President Trump speaks to the UN General Assembly Tuesday [via C-Span].
THURSDAY 9/25/25
Shut-Down Threat – If Congress cannot reach a bipartisan agreement by 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time Wednesday, October 1, federal agencies are to “draw up plans” for permanent workforce layoffs, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought warned in a memorandum to those agencies, The Wall Street Journal reports. This would add mass firings in the federal government to the customary work furloughs during a funding lapse.
•••
Trying to Track Trump on Ukraine – After President Trump’s remarkable U-turn on the war in Ukraine in which he supports the country retaking land lost to Russia since at least February 2022, the question remains over the permanence of his position.
Is Trump truly over Russian dictator/President Vladimir Putin, who has used recent ceasefire attempts to escalate his attacks on Ukrainian civilians (while testing Polish and Estonian airspace)?
Does Putin no longer find Trump useful?
Trump did not get the chance to name the Ukraine war as his eighth peace deal, but he has successfully handed off responsibility – and funding – to the European Union and NATO.
Sanctions, too. European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen September 9 announced a fresh batch of them against Russia, according to The New York Times, while Trump seems to be satisfied with his indirect sanctions on China and India purchases of Russian oil.
Certainly, Trump cannot afford to have a cutoff of Russia’s oil supply affect global (and thus US) oil prices?
On Wednesday, von der Leyen told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Wednesday that if Moscow ignores other warnings, Russian jets that intrude on NATO airspace should be shot down.
“My opinion is we have to defend every square centimeter of the territory,” von der Leyen said.
This leaves the Trump administration’s policy for the war in Ukraine much like the Biden administration’s policy, less the $175 billion* the previous administration committed to the country and less fears over escalation to a Russian-NATO war, along with its nuclear warhead implications.
[*The Council on Foreign Relations on July 15 reported this level of US funding for Ukraine, as of April 2024, on refugees, law enforcement, independent radio broadcasts and mostly military-related expenditures.]
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the UN Wednesday that ending the war now “is cheaper than building underground kindergartens or massive bunkers for critical infrastructure later,” and “is cheaper than wondering who will be the first to create a simple drone carrying a nuclear warhead.”
While that might seem to be a warning about Russia’s weapons development, in fact Ukraine has become arguably the world leader in drone manufacturing. Ukraine’s drones have prevented Russia from making large-scale gains on the ground this year, Anne Applebaum writes in The Atlantic Daily, ensuring “that any territory occupied by the Russians comes at a terrible price, in equipment and lives.”
Ukrainian sea drones have cleared the Black Sea coast of Russian ships, and its air drones have targeted “many military objects, refineries and pipelines” that according to Applebaum have given Ukrainians belief such damage will force Putin to end the war.
•••
ICE Shooting – The shooter who killed an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee and injured two others at an ICE facility in Dallas Wednesday morning has been identified as Joshua Jahn, 29, according to Fox News. Jahn, who fired from a nearby rooftop left “five unspent shell casings” on the ground with “ANTI-ICE” written on them, according to The Texas Tribune.
President Trump Truth Socialed; “This violence is the result of the Radical Left Democrats constantly demonizing Law Enforcement, calling for ICE to be demolished, and comparing ICE Officers to ‘Nazis.’”
But a former Homeland Security official, Juliette Kayyem, told NPR’s Morning Edition that Jahn appears to have much in common with alleged Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson, 22, as a loner/relative newcomer to politics and an avid online gamer. –TL
_____________________________________________
WEDNESDAY 9/24/25
Trump-Putin Break-Up is Complete – Pundits and analysts are scrambling to figure out President Trump’s U-turn on the war in Ukraine as expressed in a press conference following his speech to the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday. Trump now says Ukraine can win back all the land seized by Russia since the beginning of the war more than two and a half years ago, because the Russian economy has become so weak.
It is not clear whether Trump supports Ukraine taking back parts of Crimea lost to Russia before the war.
Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the US president’s speech, which was to run 14 minutes (he began by complaining about a non-functional Teleprompter and up-escalator at the UN’s Manhattan headquarters), but went on for 57 minutes.
Asked whether NATO could shoot down Russian military aircraft, Trump told reporters, “Yes I do.” (NPR’s Morning Edition.)
Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal invoked NATO Article 4 after Russian jet fighters flew into her country’s airspace last Friday. This followed an incursion of unarmed drones Russia into Poland, some of which the Polish military shot down.
Trump Truth Socialed that Ukraine could recover its land lost in the war with the help of the European Union and NATO and called Russia a “paper tiger.”
“Russia is a bear, not a tiger,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian broadcaster RBC, according to the Helsinki Times. He added that there is “no such thing as a paper bear.” So there.
Break-up … Impetus for the break-up seems obvious. As Trump has attempted to make good on his promise to end the war, Russian dictator/President Vladimir Putin has taken advantage of ineffective ceasefire talks to increase attacks on Ukraine and continues to attack civilians.
As Putin strengthens his bond with China and India, Trump has become far less “useful” to the Kremlin.
Meanwhile, Trump dealmaking has resulted in member nations boosting their military contributions to NATO to 5% of gross domestic product.
About that speech … In the speech to the General Assembly, Trump blasted the UN for failing to live up to its potential – not an unheard-of position from a “traditional” Republican leader.
“It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them. I ended seven wars, dealt with the leaders of each and every one of those countries, and never even received a phone call from the United Nations offering to help in finalizing the deal,” Trump said (per Politico).
Trump also criticized UN members, specifically the European ones, for failing to adopt his style of anti-immigration policies.
“You’re destroying your countries,” he told them. “I can tell you I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell.”
Mobile phone threat surrounded UN … The US Secret Service says it has dismantled more than 300 SIM servers packed with more than 100,000 SIM cards, clustered within 35 miles of the UN, Politico reports. Investigators say the operation could have blocked out cell service that would hurt emergency response and counterterrorism, as well as far more than Trump’s Teleprompter at the General Assembly.
•••
As Kimmel Was Saying … Website LateNighter points out that Jimmy Kimmel’s first line upon his return Tuesday from his suspension over his monologue after Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk’s assassination, mimics that of Jack Paar, who walked off NBC’s Tonight for four weeks in March 1960 over a dispute regarding a segment the network edited out.
“As I was saying before I was interrupted …”
On return of his ABC-TV show Jimmy Kimmel Live! the eponymous host said “It was never my intention to make light of a murder of a young man.”
Kimmel said he was not trying “to blame any specific group for the actions of what was actually a deeply disturbed individual,” though he understood some of Charlie Kirk’s supporters might have taken his monologue that way.
Kimmel also praised Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk for forgiving her husband’s murderer at last Sunday’s memorial in Glendale, Arizona.
“That’s an example we should follow,” Kimmel said, adding it “touched me deeply.”
“This show is not important,” Kimmel said. “What’s important is we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”
Noting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s restrictions announced last weekend that reporters covering his department must pledge not to gather any information not formally authorized by the Pentagon for public release, including unclassified material, Kimmel said Trump “cannot take a joke.
“We have to speak out against this bully. He’s not stopping. And it’s not just comedy. He’s gunning for our journalists, too. He’s suing them. He’s bullying them.”
Trump reacts … With only minimal superfluous capitalization, Trump Truth Socialed Wednesday; “I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled.” –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa