May hiring “blew past expectations” (The Wall Street Journal) with 172,000 jobs added to the economy and the unemployment chart above [Bureau of Labor Statistics] showing a steady, unchanged 4.3% rate. Hiring was up for leisure and hospitality, local government and health care, while hiring for financial activities (AI bankers?) declined.
TUESDAY 6/9/26
US ‘Copter Down in the Strait – A US Army Apaché attack helicopter crashed early Tuesday near the Strait of Hormuz, The Associated Press reports, but President Trump was quick to say its two crew members were not injured. Cause of the crash remains unknown.
Meanwhile, Israeli attacks have killed at least two members of Iran’s defense unit, Iran TV reports, per AP.
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MONDAY 6/8/26
UPDATE: President Trump’s Monday call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu worked, apparently. Israel says it is halting attacks on Iran, for now (per The New York Times). Iran also said it would cease shelling Israel, but like Israel warned it is ready to start right up again if necessary.
Ceasefire is Over, Between Israel and Iran – For the first time since the US-brokered ceasefire last April, Israel and Iran began launching missiles at each other over the weekend with the battles spilling into Monday, The Wall Street Journal reports. President Trump Truth Socialed that Israel and Iran must top.
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Oil Up, Gas Down – Oil prices were up 4% as Israel and Iran resumed fighting over the weekend, inching up toward the $100 per barrel level, according to Marketplace Morning Report, before settling down just below $92. Meanwhile, gas and diesel prices in the US continued to inch down in the wake of the now-suspended ceasefire.
Average national price of a gallon of regular unleaded slipped to $4.164 Monday morning, according to the AAA. That’s 9.7 cents cheaper than last Wednesday, but $1.191 over February 28. Diesel was down 9.3 cents from June 3 to $5.318 Monday, says AAA, up $1.521 since the beginning of the war.
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Leave the Press – President Trump again insisted the war with Iran is over and won (by his rebuilt military) before walking out on NBC News’ Meet the Press when host Kristen Welker pressed him on his unsupported assertion that Democrats are cheating on the California primary results.
“We’ve lost 13 people here and that’s a lot,” Trump told Welker in the interview that NBC News recorded at the president’s appearance in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin last Friday. That’s 13 people “too many,” he continued.
The president compared his four- to six-week war, now in its 15th week and having reached the 100-day mark, with 19 years in Vietnam.
“But, if you look at Vietnam, where hundreds of thousands of people were killed, if you look at any one of the last seven or eight wars where many, many people were killed, we lost 13. And again, 13 is too many. I don’t want to lose any. But 13 is less than anybody’s ever envisioned. I think we’re doing a great job.”
Trump mentioned his “success” in quickly overturning the government in Venezuela (a model for what was expected with Iran) and called the US blockade in the Strait of Hormuz “extremely effective” in diverting from Welker’s question about Iran’s blockade of the Strait that has driven up prices for oil, fertilizer, aluminum and other commodities.
Welker asked if Trump would ramp up the war on Iran if Iran kills more US citizens (this was a day before Israel and Iran began fighting) and the president said it “would be something that I would think about very seriously. But my red line would be if I think I wasn’t going to make a deal, or if I wasn’t going to make a deal fast enough. So we’re having very good negotiations with the people that are leading the country right now. It’s the third group that we’re dealing with.”
Trump refused to identify current Iranian leaders involved in peace talks with the US, and whether they might include supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father when he was killed in the initial round of US attacks on the Islamic Republic last February 28.
Welker also questioned the president on his controversial deal between the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service to set up a $1.776-billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that could pay “restitution” to Trump supporters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 [the deal also exempts Trump, his family and his businesses from any future IRS audits].
Trump responded by repeating lies about the 2020 presidential election being “rigged” against him and said with no evidence, that last week’s California primaries also were rigged. Welker tried to determine whether the Anti-Weaponization Fund was off the table, as acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said last week.
“Do you think that it’s appropriate that they have an election and five days later, they’re nowhere close to picking a winner?” the president responded. ABC, CBS and CNN are in on the rigged election, Trump asserted, as well as Welker, NBC and Meet the Press.
“You’re a one-sided crooked network,” Trump told Welker. “Sorry, let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough. Thank you darling. Have a good time.” – Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa
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FRIDAY 6/5/26
ICE Cubed – The Senate early Friday passed a “nearly $70 billion” ($69.5B to be closer to precise, according to The Hill) reconciliation bill that funds immigration enforcement through the rest of President Trump’s term by 52-47 vote after an 18-hour vote-a-rama in which numerous attempts to curb the Justice Department’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund” failed.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AL) joined all Democratic senators – including John Fetterman of Pennsylvania – in opposition to the reconciliation bill, according to CQ Roll Call.
The bill must now pass the House before it’s forwarded to President Trump’s Resolute Desk. While it’s tempting to point to the four Republican House members who Wednesday helped pass a resolution calling on Trump to withdraw from Iran as a potential stopgap, this last portion of the fiscal budget has been a major GOP cause as Democrats sought to rein in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol following the January killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
“Most watched” challenge to the president’s $1.776-billion Anti-Weaponization (slush) fund according to Roll Call was Sen. Bill Cassidy’s (R-LA) amendment that would restrict the fund’s payouts only for law enforcement officers (or next of kin) who died or suffered from the January 6th attack on the US Capitol in 2021. The failed amendment would have carved out approximately $100 million for the fund, offset by a cut to ICE.
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Bolton Deal – Trump 45 national security advisor and “US out of UN” United Nations ambassador under President Bush 43, John Bolton, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of mishandling classified information, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. The tentative plea deal is subject to a judge’s approval and would result in a $2 million fine and zero to five years in prison, “much less” than if Bolton’s attorneys had taken the case to trial, according to NPR’s Ryan Lucas.
Bolton was indicted last October on 18 counts of mishandling sensitive information, much of it highly classified according to NPR’s Ryan Lucas, which the Justice Department said was sent via text and email to two family members.
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Another Trump Renovation Project – As employees of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Performing Arts prepare to remove all references to the current president, including, “The Donald Trump and…” lettering above JFK’s name, according to a memo obtained by Politico, Washington, D.C. has yet another construction/renovation “need.” Trump told reporters Thursday he will build a walkway connecting the back of the Lincoln Memorial to the Potomac River, The New York Times reports.
‘They’ who? … “We’re going to call it ‘the promenade,’” Trump said. “They want to call it the ‘Trump Promende’, but I don’t know if I want to do that. But it’s going to be beautiful. It’s a beautiful project, and it’s going to take the Lincoln Memorial right down to the Potomac.” – Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa