A Parade Fit for a King -- “Our soldiers FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, and they WIN, WIN, WIN,” President Trump said in his speech following the Washington parade celebrating the 250th anniversary of the US Army (and his 79th birthday).
Ready for War? – President Trump is, and so is Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Tuesday Trump said he is considering a range of options, including a potential US strike, The Wall Street Journal reports. In another reversal of a campaign promise, the president said on social media that the US knows where Iran’s leader is, but was not choosing to take action, so it’s time for “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
The Ayatollah rejected Trump’s demand, The New York Times reports.
“Intelligent people know Iran, the nation and the history of Iran will never speak to this nation in the language of threats, because the Iranian nation cannot be surrendered,” Ali Khamenei said in a televised statement to Iranian state media. “The Americans should know that any US military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage.”
Possibly the only step the US might take now that Trump’s recent attempt to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear capabilities have been blunted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to drop a 30,000-pound GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator “bunker buster” on the Fordow enrichment facility south of Tehran.
The bunker buster, which can be carried only by a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress can penetrate 200 feet into the ground before exploding, according to Military.com.
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No Rest for Undocumented Farmworkers – Or, undocumented hotel and restaurant workers who were given a temporary reprieve last week when President Trump vowed to protect migrants in industries that would face worker shortages if said migrants are deported.
On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced the Trump administration will continue to raid farms, restaurants and hotels to purge undocumented migrant workers, The Washington Post reported.
Under the surface … According to the WaPo the Trump administration reversal reflects a White House rift between Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who wanted to protect the migrant workers, and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. The all-powerful and influential Miller won, of course.
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TUESDAY 6/17/25
Trump 86es G7 for Iran Talks – President Trump left Tuesday’s Group of Seven Summit to the other six and flew from Kananaskis, Alberta, back to Washington under cover of darkness, returning before dawn, NPR reports.
“I have to be back as soon as I can,” Trump said, according to Politico. He warned Tehran residents they should leave town, quickly, as Israel continues its attacks on Iran.
“Iran is not winning this war, and they should talk and they should talk immediately before it’s too late,” Trump said. The president said he wants “better” than a ceasefire – an end to the war just begun last week between Israel and Iran.
On ABC News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking from an “undisclosed” office-style bunker somewhere in his country told Jonathan Karl; “They’re deliberately targeting our population.”
That was happening as Israel was targeting, to Trump’s point, Iran’s population.
Netanyahu told Karl on ABC News he is not ruling taking out Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The threat, Netanyahu says, is Iran’s imminent development of a nuclear warhead. Later Monday night, Jon Stewart on Comedy Central’s The Daily Showcatalogued Iran being on the brink of a nuclear weapon with videos of Netanyahu describing such an “imminent threat” … since 2012 (the boy-called-wolf situation may be closer to reality, this time).
MAGA divide … Not used to seeing these two words together? Neither are (the editorial) We.
Politico reports of a split in the Trump coalition, between GOP hawks who have long called for a tougher approach on Iran – the imminent nuclear weapons argument – and the “resistance” wing including Steve Bannon, podcaster Ben Shapiro and ex-Fox News-turned Useful Idiot Tucker Carlson.
Worth repeating … Trump, Politico reports, Truth Socialed this: “Someone please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.”
Deal, no deal? … On Monday, Trump made an appearance at the G7 with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, where the president announced a partial trade deal with the EU – that’s European Union, not United Kingdom – and dropped the deal’s papers, letting Starmer pick them up, according to the Express (UK).
The US-UK “deal” – yes, that’s exactly what it is – outlines a cut in tariffs on UK-built autos from 25% to 10% and on British aerospace parts, the BBC reports, but does not offer relief on British steel tariffs.
“We’re going to let you have that information in a little while,” Trump said.
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Federal Charges for Boelter – The Hennepin County district attorney will pursue first-degree murder charges against Vance Boelter, who has been charged with six federal offenses in the killing of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the shooting of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, the Minnesota Reformer reports.
Federal charges against Boelter include stalking, murder and firearms charges. Authorities say he also visited two other state legislators early Saturday, who were left unharmed. John and Yvette Hoffman are reported to be headed for recovery.
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Purdue Settlement – A settlement between Purdue Pharma and members of its controlling Sackler family of $7.4 billion is a good deal for the company and family when considering how many lives Purdue’s opioid-pushing has affected, but many of the individuals involved are reported to want to finally put the issue to rest. That $7.4 billion settlement has been reached with all 50 states and US territories, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.
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MONDAY 6/16/25
About the Crowds – How many people took to the streets of Washington to watch the military parade celebrating the US Army’s 250th anniversary, and, um, coincidentally, President Trump’s 79th birthday, Saturday?
No estimates were immediately forthcoming. Perhaps whatever is left of the National Park Service was reluctant to make a 2017 inauguration-like guess.
Most of Trump’s cabinet was there, though few congressional Republicans showed up, The Hill reports.
The Army’s numbers included 6,600 soldiers, 150 military vehicles and 50 helicopters, according to Washingtonian magazine, which reports the crowd viewing all this “fell short of predictions, and at D.C.’s main counterprotest, the ratio of journalists to protestors was excessive.”
The Newsmax-esque pro-Trump Washington Examiner declared the gala a success, reporting that the parade turned out “thousands despite weather and nationwide protests.”
No Kings … But there was no organized No Kings anti-fascist protest planned for Washington, anyway. The New York Timesreports of big turnouts even in erstwhile pro-MAGA strongholds such as Dallas, three dozen rural areas in Indiana, where Trump won the 2024 election by 19 points, and Waukesha, Wisconsin, where “about 1,500 people marched through the streets in an area Mr. Trump had won with 59% of the vote.”
[See comments in the left column for anecdotes about protests in an erstwhile Republican stronghold and a small town in the Great Lakes region.]
The Independent cast a shadow of a doubt on Trump White House claims that 250,000 watched (it was telecast in its entirety on Fox News, by the way) while citing “experts” estimates that at least 4 million people attended No Kings protests across the nation, more than 1% of the US population.
Meanwhile, there were “empty bleachers” and “gaps in the crowd” according to The Indepndent, whose reporter, Richard Hall, described it as “something close to a medium-sized town’s July 4th celebration.”
Fatality … Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, 39, described as an “innocent bystander” in a Salt Lake City No Kings protest estimated at 10,000 marchers, was fatally shot Saturday evening after police officers shouted out “gunman” and “man with a rifle” at the march, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. Suspect in custody is Arturo Gamboa, 24.
Retribution? … About the time Trump was on his way to the Canadian Rockies in Alberta for the annual two-day Group of Seven Summit, he announced he had directed federal immigration officials to make deportations of undocumented immigrants from Democratic-run cities their priority, The Associated Press reports.
Officials “must expand efforts to detain and deport illegal aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside,” Trump said Sunday in a social media post, in case all that extraneous capitalization didn’t give the outlet away.
Monday morning Trump was to hold his first meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney since their early May White House confab, The Globe and Mail reports, to “make progress” in resolving the “damaging” three-month trade war between the two countries.
Meanwhile … The Trump administration has told Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to “largely” pause its raids and arrests of allegedly undocumented aliens working in hotels, restaurants and in agriculture, according to an internal email obtained by The New York Times. [See Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s “The Damage Is Being Dumb,” in the right column.]
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Arrest in Minnesota – Vance Boelter, 57, suspect in the fatal shooting of the state legislature’s House Democratic-Farmer-Leader Party leader Melissa Hoffman, and her husband Mark, and the wounding of State Sen. John A. Hoffman and his wife, Yvette in separate attacks early Saturday, was arrested just before 11 p.m. Central time Sunday night, Minnesota Public Radio reports. Police chief of Brooklyn Park, the suburb where the Hoffman’s were shot, Mark Bruley, called the manhunt for Boelter largest in state history.
Meanwhile, The Minneapolis Star Tribune is debunking online conspiracy theories that Gov. Tim Walz, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ running mate last year, has “close ties” to the suspect. Rather, Walz reappointed Boelter to a bipartisan advisory board in 2019, but a friend of the suspect has called him a strong Trump supporter.
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--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa