The US economy added just 22,000 jobs in August and the unemployment rate ticked up by 0.1 points to 4.3%, the Labor Department said in its monthly employment release Friday. Trump administration/DOGE cuts took their toll, with decreases in federal jobs partially offsetting gains in health care employment. Employment levels fell also in mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction. The increasingly soft jobs market may result in President Trump getting the interest rate cut he wants when the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee meets September 16-17. [Chart: Bureau of Labor Statistics]
FRIDAY 9/5/25
This Means War – President Trump is expected to rename the Defense Department to the Department of War in an executive order, according to Newsweek. There was no such EO as of Friday morning. President Truman changed the name from Department of War to Department of Defense in 1947.
Meanwhile … Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s largest Rosneft oil refinery in Ryazan Friday, The Kyiv Independent reports, citing Ukraine’s military. Following a summit of European leaders in Paris Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron said 26 countries have committed to securing peace in Ukraine with boots on the ground as well as sea and air support to deter Russian aggression.
There were few specifics, according to The New York Times. But Friday, according to its report, Russian dictator/President Vladimir Putin said such western troops would be legitimate targets if deployed in Ukraine before he can reach a peace deal with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Putin said it would be “practically impossible” for him to meet Zelenskyy in face-to-face negotiations.
It’s a trap? … Putin said he would be willing to hold peace talks in Moscow.
War with Tren da Aragua … ‘War Department’ seems apt following the US military’s missile strike on an alleged Tren da Aragua drug boat originating from Venezuela that President Trump announced Tuesday. Eleven alleged Tren da Aragua members were killed in the strike, according to USA Today, which notes that Trump in August had secretly authorized military force against drug cartels. Like the Trump administration’s mass deportation of undocumented aliens, there was no due process here, though Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the US military will blow up more such cartels. Rubio, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel has had a long-held desire to confront Venezuela.
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Vax v. Anti-Vax – Too many eye-raising (and hair-raising) quotes from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his 2 hour, 56 minute grilling before the Senate Finance Committee Thursday, so we’ll direct you to C-Span’s full videos, split into Part 1 and Part 2, and single out the anti-vaxxer’s most outrageous, unbelievable answer.
The Setup: RFK Jr. in August fires Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez, whom the Senate confirmed in late July.
The Op-Ed: Monarez writes an opinion piece, after her CDC firing, for Thursday’s Wall Street Journal that says RFK Jr. asked her to “pre-approve” recommendations from the anti-vax panel of CDC advisors that Kennedy chose after firing the committee’s entire membership.
The Grilling: In Thursday’s Senate hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) asks RFK Jr. why he fired Monarez.
His Answer: “I told her she had to resign because I asked her, ‘are you a trustworthy person?’ And she said ‘no.’” –TL
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Congress Returns From Summer Break
THURSDAY 9/4/25
Senate Republicans are looking to spend tens of billions of dollars more than House Republicans and the White House seek on bipartisan spending bills, according to Punchbowl News. The Senate GOP is aiming for stopgap funding that would keep the government open through mid-November.
Harvard Wins – US District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs handed Harvard a win and President Trump a rebuke for freezing nearly $3 billion in research funding from the university over claims of antisemitism on campus, USA Today reports. Since returning to the White House, Trump has wielded such claims as a cudgel to beat down what the MAGA universe considers left-leaning ideology permeating the nation’s premier institutions of higher learning.
In her 84-page ruling in President and Fellows of Harvard College v. Department of Health and Human Services, Burroughs wrote that it is “difficult to conclude anything other than that defendants used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.”
For now … The Trump administration is expected to appeal the case.
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Epstein Victims Speak Out – Victims of the late convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein took to Capitol Hill Wednesday to demand greater transparency from the Trump White House and to call for release of all files related to the case (per Newsweek). The press conference was organized by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), co-sponsors of HR 581, the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
One of the victims, Chauntae Davis, said she felt “powerless” to speak out because of the men involved in the Epstein case.
“He bragged about his powerful friends, including our current president, Donald Trump,” Davis said. “It was his biggest brag, actually …”
Davis said she had been “taken on a trip to Africa with former President Bill Clinton and other notable figures.”
Khanna and Massie were accompanied to the press conference by notable pro-MAGA Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO). –TL
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WEDNESDAY 9/3/25
Blocking Deportations – The US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit late Tuesday rejected Trump administration attempts to use the Alien Enemies Act from the 18th Century for deportation of undocumented aliens, The New York Times reports.
Writing for the 2-1 appeals court majority, Judge Leslie H. Southwick said; “A country’s encouraging its residents and citizens to enter this country illegally is not the modern-day equivalent of sending an armed, organized force to occupy, or disrupt or to otherwise harm the United States.”
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Space Force Over Alabama – President Trump announced Tuesday he is moving the US Space Command from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Huntsville, Alabama, in part because of Colorado’s mail-in ballot laws, according to USA Today. Trump said the move will create more than 30,000 jobs in Alabama and hundreds of billions of dollars in investments (which Colorado will not get).
Notes:
•Trump in his first term created the Space Command for military use of NASA-esque technology and to oversee military satellites.
•President Biden during his administration announced the move to Colorado Springs, home of the US Air Force Academy.
•Though Colorado is considered a blue state, it is a typically split state, with Colorado Springs roughly serving as the point where east-west marks the point of the red-blue divide.
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Google This – In what’s considered a victory for Apple as well as Google, US District Judge Amit P. Mehta ruled in a Justice Department monopoly case that Google cannot pay to be the exclusive search engine on devices and browsers but can continue to make payments for distribution of its products, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Mehta last year ruled that Google used illegal distribution agreements with companies such as Apple to maintain a 90% market share that prevents rivals from developing competitive search engines. But in Tuesday’s ruling, he said the competitive dynamics of the marketplace already are changing, in part because of artificial intelligence.
Mehta’s ruling means that Google can continue paying Apple $20 billion per year to be the default search provider for the Safari browser.
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Ernst Out – Two-term Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said on CBS News she will not seek re-election next year. Ernst protégé Rep. Ashley Hinson has announced she will run for Ernst’s seat in 2026, according to Roll Call.
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Nadler Too – New York Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, 78, a former chair of the House Judiciary Committee also will not seek re-election in 2026, The New York Times reports. Already vying for Nadler’s seat are former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan, described by the NYT as a prog fave, 30-something Kennedy family politician Jack Schlossberg and ex-Rep. Caroline B. Maloney (D-NY), who lost her seat in 2022 in a “redistricting shootout.” –TL
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TUESDAY 9/2/25
Trump Deployment of US Military in LA ‘Illegal’ – President Trump’s deployment of US military troops in Los Angeles during immigration raids earlier this year violated the Posse Comitatus Act, and was illegal, US District Judge Charles Breyer ruled Tuesday morning, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“President Trump and (Defense) Secretary Hegseth have stated their intention to call National Guard troops into service in other cities across the country,” Breyer wrote, “thus creating a national police force with the President as its chief.”
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Senate and House Are In-Session – After summer break to meet with constituents and hold town halls in their districts – or cancel town halls in their districts – Congress returns to Capitol Hill this week facing the task of funding the federal government for the 2026 fiscal year by September 30, or face yet another shutdown.
First thing for the Senate Tuesday is a procedural vote to limit debate on the 2026 defense authorization bill, according to Roll Call. The bill would authorize $32.1 billion more than President Trump requested for defense and national security, as Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) called current threats the most dangerous “since World War II.”
While congressmembers were holding or ducking out of those summer break town halls, Trump announced in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) late last month he was invoking a “pocket recission” to unilaterally cut about $5 billion in congressionally approved funding from the current fiscal year.
There was bipartisan pushback on Trump’s recission, according to The Hill. Congressional Democrats hope the bipartisanship is enough to pass a budget they can live with and keep the federal government open and running after four weeks.
“In the Senate, we’re going to try hard to keep the government open and to pass appropriations bills,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), member of the Appropriations Committee, told Steve Inskeep on NPR’s Morning Edition Tuesday.
“If they continue in those efforts, I won’t support keeping the government open September 30. Because they’re already closing it in ways that are illegal and inappropriate. So we’re going to stand up to his nominees, his overreach, and I’m not going to go along with keeping the government open unless they change course,” Coons told NPR.
He conceded Democratic resistance to Trump is depended on some support from Senate Republicans. That means Lisa Murkowski (AL) and Susan Collins (ME) – who as chair of the Appropriations Committee issued a statement last Friday noting that the Office of Management and Budget says the recissions are illegal. Democrats will need two more Republicans. Lame duck Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is possible, though he mostly has given in to the president since late January, and in any case, Senate Democrats will need a fourth defector to prevent a tie that would be broken by Vice President Vance.
But in the House, where Democrats need five Republican votes to push back against Trump and his agenda, the Epstein Files issue is sticking to the president. Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) planned Tuesday to force a vote on their bill to compel full disclosure of Epstein-related documents “immediately,” Massie told Politico.
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SCOTUS Next – Most of President Trump’s tariffs are illegal, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Court in Washington, D.C., ruled, 7-4, last Friday (per Reuters). The ruling addressed Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs imposed during his April trade war as well as separate tariffs imposed last February against China, Canada and Mexico.
But the court allowed tariffs to remain in place through October 14 in order to give the Trump administration the chance to file an appeal with the US Supreme Court.
Now it’s up to Chief Justice John Roberts and associate Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.
White House senior counsel for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro sent a message to those four justices, telling Fox News Sunday Morning Futures it would be “the end of the United States” if SCOTUS were to rule against the tariffs. Navarro called the appeals court ruling “weaponized partisan justice.” –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa
–Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa