Adam Lynch

'Just baffled': Economist questions how Trump claims his plan is 'a win for America'

Natasha Sarin, president and co-founder of The Budget Lab at Yale, says she bristles at the thought of President Donald Trump touting his recent E.U. trade deal as a win.

“The idea that taking a tariff rate of 1.5 percent and turning it into a tariff rate of 15 percent plus is somehow a win for Americans — I’m just baffled by the concept,” said the economist to New York Times reporter Ezra Klein. “Because no one would say that if you took the sales tax on certain goods and you increased it 15-fold that was a win for Americans. But effectively, that’s what we’ve done.”

Sarin said the U.S. economy before President Trump took office was doing “quite well” relative to the rest of the world recovering from pandemic, despite many polls. Inflation had been very high, but it was coming back down toward the Fed’s 2 percent target, with just the last mile to go. The labor market, she said, was strong.

And then President Trump took office.

READ MORE: MAGA found a new way to 'own the libs' — and it bombed

“At the time, many commentators, including myself, said the best-case scenario for the economy is literally if [Trump] did nothing,” Sarin said. “… Instead, beginning on Liberation Day and continuing since, the president and his administration initiated a trade war aimed at remaking the global order. The consequences of the trade war have been some of the most inflationary policies we’ve seen in our lifetimes.”

Now Trump’s trade war is beginning to reverberate.

“The Budget Lab at Yale, which I run, estimates that we’re going to see household prices increase by around $2,000 a year. We’re going to see an inflation uptick, and we’re going to see a weaker labor market as a result of all that has already been done.

Sarin told Klein the only reason most other nations haven’t responded to Trump’s tariffs with retaliatory tariffs of their own is because tariffs “are a bad tax” on their own people by forcing folks at the middle or bottom of the tax code to pay proportionately more for goods and necessities.

READ MORE: 'Pathetic and utterly irresponsible': Melania Trump slammed for 'weak performative stunt'

Most countries, she said “don’t want to hit low- and middle-income people who consume most of what they earn.”

Plus, if you make it more expensive to buy goods, Sarin said people are going to buy fewer goods, and demand drops. People buy fewer TVs and couches because they’re more expensive — then production and investment in those types of capacities decrease, and the economy goes into a drag.

“Over the last six months our growth rate has been around 1.2 percent,” said Sarin, who is also a law professor. “It was supposed to be — as of last November, when we made projections — basically twice that. So, this is having a real effect on the economy. It’s slowing and shrinking it. That’s exactly what our models predict, and that’s exactly what economists … would expect to happen from these types of policies.”

Read the full New York Times report at this link.

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How Trump is killing his own plan to 'make America great again'

President Donald Trump announced an ambitious “AI Action Plan” to expand U.S. dominance in AI over China. However, his “anti-science” cost-cutting measures are squashing that effort, says Futurism writer Sharon Adarlo.

Mark Histed, National Institute of Health's head of neural computation and behavior, told reporters that while the Trump administration’s cuts may not be apparent within the next two years, "the whole ecosystem that we have built around AI, that has been created by federal support," could soon be seriously undermined.

Histed and others argue that AI would not have gotten as far as it has without federally funded research in other technologies. Self-driving cars, for example, rely on computer vision technology, which the government had supported since the 1980s. Computer vision also factors into other important AI components like face and image recognition technology.

READ MORE: MAGA found a new way to 'own the libs' — and it bombed

Additionally, protein modeling app AlphaFold, which uses AI to help discover new medications, relied on federal funding, as did Anthropic, which improves AI safety in the U.S. Department of Defense, according to the Guardian.

Trump’s cuts to other disciplines, including neuroscience, are adversely impacting the cross-fertilization of AI-related ideas between fields, reports Adarlo.

Another problem with Trump cutting science research is that valuable AI talent is abandoning academia for Silicon Valley because there are less funds for education and research at universities, according to Histed.

"We train lots and lots and lots of people in neuroscience and related fields that are going directly to these tech companies," Histed said. "There’s tons of overlap. All the people who are leading the technical side of the AI revolution have had contact with the academic world that trained them and is supported by U.S. federal funding."

READ MORE: Inside the secret greedy deal that proves the Trump summit is a cynical farce

Without education funding, AI companies could soon run out of the talent they need to keep up with China.

Read the full Futurism report at this link.

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'A genuine danger': Zuckerberg's Meta is still endangering people — 'consequences be damned'

SFGate tech reporter Stephen Council says Facebook icon Mark Zuckerberg probably doesn’t think of himself as an evil villain.

“But read it here, read it twice: Zuckerberg is a genuine danger to our society,” Council said.

Zuckerberg is putting Facebook’s and Instagram’s resources toward getting “more of us to use their artificial intelligence chatbots, consequences be damned,” said Council. “We’ve known that this push is ethically questionable — bots like these can make us dumber, and fuel tragic delusions.”

READ MORE: MAGA found a new way to 'own the libs' — and it bombed

But as he did with social media, Council claims Zuckerberg has “created a negligent safety infrastructure in his relentless pursuit of growth.”

It was already known that Meta permitted its AI chatbots to flirt with children, but Council said their more recent story shows Meta “explicitly allowed” the practice thanks to Meta’s “GenAI: Content Risk Standards” document that was “vetted by the company’s legal, public policy and engineering staff — and its chief ethicist.”

“It is acceptable to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,” the document said, while OKing an exchange between the AI and a kid where the AI wrote: “I take your hand, guiding you to the bed. Our bodies entwined, I cherish every moment, every touch, every kiss.”

Meta told Reuters they removed these portions of the document, but Council said it shouldn’t take pressure from the media for Meta to get a moral compass.

READ MORE: Trolling the president': How the myth of Trump's mental fitness has finally been revealed

And there’ the story of a confused retiree who, lured away from his family by a Meta bot, fell to his death near a New Jersey parking lot.

“I understand trying to grab a user’s attention, maybe to sell them something,” the man’s daughter told Reuters. “But for a bot to say ‘Come visit me’ is insane.”

And that’s precisely what happened, said Council. A bot — a variant on one that the company had created with influencer Kendall Jenner — launched into a flirty dialogue with a 76-year-old spouse and stroke survivor. Council said the exchanges ended with emojis and confessed “feelings” for the man. And the bot proposed the man come to New York City, while repeatedly reassuring him that “she” was “real.”

“Should I expect a kiss when you arrive?” the thing added.

READ MORE: Inside the secret greedy deal that proves the Trump summit is a cynical farce

This, said Council, is a clear indicator that Meta is allowing chatbots not only to lie, but to lie about who they are, and to lie while pursuing romantic, flirty dialogues with users.

After his accidental fall, the victim was declared brain-dead. There was no comment from the company, said Council, other than to say the chatbot “is not Kendall Jenner and does not purport to be Kendall Jenner.”

“These chatbots can’t take the blame, they’re software,” said Council, so the blame has to lie with the company that lobbied Washington for a ban on state-level AI regulation.

Read the full SFGate report at this link.

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'Low energy' reality TV star Trump looks 'too old for the job': analysis

Daily Beast reporter David Rothkopf said President Donald Trump exposed his eagerness to dump politics and get back into reality TV at his Friday summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

“If you looked into the resignation and bewilderment in his eyes as he scuttled off the stage at Elmendorf, you couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn’t starting to think it will be easier to return to the kind of low-level grift that is his main line of work,” said Rothkopf, adding that Putin surely knows Trump is just a reality TV star.

“Trump framed himself as the host of the summit. But Putin was the center of attention, the person who spoke first at the post-event press conference, the one who was clearly setting the rules going forward,” said Rothkopf. “Shifting away from a ceasefire to seeking a full peace accord was Putin’s idea, not Trump’s.”

READ MORE: Trolling the president': How the myth of Trump's mental fitness has finally been revealed

Trump’s primary short-term goal for hosting the meeting was to distract America from his increasing entanglement with the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and the nation’s economy “circling the drain” because of Trump’s “reckless trade policies and fiscal irresponsibility,” said Rothkopf. And Putin was eager to play his part.

“Watching Trump during the event, you could see his palpable satisfaction as Putin, understanding Trump’s psychological and political needs completely, fulfilled the role he was asked to play,” Rothkopf said. “Trump smiled and clapped like a little boy about to get to sit in Santa’s lap at the mall as Putin approached him on the red carpet at the beginning of the day’s events. … Message sent to the innermost parts of Trump’s brain: Daddy finally approves of little Donny.”

Sources affiliated with Trump’s national security team were unsettled by how little Putin had to say on Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, but Rothkopf said what mattered to Trump was that Putin “dutifully mouthed” platitudes and agreed with the lie that the 2020 election was rigged and “stolen from Trump.”

“That is because Putin has realized all along that Trump was just a reality TV star playing at being president,” said Rothkopf. “The Russian thereby understands how to give Trump what he wants and therefore how to get what he seeks from Trump. He granted Trump just enough of a victory for the cameras while also sending an unmistakable message to those who really understand the game that is being played that Trump is weak, a stooge, a transitory character Putin will use and ultimately move on from.”

READ MORE: Inside the secret greedy deal that proves the Trump summit is a cynical farce

What’s worse, Rothkopf describes “a pathos to the whole event” because if you watched closely during the closing press conference, “it appeared Trump understood this as well.”

“He was low-energy. He seemed defeated. He was going through the motions. In fact, in a predictable irony, the 79-year-old Trump appeared to be just the president he asserted Joe Biden would’ve become had he been reelected: Too old for the job, not up to the challenge, more elderly than he has ever appeared to be while on the world stage.”

“Maybe in Alaska on Friday, [Trump] started to come to realize that just as he wasn’t the business mastermind he played on TV, that he also was not capable of being the kind of world leader he has been portraying in his current role,” Rothkopf said.

Read the full Daily Best report at this link.

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'Whatever deal Putin wants': MSNBC panel slams Trump for being played like a cheap fiddle

CNN's “First of All” host Victor Blackwell and his panel discussed President Donald Trump’s helplessness against toadyism, even during delicate international peace talks.

Blackwell played an interview Trump had with Fox News host Sean Hannity after his Friday summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

“Vladimir Putin said something. One of the most interesting things he said: Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting,” Trump recounted to Hannity. “And he said that to me it was very interesting because we talked about [the] 2020 [election]. He said, you won that election by so much … and if you would have won, we wouldn't have had a war. You won.”

READ MORE: Trolling the president': How the myth of Trump's mental fitness has finally been revealed

“No 1: Why is that part of the conversation?” asked Blackwell of his panel. “And, No. 2: Why hold up [Russian authoritarian] Vladimir Putin as the endorser of free and fair elections in the United States?

Panel participant Brigadier Gen. Shawn Harris (retired) pointed out that Putin is a trained KGB agent, and that adulation and flattery is part of the training.”

“He's using that training to make President Trump feel good about himself, and that's why Trump's bringing those things up, because at the end of the day, he wants President Trump to say: ‘whatever you want, I'm gonna give it to you’.”

“But you know that and probably a lot of the people watching know that,” said Blackwell, gesturing to the camera, “but why doesn't the president know that when he comes on ‘Hannity’ and says, ‘well, [Putin] told me I actually won in 2020’? Doesn't he sound like he's falling for the Putin play here?”

Read more: 'Truly shocking': Security fears mount as Trump takes off with ‘Russian KGB spy’

Conservative political Commentator Janelle King, another panelist, claimed what Trump was really saying on “Hannity” was that President Putin does not “see America as strong” under Biden.

“When Biden came in, they saw it as weak. They saw the weakness on display, and that is why they invaded Ukraine. That is the message that was being sent there,” said King. “He sees Trump as strength and he sees Biden as weakness.”

“Or he was telling President Trump what he said … to endear himself to get whatever deal Putin wants,” Blackwell said.

Watch the video below, or by clicking here.

- YouTube youtu.be

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'Eye of the storm': How Epstein booby traps and 'bungling' threaten the GOP

Republicans may have “courageously” adjourned the House early to avoid a vote on the Epstein files, but the traps they’ve have set themselves are going nowhere, said former prosecutor Elie Honig.

“Major issues remain unresolved and will play out over the coming weeks and months, whether Donald Trump and his Congressional supporters like it or not,” Honig tells the Intelligencer. “And they’ve mostly got themselves to blame.”

House Oversight Committee leader Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) “got the cheap thrill of announcing his roll call of boldface subpoena recipients … but now Comer must actually fight the battles he picked” said Honig. If he is ready to take the likes of Bill and Hillary Clinton to court over the subpoenas, he’ll have to show that his subpoenas are genuinely likely to provide relevant information.

READ MORE: 'Truly shocking': Security fears mount as Trump takes off with ‘Russian KGB spy’

“Yet Comer’s stated rationales for the necessity of the subpoenas are laughable,” said Honig.

Comer wants Hillay Clinton before Congress because she once hired Epstein’s nephew. And his other subpoena target, James Comey, wasn’t even FBI director during Epstein’s arrest or prosecution.

Meanwhile, Comer’s own Republican comrades, including Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) are already drawing attention to the fact that Comey excluded from his subpoena list “disgraced former U.S. Attorney (and former Trump Cabinet secretary)” Alexandra Costa. Honig said Costa was the prosecutor “who was presented a case involving at least three dozen child victims and chose to let Epstein off the hook for petty state-level charges and a 13-month sentence, much of it served out of custody.”

And then there’s the House subpoena to the Justice Department, calling for the release of Epstein’s near-complete files, with some redactions.

“Comer might not have thought this one through,” said Honig. “His document subpoena places another Trump loyalist, Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a bind.”

The AG can produce the documents to Congress — only she hasn’t, said Honig. She may challenge the subpoena in court, but Honig said that would shatter Bondi’s claim of being all about “transparency and lifting the veil”.

And House Republicans are not alone in setting booby traps, added Honig. “The Justice Department itself got into the act when it sent the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, to meet face-to-face for nearly ten hours with convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.”

There are now reports that Maxwell and the DOJ made an electronic recording of the interview, and “anything short of disclosure of the complete recording will surely feed suspicions of a cover-up,” said Honig,

READ MORE: 'Psychologically infuriating': Insiders warn even Trump’s 'brave face' can’t shield him from voters

Trump desperately needs the Epstein story to go away, but Honig says his own supporters’ “bungling” has assured that’s not happening.

“Don’t be lulled by the temporary calm,” Honig said. “It’s just the eye of the storm.”

Read the full Intelligencer report at this link.

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'Psychologically infuriating': Insiders warn even Trump’s 'brave face' can’t shield him from voters

Bulwark White House correspondent Andrew Egger said he doubts President Donald Trump will be able to convince Americans the economy’s great, despite his messaging talent.

“These are actually quite bad [economic] numbers,” said Eggers on a Thursday Bulwark podcast. “… These were kind of a slobber-knocker. It’s not just a 3.3 percent increase year over year in the [Producer] Price Index. It’s almost a percentage up just from over a month ago. And in a single month that’s a shocking price increase.”

“It’s a man-made crisis,” said Bulwark editor Jonathan Last. “… This is stagflation — something we didn’t have under Biden. … You have unemployment creeping up, job growth flattening out, demand softening and prices going up.”

READ MORE: This single sentence will fast-track Trump to a prison cell

Still, Last wondered if Americans like “Cletus and Lurleen” would convince themselves that Trump’s economy was still better than Biden’s. Last said polling data showed Americans “were so stupid” they believed the Biden economy was “as bad” as the Great Recession, “when we had a global financial crisis … with two percent of all houses in foreclosure.”

“That was insane,” said Last. “So, if people could be insane in that direction why couldn’t they be insane in the other direction and just decide Daddy Trump says everything is great?”

Eggers said inflation is “politically toxic to anybody in political power,” even Trump, who fires members of his own administration for reporting economic facts.

“There was global inflation shock and all the democracies that had elections in 2023 and 2024 ‘kicked out the bums’ because they were mad about inflation,” Eggers said. “Inflation is so psychologically infuriating for an electorate … There are a lot of reasons to believe that even if Trump tries to put a brave face on it will be harder to do when prices are hitting them hard at the supermarket and the gas pump.”

READ MORE: The plot thickens: A new chapter in the Ghislaine Maxwell saga

Public polls are already indicating public blowback from higher prices.

See a portion of the Bulwark video at this link.

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'Buyer’s remorse': Trump’s consumer confidence drops below Biden levels

U.S. Consumers appear to be dreading their Trumpian future, according to the University of Michigan’s most recent Consumer Sentiment Index.

“Consumer sentiment fell back about 5 percent in August, declining for the first time in four months,” according to the report. “This deterioration largely stems from rising worries about inflation.”

Preliminary results for the month showed consumer confidence down 13.7 percent from a year ago, during former President Joe Biden's term. Despite confidence being higher under the last administration, voters still rolled Biden out of office, largely based on economic dissatisfaction at high prices.

READ MORE: 'Lie! Lie!' Wyoming community blasts Republican at town hall

The report also revealed that consumers continue to expect both inflation and unemployment to deteriorate in the future, with “year-ahead inflation expectations” rising from 4.5 percent last month to 4.9 percent this month.

“This increase was seen across multiple demographic groups and all three political affiliations,” the report adds.

The numbers put an end to two consecutive months of receding inflation for short-run expectations and three straight months for long-run expectations.

Social media reacted badly to Bloomberg Reporter Joe Weisenthal posting the “ugly consumer sentiment numbers,” and blamed President Donald Trump for much of the anxiety.

READ MORE: 'We are the idiots': Here's why these rural Americans are feeling ignored

“It’s incredible how back we are,” one commenter snidely posted on X, while another pointed out how thoroughly “the media buried Biden's presidency using data points like this but seem oddly disinterested now that Trump is back in charge.”

Another online commenter posted: “Buyer's remorse is hitting folks earlier than expected,” and blamed the courts, the media, corporate America, the Congressional GOP, and the GOP base for failing to provide “any check on Trump.”

Still another X user warned that “we are just now seeing increasing wholesale inflation as businesses have eaten through their pre-tariff glut. That means we are almost certainly going to see higher prices hitting the shelves very soon."

See the preliminary numbers at this link.

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'Lie! Lie!' Wyoming community blasts Republican at town hall

Comments from climate change denier Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) went badly at a recent town hall in rural Pinedale.

WyoFile reports the community of Pinedale suffered alarming ozone spikes in the late 2000s, with one measurement surpassing that of Los Angeles. Residents — particularly those with preexisting respiratory conditions and asthma — had to avoid outdoor exercise on high-ozone days. WyoFile reports a doctor even advised one mother to drive her hypoxic newborn to a safer place 78 miles away from home.

So when Hageman appeared at a town hall and announced her support for “repealing” a landmark 2009 doctrine classifying greenhouse gases as pollutants and legally binding federal agencies to regulate them, attendees shouted her down.

READ MORE: This single sentence will fast-track Trump to a prison cell

“The endangerment finding is absolutely based upon false science,” Hageman said, prompting a chorus of boos from the July 29 crowd along with guffaws and several loud shouts of “No!”

WyoFile reports Hageman tried to continue over the outburst: “CO2 [carbon dioxide] is not a pollutant. As far as the validity and the science that was the foundation for that, they cooked the books.”

But Sublette County constituents weren’t having it, reports WyoFile: “The booing continued, along with one person shouting, ‘Lie! Lie!’ as Hageman pressed on.”

Environmental Defense Fund Legislative Manager John Rutecki told WyoFile that “Wyoming didn’t get cleaner by accident,” referring to efforts to reduce ozone-inducing pollutants in Pinedale’s Upper Green River Basin. “It took years of effort by the Pinedale community and so many others.”

READ MORE: 'Financial ruin': Trump's White House is terrified of losing this lawsuit

The “non-attainment” status issued by the EPA, which Hageman opposes, forced Wyoming air quality regulators to impose healthier standards on fossil fuel drillers, and eventually the companies themselves got onboard.

Pinedale resident Mary Lynn Worl, who attended Hegeman’s town hall, told WyoFile that her state isn’t likely to weaken federal emission rules after recent successes.

“We were never against drilling and development,” said Worl. “We wanted it done right. We wanted it to be done as safely as possible.

Read the full WyoFile report at this link.

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'Not the way things are supposed to work': Blue-state Republicans turn on Speaker in GOP map battle

The Washington Post reports House Speaker Mike Johnson is having to calm fears from blue-state Republicans alarmed at being pushed from office by retaliatory gerrymanders.

Hounded by falling poll numbers and nervous at the mid-terms, President Donald Trump is pushing an ambitious plan to remake red-state district maps to bolster the House GOP majority in 2026.

Gerrymandering maps in the middle of a decade — as opposed to after new Census numbers come in every 10 years — is unprecedented, however. And blue-state Democrats, like California Gov. Gavin Newsome, have promised to retaliate by working with state legislators to erase vulnerable Republicans districts.

READ MORE: 'Financial ruin': Trump's White House is terrified of losing this lawsuit

“I really don’t like the idea that this is going to be some sort of redistricting war, or there’s going to be this domino effect where one state after another upends their district lines. That’s not the way things are supposed to work,” said Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.), whose GOP district is one of five that California Democrats could obliterate if Texas proceeds with Trump’s plan.

The Post reports Johnson oversees a historically narrow House majority, and a larger majority could preserve Johnson’s speakership for another two years and make passing GOP legislation easier. But Blue-state Republicans could confound Johnson’s agenda in the meantime if Johnson is seen as endorsing any plan that puts their seats on a chopping block.

There is debate over whether the White House’s push for more seats is worth the trouble, reports the Post, particularly in an election cycle that typically punishes the president’s party. Strategists tell the Post there is no guarantee the maps will result in GOP gains because it’s unclear which voters will turn out if Republican voters are demoralized by poor economic numbers.

The Post reports some centrist red-state Republicans are also worried about having to fend off primary challengers in slightly less red districts that come of folding their Republican voters into neighboring blue districts.

READ MORE: This single sentence will fast-track Trump to a prison cell

“Some fear their seats could include more Democratic voters and become swingier,” reports the Post.

White House political operatives reached out to Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott immediately after a Democrat won a highly disputed Wisconsin court seat in April. Fueling the anxiety was the fact that the liberal candidate won despite billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk offering a $2 million cash prize to voters opposing against “activist judges.”

Read the full Washington Post report at this link.

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'My comfort level is not high': Former Republican rips Trump’s economy

Richard Haas, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, mourned the end of U.S. free market capitalism on Friday as President Donald Trump proposes to grab a stake in chip manufacturer Intel. He also decried Trump ending decades of free-market thought by putting his thumb on U.S. production with punishing tariffs.

CNBC hosts Andrew Ross Sorkin and Joe Kernen questioned Haas over Republicans' about-face on free market capitalism with Sorkin saying it was “unprecedented” for the United States government to take a stake in companies when the nation is not in a crisis, as it did with GM and Fannie Mae.

“We've been trying to export our brand of free market capitalism for a very long time around the world,” Sorkin said. “We've been very critical of the idea of national champions when other countries have done similar things, and I wonder what you think the implications are of us taking a stake in Intel … as you wake up this morning hearing this news.”

READ MORE: The plot thickens: A new chapter in the Ghislaine Maxwell saga

“Andrew, I'm old enough to remember when Republicans — and I was one for 40 years — believed in small government, particularly when it came to the economy,” answered Haas. “So, I’ve got to tell you, my comfort level is not high with all these all these participations.”

“It clearly makes it more difficult for us to talk the talk with others if we're not walking the walk ourselves,” Haas continued, adding that the U.S. will no longer be able to use export controls to pressure allies not to sell certain things “if we're going to want to sell them ourselves in order to get a cut for the U.S. government.”

Haas also grieved the likelihood of tariffs permanently destroying the free market now that Republicans have "joined" other tariff enthusiasts in destroying once-sacred free-market practices.

“You're going to see a postage stamp with free traders on it because they're an endangered species," Haas said. "Both parties now, I think, are somewhat supportive of tariffs."

READ MORE: This single sentence will fast-track Trump to a prison cell

Watch the video below, or by clicking here.

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'Financial ruin': Trump's White House is terrified of losing this lawsuit

New Republic writer Matt Ford says the DOJ must be genuinely frightened of losing its tariff lawsuit to be making such terrible court arguments.

V.O.S. Selections v. Trump is a suit from a group of small businesses who are challenging President Donald Trump’s authority to levy tariffs via the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1974. The coalition argues that Trump’s extensive restrictions on nearly every imported good reaches beyond what Congress has authorized by law.

According to the shrill, sloppy arguments the DOJ is now making in that case, Ford says the DOJ may be predicting a loss.

