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. 

•••

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.

•••

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 18^th 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.”

•••

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.

•••

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.

•••

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.

•••

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.”

•••

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. 

•••

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

_____
MONDAY 9/2/25

“So the line is that I’m a dictator, but I stop crime. So a lot of people say, you know, ‘if that’s the case, I’d rather have a dictator.’” – President Trump [Scroll center column for more.]

FRIDAY 8/29/25

Trump Nixes Security for Harris – President Trump has cancelled former Vice President Kamala Harris’ security detail, an unnamed senior White House official has told USA Today. Former veeps typically receive six months of Secret Service detail after leaving office, but ex-President Biden extended Harris’ to a full year according to the report – it was scheduled to continue to January 20, 2026. 

Other political enemies who have had their Secret Service detail cancelled by Trump include his former national security advisor, John Bolton, and the former president’s son, Hunter Biden.

“The Vice President is grateful to the United States Secret Service for their professionalism, dedication and unwavering commitment to safety,” Harris advisor Kirsten Allen told USA Today. 

Harris is preparing for a 15-city tour for 107 Days, her book on the 2024 presidential campaign scheduled for release September 23. 

•••

Cook’s Day in Court – A federal judge in Washington, D.C. hears Trump-besieged Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook’s request for a temporary restraining order today to prevent the president from firing her over allegations she fraudulently filled out a mortgage application a year before she joined the Fed in 2022. If the court grants Cook the restraining order, she can continue to serve while contesting President Trump’s attempt to fire her “for cause,” according to The New York Times.

If Trump is allowed to nominate a replacement he will gain a majority of his loyalists on the seven-member Fed board. Cook, whose term is set to run to January 31, 2038, also serves as a member of the Federal Open Market Committee, which holds its next meeting to set interest rates, September 16-17.

Cook has said she will not be bullied into resigning, the NYT notes. But it will be costly, as the Fed cannot defend her directly, for legal reasons.

•••

January 6 Whitewash, Cont.– The family of Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, shot and killed while rioting on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, will be offered full military honors, a spokesperson for the Department of the Air Force said Thursday (per Politico). The Biden administration previously had denied her family the honors. –TL

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THURSDAY 8/28/25

Missiles Over Peace Negotiations – Russia launched a large-scale attack, one of its most devastating of the war so far, on Ukrainian cities late Wednesday/early Thursday, The Kyiv Independent reports. Ukraine intercepted 563 of 598 Russian drones and 26 of 31 Russian missiles launched overnight, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. 

At least 18 were killed in Kyiv, at least 12 fatalities were reported in the Darnytski district, where a residential building was struck, and at least one fatality was reported in the Shevchenkivskyi district, according to Ukraine Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. Another 38 people were reported injured in the attacks.

The European Envoy in Kyiv, Katarina Mathernova, described the attacks as “Moscow’s true answer to peace efforts.”

•••

CDC Director Out After a Month – White House spokesman Kush Desai told The New York Times in an email late Wednesday that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez was “not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again” and thus “the White House has terminated Monarez from her position at the CDC.”

Dr. Monarez, an infectious disease researcher, was sworn in as CDC director by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just a month ago, but Kennedy has since tried to remove her following a “tense confrontation.”

Mark S. Zaid, an attorney for Monarez, responding after midnight Thursday, called the firing “legally deficient” because the president did not announce it. Desai did not respond to the NYT with a response to Zaid’s statement.

People “familiar with events” told NYT reporters that Monarez had clashed with Kennedy over his vaccine policy. Four other high-profile officials have quit the CDC en masse over vaccine policy and Kennedy’s leadership.  –TL

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WEDNESDAY 8/27/25

Trump Cabinet Celebrates Labor Day – President Trump’s “crackdown on crime” and ongoing fight to fire Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook were key issues during his televised 3-hour, 17-minute cabinet meeting in an increasingly gilded cabinet meeting room Tuesday. Trump touted his takeover of Washington, D.C., where crime was “the worst it ever was.”

“And now, over the last 13 days, we’ve worked so hard, we’ve taken so many criminals, more than a thousand…” Trump said.

