President Trump had announced he would go on a “ride-along” with National Guard in Washington, D.C. Thursday evening, but he instead stopped by to “thank the National Guard and law enforcement” in the District. There, he handed out burgers and pizza, according to NPR’s Morning Edition. [From a White House video.]
•In the right column: Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay comments on dictator/President Putin’s dealing with President Trump.
•In the left column: Contributing Pundit Jerry Lanson on Trump quest for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Powell Makes Trump Happy? – The Dow Jones Industrial Average leapt by more than 800 points, or +1.8% by its third hour of trading Friday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell indicated interest rates are in for a cut when the Fed’s Open Market Committee next meets in September. In remarks before the Kansas City Federal Reserve’s annual Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, Powell said the “balance of risks” to the economy “appear to be shifting,” The Wall Street Journal reports.
“It is a curious kind of balance that results from marked slowing in both the supply and demand for workers,” Powell said. “And if those risks materialize, they can do so quickly in the form of sharply higher layoffs and rising unemployment.”
We’ll give you a moment to rub your eyes before explaining that slowing supply and demand for workers is what Wall Street considers good news. As the Trump administration’s constant tariff shifts continue with so far minimal inflation increases, the prospect of rising unemployment balances rising prices sufficiently for the Fed to consider the interest rate cuts President Trump has called for since before he took office again.
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FBI Raids Bolton’s Home – The FBI raided the suburban Washington home of former Trump 45 National Security Advisor John Bolton under an investigation ordered by agency director Kash Patel, the New York Post reports. The investigation, begun years ago and shut down by the Biden administration “for political reasons” according to the Murdoch-owned Post is said to involve classified documents.
Neocon Bolton, who served the first Trump administration from 2018 to 2019 and then became a fierce critic of the president’s international policy, first with his “White House memoir” The Room Where It Happened has been a vocal critic of Trump on CNN and NPR among other non-partisan news outlets. Trump revoked Bolton’s security detail on Day One of his current term.
FBI Director Patel posted on X-Twitter Friday morning in connection with the raid: “NO ONE is above the law.”
Bolton responded on X-Twitter moments later: “Russia has not changed its goal: drag Ukraine into a new Russian Empire. Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cede territory it already holds and the remainder of Donetsk, which it has been unable to conquer. Zelensky will never do so. Meanwhile, meetings will continue because Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize, but I don’t see these talks making any progress.”
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Catastrophic Famine – More than half a million people in the Gaza Strip “are facing catastrophic conditions characterized by starvation, destitution and death” the United Nation’s Integrated Food Security analysis reports Friday. In addition to the IFS Phase 5 designation for more than 500,000 Gazans another 1.07 million people, or 54% of the population, are in “emergency” Phase 4 and 396,000, or 20%, are in Phase 3 crisis mode. The Israeli government, which repeatedly has blamed Hamas for causing the famine crisis in Gaza, rejects the IFS report as “biased,” The Times of Israel reports. --Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa