The Consumer Price Index rose 0.1% in May, for an annual rate of +2.4%, versus +2.3% in April, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. Food and shelter prices are up 2.9% for the year while energy prices have fallen 3.5%. [CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics]

Vaxxed Out – Two days after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all 17 prior members, he named eight new choices for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Wednesday, including prominent anti-vaxxers (The Wall Street Journal). The committee makes vaccine recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including when and how often children and adults should receive them. Kennedy says the new committee would review existing vaccine recommendations as well as make new ones. 

“All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense,” Kennedy posted on X-Twitter.

Kennedy had promised not to pick “ideological antivaxxers” for the committee.

•••

Stuck in the Middle of G7 – President Trump’s isolationist international policy is pushing four “middle powers” among the Group of Seven nations as allies together over such items as trade deals, joint sanctions against Israel and military agreements, while distancing themselves from the orbit of the United States, according to The New York Times. 

Those four middle powers are the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Japan. That leaves the US, Italy and Germany outside that informal alliance. 

All seven meet as the G7 in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada Sunday through Tuesday. (This was the G8 until Russia was expelled for its invasion of Crimea in 2014.) We’ll likely to learn more about trade deals, sanctions against Israel and military agreements from closing news conferences, traditionally on the last day.

--TL

_____________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 6/11/25

‘Fanning the Flames’? – California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) accused President Trump of “fanning the flames” and “traumatizing our communities purposely” in calling in the National Guard and the Marines to suppress protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Los Angeles, where Mayor Karen Bass imposed a curfew Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Times reports. 

Bass’ curfew ran from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning for a one-square-mile portion of downtown L.A., NPR reports.

Meanwhile, ICE has expanded its immigrant raids into California’s agricultural heartland (which is much more conservative than coastal areas in the state). Still no word of whether there are ICE crackdowns on employers who have hired undocumented aliens.

TikTok target … The “world’s most popular TikTok star,” Khaby Lame, quickly left the US after immigration agents detained him in Las Vegas for overstaying his visa, which expired April 22, The Associated Press reports. The Senagalese-Italian influencer was detained at Harry Reid International Airport but was allowed to leave the US without a deportation order, which could have prevented him from being allowed back into the country for up to a decade.

Protests in your city? … Newsweek has published a list of cities where deportation protests are happening or are expected in the coming days. In addition to Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, where protests have been going on for days, there’s Burlington, Vermont, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte, North Carolina, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, Portland, Oregon and Sacramento, California.

•••

Is There a Taylor Swift Song for This? – Perhaps Elon Musk is worried about SpaceX federal contracts or whether Tesla will be able to offer driverless Robotaxis in all 50 states. Perhaps he doesn’t want President Trump to sell his Tesla Model S at a price that brings down the car’s residual values.

Whatever the case, Musk took to his X-Twitter at 3:40 a.m. Eastern Time Wednesday to apologize for some of his criticisms of the Trump administration (last year he contributed more than $275 million to the president’s campaign), according to Axios, which notes that the ex-Big DOGE did not specify precisely which comments were the subject of his apology. 

“They went too far,” Musk tweeted.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
WEDNESDAY 6/11/25

Elon Musk and Donald J. Trump in better times -- three months ago -- as the president buys a Tesla Model S. [White House photo] Read comments on the Trump-Musk breakup in the left and right columns, and in The Gray Area where Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay weighs in. Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news.

TUESDAY 6/10/25

Marines Invade L.A. – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has deployed 700 US Marines to Los Angeles to suppress protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in search of undocumented aliens at local businesses, the Los Angeles Times reports, while the White House has sent an additional 2,000 National Guard troops there (AP). The confrontation is a clash between President Trump as he flexes authoritarian powers, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, both Democrats. 

As deployment of the Marines and National Guard make for good video on Fox News, Trump administration critics are comparing his reaction here to his reluctance to deploy the National Guard to the Capitol during the January 6 insurrection. Guard troops arrived about 5:40 p.m. that day, after most of the crowd had dispersed, according to FactCheck.org.

Marines and the National Guard are in L.A. ostensibly to protect federal buildings and ICE officials from potentially “violent” protestors despite that the city has nearly 7,000 uniformed Los Angeles Police Department officers, according to The Atlantic Daily. There are 75,000 uniformed personnel in California’s state, county and local law enforcement agencies.

Mayor Bass called deployment of the Marines and National Guard a “deliberate attempt” by the Trump administration to “create disorder and chaos in our city,” The Associated Press reports. 

Trump said on social media Tuesday morning that L.A. would “burn to the ground” without the troops, NPR reports. 

Gov. Newsom responded to Trump administration’s threats to have him arrested along with Bass in an interview with Politicosaying, “It’s just an extraordinary moment, and I don’t want to overstate it, but these are the words of an authoritarian. Whether he acts on it or not, the chill that creates is real, and it’s a serious moment, very serious.”

On Friday, David Huerta, described as the “beloved” president of Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West, was arrested at a worksite where he was reportedly serving as a community observer, Axios reports, and now faces potential federal charges.

--TL

_____________________________________________

MONDAY 6/9/25

Newsom Sues Trump – California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) says he will sue the Trump administration over the president’s deployment of the National Guard to suppress protests in Los Angeles against federal immigration raids, The Hill reports Monday. Trump said in a memo to the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security he is invoking Title 10 to “temporarily protect ICE and other United States Government personnel who are performing Federal functions,” according to the Los Angeles Times. 

Under Title 10, the president can activate National Guard troops for federal services, such as ICE – the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On Friday, ICE agents made arrests in L.A.’s garment district, including Ambiance Apparel, and detained employees inside the clothing wholesaler, the LA Times reports. This triggered protests through the weekend, which prompted the Trump White House to deploy National Guard troops into downtown Los Angeles. Trump’s memo cited “numerous incidents of violence and disorder” and said federal immigration detention facilities have been threatened.

Management? ... While undocumented workers at Ambiance Apparel apparently have been arrested, there are no reports so far of any arrests regarding employers who allegedly hired said employees.

Call in the Marines? … Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned in a post on X-Twitter that “if violence continues, active-duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized – they are on high alert.”

No easy resolution … This clash could be from the elevator pitch for the Hollywood script of a story about a president who is cracking down on illegal immigrants, as he had promised in his campaign, and the “woke” governor who almost certainly will run for president in 2028, climaxing with the White House calling in the Marines.

On MSNBC Sunday night, Newsom told NBC News’ Jacob Soboroff that Trump “has created the crisis. Fox News on Monday reports a conservative social media backlash against Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA), a native of Guatemala who became a US citizen in the 1990s, after she posted on TikTok, “ICE get the f--- out of LA so that order can be restored.” --Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
MONDAY 6/9/25

In the midst of all the Trump administration's economic upheaval and controversial policies, employment numbers remain strong as the US economy added 139,000 jobs in May, the Labor Department reports. Health care, leisure and hospitality and social assistance job gains remained strong while not surprisingly, the federal government continued to lose jobs. [Chart: Bureau of Labor Statistics]

FRIDAY 6/6/25

Would You Buy a Used Tesla from the President? – President Trump is considering whether to sell or give away the red Tesla Model S he purchased in March as part of a photo op that turned the White House driveway into a sales lot for Elon Musk’s EV brand, The Wall Street Journal reports. But no phone call is scheduled between Trump and Musk to try and reconcile after Thursday’s huge breakup over the House Big Beautiful budget bill. 

Meanwhile… Stock futures are up Friday morning in Tesla after it had its worst day ever Thursday, when it fell more than 14% and lost more than $100 billion in market cap in four hours, NPR reports.

•Contributing Pundit Jerry Lanson writes about ICE’s “menacing” immigrant arrests in the left column, as Pundit-at-Large Stephan Macaulay reconsiders Bidenomics in the right column.

•Whether you are pro-Trump or anti-Trump, we welcome your reaction to these commentaries. Email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

--TL

_____________________________________________

Abominable Bill?

THURSDAY 6/5/25

Can Musk Kill Bill? – World’s Richest Lifeform/ex-DOGE chief/MAGA Bad Boy Elon Musk has called the House’s Big Beautiful Bill Act an “abomination” on his X-Twitter, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. X-Twitter is decidedly not President Trump’s Truth Social. 

Meanwhile, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office scores the bill passed by the House and working its way through the Senate as adding $2.4 trillion to the federal deficit over 10 years. 

Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) wants to get the Senate’s version out by the Fourth of July, but all it will take is four of these five; Senate budget hawks Ron Johnson (R-WI), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rand Paul (R-KY) along with moderates Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) to sink BBB Act in the upper chamber.

The Travel Ban 12 – The Trump White House has issued a travel ban for 12 countries, a sort of repeat of the first Trump administration’s first big action. The Banned Dozen are: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, The Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. 

It was not immediately known why these 12 were called out, The New York Times reports. And nothing about South Africa, from which at least 49 white Afrikaners have immigrated to the US in recent weeks.

--TL

_____________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 6/4/25

Steely Plan – While you were sleeping tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum doubled to 50%. This comes hot on the heels of President Trump’s approval and credit-taking last Friday for a deal in which Japan’s Nippon Steel purchased the US’s premier producer, U.S. Steel. 
 
Appearing in Pittsburgh last week, Trump drew cheers from United Steelworkers members when he announced the doubled tariffs. 
 
There is one exemption to the 50% tariffs: The United Kingdom, which has a tentative deal with the Trump administration to exempt steel, cars and other goods from tariffs, though as Marketplace notes the vaguely detailed, tentative deal still could fall apart. Meanwhile, the European Union is already preparing retaliatory tariffs on the US.
 
•••
 
Recission Package Goes to the Hill – The White House has handed over a $9.4 billion recission package of DOGE cuts to Congress to claw back $8.3 billion in foreign aid and $1.1 billion for NPR and PBS already voted into law. Congress can pass the package with a simple majority, though some Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns, The Wall Street Journal reports.
 
Under a 1974 law, Congress has 45 days to review or overturn spending already approved. Russ Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget has suggested “pocket recissions” could come at the end of the fiscal year, September 30.
 
Musk, Meanwhile … Recently dearly departed DOGE chief Elon Musk has “thrown a wrench” into Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-SD) plans to get the Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by the House last month through the Senate relatively in-tact by July 4, The Hill reports. Musk, who has returned his attention to Tesla, SpaceX and X-Twitter (beyond posting constantly on it), called the deficit-building bill “pork-filled” and “disgusting.” He already has the backing of Senate budget hawks Ron Johnson (R-WI), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rand Paul (R-KY).
 
•••
 
Where in the World is Secretary Hegseth? – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is not in the NATO capital of Brussels, where nearly 50 nations have gathered for what is known as the “Ramstein Format” now in its third year, a group of NATO nations organized to discuss military aid for Ukraine. The Associated Press reports that Hegseth would only arrive in Brussels after the Ramstein Format is done.
--TL

_____________________________________________

Ukraine Defends Without US

TUESDAY 6/3/25

Another Ukrainian Battlefield Victory -- As talks of new ceasefire talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US continue, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) carried out its third attack since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale war begain in 2022, on the Crimea Bridge used by the Russian military to bring weapons into Ukraine (SBU photo via The Kyiv Independent).

‘Dear Leader: Why I Want This Job’ – The spoils system has returned, with new civil service applicants now required to describe how they would “help advance” President Trump’s policy priorities, Newsweek reports. White House domestic policy chief Vince Haley issued a memorandum May 29 via the Office of Personnel Management that requires job recruits to answer essays on their work ethics, skills and experience, commitment to the Constitution and plans to “advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities,” according to the magazine. 

Newsweek reports it has emailed the OPM for comment outside normal working hours.

•••

Boulder Attacks – Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the Egyptian citizen suspected of throwing Molotov cocktails Sunday in Boulder, Colorado, at marchers protesting in support of Jewish hostages of Hamas in Gaza, has been charged with 16 counts of attempted first degree murder and of a hate crime, NPR reports. Soliman remains in custody with a $10 million bond, The New York Times reports. Authorities have identified four additional victims suffering minor burns in addition to the eight victims identified Sunday including a Holocaust survivor and two people in critical condition.

Authorities say Soliman had been planning the attack for a year and disguised himself as a gardener to avoid suspicion at the rally. He allegedly shouted “free Palestine!” as he was taken into custody – a protest meant to support a Palestinian homeland next to Israel but which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has equated with “heil Hitler” after a suspect in the fatal shooting of Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, at a reception by the American Jewish Committee for young diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., last month also shouted “free Palestine.”  

Authorities say Soliman brought 16 additional incendiary devices to the Boulder rally. His immigration status is murky; Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin says Soliman has overstayed a 2022 tourist visa. 

--TL

_____________________________________________

The State of Trumpism

MONDAY 6/2/25

Buried in the Big Beautiful Bill – A provision buried in the House’s Big Beautiful Bill Act budget for the coming fiscal year would give presidents, including the current one obviously, protection against judges from enforcing their orders unless litigants post a bond that could match the amounts at stake in lawsuits. Court orders so far have ruled Trump administration policies as unlawful in 180 cases so far, USA Today reports, and the bill’s provision would remove courts’ ability to enforce the rulings. 

