CPI +2.7% in June – The Consumer Price Index rose 0.3% month-over-month in June, for an annual rate of 2.7%, up from 2.4% in May, the Labor Department reports. All items less food and energy were up 0.2% for the month and up 2.9% for the year. [CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics]
TUESDAY 7/15/25
Trump and Putin -- Asked in a phone interview with BBC News whether President Trump was “done” with Russian dictator/President Vladimir Putin, Trump said; “I’m disappointed but not done with him.”
Does Trump trust Putin?
“I trust almost nobody to be honest with you.”
Ceasefire or tariffs ... That’s the latest offer from President Trump, who has grown tired with Russia dictator/President Vladimir Putin sweet-talking him about a ceasefire deal then going on to bomb Ukraine harder than before.
“I’m disappointed in Vladimir Putin because I thought we had a deal two months ago, but we’re not there yet,” Trump said in a White House meeting with NATO Secretary Gen. Mark Rutte.
Trump has ordered sale of 17 Patriot defense systems to NATO for defense of Ukraine, NPR’s All Things Considered reports. The arms are already in Poland and are ready for transport into Ukraine. Trump’s favorable reception at a NATO summit in The Hague last month in which most of the alliance’s European nations agreed to pitch in 5% of their GDP to the organization has gone a long way in swaying Trump away from Putin.
Trump also is threatening “secondary tariffs” of 100% on Russia’s trade partners, such as China and India, two of Russia’s major oil customers in 50 days if Putin does not agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine.
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Go Ahead; Cut the Ed Dept. – In an emergency docket ruling the Supreme Court Monday granted the Trump administration the ability to continue cuts to the Education Department, according to SCOTUSblog. The predictably 6-3 decision puts on hold a lower court ruling to require reinstatement of 1,400 Education Department employees already fired earlier this year as part of Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s efforts to reduce the size of its workforce.
The brief, unsigned ruling blocked US District Judge Myong Joun’s May order to block the firings. In his decision, Joun wrote that the Trump administration’s “true intention is to effectively dismantle the Department.
Congress was created by the Education Department, and opponents of the Trump administration’s actions believe only Congress can dismantle it.
The decision will “unleash untold harm,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her 19-page dissent, also signed by fellow liberal justices Elena Kagen and Ketanji Brown Jackson. --TL
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Mexico and the EU
MONDAY 7/13/25
The Tariff Saga Continues – One of the few companies that has not benefitted from the bull market on Wall Street in the face of President Trump’s tariff drama is President Trump’s own social media company, Truth Social. Shares in DJT (the stock’s symbol) hit $42.91 on January 13, but by last Friday, sunk by 2.17% for the day to $18.52 per share. Not making anyone’s 401k great again.
And yet Trump took to that very same Truth Social Saturday to post two letters to the European Union and Mexico alerting them that they face 30% tariffs on their goods coming into the US, beginning August 1, The New York Times reports.
Trump’s tariff level on Mexico previously was 25%.
Both Mexico, which is our largest source of imports, and the EU, which as a trading bloc of 27 nations is the world’s third-largest economy, have been in “intense” trade negotiations with the US, according to the report. Trump already had imposed a 10% “base line” tariff on the EU, whose policymakers were hoping to negotiate for certain important products.
The EU has a prepared retaliatory package that would apply to about 21 billion euros or $USD 25 billion Tuesday (unless EU officials pull a “Taco” – er, EUaco?).
Another loose end is whether the new tariff on Mexico would exempt any products that trade under Trump 45’s USMCA trade agreement.
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Obituary: David Gergen – David Gergen, the inside-the-Beltway advisor who wrote speeches, created communications strategies and helped set the agenda for Presidents Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, died Thursday in Lexington, Mass. He was 83.
Gergen was credited with “softening” Reagan’s rhetoric and suggested his rhetorical 1980 campaign question: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” --Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa
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Texas, Canada, Gaza and Ukraine
FRIDAY 7/11/25
Trump to Texas – President Trump heads to Texas Friday, where heavy July 4 flooding in Kerr County has claimed at least 120 lives, with more than 170 still missing, according to The Associated Press. Trump purposefully delayed his visit, saying he did not want to get in the way of rescue efforts. Trump also has been quiet about earlier statements he will shut down the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which coordinates aid to states hit by such natural disasters.
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Tariff-Watch – President Trump overnight threatened a new tariff of 35%, up from 25%, on Canada except for goods that comply with the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement from his first term, The Wall Street Journal reports, adding that Dow Jones stock futures are down for the day. (What that means is, expect another bad day on Wall Street to temporarily counter the stock market’s overall enthusiasm for the administration’s laissez-faire policies.)
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says he will work with the White House to clinch a trade deal by August 1.
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No Gaza Ceasefire – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left Washington Thursday without a Trump administration-brokered ceasefire in Gaza. Haaretz reports that “Differences even appeared” between President Trump and PM Netanyahu during two separate White House meetings held a day apart.
Foreign relations is hard … It appears the Trump White House is coming to the realization that when it comes to brokering peace in Gaza and in Ukraine, neither Netanyahu, nor Russian dictator/President Vladimir Putin are interested in helping the US president keep his promises about quickly working out “deals.”
Voicing his “disappointment” in Russia (and Putin), Trump told NBC News moderator Kristin Welker Thursday in a phone call for Sunday’s Meet the Press Trump said; “I think I’ll have a major statement to make on Russia on Monday.”
Trump is making something of a concession on his campaign promise to cut off military weapons aid to Ukraine.
“We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100%” he told Welker. “So what we’re doing is the weapons that are going out are going to NATO, and then NATO is going to give those weapons [to Ukraine], and NATO is paying for those weapons.” –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa