interest in foreign policy, as with so many other topics, is capricious and episodic at best. He flits away from losing issues, leaving them to others. He promised to end the war in Ukraine in a day, but after conceding that making peace is “more difficult than people would have any idea,” the president has since shrugged and given up. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3U4VeCI
I.R.S. Says Churches Can Endorse Candidates From the Pulpit
In a court filing, the tax agency said a decades-old ban on campaigning by tax-exempt groups should not apply to houses of worship speaking to their own members. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lDYvom
Doctor Groups Sue RFK Jr. Over Altered COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations
The removal of recommendations for pregnant women and healthy children violate federal law, according to the lawsuit. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3IlMrK8
Why Do So Many People Think That Trump Is Good?
There’s a question that’s been bugging me for nearly a decade. How is it that half of America looks at Donald Trump and doesn’t find him morally repellent? He lies, cheats, steals, betrays, and behaves cruelly and corruptly, and more than 70 million Americans find him, at the very least, morally acceptable. Some even see him as heroic, admirable, and wonderful. What has brought us to this state of moral numbness? - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3Ii1HI1
Trump's Megabill Screws Over His Voters—And Democrats Are Already Making Republicans Pay
The backlash against Republicans for voting for Trump's big ugly bill is already underway. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/44Eujm2
Trump's tariffs could cost American households about $2,300, analysis says
The Yale Budget Lab analysis calculated the impact of tariffs on consumers, as well as on the current tariffs levied on Vietnam, China, and others. https://bit.ly/4ljGQ5A
Trump’s Jeffrey Epstein Fiasco Gives Elon the Perfect Fuel to Burn His Former Pal
“This is a total fucking disaster,” an anonymous intelligence source recently said, of the crisis swiftly engulfing Donald Trump’s Justice Department. That crisis involves the Jeffrey Epstein files, which Trump previously promised to release when he took office. Of course, the files have never seen the light of day. Instead, Trump officials have hemmed and hawed, made many confusing and contradictory statements about them, and, this week, basically threw up their hands to indicate there was nothing more to reveal. The ensuing public outcry threatens to permanently fracture Trump’s political base, while providing his newly christened enemy, Elon Musk, with the perfect opportunity to exploit the situation. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4eFhbBT
Trump threatens more countries with tariffs as high as 30%
Among the latest recipients were the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Moldova, Brunei, Algeria, Libya and Iraq, with rates going as high as 30% on goods they ship to the United States. The new tariffs go into effect August 1, pending negotiations. https://cnn.it/44zVWwD
How a Broken Media Ecosystem Enables Trump and the GOP
Bad things happen when it's impossible to get good information. - The Message Box https://bit.ly/3Tw7E6t
Supreme Court backs Trump’s effort to dramatically reshape federal government for now
The Supreme Court on Tuesday backed President Donald Trump’s effort to carry out mass firings and reorganizations at federal agencies, putting on hold a lower court order that had temporarily blocked the president from taking those steps without approval from Congress. - CNN https://cnn.it/4nKLF9S
360,000 Illinois Residents To Lose Food Assistance Due To Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ Pritzker Says
New work requirements for SNAP benefits and shifting funding burdens to the states will strip food assistance from thousands of unhoused people, veterans and older residents, Gov. JB Pritzker’s office warned. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/44IeJWJ
Meet the new national police force
The agency of mask-wearing officers who aren’t afraid to smash windows, detain lawmakers and pluck nonviolent undocumented immigrants off the street is about to become the best-funded federal police force. https://bit.ly/3TwgTDK
Putin, Undeterred by Trump’s Words, Escalates His War Against Ukraine
The Russian leader is convinced that Moscow’s battlefield superiority is growing, and that Ukraine’s defenses may collapse in the coming months, according to people close to the Kremlin. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4eD2Plw
Trump appointees have ties to companies that stand to benefit from privatizing weather forecasts
As commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick oversees the U.S. government’s vast efforts to monitor and predict the weather.
The billionaire also ran a financial firm, which he recently left in the control of his adult sons, that stands to benefit if President Donald Trump’s administration follows through on a decade-long Republican effort to privatize government weather forecasting. - AP https://bit.ly/4lP8qI2
U.S. measles cases hit highest level in 33 years, CDC reports
The U.S. has reported 1,288 measles cases this year — the highest number in 33 years, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The last time the U.S. saw more measles cases was in 1992, eight years before the disease was declared eliminated in the country. - NPR https://n.pr/3TsELIr
Letters from an American - July 7, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
At about 10:30 this morning local time, heavily armed masked agents in trucks, armored vehicles, a helicopter, on foot, and on horseback, accompanied by a gun mounted on a truck raided the MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles. Journalist Mel Buer reported that agents from Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), the National Guard, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brought what she called a “massive federal presence.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4kCf0jZ
Supreme Court Clears Way for Mass Firings at Federal Agencies
The case represents a key test of the extent of President Trump’s power to reorganize the government without input from Congress. The justices’ order is technically only temporary, guiding how the administration can proceed while the challenge to Mr. Trump’s plans continues. But in practice, it means he is free to pursue his restructuring plans, even if judges later determine that they exceed presidential power. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kDAr4d
Administration Takes Steps to Target 2 Officials Who Investigated Trump
The Trump administration appears to be targeting officials who oversaw the investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign’s connections to Russia, examining the actions of the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey and the former C.I.A. director John O. Brennan, according to people familiar with the situation. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kA0Yz8
Comey Tracked by Secret Service After Post Critical of Trump
After the former F.B.I. director put a picture on Instagram of seashells arranged to say “86 47,” law enforcement tailed his car and tracked his cellphone, steps usually reserved for serious threats. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ltaFRo
Trump Says He’s Making America More Competitive. Is He?
Economists and industry experts, though, warn that Trump’s sweeping changes to the economy and the country may have the opposite effect, potentially positioning the United States to be less competitive on the global stage. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GH7c2n
What To Do About the Tinpot Dictator
Never before in American history, not even in wartime, has one man exercised such unbridled discretion affecting the lives of so many of us, while simultaneously preventing others — Congress, the courts, the American people — from having a say or even knowing what he’s going to do next. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/461Q1Tz
Letters from an American - July 9, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
The Fourteenth Amendment provides that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/44KClKi
Judge Blocks Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order in Class-Action Challenge
Ruling from the bench, Judge Joseph N. Laplante of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire said his decision applied nationwide to babies who would have been subject to the executive order, which included the children of undocumented parents and those born to academics in the United States on student visas, on or after Feb. 20. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lNTKsi
Trump Seeks to Cut Basic Scientific Research by Roughly One-Third, Report Shows
For basic science research, the association reported that the overall budget would fall to $30 billion from $45 billion, a drop of roughly 34 percent. For science funding overall — which includes money for basic, applied and developmental work, as well as for facilities for research and development — the analysis found that the federal budget would fall to $154 billion from $198 billion, a drop of 22 percent. - NYT https://nyti.ms/40PBvL9
Education Department to Resume Interest Accrual on 7.7 Million Student Loan Borrowers
Launched in 2023 by the Biden administration, the SAVE plan calculated student loan payments based on the individual’s income and family size. The plan prevents interest from getting accrued, brings loan payments for those who earn less than $32,800 annually down to zero per month, while providing early forgiveness for low-balance borrowers. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4eQxZpI
T-Mobile Scraps DEI Programs to Better Align With Trump Administration Policies
T-Mobile is ending DEI-related policies “not just in name but in substance,” T-Mobile executive Mark Nelson said. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4kyFBy8
Federal judge issues new nationwide block against Trump’s order seeking to end birthright citizenship
The ruling from US District Judge Joseph Laplante is significant because the Supreme Court last month curbed the power of lower court judges to issue nationwide injunctions, while keeping intact the ability of plaintiffs to seek a widespread block of the order through class action lawsuits, which is what happened Thursday in New Hampshire. - CNN https://cnn.it/4lPFj7i
Russian Airstrike Hits China Consulate in Odesa; Ukraine Investigation Reveals Chinese Drone Parts
A CCP official said Beijing cannot accept Russia losing its war against Ukraine, as this could allow the U.S. to turn its full attention to China. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/44HmP1N
Liberians confused and angry after Trump's praise for Boakai's 'beautiful English'
"Where did you learn to speak so beautifully?" he continued, as Boakai murmured a response. "Where were you educated? Where? In Liberia?" - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4lQb7Zx
The ICE Men Cometh
There’s little doubt that ICE is growing more aggressive, its actions more extreme. With orders from the White House to meet quotas on detentions and deportations, its raids are becoming more frequent, more brutal and more indiscriminate.
We need to talk about where things stand and, importantly, where they are headed. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/40bJhif
Trump Wants Border Surveillance Towers That Only Palmer Luckey Can Build
Sure looks like a handout for a Trump ally. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/466Amm3
Stephen Miller Says Immigrants Make Traffic Worse, But Of Course Stephen Miller Is Wrong
Wait, what? Immigrants make traffic worse? Impoverished immigrants who come to America, legally or illegally, and immediately try to get behind the wheel? Miller threw this allegation into a list of grievances he spewed during a recent Fox News segment, as host Jesse Watters — who has a lot more hair than Miller, creating a weird split-screen contrast — remained reverently mute. If you've been regularly propagandized by right-wing media, the claim sounds plausible: more immigrants means more people driving means more congestion. But actually, it doesn't. - Jalopnik https://bit.ly/44DMGI0
Trump Loves ICE. Its Workforce Has Never Been So Miserable.
“It’s miserable,” one career ICE official told me. He called the job “mission impossible.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3IEzkDQ
America Has Never Seen Corruption Like This
But Americans have never witnessed anything like the corruption that President Donald Trump and his inner circle have perpetrated in recent months. Its brazenness, volume, and variety defy historical comparison, even in a country with a centuries-long history of grift—including, notably, Trump’s first four years in office. Indeed, his second term makes the financial scandals of his first—foreign regimes staying at Trump’s hotel in Washington, D.C.; the (aborted) plan to host the G7 at Trump’s hotel in Florida—seem quaint. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4lMKAfJ
Judge Orders Jan. 6 Rally Planner to Pay $2,000 per Day for Defying Subpoena
U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks issued the contempt ruling on July 9, following Wren’s failure to appear at a virtual hearing meant to explain her ongoing refusal to comply with a subpoena issued as part of a separate civil lawsuit filed four years ago by a half dozen U.S. Capitol Police officers. The officers are suing Trump, his 2024 presidential campaign, Stop the Steal LLC, the Proud Boys, and others, alleging that they conspired to incite the attack on the Capitol that left the plaintiffs injured. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4nLZTHu
The F.B.I. Is Using Polygraphs to Test Officials’ Loyalty
In interviews and polygraph tests, the F.B.I. has asked senior employees whether they have said anything negative about Mr. Patel, according to two people with knowledge of the questions and others familiar with similar accounts. In one instance, officials were forced to take a polygraph as the agency sought to determine who disclosed to the news media that Mr. Patel had demanded a service weapon, an unusual request given that he is not an agent. The number of officials asked to take a polygraph is in the dozens, several people familiar with the matter said, though it is unclear how many have specifically been asked about Mr. Patel. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kDOPct
Justice Dept. Whistle-Blower Warns of Trump Administration’s Assault on the Law
In an interview with The New York Times, a former Justice Department lawyer, Erez Reuveni, said officials pressed subordinates to mislead judges, and dared the courts to stop it. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46CVwrV
Trump's Putin epiphany
“He's very nice all the time," Donald Trump said of Vladimir Putin this week. "But it turns out to be meaningless."
You think? - CNN https://cnn.it/4lqGpXt
State Department is firing more than 1,300 staff on Friday
The firings will affect 1,107 civil service and 246 foreign service officers in Washington, DC, an internal notice seen by CNN said. It comes as the State Department implements a drastic reorganization as part of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to shrink the federal government. - CNN https://cnn.it/4kGuC61
Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order After Supreme Court Ruling
“That’s irreparable harm, citizenship alone,” he said in court, according to reporters in the courtroom, referring to U.S. citizenship. “It is the greatest privilege that exists in the world.” - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/40KncY7
RFK Jr.’s Anti-Vax Group Gets Stamp of Approval From DOJ
Children's Health Defense says it's illegal for news outlets to "censor" anti-vax garbage. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3GIjOpV
Trump Hires Scientists Who Doubt the Consensus on Climate Change
The three scientists joined the administration after it dismissed hundreds of experts who were assessing how global warming is affecting the country. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4eFzNSl
Judge Blocks Trump Administration Tactics in L.A. Immigration Raids
A federal judge in California blocked the Trump administration on Friday from making indiscriminate immigration arrests in the Los Angeles area and from denying detainees the right to consult with a lawyer. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3TxilWu
As Trump sows tariff confusion, rules of global commerce give way to chaos
Six months into his new administration, U.S. President Donald Trump’s assault on global trade has lost any semblance of organization or structure. - NYT/Japan Times https://bit.ly/40dqOlw
FEMA Didn’t Answer Thousands of Calls From Flood Survivors, Documents Show
Two days after deadly Texas floods, the agency struggled to answer calls from survivors because of call center contracts that weren’t extended. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4eJNkIu
Judge Signals She Will Protect Abrego Garcia From Hasty Second Deportation
The judge, Paula Xinis, said some legal safeguard was needed because the Trump administration had already shown in this and other deportation cases that it could not be trusted. - NYT https://nyti.ms/467Rwj5
Nassau County Will Let Officers Wear Masks When Working With ICE
The Long Island county, which recently barred residents from wearing masks in many circumstances, will allow police officers to wear them during immigration enforcement and other actions. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lqgW0b
Trump threatens steep tariffs on goods from the E.U. and Mexico, starting on Aug. 1.
President Trump announced in letters posted to social media on Saturday that he would place a 30 percent tariff on goods from the European Union and Mexico, upending months of careful negotiations and disrupting America’s economic relationships with two of its biggest trading partners. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lKqsLi
Trump announces tariffs of 30% on Mexico and the European Union
President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened duties of 30% on products from Mexico and the European Union, two of America’s biggest trading partners, in an ongoing tariff campaign that’s upended global trade since he retook office in January. - CNN
Fact-checking Trump and Democratic claims about tax and spending bill
President Donald Trump signed into law last week a sweeping package of tax cuts and spending cuts, which passed the Senate and House with narrow majorities and no Democratic support. As is his practice, Trump keeps making false or misleading claims about the law. Democrats, too, exaggerated the impact. Below is a quick roundup. - WaPo https://wapo.st/40eB1xW
Federal Judge Orders Trump Admin to Halt Immigration Operations Without Probable Cause in California
The decision by District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong followed a lawsuit brought by illegal immigrant advocacy groups, which accused the administration of targeting people in Southern California based on their race and of arresting people without a warrant amid the federal government’s ongoing efforts to end illegal immigration. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3GAWgU8
‘Egregious.’ ‘Brazen.’ ‘Lawless.’ How 48 Judges Describe Trump’s Actions, in Their Own Words
There have been more than 400 lawsuits brought against the Trump administration this year. Dozens of judges, appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents ...(including four by President Trump)... have ruled against the administration. And they have often used tough, blunt language.
‘Egregious.’ ‘Brazen.’ ‘Lawless.’ - NYT https://nyti.ms/4eQLINe
Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Ban Faces New Peril: Class Actions
In last month’s decision limiting one judicial tool, universal injunctions, the court seemed to invite lower courts to use class actions as an alternative. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44L46Cm
Trump Administration Fires More D.O.J. Employees Who Worked for Special Counsel
The dismissals on Friday were the latest sign that the administration was reaching deep into the inner workings of the Justice Department to find and expel not just people who had a direct part in investigating and prosecuting Mr. Trump during his four years out of office but also those who had played secondary roles in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GlEqV6
Schumer Urges Kennedy to Declare Public Health Emergency Over Measles
In a letter to Mr. Kennedy on Friday, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, argued this step was necessary to control the “rapid resurgence” of the highly contagious virus. There have been 1,288 cases in 2025, more than any other year since the United States declared measles eliminated in 2000. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kymkgj
Letters from an American - July 12, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
On July 5, the day after the Texas floods hit, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) received 3,027 calls from survivors and answered 3,018 of them, about 99.7%, according to Maxine Joselow of the New York Times. But that day, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem did not renew the contracts for four call center companies that answered those calls. The staff at the centers were fired. The next day, July 6, FEMA received 2,363 calls and answered 846, or about 35.8%. On Monday, July 7, FEMA received 16,419 calls and answered 2,613, around 15.9%. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4lKqp2a
Trump’s Cabinet of Incompetents
It is not reassuring, at a time of man-made and natural disasters, that the president is spouting gobbledygook and his maladroit cabinet members are spinning out.
It’s a paradox: If you choose your cabinet based on looks, you are likely to end up with a cabinet that makes you look bad. Running government is harder than bloviating on Fox News and assorted podcasts. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4eN2pJz
Trump Is Losing His Army of Internet Alpha Males Over the Epstein Files
The backlash was instant and fierce. These were Donald Trump’s most vocal defenders in the 2024 campaign: tradcons, alpha bros, influencers, and masculine revivalists who painted Trump as a bulwark against the liberal elite and the “woke” takeover of America. They helped deliver young, disaffected male voters to Trump’s camp by casting him as the last masculine figure standing between order and chaos.
But now, many of them are openly accusing Trump’s administration of betraying the very cause they rallied behind. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/44vpPQ7
Federal Judge Upholds Order Directing US Government Not to Cut Off Planned Parenthood Funding
A federal judge on July 11 stood by her own order blocking a federal law that withholds Medicaid reimbursements from Planned Parenthood after the Trump administration urged her to cancel it. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/44QoOAZ
American Allies Want to Redraw the World’s Trade Map, Minus the U.S.
Facing growing chaos, the European Union and numerous other countries are seeking to forge a global trading nexus that is less vulnerable to American tariffs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lCH08n
MAGA Is Tearing Itself Apart Over Jeffrey Epstein
In an unsigned memorandum, the department declared that there was no evidence that Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced deceased convicted sexual predator, maintained a client list or that he blackmailed prominent individuals for various misdeeds. The memorandum also declared that Epstein committed suicide. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3IsVb1d
Trump Threatens Russia With ‘Severe’ Tariffs if No Ukraine Deal in 50 Days
“I’m disappointed in Russian President Vladimir Putin, because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn’t seem to get there,” Trump said as he hosted NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House on July 14.
“So based on that, we’re going to be doing secondary tariffs. If we don’t have a deal in 50 days, it’s very simple, and they'll be at 100 percent and that’s the way it is.” - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3GpuDNP
Trump announces novel plan to send weapons to Ukraine and gives Russia new deadline to make peace
President Donald Trump on Monday laid out a pair of steps intended to pressure Russia to end its war in Ukraine, including funneling new weapons to Kyiv and threatening economic punishment on Moscow if peace isn’t reached in 50 days, as he grows increasingly disenchanted with his Russian counterpart. - CNN https://cnn.it/3ItDvSW
Supreme Court allows Trump to proceed with mass firings at Education Department
In a scathing dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s senior liberal member, said her colleagues had made an “indefensible” decision to let Trump proceed with taking apart an agency that ordinarily can be dismantled only by Congress. - CNN https://cnn.it/40hniX8
Trump touts weapon sales to NATO for Ukraine and threatens Russia with 100% tariffs
"We're going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days," Trump said during a White House meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. "Tariffs at about 100%, you'd call them secondary tariffs." - NPR https://n.pr/464ZB8c
Two-thirds of the DOJ unit defending Trump policies in court have quit
Sixty-nine of the roughly 110 lawyers in the Federal Programs Branch have voluntarily left the unit since President Donald Trump's election in November or have announced plans to leave, according to the list compiled by former Justice Department lawyers and reviewed by Reuters. - Reuters/Yahoo https://yhoo.it/44vqwsH
Censorship for Citizenship
Not that long ago, believe it or not, Donald Trump ran for president as the candidate who would defend the First Amendment.
He warned that a “sinister group of Deep State bureaucrats, Silicon Valley tyrants, left-wing activists, and depraved corporate news media” was “conspiring to manipulate and silence the American people,” and promised that “by restoring free speech, we will begin to reclaim our democracy, and save our nation.” On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order affirming the “right of the American people to engage in constitutionally protected speech.”
If anyone believed him at the time, they should be disabused by now. One of his most brazen attacks on freedom of speech thus far came this past weekend, when the president said that he was thinking about stripping a comedian of her citizenship—for no apparent reason other than that she regularly criticizes him. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4kAdqPH
24 States Sue Trump Over $6.8 Billion Withheld From Education
Providers say after-school programs and other services for the coming school year are threatened without the federal money, which was abruptly withheld. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lwcPjc
‘He’s Nuts, Your Trump.’ Canada Unites Against America.
It’s all so sad. Because Washington’s targeting of Canada is so unnecessary and so undeserved. A “national emergency” that justifies huge tariff increases because Canada is purportedly failing to halt a “tremendous” (Mr. Trump’s word) flow of fentanyl and immigrants over the U.S.-Canada border? Only a minuscule fraction of the fentanyl seized in the United States, or of illegal crossings into the United States, come from Canada. But that doesn’t stop Mr. Trump or the Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, or the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, from trumpeting a northern border crisis. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4eRK3qz
Supreme Court Allows Trump to Fire Education Department Employees
U.S. District Judge Myong Joun of Massachusetts said it’s clear that the Trump administration’s “true intention is to effectively dismantle the Department” without first obtaining the required congressional approval. - NYT https://bit.ly/3GOUqPt
A New Era of Hunger Has Begun
Parts of Easthampton, an old mill town in western Massachusetts, look like relics of industrial New England — the old workers’ rowhouses, for instance. In other parts, it seems like a place in renaissance, with converted factory buildings spruced up and reinhabited by art galleries, restaurants, shops. Pedestrians fill the sidewalks on Friday and Saturday nights, especially during monthly art walk evenings. But on Monday mornings, when the downtown feels shuttered, another sort of crowd, one in search of food, not art and entertainment, gathers on a side street outside a 19th-century brick building. A sign out front identifies it as the Easthampton Community Center and Food Pantry. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44vhuvM
The Economy Has Been Resilient. The New Round of Tariffs May Hit Harder.
“The higher that tariffs end up being, the more stagflationary it will be,” said Eric Winograd, an economist at the investment firm AllianceBernstein.
Tariffs have already had an impact on the economy in a number of ways, and the levies now threatened against the European Union risk causing even more painful disruptions, given that the bloc and the United States are each other’s largest trading partner. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44V6Ey7
We Will Regret Not Standing Up to This Venomous Cruelty
Something beyond the raw politics of immigration lies behind the venomous cruelty on display, and I think it is this: To everyone involved, from the policymakers in Washington to the masked agents on the street, undocumented individuals are “the other” — people who not only lack legal rights as a formal matter but who stand outside the web of connection that defines human society. Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border czar, refers to undocumented immigrants as “the gotaways,” the ones we didn’t catch. - NYT https://nyti.ms/454CTMu
The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE
The Internal Revenue Service is building a computer program that would give deportation officers unprecedented access to confidential tax data.
ProPublica has obtained a blueprint of the system, which would create an “on demand” process allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to obtain the home addresses of people it’s seeking to deport. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3IsFDdL
The Epstein Saga
Trump’s supporters simply cannot swallow the anticlimactic conclusion that the Justice Department reached eight days ago when it said: There’s nothing to see here, folks. No secret client list, no ties to foreign governments, no clique of Washington protectors who shielded the financier and his friends from justice for preying on girls. Over the weekend, a rabble of conspiracists who’ve been hand-fed for years by Trump broke into open revolt. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4eQJIVf
WATCH: Republicans BLOCK Epstein List. HEAR Their NAMES
Republicans just voted to block the release of the Epstein list in Congress. Listen as their names are read out for EVERY American to remember! Don’t forget their names. Occupy Democrats YouTube https://bit.ly/44PiYQa
US inflation heated back up in June, rising to its highest level in four months, as price increases — including those from tariffs — packed a bigger punch.
Consumer prices rose 0.3% last month, pushing the annual inflation rate higher to 2.7%, the highest since February, according to the latest Consumer Price Index data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. - CNN https://cnn.it/46H6Rav
Trump Aides Float New Strategies to Get Themselves Out of This Epstein Mess
Those strategies include appointing a special counsel who would be tasked with investigating the case and producing a comprehensive report on the matter. Officials have also suggested petitioning courts to unseal any remaining Epstein case files (the dead pedophile’s crimes took place in several different states, leaving a trail of criminal cases). Another approach includes un-redacting already released Epstein files to share more information with the public. Many of those files have been heavily censored. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/467NEyD
Dismantling It All With A Whisper
One of the most historically consequential rulings of the Supreme Court came down yesterday. But you wouldn’t know it from the order itself.
That’s because it comes to us again off the Supreme Court’s so-called “Shadow Docket,” which the radical majority of justices has wielded to horrifying effect. All we get is a decision, without explanation, and we must rely upon the dissent (once more, of the three liberal justices) to try to parse what just happened.
And what just happened was this: The White House has been trying to destroy the Department of Education since Trump first took office. But doing so outright would be contrary to law. So instead, the White House is demolishing it from within by firing half of the people who work there, rendering it incapable of performing many of its most basic responsibilities.
And through its unsigned, unexplained order, SCOTUS just allowed that process to continue. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/3GRFVu6
Photos: The Scale of China’s Solar-Power Projects
As the Trump administration’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” eliminates many clean-energy incentives in the U.S., China continues huge investments in wind and solar power, reportedly accounting for 74 percent of all projects now under construction worldwide. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4lUeNJT
The Trump Administration Is About to Incinerate 500 Tons of Emergency Food
Five months into its unprecedented dismantling of foreign-aid programs, the Trump administration has given the order to incinerate food instead of sending it to people abroad who need it. Nearly 500 metric tons of emergency food—enough to feed about 1.5 million children for a week—are set to expire tomorrow, according to current and former government employees with direct knowledge of the rations. Within weeks, two of those sources told me, the food, meant for children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, will be ash. (The sources I spoke with for this story requested anonymity for fear of professional repercussions.) - Atlantic https://bit.ly/467sMHL
The White House Has a Plan for All That Foreign Food Aid That DOGE Cut: Burn It
The Atlantic now reports that about $800k worth of high-energy biscuits that were procured by USAID under the Biden administration will soon need to be destroyed. The biscuits, which would have been distributed by the World Food Programme, would have gone to hungry children in Pakistan and Afghanistan. USAID workers have been warning the Trump administration that they must distribute the food before it expires—and officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have promised to do so. However, as of today, it appears to be too late. The food expires tomorrow. Instead of sending the biscuits to those who need them, the government plans to spend an additional $130k burning them to ash. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/46VMbLY
Iconic NASA Probe That Visited Pluto Could Go Dark Thanks to Trump Cuts
If it weren't for the new budget, New Horizons could keep exploring the outer reaches of the solar system into the 2030s. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3GPOiGK
Disaster at FEMA
Noem, the secretary of homeland security, was unequivocal at a March Cabinet meeting: “We are eliminating FEMA.” (She was echoing President Donald Trump, who’d suggested getting rid of the agency.) This weekend, when asked point-blank whether that was still the plan, she had a different claim. “No, I think the president recognizes that FEMA should not exist the way that it always has been,” she said. “It needs to be redeployed in a new way.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4lF1i14
Dismissals at Justice Dept. Would Bypass Civil Service and Whistle-Blower Laws
The Justice Department is accelerating its efforts to undo decades of civil service protections intended to insulate the work of law enforcement officials from political interference, according to current and former officials, ramping up a wave of firings in recent days. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44W9EKz
Federal Workers’ ‘Emotional Roller Coaster’: Fired, Rehired, Fired Again
Getting fired once was painful. Getting rehired and then fired a second time was excruciating. But federal workers are learning that waiting for the government to make it official may be worst of all. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4o19B9a
U.S. Inflation Accelerated in June as Trump’s Tariffs Pushed Up Prices
Inflation accelerated in June as President Trump’s tariffs started to leave a bigger imprint on the economy, keeping the Federal Reserve on track to hold interest rates steady when policymakers next meet this month. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GRmQs6
‘Trump Owns It All Now’
The brutality of Trump’s anti-democratic policies is part of a larger goal, a reflection of an administration determined to transfer trillions of dollars to the wealthy by imposing immense costs on the poor and the working class in lost access to medical care and food support, an administration that treats hungry children with the same disdain that it treats core principles of democracy.
Trump has succeeded in devastating due-process protections for universities, immigrants and law firms. He has cowed the Supreme Court, which has largely failed to block his violations of the Constitution. He has bypassed Congress, ruling by executive order and emergency declaration. He is using the regulatory power of government to force the media to make humiliating concessions. He has ordered criminal investigations of political adversaries. He has fired innumerable government employees who pursued past investigations — and on and on.
He has moved with determination toward the destabilization of American democracy. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GxwHTZ
If You Like 35 Percent Inflation, Go Ahead, Fire the Fed Chair
The risk of allowing the central bank to be perceived as a political tool is depressingly obvious, illustrated by even a cursory review of similar efforts overseas. Even if the American economy and financial markets are strong enough to moderate the impact of the Fed’s tarnished reputation, the directional response seems clear: higher long-term borrowing costs for households and businesses and a weaker currency that would support inflation. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3UkVptO
As Trump Scrubs Climate Reports, NASA Breaks Its Promise to Save Them
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has launched a major effort to limit public access to information about climate change. After the president canned the official government site that hosted the national climate assessments earlier this month, NASA has broken its promise to publish them on its own site. - NYT https://bit.ly/40Wk5MP
Attorney General Pam Bondi Dismisses Justice Department’s Top Ethics Lawyer
On Monday, former DOJ ethics division director Joseph Tirrell said in a post on LinkedIn that he had been fired and included a copy of the dismissal letter signed by Bondi. The letter said that it’s an “official notice” showing that he was removed from his position as director of the Departmental Ethics Office, a move that it said was “effective immediately” on July 11. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4lYDeG3
Democrat Resolution to Release Epstein Files Fails in Congress
A resolution introduced by House Democrats to force a vote on releasing files related to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein failed on July 15. It was the latest move by Democrats to do so in recent days. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3ITaosn
Congress moves to reject bulk of White House’s proposed NASA cuts
A budget-writing panel in the House of Representatives passed a $24.8 billion NASA budget bill Tuesday, joining a similar subcommittee in the Senate in maintaining the space agency's funding after the White House proposed a nearly 25 percent cut. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4m2dtoq
Trump disavows supporters pushing Jeffrey Epstein 'bullshit’: 'I don't want their support anymore!'
My "PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit’ hook, line, and sinker," he said in the post, adding, "Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!" - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4lHlJKW
Is America Still a Free Country?
Remember when the Biden administration arrested a judge for actions in her own courthouse? Or when Obama threatened to arrest, and deport, a Republican mayoral candidate? How about that time when Bill Clinton had border agents scrutinize the writing of conservative journalists and subject them to humiliating airport interviews?
If you’re scratching your head, it’s because, oh right, these things simply didn’t happen. They didn’t happen either in the George W. Bush administration, notwithstanding the chilling effect of the Patriot Act, and for that matter they didn’t happen in the first Trump administration. The real story of the last six months has been the erosion of civil liberties in the United States, to a degree that would have been unimaginable in any previous (non-wartime) administration. And the real story there is that it is happening so quickly and quietly that the drastic unraveling of civil liberties is normalized. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/3IugzDk
The Big Beautiful Bill Is Bad for Americans’ Health and Wallets, Study Finds
The Medicaid changes caused by the now-signed law will cause more deaths, job losses, and rural hospital closures, researchers concluded. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4lHlQpQ
THE MESSAGE IS ‘WE CAN TAKE YOUR CHILDREN’
Six months into Trump’s second term, children are once again fair game, according to dozens of lawyers, advocates, shelter operators, case managers, and others I spoke with in recent weeks. More systematically than in his first term, Trump’s administration is reaching into the federal immigration bureaucracy to roll back an array of protections for undocumented children, not only recent arrivals but also those who have only ever known life in this country. More and more, children are being picked up on family vacations, at traffic stops, and at worksites, and winding up in detention. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4m3wgjk
How Trump Primed His Base to Turn Against Him
The president spent years undermining voters’ belief in the government. Now he’s asking them to just trust him. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/453cM7E
Start Budgeting Now
Households will pay an average of $2,400 more for goods this year, thanks to Trump’s policies. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4f3pBU4
The Wrecking of the FBI
The former FBI official Peter Strzok on how President Donald Trump is destroying U.S. counterintelligence from the inside. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3UkWnWY
GOP Canceling $9 Billion Approved Spending: Who Could Be Affected?
President Donald Trump’s $9 billion rescissions package, advanced by Senate Republicans in a narrow procedural vote on July 15, seeks to claw back funding that Congress had already approved for foreign aid, humanitarian programs, and public broadcasting. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3TNC2JS
RFK Jr. Wants to Change a Program That Stopped Vaccine Makers From Leaving the U.S. Market. They Could Flee Again.
Five months after taking over the federal agency responsible for the health of all Americans, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to overhaul an obscure but vital program that underpins the nation’s childhood immunization system.
Depending on what he does, the results could be catastrophic. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/44WAdiU
Trump’s New Strategy on Epstein Fallout: Blame the Democrats
When President Trump failed to quickly end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as he promised to do, he blamed his predecessor, President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and claimed the conflict was “Biden’s war.”
In May, when he received a mix of good and bad economic news, Mr. Trump said the “good parts” of the economy were his, while the “bad parts” belonged to the previous administration.
Now, with an uproar on the right over the Trump administration’s refusal to release portions of the files related to an investigation of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Mr. Trump is once again returning to an old playbook: Blame the Democrats. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GMbVA4
Trump’s Plans to Put Emil Bove on the Supreme Court
The nomination of Emil Bove III to a federal appeals court suggests that President Trump has a new prototype and a new agenda when it comes to the law: Out with the eggheads and in with the street fighters. His first-term judicial appointments transformed constitutional law on a range of subjects, like abortion and affirmative action. In his first term, he served the conservative movement; this time, the movement must serve him. - NYT https://nyti.ms/413wvma
The president’s vilification of political opponents and journalists seeds the ground for threats of prosecution, imprisonment and deportation unlike any modern president has made. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3IyWBHz
Supreme Court Keeps Ruling in Trump’s Favor, but Doesn’t Say Why
In the last 10 weeks alone, the court has granted emergency relief to the Trump administration without explanation seven times, according to a tally by Stephen I. Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown and the author of a book about the court’s emergency work called “The Shadow Docket.” (In that time, the court issued roughly the same number of emergency orders in which the majority gave at least a bit of explanation.) - NYT https://nyti.ms/3UiremW
Manhattan Prosecutor Who Handled Epstein Cases Is Fired
Though the reason for Ms. Comey’s firing was not immediately clear, her dismissal immediately raised questions, given her involvement in the Epstein-related cases that have roiled the White House in recent days. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GTw9HY
Wall Street begs Trump: Please don't break the Fed
Even the WSJ editorial board, hardly hostile to this White House, rushed to defend Powell. Firing him would “tie up the Fed, the Administration, and markets in messy litigation,” they wrote, noting that Powell could sue — and likely win. The Supreme Court has recently expanded presidential control over agencies amid Trump’s broad-scale attacks on the independence of Federal agencies, but carved out the Fed as a unique exception. - Quartz https://bit.ly/459G05I
Justice Dept. Asks for 1-Day Sentence for Ex-Officer Convicted in Breonna Taylor Raid
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, and a judge will consider the government’s request at a sentencing scheduled for next week. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44NV1u9
Just a Tiny, Minuscule Technicality About the People Held at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
Except for the fact that they have not technically committed any crimes, these are criminals. Except for the tiny, tiny, minuscule (I hate to even mention it) quibble that we have no evidence they’ve done any crimes, these people deserve to be locked up. Except for the minor, minor technicality that they haven’t violated any laws, other than by arriving here—which might not even have violated a law! We have asylum, or used to, before we decided to pull the rug out from under thousands of people—these are the worst of the worst. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/410hb9S
Senate panel approves federal judge nomination for Emil Bove, who defended Trump
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to advance the nomination of Emil Bove, President Trump's former personal attorney, to a lifetime federal judgeship. All the Democrats on the panel walked out and did not vote. - NPR https://n.pr/3ICsWx5
Trump DOJ recommends one-day sentence for LMPD officer from Breonna Taylor raid
The United States Department of Justice is recommending that a Louisville police officer receive a one-day prison sentence for his role in the deadly raid on Breonna Taylor’s home in 2020. - LPM News https://bit.ly/3IF4k6N
Trump Is Trying To Rig The 2026 Midterms In Plain Sight
It’s understandable, of course, that Trump would be fixated on the midterms; if Democrats retake the House, as they did two years into his first term, his presidency will essentially come to a screeching halt. Think hearings, investigations, even impeachment. And this time, the GOP is defending a paper-thin 220-215 majority, a much lower bar for Democrats to clear next year as they seek to make Hakeem Jeffries the new Speaker.
Which is why Trump’s real plan to hold onto the House GOP majority is not to barnstorm the nation selling this historically unpopular spending bill at all. Rather, it’s to do what he does best: cheat. Yes, Trump’s vision is to have red states redraw their congressional districts to purge Democratic seats and expand the number of gerrymandered Republican districts. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4m2WHph
The Power of the Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket
“There’s something taunting, almost bullying, about this lack of reasoning, as if the conservative supermajority is saying to the country: You don’t even deserve an explanation,” Quinta Jurecic, an Atlantic staff writer who covers America’s legal system, recently wrote. Though the justices are well within their rights to offer little to no explanation for emergency rulings through their “shadow docket,” they’ve begun issuing far more decisions this way in recent years, to the concern of legal experts. I spoke with Quinta to ask her about the power of the shadow docket and how the Supreme Court has responded to President Donald Trump’s policies. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4nTJals
Congress Agrees to Claw Back Foreign Aid and Public Broadcast Funds
President Trump’s request to claw back $9 billion in congressionally approved spending passed despite objections from Republicans who said it abdicated the legislative branch’s power of the purse. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ITcLeL
Key GOP senator warns of bond-market backlash if Trump fires Powell
Concerns have flared among Republicans that Trump could set off a bond-market meltdown if he tries installing an acolyte before Powell's term ends. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4m5YslG
Is Colbert’s Ouster Really Just a ‘Financial Decision’?
For much of the 20th century, American broadcast television revolved around three networks: NBC, ABC, and CBS. William S. Paley, CBS’s longtime CEO, made sure that his company—the Columbia Broadcasting System—was a leader among them. The network was home to Edward R. Murrow, who brought World War II in Europe home to Americans on CBS Radio; after the war, Murrow’s reporting played a pivotal role in bringing down Senator Joseph McCarthy. Walter Cronkite dominated American evenings from his perch at the Evening News. And from the days of Mike Wallace to the more recent era of Lesley Stahl and Scott Pelley, 60 Minutes set the standard for long-form television reporting.
Yet CBS’s current ownership seems determined to demolish this legacy. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/44BCYHk
The Court’s Liberals Are Trying to Tell Americans Something
In recent Supreme Court terms, Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson have issued defiant dissents that push back against a seemingly endless cascade of conservative opinions. The three tend to take somewhat different approaches. Kagan has typically focused on exposing the majority’s shoddy reasoning, Sotomayor has underscored its complicity in wrong, and Jackson has placed it within larger systems of oppression. One might think, just skimming the dissents, that everything is as it should be: The Court takes cases. It hears arguments, and it votes. Those on the losing end dissent. One can read the majority opinion and the dissent, and see reasonable people disagreeing courteously and reasonably. That’s how the law is supposed to work, right? All is in order, same as it has been since the 1920s at least.
But look closer at the dissents, and it is evident that, whatever their differences, the three liberals agree on an overarching theme: They no longer see the Court playing by the old game of constitutional law. Their dissents suggest anything but an assumption of business as usual. The three liberal justices are writing about a majority unbound by law and its tiresome technicalities—about a majority that is no longer doing law as that term has come to be understood. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3Gy5D77
3 Scenarios That Explain the Epstein Debacle
The Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case appears to constitute the rare controversy in which there are no innocuous explanations for what has unfolded. The possibilities range from bad to worse for everyone involved. - Politico https://politi.co/4kR8KFc
MAGA discovers the downsides of a politicized DOJ
Jeffrey Epstein, trust, and the death of independent law enforcement. - If You Can keep It https://bit.ly/411cgFN
A Congress That Votes Yes and Hopes No
Congressional Republicans keep wringing their hands over the White House’s legislative priorities … and then voting for them. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3TOBu6q
'Frightening': Trump's historic power grab worries experts
ABC and CBS settlements with Trump are dangerous step toward the commander in chief becoming editor-in-chief
It’s not certain what the ABC and CBS settlements portend, but many are predicting they will produce a “chilling effect” within the network news divisions. Such an outcome would arise from fear of new litigation, and it would install a form of internal self-censorship that would influence network journalists when deciding whether the pursuit of investigative stories involving the Trump administration would be worth the risk. - The Conversation https://bit.ly/4mbOW0o?
Canceling Stephen Colbert Isn’t Funny
This week Stephen Colbert announced that CBS is canceling his late-night show, days after he spoke out against the network’s owner for settling a lawsuit with President Trump for $16 million — a lawsuit it probably would have won. The Colbert news was yet another dark moment for an American media company seemingly bowing and scraping to Mr. Trump, obeying in advance, hoping to make a deal. (For its part, CBS released a statement saying that the cancellation was “purely a financial decision.”) - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Uq1Xr3
What Will Funding Cuts Do to NPR and PBS?
Cutting funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting could be catastrophic for local stations, particularly those in rural areas. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3IWXARL
Trump Administration Rejects WHO Agreement, Citing Threat to US Sovereignty
The Trump administration said on July 18 that the United States is rejecting a World Health Organization (WHO) agreement that it says gives the global health body too much power. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4mbdLti
EPA Slashes 23 Percent of Its Workforce, Eliminating Scientific Research Arm
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on July 18 that it will cut about 23 percent of its workforce and eliminate its research and development office as part of the agency’s restructuring effort.
The agency stated that it expects its workforce to shrink from 16,155 employees to 12,448, noting that many have opted to resign through voluntary early retirement and a deferred resignation program. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4lGIy17
Inside the Long Friendship Between Trump and Epstein
For nearly 15 years, the two men socialized together in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Fla., before a falling out that preceded Mr. Epstein’s first arrest. - NYT https://nyti.ms/40ubdOC
Judge Orders Trump Officials to Restore Funding for Radio Free Europe
A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to restore funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a federally funded newsroom that provides independent reporting in countries with limited press freedom, such as Russia, Iran and Afghanistan.
The judge, Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, berated the Trump administration in his ruling, calling its legal arguments “nonsensical” and its decision to withhold funds “unprecedented.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/45fDIC9
MAGA’s New Target: Trump
People often become what they scorn. Donald Trump has become the deep state.
He is the keeper of the secrets. He is the one stealing away people’s liberties. He is the one weaponizing government and protecting the ruling class.
With ICE and DOGE, Trump deputized wolf packs to root around in Americans’ personal information. He got Republicans to give Stephen Miller his own army. Trump manipulates government to hurt his perceived enemies. He obscures rather than reveals, pushing aside reporters who ask penetrating questions in favor of Pravda-like partisans who take his side.
Trump’s supporters thought he would shed light on shady elites protecting their own money and power. Now MAGA is reckoning with the fact that Trump is the shady elite, shielding information about Jeffrey Epstein. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kWPfeq
How Elon Musk Created a Nightmare for Donald Trump
By turning the Epstein conspiracy against Trump, the CEO of Tesla cracked the MAGA base, and now the movement that once worshipped the U.S. president is starting to rebel. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4kWPlmi
Colbert’s Cancellation Is a Dark Warning
The move to cancel one of television’s last remaining crown jewels of broadcast programming came just days after Colbert publicly criticized CBS’s corporate owner, Paramount, for agreeing to pay President Donald Trump $16 million to settle an outrageous $20 billion lawsuit against the company. Trump has now long claimed that 60 Minutes producers unfairly edited their interview with then-presidential nominee Kamala Harris, a complaint widely viewed by legal and media experts as completely baseless. The agreement was the latest in a series of bootlicking moves by Paramount as its chairwoman, Shari Redstone, desperately tries to sell the company to Skydance Media, a deal that requires federal approval. - Mother Jones https://bit.ly/4m98zGh
Trump’s Perversion of Justice Has Reached a New Phase
Last week, Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, asked a federal judge to sentence a former Louisville police officer named Brett Hankison to one day in prison. Last year, a Kentucky jury convicted Hankison of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights when he fired multiple rounds from his handgun into her apartment on the night the police killed her. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46GHC8z
Sorry, This Epstein Stuff Isn’t Going to Hurt Trump
Donald Trump’s political obituary has been written more times than anyone could hope to count without the resources of a large data processing center. The “Access Hollywood” tape in 2016, impeachments in 2019 and 2021, the specter of Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022, a conviction on felony crimes last year: In these and many other instances, reports of Mr. Trump’s political demise have been greatly, perhaps even desperately, exaggerated. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3H1zaGd
WHY CBS’S CANCELLATION OF “THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT” STINKS TO HIGH HELL
Even back in the now-comparatively-sane Trump 1.0 administration, it seemed palpably true to me that the best check against Trump’s authoritarian instincts wasn’t legal or Constitutional, but rather cultural. The culture of free speech, of being able to criticize — in no uncertain terms, with no held punches — anyone in authority is fundamental to the American mindset. - Gruber / Daring Fireball https://bit.ly/4o1Z25r
'If they want war, they will get war': Europe vows response as Trump escalates tariff threats
The European Union is preparing new economic countermeasures against the United States after American officials privately told E.U. negotiators last week that President Donald Trump wants even higher tariffs — potentially 15% or more — on most European goods, a sharp escalation from the 10% baseline the two sides had been negotiating. In recent days, Trump has also publicly threatened the E.U. with tariffs of 30%. - Quartz https://bit.ly/40sRC19
Defense Department Revamping Existing Promotion System: Hegseth
Distractions such as diversity, equity, and inclusion and political correctness are gone, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/46SEO87
Here Comes the Pain From Trump’s Tariffs
As Donald Trump has given the automotive industry whiplash with his tariffs, which have, at different periods, applied to cars and car parts or haven’t applied at all. While it was hard to tell how the import tax would hit auto manufacturers, the impact is starting to look more concrete, and it ain’t pretty. As CNBC notes, Stellantis, the maker of Jeep, Dodge, Fiat, Chrysler, and Peugeot, warned on Monday that it’s expecting to lose about $2.6 billion this quarter due to Trump’s tariffs, according to As CNBC notes. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/455A8tj
This Is the Presidency John Roberts Has Built
o one on the Supreme Court has gone further to enable Donald Trump’s extreme exercise of presidential power than the chief justice of the United States, John Roberts. Associate justices have also written some important opinions shaping executive power, and the Court has issued ever more important unsigned orders, but the most transformative opinions—the opinions that directly legitimize Trump’s unprecedented uses of power—are Roberts’s handiwork. This is not happenstance. Under Supreme Court practice, the most senior justice in the majority—which is always the chief justice when he so votes—determines who will write the main opinion. Roberts reserved these milestones for himself. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/40vEAzU
Presidential Pettiness
Presidents are, like the rest of us, flawed human beings. Many of them had volcanic tempers: Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, and Joe Biden, among others, reportedly could sling Anglo-Saxonisms with gusto. In public, most of them managed to convey an image of geniality. (Nixon might be the exception there, but he embraced being an uptight square and his admirers found it endearing.) But all of them, regardless of their personality, had at least some notion about government, some sense of what they wanted to accomplish in the most powerful office in the world.
Donald Trump exhibits no such guiding belief. From his first day as a candidate, Trump has appeared animated by anger, fear, and, most of all, pettiness, a small-minded vengefulness that takes the place of actual policy making. It taints the air in the executive branch like a forgotten bag of trash in a warm house on a summer day—even when you can’t see it, you know it’s there. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3IGdZKk
Former Intel Chief Banned From Dog’s Graduation Ceremony
Earlier this year, an adorable yellow Lab named Susan completed a CIA training program for “detection K9s.” She was a natural at sniffing out concealed explosives—think car bombs and suicide vests—and the agency was eager to put her to work protecting its personnel.
James Clapper, who had sponsored Susan through a nonprofit organization that helps place service dogs, was delighted. Clapper, 84, was one of the longest-serving and most experienced intelligence officers in U.S. history, and was the Director of National Intelligence in the Obama administration. There was a certain professional symmetry in his pup ending up at the CIA, a place he both knew intimately and deeply admired. It was also bittersweet: Clapper named Susan after his late wife, a former National Security Agency employee who had been at his side during his five-decade career. Susan, a great animal lover, had volunteered at a local shelter and “doted on the family dog, Augusta,” according to her 2023 obituary.
Clapper was looking forward to attending the dog’s graduation ceremony at a CIA training facility in Herndon, Virginia. But the day before the event, in late May, he received an email from the nonprofit dog-training group: Clapper’s name had been scratched from the guest list, per an executive order from the president of the United States. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/44WjI6g
Why CBS Snatched Its Talk-Show King’s Crown
When CBS embarked on the project of replacing David Letterman as the host of The Late Show, in 2014, the network spared no expense. It hired Stephen Colbert, who had collected Emmys and acclaim while hosting his Comedy Central talk show, The Colbert Report; gave him total creative control; and fully revamped Manhattan’s Ed Sullivan Theater so Colbert could make the show’s longtime venue his own. After a shaky first year, Colbert found his footing in the lead-up to the 2016 election by focusing his opening monologues more pointedly on politics. The Late Show soon became the highest-rated talk show in America—a crown it has not relinquished since.
Ten years on, CBS has snatched the crown off its head. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3TT8CtO
TRUMP’S CAMPAIGN TO CRUSH THE MEDIA
President donald trump’s latest assault on the news media came in the form of another lawsuit last week. After The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had allegedly written a birthday note, complete with “bawdy” doodling, to the convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in 2003, Trump boiled over with indignation. He denied writing the note and filed a libel suit the next day, demanding $10 billion in damages from the Journal, its parent company, and its principal owner, Rupert Murdoch, a sometime Trump ally. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/40zbIH8
Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill to Increase Deficit by $3.4 Trillion, CBO Projects
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act will increase the U.S. deficit by $3.4 trillion over the next 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office stated on July 21, revising its previous calculations based on the final content of the bill.
The nonpartisan group, which provides financial information to Congress, estimated that the original House version of the bill would increase the deficit by $2.8 trillion from 2025 through 2034.
When the Senate amended the House version, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) revised its estimate to $3.3 trillion on June 29.
The bill will decrease spending by $1.1 trillion, according to the CBO, but it will also decrease revenue by $4.5 trillion. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4f2kpj7
Stellantis Says Profit Plunged as Tariffs Began to Bite
Stellantis, the maker of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram vehicles, reported a big loss on Monday, which it attributed, in part, to President Trump’s tariffs and other Republican policies.
The company, which also owns European brands, including Peugeot, Fiat and Opel, said it lost 2.3 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in the first half of the year after revenue fell 13 percent to €74.3 billion. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44JZ2j9
Trump Officials Blame Sanctuary Laws in Customs Officer’s Shooting
Thomas Homan, President Trump’s top border adviser, said that federal officials planned to ramp up immigrant detentions in New York and cities with so-called sanctuary policies, which usually prevent local law enforcement officers from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. Mr. Homan had made the threat before, but it has since been buttressed by an infusion of billions of dollars for immigration enforcement efforts as part of Mr. Trump’s recently passed domestic policy law. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3H10GUn
Disabled Americans Fear What Medicaid Cuts Could Do to Them
The White House says roughly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts won’t limit home- and community-based care. Health care experts disagree. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3TQzfj5
U.S. Says It Will Withdraw From U.N. Cultural Organization, Again
The decision comes just two years after the United States rejoined the organization and will take effect at the end of 2026. The withdrawal reflects President Trump’s deep mistrust and distaste of multilateralism and international institutions, especially those connected to the United Nations. - NYT https://nyti.ms/40uFNHL
Here Comes the Pain From Trump’s Tariffs
As Donald Trump has given the automotive industry whiplash with his tariffs, which have, at different periods, applied to cars and car parts or haven’t applied at all. While it was hard to tell how the import tax would hit auto manufacturers, the impact is starting to look more concrete, and it ain’t pretty. As CNBC notes, Stellantis, the maker of Jeep, Dodge, Fiat, Chrysler, and Peugeot, warned on Monday that it’s expecting to lose about $2.6 billion this quarter due to Trump’s tariffs, according to As CNBC notes. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/44Tu0pb
US to withdraw from UN scientific and cultural agency UNESCO again, White House says
The move comes as the US president continues to pull the country out of international institutions and makes ending Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs a key focus of his administration.
“President Trump has decided to withdraw the United States from UNESCO — which supports woke, divisive cultural and social causes that are totally out-of-step with the commonsense policies that Americans voted for in November,” White House deputy spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement. - CNN https://cnn.it/4m0NxJU
Nearly 3,000 people are leaving NASA, and this director is one of them
On Monday, NASA announced that Makenzie Lystrup will leave her post as director of the Goddard Space Flight Center on Friday, August 1. Lystrup has held the top job at Goddard since April 2023, overseeing a staff of more than 8,000 civil servants and contractor employees and a budget last year of about $4.7 billion.
These figures make Goddard the largest of NASA's 10 field centers primarily devoted to scientific research and development of robotic space missions, with a budget and workforce comparable to NASA's human spaceflight centers in Texas, Florida, and Alabama. Officials at Goddard manage the James Webb and Hubble telescopes in space, and Goddard engineers are assembling the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, another flagship observatory scheduled for launch late next year. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4127nfx
FCC to eliminate gigabit speed goal and scrap analysis of broadband prices
The Federal Communications Commission is ditching Biden-era standards for measuring progress toward the goal of universal broadband deployment. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4meDlxD
Trump announces trade agreement with the Philippines and terms of deal with Indonesia
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines have reached a trade agreement. Shortly after, he also revealed more detailed terms of an agreement with Indonesia.
Both agreements call for 19% tariffs on goods the US imports from the two countries, paid by American businesses, while American goods shipped there won’t be charged a tariff. - CNN https://cnn.it/3GVsd9N
Six Months In
Good news! You’ve survived the first six months of the second Trump presidency. Bad news? There are still seven more half-years to go. That said, if we do our work and take back at least the House, then there are really only three more half-years to endure before we can turn the tables on Trump and make his life a living nightmare. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/40ypwSa
The Administration Wants Military Women to Know Their Place
President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth seem to be on a mission to erase women from the top ranks of the U.S. armed forces. Last week, they took another step along this path by removing the first female head of the United States Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Maryland. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4o3moYB
Johnson shuts door on House vote before September on releasing Epstein files
Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday said he does not plan to allow votes on any measures related to the Jeffrey Epstein case in the House’s final week in Washington before a weekslong recess, despite intense pressure from some of his own GOP members to go on the record on the issue.
Some of President Donald Trump’s most loyal supporters in Congress have been pressing party leaders to allow for a vote to show they support transparency around the Epstein saga — an issue that continues to animate the MAGA base even as Trump has repeatedly sought to blame Democrats for fanning the flames.
The House forcing the Trump administration to turn over materials against its will would represent a remarkable rebuke of the president by his base. But the push has shown little forward momentum among the party’s leadership on Capitol Hill. - CNN https://cnn.it/44KvstJ
Key facts on the US-Japan tariff deal
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the deal would include $550 billion of Japanese investments in the United States and improved market access into Japan for American goods including automobiles, rice and other agricultural products.
Stay up to date with the latest news, trends and innovations that are driving the global automotive industry with the Reuters Auto File newsletter. Sign up here.
Japanese autos, which account for more than a quarter of all the country's exports to the U.S., will also be subject to a 15% tariff, down from a punishing 27.5%, Prime Minister Ishiba said. The U.S. has also agreed to not impose any caps on auto imports, he added.
Japan will keep its existing tariffs on imports of U.S. agricultural products. The country will import more rice from the United States but within the existing tariff-free quota, Ishiba he said. - Reuters https://reut.rs/452nbjA
Johnson Cuts Short House Business to Avoid Vote on Releasing Epstein Files
The Republican speaker truncated the legislative schedule for the week ahead of a summer recess, moving to deny Democrats the chance to force votes on whether to release the Epstein material. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GH5Wwp
Showdown in New Jersey Over Top Federal Prosecutor
The leadership of the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey was thrown into confusion on Tuesday as top Justice Department officials pushed back after federal judges in the state moved to appoint a new U.S. attorney.
The panel of federal judges rejected Alina Habba’s bid to stay in the job as the state’s U.S. attorney. Instead, they invoked a rarely used power to select a candidate of their own, Desiree Leigh Grace, an experienced prosecutor whom Ms. Habba had named as her first assistant soon after she took over as interim U.S. attorney in March.
But the attorney general, Pam Bondi, responded Tuesday evening with a social media post defending Ms. Habba and saying that the first assistant — Ms. Grace — “has just been removed.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3TVhajJ
Trump Escalates Attacks on Obama and Clinton as Questions Swirl About Epstein
President Trump, under fire over his administration’s handling of the Epstein files, escalated his distract-and-deflect strategy on Tuesday, accusing former President Barack Obama of treason and declaring, “It’s time to go after people.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/451tFiV
White House Leads Push to Block Watchdog’s Inquiries Into Spending Cuts
A federal watchdog has opened dozens of investigations to determine if President Trump and his top aides have illegally withheld billions of dollars in congressionally approved funds.
Now, Republican lawmakers are working alongside the White House to stymie those inquiries and the officials conducting them, in a move that could help Mr. Trump seize more control over the nation’s budget. - NYT https://nyti.ms/44ILO6c
G.M. Profit Shrinks on Billion-Dollar Tariff Hit
General Motors was the second auto company this week, after Stellantis, to show the toll that President Trump’s trade policies are taking on the industry. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3IYtsWc
As the Dollar Slides, the Euro Is Picking Up Speed
The chaotic rollout of President Trump’s tariffs has prompted investors to question long-held assumptions about the safety and stability of the U.S. dollar, which has plunged in value this year. In the hunt for alternatives, many have turned to the euro. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lJT7kc
HHS Responds After Claim Officials Approved Moderna Vaccine While RFK Jr. Was on Vacation
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was not supposed to be apprised ahead of time of the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to expand its approval of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in response to reports that officials approved the vaccine without Kennedy’s knowledge.
“For legal and scientific integrity purposes, all FDA product decisions are made at the FDA level. The HHS Secretary and his immediate office are not briefed on product decisions before they are announced,” a spokesperson for HHS told The Epoch Times in an email on July 21. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3Upjy2q
Trump Announces Trade Deal With Japan
“I just signed … maybe the largest deal in history,” Trump said at the White House. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4lLtejX
Trump Says Incoming CBS Owner Will Provide $20 Million in Ads in Addition to Paramount Settlement
President Donald Trump says he will receive $20 million in ads and public service announcements from Skydance, the incoming owner of CBS, in his lawsuit against the network’s “60 Minutes” over its 2024 interview with then-Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris. This is in addition to the $16 million he won for his future presidential library in a settlement with Paramount. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4kSErxS
The trade war is real now
New earnings by Hasbro and GM show that tariffs aren't just political abstractions anymore. They're reshaping the businesses of legacy consumer brands. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4meDHEp
State Dept. Opens Investigation Into Harvard’s Use of International Visas
The Trump administration has continued to pressure the university despite continuing talks to settle a monthslong dispute over the federal government’s role in higher education. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4o4MIS5
Letters from an American - July 22, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Trump appears to be touching all his greatest hits in an attempt to regain control of the narrative. But the more he protests that he is not connected to the Epstein files, the more he reinforces the idea that he is. That nervousness showed in the attempt this weekend, uncovered by Slate’s Ben Mathis-Lilley, to reassure major media outlets that the White House had neutralized the Epstein story. Mathis-Lilley noted that the stories making that argument in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and CNN all had the same source: Trump ally Steve Bannon. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4mdx9pC
Trump’s Epstein Denials Are Ever So Slightly Unconvincing
The president is not behaving like an innocent man with nothing to hide. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4o4MZ7z
The Desperation of Donald Trump’s Posts
On Sunday alone, Trump posted 33 times on Truth Social, sending off 20 posts between 6:46 and 8:53 p.m. eastern. He demanded that the Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians revert to their original names (the Redskins and Indians, respectively), and posted an AI-generated video of Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office set to the song “Y.M.C.A.,” by the Village People. Trump also shared a contextless, grainy video that looks like it was scraped from some viral social-media post. It includes no captions and features 25 stitched-together clips, set to music, of people doing wild or dangerous stunts: A woman appears to catch a charging cobra with her bare hands, a man does a forward flip from one moving skateboard to another, various people contort their bodies in strange ways, a dude stands on the footrests of a moving dirt bike. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4lKTDyk
The Hype Man of Trump’s Mass Deportations
Gregory Bovino has taken his aggressive tactics and propaganda videos from the southern border to the streets of California. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/46uXGdr
DOJ Says Alina Habba’s Replacement as US Attorney for New Jersey Has Been Removed
The Department of Justice removed the newly appointed U.S. attorney for New Jersey on July 22, accusing a panel of federal judges in the state of refusing, for political motives, to permanently appoint President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Alina Habba, as the top federal prosecutor.
Judges on the U.S. District Court in New Jersey named Desiree Leigh Grace, the second-highest-ranking official in the U.S. attorney’s office, to replace Habba on July 22 after her 120-day interim term ended.
Just hours later, in a statement on X, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Grace had been removed from the position. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4o3UXha
Trump Administration Live Updates: Judge Denies Request to Unseal Epstein Grand Jury Transcripts in Florida
A federal judge in Florida on Wednesday denied a request from the Trump administration to release grand jury transcripts from an investigation into the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, stymying efforts by President Trump to dispel a storm of criticism from many of his supporters. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4maZCMK
Google Removes Nearly 11,000 YouTube Channels Linked to China, Russia, Other Nations
The company announced in a July 21 statement that in the second quarter of 2025, it removed thousands of YouTube channels, Google Ads accounts, and a Blogger blog linked to those nations. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4o6WqmY
Columbia University Agrees to Pay $200 Million to Restore Federal Funding
“While Columbia does not admit to wrongdoing with this resolution agreement, the institution’s leaders have recognized, repeatedly, that Jewish students and faculty have experienced painful, unacceptable incidents, and that reform was and is needed,” the university said in a statement announcing that it had reached a deal with the federal government. - Epoch Times
Letters from an American - July 25, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
This morning, President Donald J. Trump told Republican members of Congress that his popularity is rising and that talk about the Epstein files is a distraction from what he insists is the real story: that former president Barack Obama cheated in the 2016 election. Trump insisted the cameramen cut their cameras when he made that accusation, although there was no break in the recording. He told the congressmembers: “You should mention that every time they give you a question that's not appropriate, just say, ‘Oh, by the way, Obama cheated on the election.’” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3U1G15E
Trump was told he is in Epstein files, Wall Street Journal reports
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told President Donald Trump in May that his name appeared in investigative files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. - Reuters/Japan Today https://bit.ly/46wia5y?
Appeals Court Upholds Nationwide Ban on Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order
In a 2–1 vote, judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision banning enforcement of the executive order across the United States. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4m8LELa
Supreme Court Allows Trump to Fire Consumer Safety Officials for Now
The new ruling in Trump v. Boyle lifts a lower court order blocking the dismissals, allowing litigation over the firings to continue in the lower courts. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/41bk4Vv
Attorney General Told Trump His Name Appeared in Epstein Files
The disclosure came as part of a broader briefing on the re-examination of the case against Mr. Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, by F.B.I. agents and prosecutors. It was made by Ms. Bondi during a meeting that also included the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, and covered a variety of topics. Ms. Bondi frequently meets with Mr. Trump to brief him on various matters, officials said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4o70T95
Trump Administration Illegally Withheld Head Start Funds, Watchdog Finds
It’s the third time this year that investigators from the Government Accountability Office have determined the administration defied Congress on spending. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3IQKLIQ
Supreme Court Lets Trump Fire Consumer Product Safety Regulators
The court’s order was the latest in a series of emergency rulings on the scope of the president’s power over independent agencies. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GM34hT
Targeting Obama, Trump’s Retribution Campaign Takes Another Turn
President Trump on Tuesday resurfaced his grievances against former President Barack Obama and others he associated with what he considers a long campaign of persecution. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4534xIA
House GOP Paves Way to Establish New Subcommittee to Investigate Jan. 6
If the resolution, introduced by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), is approved by the House, it would authorize the creation of the second House panel dedicated to exploring the events of the day, when protestors entered the U.S. Capitol, causing a delay in the certification of the 2020 election results. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/40Eb37c
Three critical stories that are getting buried by Epsteingate
The public conversation has become so distorted by the moral squalor of Trump and his lackeys that I fear we’re confusing what’s exciting with what’s important. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/45gRWSm
The 2028 Presidential Race Has Begun
Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor and adviser to two Democratic presidents, is suddenly all over the news. This week alone, he’s appeared on a number of podcasts in what seem to be early forays into an exploratory campaign for president. Emanuel went on the former Fox News host Megyn Kelly’s podcast and answered “no” when asked if a man can “become a woman.” On another podcast, with The Free Press’s Bari Weiss, Emanuel said that Democrats lost in 2024 because Kamala Harris didn’t set herself apart from Joe Biden, and noted that his party “got sidetracked” by issues that were not front of mind for voters. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/45l47yx
A conspiracy theorist bitten by his own conspiracy
This is where the problems begin. Bondi is now attorney general, America’s top law officer. Patel runs the FBI and Bongino is his deputy. After telling MAGA voters that they’d throw open the vaults, they’ve changed their tune and caused a political disaster for their boss. - Meanwhile in America https://cnn.it/4lOUIFc
RFK Jr. is making America sick again. Republicans need a cure.
It’s not too late for Senate Republicans to begin correcting the worst mistake they’ve made this year: confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services. In just a few months, Kennedy has helped bring a pox upon the country — and until Republicans get serious about holding him accountable, more Americans will die, and the president’s legacy on health and safety will be badly tarnished. -Bloomberg/Japan Times https://bit.ly/44Sz4dl
ICE may be building a parallel prison system
The new funding appropriated to ICE will bring their annual budget to $28 billion — making it larger than the budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Marshals Service, and Bureau of Prisons combined. The yearly budget for ICE detention facilities alone will be nearly double that of the Bureau of Prisons. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/4730AGk
USDA Announces Reorganization Plan to Slash Washington Staff by Over 50 Percent
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the reorganization plan in a July 24 memo, which lays out plans to cut the department’s D.C.-area staff from about 4,600 to fewer than 2,000 employees. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/45prh6Q
Hamas Doesn’t Want Deal, Will be ‘Hunted Down’: Trump
“Hamas didn’t want to make a deal,” he told reporters before departing for Scotland. “I think what’s going to happen is they are going to be hunted down.” - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3Ux3CLx
White House Will Release $5.5 Billion for Schools, After Surprise Delay
The Trump administration had faced growing pressure from within his own party to release the money. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45cYrW5
FCC to Appoint a Babysitter to Make Sure CBS Isn’t Anti-Trump
The Federal Communications Commission finally approved an $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance on Thursday after several changes at CBS that were widely seen as efforts to placate President Donald Trump. Part of the deal will apparently require an ombudsman to check the media company’s supposed political biases. And FCC commissioner Brendan Carr has been doing the rounds to brag about how he’s getting people on TV to be nicer to the MAGA movement. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/41foKtx
Elon Musk Swipes Back at Trump After Apparent Peace Offering
Not long after Trump’s seemingly conciliatory post, Musk replied on his own social media platform, X. “The ‘subsidies’ he’s talking about simply do not exist,” Musk wrote. “DJT has already removed or put an expiry date on all sustainable energy support while leaving massive oil & gas subsidies untouched. SpaceX won the NASA contracts by doing a better job for less money. Moving those contracts to other aerospace companies would leave astronauts stranded and taxpayers on the hook for twice as much!” - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4o8tNWn
Letters from an American - July 24, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
The Epstein list made it into last night’s premiere of the twenty-seventh season of the television series South Park when Satan, in bed with Trump, commented, “It’s weird that whenever it comes up, you just tell everyone to relax.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3HbBIBE
Mass Resignations at NASA Spark Alarm: 3,870 Employees Set to Exit Amid Trump-Era Workforce Cuts
In a sweeping move under the Trump administration’s directive to streamline federal agencies, NASA is set to lose nearly 3,870 employees through a voluntary resignation programme, raising concerns about talent drain and mission safety. - Times Now https://bit.ly/3J4SrXU
DOJ Asks Supreme Court to Allow NIH Diversity-Related Cuts
In an emergency application filed with the court, the DOJ asked the justices to block a June ruling by Boston-based District Court Judge William Young, which found the cancellation was unlawful and ordered the government to restore the funding. - Epoch Times
New Reports on Russian Interference Don’t Show What Trump Says They Do
The Trump administration in recent weeks has released a series of reports intended to undermine the conclusion reached by intelligence agencies before President Trump’s first term that Russia had favored his candidacy in 2016 and sought to improve his chances of winning. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lPgLM1
The Line Trump Crossed by Accusing Obama of Treason
Mr. Trump is wrong on the facts and the law, and his sensational allegation serves only to demonstrate how completely he has degraded contemporary political discourse. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lZK2nl
A timeline of how the Epstein controversy became a headache for Trump
Here’s how Donald Trump’s position on Jeffrey Epstein has changed over the year, and how the fallout over the Epstein files poses a particular challenge for him. - WaPo https://wapo.st/476m1X5
Judge Dismisses Trump Admin’s Lawsuit Against Illinois Sanctuary Policies
A federal judge dismissed on July 25 the Trump administration’s lawsuit over Illinois’s sanctuary policies, holding that the policies either didn’t violate federal law or were protected by state sovereignty. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4mhPaD7
Letters from an American - July 25, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
The video shows a female officer asking if anyone in the van is in the U.S. illegally. One man said he was undocumented. “OK, let’s go,” Laynez-Ambrosio heard one of the officers say. An officer popped the door of the van open and grabbed the man by the neck in a chokehold. In the video, several officers pull the man from the van and tell him to “put your fcking head down.” While Laynez-Ambrosio can be heard telling his friend in Spanish not to resist, the officers drop the man to the ground with a stun gun.
“You’re funny, bro,” one officer says to another, apparently the one who used the stun gun. The officers laugh.
Another says, “They’re starting to resist more now,” to which an officer replies: “We’re going to end up shooting some of them.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4lVxduq
Competing Conspiracy Theories Consume Trump’s Washington
The harmonic convergence of competing conspiracies has overshadowed critical policy issues facing America’s leaders at the moment, whether it’s new tariffs that could dramatically reshape the global economy or the collapse of cease-fire talks meant to end the war in Gaza. The Epstein matter so spooked Speaker Mike Johnson that he abruptly recessed the House for the summer rather than confront it. The allegations lodged against Mr. Obama so outraged the former president that he emerged from political hibernation to express his indignation at even having to address them. - NYT https://nyti.ms/40HqtYt
'Rip the plane apart': Trump's hopes of flying in Qatar's royal jet just hit a major snag
NBC News reported Tuesday that the 13 year-old 747 jet — which is valued at roughly $400 million — would have to undergo significant and costly upgrades before it will be deemed suitable for presidential travel. The outlet cited multiple aviation experts who said that the total price tag could end up exceeding $1 billion and that the upgrade process may not be complete until 2029, when Trump's second and final term in office ends. - AlterNet https://bit.ly/4o7NC02
The Worst-Kept Secret of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
One of the more poorly kept secrets of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that many of those involved would prefer to take all the land and have the other side disappear. A 2011 poll found that two-thirds of Palestinians believed that their real goal should not be a two-state solution, but rather using that arrangement as a prelude to establishing “one Palestinian state.” A 2016 survey found that nearly half of Israeli Jews agreed that “Arabs should be expelled or transferred from Israel.” A poll in 2000, conducted during negotiations toward a two-state solution, found that only 47 percent of Israelis and 10 percent of Palestinians supported a school curriculum that would educate students to “give up aspirations for parts of the ‘homeland’ which are in the other state.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3U4ntBH
The Desperation of Donald Trump’s Posts
Trump is an inveterate poster, known for his erratic style and late-night tirades. But over the weekend, as the world refused to move on from his administration’s bizarre handling of the Epstein files—which has led segments of his base to completely melt down—Trump went on a posting spree that was alarming, even by his own standards.
On Sunday alone, Trump posted 33 times on Truth Social, sending off 20 posts between 6:46 and 8:53 p.m. eastern. He demanded that the Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians revert to their original names (the Redskins and Indians, respectively), and posted an AI-generated video of Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office set to the song “Y.M.C.A.,” by the Village People. Trump also shared a contextless, grainy video that looks like it was scraped from some viral social-media post. It includes no captions and features 25 stitched-together clips, set to music, of people doing wild or dangerous stunts: A woman appears to catch a charging cobra with her bare hands, a man does a forward flip from one moving skateboard to another, various people contort their bodies in strange ways, a dude stands on the footrests of a moving dirt bike. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/44R6LvP
‘We Voted for Retribution’
I’ve been writing about the role of undocumented immigrants in the American economy for 30 years. They are the bedrock of our food, construction, and hospitality industries. They are also some of the nation’s poorest, most vulnerable, most devout, most family-oriented workers. They routinely suffer wage theft, minimum-wage violations, sexual harassment on the job, and workplace injuries that go unreported and uncompensated. Most of them have lived here for more than a decade. The lies now being spread about them are too numerous to mention. But one that must be addressed is the falsehood at the heart of Trump’s immigration policy: that undocumented immigrants are likely to be murderers, rapists, and violent criminals who wreak havoc upon law-abiding citizens. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3H40OCD
Massie Criticizes Johnson on Recess as He Tries to Force Epstein Files Vote
“I don’t know why it should be politically painful to be transparent,” Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, said on Sunday, referring to comments by Speaker Mike Johnson. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46BzW7v
What Will It Cost to Renovate the ‘Free’ Air Force One? Don’t Ask.
Officially, and conveniently, the price tag has been classified. But even by Washington standards, where “black budgets” are often used as an excuse to avoid revealing the cost of outdated spy satellites and lavish end-of-year parties, the techniques being used to hide the cost of Mr. Trump’s pet project are inventive.
Which may explain why no one wants to discuss a mysterious, $934 million transfer of funds from one of the Pentagon’s most over-budget, out-of-control projects — the modernization of America’s aging, ground-based nuclear missiles. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lVyvpg
You May Not Be Trump’s Target This Time. But You Could Be Next.
President Trump’s actions targeting law firms, judges, media organizations, universities and labor unions have demonstrated a norm-shattering zeal for retribution and punishment of anyone who may disagree with his policies. Now, nonprofit organizations are up. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3TXp38q
TRUMP’S CAMPAIGN TO CRUSH THE MEDIA
The president has launched a frontal assault on the journalism business. So far, he’s winning. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3H9U4TE
Federal Judge Blocks Big Beautiful Bill’s Medicaid Cuts to Planned Parenthood
A federal judge on July 28 blocked a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, ruling that it likely violates the Constitution. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a preliminary injunction blocking a section of the law that she said targeted Planned Parenthood and constituted a form of punishment against the organization and its members for providing abortions. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4midB35
Project 2025 Architect Is Challenging Lindsey Graham for Senate
The Republican architect of Project 2025 — the right-wing blueprint that Democrats made a rallying cry in the presidential election last year — is mounting a primary challenge to Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, saying he isn’t sufficiently devoted to President Trump’s political movement. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mjKdtv
The Supreme Court Owes the Country Explanations for Its Big Decisions
The Supreme Court’s use of the emergency docket to issue brief, unsigned rulings on significant cases, particularly those favoring the Trump administration, undermines public confidence in the judiciary. This practice, which has seen a dramatic increase under Trump, lacks explanation, leaving lower courts uncertain about the rulings’ implications and fueling perceptions of partisanship. The court’s expansion of executive power through these rulings, coupled with its selective application of emergency relief, raises concerns about its role in shaping national policy and its potential overreach. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GXRHDx
Trump Thinks He At Least Deserves A 'Thank You' For Sending Money To Starving Gaza
The president did not specifically say where the $60 million he referenced came from or to whom it was sent. Reuters reported last month that the State Department approved $30 million for the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Aid groups, lawmakers and the United Nations have condemned GHF for bringing starving families to food distribution sites only for Israeli soldiers and U.S. mercenaries to open fire on the crowds. - Huffington Post https://bit.ly/457qeaq
Trump Just Blamed Biden For Something He Did Himself And The Internet Is Not Letting Him Get Away With It
Trump nominated Powell as Fed chair in 2017, praising him at the time for his “steady leadership, sound judgment, and policy expertise.” Biden renominated Powell for a second term in 2021. In both cases, Powell was confirmed by the Senate with widespread bipartisan support. - BuzzFeed https://bzfd.it/419M1Nu
NEW YORK TIMES’ STYLE GUIDE SUBSTITUTIONS FOR “THE PRESIDENT VIOLATED THE CONSTITUTION”
-McSweeney’s https://bit.ly/4ldqDyg
NEW YORK TIMES’ STYLE GUIDE SUBSTITUTIONS FOR “THE PRESIDENT LIED”
-Mc Sweeney’s https://bit.ly/3IKlcJB
E.P.A. Moves to Revoke the Legal Basis for Tackling Climate Change
Speaking at a truck dealership in Indianapolis, Mr. Zeldin said the E.P.A. planned to rescind the 2009 declaration, known as the endangerment finding, which concluded that planet-warming greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health. The Obama and Biden administrations used that determination to set strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars, power plants and other industrial sources of pollution. - NYT https://nyti.ms/472pmq8
US Job Openings Decline to 7.43 million in June, Short of Market Estimate
U.S. workers observed fewer “now hiring” signs in June as the number of job vacancies unexpectedly declined. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of job openings fell by 275,000 to 7.43 million. This is down from the previous month’s upwardly revised 7.71 million. The market had forecast 7.55 million employment vacancies. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4mhQqGk
Letters from an American - July 28, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Today’s theme seems to be Republican leadership digging into positions that are directly contradicted by facts. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4o7YThb
The FBI’s Leaders ‘Have No Idea What They’re Doing’
Michael Feinberg had not been planning to leave the FBI. But on May 31, he received a phone call from his boss asking him about a personal friendship with a former FBI agent who was known for criticizing President Donald Trump. Feinberg, an assistant special agent in charge at the FBI’s field office in Norfolk, Virginia, realized right away that he was in the crosshairs of the bureau’s leadership at an unusually chaotic time. If his 15-year career at the bureau was coming to an end, he wanted to depart with at least some dignity rather than being marched out the door. By the following afternoon, he had resigned. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4l5kLqs
Americans Are Starting to Sour on Tax Cuts
In theory, the proposition seems foolproof: Everyone hates the taxman and loves to keep their money, so a tax cut must be politically popular.
But Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act has tested the theory and found it wanting. A new Wall Street Journal poll shows that more than half of Americans oppose the law, which cuts taxes for many Americans while reducing government spending. That result is in line with other polling. The data journalist G. Elliott Morris notes that only one major piece of legislation enacted since 1990 was nearly so unpopular: the 2017 tax cuts signed by President Donald Trump. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4lTntR4
Senate Confirms Former Trump Lawyer Emil Bove to Appellate Court
In a 50–49 vote with only Republicans in support, Bove was confirmed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Two Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), opposed the confirmation. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/44YZni5
RIP, CBS
The Trump administration, as a condition of approving the $8 billion sale of Paramount to Skydance Media, has succeeded in demanding that CBS News (owned by Paramount) appoint a “bias monitor” to oversee its coverage. - Terry Moran Substack https://bit.ly/3Jbo95P
Trump plans to impose a Russia ‘penalty’ on India in addition to a 25% tariff as trade talks stall
In social media posts Wednesday, Trump sharply attacked India’s trade barriers and directly targeted its sustained reliance on Russian oil purchases and military equipment. He doubled down on his threat to impose 25% tariffs on all Indian imports and threatened an additional “penalty” in response to India’s energy purchases. - CNN https://cnn.it/3ISjRQZ
Now That They’re Free
Few cases have gotten as much attention as the Venezuelans sent to CECOT. They were deported against the instructions of a federal judge, frog-marched off American planes and forced to kneel before cameras and have their heads shaved. The administration rebuffed requests to confirm the men’s names or provide information about the allegations it had made against them. Meanwhile, the deportees were held without access to lawyers or the ability to speak to their families. Then, 12 days ago, they were returned to Venezuela in a prisoner swap. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/45cCma1
Emil Bove Is a Sign of the Times
Emil Bove has had a busy six months at the Department of Justice. Appointed to a leadership role by President Donald Trump almost immediately after the inauguration, Bove quickly set about establishing himself as a feared enforcer of presidential will. He personally fired attorneys involved in prosecuting January 6 rioters, pushed other prosecutors to resign rather than go along with what they considered to be unethical orders, and accused FBI officials of “insubordination” for refusing to hand over a list of FBI agents to fire for political reasons. According to a whistleblower, Bove played a key role in encouraging the administration to defy court orders, suggesting that the department should consider telling judges, “Fuck you.”
Under any previous administration, revelations of behavior like this would probably have been enough to get Bove fired. They might even have been enough to bring down the attorney general, if not the presidency as a whole. But this is the second Trump administration, so instead of being punished, Bove was rewarded with a nomination to a lifetime appointment on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. On Tuesday, the Senate confirmed him to that seat, 50 to 49, with all Democrats voting against the nominee. (Republican Senator Bill Hagerty did not vote; his GOP colleagues Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski cast their votes against Bove.) - Atlantic https://bit.ly/46BABWl
Trump’s Desperate Move to Quiet the Epstein Scandal
Last week, the Trump administration made its latest and most comically desperate attempt to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, when Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard claimed that she had unearthed bombshell proof of a Barack Obama–era plot to invent the conclusion that Russia had intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump. Soon after, Trump’s Truth Social account circulated an AI video depicting Obama being led off to prison. The message to his followers was that this scandal, not the other scandal involving a certain wealthy sex offender, was the one to focus on. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3UGbZEC
To See How America Unraveled, Go Back Five Years
he social-justice movement that began in earnest with Trayvon Martin’s shooting in 2012, and culminated eight years later, after George Floyd’s murder, once looked unstoppable. By the summer of 2020, a slew of recorded killings of Black people had seemed to convince a pivotal bloc of Americans that the persistence of racial injustice was both inarguable and intolerable.
Yet the ensuing riots—and the disorder they appeared to countenance—prefigured a surge of white grievance that still hasn’t subsided. Throughout the summer of 2020, many on the left exalted lawlessness and violence as pardonable offenses, if not political virtues. Within a few months, this impulse had migrated to the right, yielding even worse damage to the liberal order, most notably on January 6, 2021. The mass unrest of the preceding year certainly did not cause the sacking of the Capitol. But that winter siege amounted to an outgrowth of the summer revolt—the rotten fruit of imitation. https://bit.ly/40Ne1Gx
Trump’s Tariff Disaster
Then David is joined by the historian and trade expert Doug Irwin for a conversation about what tariffs actually do. Irwin explains how protectionist policies have repeatedly backfired in American history, why they persist, and how the U.S. abandoned the bipartisan free-trade consensus that lasted for nearly a century. The two discuss who really pays for tariffs, why tariffs rarely achieve their stated goals, and what it would take to rebuild political support for open markets. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/45v5KK0
ICE Looking to Hire Personnel, Offers $50,000 Signing Bonus
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has launched a recruitment drive to hire “brave and heroic Americans” for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to tackle illegal immigration, the DHS said in a July 29 statement.
The “Defend the Homeland” recruitment initiative aims to hire individuals as federal law enforcement agents and remove “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from America’s streets,” the statement said.
ICE is offering attractive incentives for new recruits, including signing bonuses of up to $50,000, student loan repayment and forgiveness options, overtime pay, and enhanced retirement benefits. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4m6kTqY
Trump’s EPA Wants to Pretend That Greenhouse Gases Aren’t a Threat to Human Health
The Trump administration’s latest and greatest assault on climate change mitigation would eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions regulations for motor vehicles and engines. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4kZEQhT
Trump announces trade agreement with South Korea ahead of August 1 tariff deadline
US President Donald Trump announced a new trade deal with South Korea, which calls for 15% tariffs on goods from there, after the country scrambled to secure an agreement ahead of the Friday deadline. - CNN https://cnn.it/4mmTXTR
Letters from an American - July 30, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
On July 2, 2024, just about a year ago, president of the right-wing Heritage Foundation Kevin Roberts told the listeners of Steve Bannon’s War Room webcast: “We are going to win. We’re in the process of taking this country back.” Roberts pointed to the Supreme Court’s decision in Donald J. Trump v. United States the day before giving the president absolute immunity for committing crimes while engaging in official acts. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4lW5Mkb
Trump's Tariffs Will Cost Stellantis $1.4 Billion In The Second Half Of This Year
Every day has to feel like a waking nightmare if you work at Stellantis. The Transatlantic automaker just cannot catch a break between slow sales, reliability issues and corporate mismanagement. Now, the company says it expects to take a $1.4 billion hit in the second half thanks to President Trump's tariff nightmare. That comes despite the fact that Trump and the European Union came to an agreement on a 15% duty on cars and other goods. - Jalopnik https://bit.ly/3HdbJtB
Trump Announces Trade Deal With South Korea
The United States will impose a 15 percent tariff on South Korean goods, while U.S. goods won’t be subject to South Korean tariffs. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4ofeQ59
Texas Republicans Unveil Gerrymandered House Map, Trying to Please Trump
The proposed map would give Republicans a chance to gain five U.S. House seats, including in Houston, Dallas and along the U.S.-Mexican border. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3UCMnIL
House Democrats Sue ICE for Barring Them From Detention Facilities
The 12 Democrats accused the Trump administration of violating the law when it turned them away from immigrant detention sites and imposed a new policy limiting congressional access. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45a1Q84
Ford Is Latest Carmaker to Blame Tariffs for Profit Slump
The company estimated that duties on imported cars and car parts would cost it $2 billion this year. - NYT https://nyti.ms/450k79e
Candidate Trump Promised Oil Executives a Windfall. Now, They’re Getting It.
New tallies of the administration’s tax breaks and other incentives add up to tens of billions of dollars of benefits to the fossil fuel industry. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4l64OAi
Trump Moves to Silence a New Target
The Trump administration has been open about using its power to quash political opposition. So perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that the administration is trying to stop advertisers and brands from boycotting right-leaning businesses. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4msPaAp
Trump Wants You to Believe Climate Change Isn’t Dangerous
Reasonable people will disagree about how best to address climate change. The purpose of America’s endangerment findings is to acknowledge that a hazard exists so that the government can protect Americans from it. Think of the finding like car headlights in the dark, helping us see dangers ahead and avoid them. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ourhdw
5 foods that could get a lot more expensive very soon
Prices for some staple groceries are likely to get even more expensive when Trump's Aug. 1 tariff deadline hits. - Quartz https://bit.ly/45vHhEs
Consumer spending heated up a bit last month – but so did inflation
The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index — the inflation gauge the Federal Reserve uses for its 2% target rate — rose 0.3% on a monthly basis, which lifted the annual rate to 2.6%, the highest since February. - CNN https://cnn.it/3UCJKGO
“We’ll Smash the Fucking Window Out and Drag Him Out”
In Los Angeles, a terrified immigrant sits inside a truck as a masked man swings a baton, shattering his window.
In Baltimore, agents break a window and grab a man by the neck, pulling him out of his car.
ICE says its officers “use only the level of force that is objectively reasonable.” Across America, what’s “reasonable” has changed. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4meQmqE
Brown University Reaches Deal With Trump Admin to Restore Federal Funding
Brown agreed to pay $50 million and make changes to school policies based on demands made by the Trump administration to regain access to federal funds. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/44UZifc
Senate Rejects Bids to Block Arms Sales to Israel
In recent weeks, the UK, France, and Canada have said they intend to recognize Palestinian statehood at the U.N. in September, with conditions. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3Hh0Oz4
American Oil Exports to Canada Fall 28 Percent, as Trade Deal Hangs in Balance
The two nations are yet to agree on a trade deal. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/45eJ3sa
Trump announces agreement to pause higher tariffs on Mexico for 90 days
That means the status quo will continue, in which goods from Mexico are taxed at 25%, unless they are compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada trade deal Trump signed under his first term. In those instances, goods won’t face any tariffs, barring certain sectoral tariffs in place. - CNN https://cnn.it/45tvXbT
In Rare Spasm of Sanity, Pentagon Backtracks on Plan to Scuttle Storm Tracking
In a stunning reversal, the Pentagon said it will uphold a longstanding program that supplies critical hurricane data to federal forecasters—just days before it was set to end. The move follows outcry from meteorologists and public officials blindsided by the planned cancellation at the start of hurricane season. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/41luvWB
The Warped Idealism of Trump’s Trade Policy
The president once promised he’d prioritize Americans’ bottom line above all else. He’s abandoned that pledge. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4oioofH
Trump Announces New Tariff Rates for Dozens of Countries Before Aug. 1 Deadline
The reciprocal tariffs were announced in a July 31 executive order that will go into effect in seven days, on Aug. 7. The action comes just hours before the Aug. 1 deadline for U.S. trading partners to reach trade agreements. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4ohGSwL
Trump Imposes 35% Tariff on Canada and Grants Mexico a 90-Day Extension
President Trump on Thursday night imposed a 35 percent tariff on Canada, deepening his attack on a country that had long been a close American partner, but that Mr. Trump has consistently disparaged since taking office in January as having taken advantage of the United States. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3GWyqCt
Inflation rises as Trump turns up the heat on 'total loser' Fed Chair Jerome Powell
U.S. inflation rose in June as tariffs pushed up the price of some goods, new data showed Thursday, amid a fresh attack from President Donald Trump on the Federal Reserve for its decision to keep interest rates unchanged.
The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose 0.3% from May, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The figure represents a 2.6% year-on-year increase and an acceleration from the previous month-on-month rise of 0.2%. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4m9niRK
U.S. Auto Industry Will Now Pay Zero Tariffs To Export Cars To Europe That Europeans Don't Want
The newly announced trade deal between the U.S. and the European Union contains what looks like a dramatic rebalancing of the trade relationship for autos. The EU's automakers will pay a 15% import tax on what they send to America, while the U.S. automakers will pay nothing to the EU (Canada's Globe and Mail has a good breakdown). What a deal! Unless you consider that the U.S. currently exports a relatively small number of vehicles to Europe, and there isn't much reason to increase the numbers. - Jalopnik https://bit.ly/3Ub23mn
The job market’s warning lights are flashing red — and Trump fires the messenger
Weak payroll gains in July and downward revisions to previous months showed the job market's weakest stretch in years. Trump reacted by firing the head of BLS. - Quartz https://bit.ly/40PwUZw
No One Is Defying Trump Like Brazil’s President
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil is outraged.
President Trump is trying to push around his nation of 200 million, dangling 50 percent tariffs as a threat, Mr. Lula said in an interview. And yet, he added, the U.S. president is ignoring his government’s offers to talk.
“Be sure that we are treating this with the utmost seriousness. But seriousness does not require subservience,” the Brazilian president said. “I treat everyone with great respect. But I want to be treated with respect.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lXjUJF
Trump Orders Nuclear Submarines Moved After Former Russian President’s Comments
The move was in response to “highly provocative statements” made by Medvedev, who is currently the deputy chief of Russia’s Security Council, in recent days, the president said. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/41lv4Qd
Apple says tariffs added $800M in costs last quarter, expects over $1B hit in Q4
Last quarter, Apple provided a $900 million outlook for the tariff impact, so the $800 million figure could be seen as good news, as it shows the company was able to quickly respond to the situation, mainly with the shift of U.S.-bound iPhone production from China to India. - 9 to 5 Mac https://bit.ly/4fj7F7T
'We have to get the kids fed'
Responding to hideous video of malnourished children in Gaza, he ignored Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that there’s no starvation in the enclave after months of Israeli bombardments and an aid blockade. “We have to get the kids fed,” Trump said, promising to set up food distribution centers to alleviate the growing famine. - Meanwhile in America https://cnn.it/4fnG3P1
Elon Musk Gave Millions to Trump After Publicly Blowing Up Their Bromance
Newly disclosed federal filings show that Elon Musk gave President Trump’s super PAC $5 million and congressional Republicans $10 million during the same period when he was experiencing a very public meltdown over the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill. Onlookers have interpreted it as a sign that the Tesla billionaire was vacillating between taking shots at Trump and making conciliatory moves designed to mend their fraying relationship. - Gizmodo
Trump destroys our source of information about jobs. This is beyond irresponsible.
When Trump doesn’t like the message, he shoots the messenger and replaces them with someone who will come up with messages he approves of. So we’re left without credible sources of information about what is really occurring. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4m0gXZ2
U.S. employers slash hiring as Trump advances a punishing trade agenda
U.S. hiring is slowing sharply as President Donald Trump’s erratic and radical trade policies paralyze businesses and raise doubts about the outlook for the world’s largest economy.
U.S. employers added just 73,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported Friday, well short of the 115,000 expected.
Worse, revisions shaved a stunning 258,000 jobs off May and June payrolls. And the unemployment rate ticked higher to 4.2% as Americans dropped out of the labor force and the ranks of the unemployed rose by 221,000. AP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/46Xkpz5?
The Mystery of the Strong Economy Has Finally Been Solved
The Trump economy doesn’t look so hot after all. This morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released revised data showing that, over the past three months, the U.S. labor market experienced its worst quarter since 2010, other than during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. The timing was awkward. Hours earlier, President Donald Trump had announced a huge new slate of tariffs, set to take effect next week. He’d been emboldened by the fact that the economy had remained strong until now despite economists’ warnings—a fact that turned out not to be a fact at all. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/46zs0n7
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, funder of NPR and PBS, says it will end operations within months after federal budget cuts
President Trump signed an executive order in May instructing the organization to cease federal funding for PBS and NPR. In June, the House approved a White House request to claw back $1.1 billion in already appointed federal funds from the CPB. The Senate Appropriations Committee's 2026 appropriations bill eliminated funding for the CPB for the first time in over 50 years. - CBS https://cbsn.ws/41nbR0s
Donald Trump Shoots the Messenger
McEntarfer’s unpardonable sin was to oversee the routine release of BLS jobs data. This morning’s report showed that job growth last month fell somewhat short of expectations. The more interesting—and, to Trump, unwelcome—information came in its revisions, which found that previous months had much lower job growth than previous estimates. Economists had been puzzling over the economy’s resilience despite Trump’s imposition of staggering tariffs. Now that we have the revised data, that resilience appears to have largely been a mirage. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4lalMOa
Why South Park Did an About-Face on Mocking Trump
Parker and Stone’s solution to the quandary of Trump-era satire, it seems, is to use the president as something of a Trojan horse for mocking another subject entirely—and a way to dramatically up the stakes while doing so. Trump is not a bull’s-eye in the episode, titled “Sermon on the ’Mount,” despite numerous shocking jokes that might suggest as much: a video with an AI-generated version of Trump’s genitalia addressing the camera, and a recurring gag involving the president cozying up in bed with a grumpy Satan, prodding the devil into coitus. Rather, he is a high-profile conduit for the show’s true target: Paramount, Comedy Central’s parent company. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4fpxmUu
Harris: Capitulation
Kamala cussed out everybody in a very unique way, and I love her for it. Welcome back Senator Harris. - Threads https://bit.ly/4fkhZfX
World economies reel from Trump's tariffs punch
Global markets reeled Friday after President Donald Trump's tariffs barrage against nearly all U.S. trading partners as governments looked down the barrel of a seven-day deadline before higher duties take effect. - AFP-Jiji-Japan Times https://bit.ly/44XYuWW
Trump, Claiming Weak Jobs Numbers Were ‘Rigged,’ Fires Labor Official
President Trump unleashed his fury about weakness in the labor market on Friday, saying without evidence that the data were “rigged” and that he was firing the Senate-confirmed Department of Labor official responsible for pulling together the numbers each month.
In a long post on social media, Mr. Trump said he had directed his team to fire Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, who was confirmed on a bipartisan basis in 2024. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4fmZOGz
Corporation for Public Broadcasting Will Shut Down
The company is among the first casualties of a vote to strip roughly $500 million in federal funding from NPR, PBS and local stations across the country. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47ayKYK
Trump Gives Mexico a Reprieve but Slams Canada With Higher Tariffs
Even as he announced sweeping tariffs for much of the world, Mr. Trump offered Mexico a 90-day reprieve, pending further negotiations. Then for Canada, America’s largest export market, he raised general tariffs to 35 percent from 25 percent. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41axXDF
Stock Market Posts Worst Week in Months on Renewed Economic Fears
Data showing cracks in the U.S. labor market and President Trump’s newest barrage of tariffs shook investors around the world, weighing on stocks, the dollar and more. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4oeFtqV
Appeals Court Allows Trump to End Union Bargaining for Some Federal Workers
A federal appeals court on Friday paused a lower court injunction that had blocked the Trump administration from ending union bargaining rights for thousands of federal workers at 21 agencies.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted an emergency stay sought by the administration, putting on hold a preliminary injunction issued by District Judge James Donato in June in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and five other unions representing federal employees.
The unions sought to challenge President Donald Trump’s March 27 executive order, which aimed to eliminate collective bargaining rights for employees of government agencies with national security missions. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3U7UInN
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting Is Shutting Down
MAGA notches another win in its battle against anything good in America. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4m1twmX
Trump just killed all offshore wind zones as US power needs surge
Trump’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is rescinding every single Wind Energy Area (WEA) in US federal waters, wiping out over 3.5 million acres of zones once earmarked for offshore wind development.
This masochistic move is part of Trump’s January 2025 executive order halting all offshore wind leasing and ordering a review of wind permitting. It follows a new directive from his Interior Department — “Ending Preferential Treatment for Unreliable, Foreign-Controlled Energy Sources.”
This is pure propaganda politics, not energy policy. - Electreck https://bit.ly/4lXuS1Q
Smithsonian removes Trump from impeachment exhibit in American history museum
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in July removed references to President Donald Trump’s two impeachments from an exhibit display. A person familiar with the exhibit plans, who was not authorized to discuss them publicly, said the change came about as part of a content review that the Smithsonian agreed to undertake following pressure from the White House to remove an art museum director. - WaPo https://wapo.st/45wnNPY
We texted nearly 1,100 Americans about Trump and the Epstein files. Here’s what they said.
The Post’s poll found that most Americans are paying at least some attention to news about the Epstein files. Americans largely disapprove of how Trump is handling the issue, with most Democrats and independents disapproving and Republicans expressing a mix of approval and uncertainty. Most Americans strongly support releasing all files in the Epstein case and suspect the documents contain embarrassing information about Trump, Democrats and billionaires. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4l8s6Ws
‘Welcome to hell’: Inside the megaprison where the U.S. deported migrants
The matching firsthand accounts across multiple interviews offer the most complete view yet of conditions inside the megaprison, where inmates are denied access to lawyers and almost all contact with the outside world — and where about 14,000 Salvadorans remain incarcerated. Few detainees have ever left CECOT, and fewer have spoken publicly of their experience there. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4fn0mMD
The federal government is paying more than 154,000 people not to work
The number, which has not been previously reported, accounts for workers at dozens of agencies who took offers from the government as of June to get paid through Sept. 30 — the end of the fiscal year — or the end of 2025 and then voluntarily leave government, significantly reducing the size of several major agencies, according to two Office of Personnel Management officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose details of the administration’s plans to scale down government. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4mmQ40W
Trump’s latest bid to end Epstein storm: Weaponizing the federal government
The Justice Department and the head of the US intelligence community are now openly operating as fully weaponized tools to pursue the president’s personal political needs in a degradation of a governing system meant to be an antidote to king-like patronage. - CNN https://cnn.it/46FOGCm
'Rip the plane apart': Trump's hopes of flying in Qatar's royal jet just hit a major snag
NBC News reported Tuesday that the 13 year-old 747 jet — which is valued at roughly $400 million — would have to undergo significant and costly upgrades before it will be deemed suitable for presidential travel. The outlet cited multiple aviation experts who said that the total price tag could end up exceeding $1 billion and that the upgrade process may not be complete until 2029, when Trump's second and final term in office ends. - Alternet https://bit.ly/4o7NC02
This week’s Joseph Welch Award
This week’s Joseph Welch Award — which goes to a person who stands up to tyranny in America, just as attorney Joseph Welch stood up to Senator Joseph McCarthy in the early 1950s — goes to Lonnie Griffith Bunch III, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
The Smithsonian said today it would restore information about Trump’s two impeachments to an exhibit about impeachment in the National Museum of American History, a division of the Smithsonian. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3JgF1bn
Letters from an American - August 02, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Republicans in the Texas legislature are working to redistrict the state before the 2026 midterm elections. Although state legislatures normally redraw district lines every ten years after the census required by the Constitution, President Donald J. Trump has asked Texas Republicans to redistrict now, mid-decade, in order to cut up five districts that tend to vote Democratic and create districts Republicans will almost certainly win. Five additional seats will help the Republicans hold control of the House of Representatives despite their growing unpopularity. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/41nqu3X
After a Lag, Consumers Begin to Feel the Pinch of Tariffs
Many businesses chose to absorb the additional tax during the early days of President Trump’s trade war. But evidence is emerging that they are running out of options to keep prices stable in the face of deteriorating profit margins, suggesting that the tariffs could have a more pronounced effect on prices in the months ahead.
Government data, including from the Commerce Department this week, show that prices rose in June on items heavily exposed to tariffs, such as home furnishings, toys and appliances. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45p0LJN
Lashing Out Over Russia and Jobs Data, Trump Displays His Volatile Side
The president had been on something of a winning streak. But when faced with facts and foes that wouldn’t bend to his will, he responded with impatience and disproportionate intensity. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Jj2mJu
What the Hell Is Wrong With Them?
Over the weekend, Trump and the MAGA right demonstrated an unusually high level of JFC / WTF behavior.
From Trump’s mind-numbing statements while in Scotland, to his reported diversion of critical funds to retrofit his new presidential airplane, to disinformation peddled by Republican Congress members, to the hypocrisy (and predictable denials) by a moralizing Christian right-winger, every time I opened my feed there was yet another reason to furrow the brow, jot down more bizarre notes, then take a few deep breaths to steady the blood pressure.
I also realized that it’s actually possible to sift through all this and sort it into common connective themes and descriptors of their behavior: autocratic, callous, absurd, distracting, misprioritized, deceitful, hypocritical and unhinged. Today, I’ll cite two examples in each of these eight buckets. - Status Kuo https://bit.ly/4m0UgUF
Switzerland, the land of luxury brands, could see prices skyrocket from Trump's 39% tariffs
Prices for the eponymous Swiss watches, Swiss chocolate and Swiss cheese could skyrocket in a week as a result of U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.
Switzerland, home to some the world's most recognizable luxury brands, now faces an upcoming 39% tariff from the U.S. Industry groups warned that both Swiss companies and American consumers could pay the price. - AP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/4fkVlUB?
Trump Fired America’s Economic Data Collector. History Shows the Perils.
When President Trump didn’t like the weak jobs numbers that were released on Friday, he fired the person responsible for producing them.
It was a move with few precedents in the century-long history of economic statistics in the United States. And for good reason: When political leaders meddle in government data, it rarely ends well. - NYT https://nyti.ms/40LbuNe
The job market’s warning lights are flashing red — and Trump fires the messenger
Weak payroll gains in July and downward revisions to previous months showed the job market's weakest stretch in years. Trump reacted by firing the head of Bureau of Labor Statistics. - Quartz https://bit.ly/40PwUZw
Letters from an American - August 03, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Today, Democratic lawmakers from the Texas House of Representatives left the state to deny Republican lawmakers the quorum—the number of legislators required to pass legislation—they need in order to push through a new district map that would take five seats currently held by Democrats and give them to Republicans. President Donald J. Trump has demanded this rare mid-decade redistricting in an attempt to hold control of the House of Representatives in 2026. He is urging all Republican-dominated states to make a similar change to guarantee Republican dominance regardless of the will of voters. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4oq2OWI
What to Do When the President Acts Like a 5-Year-Old?
Imagine a group of 5-year-olds playing a board game. The rules are clear, the goal is fair, and one child edges ahead — until, suddenly, another child starts losing. That’s when the trouble begins. “He cheated!” the losing child yells. “I’m the winner anyway!” he declares. And then, like clockwork, he flips the board. In the world of kindergarten conflict resolution, we expect this kind of behavior. We chalk it up to development. We teach better sportsmanship.
What do we do when the president of the United States behaves this way? On Friday, President Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics — the nation’s workaday scorekeeper of employment, wages and productivity. Why? Because the data didn’t make Mr. Trump look good. The statistics were inconvenient. So the president didn’t just challenge the findings; he fired the statistician. That’s not governing. That’s board flipping. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41ocW8k
Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon Is Becoming a Bubble
Last month, a group of seven U.S. generals and admirals—including the top admiral in charge of U.S. military operations in the Asia-Pacific region—prepared to travel to the Aspen Security Forum, in Colorado. Security officials had spoken at the annual conference for years, including during Donald Trump’s first term, and were set to discuss topics such as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the future of AI, and threats from China. But a day before the forum began, the officers’ staff got calls from the Pentagon telling them to stay away. On social media, Sean Parnell, the Defense Department’s top spokesperson, later made clear why: The forum, he said, was “hosted by an organization that promotes the evils of globalism, disdain for America, and hatred for our great president, Donald J. Trump.”
Aspen, it turned out, was only the beginning. Within days, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had ordered the DOD to vet all future event attendance by any defense official. In a statement to Politico, Parnell declared that the move was meant to “ensure the Department of Defense is not lending its name and credibility to organizations, forums, and events that run counter to the values of this administration.” (The Aspen Institute, which sponsors the security forum, describes itself as nonpartisan.) - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4lWR3oU
A Terrible Five Days for the Truth
Trump’s latest moves represent an assault on reporting, statistics, and the historical record. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4mtYMus
THE NEW DARK AGE
The warlords who sacked rome did not intend to doom Western Europe to centuries of ignorance. It was not a foreseeable consequence of their actions. The same cannot be said of the sweeping attack on human knowledge and progress that the Trump administration is now undertaking—a deliberate destruction of education, science, and history, conducted with a fanaticism that recalls the Dark Ages that followed Rome’s fall.
Every week brings fresh examples. The administration is threatening colleges and universities with the loss of federal funding if they do not submit to its demands, or even if they do. The engines of American scientific inquiry and ingenuity, such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, are under sustained attack. Historical institutions such as the Smithsonian and artistic ones like the Kennedy Center are being converted into homes for MAGA ideology rather than historical fact and free expression. Libraries are losing funding, government-employed scientists are being dismissed from their jobs, educators are being cowed into silence, and researchers are being warned not to broach forbidden subjects. Entire databases of public-health information collected over decades are at risk of vanishing. Any facts that contradict the gospel of Trumpism are treated as heretical. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4mthHWe
Republicans Might Regret Putting Emil Bove on the Bench
A few weeks ago, a group of former Justice Department lawyers, including me, asked to meet with Republican senators to discuss the Bove nomination. We all had worked on prosecutions related to January 6; several members of the group were among the roughly two dozen lawyers whom Bove had fired for precisely that reason. Our argument was that even Republican senators eager to push the judiciary to the right should, out of their own self-interest, vote against confirming Bove. Unfortunately, staff for just one senator, Chuck Grassley, agreed to meet with us. Most offices never even responded. Because they were unwilling to hear us in private, I will make our argument in public. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/471XQcz
Judges Openly Doubt Government as Justice Dept. Misleads and Dodges Orders
Justice Department lawyers have long enjoyed a professional benefit when they appear in court. As a general rule, judges tend to take them at their word and assume they are telling the truth.
But in the past several months, as members of President Trump’s Justice Department have repeatedly misled the courts, violated their orders and demonized judges who have ruled against them, some jurists have started to show an angry loss of faith in the people and the institution they once believed in most. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3J0qIb3
Our President Is Economically Illiterate
When my kids were in college, I insisted that they each take at least one economics course. Being economically illiterate ranks, in my mind, just below not being able to read or write.
Now we have a president who is fundamentally ignorant of the most basic and incontrovertible economic principles, as evidenced in his latest round of foolhardy tariffs (and in so many other ways).
President Trump has been told over and over again by economists of all political persuasions that tariffs are much like a sales tax and will ultimately be paid by American consumers; he likely would have been taught that concept during his time at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3H1ikYh
Trump’s Immigrant Crackdown in New York: More Arrests, Longer Detention
More than half of the immigrants arrested in the New York City area since Jan. 20 do not have criminal convictions or charges, new data shows. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3URiXXm
Letters from an American - August 4, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
President Donald J. Trump’s firing of the commissioner of labor statistics on Friday for announcing that job growth has slowed dramatically has drawn a level of attention to Trump’s assault on democracy that other firings have not. Famously, authoritarian governments make up statistics to claim their policies are working well, even when they quite obviously are not. - Cox Richardson https://nyti.ms/3URiXXm
Trump So Far
(Reel - strong recommend) -New York Minute https://bit.ly/4l9QOFP
The Plot To Militarize America
A memo from one of the Hegseth brothers raises alarms over a permanent troop presence on U.S. soil. - The Big Picture and Jay Kuo https://bit.ly/4ongr91
House Republicans Issue Subpoena for Epstein Files—With One Big Caveat
The Republican-led House on Tuesday issued subpoenas to the Justice Department and high-ranking officials for files related to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. But there was one notable name missing from the list of subpoenas: President Donald Trump. - New Republic https://bit.ly/453Sxrv
Inside Trump’s New Tactic to Separate Immigrant Families
The practice appears to be a more targeted version of the mass separation of migrant children from their parents from President Trump’s first term, which caused a global outcry. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3IVGl3B
The America We Knew Is Rapidly Slipping Away
Of all the terrible things Donald Trump has said and done as president, the most dangerous one just happened on Friday. Trump, in effect, ordered our trusted and independent government office of economic statistics to become as big a liar as he is. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47ei02P
Crime down in every category in 2024, FBI report says
Crime decreased in every category in 2024, including murder, violent crime and motor vehicle thefts, according to data released by the FBI on Tuesday. It reflects a trend experts have been tracking as reported numbers of violent crimes continue to drop from a spike immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic. - CBS https://cbsn.ws/4ly7EyB
Trump Accumulates Wins on Supreme Court’s Emergency Docket—Key Takeaways
President Donald Trump’s ambitious agenda has been met with order after order from lower courts temporarily blocking him. Many of those have been lifted by the Supreme Court, handing Trump several wins and raising questions about how lower courts have been handling his cases.
These decisions have mostly come on what’s known as the “emergency” or “shadow” docket, a set of more urgent appeals that the Supreme Court often decides without oral argument. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/46JhPwh
What, Exactly, Is the ‘Russia Hoax’?
The DNI’s office doesn’t explain exactly what the “Russia hoax” is, and for good reason. First, although the phrase has achieved talismanic status in Trump world, it has no set definition, because Trump keeps changing the meaning. Second, and more important, it’s not a hoax. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/40SUmoQ
America Will Suffer From Trump’s Assault on Facts
President Trump treats facts in the same way that he treats people: He expects them to line up in support of his goals, and if they don’t, he seeks to get rid of them. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45nIkVM
Trump’s War on Big Law Means It’s Harder to Challenge the Administration
Some of America’s largest law firms are refusing to take pro bono and paid legal work from groups that seek to hold the government to account on issues like environmental protection, LGBTQ+ rights and police accountability. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/47oAOfV
HHS Cancels $500 Million in mRNA Vaccine Development Contracts
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Aug. 5 that 22 mRNA vaccine development contracts are being canceled and redirected “because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu.” - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3HsrixN
Companies Find Potential Way to Avoid Trump Tariffs and Keep Prices Low
NASA Approves Ted Cruz’s Plan to Move a Space Shuttle to Houston, Setting Up a Fight With the Smithsonian
NASA has selected a yet-to-be-named Space Shuttle to move to Houston, conceding to a long-running bid by Texas senators to house one of the iconic vehicles. If the chosen vehicle is Discovery—which it likely is—the Smithsonian, which houses the vehicle, may put up a fight. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/46P1iqO
Hegseth’s Headlong Pursuit of Academic Mediocrity
His military-education reforms seem designed to ensure fighting men can’t think and thinking men can’t fight. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4mEf309
Donald Trump Doesn’t Want You to Read This Article
This evening, CNN reported, a group of top administration officials, including the vice president, attorney general, FBI director, and White House chief of staff, had been planning to gather to discuss whether to release the recording of an interview between Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex trafficker and an Epstein associate, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Then, this afternoon, Reuters reported the meeting had been canceled, with Vice President J. D. Vance’s spokesperson denying that it had ever even been planned. Yesterday, Republicans in the House subpoenaed the Justice Department for some records related to Epstein. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4ln6dTk
How Many Times Can Science Funding Be Canceled?
Whether or not Congress cuts NIH’s budget, the Trump administration has devastated its ability to operate. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4m87leP
Trump Weighs Getting Involved in New York City Mayor’s Race
President Trump may have moved out of New York City, but he has privately discussed whether to intercede in its fractious race for mayor to try to stop Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, according to eight people briefed on the discussions. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45piccZ
After a Lull, Agents Conduct a Big Immigration Raid in L.A.
After a federal judge issued a temporary order barring such stops, large-scale sweeps in the Los Angeles area appeared to have fallen off, and last Friday, a three-judge appellate panel kept the order in place while the lawsuit moves forward in the lower court. -NYT https://nyti.ms/45nLAR0
In One of the Country’s Poorest States, Crippling Budget Cuts Loom
Health care. Food. Outdoor recreation. Wildfire protection. The arts. President Trump’s new domestic policy law will have wide-ranging effects in New Mexico, which depends heavily on federal funding. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3J0DRB1
Government Has Frozen $584 Million in UCLA Funding, the University Says
The funding cancellation affects UCLA departments that rely on grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy.
“The suspension of these funds is not only a loss to the researchers who rely on critical grants,“ he said. ”It is a loss for Americans across the nation whose work, health, and future depend on our groundbreaking research and scholarship.” - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/40XTrDD
Trump Just Did What Not Even Nixon Dared To
In July of 1971, the president was infuriated that an unnamed official at the Bureau of Labor Statistics had seemed to downplay the administration’s progress on reducing unemployment while briefing reporters. His suspicions fell on Harold Goldstein, the longtime civil servant and BLS official in charge of the jobs numbers, who had attracted his ire for other comments earlier in the year. Nixon ordered his political counselor, Charles Colson, to investigate. If it had been Goldstein, he said, “he’s got to be fired.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4ln5jq1
Trump's higher tariffs hit major U.S. trading partners, sparking defiance and concern
After unveiling his "Liberation Day" tariffs in April, Trump has frequently modified his plans, slapping much higher rates on imports from some countries, including 50% for goods from Brazil, 39% from Switzerland, 35% from Canada and 25% from India. He announced on Wednesday a further 25% tariff on Indian goods, to be implemented in 21 days over India's purchases of Russian oil, on top of the 25% already imposed. - Reuters/Japan Today https://bit.ly/47jbMib?
A Political Game Could Redefine Voting in America
Traditionally, states redistrict after the decennial Census, and those maps endure for a decade, unless courts order changes, as they sometimes do. Texas’s current maps were drawn by Republicans, and in the most recent election, they produced 25 GOP seats and 13 Democratic ones. That’s 66 percent of districts with 58 percent of the total House vote for Republicans—not bad. But under pressure from the White House, Texas Republicans are now trying to squeeze out a little more juice. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3J8oXZp
Letters from an American - August 6, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Members of the House of Representatives are back in their districts for August, and on Monday, Republican Mike Flood of Nebraska held a town hall in Lincoln. A woman asked what she called a fiscal question. She said: “With 450 million FEMA dollars being reallocated to open Alligator Alcatraz, and 600 million taxpayer FEMA dollars being used to now open more concentration camps, and ICE burning through $8.4 million a day to illegally detain people—How much does it cost for fascism? How much do the taxpayers have to pay for a fascist country?” The crowd cheered wildly. Nicholas Wu, Cassandra Dumay, and Mia McCarthy of Politico reported today that by the end of Flood’s town hall, “chants of ‘Vote him out!’ threatened to drown out his closing comments.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4oovmjr
Send in the troops
Troops are all over national capitals in places like China, Myanmar, Egypt or Central Asia. It’s a sure sign of repressive, undemocratic and troubled states.
So why is Donald Trump so desperate to send soldiers onto American streets?
The US president on Wednesday made his latest threat to deploy National Guard reservists in Washington, DC, to tackle crimes, muggings and murders. DC can be a rough place, but in the last year, homicides, carjackings, robberies and other violent crimes have fallen. It’s nowhere near as dangerous as it was in the 1990s when derelict houses served as crack dens within sight of the US Capitol. A wave of gentrification and regeneration has been transformational. -CNN https://cnn.it/46Ihqu6
Here’s What Could Get More Expensive Under Trump’s Tariffs
The tariffs are driving up prices on everyday goods as businesses warn they can no longer absorb costs, leaving consumers to foot the bill. NYT https://nyti.ms/4orXJgz
Trump Directs Military to Target Foreign Drug Cartels
President Trump has secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels that his administration has deemed terrorist organizations, according to people familiar with the matter. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Jrasji
Justice Department opens investigation into New York attorney general who won civil fraud case against Trump
Abbe Lowell, an attorney for James, said, “Investigating the fraud case Attorney General James won against President Trump and his businesses has to be the most blatant and desperate example of this administration’s carrying out the president’s political retribution campaign.” CNN https://cnn.it/3J5uAHP
ICE Looks to Hire 10,000 More Agents, Offers $50,000 Signing Bonuses, Student Loan Forgiveness
“Your country is calling you to serve at ICE. In the wake of the Biden administration’s failed immigration policies, your country needs dedicated men and women of ICE to get the worst of the worst criminals out of our country,” Noem said. “This is a defining moment in our nation’s history. Your skills, your experience, and your courage have never been more essential. Together, we must defend the homeland.” - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4m6k4yq
Trump administration seeking $1 billion settlement from UCLA
Officials from UCLA have now returned to the negotiating table, a source familiar with the matter said, and have made clear they would like to reach a deal to restore that funding. The Trump administration, in turn, is laying its marker for a high-dollar settlement. - CNN https://cnn.it/4fNq4Kt
Justice Dept. Abruptly Escalates Pressure Campaign on a Trump Adversary
Ms. James’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, on Friday called the investigation related to the fraud case against Mr. Trump “the most blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the president’s political retribution campaign.” He added that the appointment of Mr. Martin “makes it crystal clear this is a manufactured investigation to pursue political retribution.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lDkE65
Justice Dept. Abruptly Escalates Pressure Campaign on a Trump Adversary
Letitia James, New York’s attorney general and a longtime nemesis of the president, is being investigated in two separate inquiries, in a remarkable use of executive power to pursue a foe. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lDkE65
Trump Replaces IRS Commissioner Billy Long
President Donald Trump is replacing Billy Long as commissioner of the IRS less than two months after his confirmation, a White House official confirmed to The Epoch Times. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4fvRcNP
Trump Says He Will Meet With Putin in Alaska Next Week
Mr. Trump also suggested that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine would include “some swapping of territories,” signaling that the U.S. may join Russia in trying to compel Ukraine to cede land. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HvxaWW
Trump Just Shrugs as Kennedy Undermines His Vaccine Legacy
Mr. Trump’s willingness to give Mr. Kennedy the space to impose his views is notable, given that the vaccines were once seen as legacy achievement during Mr. Trump’s first term. But his laissez-faire posture also leaves room for Mr. Trump to position himself in line with the portion of his base that has grown deeply skeptical about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lp1T62
The Smithsonian Changes Its Description of Trump’s Role on Jan. 6
The new text removed previous references to Mr. Trump’s incitement charge being based on “repeated ‘false statements’ challenging the 2020 election results” and giving a speech that “encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — imminent lawless action at the Capitol.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3JaLepC
The MAGA Congressman Accused of Threatening His Ex With Revenge Porn
In a less depraved time, anyone who followed politics would know about the ugly abuse allegations facing the Florida congressman Cory Mills, and the scandal would be a big problem for the Republican Party. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3UR7JSS
I Helped Bury Stories About Trump. I Regret It.
Late in 2015 a former doorman at Trump Tower named Dino Sajudin approached The National Enquirer with a story that Donald Trump, then campaigning for president, had fathered a child out of wedlock with a woman who had worked for him. David Pecker, the publisher of The National Enquirer at the time, authorized payment of $30,000 for Mr. Sajudin’s story — with the intention of not running it. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41z2jzy
Trump’s Tariff Victory Is Not What It Seems
In the end the victory will be Pyrrhic, especially for U.S. households and businesses and for America itself, given the expected damage to its relationships with other countries and its standing in the world. - NYT https://nyti.ms/411HtZD
I’ve Been Asking Myself for Years Why Trump’s Followers Can’t See Reality
How Trump’s War on Higher Education Is Hitting Community Colleges
Measures intended to punish elite universities are inflicting collateral damage on the nation’s two-year colleges, which educate 40 percent of all undergraduates. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ovS3ls
After Years of Anger Directed at C.D.C., Shooting Manifests Worst Fears
Employees expressed horror at a shooting at the agency’s headquarters, and some said they viewed it as part of a pattern of threats and assaults on health workers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41uLtSu
Letters from an American - August 8, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump vowed he could stop Russia’s war on Ukraine with a single phone call. Instead, Matt Murphy and Ned Davies of the BBC report that Russian attacks on Ukraine have doubled since Trump took office. Today was the deadline the president had announced for Russian president Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire in his illegal invasion of Ukraine or face further sanctions. Instead, Trump announced this afternoon that he intends to meet with Putin on August 15 in Alaska.
Putin generally cannot travel outside Russia because he has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, including the theft of Ukrainian children. And yet Trump is welcoming him to the United States of America. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4lk38nb
So, About Those Big Trade Deals
If you read the fine print, the “concessions” from America’s trade partners don’t add up to much. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4m63KxP
Trump’s Cartel Order Revives ‘Bitter’ Memories in Latin America
Just a decade ago, the era of U.S. wars, coup plots and military interventions in Latin America seemed to be ebbing when the Obama administration declared that the Monroe Doctrine, which long asserted U.S. military supremacy in the Americas, was dead.
Now this cornerstone of foreign policy is roaring back to life, resurrecting fears over U.S. military interference in the region after President Trump ordered the Pentagon to use military force against certain Latin American drug cartels. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45CUlaa
‘Profound and Abiding Rage’: Canada’s Answer to America’s Abandonment
Canada is living through an era of acute, sustained, profound and abiding rage. The source is President Trump; the object is the United States. The president, commander of the most powerful military the world has ever known, has declared repeatedly that he intends to soften up the Canadian economy in preparation for annexation. Americans, from what I can tell, don’t seem to take this possibility seriously, even though he undertook the task in earnest last week by imposing a 35 percent tariff. The American threat to our sovereignty, so sudden, so foolish, is reshaping Canadian life. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mvW7R8
Trump Administration to Put F.B.I. Agents on Night Patrol in Washington
The move is part of President Trump’s pledge to crack down on street crime in the nation’s capital.
Mr. Trump has said that crime in Washington is spiraling out of control. While statistics show that violent crime in the city hit a 30-year low last year and is down another 26 percent so far this year, youth crime has been a persistent problem for city officials. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45zgPJ2
Trump and Putin May Get a Cold Reception From Some Alaskans
Warm relations between Alaskans and Russians began to shift with the rise of Vladimir Putin and the invasion of Ukraine. In Alaska, feelings on the two leaders’ meeting seemed mixed. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3UlKujN
U.S. Government to Take Cut of Nvidia and AMD A.I. Chip Sales to China
In a highly unusual arrangement with President Trump, the companies are expected to kick 15 percent of what they make in China to the U.S. government. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41Bs823
The Economy Is Starting to Pay for Trump’s Chaos
Since President Trump took office, economists have been waiting for his policies to work their way through the U.S. economy and reveal their consequences. The soft data, mostly surveys of consumers and businesses that track how people feel about the economy, turned down sharply months ago, while the hard data — jobs, G.D.P. growth, inflation — all seemed fine. But recently, a telling series of hard economic data rolled in that has rightfully raised alarm bells about slowing growth and increased inflation — a dreaded economic combination known as stagflation.
Mr. Trump’s tariffs are now clearly fueling inflation, particularly in goods such as home appliances, cars and food. In the first six months of the year, real (that is, inflation-adjusted) consumer spending, the main driver behind business cycles and robust economic expansion, barely grew, after rising 3 percent last year. G.D.P. growth slowed by about half, to 1.2 percent this year from 2.5 percent last year. When overall growth falls that sharply, the labor market tends to follow, which is precisely what happened: Job growth, at 35,000 per month on average between May and July, is dangerously close to stall speed. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45GWAu5
Trump Is Turning Us Into a Doddering Industrial Giant
The American economy seems to be slowing. Although the unemployment rate remains low, the jobs report released this month showed that the U.S. labor market has essentially been stalled since President Trump foisted “Liberation Day” on us in April. Yes, it’s true, the artificial intelligence sector remains white-hot, but once you look beyond it, the weather is chillier — the manufacturing sector may be shrinking, home building is slowing and most employment growth is happening in just one industry: health care. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4liW4Hf
Federal judge rejects Trump DOJ’s bid to unseal grand jury materials in Ghislaine Maxwell case
Judge Paul Engelmayer issued a scathing opinion, saying unsealing the materials in Maxwell’s case is not a matter of historical or public interest and calling the premise of the DOJ’s argument false.
“The Court therefore denies the Government’s motion to unseal at the threshold. Contrary to the Government’s depiction, the Maxwell grand jury testimony is not a matter of significant historical or public interest. Far from it,” Engelmayer wrote.
“Its entire premise – that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them – is demonstrably false,” Engelmayer said. - CNN https://cnn.it/4mGMmjd
President Donald Trump announced on Aug. 11 that he will activate hundreds of National Guard troops to be in the nation’s capital to deal with the issue of crime.
“This is Liberation Day in D.C. and we’re going to take our Capitol back,” Trump said at a press conference. “We’re taking it back under the authorities vested in me as the president of the United States.”
“The Administration’s actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful. There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia. Violent crime in DC reached historic 30-year lows last year, and is down another 26% so far this year. We are considering all of our options and will do what is necessary to protect the rights and safety of District residents,” he (D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb) wrote on X. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3UrbEpn
Trump Invites Putin to Set Foot in America
Vladimir Putin is coming to America, despite the international warrant for the Russian president’s arrest, despite his years of hostile threats against NATO, and despite him showing no remorse for his invasion of a sovereign nation. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4n3I99x
Violent Crime in D.C. Hits 30 Year Low
Total violent crime for 2024 in the District of Columbia is down 35% from 2023 and is the lowest it has been in over 30 years, according to data collected by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and announced by United States Attorney Matthew M. Graves. A breakdown of the data is available here.
In addition to the overall violent crime reduction, homicides are down 32%; robberies are down 39%; armed carjackings are down 53%; assaults with a dangerous weapon are down 27% when compared with 2023 levels, with the District reporting the fewest assaults with dangerous weapons and burglaries in over 30 years. - United States Attorney’s Office https://bit.ly/46SNsUg
How much is Trump pocketing off the Presidency?
I decided to tally up the Trump family’s profiteering, including five Persian Gulf mega-projects, a luxury jet from Qatar, a sprawling resort in Hanoi, half a dozen projects peddling crypto, and MAGA merch.Illustration by Ben Wiseman; Animation by Nicolo Bianchino - New Yorker https://bit.ly/4mGM4bV
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reposts video of pastors saying women shouldn't vote
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reposted and praised a video interview of a self-described Christian nationalist pastor whose church doesn't believe women should be allowed to vote.
Doug Wilson, senior pastor of Christ Church in Idaho, said during the interview with CNN that, "Women are the kind of people that people come out of."
"The wife and mother, who is the chief executive of the home, is entrusted with three or four or five eternal souls," he continued.
In the CNN interview, Wilson also defended previous comments where he had said there was mutual affection between slaves and their masters. He also said that sodomy should be recriminalized. The Supreme Court invalidated sodomy laws in 2003.
In his repost of the interview on the platform X, Hegseth added, "All of Christ for All of Life." - NPR https://n.pr/3Hy9uRO
Letters from an American - August 11, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
President Donald J. Trump’s big announcement today at his press conference—to which he showed up late—was that he is assuming control over the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department and deploying more than 100 agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and about 40 from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, along with officers from the Secret Service and the U.S. Marshals Service and members of the District of Columbia National Guard, “to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor, and worse.” He reiterated that officers would clear homeless encampments from the city.
In fact, statistics from the Department of Justice show that violent crime in the nation’s capital was at a 30-year low in 2024 and, according to Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), is down 26% this year compared to the same period last year. Former undersecretary of state and editor of Time magazine Richard Stengel noted that Washington is “not even in the top 10 dangerous cities in the U.S.” Meanwhile, legal analyst Asha Rangappa notes that FBI agents are not trained to patrol the streets, and that every one of them assigned to do that is not investigating foreign spies, foreign and domestic terrorists, or crimes like fraud, murder, corruption, and human trafficking.
If that was Trump’s big announcement, the big story seems to have been something different.
Trump’s performance at the press conference—an event for which his handlers would have made sure he was at the top of his game—made it clear that his mental deterioration is moving rapidly. He let Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and FBI director Kash Patel explain the actual plan, taking the microphone himself to describe a fake world in which he plays the role of hero, solving five wars, creating a booming economy, solving the border security others couldn’t, protecting Americans from a hellscape that exists only in his rhetoric. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3JgPiEL
The President’s Police State
Trump is delivering the authoritarian government his party once warned about. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3HzaGnZ
What to Know as Trump Activates National Guard, Takes Control of DC Police
The president announced the actions ’to rescue the nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse.’ - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3HAa3KX
Trump Grants 90-Day Extension on China Tariff Deadline
With only hours until the temporary agreement’s Aug. 12 deadline, Trump signed an executive order to allow the United States and China to continue trade negotiations. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3HnH2Cj
U.S. consumers will take most of the hit from tariff costs: Goldman Sachs
Through June, about 22% of tariff costs have been passed onto consumers, according to a Goldman Sachs analysis shared with Bloomberg. However, that number will rise to 67% if tariffs follow the same course as years prior, the firm said. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4mMqkeN
Trump, Seeking Friendlier Economic Data, Names New Statistics Chief
Dr. Antoni, who would need to be confirmed by the Senate, has previously criticized the bureau and questioned its methods and reports. His nomination underscored Mr. Trump’s attempts to place his own allies in control of a key repository of data about the nation’s hiring, wages and prices. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Uvqds6
Trump Is Blurring the Line Between the Military and Law Enforcement
To hear President Trump tell it, you’d think that Washington was a lawless dystopia where few live free from fear. “Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people,” he said on Monday at the White House. - NYT https://nyti.ms/417nxVj
Trump Takes Control of D.C. Police, Citing ‘Bloodthirsty Criminals.’ But Crime Is Down.
President Trump on Monday took federal control of the police force in the nation’s capital for 30 days and mobilized 800 National Guard troops to fight crime in a city that he claimed was overrun with “bloodthirsty criminals,” even though crime numbers in Washington are falling. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HB4bB7
The Harvard-Trained Lawyer Behind Trump’s Fight Against Top Universities
May Mailman is credited as an animating force behind a strategy that has intimidated independent institutions and undercut years of medical and scientific research. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Hy9YHC
Trump’s “State Capitalism”
If “state capitalism” were proposed by Democrats or progressives, it would be considered socialism or communism. Done by a neofascist president — as chronicled by the The Wall Street Journal — it’s simply considered inefficient (as the Journal concludes). - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4fDgOIr
Trump’s Farcical D.C. Crackdown
His law-enforcement surge is a show of weakness, not power. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/45Q5DsK
Trump’s Unforgivable Sin
Trump’s approval rating in the most recent Gallup poll is 37 percent, the lowest of this term and only slightly higher than his all-time low of 34 percent, at the end of his first term. (Among independents, Trump’s approval rating is down to 29 percent.) Americans already understood Trump to be corrupt, and proved themselves willing to tolerate that. But now they are coming to believe that he is inept. In American politics, that is an unforgivable sin. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4lwWUA9
Clinics Are Ending Gender Treatments for Kids in Wake of Trump’s Policies
More than 20 clinics have changed course in response to a political shift, and gender-related treatments for minors face increasing legal challenges. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4oBUcMH
"Utterly unqualified": Trump BLS pick gets panned by fellow conservative economists
President Trump's nomination of Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Monday drew criticism from economists across the political spectrum. - AXIOS https://stocks.apple.com/A-LFachQYRHmpimes8X0MWg
Appeals Court Removes Block on DOGE Data Access
An appeals court has removed a block imposed on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) accessing data within various federal departments. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3HxWaNo
Appeals Court Removes Block on DOGE Data Access
An appeals court has removed a block imposed on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) accessing data within various federal departments.
In a 2-1 decision on Aug. 12, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said the judge who issued the block erred in weighing how likely it was that the plaintiffs would succeed in their ongoing lawsuit against the Trump administration. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3HxWaNo
National Guard Troops Arrive in Washington After Trump Declares Federal Control
National Guard troops started arriving in Washington on Tuesday to begin enforcing President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of the city’s law enforcement and security. They’re part of an 800-member deployment ordered by the administration. Trump announced on Monday that he would activate the guard and take over the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, citing a crime emergency in the city. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/47wqK4w
Trump’s Show of Force Begins to Take Shape as Guard Troops Deploy in D.C.
Troops appeared near the Washington Monument on Tuesday evening. But it remained unclear whether the eventual show of force would match the president’s apocalyptic rhetoric. National Guard troops began to deploy in Washington on Tuesday evening as President Trump’s plan to use the federal government to crack down on crime in the city started taking shape. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45CYxGL
Trump Promised a Golden Age. Then a Montana Lumber Plant Closed Down.
The workers in the old lumber town of Bonner, Mont., expected bad news late last month when they were told to shut down their machines one morning and meet on the factory floor. Their plant, which made high-end trim and siding for homes, was a vestige of the wood industry that once dominated western Montana. President Trump promised a “golden age” for American industry, when the sawmills and copper mining industries that built Montana would roar back. But nothing felt golden that morning. The 104 workers at the UFP Edge factory were told that their plant was shutting down. They would all be laid off. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HyNV3H
Trump Deploys National Guard for D.C. Crime but Called Jan. 6 Rioters ‘Very Special’
President Trump said he needed to send in the Guard to secure the nation’s capital. But on Jan. 6, 2021 — the most lawless day in recent Washington history — he had a very different reaction. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46UuD32
Key Inflation Gauge Sped Up in July as Companies Grappled With Tariffs
July’s Consumer Price Index report showed an acceleration in “core” prices that strip out volatile food and energy items. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41KQ0QN
Trump’s Pick to Lead Labor Data Agency Adds to Fears of Political Interference
Economists across the political spectrum reacted with alarm to Dr. Antoni’s appointment — which must still be confirmed by the Senate — saying they worried he would politicize an agency long admired for providing straight-ahead facts on employment, inflation, wages and other critical economic subjects. - NYT https://nyti.ms/417xaTM
White House Announces Comprehensive Review of Smithsonian Exhibitions
The review, which will begin with eight of the Smithsonian’s 21 museums, is the latest attempt by President Trump to try to impose his will on the Smithsonian, which has traditionally operated as an independent institution that regards itself outside the purview of the executive branch. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4704jEG
How U.S. tariffs are hiding in plain sight
For months, tariffs have sounded like a distant thunderclap: constant rumbling, no downpour. Prices at the supermarket haven’t jumped in a way that maps neatly onto the headlines; despite all the drama, the economy hasn’t buckled. If anything, the economic story since “Liberation Day” has felt weirdly muted. But the data — and the people who parse it for a living — are still saying that the quiet is the setup. Tariffs are taxes, and taxes don’t stay hidden forever. They work through ports, contracts, and production runs before they hit a cash register. And the experts still think the lag will end. Soon. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3Uyc7WP
The Fundamental Truth About U.S. Strategy That Putin Knows and Trump Ignores
Donald Trump wants the war in Ukraine to end. Volodymyr Zelensky wants the war in Ukraine to end. Many other presidents and prime ministers want the war to end. Vladimir Putin is not one of those presidents. The war in Ukraine has become the political, psychological and economic center of Putin’s regime. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45Q3n4G
August 13, 2025 – Trump warns Russia of ‘severe consequences’ if Putin doesn’t agree to end Ukraine war
US President Donald Trump promised “very severe consequences” on Russia if its President Vladimir Putin doesn’t agree to end his war in Ukraine during the two leaders’ meeting on Friday.
“There will be consequences,” Trump just said during an event at the Kennedy Center in Washington.
Asked if that meant new sanctions or tariffs, Trump demurred. - CNN https://cnn.it/4fCheyO
RFK Jr. defends $500M cut for mRNA vaccines with pseudoscience gobbledygook
If anyone needed a reminder that US health secretary and fervent anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has no background in science or medicine, look no further than the video he posted on social media Tuesday evening. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4fKbxiC
DOGE Has Wasted Billions While Saving Only a Fraction of What It Claims: Reports
New analysis paints a picture of dysfunction and waste at the Department of Government Efficiency. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4lwiWmG
D.C. Federal Deployment Ramps Up as Protesters Converge on Police Checkpoint
The Army expects up to 200 soldiers out on the capital’s streets within the next few days at any given time in support of federal law enforcement. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mI8Obo
Trump Misstates Washington Crime Data to Justify Takeover
On Monday, Mr. Trump and his newly confirmed federal prosecutor for Washington cited an array of inaccurate statistics about murders in the city and crimes committed by children. It was part of a broader bid by his administration to rail against crime in urban, largely liberal cities, often turning to exaggerated and inaccurate figures to portray soaring violence and lawlessness. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4oITAFa
Bessent Has Yet to Fully Divest Assets, Raising Concern at Ethics Agency
The Treasury secretary has been slow to shed assets, including farmland, posing potential conflicts of interest. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3JjIOoI
Historians Alarmed by White House Plan to Oversee Smithsonian Exhibits
“Only historians and trained museum professionals are qualified to conduct such a review, which is intended to ensure historical accuracy,” she said. “To suggest otherwise is an affront to the professional integrity of curators, historians, educators and everyone involved in the creation of solid, evidence-based content.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mGWHeL
The Fundamental Truth About U.S. Strategy That Putin Knows and Trump Ignores
Donald Trump wants the war in Ukraine to end. Volodymyr Zelensky wants the war in Ukraine to end. Many other presidents and prime ministers want the war to end. Vladimir Putin is not one of those presidents. The war in Ukraine has become the political, psychological and economic center of Putin’s regime. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46Ze468
Why Trump Always Wants a Crisis
He said there was crime — “bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.”
“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,” said President Trump in a stark attack on the nation’s capital. The solution? Military force. “We’re going to put it in control very quickly, like we did in the southern border.” The president later described Washington as more violent and dangerous than some of “the worst places on earth.”
None of this is true.
The Justice Department itself announced in January that crime in the capital is, according to data from its Metropolitan Police Department, “the lowest it has been in over 30 years.” The M.P.D. cites a 26 percent decrease in total violent crime so far this year compared with the same period a year earlier. And the areas around the White House, where the president has made a point of stationing National Guardsmen, are not known for crime or disorder (unless you count the Jan. 6 rioters, pardoned by Trump in one of the first acts of his second term). Despite several high-profile incidents — including an assault on a young member of the “Department of Government Efficiency” — there is no evidence to support the president’s hellish depiction of the District. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lvA5wW
We Used to Think the Military Would Stand Up to Trump. We Were Wrong.
By ordering 800 National Guard troops to Washington, on the pretext of an illusory crime wave, President Trump has further dragged the U.S. military into domestic law enforcement, in a move credibly perceived as an ominous “test case.” This continues what the administration started in California in June as part of the its deportation efforts.
Unfortunately, though we (and others) had hoped that the military would only respond to calls to action in American cities and states kicking and screaming, we no longer expect resistance from that institution. Once, perhaps, traditionalist officers might have leaned on protocol and refused to heed a lawless order, taking inspiration from the generals — Mark Milley and James Mattis — who resisted the uprooting of established military standards in the first Trump term.
But today, general officers no longer seem to see themselves as guardians of the constitutional order.
It now seems clear to us that the military will not rescue Americans from Mr. Trump’s misuse of the nation’s military capabilities. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mj9KDx
U.S. national debt surpasses $37 trillion, hitting record high
After President Donald Trump signed his ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ into law on July 4, the Congressional Budget Office revised its January projection for 2025. The U.S. federal deficit — a measure of how much the government spends compared to how much it receives in revenue — was originally projected by the CBO to be $1.9 trillion this year and $2.7 trillion by 2035. On July 21, its outlook changed, predicting a rise in the federal deficit to $3.4 trillion from 2025 to 2034 based on the president’s new megabill. The U.S. will decrease direct spending by $1.1 trillion, while also decreasing revenue by $4.5 trillion, according to the projection. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4luic1k
Businesses have been eating Trump’s tariffs. That’s starting to change.
“Producers are starting to feel the inflation fire heat,” Chris Rupkey, chief economist at FwdBonds, wrote Thursday. “It will only be a matter of time before producers pass their higher tariff-related costs on to the backs of inflation-weary consumers.” - CNN https://cnn.it/4mLklXJ
US Wholesale Inflation Unexpectedly Rises 0.9 Percent in July
‘The Fed won’t like this report,’ one finance expert said. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4lAIgrV
Wholesale prices surged in July, reigniting inflation worries
President Donald Trump’s tariffs are now increasingly in the mix — and are finally starting to appear in the numbers. Tariff-exposed categories such as machinery and certain food products are showing the steepest increases, reinforcing the link between trade policy and price pressures. For much of the year, businesses absorbed higher import costs to protect customers and market share. But July’s PPI suggests that cover is thinning. - Quartz https://bit.ly/41IDaCA
Trump Plans To Steal the Midterms
If Donald Trump learned anything from the 2020 presidential election, it was that our democracy is vulnerable and that elections can be undone. You just have to put the right plan and the right people in place. And that, alarmingly, is what he has been doing since taking office for the second time. - Big Picture https://bit.ly/3UtBxoD
Melania Trump Will Seek $1 Billion From Hunter Biden Unless He Retracts Epstein Comments
The first lady’s lawyer is demanding a retraction of what he called a “false“ and ”defamatory” claim linking her meeting Trump to Jeffrey Epstein. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4mdOX4d
Trump's Tariff War Has Cost The Auto Industry $12 Billion So Far
Donald Trump's tariffs have only been around for a few months at this point, and they're already causing financial havoc throughout the automotive industry. New analysis shows that his duties have cost the sector nearly $12 billion so far. Here's the rub, though: this is far from over, and automakers aren't going to keep eating the bulk of these costs forever. - Jalopnik https://bit.ly/45OB1YB
Trump Crackdown Snares More Migrants With No US Criminal Records
President Donald Trump, who has vowed to target the "worst of the worst" in his mass deportation campaign, is overseeing a crackdown that's increasingly ensnaring foreigners without US criminal records. - Bloomberg/MSN https://bit.ly/4fIn9m4
US wholesale prices see biggest surge in three years
US wholesale prices rose far more than expected in July, posting their biggest surge in three years, new data released Thursday showed.
The producer price index jumped 0.9% from June, pushing the annual inflation rate to 3.3% — well above the 0.2% monthly rise economists had expected, with services being hardest hit. - Semafor https://bit.ly/4mGz1al
Just how much has DOGE exaggerated its numbers? Now we have receipts.
A POLITICO analysis of DOGE data reveals the organization saved less than 5 percent of its claimed savings from nearly 10,100 contract terminations. - Politico https://politi.co/3Jh5mGy
Trump Bureau of Labor Statistics nominee was a 'bystander' outside Capitol on Jan. 6, White House says
President Donald Trump's pick to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics was among the crowd outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with the White House saying he was a "bystander" who wandered over after seeing coverage on the news. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/3JzffPM
The IRS is sharing taxpayer data with ICE as Trump accelerates deportations
The U.S. government acknowledged in federal court for the first time that the Internal Revenue Service is sharing taxpayer data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as the Trump administration intensifies its deportation campaign. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4oDAT5t
Trump Wants a China Deal That Benefits Him, Not the U.S.
After making a show of getting tough on China, President Donald Trump desperately needs a trade agreement to prove that his disruptive tactics get results. This week, the United States and China agreed to extend their negotiations, avoiding—for now—another round of tariffs that would have hurt business between the world’s two largest economies. But the president’s newfound willingness to allow the export of vital AI chips to China indicates that an eventual deal could imperil American interests. Eager for a pact, Trump may give up more than he receives. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3HEcg8a
U.S. producer prices surge in July as Trump tariffs push costs higher
U.S. wholesale inflation surged unexpectedly last month, signaling that President Donald Trump’s sweeping taxes on imports are pushing costs up and that higher prices for consumers may be on the way.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it hits consumers— rose 0.9% last month from June, biggest jump in more than three years. Compared with a year earlier, wholesale prices rose 3.3%.
The numbers were much higher than economists had expected. - AP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/470SDBz?
Bondi Tightens Trump Administration’s Grip on D.C. Police
The attorney general cleared the way for the police to aid in immigration enforcement and named an “emergency” commissioner, setting the stage for a conflict with local authorities. - NYT https://nyti.ms/418uo0B
Federal Raids Target D.C. Homeless Camps
A federal operation that had been expected to start at 6:30 p.m. seemed to get underway only after dark. At around 9 p.m., federal agents from the F.B.I. and the U.S. Secret Service arrived at Washington Circle in the Foggy Bottom area to remove a few tents where homeless people had long stayed, according to Wes Heppler of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. They retreated after a woman presented a city notice saying she had until Monday to leave. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Uy8RL6
As Trump Seizes D.C.’s Police, Critics Say He’s Undercut Its Ability to Fight Crime
The Trump administration has taken steps that have hobbled Washington’s efforts to reduce crime, such as gutting its U.S. attorney’s office and enacting budget cuts of more than $1 billion. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45kZ419
Fact-Checking Trump’s Epstein Defenses
In the face of mounting discontent over his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, President Trump has turned to deflection, denial and downplaying. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4fQAxVh
Trump Rescinds Biden’s Order on Promoting Economic Competition
The Biden-era order stated that a pattern of corporate abuses, particularly large mergers or ‘monopolies,’ were raising costs for consumers in several sectors. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/41D7bUs
Washington Files Lawsuit Challenging Trump’s Takeover of Police Department
“We are suing to block the federal government takeover of D.C. police. By illegally declaring a takeover of MPD, the Administration is abusing its temporary, limited authority under the law. This is the gravest threat to Home Rule DC has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it,” D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb posted on X.
“The federal government’s power over D.C. is not absolute, and it should not be exercised as such,” he said. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/45LU0C6
US military deploying over 4,000 additional troops to waters around Latin America as part of Trump’s counter-cartel mission
The deployment of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit to US Southern Command, which has not been previously reported, is part of a broader repositioning of military assets to the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility that has been underway over the last three weeks, one of the officials said. - CNN https://cnn.it/3JpYMgR
The U.S.-Russia Summit Is Already a Win for Putin
When Donald Trump meets Russia’s Vladimir Putin today in Anchorage, Alaska, the summit will be the latest in a series of concessions by the American president. Trump’s affection for Putin has waned—“I got along well with Putin,” he said this week, conspicuously adopting the past tense—as his frustration with the ongoing war waxes. Yet by inviting Putin to meet, he’s allowing Russia to further protract the conflict. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3HBwrng
Trump and Putin Put on a Show of Friendship but Come Away Without a Deal
President Trump gave President Vladimir Putin a warm public reception, effectively ending his diplomatic isolation over the past three years for his invasion of Ukraine. But Mr. Putin did not agree to stop the war. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47zVNfQ
What Was the Trump-Putin Meeting Even About?
Few East-West summit meetings in modern history have been preceded by as much speculation and uncertainty as Friday’s Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska. Few, if any, have concluded with even less clarity.
What was clear, though, was that Vladimir Putin was well satisfied. Reading from prepared notes — raising the question of whether they had been prepared before the meeting — at a press briefing after the three-hour meeting, the Russian president appeared especially satisfied with the fact that he, a pariah and wanted war criminal in Europe, was having what looked like a chummy face-to-face with the president of the United States, and on American soil, adjacent to Russia. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3UBbwng
How the Trump-Putin Summit Signals a Return to Imperial Thinking
“There’s been a powerful ‘countries don’t resolve their differences by annexing’ norm that’s held for a while, and Putin is obviously pushing on that,” said Daniel Immerwahr, a historian at Northwestern University and the author of “How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States.” “And Trump seems very comfortable with a reversion to the old rules.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mj6kjY
DC Police Chief Eases Restrictions on Working With Federal Immigration Agents
Police officers may now notify immigration agents during traffic stops and help transport illegal immigrants in custody to federal facilities. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/45SY9Ff
European Leaders Welcome Trump’s Call for Trilateral Talks on Ending Ukraine War
European leaders also vow to add sanctions on Moscow until peace is secured as Zelenskyy is set to meet Trump in Washington. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3JdvCld
Kennedy’s case against mRNA vaccines collapses under his own evidence
I reviewed Kennedy’s “evidence.” It doesn’t support ending mRNA vaccine development. It makes the case for expanding it. - STAT https://bit.ly/3HgK63b
Trump Bows to Putin’s Approach on Ukraine: No Cease-Fire, Deadlines or Sanctions
On the flight to Alaska, President Trump declared that if he did not secure a cease-fire in Ukraine during talks with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, “I’m not going to be happy,” and there would be “severe consequences.”
Just hours later, he got back on Air Force One and departed Alaska without the cease-fire he deemed so critical. Yet he had imposed no consequences, and had pronounced himself so happy with how things went with Mr. Putin that he said “the meeting was a 10.”
Even in the annals of Mr. Trump’s erratic presidency, the Anchorage meeting with Mr. Putin now stands out as a reversal of historic proportions. Mr. Trump abandoned the main goal he brought to his subarctic summit and, as he revealed on Saturday, would no longer even pursue an immediate cease-fire. Instead, he bowed to Mr. Putin’s preferred approach of negotiating a broader peace agreement requiring Ukraine to give up territory.
The net effect was to give Mr. Putin a free pass to continue his war against his neighbor indefinitely without further penalty, pending time-consuming negotiations for a more sweeping deal that appears elusive at best. Instead of a halt to the slaughter — “I’m in this to stop the killing,” Mr. Trump had said on the way to Alaska — the president left Anchorage with pictures of him and Mr. Putin joshing on a red carpet and in the presidential limousine known as the Beast. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HDMxwD
Sunday thought: America without a president
People ask me almost daily: “Can he really do this?”
My answer: He’ll do anything he can get away with.
He believes he can get away with anything as long as his Republican lapdogs remain in control of Congress, as long as congressional Democrats remain wimpy and disunited, as long as the Supreme Court immunizes him from prosecution, and as long as he feels he can disregard lower-court rulings with impunity. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4lBratY
First Lady Melania Trump Pens Letter to Putin About Protecting Children
First Lady Melania Trump shared a message of peace in a letter President Donald Trump handed to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their summit in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/47xbAvQ
THE TINY WHITE HOUSE CLUB MAKING MAJOR NATIONAL-SECURITY DECISIONS
During donald trump’s first term, his top advisers attempted to run a traditional process for shaping foreign policy, tapping experts from the White House’s National Security Council, debating recommendations from across the government, and steering the president away from decisions that they feared would damage America’s interests. But Trump was deeply mistrustful of the NSC, which he saw as too big, too cumbersome, and too attached to Republican orthodoxy.
Back in office, Trump has pushed away the help of career experts, and major decisions—the handling of the war in Gaza, for example, and negotiations over Ukraine—are now made by a tiny core group of loyal advisers, including Vice President J. D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chief of Staff Susie WiIes, and one or two others. The president “is now fully the quarterback, and he doesn’t want too many guys in the huddle,” a former official, who remains in close contact with the White House, told us. “And those that are there need to run the play he calls, no questions asked.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/45DRAVI
Letters from an American - August 16, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Yesterday, military personnel from the United States of America literally rolled out a red carpet for a dictator who invaded a sovereign country and is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes including the stealing of children. Apparently coached by his team, Trump stood to let Russia’s president Vladimir Putin walk toward him after Putin arrived at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, putting Trump in a dominant position, but he clapped as Putin walked toward him. The two men greeted each other warmly. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4ltoLkR
U.S. manufacturing production reported no growth in July as tariffs squeeze costs
The latest report from the Federal Reserve hints at a potential future decline in U.S.-based manufacturing production as import tariffs take effect. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3UBdfsL
Trump’s Selective Stance on Justice: Redemption for Some, Scorn for Others
President Trump, himself a felon, has shown particular leniency to criminals he seems to identify with — people who are white or wealthy, or who rioted in his name on Jan. 6, 2021. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47kF7cn
Ukrainians Fleeing Russia’s Attacks Say the Alaska Summit Was an Insult
Evacuees at a shelter in eastern Ukraine reacted angrily to talk that land that has long been theirs could be given to Russia in exchange for peace. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HzQLFE
Trump Announces He'll Sign Executive Orders Targeting Mail-In Ballots
The president said the move is needed before the November 2026 midterm elections. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3JtXRfu
NASA’s acting chief calls for the end of Earth science at the space agency
However, in abandoning Earth science, NASA would be violating the law that created the agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/3HuHZZE
Trump Has No Cards
President Donald Trump berated President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office. He allowed the Pentagon twice to halt prearranged military shipments to Ukraine. He promised that when the current tranche of armaments runs out, there will be no more. He has cut or threatened to cut the U.S. funds that previously supported independent Russian-language media and opposition. His administration is slowly, quietly easing sanctions on Russia, ending “basic sanctions and export control actions that had maintained and increased U.S. pressure,” according to a Senate-minority report. “Every month he’s spent in office without action has strengthened Putin’s hand, weakened ours and undermined Ukraine’s own efforts to bring an end to the war,” Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Elizabeth Warren wrote in a joint statement. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4mRXlWY
The Only Plausible Path to End the War in Ukraine
According to the Trump administration, the broad outlines of Vladimir Putin’s proposal to end the war in Ukraine are coming into focus. Ukraine would give Russia control of approximately 6,600 square kilometers, or 12 percent, of the Donbas (Donetsk and Luhansk regions) in eastern Ukraine—this includes territory that Russia does not now occupy. Russia would leave approximately 440 square kilometers of territory in Sumy and Kharkiv. That “land swap” on its own would be an impossible sell to the Ukrainians. But Donald Trump’s team is touting progress in another area, claiming that Putin would be open to a European security guarantee, including a military presence inside Ukraine, with an “American backstop” (although no U.S. troops would be in Ukraine). - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3HPUCyl
Four key takeaways from Ukraine talks in Washington
Despite optimistic words by Trump and some more lukewarm assessments from his European partners, by Monday evening there were no concrete commitments to security guarantees or steps towards a peace deal. - BBC https://bbc.in/464VyZ4
White House Meeting Ends With Few Signs of Progress on Ukraine
Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky huddled for several hours with the group of European leaders, who had rushed to Washington to support the Ukrainian president and emerged from the day in a publicly upbeat mood. Much of the discussion centered on how to put in place security guarantees for Ukraine in an end to the war, while Mr. Trump pushed for a trilateral meeting with Mr. Zelensky and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45IfVvb
Newsmax Will Pay $67 Million to Settle Dominion Defamation Lawsuit
Dominion Voting Systems sued the right-wing cable channel for broadcasting false claims that the voting machine company had rigged votes in the 2020 presidential election. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lJVToy
Republican Bid to Help Trump Move Past Epstein Falls Flat
Republicans in Congress managed to recess for the summer without voting on the issue, but it has continued to dog them and awaits them when they return. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3JvVpFl
An Ohio City Faces a Future Without Haitian Workers: ‘It’s Not Going to Be Good’
Springfield faced a crisis after Donald Trump falsely claimed Haitians were eating pets. Now his policies are driving out workers like Wilford Rinvil, who left for Canada. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3VhgENz
Trump Wants to End Mail-In Voting Ahead of Next Year’s Midterms
The president does not have the power to unilaterally change voting laws, and any executive order regarding elections is likely to see immediate legal challenges. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lTsdFS
6 Takeaways From Trump’s Meetings With Zelenskyy, European Leaders
Security guarantees, land swaps, and next meetings were discussed at a gathering of European leaders at the White House. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4mZwjwZ
20 States Sue Justice Department for Tying Crime Victim Funds to Immigration Enforcement
The states argue the DOJ exceeded its authority by conditioning the grants on sanctuary state compliance with the federal crackdown on illegal immigration. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3HRNBwW
Letters from an American - August 18, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Trump also reposted material from two QAnon-related accounts and pushed the QAnon belief that the Democratic Party is “the party of hate, evil, and Satan.” Trump has faced a rebellion among his QAnon supporters as he and administration officials have refused to release information from the federal investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and have moved Epstein's associate Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted of sex trafficking children, to a minimum-security prison camp and given her work-release privileges. It appears he’s working to make QAnon supporters forget that he was named in those files and to lure them back to his support. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3JPaFwX
Woman Arrested, Charged After Threatening to Kill Trump
Jones, who said on Facebook she recently moved to New York, was charged with violating laws prohibiting threatening the president and issuing requests for ransom. - Epoch Timeshttps://bit.ly/4oRTYBb
The Playbook Used to ‘Prove’ Vaccines Cause Autism
The health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., says he wants to understand what causes autism. It’s a perfectly laudable goal and one that scientists have been pursuing for decades. But after announcing a large new federal study on the topic, he made a shocking choice by bringing in the vaccine critic David Geier as a researcher.