Including tariffs … After the US Court of International Trade struck down Trump’s tariffs, the president took to his Truth Social to attack Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society, which have for decades been working to install an über-conservative federal judiciary (the US Court of Appeals has put temporary hold on the trade court’s ruling blocking tariffs). Trump was miffed that Leo gave him “bad advice” on “numerous judicial nominations, according to Politico, including his appointee to the trade court, Judge Timothy Reif, who voted with the two other judges on the panel – one a Reagan appointee and the other an Obama appointee – in blocking his tariffs.

On Truth Social, Trump called Leo, who has been working since at least the 1980s to strike down Roe v. Wade and to make the federal courts friendlier to corporations, a “sleazebag” who “probably hates America.”

“He openly brags about how he controls Judges, and even Justices of the United States Supreme Court – I hope that is not so, and don’t believe it is!”

Leo released this brief statement, according to Politico: “I’m very grateful for President Trump transferring the federal courts, and it was a privilege being involved. There’s more work to be done, for sure, but the Federal Judiciary is better than it’s ever been in modern history, and that will be President Trump’s most important legacy.”

Read … Trump’s SCOTUS picks, not tariffs.

PS, U.S. Steel … Trump used his appearance endorsing the deal by Japan’s Nippon Steel to purchase Pittsburgh’s U.S. Steel to announce he is doubling tariffs on import steel and aluminum to 50%. Now his reversal on the deal makes sense.

•••

No Ceasefire Deal – Ukraine and Russia ended their second round of peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey, Monday with no ceasefire deal, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced according to The Kyiv Independent, which had noted that there was little chance for a breakthrough after President Trump refused to impose sanctions on Moscow.

Ukraine played its cards … Kyiv precluded this second round of talks much in the same way the Kremlin has – with major attacks on the opposition. Ukraine on Sunday set off a series of attacks inside Russia Sunday. Key was an SBU security service attack on a Russian airbase in which first-person-view drones (FPV) destroyed 41 heavy bombers. The operation was called “Spider Web.”

The SBU started planning the operation a year and a half ago, a source told the Independent, and smuggled the FPVs deep inside Russia, huddled inside cabins placed on trucks. 

“The SBU first transported FPV drones to Russia, and later, on the territory of the Russian Federation,” the source said. “At the right moment, the roofs of the cabins were opened remotely, and the drones flew to hit Russian bombers.”

No Spider Web for Trump … President Trump, who had something of a falling out with Russian President/dictator Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s missile/drone attacks on Ukrainian civilians during the last “ceasefire” suggested by the Kremlin, was not informed ahead of time of the SBU’s plans, according to The Hill, citing confirmation of the report by its sister network, NewsNation.

•••

Trump Win in Polish Election – Trump-backed conservative Karol Nawrocki narrowly beat liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski in Poland’s presidential elections Sunday, with 50.89% to 49.11% of the vote, according to The Associated Press. As president, Nawrocki will have more power than most parliamentary system presidents, Polityka Managing Director Andrzej Bobinski told NPR’s Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition Monday. 

President Nawrocki has veto rights and oversees foreign policy and defense and security, Bobinski said. Since 2023, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has led a centrist coalition government working to reverse the illiberal revolution the previous conservative leadership imposed on the country’s press and courts, Bobinski said. Nawrocki will have little opportunity to stop the coalition government’s slow progress, he said, but will be able to help conservatives retake control of the government in future elections.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 6/2/25

President Trump at Arlington National Cemetery Monday.

Art of the Flip – As president-elect last December, Donald J. Trump opposed a deal by Japan’s Nippon Steel to purchase the American industrial icon United States Steel. On January 3, then-President Biden blocked the deal. 

On Friday, President Trump visits U.S. Steel’s Irvin Works plant in Pittsburgh to announce a “merger” deal between Nippon and U.S. Steel that appears more like the original purchase by the Japanese company, according to NPR.

The US will get what Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) describes as a “golden share” that gives the federal government a controlling roll in the company, CQ Roll Call reports. U.S. Steel will maintain its Pittsburgh headquarters and be run by an American CEO. The deal is said to save 10,000 US jobs and add 10,000 more for a new steel furnace in Pennsylvania, location TBD. 

But we can’t ignore the fact that while the “golden share” might indeed be straight out of The Art of the Deal it does not seem very laissez-faire Republican.

--TL

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Tariffs On or Off?

THURSDAY 5/29/25

UPDATE: The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a brief order Thursday issuing an administrative stay that put temporary hold on the Court of International Trade's ruling that blocked President Trump's tariffs, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Trump administration said it will take the matter to the US Supreme Court, possibly before the end of the week. The federal appeals court stay immediately followed a ruling by District of Columbia District Judge Rudolph Contreras' issue of a preliminary injunction on collection of duties in Learning Resources Inc. et.al. v. Donald J. Trump et.al., reports The Hill.

Justice Department attorneys had urged Contreras not to approve the stay, saying it would act like a "magnet" in attracting thousands of other companies to challenge the duty. Following the federal appeals court ruling, Contreras said his injunction would not go into effect for two weeks from Thursday -- to June 12 -- to allow time for the administration to appeal to the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (per WSJ).

Wine Imports Win – New York-based wine importer V.O.S. Selections and four other small businesses won the day late Wednesday when the Court of International Trade blocked President Trump’s assertion of executive power in imposing sweeping tariffs, according to The Wall Street Journal. The three-judge panel ruled in V.O.S. Selections Inc. v. Trump that the International Emergency Powers Act of 1977 does not give the president such power. Trump administration attorneys plan to appeal.

“The court does not read IEEPA to confer such unbounded authority and sets aside the challenged tariffs imported thereunder,” the judges wrote in their decision, which takes effect immediately. 

The court’s three judges were appointed by Presidents Reagan, Obama and Trump.

Their ruling does not affect Trump’s tariffs on cars, car parts, steel and aluminum, and soon likely pharmaceuticals, which the president imposed under a separate statute, according to NPR’s Morning Edition. 

•••

Is Trump Catching Up? – Or, catching on? It has been three months since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned President Trump, in person, during the infamous Oval Office ambush, not to trust Russia’s president-dictator, Vladimir Putin. Trump appears to finally be catching up. 

Trump is growing very tired of Moscow’s continued attacks on Ukraine when Putin is supposed to be negotiating a ceasefire.

"They seem to want to do something,” Trump told reporters in a White House briefing Wednesday. “But until the document is signed, I can't tell you... I'm very disappointed at what happened. A couple of nights now where people were killed in the middle of what you would call a negotiation." 

Trump, reports The Kyiv Independent, did not identify the documents to which he was referring.

In any event, Trump said “We’ll know in two weeks” whether Putin is serious about reaching a peace deal, artful or otherwise. Meanwhile, Moscow continues to pound Ukraine and is pushing further into its northeastern corner so there is more occupied territory to hold on to after the deal is struck.

•••

Art of Student Deportation – The US will begin revoking visas for Chinese students, including those “with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday. A senior Trump administration official noted to Axios that Rubio’s announcement coincides with trade negotiations between the Trump administration and China.

“Everything is connected,” the official said.

•••

Musk Up and Out – Department Of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk is leaving Washington to return to running SpaceX and Tesla, the latter of which’s board wants him to put in at least 40 hours of work per week. 

“As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk wrote on his X-Twitter, according to Politico. “The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”

As of Thursday morning, doge-tracker.com claims DOGE has saved $170 billion. So it is of course far short of the $2 trillion Musk said his federal baby would save when it launched just after President Trump’s inauguration. 

Most independent calculations put the actual savings much lower. The non-profit Partnership for Public Service says DOGE’s efforts actually have cost an extra $135 billion to pay for leave for laid-off federal employees, Marketplace reports.

House passage of the Big Beautiful Bill Act last week doesn’t help. Interviewed for the June 1 edition of CBS News Sunday Morning, Musk told Jane Pauley; “I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it and undermines the work the DOGE team is doing.”

Tune in Sunday to see whether Pauley asks The World’s Richest Lifeform what he thinks about the huge tax cut he will receive if the Senate passes the House bill in-tact.

--TL

_____________________________________________

Constitution Lives!

WEDNESDAY 5/28/25

Not for Retribution – District of Columbia Federal District Judge Richard T. Leon ruled Tuesday ruled that a Trump White House executive order banning WilmerHale from federal buildings and stripping the white shoe law firm of security clearances is unconstitutional. 

President Trump has gone after several such law firms associated with the Democratic Party, including firms associated with investigating Moscow’s involvement in Trump’s 2016 presidential election win. Robert S. Mueller III, who as special counsel investigated the Russia-Trump connection during Trump’s first term, has long been associated with WilmerHale. Mueller returned to the firm after releasing his report and retired in 2021.

“The cornerstone of the American system of justice is an independent judiciary and an independent bar willing to tackle unpopular cases, however daunting. The founding fathers knew this!” Judge Leon wrote in a 73-page opinion The New York Times reports is “laced with more than two-dozen exclamation points.”

Jenner & Block and Susman Godfrey sued the Trump administration alongside WilmerHale, asking the judge to proceed to a decision without trial, as the EO was the only issue to be considered. Other firms, including Paul Weiss and Latham & Watkins have capitulated to Trump’s orders, agreeing to perform pro-bono work on behalf of the president’s favorite causes. 

Judge Leon in his decision said that targeted law firms already have been damaged because they lost clients, and that the Trump administration was trying to intimidate other law firms in a way that would damage the legal profession as a whole (per the NYTreport).

“The order shouts through a bullhorn: If you take on causes disfavored by President Trump, you will be punished!” Leon wrote.

•••

No Relief in Gaza – Israeli troops killed at least one civilian Palestinian and wounded 48 when they opened fire at a food distribution center Wednesday, The Guardian reports. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GDF), chosen by the Israeli government to ship food into the region had lost control when starving Palestinians stormed the distribution point, according to reports. 

Casualties were reported by Gaza’s health ministry. 

Israeli war crimes … Meanwhile, Ehud Olmert, prime minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, said in an op-ed in Haaretz that the current government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is guilty of war crimes.

“The government of Israel is currently waging a war without purpose, without clear goals or clear planning and with no chance of success,” Olmert wrote. “Never since its establishment has the State of Israel waged such a war. The criminal gang headed by Benjamin Netanyahu has set a precedent without equal in Israel’s history in this area too.”

•••

NPR vs. Trump – NPR and three Colorado public radio stations are suing President Trump and others within his administration over his efforts to ban any federal funds for the public radio network or PBS. The stations involved in the suit are Colorado Public Radio, a statewide network, plus largely rural Aspen Public Radio and KSUT, which was founded by the Native American Ute tribe. 

NPR CEO Katherine Maher told All Things Considered host Marie Louise Kelly that freedom to make editorial decisions, but not “politics,” is behind the suit.

“We are choosing to do this as a matter of necessity and principle,” Maher said. “All of our rights that we enjoy in this democracy flow from the First Amendment – freedom of speech, association, freedom of the press. When we see those rights infringed upon, we have an obligation to challenge them, and that’s what’s at stake here.”

--TL

_____________________________________________

Another Tariff Pause

TUESDAY 5/27/25

Brace for another rally on Wall Street, boosting President Trump’s confidence in his tariff-forward Art of economic policy Tuesday. By 11 am Wall Street time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up nearly 500 points, or +1.2%. 

On Wall Street, a burst of good news from the Trump White House trumps the roller-coaster uncertainty of the president’s tariff policy. Trump on Sunday agreed to a delay to July his 50% tariff on European imports after a phoner with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

Trump last week had announced a 50% tariff on the EU, same day he announced a 25% tariff on Apple iPhones. 

Don’t miss … Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s column on Trump’s black-tie dinner for crypto currency moguls and the iPhone tariff, in the right column.

•••

How Was Your Memorial Day Weekend? – President Trump’s was “weird,” according to Politico, beginning Saturday with his commencement address to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he wore a red MAGA hat and gave a campaign rally-style speech attacking “drag shows” and critical race theory, and complaining about his treatment by law enforcement. He wrapped up with musings on “trophy” wives.

Then on Sunday … Politico continues, Trump suspended his 50% tariffs on the European Union and called Russian President Vladimir Putin “crazy” on his Truth Social for continuing to kill Ukrainian civilians, which the dictator has done for three years. 

And on Memorial Day Monday … Trump gave a solemn tribute to fallen soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery, while posting on Truth Social: HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY. (Author’s caps.) Trump singled out MENTALLY INSANE immigrants, WARPED RADICAL Democrats and USA HATING judges.

•••

Three and Two-Thirds More Years – The Hill helpfully offers this list of “seven most likely successors” to President Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028: Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Donald J. Trump Jr., Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. 

Notes … We’d give Rubio, second on the list, primacy over Vance even as Rubio has moved to the right to comply with Trump’s MAGA vision of international relations. The next 43+ months will tell whether or not Noem has to learn the true meaning of habeas corpus.

Meanwhile … Kemp, first and foremost, and Youngkin are the only two of the list after shape-shifting Rubio who might be considered “moderate” Republicans. Any more out there?

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
TUESDAY 5/27/25

Evidence of 'white genocide' in South Africa that President Trump showed to its president, Cyril Ramaphosa, contained images from Democratic Republic of Congo, and other images that were false or misleading (per The Guardian).

•ALSO: Read the full 1,082-page One Big Beautiful Bill Act HERE.

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND 2025

UPDATE: Federal Judge Allison D. Burroughs, in Boston, has issued a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration edict that revoked Harvard University's ability to enroll foreign students (scroll down for story with the trackbar to the right). The judge agreed with Harvard's lawsuit filed Friday morning that the edict's implementation would cause "immediate and irreparable injury" to the university (per The New York Times).

•••

Tariff Watch – President Trump Friday morning threatened a blanket 50% tariff on the 27 countries of the European Union, saying they have been difficult to deal with and negotiations have gone nowhere, The Hill reports.

On Truth Social … “The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with. Their powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies, and more, have led to a Trade Deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 a year, a number which is totally unacceptable.”

On Truth Social Too … Trump also threatened Friday morning to apply a 25% tariff on Apple if CEO Tim Cook does not move manufacturing to the US.

“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” Trump wrote, with the usual number of (sic)s. “If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

•••

Harvard v. Trump – Thursday there were reports of Harvard’s international students and faculty scrambling to figure out how to stay in the US, after the Trump White House revoked the university’s eligibility to enroll foreign students. 

Friday, Harvard University sued the Trump administration, saying the move was retaliation for its refusal to give in to the president’s other policy demands. Harvard registered more than 6,700 international students last fall, about 27% of its student body, according to Politico.

The university released this statement by its president, Alan Garber: “It imperils the futures of thousands of students and scholars across Harvard and serves as a warning to countless others at colleges and universities throughout the country who have come to America to pursue their education and fulfill their dreams.”

•••

This President for Hire – Inside the ballroom of Trump National Golf Course in suburban Washington, D.C., crypto billionaire Justin Sun led the president’s VIP as the largest holder of $TRUMP coins. Retired Los Angeles Laker and Keeping Up With the Kardashians star Lamar Odom, who recently launched his own memecoin, was in the VIP line, too. 

Trump -- and presumably his sons, who got the president to flip his position on crypto between terms – invited the 220 largest $TRUMP coin holders to the baldfaced pay-to-play black-tie dinner on behalf of the Trump Organization in April. The 25 biggest coin holders got to line up for a short VIP reception with Donald J. Trump before sitting down to dine, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Austin, Texas-based crypto currency investor Kendall Davis told ABC News that he “came here to advocate for things to be done right in the crypto space.”

Does doing crypto right mean replacing the US dollar with the Ponziesque high-tech coins as the new global currency?

Outside the Trump National Golf Course ballroom, protesters including Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) chanted that the dinner was “the Mount Everest of Corruption,” WSJ reports, citing video clips on X-Twitter. 

WSJ also cites blockchain analytics firm Inca Digital as reporting that investors purchased approximately $148 million worth of $TRUMP in order to win spots at the dinner.

•••

No Charter for Catholic School – The US Supreme Court upheld the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision blocking St. Isadore of Seville, a Catholic virtual charter school, from becoming the first publicly funded religious school in the US, by 4-4 vote, per SCOTUSblog. Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the decision and did not cite a reason. Though the order didn’t indicate how the eight SCOTUS justices voted, it would be a good guess that Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s three Democratic appointees in voting to uphold the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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House Passes Bx3

THURSDAY 5/22/25

Early Thursday morning … The House passed, 215-214 with one Republican voting “present” President Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill of a budget that extends Trump 45’s approximately $3.8 trillion in tax cuts from 2017, no taxes on tips or overtime, work requirements for Medicaid and reforms for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), NPR’s Morning Edition reports. The 1,000-page+ legislation also lifts the cap on the state and local tax deduction (SALT) to $40,000 for married couples with incomes up to $500,000. 

And, perhaps most importantly, it lifts the federal debt ceiling by $4 trillion. 

“Today the House has passed generational, truly nation-shaping legislation to reduce spending and permanently lower taxes for families and job creators, secure the border, unleash American energy dominance, restore peace through strength and make government work more efficiently and effectively for all Americans,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said after the vote. “House Democrats voted against all of that.”

Bx3 faces some Republican skepticism, if not all-out opposition, in the Senate, where the GOP holds a 53-47 majority and can pass the bill without Democratic filibuster.

•••

D.C. Embassy Shooting – A gunman shot and killed Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, at a reception for young diplomats being held by the American Jewish Committee at the Capital Jewish Museum about 9 p.m. Wednesday in Washington, D.C. Lischinsky had just purchased an engagement ring for Milgrim, The New York Times reports. 

Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, was identified by the Washington Metropolitan Police Department as the only suspect, and chanted, “free, free Palestine” as he was taken into custody, Chief Pamela Smith said.

•••

It Is Happening Again -- Fans of the late director David Lynch will recognize context for the words a very tall character actor named Cavel Struycken repeated in an apparition to FBI Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle McLaughlin) in Twin Peaks: “It is happening again.”

President Trump’s Zelenskyyesque treatment of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office Wednesday isn’t so much something that happened but more something that is happening. It’s an ongoing rewriting of foreign relations rules as the administration bounces from receiving pull-out-all-the-stops red carpet treatment of Trump on his Arab Gulf tour (replete with the gift from Qatar of a $400 million Boeing 747) to ambushes of and confrontations with the leaders of countries who need our help. 

In a scene worthy of The Apprentice (the television show, not the 2024 movie), Trump called for a television to be wheeled into the Oval Office as Ramaphosa looks on. The US president showed video of a purported burial site along an open road, said to contain “a thousand” white farmers. The soft-spoken Ramaphosa attempts to disabuse Trump of the conspiracy theories he is repeating and questions the location in the video, to no avail. 

Like Trump, Ramaphosa was obviously ready for this, and brought along white South African golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, two men Trump ought to relate to, if not outright admire. 

“It didn’t work,” The New York Times reports.

Unlike Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Oval Office Ambush I, Ramaphosa kept an Agent Cooper-style cool and stuck around for lunch. And, in preparation for OOAII, he was wearing a tailored suit.

NPR’s Mara Liason tells All Things Considered Trump has argued for years that white Afrikaners are the victims of reverse discrimination, even genocide. Never mind that South Africa is 7% white and 72% of commercially farmable land is owned by white South Africans.

The whole affair is reminiscent of Trump 45’s lament that the US doesn’t get more immigrants from countries like Norway rather than “shitholes” like Haiti and the African continent.

But don’t forget that Elon Musk, who is said to be retrenching from DOGE and his work in Washington, was in the Oval Office with Trump and Ramaphosa Wednesday. A native of Pretoria, Musk has been even more vocal about the so-called plight of the white minority in South Africa. 

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 5/21/25

One Party Under Trump

By Todd Lassa

Let us all now praise the vinyl record album-style revival of print magazines. President Trump’s recent surprise, pop-up interview with The Atlantic the other week, having been swamped newswise first by his Arab Gulf trip and then by his stiff-arm lobbying for his Big, Beautiful Bill, has been preserved for history in the magazine's June 2025 print issue.

The print version of The Atlantic never went away, but now it could revive the Monthly part of its name, because it’s back up from 10 issues a year. And the June 2025 issue reminds us that in the pop-up interview, Trump said this: “I run the country and the world.”  

All that work running the globe and our own patch of it between the Atlantic and the Pacific hasn’t diminished Trump’s ability to sweat the details. On Tuesday Trump took to the House of Representatives in the Capitol to lobby Republicans to get his Big, Beautiful budget reconciliation Bill passed through Congress. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wants it passed and out of his chamber by Memorial Day weekend. 

Bollocksing up the House GOP’s three-vote margin is Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX, pictured), who leads a group of budget hawks who do not want to encourage Trump’s propensity for multiplying the deficit. 

Speaker Johnson has a three-Republican margin for passing the Trump budget reconciliation bill along party lines. Roy leads a group of four Freedom Caucus members who do not want to add the $3.8 trillion to $5.3 trillion the Council of Economic Advisors say Bx3 will add to the federal deficit in the next decade.

After his visit to the Hill, Trump is now threatening to primary Roy for his intransigence on his budget, per The Hill. Trump will have to wait a while. Roy was re-elected just last year, which means he’s next up in 2030.

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WEDNESDAY 5/21/25