He took swipes at Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who has authority over whether the National Guard should be deployed in Chicago (where Trump wants to deploy troops next) and the president said Cook should not be on the Fed board of governors because of unproven allegations of “mortgage fraud.”

Cook continues to fight the firing, over which it appears the president does not have authority. If Trump can flip the seat, his appointees will have a majority of the seven-member board.

Trump also seeks to rebrand the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, now that it is the tax and spending law for the coming fiscal year. 

“It’s a massive tax cut for the middle-class,” Trump said.

Most of the cabinet meeting was yet another praise-fest for President Trump, according to a New York Times analysis of the event. Each cabinet member took turns praising their leader and worked harder to out-praise each other. 

“Each one of these people spoke. If I thought one of them did badly, I would call that person out,” Trump said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave an update of shrimp contaminated with radioactive material and accused South Asian nations of “dumping shrimp” on Walmart, thus providing fodder for Trump’s tariff policies.

Secretary of State/acting National Security Advisor/acting United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/acting archivist Marco Rubio said, “Personally, this is the most meaningful Labor Day of my life, as someone who has four jobs.”

“That’s true,” Trump replied.

Billionaire special envoy Steve Witkoff laid it on thick, complimenting Trump’s leadership in Israel’s war with Gaza, where the Israeli Defense Force this week shelled a hospital, killing 20 including five journalists. 

“There’s only one thing I wish for,” Witkoff said. “That the Nobel committee finally gets its act together and realizes that you are the single finest candidate since the Nobel Peace, since this Nobel award was ever talked about.”

Witkoff called Trump the only person who could “solve” the Russia-Ukraine war, according to the NYT. 

Was that too much even for Trump?

“I don’t know, you’ve told me that a few times,” the president replied. “Unless he was saying it just to build up my ego. But it’s not really. I have no ego when it comes to this stuff.” 

•••

Greenland Again – Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen has summoned the US chargé ď affairs in Copenhagen to explain a media report describing a covert influencing operation in Greenland by American nationals connected to President Trump, Newsweek reports. Trump’s ongoing campaign to take Greenland for the US over military interests and mineral resources has been out of the spotlight in recent months.

“Any attempt at interference in the internal affairs of the kingdom [of Denmark] will, of course, be unacceptable,” Rasmussen told the Ritzau news agency. Newsweek reported it contacted the White House and US State Department for comment, outside normal business hours. --TL

_____________________________________________

Fired Not Fired

TUESDAY 8/26/25

Trump Tries to Fire Fed Gov – Citing unproven allegations of “mortgage fraud” by his Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director, President Trump says he has fired Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook (above) “immediately,” according to MPR’s Marketplace.

The Wall Street Journal Tuesday called the “firing” Trump’s “most dramatic step yet in his effort to take control of the independent central bank and its vast authority over interest rates.”

Biden administration appointee Cook late Monday rejected Trump’s social media announcement, saying the president does not have the authority to do so. 

Cook attorney Abbe Lowell said Trump’s “demands lack any proper process, basis or legal authority,” the WSJ reports. “We will take whatever actions are needed to prevent his attempted legal action.”

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, himself under constant pressure from Trump to cut interest rates, indicated at the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank’s annual Jackson Hole Economic Policy Forum last Friday the central bank would likely do so when it next meets in September. An interest rate cut from the current 4.25%-4.5% would likely be the result of a weakening jobs market rather than eased inflation, which remains stubbornly north of the Fed’s 2% target.

FHFA Director Bill Pulte, grandson of the founder of the nation’s third-largest homebuilding group has accused Cook, without evidence, of claiming on mortgage applications that homes in both Michigan and Georgia are primary residences. Primary homes typically garner lower mortgage rates than second homes.

•••

No ‘Zelenskyy Moment’ for Lee – South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s staff worried his White House visit Monday with President Trump “that we might face a ‘Zelenskyy moment,’” Politico reports, after Trump raised questions about South Korean democracy on social media earlier in the day.

That appears to refer to former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s sudden declaration of martial law last December. Yoon was quickly impeached and had his presidential powers removed, and in January was charged and incarcerated. 

Trump may have noticed similarities between Yoon and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who faces trial for attempting an alleged coup in January 2023 after losing a runoff in the 2022 presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Trump has imposed a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods, including coffee, due to Trump’s friendship with Bolsonaro, despite a US trade surplus with the country.

But President Lee prevented any such retribution Monday. He said the meeting turned out “beyond my expectations,” according to Politico. Lee said he thought he understood Trump because he has read The Art of the Deal, and indeed, the South Korean president showered the US president with praise going into the meeting. 

After the meeting, there were few details beyond the verbal agreement Lee made with Trump in July for a 15% tariff rate, more than $350 billion in South Korean investments into the US and $100 billion in purchases of US-sourced energy. 

Additional deals announced Monday include a $50 billion plan for Amazon to team up with South Korean companies to help launch small nuclear reactors with the online retail giant’s X-energy startup, and sale by Boeing and GE Aerospace of 103 Boeing aircraft to South Korea for $50 billion. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
TUESDAY 8/26/25

By Todd Lassa

President Trump’s Truth Social posts last Monday threatening yet another Constitution-bending executive order pretty much got buried by news of the rushed European Union backing of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that same day, which had followed a Trump meeting in Alaska the previous Friday with dictator/President Vladimir Putin that seemed to go Moscow’s way. Not to mention other top-of-the-page news including Israel’s impending takeover of the Gaza Strip, impending release of Epstein ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell’s interview with Justice Department Deputy Attorney Gen. Todd Blanche, the administration’s attacks on the Federal Reserve and, of course, the Texas state legislature’s unusual mid-decade gerrymander to give Trump five additional Republican US congressmembers he demanded for the midterms.

Those Truth Social Posts last Monday:

“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we’re at it, Highly ‘Inaccurate,’ very Expensive and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES, which cost Ten Times more than accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper, which is faster, and leaves NO DOUBT, at the end of the evening, as to who WON, and who LOST, the Election. …

“WE WILL BEGIN THIS EFFORT, WHICH WILL BE STRONGLY OPPOSED BY THE DEMOCRATS BECAUSE THEY CHEAT AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE, by signing an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.”

Superfluous capitalization as always, courtesy Trump. Reporting on Trump’s proposed EO – whether or not it has any legal legs -- courtesy The Hill.

Let’s tie this in with the Texas legislature’s redistricting (pending obvious legal challenges in the months to come) with Trump’s deployment of the National Guard (now with firearms!) and takeover of the Metropolitan Police in Washington, D.C., and this clampdown on mail-in – sorry, MAIL-IN – ballots and consider how Trump could use this to suppress voting in large, urban areas. 

Consider how Trump repeated his “Big Lie” well into the 2024 election campaign season, the one he won with a majority popular vote, that his 2020 loss had something to do with all those big city ballot deliveries in such swing states as Michigan and Wisconsin coming in mysterious deliveries well past midnight. 

In recent days, Trump indicated that after National Guard intervention in Washington, D.C., other cities could be next, first in Chicago according to The Washington Post, then New York City, Baltimore and potentially other cities with Democratic mayors.

Trump’s federal takeover of Washington officially has a 30-day limit. Among the 50 states, governors in each hold authority to call up their National Guard in the case of a true emergency (not being a state, the District of Columbia is the exception here), but there is much speculation that the Trump White House will challenge in courts its limits in this matter. 

Take that a step further: If lawsuits challenging the president’s authority to call in any sort of federal troops make their way up through appeals, quite possibly to the Supreme Court and timing-wise into next year, it would not be a stretch to see US troops occupying Democratic-led cities well into 2026 and even to the November midterms. Limiting crowds of voters at such polling stations would only affect districts in which a substantial population in surrounding suburban areas dilute the urban vote, of course. 

But if nothing else, such a “trial run” in the 2026 midterms could serve as a testbed for the 2028 presidential election, for which suppression of urban polls could affect the Electoral College vote outcome in many states. 

Is this paranoia? Conspiracy theory? Eight months ago, we would have said “yes” to these questions. In the months since, the Trump White House’s often successful attempts to steamroll the legislative and judiciary makes this a rational, necessary warning.

_____
MONDAY 8/2525

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.

•••

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.”

•••

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

_____
FRIDAY 8/22/25

[White House Video] Scroll down with the trackbar on the far right to read Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s right-column commentary on President Trump’s ceasefire/peace talks; “Monty Hall Would Shake His Head in Disbelief.”

Peace Talks? What Peace Talks? – Russia hit Ukraine with some 600 missiles and drones early Thursday, killing one and injuring 22, The Kyiv Independent and NPR’s Morning Edition report. One missile sparked a fire at a large US factory in Mukachevo, in western Ukraine near Poland, that produces civilian electronics. 

Russia launched the attack “as if there were no efforts to end the war,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as reported by the BBC.

•••

Pressure on Fed Governor – Biden-appointed Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook says she will not be bullied by President Trump, who is considering firing her “for cause,” The Wall Street Journal reports. 

“Cook must resign now!!!” Trump posted on social media, after his chief of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, homebuilder Bill Pulte, alleged also on social media Wednesday that Cook submitted what he called fraudulent information on a pair of mortgage applications. 

Pulte alleged that Cook listed properties in both Michigan and Georgia as primary residences, a designation that typically results in lower mortgage rates. 

Pressure on Fed … This comes ahead of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech Friday at the Kansas City Fed’s annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. If Powell indicates the Fed is about to lower interest rates, Trump’s pressure on Cook could subside -- a bit.

•••

California v. Texas Voting Maps – The Texas House of Representatives approved new voting maps, 88-52, that are meant to gain five Republican members of the US House in the 2026 midterm elections, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. The unusual mid-decade gerrymander/redistricting was requested – demanded – by President Trump who wants to build up the thin GOP majority of the current, 119^th Congress with those presumed five additional Republican congressmembers. 

The Texas vote comes after Democratic lawmakers fled the state to prevent a quorum.

Along comes Newsom … Presumed 2028 Democratic presidential candidate and California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been gearing up to counter the redrawn Texas maps. But because of California’s stricter redistricting laws meant to reduce gerrymandering, the state must first place the measure on a ballot initiative.

California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D) and state Senate President Mike McGuire (D) on Monday introduced Prop 50 as Assembly Constitutional Amendment 8, for this November 4^th’s ballot in order to redraw maps to gain five US House seats in time for the 2026 midterms, according to BallotPedia.

“They’re not screwing around,” Newsom said. “We cannot afford to screw around either. We have got to fight fire with fire.” --TL

_____________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 8/20/25

Pre-Trilat – President Trump told Fox & Friends Tuesday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian (dictator)/President Vladmir Putin, “not the best of friends,” will meet first to discuss a peace agreement in Ukraine, before a potential “trilat” between the three presidents. All these meetings give Russia more time to attack Ukraine and grab more territory Moscow will claim anyway, skeptics of this process would note, raising the question of whether Trump’s grand peace-making plan will ever make its way to the trilat.

“And I called President Putin (Monday) and we … I do have a good relationship, but it only matters if we get things done,” Trump told the Fox morning show’s fawning co-hosts by phone. “Otherwise, I don’t care about the relationship, but I want to get things done.

“You know, I’ve gotten … I’ve solved seven wars,” the hopeful future Nobel Peace Prize winner continued. “We ended seven wars. I thought this would be one of the easiest wars and this has turned out to be the toughest one.”

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Reservists for Israel’s Gaza Takeover – Israel is calling up about 60,000 reservists before its planned offensive to capture Gaza City, a number that roughly coincides with the number of Palestinians that the Hamas-run government there says have been killed by Israel since the war began in October 2023. Most forces to operate in Gaza City, the strip’s largest urban center, will be active-duty soldiers, according to The Guardian. 

Meanwhile, the newspaper further reports, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Wednesday that Israel’s assault on Gaza has caused “massacres and starvation” and that Israel’s wider actions are “killing all prospects for peace in the Middle East.”

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Texas GOP Up – Democratic state legislators have been forced back into Texas to give the state legislature the quorum it needs to fulfill President Trump’s demand for five additional GOP-secured seats in the US House of Representatives. The Texas House was set Wednesday to pass its unusual mid-decade gerrymander, according to The Texas Tribune. –TL

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TUESDAY 8/19/25

More Meetings To Come – Washington press are almost universally describing Monday’s meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, backed by seven European leaders, and President Trump, as short on progress. Trump did advance the cause by announcing a meeting between himself, Zelenskyy and Russian dictator/President Vladimir Putin, followed by a “trilat” of the three, all while Russia continues to bombard Ukraine because Putin convinced Trump to drop ceasefire demands and go straight to peace talks. 

Zelenskyy defended Ukraine’s interests in a “genial” meeting with Trump, The New York Times reports, as the two “huddled” for several hours along with Zelenskyy’s European wingmen and -women. 

While decidedly short on progress, US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s comments that the US could participate in an “Article 5-like protection” for Ukraine has emerged as potentially the biggest gain by Kyiv. Article 5 is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization provision that all its members step up to defend a single country attacked by a non-member.

Moscow already has indicated Article 5-like protection would be a non-starter, while it would be essential to Kyiv.

“It is important that the United States of America send a clear signal that they will be among the countries that would help coordinate and will also be participants in the security guarantee for Ukraine,” Zelenskyy told a press conference across from the White House, in Lafayette Park (per Punchbowl News).

But the key issue will be Putin’s demands for all of the Donbas region, which is a hard-stop non-starter for Zelenskyy, who maintains Ukraine’s constitution would not allow it without a vote by its citizens. What’s likely to come from further negotiations as dealt by Trump?

For Monday’s quickly arranged super-summit, Zelenskyy learned from February’s Oval Office disaster to a.) wear a suit and necktie, even if his was Elon Muskesque black-on-black, and to b.) effusively thank the president and his White House minions for … everything. The White House staff did not miss the opportunity to document praise from Zelenskyy and his fellow European leaders on the official site under the heading: “American Leadership is Back Under President Trump.”

“World leaders,” the Monday post reads, “credit President Trump’s decisive actions for reigniting the dialogue. Yes, the European leaders have learned the best way to counter Putin’s ability to direct Trump with compliments is with effusive praise. To wit:

•“I think that we had a very good conversation with President Trump. … it was really good. We spoke about very sensitive points.” –Zelenskyy

•“I really want to thank you, President of the United States, dear Donald, for the fact that you, as I said before, broke the deadlock basically with President Putin by starting the dialogue … From there, here we are today.” –NATO Secretary Gen. Mark Rutte

•“I think in the past two weeks, we’ve probably had more progress in ending this war than we have in the past three-and-a-half years.” –Finnish President Alexander Stubb

•“It is an important day – a new phase – after three years that we didn’t see any kind of sign from the Russian side that they were willing for dialogue, so something is changing – something has changed – thanks to you.” – Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni

•“I think today will be seen as a very important day in recent years in relation to a conflict which has gone for three-and-a-bit years, and so far, nobody has been able to bring it to this point – so I thank you for that.” –UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer

•“This is extremely helpful that we are meeting and hearing that the two of you are having such a good meeting today … The path is open. You opened it last Friday – but now the way is open for complicated negotiations.” –German Chancellor Friedrich Merz

•“Thank you, Mr. President, for organizing this meeting for your commitment … everybody around this table is in favor of peace … this is why the idea of a trilateral meeting is very important because this is the only way to fix it.” –French President Emmanuel Macron

• “We had a fantastic NATO Summit … We had the largest trade deal ever – agreed. And now, we are here to work together with you on a … lasting peace for Ukraine. Stop the killing. This is really our common interest. –European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

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State Capitalism? – Trump administration officials are discussing the possibility of taking a 10% stake in embattled chipmaker Intel in order to revive its fortunes and rebuild semiconductor manufacturing in the US, people familiar with the talks told The Wall Street Journal. This comes as SoftBank announced plans to invest $2 billion in Intel Monday, for the slightly discounted price of $23 per share.

That would give Japanese-based SoftBank about 2% of Intel, the WSJ estimates. Last December, Softbank announced it would invest $100 billion in US projects over the next four years under an effort designed to curry favor with the Trump administration. So … just $98 billion to go.

NOTE: A previous version of this story de-capitalized "SoftBank," a sort of reverse-Trump Truth Social mistake. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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TUESDAY 8/19/25