In the scientific community, Mr. Geier is infamous for the deeply flawed studies he conducted with his father, Mark Geier, claiming that vaccines cause autism. Researchers have long called attention to the serious methodological and ethical defects in their work. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4fTF755
National pediatrics group splits with RFK Jr. on Covid vaccinations
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended the shot for all children between 6 and 23 months. - STAT https://bit.ly/4mvB9SD
RFK Jr.’s Wi-Fi and 5G conspiracies appear to make it into MAHA report draft
The Trump administration's plans to improve Americans' health will include a push to review the safety of electromagnetic radiation, echoing long-held conspiracy theories and falsehoods about Wi-Fi and 5G touted by health secretary and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The "Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy" draft doesn't mention top killers of kids. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4lM2eQh
Trump Buys More Time for Putin
The meeting at the White House today yielded little progress toward peace—but it could have been far worse. - NYT https://bit.ly/4mZEutg
Air Force’s top uniformed officer is retiring early in latest Trump military shake-up
Allvin joins other top military officials who have stepped down or been fired by Trump’s Republican administration during a broader leadership upheaval, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plans to slash the number of senior military positions in what he calls an efficiency effort and a purge of top officers who were believed to endorse diversity, equity and inclusion programs. - AP https://bit.ly/3Jt7tHr
Maine police officer arrested by ICE agrees to voluntarily leave the country
ICE arrested Old Orchard Beach Police Department reserve Officer Jon Luke Evans, of Jamaica, on July 25, as part of the agency’s effort to step up immigration enforcement. Officials with the town and police department have said federal authorities previously told them Evans was legally authorized to work in the U.S. - AP https://bit.ly/4mQV7qW
Trump Lets His Authoritarian Flag Fly With Mail-In Vote Threat
This despite the fact that Trump himself—and many in his first administration—have gladly used vote-by-mail when it suited them. Plus, let’s not forget that in 2024, after having experienced the very real electoral consequences of Trump’s vote-by-mail fear-mongering in 2020, Republicans spent millions of dollars to encourage Republicans to vote by mail last year. And it worked. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/45FcYtK
ICE Wrongly Suggests Lawmaker Doxxed Agents, and Racist Threats Follow
Federal officials shared a post on social media last weekend that wrongly accused a Connecticut state lawmaker of publishing detailed location information about deportation efforts by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, triggering a torrent of harassment against him. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3UMUpiq
In Pursuing Trump Rival, Weaponization Czar Sidesteps Justice Dept. Norms
Edward R. Martin Jr.’s conduct is part of a pattern in which top administration officials try to use the vast powers of the government to cast the specter of criminality on President Trump’s enemies. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mWC8ez
The Mind-Boggling Intrusiveness of Donald J. Trump
The Trump administration ranks among the most intrusive in American history, driving the tentacles of the federal government deep into the nation’s economy, culture and legal system. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lGSRRS
Ukraine Diplomacy Reveals How Un-American Trump Is
I am really trying to be fair in analyzing the Trump-Putin-Zelensky-Europe drama that has been playing out the past few weeks. I am trying to balance President Trump’s commendable desire to end the murderous war in Ukraine with the utterly personalized, seat-of-the-pants, often farcical way he is going about it — including the energy that everyone involved has to expend feeding his ego and avoiding his wrath, before they even get to the hellish compromises needed to make peace. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mtktv5
RFK Jr. Vowed to Find the Environmental Causes of Autism. Then He Shut Down Research Trying to Do Just That.
Erin McCanlies spent almost two decades at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health studying how parents’ exposure to chemicals affects the chance that they will have a child with autism. This spring, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. eliminated her entire division. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/45TDhgd
Top pediatricians buck RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine meddling on COVID shot guidance
The AAP has been among the most assertive medical groups to push back on the anti-vaccine tactics and actions Kennedy has undertaken as the country's top health official. Those include spreading misinformation about lifesaving vaccines; firing all 17 esteemed CDC vaccine advisors under the false pretense that they had disqualifying conflicts of interest; replacing those advisors with unqualified committee members who share Kennedy's anti-vaccine views; and unilaterally restricting access to COVID-19 vaccines without any evidence-based explanation. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/3JMv5qm
‘The city is dead’: D.C. restaurant reservations drop amid federal crackdown
Since President Donald Trump announced his takeover of the D.C. police force last week, restaurant reservations have dropped in the city by as much as 31 percent year over year for a single day, according to restaurant booking data. Business owners are concerned that the continued surge in law enforcement could impact their revenue during a vital period of the summer. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3HPuPq3
Texas House Approves Redistricting Map, Just as Trump Wanted
The Texas House passed an aggressively partisan congressional map on Wednesday after weeks of legislative combat, giving President Trump the gerrymander he requested — and possibly five new Republican seats in the U.S. House next year. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mXLYNa
Judge Halts Texas Law Mandating the Ten Commandments in School
A federal judge in Texas temporarily halted on Wednesday a state law that would have required the Ten Commandments to be visibly displayed in every public school classroom by Sept. 1. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3UFPNL0
Senate Adds Guardrails in an Effort to Force Trump to Obey Spending Bills
Leaders of the Appropriations Committee are trying to tighten up funding legislation to give the Trump administration less leeway to refuse to spend federal money. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47cTsY7
Deportation of 6-Year-Old Puts Spotlight on ICE’s Detention of Families
Immigration authorities have detained about 50 children younger than 18 in the New York City area since January. At least 38 of them have been deported. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mtoCix
What Trump Is Really Up to in Washington
You do not need the strongest powers of observation to see that crime is a pretext — and not the main reason — for the military occupation of Washington by federal agents and troops from the National Guard. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3UFPVtY
Would You Trust This Man With Your Elections?
With Republicans potentially losing their current seven-vote majority in the House in next year’s midterm elections (or, less likely, their six-vote majority in the Senate), President Trump has been sending clear signals of his intent to interfere with the fairness and integrity of those elections. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3VeI0nx
50% Steel And Aluminum Tariff Expands To Motorcycles And More
As if the Trump Administration's ever-changing tariffs weren't confusing enough, it has now expanded the 50% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to include 407 categories of items derived from these materials. According to Bloomberg, these include everything from baby booster seats to furniture components to motorcycles. Prices of imported motorcycles may be about to skyrocket as a result of no longer being safe from tariffs. Commenters on Reddit were quick to call this measure protection for Harley-Davidson's continuing troubles, but the truth is more complicated than that. - Jalopnik https://bit.ly/47GWVhO
How Deeply Trump Has Cut Federal Health Agencies
Done in the name of government efficiency, these reductions have left departments stretching to perform their basic functions, ProPublica found, according to interviews with more than three dozen former and current federal employees. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3UMUZN8
Hegseth’s expansive security requirements tax Army protective unit
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s unusually large personal security requirements are straining the Army agency tasked with protecting him as it pulls agents from criminal investigations to safeguard family residences in Minnesota, Tennessee and D.C., according to numerous officials familiar with the operation. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4mYcgyW
Letters from an American - August 20, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
President Donald J. Trump created a firestorm yesterday when he said that the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, located mostly in Washington, D.C., focuses too much on “how bad slavery was.” But his objection to recognizing the horrors of human enslavement is not simply white supremacy. It is the logical outcome of the political ideology that created MAGA. It is the same ideology that leads him and his loyalists to try to rig the nation’s voting system to create a one-party state. https://bit.ly/4oRM6Qa
NY appeals court voids the roughly $500 million civil fraud penalty against Trump
Thursday’s decision, which was not unanimous, leaves Trump still liable for fraud. The judges upheld his liability and tossed the penalty so the case could move forward for further appellate review.
New York Attorney General Letitia James plans to appeal the ruling. - CNN https://cnn.it/4oP6FfV
Trump Has No (Legal) Power to Mess With the Election
The idea, it seems, came from the Russian president. “Vladimir Putin, smart guy,” Donald Trump told the Fox News television host Sean Hannity following the summit between the two leaders in Anchorage, Alaska. Putin, Trump reported, had told him, “You can’t have an honest election with mail-in voting.” And that, apparently, spurred the president to act—sort of. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/41kNReA
Trump Keeps Defending Russia
This morning, the commander in chief made clear that he does not understand the largest war in Europe, what started it, or why it continues. Worse, insofar as he does understand anything about Russia’s attempted conquest of Ukraine, he seems to have internalized old pro-Moscow talking points that even the Kremlin doesn’t bother with anymore. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/47cxfti
‘MAKE MCCARTHY GREAT AGAIN’
The first thing Laura Loomer wanted to know when I called her earlier this month was whether this was going to be a “hit piece.” The self-described investigative journalist and unofficial adviser to President Donald Trump is familiar with the genre. She had just attacked the United States Army for praising a recipient of the Medal of Honor. She would soon claim without evidence that Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene—another person comfortable trafficking in unsubstantiated allegations—“gave blow jobs in the back rooms of CrossFit gyms.” Soon after that, she said that Palestinian children receiving medical care in the United States posed a “dangerous” threat to American national security. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3Ve79ie
"This isn't normal. This is what a dictatorship country looks like."
So, what does this all look like for DC residents right now? This past week, Rob Perez — a Navy vet, DC resident, and running content creator — decided to find out the old-fashioned way: by lacing up his sneakers and hitting the streets. His video documenting what's going on blew up with over 10 million views and nearly 2 million likes, giving everyone watching this all unfold at home a front-row seat to what's going down in the city. - BuzzFeed https://bzfd.it/3Jyy05Y
‘Flying Blind’: Trump Strips Government of Expertise at a High-Stakes Moment
Mr. Trump has gutted the National Security Council, the collection of foreign policy analysts who have helped guide U.S. foreign policy for decades, cutting the staff by more than half. He has purged experts from the intelligence agencies because of tangential connections to a nearly decade-old investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4n2dZU3
Judge Orders That ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Detention Center Be Shut Down for Now
A judge ruled that the state and federal governments acted illegally by not conducting an environmental review before building the center in the Florida Everglades. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45vNiRI
Taking on the Fed, Trump Combines Retribution Tactics With a Power Play
Since taking office again, President Trump has aggressively sought to expand his power, asserting a right to override spending decisions by Congress, dismiss leaders of traditionally independent agencies and push through legal and even constitutional barriers on issues including immigration and birthright citizenship.
At the same time, he has used the government to pursue his campaign of retribution against political and personal foes, instigating criminal investigations, demanding big payments, revoking security clearances and dismissing federal employees.
But when Mr. Trump called for the resignation of a Federal Reserve governor this week, it marked the merging of those two defining features of his second term. He was using the tactics he has employed in targeting his enemies in the service of an attempt to exert control over the central bank, which by law is structured to maintain substantial independence from political influence. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45PcWQ2
Judge Says Habba Has Served as U.S. Attorney Without Legal Authority
A federal judge on Thursday ruled that Alina Habba had been serving as New Jersey’s U.S. attorney without legal authority for more than a month, thrusting the state’s already paralyzed federal court system deeper into disarray and potentially placing limits on the president’s power to choose his own top federal prosecutors. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mtqCYb
3 Experts on What Trump Is Doing to the Economy
Josh Barro, a contributing Opinion writer, hosted a written online conversation with N. Gregory Mankiw, a professor of economics at Harvard and a former chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers under George W. Bush, and Betsey Stevenson, an economics professor at the University of Michigan and a former chief economist of Barack Obama’s Department of Labor and a member of his Council of Economic Advisers, to discuss the perilous status of economic data and the uncertain state of the economy. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Jw2F43
Deeply divided Supreme Court lets NIH grant terminations continue
The Supreme Court ruled that NIH grant terminations can continue, despite a lower court finding the policy arbitrary and capricious. The Court split on whether funding disputes should be heard in the Court of Federal Claims or District Court, ultimately deciding that the funding disputes should be heard in the Court of Federal Claims. This decision will likely delay funding restoration for researchers, potentially impacting ongoing research and scientific progress. - ArsTechnicahttps://bit.ly/3Vgo97v
MAGA World Is So Close to Getting It
The Fox News commentator Dana Perino has finally had enough. “You have to stop it with the Twitter thing,” she told the chief executive. “I don’t know where his wife is,” she fumed. “If I were his wife, I would say, ‘You are making a fool of yourself! Stop it!’” She went on to note that he has a big job, and that he has to be “a little more serious.”
What a relief to see someone from Fox, the flagship MAGA network, getting completely fed up with juvenile social-media behavior from a national politician. Except the chief executive in this case was not Donald Trump, the president of the United States, but Gavin Newsom, the governor of California. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3UG2SnB
Letters from an American - August 22, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
In these last days of August, with Congress on hiatus and the Epstein files looming, the Trump White House appears to be making a big move to consolidate power over the federal government, weaponize it against Trump’s opponents, and keep him in power indefinitely. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/41W2lle
Judge blocks Trump from cutting funding from 34 cities and counties over ‘sanctuary’ policies
A judge ruled late Friday the Trump administration cannot deny funding to Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and 30 other cities and counties because of policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration efforts. - AP / Japan Today https://bit.ly/3UM5K2f?
Search of Bolton’s Home Shows Uneasy Mix of Retribution and Law Enforcement
Federal agents searched John Bolton’s home, raising questions about the investigation’s motives. The search, accompanied by statements from Trump administration officials, reflects Trump’s campaign of retribution against perceived enemies. This echoes the FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, blurring the line between law enforcement and political vendettas. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mAbmce
Trump Gets His Revenge on John Bolton. Who’s Next?
Less than 12 hours after President Trump’s inauguration in January, he revoked the security detail protecting John Bolton, his former national security adviser turned critic, despite credible threats from Iran. Since then, Mr. Trump has repeatedly ridiculed Mr. Bolton on social media, including by calling him one of the “stupid people” making it harder to end the Ukraine war. The president has also continued his yearslong accusations that Mr. Bolton leaked classified information, without offering any evidence. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41nAcn4
Pentagon Fires the Defense Intelligence Agency Chief
The move comes weeks after the agency drafted a preliminary report contradicting President Trump’s contention that U.S. strikes had “obliterated” nuclear sites in Iran. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3UFE0wh
Trump’s FBI Raid of John Bolton’s Home Looks Like a “Five-Alarm Fire”
The FBI raid on John Bolton’s home, authorized by Trump’s FBI director Kash Patel, appears to be part of a larger pattern of Trump using law enforcement to target critics. This escalation includes targeting Fed governor Lisa Cook, Senator Adam Schiff, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, with Trump loyalist William Pulte involved in manufacturing pretexts for investigations. The militarization of cities, with Trump’s support, and plans for increased military involvement in domestic law enforcement further underscore this authoritarian trend. - New Republic https://bit.ly/478pnsN
Hegseth fires head of Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the latest senior military or intelligence officer to lose his position in a wider purge of national security agencies’ top ranks, according to two people familiar with the matter. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4lJkWrY
Trump suggests Chicago is next for federal crime crackdown, followed by New York City
"Chicago's a mess," he continued. "You have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent. And we'll straighten that one out probably next, that'll be our next one after this."
He said "the people in Chicago" are "screaming for us to come." (No, we are not.) - CBS https://cbsn.ws/3JpscvP
Trump’s count of wars he’s ‘settled’ remains a matter of dispute
"I’ve settled six wars and a lot of people say seven because there’s one that nobody knows about,” Trump told the commentator Mark Levin on Tuesday. On Friday, he told reporters, "I settled seven wars and actually if you think about pre-wars, add three more, so it would be ten.” - Bloomberg / Japan Times https://bit.ly/478pxjT
How Trump Used 10 Emergency Declarations to Justify Hundreds of Actions
In his seven months back in office, President Trump has declared nine national emergencies, plus a “crime emergency” in Washington. Those emergency declarations have been used to justify hundreds of actions — including immigration measures, sweeping tariffs and energy deregulation — that would typically require congressional approval or lengthy regulatory review, according to a New York Times analysis of presidential documents. (includes charts) - NYT https://nyti.ms/47bFuWz
As Trump Targets the Smithsonian, Museums Across the U.S. Feel a Chill
Some museums are changing or canceling exhibits, especially those that involve artworks that engage with gender, sexuality and race. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45JUFUl
Trump’s Ukraine Policy Is A Hot Mess
Trump’s about-face after a disastrous meeting with Putin last week has left Ukraine and our allies scrambling to limit the damage. - Status Kuo https://bit.ly/41mJsb1
Trump’s Ukraine Policy Is A Hot Mess
Trump’s about-face after a disastrous meeting with Putin last week has left Ukraine and our allies scrambling to limit the damage. - Status Kuo https://bit.ly/4mBu1nT
Trump fired the U.S. economic data chief. Argentina has a costly lesson for him
Argentina once booted statistician Graciela Bevacqua for refusing to produce lower inflation figures, deepening a cycle of turmoil. - Quartz https://bit.ly/47RC8Ir
In Washington Crackdown, Making a Federal Case Out of Low-Level Arrests
The stream of defendants who shuffled through a federal courtroom on Thursday afternoon illustrated the new ways in which laws are being enforced in the nation’s capital after the president’s takeover of the city’s police. They were appearing before a magistrate judge on charges that would typically be handled at the local court level, if they were filed at all. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3JzcTRb
Reframing Jan. 6: After the Pardons, the Purge
In its campaign of “uprooting the foot soldiers,” the Trump Justice Department has fired or demoted more than two dozen Jan. 6 prosecutors, even as those they sent to prison walk free. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45DPCpV
National Guard Patrols Begin to Carry Weapons in D.C.
In a statement, Maj. Michael A. Maxwell said that the change was directed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. On Friday, officials said Mr. Hegseth authorized Guard members to carry their weapons, though without giving specifics on how often members would be armed as they walked through the city. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HKslcE
Russia’s Top Diplomat Says There Is No Plan for Putin-Zelensky Meeting
The statement by Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov deals a blow to President Trump’s efforts to mediate an end to the war in Ukraine. - NYT The statement by Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov deals a blow to President Trump’s efforts to mediate an end to the war in Ukraine. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45CxJaR
America First? Not When It Comes to Your Health.
Dr. Kamila Naxerova is trying to understand how cancer spreads in the body. Dr. Rachael Sirianni is trying to find new ways to deliver drugs for childhood brain cancer. Dr. David Ho is trying to make breakthroughs in H.I.V. research.
These researchers and so many others worked to ensure that Americans had access to the best medical treatments available and that they had first access to those treatments. That is, they worked until the Trump administration gutted funding to the National Institutes of Health and froze grants to universities across the country. You can put a dollar amount on how much has been saved, but the cost of what has been lost is incalculable. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ULbQzY
Trump’s Stunning Power Grab on Elections
At first glance, President Trump’s Truth Social post alleging voting fraud did not look especially alarming — not, anyway, by this president’s singular standards. Mr. Trump’s long-debunked lies about stolen elections are no less malignant in 2025 than they were in 2020 and 2021, during his concerted effort to overturn his loss at the polls. Still, by now, persistent repetition has diminished the power of those lies to shock.
And yet something quite shocking did emerge from a second journey through the mangled syntax of Mr. Trump’s diatribe against “MAIL-IN BALLOTS” and “VOTING MACHINES THAT ARE A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER.”
Buried in the long harangue was an announcement: The president had a plan to “get rid of” election procedures that he alleged were scams. He intended to dictate, apparently by executive order, how states should count and tabulate the votes. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45Vqt8S
Judge to require that Kilmar Abrego Garcia remain in the US while he challenges deportation to Uganda
US District Judge Paula Xinis said during a brief hearing Monday afternoon that she’s planning to stretch out an existing hold on Abrego Garcia’s removal so she can more fully consider whether officials are violating his due process rights, including by deporting him to Uganda even after he said he fears being persecuted or tortured in the African nation. - CNN https://cnn.it/4oWiL73
Trump wants to go to heaven for ending the war in Ukraine. What religion is he?
"I wanna end it. You know, we're not losing American lives ... we're losing Russian and Ukrainian mostly soldiers," Trump said. "I wanna try and get to heaven if possible. I'm hearing I'm not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons." - USA Today https://bit.ly/3JCQ3YQ
Letters from an American - August 24, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
As the administration of President Donald Trump is using loopholes in the nation’s laws to claim the right to use the military against American citizens, Democratic governors are pushing back. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/47Oa2O7
Wilted Lettuce. Rotten Strawberries. Here’s What Happens When You Round Up Farmworkers.
The lettuce and tomato on your hamburger very likely came from California. The almonds and pistachios you snack on as well. There’s a good chance the olive oil on your pasta is from California. Did you pair that with a glass of wine? Probably California, too.
This bounty all depends on a reliable, skilled and experienced labor force that is overwhelmingly made up of immigrants: Over 80 percent of California’s hired farmworkers surveyed between 2015 and 2019 were from Mexico, and more than half were undocumented. Nationwide, an estimated 80 percent of farmworkers were born outside of the United States, and around half are undocumented. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4n7MvfO
Judge Bars Government From Blocking Funding to 34 Cities, Counties Over Sanctuary Policies
The order affects Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Portland, Chicago, and many more. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3VjvCTk
Trump Says NBC, ABC Should Lose Licenses Over News Coverage
The president called out the national networks for what he called unfair coverage of Republicans and conservatives. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/47NKd0G
Trump Fires Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook
In a published letter to Cook, Trump accused her of ‘deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter.’ - Epoch Timeshttps://bit.ly/4mBLooH
Trump, in a Move With Little Precedent, Says He Is Firing a Fed Governor
President Trump told Lisa Cook that he had found sufficient cause “to remove you from your position.” Ms. Cook and her lawyer said they would fight the firing. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47cTXS3
Trump Repeatedly Praises North Korea’s Dictator in Meeting With South’s President
Appearing eager to insert himself into one of the thorniest issues in Korean politics, Mr. Trump repeatedly mentioned having a good rapport with Mr. Kim, said the North had “great potential” as a country, and at one point offered to arrange a meeting between Mr. Kim and Mr. Lee. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mF8hHQ
Trump can't fire Jerome Powell. So he's going after the rest of the Fed
President Donald Trump's attempted removal of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook opens a new front in his months-long campaign to bring the central bank to heel on lowering interest rates. Now he's pursuing an overhaul to the Fed committee that casts periodic votes to decide borrowing costs. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3UOQYI0
Trump Is Sending a Terrifyingly Clear Message
The president is going after his enemies and undermining the American system. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/47dxvIx
Judge tosses Trump administration’s lawsuit against Maryland’s 15 federal judges, calling it a ‘constitutional free-for-all’
“Although some tension between the coordinate branches of government is a hallmark of our constitutional system, this concerted effort by the Executive to smear and impugn individual judges who rule against it is both unprecedented and unfortunate,” he added. - CNN https://cnn.it/4oW5KdR
Letters from an American - August 25, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Trump was there to announce an executive order charging Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth with creating “specialized units” in the National Guard that will be “specifically trained and equipped to deal with public order issues,” apparently setting them up to take on domestic law enforcement as part of Trump’s attempt to take control of Democratic-run cities.
At the press opportunity, Trump claimed that he saved Washington, D.C.—where crime was at a 30-year low before he took control of the Metropolitan Police Department and mobilized the National Guard—from such rampant crime that no one dared to wear jewelry or carry purses. “People,” he said, “are free for the first time ever.” - Cox Richardson https://cnn.it/4oW5KdR
Why Trump Built a Staff of Incompetent Sycophants
Leaders who value loyalty above all else have a symbiotic relationship with those unable to succeed on their own merits. - Center for Political Awareness https://bit.ly/45Q348Q
Reframing Jan. 6: After the Pardons, the Purge
In its campaign of “uprooting the foot soldiers,” the Trump Justice Department has fired or demoted more than two dozen Jan. 6 prosecutors, even as those they sent to prison walk free. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45Oo7IY
Trump’s Right-Wing Socialism
For decades, the American right and the Republican Party held themselves up as the defenders of individual citizens, corporations, and state and local governments against intrusive control from Washington. But where Ronald Reagan joked that the nine most terrifying words in the English language were I’m from the government, and I’m here to help, Trump’s credo is “I’m from the government, and I’m here to take over.” The debate in America is no longer about whether socialism can gain a foothold. It’s whether the socialism that dominates will be progressive or right-wing. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3USnr06
Trump signs executive order establishing ‘specialized’ National Guard units to address crime in cities
Under the newly signed order, Hegseth is charged with “ensuring that each State’s Army National Guard and Air National Guard are resourced, trained, organized, and available to assist Federal, State, and local law enforcement in quelling civil disturbances and ensuring the public safety and order whenever the circumstances necessitate, as appropriate under law.” A primary mission of the National Guard is already to be trained and available to assist law enforcement with public safety, often at the request of their state’s governor. - CNN https://cnn.it/4g1o0OW
Federal Appeals Court Says Pennsylvania Ballot Date Requirement Violates Constitution
‘We are unable to justify the Commonwealth’s practice of discarding ballots contained in return envelopes with missing or incorrect dates,’ the court said. - Epoch Timeshttps://bit.ly/4g1oaWy
Where’s Your Evidence, Mr. President?
President Trump’s attempt to fire the Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook is a grab for power in defiance of the nation’s laws, and if it succeeds, it will be to the detriment of the nation’s interests. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lKaLTV
Trump Is Trying to Shut Down a Lending Program That Helps His Voters
A bipartisan group of senators is trying to save a popular fund that boosts small businesses. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4oS459f
Trump Loses a Lawyer—And Much More
Last Thursday, a judge ruled that Alina Habba, Donald Trump’s pick to head the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey, has been illegally leading the office since July 1. That doesn’t just cause problems for Habba going forward: If Habba was not legitimately in office, the prosecutions that took place under her are all now in question. The administration has appealed the ruling. “I am the pick of the president,” Habba insisted on Fox News. “I will serve this country.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/47cdTo5
She Pushed to Overturn Trump’s Loss in the 2020 Election. Now She’ll Help Oversee U.S. Election Security.
Heather Honey, a high-profile denier of Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, has been appointed to a senior position in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in which she’ll help oversee the nation’s election infrastructure.
Honey is a protege of Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who tried to help Trump overturn the 2020 election results. In 2024, ProPublica reported that Honey had played a key role in Mitchell’s behind-the-scenes effort to change Georgia’s election rules to allow Republican officials to contest a potential Trump loss in that year’s presidential race. Honey also promoted election conspiracy theories, including one Trump cited in a speech to his followers before they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/41tEqcV
Wall Street braces for a Fed that bends to political power
President Donald Trump has called Federal Reserve officials a lot of names — “clueless,” “numbskull,” “a stubborn MORON,” “a stiff,” “too late,” “a bad person.” This time, he reached for something stronger than an insult.
On Monday night, the president informed Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook that she was “removed … effective immediately,” citing the Federal Reserve Act’s “for cause” clause. The allegations — old mortgage paperwork, loudly amplified by a political ally — will be tested in court. But the more important test has already begun: What happens to a central bank, to the dollar, and to global markets when the world’s most famous “independent” monetary authority looks like it can be shaped by the White House. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3HWXo51
FEMA Staffers Warned of Looming ‘Katrina-Level’ Disaster, Then Got Suspended
After Katrina, Congress built safeguards to protect the U.S. from future storms. Now, the Trump administration is rolling back those reforms. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4fUH8ho
FEMA Suspends Staff Who Signed a Letter Criticizing Trump
The letter, sent to Congress on Monday, said cuts made by the Trump administration had erased improvements made to disaster response since Hurricane Katrina. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45OoG5y
A MAGA Warrior Is Rifling Through Your Mortgage Paperwork
The process goes like this. Pulte clearly has a Trump enemies list. Whether he gets directed explicitly by the White House or just knows on his own what’s wanted really doesn’t matter. He sifts through everyone’s mortgage records, finds something that he claims is evidence of fraud and immediately makes a referral to the DOJ. Now it’s a “federal investigation.” From there he heads on to Twitter and announces that James or Cook or Schiff is guilty of mortgage fraud and under investigation. He goes beyond that and starts selectively releasing documents on Twitter or making claims about their guilt. - Talking Points Memo https://bit.ly/4mGIuPu
Stop excusing Putin, says Zelensky after second biggest strikes of war
‘Massive’ Russian aerial attack kills at least 15 in Kyiv, including four children, and injures more than 48. - The Times https://bit.ly/45SCHPB
Prosecutors Fail to Obtain Indictment Against Man Who Threw Sandwich at Federal Agent
It was a sharp rebuke to the prosecutors who were assigned to bring charges against those arrested after President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops and federal agents to Washington. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45W0nmf
Analysis-Inside Trump's DC crackdown: Swarms of agents and arrests for minor offenses
The records show Trump’s anti-crime task force was involved in at least 69 local cases over the past two weeks, of which nearly half were comparatively minor offenses, including misdemeanors. - Reuters/Yahoo https://yhoo.it/3HVEwmT
A Trump donor, now a regulator, leads effort to accuse president's foes of mortgage fraud
Bill Pulte, a Florida native, rose in Trump's orbit toward the end of his first term. After courting Trump for years on social media and through generous donations, he now runs the Federal Housing Finance Agency — a perch that has allowed him to target prominent figures who have crossed the president. - LA Times/Yahoo https://yhoo.it/4n5Mqcp
The hard-won hope of the long defeat
Let’s not mince words. It’s a dark time.
If you’re reading this, you feel it. You see federal troops on American streets as a political tool. You see a multi-front assault on our elections. You see the machinery of government — from a supercharged ICE to a weaponized Department of Justice — being wielded against those the regime dislikes. You see courts wavering, Congress cowering, and other institutions choosing accommodation over confrontation. The danger is real, and the exhaustion is profound. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/3JCPTRh
White House Says New C.D.C. Director Is Fired, but She Refuses to Leave
Susan Monarez was said to have refused to adopt Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s stance on vaccination policy. A lawyer for Dr. Monarez said the firing was “legally deficient.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/47dDRrl
F.D.A. Approves Covid Shots With New Restrictions
The agency’s fall recommendations underscore the goals of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to limit access to the vaccines, which he has long opposed. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HThBZs
We Are Not ‘Property of Donald Trump’
The White House does not belong to Donald Trump. It is the property of the United States — of the American people. The president is a temporary resident whose claim on the building lasts only as long as his time in office, which is set by the Constitution.
The Smithsonian Institution does not belong to President Trump, either. It is not even part of the executive branch. It was established by Congress in 1846 as a “trust instrumentality,” an independent organization backed by the government and administered by a Board of Regents that consists of the chief justice and the vice president of the United States, federal lawmakers and private citizens. In the broad sense, then, the Smithsonian also belongs to the American people, as an expression of their interest in “the increase and diffusion of knowledge.”
And it should go without saying that Washington — a city of 700,000 people with its own government and elected leaders — is neither the president’s plaything nor his possession. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mzfusP
The top 5 expenses driving Americans to borrow in 2025
For millions of Americans, the cost of everyday life has reached a breaking point. Inflation and tariffs have pushed prices higher across the board, leaving families struggling to keep up with routine expenses. - Quartz https://bit.ly/45V3udY
Letters from an American - August 27, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Cuts to city services have made it easier for Trump and his loyalists to insist the city (Washington D.C.) is being poorly taken care of, although violent crime is dropping there, not rising, and the Department of Justice’s own numbers show it is at a 30-year low. Now, with troops stationed in the city, Trump and his MAGA loyalists are demonstrating that they control the federal capital. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/47il5z6
Washington Mayor Bowser Says Crime Has Decreased Since Trump’s Federal Law Enforcement Surge
Muriel Bowser said falling carjackings, gun use, homicides, and robberies make neighborhoods safer, and the federal takeover has been integral to that progress. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4nshy6f
China Rejects Trump’s Proposal for Nuclear Disarmament Talks With US, Russia
China has poured cold water on President Donald Trump’s suggestion that it join the United States and Russia in talks about downsizing their nuclear arsenals, dismissing the idea as unrealistic. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/45HZCyn
Dismantling of Alligator Alcatraz to Continue After Judge Denies Request for Delay
The judge also found that “no new evidence or argument about the particular dangerousness of the detainee population” at Alligator Alcatraz was presented, nor did attorneys provide evidence for the need for the detention facility at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the middle of the Everglades. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4fZuBJP
The Emperor Has No Claws
Today, I want to discuss four significant constraints upon the man who believes he can do anything simply because he is the President of the United States. These are powerful forces that act every day to limit his options and rein him in. I want to lay them out plainly, not only to give us some basis for hope that we can survive his second term (however long or short it winds up being) but also to highlight where we should focus our own attention and lend our support. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/47Q5tTC
Top CDC Officials Resign After Director’s Ouster
“I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health,” Daskalakis said in a letter posted on X on Aug. 27, shortly after the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Monarez was no longer director of the CDC. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/425isx1
‘It Feels Like the CDC Is Over’
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is coming undone. The White House announced last night that it had ousted the agency’s newly sworn-in director, Susan Monarez, whose lawyers insist that she still has her job because only President Donald Trump himself can fire her. (Yes, it’s a mess.) Four top officials resigned yesterday. Two of them—Demetre Daskalakis, who was the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, and Debra Houry, who was the chief medical officer—told me that the group quit together to signal that they believe science is being ignored and that public health is in danger. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/462FSV6
The CDC Implosion Continues as Staff Stage Unprecedented Walkout
The real-time collapse of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has picked up the pace. Following the government’s attempted firing and pressuring of several senior CDC officials to step down this week, CDC staff staged a dramatic display of support for its departing leaders this afternoon.
The action was a direct response to the Trump administration’s recent meddling at the once well-respected public health agency. The staff, which included remaining senior officials, performed a “clap-out” for their leaving colleagues. The Associated Press hosted a live stream of the event, which you can watch below. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3JXh2ON
'Very bright and beautiful'
“WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA?” Trump wrote. “Seems like a Purge or Revolution. We can’t have that and do business there.”
Cue panic in the South Korean delegation. But not to worry: Lee knew what was required, and he rolled out one of the most ostentatious shows of flattery by a visiting foreign leader so far.
“I heard that you recently redecorated the Oval Office, and I would like to say that it looks very bright and beautiful,” Lee said of his surroundings, where no surface or wall space is free of a gold trinket, photo of Trump or political artifact. - Meanwhile in America https://cnn.it/4n9cvY5
Trump Targets Agencies Long Seen as Above Politics. Critics See Big Risks.
Now the independence of each of these American institutions is in question after President Trump, in a push to root out pockets of independence of government, has fired or taken steps to fire their leaders. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ncfa3o
Trump Administration Plans Immigration Crackdown in Chicago
The plans involve sending in hundreds of homeland security officers and using a naval base as a staging area. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4naSbWd
The Public Health Disaster Everyone Saw Coming
The firing of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, Susan Monarez, less than a month after she was confirmed by the United States Senate should worry those who care about public health and American science.
But the move should not be a surprise. It comes at the end of a tumultuous summer that included budget cuts, firings and resignations, a shooting of the agency’s headquarters and a raft of bewildering changes to process and protocol. And while it may well signal an alarming new turn in the steady dismantling of American public health, that demolition was already well underway. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Jywdhz
America Was Finally Turning a Corner on Opioids. Until Now.
Not so long ago, the scourge of opioids seemed unstoppable. More than 400,000 Americans died from drug overdoses between 2020 and 2023. The toll was more than twice as large as that from either guns or vehicle accidents. But 2023 now appears to have been a turning point. Since then, annual overdose deaths have declined more than 25 percent, thanks partly to a creative public health campaign to expand access to treatments like Narcan and Suboxone. The crisis is finally easing. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41u3O2f
What’s Next, Comrade Trump?
Mr. Trump is muscling his way into our economy in ways that are alien to traditional Republican principles, alien even to what more interventionist Democrats have argued for and wildly at odds with any sensible notion of how the relationship between government and business should be managed. - NYT https://nyti.ms/422XNtr
It Was Never Just About Crime
I was sitting on a restaurant patio on Capitol Hill with a friend last Monday when a motorist was pulled over by local police officers right in front of us. Within minutes, unmarked cars and federal agents — some wearing vests marked with the initials of Homeland Security Investigations and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — surrounded his vehicle. Once outside the car, he was placed in handcuffs. He was released after several concerned diners approached the agents.
A few days before that, I stepped outside to walk my dog and was surprised to see Homeland Security Investigations agents patrolling my block. By the time I got back to my apartment, they had surrounded a young woman in front of my building. She was not resisting arrest. The agents placed her in hand and leg cuffs bound together by chains. My neighbors and I watched as they whisked her away in an unmarked vehicle.
I don’t know who these people were or why they were targeted. But I’ve lived in Washington for over a decade, and I have never seen anything as chaotic as this on our streets. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4p0Dk2c
The CDC’s New Acting Director Is a Peter Thiel Pal (and a Total Nightmare)
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is in chaotic disarray, as a slew of resignations and an unprecedented walkout of staff have roiled the agency. At the center of the controversy is the CDC’s weirdo director, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose most recent contribution to public health dialogue was a bizarre rant about what passes through his mind as he stares at children. No wonder longtime agency staffers are losing their minds.
Now, in a development that is sure to help (sarcasm), Jim O’Neill, Kennedy’s deputy secretary, has been selected to take over at the agency. People are freaking out about O’Neill’s nomination because, well, he’s a freak—or, at the very least, he is anomalous in regards to his espoused beliefs and career experience and how little they seem to match his new job. But, as Stat reports, the sure-fire tell that this man waves a freak flag is his deep connections to PayPal co-founder and all-around weirdo Peter Thiel. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3HDq2Ip
C.D.C. Uncertainty Upends Covid Vaccine Access at CVS and Walgreens
State laws and regulatory chaos are driving the country’s largest pharmacy chains to require prescriptions or hold back altogether unless a C.D.C. panel acts. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4p1lwE6
Medicare Will Require Prior Approval for Certain Procedures
A pilot program in six states will use a tactic employed by private insurers that has been heavily criticized for delaying and denying medical care. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3JEaBQK
Missouri governor calls special redistricting session amid Trump pressure
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe on Friday announced a special session to draw new congressional maps – becoming the latest governor of a Republican-run state to accede to President Donald Trump’ s demands to undertake mid-decade redistricting.
Kehoe ordered lawmakers to return to the state capitol next week to take up the map-drawing, along with legislation aimed at weakening the state’s citizen initiative process. - CNN https://cnn.it/46enc5Y
Appeals court strikes down many Trump tariffs, but delays enforcement until October
A federal appeals court Friday struck down many of President Donald Trump’s historic tariffs, saying he unlawfully leaned on emergency powers to impose the import taxes.
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize tariffs like the ones Trump used the law for earlier this year, the Federal Circuit said in an unsigned opinion upholding a lower-court ruling against Trump’s tariffs.
The judges noted that Trump’s unprecedented tariffs are an overstep of his power because the ability to impose taxes, including tariffs, is “a core Congressional power” that the Constitution grants to the legislative branch. - CNN https://cnn.it/4g101PZ
Why Is the National Guard in D.C.? Even They Don’t Know.
President Donald Trump’s decision this month to deploy the National Guard to the streets of Washington, D.C., unleashed a torrent of coverage, criticism, and fear, along with a smattering of muted praise from some residents. More than two weeks later, soldiers are still deployed throughout the city, a physical presence amid the capital’s greenery as summer fades into fall. Their mission is ostensibly to stop violent crime, but many here and beyond fear that Washington is being used as a test case—the blueprint for Trump to deploy the National Guard across the country as a paramilitary police force—and that Americans are being conditioned to accept authoritarianism. (Trump seemed to say the quiet part aloud Tuesday in a Cabinet meeting when he declared, “The line is that I’m a dictator,” before claiming that he’s succeeding in halting crime in the city. “So a lot of people say, ‘You know, if that’s the case, I’d rather have a dictator.’”) - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3USXwFy
MAGA Has a New Favorite Slogan
As defenses of the naked politicization of federal law enforcement go, this rejoinder is not terribly convincing. But it is essentially the only defense that can be found for Trump’s campaign to turn the law into a shield for his allies and a weapon against critics and dissenters. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/47gSj1N
Trump cancels Kamala Harris’ Secret Service detail that was extended by undisclosed Biden order
Former presidents receive Secret Service protection for life. Harris, as a former vice president, received six months of protection after leaving office, according to federal law. That period ended on July 21. However, her protection had been extended for an additional year via a directive – not made public until now – signed by then-President Joe Biden shortly before leaving office, according to multiple people familiar with the undisclosed arrangement. - CNN https://cnn.it/47E0TYL
Trump tries to wrest spending power from Congress as government shutdown looms
The administration says it can cancel nearly $5 billion in international aid with or without approval from lawmakers under a little-tested theory called a “pocket rescission.” - WaPo https://wapo.st/3HTB0tk
Exclusive: Trump administration plans to send hundreds of Guatemalan children in government custody back to home country
The Trump administration is moving to repatriate hundreds of Guatemalan children in government custody who arrived in the United States alone, according to multiple sources familiar with the planning who described the scope of the effort as unprecedented. - CNN https://cnn.it/3Vomi0r
Online Shopping May Never Be the Same
Sellers offering the same style with similar materials found a way to reach buyers like me directly, thanks to online commerce and its associated marketplaces. That’s not going to change anytime soon. Instead, buying things will just become more painful. Someone will bear the burden of the new duties, and that someone is likely to be you. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4lR60YI
The Supreme Court Made a Bad Bet
On Monday evening, President Donald Trump opened up a new front in his campaign to take control of the Federal Reserve. He released a letter on social media purporting to fire Lisa Cook, a Joe Biden–appointed member of the Fed’s seven-person board of governors. The letter is part of what appears to be a coordinated effort by the administration to fill a majority of the board with loyalists. It is also a consequence of the Supreme Court’s willingness to throw out bedrock precedent and accept broad assertions of presidential power. The Court has created the conditions for a very dangerous situation: If the justices allow Trump’s removal of Cook to take effect, there will be little to stop him from driving other board members from their posts, and seizing power over the money supply. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4g75fK8
Did the White House Not Understand What Putin Was Really Offering?
American and European officials thought they had a real opportunity to end the war in Ukraine. President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin believing that a breakthrough was possible. Trump welcomed the Russian president to America, rolling out a literal red carpet. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rushed to Washington with European leaders, some of whom even sounded optimistic. Trump “broke the deadlock” with Putin, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said at the White House. “If we play this well, we could end this.”
Yet after that flurry of diplomacy, Russia has barely budged from its long-held positions on Ukraine. Putin and Zelensky have not agreed to the joint meeting promised by Trump. The fighting does not seem closer to a conclusion; today, Russia struck Kyiv with a barrage of missiles and drones, killing at least 15 people, including children. Instead, European officials say they’ve grown mystified by what exactly Putin promised the Americans behind closed doors, what U.S. officials took away from their discussions with Moscow, and where that leaves the effort to achieve peace. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4p0ONyQ
Airlines Are Reportedly Using Dummy Call Signs To Hide Record High ICE Deportation Flights
Numerous reports have emerged recently regarding efforts by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its contracted airlines to conceal deportation flights from public logs. The airlines are flying under false, so-called “dummy” callsigns to avoid being tracked by watchdog civil rights groups and members of the American public. - Simple Flying https://bit.ly/3JGR6ac
RX POST FACTO
The latest government cut made by the Trump administration is a single consonant. But it’s a pretty important one. At this point, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) might as well be renamed the CD, as RFK Jr’s quackery-based attacks on facts and science are squeezing out the experts who know something about the control and prevention part of the job. Susan Monarez, the recently confirmed head of the agency, barely had time to set up her office before she was removed from it. According to Richard Besser, CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a former acting CDC director: “She said that there were two things she would never do in the job. She said she was asked to do both of those, one in terms of firing her leadership, who are talented civil servants like herself, and the other was to rubber stamp vaccine recommendations that flew in the face of science, and she was not going to do either of those things.” The firing and constant political meddling led several other top CDC leaders to quit. “We knew … if she leaves, we don’t have scientific leadership anymore.” So now what? We’ll see a familiar pattern take place. Qualified people get fired or leave. Sycophants, stooges, frauds, charlatans, lackeys, lickspittles, bootlickers, and phonies take over. And this prescription is being filled across all of government, making the prognosis for the country’s health, both now and into the future, increasingly bleak. - Next Draft https://bit.ly/4p1asae
New Trump rule to ban VA abortions for veterans even in cases of rape and incest
The draft regulations, which also forbid providers from counseling female veterans about terminating a pregnancy, have generated nearly 20,000 comments in the federal register from conservative activists, abortion rights supporters and female veterans, many of them survivors of sexual assault. - Guardian https://bit.ly/47RT29M
Trump’s Global Tariffs Found Illegal by US Appeals Court
Most of President Donald Trump’s global tariffs were ruled illegal by a federal appeals court that found he exceeded his authority by imposing them through an emergency law, but the judges let the levies stay in place while the case proceeds. - Bloomberg https://bloom.bg/462QPWI
Most Trump tariffs are not legal, U.S. appeals court rules
A divided U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday that most of Donald Trump's tariffs are illegal, undercutting the Republican president's use of the levies as a key international economic policy tool. - Reuters/Japan Times https://bit.ly/3UWDzOa
Trump notifies Congress of plan to rescind billions in foreign aid
U.S. President Donald Trump asked Congress to claw back nearly $5 billion in already-approved foreign aid spending, a proposal timed to take advantage of the looming end of the fiscal year and allowing him to cut the funding himself if lawmakers fail to act by the close of September.
The maneuver challenges Congress’ spending powers and intensifies an already contentious battle over government funding, which is due to lapse Sept. 30. Democrats are sure to seek guarantees Trump will actually spend money lawmakers appropriate in exchange for their votes to keep the government open. - Bloomberg/Japan Times https://bit.ly/4lRJBui
Defying Congress, Trump Moves to Cut $4.9 Billion in Foreign Aid
The White House notified Congress that it plans to use a legally untested maneuver to circumvent lawmakers and claw back more money for foreign aid programs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3UTaPWE
Grand Juries in D.C. Reject Prosecutors’ Efforts to Level Harsh Charges Against Residents
For the third time in slightly more than a week, grand jurors in Washington have rejected efforts by federal prosecutors to obtain an indictment against a resident accused of a felony assault against a federal agent. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4n5LLrl
Transportation Dept. Cancels $679 Million for Offshore Wind Projects
The Trump administration’s campaign against wind power continued as it targeted funding for marine terminals and ports to support development of the industry. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HTLNUm
Appeals Court Rules Most of Trump’s Tariffs Are Illegal
A U.S. appeals court ruled Aug. 29 that most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs are illegal, saying that he exceeded his authority, but the judges let the import taxes stay in place while allowing the case to be sent back to a lower court. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4224bRB
Chicago mayor signs order aimed at resisting Trump’s planned immigration crackdown
The mayor’s order provides guidance and directives to the city’s agencies and law enforcement “in the midst of escalating threats from the federal government.” CNN previously reported the Trump administration is preparing to conduct a major immigration enforcement operation in Chicago as soon as next week, according to multiple sources familiar with the planning. - CNN https://cnn.it/41S2pCT
Chicago Mayor Signs Order to Block Possible Troop Deployment
The mayor’s order bars city police from assisting federal agents in immigration or joint patrols, calls on federal officers to identify themselves and wear body cameras, and directs city departments to explore legal and legislative steps to resist federal actions. It also urges President Donald Trump to “stand down” from deploying troops. - Epoch Timeshttps://bit.ly/3I1flzp
Trump’s ‘startling’ rapid deportation policy paused by U.S. judge
A U.S. judge blocked a Trump administration policy that for months has allowed federal agents to rapidly remove undocumented immigrants without due process from anywhere in the U.S. if they can’t quickly prove they’ve been in the country for more than two years.
The decision Friday puts on hold a rule enacted in January that has become a key element of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort. The rule expanded a policy known as "expedited removal,” which had long been used only for immigrants caught near the U.S. border and only if they’d been in the country for a few weeks or less. - Bloomberg/Japan Times https://bit.ly/3UTTpcw
Trump Says He Will Issue Executive Order to Require Voter ID
“Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. No exceptions!” Trump wrote on a post on Truth Social. “I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!!” - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3HXdI5M
Bernie Sanders: Kennedy Must Resign
Mr. Kennedy and the rest of the Trump administration tell us, over and over, that they want to Make America Healthy Again. That’s a great slogan. I agree with it. The problem is that since coming into office President Trump and Mr. Kennedy have done exactly the opposite. - NYT
Judge Blocks Pillar of Trump’s Mass Deportation Campaign
A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from carrying out fast-track deportations of people detained far from the southern border, removing, for now, one of the cornerstones of President Trump’s campaign to carry out mass deportations. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4g1KDCV
Trump Officials Move to Fire Most Voice of America Journalists
The Trump administration on Friday moved to lay off nearly all of the remaining staff at Voice of America, setting up a potential battle with a federal judge who had blocked attempts to restructure the federally funded news network. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45IDjsn
He Plagiarized and Promoted Falsehoods. The White House Embraces Him.
The day after President Trump announced the federal takeover of law enforcement in Washington, the White House invited the podcaster Benny Johnson to sit in what is called the new media seat at the administration’s press briefing. The privilege includes being called on first by the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47fXLlw
Removal of Guatemalan children in US custody expected to begin Sunday
A federal judge temporarily blocked the removals of unaccompanied Guatemalan minors in US custody early Sunday, though plans appeared to still be underway, according to an immigration attorney representing Guatemalan children who were transported out of their shelter after the judge’s ruling. - CNN https://cnn.it/4lXr0gG
Directors who quit U.S. health agency CDC warn it is 'destroying' protections
Senior experts who recently resigned in protest from the top U.S. public health agency denounced Sunday growing politicization of the organization, warning of a breakdown in the "firewall" between science and ideology. - AFP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/47nKNSJ?
U.S. Suspends Visas for Palestinian Passport Holders, Officials Say
The new policy goes beyond the restrictions announced by U.S. officials recently on visitor visas for Palestinians from Gaza. Last week, the State Department also said it would not issue visas to Palestinian officials to attend the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York next month.
The more sweeping measures, laid out in an Aug. 18 cable sent by State Department headquarters to all U.S. embassies and consulates, would also prevent many Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in the Palestinian diaspora from entering the United States on various types of nonimmigrant visas, according to four U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
The new measures affect visas for medical treatment, university studies, visits to friends or relatives and business travel, at least temporarily. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4p3DplW
‘I Want to Try and Get to Heaven’: Trump Gets Reflective on ‘Fox & Friends’
President Trump dialed into “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday morning and revealed his newest and truest motivation for brokering an end to the war in Ukraine: He’s worried he might not get into heaven after he dies.
“I want to try and get to heaven, if possible,” he explained. “I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4g39E0z
Trump’s Plan to Pack the Fed With Loyalists
Overhauling the central bank’s Board of Governors would grant the president greater sway over the Federal Reserve, an institution that is supposed to be independent from the White House. https://nyti.ms/429jfNk
In Trump’s Federal Work Force Cuts, Black Women Are Among the Hardest Hit
President Trump has cut hundreds of thousands of jobs from the federal work force, disproportionately affecting Black employees. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47n9cYL
U.S. would control Gaza, relocate all its people under new plan: report
It calls for at least temporary relocation of all of Gaza's population of two million, either through "voluntary" departures to another country or into restricted, secured zones inside the enclave during reconstruction, the newspaper said. - AFP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/3V36DDL?
Trump Calls on Pharmaceutical Companies to ‘Justify Success’ of COVID-19 Vaccines
President Donald Trump on Sept. 1 said that pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, should make public information that they’ve shared with him about their COVID-19 products. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/3K3EASa
‘It’s like when you see the tsunami coming in’: Agricultural economists are sounding the alarm about produce prices doubling
The first wave of grocery-price increases will likely hit this winter. Roberson predicted produce prices could rise 50% to 100% by early next year as inventories clear and new contracts kick in. And unlike past decades, when Washington would quietly ease border enforcement to keep fields staffed, today’s political environment suggests no such check. - Fortune https://bit.ly/4gsaAMh
Trump plans a hefty tax on imported drugs, risking higher prices and shortages
Trump has promised Americans he’ll lower their drug costs. But imposing stiff pharmaceutical tariffs risks the opposite and could disrupt complex supply chains, drive cheap foreign-made generic drugs out of the U.S. market and create shortages.
“A tariff would hurt consumers most of all, as they would feel the inflationary effect ... directly when paying for prescriptions at the pharmacy and indirectly through higher insurance premiums,’’ Diederik Stadig, a healthcare economist with the financial services firm ING, wrote in a commentary last month, adding that lower-income households and the elderly would feel the greatest impact. - AP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/4p5lqLS?
Trump Orders Have Stripped Nearly Half a Million Federal Workers of Union Rights
The termination of protections followed an Aug. 1 appeals court ruling on legal challenges to Mr. Trump’s directive. The order, signed in late March, directed 22 agencies to ignore contracts for employees in specific unions. Last Thursday, Mr. Trump signed a second executive order stripping union rights from thousands of other employees at six additional agencies. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3JK33vP
Crime Festers in Republican States While Their Troops Patrol Washington
The image of red-state governors mustering uniformed troops for duty in blue-state cities has left many Americans with the foreboding sense of a nation dangerously divided, perhaps even drifting toward open conflict. Mr. Trump denied statistical reality last week when he was asked whether he might send federal forces into high-crime cities in Republican-led states. “Sure,” he said, “but there aren’t that many.”
There are that many: Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield, Mo.; Birmingham, Ala.; Cleveland, Dayton and Toledo, Ohio; Tulsa, Okla.; Memphis and Nashville; Houston; Little Rock, Ark.; Salt Lake City; and Shreveport, La., all have crime rates comparable to Washington’s, according to F.B.I. statistics. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45OdOG5
Labor Day Protests Denounce Trump While Supporting Workers
Hundreds of events were organized by labor groups, local activists and Democratic Party officials, adding to a drumbeat of demonstrations in recent months, including the “May Day” protests that took place on May 1, the widespread “No Kings” protests in June and those last month opposing President Trump’s push to redraw congressional lines. - NYT https://nyti.ms/481I2qu
We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health
Mr. Kennedy has fired thousands of federal health workers and severely weakened programs designed to protect Americans from cancer, heart attacks, strokes, lead poisoning, injury, violence and more. Amid the largest measles outbreak in the United States in a generation, he’s focused on unproven treatments while downplaying vaccines. He canceled investments in promising medical research that will leave us ill prepared for future health emergencies. He replaced experts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified individuals who share his dangerous and unscientific views. He announced the end of U.S. support for global vaccination programs that protect millions of children and keep Americans safe, citing flawed research and making inaccurate statements. And he championed federal legislation that will cause millions of people with health insurance through Medicaid to lose their coverage. Firing Dr. Monarez — which led to the resignations of top C.D.C. officials — adds considerable fuel to this raging fire. - NYT https://nyti.ms/464btFX
Trump Is Wiping Out Unions. Why Are They So Quiet?
Mr. Trump and his administration have unilaterally stripped collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of federal workers. At the Department of Veterans Affairs alone, 400,000 workers, or 2.8 percent of America’s unionized workers, have lost their collective bargaining rights because of an executive order that will eventually affect more than one million federal workers. Mr. Trump ushered in Labor Day weekend on Thursday by continuing his assault on federal unions, adding the Patent Office, NASA and the National Weather Service to his list of targeted agencies. - NYT https://nyti.ms/461nknZ
A rule exempting small packages from tariffs is ending today. Here’s what to expect
Online shopping is about to get a lot more complicated — and expensive — as Trump ends a popular shipping loophole. - Quartz https://bit.ly/46nQdfy
The “Woke” Myth
Are Trump and Vance correct that museums, universities, and the media have a left-wing “woke” bias?
It’s the wrong question. It’s the question Trump would like everyone to be asking, but it obscures the more important question: Should government be determining the content of museums, universities, and the media? Or should the responsibility rest with these institutions? - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3UXqKmP
Judge says Trump administration’s use of US military in Los Angeles violated federal law
US District Judge Charles Breyer concluded that Trump’s use of thousands of federalized California National Guard members and US Marines to provide protection to federal agents during an aggressive immigration crackdown in the Los Angeles area ran afoul of the Posse Comitatus Act, a 19th Century law that generally prohibits the use of troops for domestic law enforcement purposes. - CNN https://cnn.it/4lYWwe0
Trump Admin Violated Law With Troop Deployment in LA, Judge Rules
In a Sept. 2 order, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said the federal government couldn’t use the California National Guard or any military troops deployed in the state to engage in arrests, apprehensions, crowd control, and other activities. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/480Cexq
Appeals Court Allows EPA to Cancel $16 Billion in Climate Grants
A divided federal appeals court on Sept. 2 ruled that the Trump administration may terminate $16 billion in grants to nonprofits intended to finance climate-related projects.
The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted 2–1 to reverse U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s injunction preventing the federal government from withholding the funds. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/45OUEQs
After He’s Gone
Should Trump leave office for any reason, his successor, JD Vance, would be even worse, or so the common expressed fear goes. This warning seems sensible given Vance is objectively smarter, more disciplined, and more cunning than Trump. But does it hold up to scrutiny? With recent developments and Trump’s visible physical deterioration, it’s time to analyze and assess the strength of this assertion. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4lVN2jL
U.S. experts blast Trump climate report
A report commissioned by the Trump administration that disputes the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change mimics tactics once used by the tobacco industry to manufacture doubt, leading U.S. experts said Tuesday.
In a sweeping 440-page rebuttal, 85 scientists accused the government of relying on a small group of handpicked contrarians who drew on discredited research, misrepresented evidence, and bypassed the peer review process to reach pre-determined conclusions. - AFP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/41Dads1?
THE ANTI-TRUMP STRATEGY THAT’S ACTUALLY WORKING
A legal resistance led by a patchwork coalition of lawyers, public-interest groups, Democratic state attorneys general, and unions has frustrated Trump’s ambitions. Hundreds of attorneys and plaintiffs have stood up to him, feeding a steady assembly line of setbacks and judicial reprimands for a president who has systematically sought to break down limits on his own power. Of the 384 cases filed through August 28 against the Trump administration, 130 have led to orders blocking at least part of the president’s efforts, and 148 cases await a ruling, according to a review by Just Security. Dozens of those rulings are the final word, with no appeal by the government, and others have been stayed on appeal, including by the Supreme Court. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/464cmyh
The Trump Administration Gets a Serious Scolding
Deploying these service members “for the purpose of establishing a military presence there and enforcing federal law,” Breyer wrote, “is a serious violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.” That law, passed in 1878, bars the use of the military in domestic law enforcement, except as allowed by the Constitution or by Congress. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3I6NPR1
For Trump, This Is a Dress Rehearsal
Yesterday, President Donald Trump ordered the National Guard to quell disorderly protests against immigration-enforcement personnel in Los Angeles. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared his readiness to obey Trump by mobilizing the U.S. Marines as well. These threats look theatrical and pointless. The state, counties, and cities of California employ more than 75,000 uniformed law-enforcement personnel with arrest powers. The Los Angeles Police Department alone numbers nearly 9,000 uniformed officers. They can surely handle some dozens of agitators throwing rocks, shooting fireworks, and impeding vehicular traffic.
If and when those 75,000 uniformed personnel feel overmatched by the agitators, California can request federal help of its own volition. When California has asked for needed federal help—during the wildfires earlier this year, for example—Trump has begrudged that help and played politics with it. Trump is now forcing help that the city and state do not need and do not want, not to restore law but to assert his personal dominance over the normal procedures to enforce the law. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4mKabH5
What We Lose by Distorting the Mission of the National Guard
The image of the Guard is no longer one of neighbors helping fill sandbags and issuing warm blankets after a storm. It’s soldiers standing post on city streets, functioning as police by another name. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/464elTf
Trump says he's set to order federal intervention in Chicago and Baltimore, despite local opposition
President Donald Trump says he will direct federal law enforcement intervention to combat crime in Chicago and Baltimore, despite staunch opposition from state and local officials in both cities. -WaPo https://wapo.st/3JOpu2Y
The US Population Could Shrink in 2025, For the First Time Ever
It's a story with massive economic and political significance. But it's receiving strangely little attention. - Derek Thompson https://bit.ly/46mccn5
Xi Redraws Geopolitical Map With Embrace of Putin and Modi
President Xi Jinping used a mix of bonhomie and economic allure this week to send Donald Trump a clear message: Beijing has too much global clout to be dictated by the US.
Cameras captured the Chinese leader in a rare, unscripted huddle on Monday with Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi — his most powerful partners in resisting America on the world stage — at a summit in the Chinese port city of Tianjin. At one point, Xi held the hand of his Indian counterpart, as the three men laughed casually, a striking scene given just months earlier New Delhi and Beijing were seen as rivals. Bloomberg/Yahoo https://yhoo.it/481ENPP
L.A. Ruling Complicates Trump’s Threats to Send Troops to More Cities
A federal judge’s ruling that President Trump has been using troops illegally to perform law enforcement functions in Los Angeles will — if it stands — pose impediments to any plans Mr. Trump may have for sending the military into the streets of other cities, like Chicago. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4m3TqWr
After Trump Says ‘We’re Going In’ to Chicago With Troops, Illinois Officials Slam Plan
Officials in Illinois condemned the Trump administration on Tuesday for a planned immigration crackdown and influx of federal agents into the city, calling it a political stunt that will terrify residents and inflame tensions in Latino neighborhoods.
“There is no emergency that warrants deployment of troops,” said Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, standing alongside other elected officials, including Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago and State Attorney General Kwame Raoul. “He is insulting the people of Chicago by calling our home a hellhole, and anyone who takes his word at face value is insulting Chicagoans, too.”
In the Oval Office on Tuesday, Mr. Trump was asked if he had made a decision on sending National Guard troops to Chicago, and he said he intended to do it over Mr. Pritzker’s objections. “We’re going in,” he said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3K7uVdi
Trump Signals Imminent Supreme Court Appeal to Protect Tariffs
President Trump signaled that he would ask the Supreme Court as soon as Wednesday to overturn a ruling that found many of his punishing tariffs to be illegal, claiming that an erosion in his power to wage a global trade war would inflict severe financial damage on the United States. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4nkH4u1
America's job market is flashing a new warning sign
The number of unemployed people surpassed job openings in July, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Wednesday. Job openings totaled 7.18 million in July while there were 7.2 million unemployed workers.
It's the latest warning sign from a labor market that has softened in recent months. Analysts say that uncertainty stemming from President Donald Trump's tariffs have made employers hesitant to hire and likelier to put their expansion plans on ice. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4pd1x5O
Newsmax sues Fox News, calling it a monopoly that abuses its power
Christopher Ruddy’s pro-Trump channel Newsmax on Wednesday filed an antitrust lawsuit against Fox News, accusing the Rupert Murdoch-owned broadcaster of illegally blocking competition in the right-wing pay-TV market. - CNN https://cnn.it/4p3E86N
Florida to End All Vaccine Mandates
“The Florida Department of Health, in partnership with the governor, is going to be working to end all vaccine mandates in Florida law,” he said at a press conference. “All of them.
“Every last one is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4m0DZ14
Delete, Delete, Delete: How FCC Republicans are killing rules faster than ever
The Federal Communications Commission's Republican chairman is eliminating regulations at breakneck speed by using a process that cuts dozens of rules at a time while giving the public only 10 or 20 days to review each proposal and submit objections. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4g9dpl6
CDC spiraled into chaos this week. Here’s where things stand.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention descended into turmoil this week after Health Secretary and zealous anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ousted the agency's director, Susan Monarez, who had just weeks ago been confirmed by the Senate and earned Kennedy's praise for her "unimpeachable scientific credentials." - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4mTxSwW
Florida plans to end vaccine mandates statewide, including for schoolchildren
The move would make Florida the first state to end a longstanding – and constitutionally upheld – practice of requiring certain vaccines for school students.
The state health department will immediately move to end all non-statutory mandates in the state, Ladapo said at a news conference. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was also at the event, said state lawmakers would then look into developing a legislative package to end any remaining mandates.
Ladapo said that every vaccine mandate “is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.” - CNN https://cnn.it/464gcXV
America Is Choosing Decline
When the president wants to slit the nation’s throat, the least we can do is not hand him the blade. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/3V0T1Ja
Trump’s move of SPACECOM to Alabama has little to do with national security
The Pentagon says the move will save money, but acknowledges risk to military readiness. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4ppHcub
States Go Their Own (and Contradictory) Ways on Vaccine Policy
California, Oregon and Washington said they would work together to review scientific data, saying the C.D.C. could no longer be trusted. But Florida said it would abolish all vaccine mandates. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3I4yQqO
Thanks to Trump, China claims mantle of the post-World War II order
Trump has plunged the world into an uncertain era of economic coercion and combat — one where many countries may see the merits in taking China’s side. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4m3PzbI
Triumph of the Insurrectionists
The Trump administration is on a mission to turn the perpetrators of January 6 into heroes. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/45Nvwth
Florida surgeon general says state will eliminate all vaccine mandates
“The idea that children would be allowed to go to school unvaccinated is absolutely frightening,” said Dr. Richard Besser, a former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/47yvR4t
Trump floats federal troops to New Orleans, not Chicago
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he may deploy federal troops to New Orleans next, not Chicago, and is waiting for governors to ask for help — a shift in his rhetoric about moving into major U.S. cities uninvited. - Politico https://politi.co/4mKe0Mr
Judge says Trump administration unlawfully blocked $2 billion from Harvard
A federal judge on Wednesday gave Harvard University a landmark victory in its fight against the Trump administration, siding with the Ivy League school in its effort to restore more than $2 billion in federal funding for research frozen by the White House.
The decision from US District Judge Allison Burroughs rejects the administration’s argument that it was targeting the university due to antisemitism on the school’s campus. - CNN https://cnn.it/3VloW7r
Trump’s New History Exhibit Features Fake Quotes From AI-Generated Founding Fathers
The White House recently commissioned a new history exhibit in Washington, D.C. created by the far-right “education” group PragerU. The exhibit features 82 paintings and 40 AI videos, presenting a rather distorted view of America’s founding.
The AI-generated videos even include fake quotes from the founding fathers, including one that seems like a joke. But the folks at PragerU are serious about their mission, even if the intention is to own the libs. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3JKNJ26
Crime Festers in Republican States While Their Troops Patrol Washington
The image of red-state governors mustering uniformed troops for duty in blue-state cities has left many Americans with the foreboding sense of a nation dangerously divided, perhaps even drifting toward open conflict. Mr. Trump denied statistical reality last week when he was asked whether he might send federal forces into high-crime cities in Republican-led states. “Sure,” he said, “but there aren’t that many.”
There are that many: Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield, Mo.; Birmingham, Ala.; Cleveland, Dayton and Toledo, Ohio; Tulsa, Okla.; Memphis and Nashville; Houston; Little Rock, Ark.; Salt Lake City; and Shreveport, La., all have crime rates comparable to Washington’s, according to F.B.I. statistics. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3JG2ROj
Scientists Denounce Trump Administration’s Climate Report
More than 85 American and international scientists have condemned a Trump administration report that calls the threat of climate change overblown, saying the analysis is riddled with errors, misrepresentations and cherry-picked data to fit the president’s political agenda. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47uYwr6
Judge Rules Trump Administration Illegally Canceled Harvard Funding
Harvard University won a crucial legal victory in its clash with the Trump administration on Wednesday, when a federal judge said that the government had broken the law by freezing billions of dollars in research funds in the name of stamping out antisemitism. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4nh7MUh
Florida Moves to End Vaccine Mandates for Schoolchildren
The announcement comes as the anti-vaccine stance of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s health secretary is causing tumult across federal public health agencies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in particular, has been engulfed in turmoil as the Trump administration has ousted experts, in some cases replacing them with people who align with Mr. Kennedy’s views. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47u61ym
Appeals Court Blocks Trump’s Use of Alien Enemies Act to Deport Venezuelans
Mr. Trump had made the Alien Enemies Act, which was passed in 1798, the centerpiece of his earliest efforts to summarily deport a group of Venezuelan immigrants he claimed were members of the street gang Tren de Aragua. In March, he issued a presidential proclamation that drew on the law’s sweeping powers to round up and expel members of a hostile nation in times of declared war or during an invasion or predatory incursion.
But the appellate panel, in a 2-to-1 decision, rejected his assertions that the American homeland was in fact under invasion by Tren de Aragua, rebuffing the idea that immigration, even at a large scale, was synonymous with a military breach of U.S. borders. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lZ4LHa
Senator’s Visit to Spy Agency Was Canceled After Laura Loomer Complained
Senator Mark Warner’s visit was classified and not intended to be publicized. It was to include a meeting with the head of the agency and a briefing on the agency’s use of artificial intelligence. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3JNRZhq
F.D.A. Official Overruled Scientists on Wide Access to Covid Shots
Memos released in recent days by the Food and Drug Administration show that the agency’s vaccine chief overruled staff scientists who favored widespread access to Covid shots, setting off a firestorm of criticism from lawmakers, state officials and doctors.
Agency staff members had concluded that the F.D.A. should allow a wide range of age groups to receive the vaccines, citing high hospitalization rates among young children with Covid and saying that the virus’s evolution is “complex and remains unpredictable.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3V16wZu
Consumers plan to reduce holiday spending for first time in 5 years, report finds
Holiday spending is set to fall for the first time since 2020 as consumers — thanks to inflation, tariffs, and more — are planning to shop smarter. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4p9xZpp
Letters from an American - September 03, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
The nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes that under the law (“One Big, Beautiful Bill Act”), a family earning less than $50,000 a year would get less than $300 in tax cuts in 2027 while losing access to Medicaid and food assistance, while a filer earning more than $1 million would receive about $90,000 in tax breaks. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the 10% of Americans at the bottom of the economy will lose about $1,200 a year. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4p9xZpp
DC sues Trump administration over National Guard deployment
The lawsuit, filed Thursday by DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb, claims the troops – many from out of state – have been deputized by the US Marshals office and are patrolling neighborhoods, conducting searches and making arrests, despite federal laws that generally bar the military from acting as local police. - CNN https://cnn.it/4m2mRIq
In win for infectious diseases, Florida to end all school vaccine requirements
Ladapo, who has a history of being anti-vaccine and spreading misinformation, went on to argue against the public aspect of public health, saying that there is "no ethical basis" for requiring vaccination to, in part, protect the most vulnerable from infectious diseases. That vulnerable people, such as newborns and the immunocompromised, may be unnecessarily exposed to vaccine-preventable, life-threatening diseases is just "part of the experience of life," Ladapo claimed. He also called mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, which saved millions of lives at the height of the pandemic, "poison." - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4m5LDHB
Trump DOJ is looking at ways to ban transgender Americans from owning guns, sources say
The talks, described as preliminary in nature, appear to build on an idea that has gained some currency in conservative media since the Minneapolis shooting that killed two children and injured 21, most of them children, at Annunciation Catholic Church, an attack that police say was carried out by a 23-year-old transgender woman. - CNN https://cnn.it/4lZ4y6E
US military kills 11 in strike on alleged drug boat tied to Venezuelan cartel, Trump says
The use of military force against Latin American drug cartels represents a significant escalation by the Trump administration and could have serious implications for the region. - CNN https://cnn.it/4m1srKM
Trump to Sign Order Renaming the Defense Department as the Department of War
The measure, which has been expected for some time, underscores Mr. Trump’s efforts to reshape the military to align with his goals of projecting a more aggressive image by showcasing war-fighting capabilities. -NYT https://nyti.ms/3JTz7xf
Trump signs order implementing U.S.-Japan trade deal; auto tariffs reduced to 15%
In return for Japan's promise to invest heavily in the United States during Trump's second term, most of its exports to the world's largest economy are now subject to a 15 percent tariff instead of 24 percent or 25 percent, as previously threatened. - Japan Today https://bit.ly/46prsQ7?
Trump Claims the Power to Summarily Kill Suspected Drug Smugglers
By ordering the U.S. military to summarily kill a group of people aboard what he said was a drug-smuggling boat, President Trump used the military in a way that had no clear legal precedent or basis, according to specialists in the laws of war and executive power. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4m1ACHa
A Defiant Kennedy Defends Vaccine Changes and C.D.C. Shake-Up
On Thursday, he insisted that he had lived up to his word. “I’m not taking vaccines away from anyone,” he said.
But in the seven months since he was sworn in, Mr. Kennedy has delivered a lukewarm endorsement of the measles vaccine; dismantled a panel of experts who make vaccine recommendations to the government; taken steps that will effectively restrict access to Covid-19 vaccines; canceled $500 million of grants and contracts for the development of mRNA vaccines; and, just last week, forced out the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because she disagreed with him on vaccine policy. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Ic5l6v
Justice Dept. Opens Criminal Inquiry Into Lisa Cook, Elevating Trump’s Claims
The move was instigated by Ed Martin, a Trump loyalist who has said it is legitimate for officials to publicly air criminal investigations into people targeted by the president. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45SicUA
John Deere, a U.S. Icon, Is Undermined by Tariffs and Struggling Farmers
The tractor maker said that sales were down and that higher metal tariffs would cost it $600 million, while American farmers face dwindling overseas demand for some crops. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mT5v1P
In Tariff Standoff With Trump, China Boycotts American Soybeans
U.S. farmers need to sell their incoming crop, and China needs to buy it in case its main alternative, Brazil, has a flood or drought. But their trade war prevents a deal. - NYT https://nyti.ms/482xvv8
Trump Tests the Limits of His Power With a New Airstrike
America’s quarter-century-old global war on terrorism took on a whole new dimension this week. President Trump on Tuesday announced that U.S. forces conducted an airstrike on an allegedly drug-laden boat traveling in the south Caribbean, killing 11 people suspected of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang and raising immediate questions about the legality of the attack.
Since then, senior administration officials have said little else about the strike or the intelligence that apparently underpinned the action. They haven’t said what legal authorities they were acting on. They haven’t identified exactly who or what was on the vessel. Secretary of State Marco Rubio first said the boat, which was traveling in international waters, was probably headed toward the Caribbean, then said it was bound for the United States.
The administration’s explanation essentially boils down to this: Trust us. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42kOLIn
Current state of the economy
The latest employment snapshot from the Bureau of Labor Statistics paints a bleak picture of the current state of the economy under President Donald Trump. - CNN https://cnn.it/3VANkSp
5 Takeaways From RFK Jr.’s Appearance Before Senate Committee
Kennedy said little is known about the long-term effects of the drugs, blaming the CDC and the National Institutes of Health. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4p8IDNe
US Appeals Court Rejects Trump Bid to Restore Passport Policy Targeting Transgender People
A federal appeals court on Thursday declined to allow U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to refuse to issue passports to transgender and nonbinary Americans that reflect their gender identities. - U.S. News https://bit.ly/4nnv4bg
South Koreans Are Swept Up in Immigration Raid at Hyundai Plant in Georgia
Agents on Thursday arrested 475 people, most of whom are South Korean citizens, at a construction site for an electric vehicle battery plant in Ellabell, Ga., near Savannah, Steven Schrank, a special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations for Georgia, said at a news conference. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3HViErX
RFK Jr. says COVID shots still available to all as cancer patients denied access
Kennedy's actions as secretary and his responses today drew criticism from both Republicans and Democrats, and multiple lawmakers have called for him to resign. But Kennedy seemed undeterred from carrying out his anti-vaccine agenda as the country's top health official. Just yesterday, news broke that Kennedy is working to install seven new people to the CDC's vaccine advisory committee, many of whom are also against vaccines. The seven new members would join the other seven new anti-vaccine members Kennedy already hand-selected for the committee, which was left vacant after he fired all 17 highly respected and thoroughly vetted experts from the committee in June. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4paTV3B
Top DOJ Official Caught in Catfish Video Claiming Gov Will ‘Redact Every Republican’ From Epstein Files
On Thursday, O’Keefe’s current organization, dubbed the O’Keefe Media Group, published a video involving Joseph Schnitt, a high-ranking official with the Justice Department. In the heavily edited video, Schnitt appears to discuss the Jeffrey Epstein files and seems to state that the government plans to politicize the future release of files. “They’ll redact every Republican or conservative person in those files, leave all the liberal, Democratic people in those files, and have a very slanted version of it come out where it’s ‘look at what’s going on’ without really seeing any of their Republicans’ bad behavior,” Schnitt says. The woman’s side of the conversation is only heard off-camera, and she’s the one who brings up the Epstein files. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/47xdaOq
A Different RFK Jr. Just Appeared Before Congress
Some Republican senators, it seems, have begun to fret that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was not being entirely honest when he sought their votes to confirm him as secretary of Health and Human Services. Back in January, Kennedy reassured lawmaker after lawmaker that he would not limit access to vaccines. But today, before the Senate Finance Committee, he aggressively defended anti-vaccine talking points, alarming Democrats and Republicans alike. “You promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines,” Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, a Republican, told Kennedy today. “Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3I77RuN
US manufacturing contracts for sixth straight month amid tariff drag
The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) survey on Tuesday also showed some manufacturers complaining that the sweeping import duties were making it difficult to manufacture goods in the United States. President Donald Trump has defended his protectionist trade policy, which has raised the nation's average tariff rate to the highest in a century, as necessary to revive a long-declining U.S. industrial base. - Reuters https://reut.rs/3I9CNKQ
Israel is blasting through Gaza City neighborhoods, but people have nowhere to go
Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said in a press briefing the military now has "operational control" of 40% of Gaza City and will continue to expand and intensify the offensive in the coming days. The military called around 60,000 reservists back to war to support the expansive operation, which Israel says is aimed at returning hostages and dismantling Hamas rule. - NPR https://n.pr/4mQyumT
Pete Hegseth’s Department of Cringe
It is almost impossible to overstate the inanity of this move. The United States has a Department of Defense for a reason. It was called the “War” Department until 1947, when the dictates of a new and more dangerous world required the creation of a much larger military organization than any in American history. Harry Truman and the American leaders who destroyed the Axis, and who now were facing the Soviet empire, realized that national security had become a larger undertaking than the previous American tradition of moving, as needed, between discrete conditions of “war” and “peace.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3JQYHmA
Chicago Could Be a Powder Keg
With Department of Homeland Security agents preparing to assemble in Chicago for an expected crackdown on undocumented immigrants, the Trump administration is starting down a dangerous road. Its incursion into Chicago may begin with pursuing undocumented immigrants, but with its threat to also deploy National Guard troops or active-duty military to combat crime more broadly in the city — over the objections of Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois — the administration risks provoking large-scale civil unrest. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mRAfjO
Second Weak Jobs Report Undercuts Trump’s Claims of a Booming Economy
When the federal government last month reported a sharp decline in the nation’s hiring, President Trump dismissed the numbers, claiming without evidence that they were “rigged,” and then ousted the official responsible for producing them.
The release of a second consecutive poor jobs report on Friday confirmed the reality that Mr. Trump has been trying to avoid. The labor market is stalling — and the nation is facing real strains — under the weight of his economic agenda. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4gcHaBA
The Return of the ‘War Department’ Is More Than Nostalgia. It’s a Message.
“More substantive than the name change is what they have done,” he said, citing the doubts of American allies that the United States would come to their defense and Mr. Trump’s gyrations in dealing with Russia. “Once that trust that serves as the glue of the alliance structure is eroded, we’ll pay a very high price to get it back, if we can recover it at all.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/46r3Zy0
Trump Thought He Was Leading on Trade. No One Is Following.
When the United States pushed to reduce tariffs and other trade barriers in the wake of World War II, much of the world followed its lead, embracing the argument from America’s leaders that increasing trade would increase prosperity.
Now, as President Trump pushes to reverse that history, raising new barriers to limit imports, it is increasingly clear that the world is no longer persuaded by America’s approach to economic policy. Other nations are not, for the most part, retaliating against the Trump administration’s policies by imposing higher tariffs on American goods. They also are not, for the most part, imposing higher tariffs on goods imported from countries other than the United States. The rest of the world is rejecting Mr. Trump’s protectionism. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ncXzrS
Chicago Braces for Trump’s Immigration Crackdown
Protesters held demonstrations and city leaders spoke against the prospect of a surge of federal agents. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4nirOxy
How Trump’s Blunt-Force Diplomacy Is Pushing His Rivals Together
Some of President Trump’s pressure tactics appear to have backfired, sending would-be allies into the embrace of China. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41FSIY0
Will Trump Have to Run From the Economy?
The economy added only 22,000 jobs in August, which, my colleague Lydia DePillis explained, is a sign that the labor market appears to be stalling. Looking backward, the news is even worse: A revision to June’s figures shows the labor market actually lost 13,000 jobs that month, making it the first negative number since December 2020.
There are other signs of trouble. A key measure of underlying inflation rose over the summer as Trump’s tariffs put pressure on prices, driving up the costs of things like furniture, appliances and clothing. Manufacturing activity has been shrinking for six months. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41F542u
Trump Is Scrubbing Slavery From Our Historical Sites
Mr. Trump aims to sand down — if not altogether erase — some of the more inglorious episodes of American history, particularly those involving racial and ethnic subjugation, to feed the ravenous maw of white grievance that fuels so much of today’s political discourse. This, of course, is antihistorical in every sense, a betrayal of the discipline’s most fundamental purpose: to learn from the past. If we ever aspire again to become one nation, the entirety of our past, including the enslavement of an estimated 10 million people, must be acknowledged as our shared history. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3JO0R6C
Appeals Court Upholds Order Blocking Trump Admin’s Passport Gender-Marker Policy
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts, which represented the plaintiffs, said the ruling ensures that “transgender, non-binary, and intersex people will continue to be able to obtain accurate passports.” - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/462h4hj
Speaker Mike Johnson claims Trump was an 'FBI informant' in the Epstein case
Johnson made the stunning comments in the halls of Congress on Friday after being pressed by CNN's Manu Raju about Trump routinely calling the Epstein files controversy a Democrat-invented 'hoax'. - Daily Mail https://bit.ly/3JR14WM
Sorry, Trump: Chicago Is Not The ‘Murder Capital Of The World’ — Not Even Close, Data Shows
“Chicago is a hellhole right now,” Trump said at Tuesday press conference in the Oval Office, saying that the city is the “murder capital of the world.”
The trouble with that statement? It’s not true, according to data from the Chicago Police Department and FBI. The data shows ongoing decreases in violent crime — and far worse homicide rates in other cities. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/46r4gkw
The World No Longer Takes Trump Seriously
The leaders of Russia, China, and North Korea are not good men. They preside over brutal autocracies replete with secret police and prison camps. But they are, nevertheless, serious men, and they know an unserious man when they see one. For nearly a decade, they have taken Donald Trump’s measure, and they have clearly reached a conclusion: The president of the United States is not worthy of their respect. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/466LZaP
Chicago today.
Thousands marching downtown against ICE and Trump’s regime. Another historic day. Democracy does not just speak, it shows up. - Pedro Gomez https://bit.ly/45TK9vd
Workers detained in Georgia ICE raid to be sent back to South Korea. Trump’s border czar says more such raids are coming
South Korean workers detained during a massive immigration raid in Georgia Thursday will be returned to South Korea on a chartered flight following negotiations, an official announced Sunday. - CNN https://cnn.it/41GR3S0
Immigration Raid on Hyundai-LG Plant in Georgia Rattles South Korea
The arrests left officials in Seoul reeling. Just last month, President Lee Jae-myung of South Korea met with Mr. Trump, and the two men reaffirmed their countries’ seven-decade-old alliance. They also agreed to a new broad-stroke trade deal. But officials from both sides remain engaged in tense negotiations over details of the deal, which was first announced in late July.
That uncertainty was reflected in South Korea’s shocked but subdued reaction to the raid. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4pbiltP
President of Peace, Department of War. A New Name Sends Mixed Signals.
He even suggested in a social media post on Saturday morning that he would go to “war” with a city in his own country where he has threatened an immigration crackdown. He said Chicago was “about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” along with three helicopter emojis. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4nclQhC
Trump Administration Drops Biden Plan for Flight Delay Compensation
The Trump administration said it will withdraw former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s plan to require airlines to compensate passengers for carrier-caused disruptions. -NYT https://nyti.ms/4pbeop1
Letters from an American - September 4, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Senators challenged the decisions of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. as he testified before the Senate Finance Committee for about three hours today. Kennedy has slashed through thousands of advisors and staffers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who do not share his animosity toward vaccines and has canceled $500 million in research funding for mRNA vaccine research. Last week he fired the newly confirmed director of the CDC, Susan Monarez, when she refused to pre-approve the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel Kennedy had stacked with anti-vaccine advocates.
Because of Kennedy’s history of repeating debunked lies and breaking promises he made to the Senate, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), the highest ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee, asked that the committee swear Kennedy in before he began his testimony. Committee chair Mike Crapo (R-ID) declined. Wyden said: “This committee’s unwillingness to swear this witness is basically a message that it is acceptable to lie to the Senate Finance Committee about hugely important questions like vaccines.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/46byarM
Letters from an American - September 6, 2025 - Heather Cox Richardson
Today the social media account of President Donald J. Trump posted an AI-generated image of Trump as if he were Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore from the 1979 film Apocalypse Now in front of the Chicago skyline with military helicopters and flames and the caption “Chipocalypse Now.” Kilgore loved the war in Vietnam in which he was engaged; his most famous line was “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”
Over the image, Trump’s social media post read: “‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning…’ Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.” The words were followed by three helicopter emojis, symbols the right wing uses to represent former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s goons’ disappearing political opponents by pushing them out of helicopters. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4moiO9z
Trump Tramples Congress’s Power, With Little Challenge From G.O.P.
On national security, spending and oversight, the president continues to undercut the legislative branch, and Republicans in charge have done little to stop him. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3JTpQp9
Trump Tried to Kill the Infrastructure Law. Now He’s Getting Credit for Its Projects.
Signs bearing President Trump’s name have gone up at major construction projects financed by the 2021 law, which he strenuously opposed ahead of its passage. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46aZbvr
Kennedy, Rejecting Data, Fuels Distrust of His Own Agencies
Mr. Kennedy’s defiant performance at the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, his critics say, put on vivid display what happens when someone with no medical or scientific training and a conspiracy-minded approach takes charge of the nation’s public health. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4njCk7E
Trump Downplays Post Threatening Chicago, Saying He Wants to ‘Clean Up’ City
The president had said on social media that Chicago was “about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” drawing a fierce rebuke from Democrats. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46du2Yn
Russia Steps Up Disinformation Efforts as Trump Abandons Resistance
Since returning to the White House in January, President Trump has dismantled the American government’s efforts to combat foreign disinformation. The problem is that Russia has not stopped spreading it. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3I3w5WU
Trump Is Met With Mostly Boos at U.S. Open as Security Delays a Match
But when he was shown on the video screens, fans unleashed a loud round of mostly boos, with some cheers mixed in. The president was on the screens only briefly as he stood and saluted. After the first set, he was shown on the screens again, and that time was met with louder, more sustained booing, as well as some cheers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4m5SQam
The Untold Saga of What Happened When DOGE Stormed Social Security
DOGE, he said, began acting like “a bunch of people who didn’t know what they were doing, with ideas of how government should run — thinking it should work like a McDonald’s or a bank — screaming all the time.” - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4npQODl
The economy is flashing warning signs from both jobs and inflation
As job growth stalls and prices rise, stagflation looms, leaving the Federal Reserve in a tricky position. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4pcd98P
Appeals court upholds $83 million verdict against Trump for defaming E. Jean Carroll
“We hold that the district court did not err in any of the challenged rulings and that the jury’s duly rendered damages awards were reasonable in light of the extraordinary and egregious facts of this case,” the appeals panel of judges wrote. - CNN https://cnn.it/4giaSVK
Supreme Court Lifts Restrictions on Immigration Stops in Southern California
A lower court judge previously blocked federal authorities from stopping or arresting individuals based on the language they speak or where they work. - Epoch Times https://bit.ly/4nr6syh
Supreme Court allows Trump to continue ‘roving’ ICE patrols in California
A US District Court in July ordered the Department of Homeland Security to discontinue the practice if the stops were based largely on a person’s apparent ethnicity, language or their presence at a particular location, such as a farm or bus stop. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals largely upheld that decision, which applied only to seven California counties.
But the Supreme Court disagreed with that approach. Though the court did not provide any analysis explaining its decision, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a member of the conservative wing who sided with Trump, wrote in a concurrence that the factors the agents were considering “taken together can constitute at least reasonable suspicion of illegal presence in the United States.” - CNN https://cnn.it/4nprc9C
Who can get a COVID vaccine—and how? It’s complicated.
As fall approaches and COVID cases tick up, you might be thinking about getting this season's COVID-19 vaccine. The annually updated shots have previously been easily accessible to anyone over 6 months of age. Most people could get them at no cost by simply walking into their neighborhood pharmacy—and that's what most people did.
However, the situation is much different this year with an ardent anti-vaccine activist, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as the country's top health official. Since taking the role, Kennedy has worked diligently to dismantle the country's premier vaccination infrastructure, as well as directly hinder access to lifesaving shots. That includes restricting access to COVID-19 vaccines—something he's done by brazenly flouting all standard federal processes while providing no evidence-based reasoning for the changes. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/3JS9OMa
GOP may finally succeed in unrelenting quest to kill two NASA climate satellites
This all leaves NASA officials and scientists in a lurch. Two of the missions with uncertain futures monitor carbon dioxide levels in the Earth's atmosphere. US taxpayers paid more than $750 million to design, build, and launch the instruments, and killing the missions now would save roughly $16 million per year.
One scientist says it's like buying a car and running it into a tree to save on gas money. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4nffDl8
America Surrenders in the Global Information Wars
Without openly saying so, the United States is reorienting its foreign policy to protect governments that manipulate and censor information, both inside their own countries and around the world. Our own national security could suffer. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3IaolCp
Supreme Court lifts limits on roving immigration patrols in Los Angeles area
Sotomayor, the first Hispanic to serve on the court, was joined in dissent by the court's two other liberals.
“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job. Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent,” she wrote. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4mUzAhz
Supreme Court allows Trump to fire FTC commissioner
The firings are a direct challenge to a 1935 Supreme Court precedent called Humphrey's Executor v. United States that upheld limits on the president’s ability to fire FTC commissioners without cause, a restriction Congress imposed to protect the agency from political pressure. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4n5h99G
West Point alumni group scraps prestigious award celebrations honoring Tom Hanks
"Tom Hanks has done more for the positive portrayal of the American service member, more for the caring of the American veteran, their caregivers and their family, and more for the American space program and all branches of government than many other Americans," said West Point Association of Graduates board chairman Robert A. McDonald in the June statement. - NPR https://n.pr/3V7Tmtx
Trump Administration Says It Has Begun Immigration Crackdown in Chicago
The Trump administration said on Monday that it had begun a crackdown on illegal immigration in Chicago, though local officials and advocates for immigrants around the city said they had seen only a handful of arrests so far. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3JMaLWr