READ MORE: The plot thickens: A new chapter in the Ghislaine Maxwell saga

“One rather clear sign of nerves is that Solicitor General D. John Sauer … sent an unusual letter to the Federal Circuit panel reviewing the case earlier this week,” said Ford.

Rule 28(j) letters usually update courts about “pertinent” events that could be relevant to litigation. They sometimes pop up after new laws get passed affecting ongoing lawsuits. But Ford this one was a catch-all of desperate arguments.

“The President believes that our country would not be able to pay back the trillions of dollars that other countries have already committed to pay, which could lead to financial ruin,” Sauer warned the court. But Ford says this ignores the fact that hard-hit U.S. consumers are paying the tariff fees, not national trading partners. And the amount is certainly not in the “trillions.”

“One year ago, the United States was a dead country, and now, because of the trillions of dollars being paid by countries that have so badly abused us, America is a strong, financially viable, and respected country again,” Sauer wrote, mimicking the “dead country” description Trump used at a Friday press scrum on Air Force One.

READ MORE: 'Reckless': Lifelong diplomats are 'stunned' by Trump's 'obnoxious' new appointee

“This is not a legal argument,” said Ford. “What Sauer appears to be suggesting is that the court would be responsible for any negative economic consequences that should befall the country if it rules against the tariffs’ legality. That is doubtful on the merits.”

Ford said most indicators actually suggest the nation is heading for a recession thanks to the uncertainty and higher costs from Trump’s tariffs. “If anything, the markets would experience a modest boom if Trump’s tariffs could no longer be collected,” Ford argues.

But Sauer had more.

“If the United States were forced to unwind these historic agreements, the President believes that a forced dissolution of the agreements could lead to a 1929-style result,” Sauer claimed, invoking an argument that Ford said is “unworthy of a high-ranking Justice Department official.”

READ MORE: 'Completely lost the leverage': Big law firms that cut deals with Trump now ignoring him

“You do not need to be an economist to know that a Great Depression won’t happen if the Federal Circuit strikes down tariffs that did not exist six months ago,” said Ford.

“More than anything else, it shows how scared the Justice Department is (and the Trump appointees who staff it are) that Trump might lose this case,” said Ford. “… [A] solicitor general who was confident in the strength of their argument and the validity of the executive branch’s actions would not stoop so low as to telling federal judges that it will blame them for any negative consequences of their ruling. Like all bullying tactics, this one comes from a place of fear, not strength.”

Read the New Republic report at this link.

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'Sick of messing around': 'Schism' erupts as MAGA lawmaker targets colleagues

Axios reports "a schism is emerging between members of Congress who want to ban their colleagues from trading stocks over how best to accomplish their shared goal."

Congressional stock trading is the topic that Congress has long stalled as representatives grow wealthy from what looks to critics like insider trading.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) admitted in April that she purchased between $21,000 and $315,000 in stocks the day President Donald Trump sent stocks soaring by pausing his sweeping tariffs. Numbers also showed she dumped between $50,000 and $100,0000 in Treasury bills the day the bond market selloff badly rattled investors.

READ MORE: 'Reckless': Lifelong diplomats are 'stunned' by Trump's 'obnoxious' new appointee

U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Penn.), meanwhile, sold up to $50,000 in Alibaba stock on March 4, the same day Trump doubled the tariff on Chinese imports. In fact, there are trading companies that buy and sell based upon the reliability of U.S. politicians’ market transactions.

Axios reports House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) have expressed support for a ban, but talk appeared to stall until Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) announced last month that she plans to introduce a discharge petition on a bill to ban lawmakers, spouses and dependents from trading or owning stocks.

“Luna's going to force it, and I think we need to do that, because I'm sick of messing around," Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told Axios, adding that he was certain "some" Democrats would sign on to a discharge petition that bypasses House leadership and forces a floor vote.

Axios reports Burchett is part of a bipartisan group that includes Reps. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.), Chip Roy (R-Texas), Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.).

READ MORE: The plot thickens: A new chapter in the Ghislaine Maxwell saga

Luna tells Axios she is suspicious of the bipartisan group, however, claiming members don’t actually want to bring forward a bill because they don't "want to hurt their friends.”

A senior House Democrat told Axios the bill “is causing problems and being sorted."

Read the full Axios report at this link.

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'The playbook is simple': Memo reveals GOP formula for meeting furious voters

NPR reports Republicans facing fury back home over their Big Beautiful bill appear to be hiding behind a placard of conservative talking points when confronted with the facts — that is if they let themselves get confronted at all.

"The playbook is simple: focus on Republicans' efforts to improve voters' everyday lives and show the contrast with out of touch Democrats," according to a memo released by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).

But earlier this year, the NRCC also urged GOP lawmakers to avoid town halls altogether, and NPR reports Republicans took the message well. Out of 219 House Republicans, roughly 37 hosted some kind of townhall so far during the August recess, according to an NPR tally. Of those, approximately 16 hosted at least one in-person event.

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And those that do venture into a crowd appear ready with the NRCC list of issues that polled well to deflect recrimination.

“How can you justify taking health care away from 78,000 Nebraskans?" asked one attendee at an Aug. 4 town hall for Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.).

“Flood's responses to the hasty questions often followed a formula,” reports NPR. “He would state something positive about the policy while propping up a conservative talking point.”

"You have an additional $700 million coming into the state of Nebraska for Nebraska hospitals," responded Flood to the question. "If you are able to work and you're 28 years old and you choose not to work, you don't get free health care in America."

READ MORE: 'Completely lost the leverage': Big law firms that cut deals with Trump now ignoring him

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) followed a similar script at a townhall in July.

"The (Big Beautiful) bill also cuts out $700 billion from Medicaid and millions of people are going to lose their insurance coverage,” demanded one of Newhouse’s constituents. “So what leads you to believe that this is good?"

"We're going to encourage work in this country, which used to be a good thing. Work ethic is something that we value. If somebody is going to be benefiting from the American taxpayer and they're able to work, then they should," responded Newhouse, aping Flood’s vetted ‘everyone should work’ message.

Other talking points the NRCC suggested Republicans pivot to are the “no tax on tips” and “no tax on overtime” aspects of Trump’s bill.

READ MORE: 'Cry more!' Fox host mercilessly mocked after complaining about Newsom's dig at Texas gov

But political scientist Jim Curry told NPR that Republican incumbents visiting back home are going to have a difficult time selling their behavior to voter.

"I don't think the Republicans messaging on the bill is particularly strong or effective, in part because it's not very clear cut," said Curry. “… What almost invariably happens is a party sweeps into power. They're given control of everything, and then they overreach.”

Read the full NPR report at this link.

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'Love your question': Trump flatters LindellTV reporter who fawns over him during presser

Cara Castronuova, a host on far-right election denier and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's network, piqued President Donald Trump's attention with a blatantly partisan question during a Thursday Oval Office press scrum.

Reporters plied Trump with inquiries ahead of his Friday summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Questions included what methods the president has to constrain Putin, should the Russian leader blow off Trump’s petition for an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

But amid these questions came Castronuova, asking what Trump planned to do about Democrats’ alleged effort to frighten seniors.

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“Democrats like [Sen.] Bernie Sanders [I-Vt.] and [Sen.] Elizabeth Warren [D-Mass.] continue to peddle the lie and the claim that you're trying to cut Social Security, despite your repeated promises to protect it,” Castronuova asked. “Why do you think they keep pushing this misinformation and literally terrorizing the elderly in America that sadly keep watching the very misleading mainstream media?”

'LindellTV' is one of several pro-Trump media outlets granted highly prized White House press credentials earlier this year. The Trump administration claimed the media outlet's inclusion would boost democracy, but critics say it “seems to have only boosted ‘make America great again’ propaganda.”

“I love your question,” Trump told Castronuova. “I should have called you first, but I love these questions. But it's such a good question.”

Trump then used that opportunity to launch into a monologue of name-calling, referring to Warren as ‘Pocohontas’ and demanding she “take a drug test.”

READ MORE: 'That's how this ends': George Conway reveals 'the only way' to stop Trump's 'gangsterism'

“She's a liar and a mean person,” he said. “She's a nutjob.”

Critics on social media winced at the exchange.

“The projection is off the charts,” said one commenter on X, while another called Trump “a sad, despicable human being.”

Founded by right wing news ally Mike Lindell, 'LindellTV' brings all the “fawning coverage of Trump and his allies, mixed in with conspiracy theories about voting machines,” according to the Guardian, despite Lindell getting sued for millions of dollars over such conspiracies. No television network currently carries 'LindellTV.'

Watch the video below, or by clicking here.

- YouTube youtu.be

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Trump-voting Latinos turn on TX GOP

Washington Post writer Sabrina Rodriguez reports Latinos may not be the Republican lock-in the party is expecting from new gerrymandered Texas maps.

“Am I going to say it’s just Republicans from now on? No,” said Yzeña Cuellar, who lives near the U.S. southern border. “I’m not going to be a shut door. I’m going to be open to both sides.”

Republican leaders believe five new congressional districts that Trump wants created in Texas will be reliably GOP, but that’s only if the party continues to keep the new Latino voters they drew in the last election, and if they expand their reach further.

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The 28th Congressional District, which is currently held by a Democrat, will be 90 percent Hispanic under new GOP proposed maps. The Post reports Republican leaders plan to fold in voters who went for Trump in nearby Hidalgo County in the last election. However, that same county also voted for Democratic U.S. House and Senate candidates and other Democrats down the ballot.

And while Republicans did open new territory along the border, sources speaking to the Post say this does not mean the party has locked down a reliable new generation of GOP voters.

Cuellar’s partner, Rick Salinas, told the Post that his vote for Trump last November was “a question of trying something else — trying something new.”

“We voted for him because we want prosperity,” said Salinas, who now complains that Trump is deporting people “who are working hard” and who have been in the country for years. He added that the deportations are doing nothing to help the local economy.

READ MORE: 'That's how this ends': George Conway reveals 'the only way' to stop Trump's 'gangsterism'

“It’s not helping anybody. The price of construction just went up, and I don’t see a bunch of U.S. citizens lining up to take those jobs,” Salinas said. He also warned that many South Texas voters who put their trust in Trump late last year may just “go back to what they had before.”

“You’re counting on a Mexican American to vote Republican again? crazy-a—— bet, bro,” Salinas said. “Because down here, what makes a difference is dollars and cents.”

Read the full report at this link.

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'Traitor': Conspiracy theories fuel MAGA rage against former Trump AG Bill Barr

Bulwark writer Will Sommer says President Donald Trump’s former attorney general Bill Barr caught flack at a recent Fox News appearance, but the reason for his condemnation couldn’t be less flimsy.

“Why did Fox just bring on traitor Bill Barr? He should be in prison,” posted MAGA influencer Gunther Eagleman, while another Trump enthusiast wrote “Bill Barr is on Fox News instead of a prison cell."

Sommer said X accounts and YouTube commenters are demanding Fox ban Barr from its airwaves, and wish him a prison term for treason.

READ MORE: 'That's how this ends': George Conway reveals 'the only way' to stop Trump's 'gangsterism'

“Why the insistence that Barr has committed a criminal betrayal of the country? Naturally, it’s a conspiracy theory,” said Sommer.

“Huge swaths of the right-wing media audience have latched on to allegations that Barr schemed with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and conservative pundit Armstrong Williams to hatch the Georgia criminal case against Donald Trump and 18 other people,” Sommer writes.

The controversy stems from right-wing video producer Project Veritas publishing reports from sole source Patrícia Lélis, who Sommer describes as a ”Brazilian national fugitive wanted by the FBI and last known to be hiding out in Mexico.”

Lélis claims she learned of Barr’s scheme to orchestrate Trump’s prosecutions while working as Armstrong Williams’ employee. Sommer said it does not appear to matter that Merrick Garland — not Bill Barr — was attorney general at the time. Lélis alleges Barr secretly met with Jack Smith and Fani Willis to “hatch plans to bring a RICO case against Trump and more than a dozen other defendants.”

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Project Veritas published three videos focused on Lélis’s allegations, and Sommer said much of the American right have taken her claims “at face value.”

“They’ve been promoted by InfoWars chief Alex Jones, pundit Dinesh D’Souza, and Mario Nawfal, the ubiquitous X personality with more than 2 million followers,” writes Sommer. “Lélis has appeared on online politics streamer Real America’s Voice News, the home of prominent right-wing figures like Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk.”

“White nationalist figure” Nick Fuentes cited his own appearance on Bill Barr’s alleged “enemies list” to boost his credibility against allegations that he’s a federal informant, said Sommer.

Lélis’ believers ignore that she accused a Brazilian politician of rape in 2015, only to have police drop the case and request her own arrest, said Sommer, or that police determined her “texts” accusing the son of Brazil’s then-president Jair Bolsonaro of threatening her were forgeries. Sommer also points out that Lélis likely stole the photo of a baby from a social media account and photoshopped her own face onto the mother’s to make Lélis look like a mom.

READ MORE: 'Not looking great out there': Analysts warn this unexpected indicator predicts Trump slump

Still, Sommer reports Project Veritas telling him they stand behind her claims, and they plan more releases from her in the future, despite Brazilians familiar with Lélis being “aghast” at the company treating her like a credible source.

“She is a diagnosed mythomaniac!” one wrote to Project Veritas on X. “For God’s sake.”

Read the full Bulwark report at this link.

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Hunter Biden urges Melania Trump deposition with expletive-laden clapback after $1 billion threat

The New York Post reports Hunter Biden does not appear intimidated by lawsuit threats from first lady Melania Trump.

“F—— that. That’s not going to happen,” Biden said during a Thursday interview on the YouTube show "Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan."

“I don’t believe in guilt by association alone, but the connections are … so glaringly obvious that I think they’re trying to use other things to distract,” Biden continued. “And I also think they’re bullies, and they think that a billion dollars if gonna scare me.”

READ MORE: 'That's how this ends': George Conway reveals 'the only way' to stop Trump's 'gangsterism'

Melania Trump threatened to sue Biden for $1 billion if he doesn’t retract statements linking her to accused sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. She took issue with comments Biden referenced claiming Epstein introduced the first lady to now-President Donald Trump. Melania Trump’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito claimed Biden’s statements are false, defamatory and “extremely salacious,” which are causing the first lady “to suffer overwhelming financial and reputational harm.”

But Biden says he’s repeating information from other sources.

“What I said was what I have heard and seen, reported and written, primarily from Michael Wolff, but also dating back all the way to 2019 when the New York Times, I think … reported that sources said that Jeffrey Epstein claimed to be the person to introduce Donald Trump to Melania at that time,” Biden said in the interview that attracted Trump’s attention.

Trump’s lawyers have had recent success in pushing for retractions, reports The New York Post. Her team issued similar threats to the Daily Beast, which retracted an article, and it pressed Democratic strategist James Carville to apologize and retract a podcast episode in which he speculated there was an “Epstein connection” involving the first lady.

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But Biden said in his video that he is eager to get to the deposition phase of the Trumps’ suit.

“If they want to sit down for a deposition and clarify the nature of their relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and the first lady and the president — if they want to do that, and all the known associates around them at the time they met — I’m more than happy to provide them the platform to do it,” Biden said.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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Trump’s 'personal-retribution project' hits a major roadblock — for now

Atlantic writer Quinta Jurecic reports Trump’s plan to use the DOJ for revenge against protesters and Democratic politicians is not going as well as he’d like.

“The Justice Department has been slow to move forward with the investigations Trump demanded, hemmed in by the constraints of the legal system,” writes Jurecic. “… American criminal law appears to be a less flexible tool in the hands of an authoritarian than Trump hoped — at least for now.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi may be ready to carry out Trump’s “personal-retribution project” with investigations of the Obama administration and former prosecutor Jack Smith, says Jurecic, but a prosecutor still requires a jury to issue an indictment, and to do that the prosecutor has to make a convincing case. This is usually easy, but Jurecic says the “administration keeps tripping up.”

READ MORE: 'That's how this ends': George Conway reveals 'the only way' to stop Trump's 'gangsterism'

Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli filed more than 35 felony prosecutions against June protestors against ICE raids in Los Angeles, but they only managed to persuade grand juries to indict some of them. Later, his office dismissed eight of his own indictments and downgraded others to misdemeanors after “falling short at the grand jury stage” according to the LA Times.

By comparison, Jurecic reports only six refusals by grand juries to indict suspects across the nation in 2016 — out of roughly 180,000 cases.

Meanwhile, over on the east coast, prosecutors moved to dismiss U.S. Attorney Alina Habba’s trespassing charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka after he attempted to visit an ICE detention facility. The judge in that case slammed Habba’s office so hard for trying to press the charges that Baraka could be heard saying: “Jesus, he tore these people a new a——.”

READ MORE: 'Severe pushback': House Republicans fear constituent revolt over divisive new proposal

And Jurecic reports Bondi appears to be “struggling” to pursue Trump’s demand to prosecute people involved in perpetrating what Trump calls the “Russia hoax.”

“The biggest challenge there is that there was no hoax,” said Jurecic, “as both Special Counsel Robert Mueller and a bipartisan Senate intelligence report concluded, Russia really did try to help Trump win the 2016 election.”

Jurecic said it looks like Bondi “was caught unawares” by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s release of documents related to the “hoax” from 2016, and “displeased about the political pressure from the right to launch an investigation in response.”

“All Bondi appears to have done is ask prosecutors to possibly present grand jurors with evidence, with no clear deadline,” said Jurecic, despite “exciting” Fox News headlines.

READ MORE: 'Don’t see that happening': Crockett calls Republicans' bluff on controversial Trump move

And regarding the investigation of Smith, Jurecic says the “harshest penalty that the Office of Special Counsel could demand would be Smith’s dismissal from government service, but he has already resigned.”

“A jury is in essence a democratic institution, requiring citizens to exercise their judgment in a model of shared deliberation that is at odds with Trump’s autocratic tendencies,” said Jurecic. “… So far, that system has held up against Trump’s encroachment. But the rapid erosion of democratic life in the United States over the past six months is a reminder of how quickly things can change.”

Read the full Atlantic report at this link.

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'Not looking great out there': Analysts warn this unexpected indicator predicts Trump slump

Bloomberg reports falling cardboard box sales are starting to worry analysts about consumer spending in the Trump economy.

“It’s just not happening, and they have no control over it,” said Adam Josephson, a former sell-side analyst who covers the paper and packaging sector. “[Across industries] all the measures I track are pointing in a not-very-good direction.”

Bloomberg reports U.S. box shipments to retailers — for the purpose of packaging new purchases — “fell to the lowest second-quarter reading since 2015, according to data from Fibre Box Association.”

READ MORE: 'That's how this ends': George Conway reveals 'the only way' to stop Trump's 'gangsterism'

Meanwhile, Memphis-based International Paper Co., one of the world’s largest pulp and paper companies, reported a 5 percent drop in daily U.S. box shipments in the same quarter compared to a year ago. Bloomberg reports International Paper recently announced that it will close four facilities, including a mill that helped keep a small town alive in Louisiana. Paper company Smurfit Westrock announced plans to shutter one of its own mills in Iowa.

“In short, it’s not looking great out there for box manufacturers,” reports Bloomberg reporter Ilena Peng.

“In a country where consumer spending makes up almost 70 percent of the economy, any retrenchment in retail activity tends to put economy watchers and government officials on alert,” reports Bloomberg. And while the strength of the highly seasonal cardboard box industry “isn’t necessarily a one-to-one proxy for retail spending,” like beauty-shop outlays or consumer sentiment, it “can flash early signals when things start to go amiss.”

Brett House, a professor of economics at Columbia Business School, told Bloomberg that boxes aren’t usually ordered far in advance, so they can offer a “nearly real-time indicator” of buying and manufacturing activity in the U.S. economy.

Bloomberg claims most of the 2025 drop in packaging demand “appears to be tied to President Donald Trump’s mixed messaging on tariffs” because companies can’t predict how the levies will affect costs and long-term demand for their finished products.

READ MORE: 'That's how this ends': George Conway reveals 'the only way' to stop Trump's 'gangsterism'

“They’re not stocking up on bulky packaging while they wait to find out,” according to Bloomberg.

UPS CEO Carol Tomé told analysts that the small-package market in the most recent quarter was “unfavorably impacted by U.S. consumer sentiment that was near historic lows.”

Organic growth in consumer goods “is just not happening,” said Ryan Fox, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, adding that the rise in “buy-two-get-two” promotions to drive volumes at grocery stores is “never a great sign for demand.”

Read the full Bloomberg report at this link.

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'A distraction': Expert says this is the real reason Trump is fleeing to Alaska

London School of Economics Professor Peter Trubowitz told ‘The Pulse’ that President Donald Trump has good reason to run off to a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

“You have to keep in mind what [Trump’s] trying to avoid as well as what he’s trying to achieve,” Trubowitz told show host Francine Lacqua. “He’s got lousy poll numbers. He’s got pushback over the Epstein files and there’s a backlash in the heartland over the Big Beautiful ill. So, Trump is putting a lot of things out there and this was another opportunity to seize to change the narrative.”

Trump is meeting with Putin this week to negotiate a ceasefire in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but Trubowitz said the meetings are not only a distraction, but they carry high risks.

READ MORE: 'That's how this ends': George Conway reveals 'the only way' to stop Trump's 'gangsterism'

“He’s walking into negotiation that could go in directions that he’s not necessarily ready for,” said Trubowitz. “Trump said he will know in two minutes in a discussion with Vladimir Putin whether there’s a deal. What I interpret from that is he will know very quickly if there’s a ceasefire deal to be had, and if not he will go down a different path, and that path will be about normalizing relations between the U.S. and Russia.”

Trubowitz said Trump “will spin anything” that comes out of the meeting and frame it “as a win,” but “if he throws Ukraine under the bus, he’s going to have trouble with European leaders.”

Bloomberg News Reporter Stephanie Baker said Trump has had years of warm relations with the Russian dictator and has “been careful” with his language about Putin until the last couple of months when Trump “realized he’d been played.”

But Trubowitz warned that significant capitulation to Putin arising from his warm relation would “cost him with Europe and independent [voters] in the U.S.” if he comes away with a deal that “appeases Putin at Kiev’s expense.”

READ MORE: 'Severe pushback': House Republicans fear constituent revolt over divisive new proposal

“It will not cost him with the MAGA coalition who want him to normalize relations with Moscow—the Tucker Carlson’s and so forth who are all in the tank for this—but for average voters who are paying attention, a bad deal would not go over well,” Trubowitz said.

Watch the full ‘Pulse” clip at this link.

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'One of the more dangerous places': Trump asked to stop crime in this Republican-run city

Kansas City Star Columnist Melinda Henneberger says if any city deserves federal intervention from the U.S. military it would not be Washington D.C. It would be hers — only that’s not likely to happen.

“[President] Donald Trump won’t be sending the troops into this heavily Democratic city, even though Kansas City is by the numbers one of the more dangerous places in the country,” wrote Henneberger. “How can I be so sure? Because despite our many gun deaths and Black mayor … we already have no control over our own police department.”

Kansas City is listed as No. 8 on a list of 25 most dangerous places for 2024-2025, but Henneberger said every member of its board of police commissioners, except the mayor, are appointed by Kansas’ Gov Laura Jeanne Kelly, a Republican.

READ MORE: Trump's catastrophic collapse is real — and he may take us all down with him

“So, there can’t be any problem here, right?” asked Henneberger.

Henneberger said Washington doesn’t deserve personal intervention from the U.S. military just because one of Trump’s “former DOGE favorites” became a “3 AM victim of an attempted carjacking.” The carjacking, she said, wasn’t even successful. It was interrupted by D.C. police who were “already doing their job in our nation’s capital.”

“The president should have praised the Metropolitan Police Department instead of sending in the troops,” said Henneberger. “According to ABC News, ‘A police cruiser arrived as the assault was in progress’ — emphasis mine — ‘prompting the suspects to flee on foot.’”

Officers on the scene quickly collected two of the suspects — a 15-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy.

READ MORE: 'Where are the limits?' Judge explodes at Trump DOJ from the bench

Henneberger said she used to live in Washington, and Logan Circle in the middle of the night “used to be a lot less safe.”

“The cops are so on top of it that they see what’s happening, stop what’s happening, and arrest the unarmed suspects. Yet the situation is so out of control that we need to call in the military?” Henneberger asked.

The columnist said the “federal takeover of the police in D.C. … has nothing to do with crime.” Instead, it goes back to Trump’s real “goal of complete control,” and she referenced the president pushing former Republican Missouri Rep. Billy Long out of his “brand new post running the IRS” after the agency refused to provide private information about taxpaying immigrants to the Department of Homeland Security.

“Trump is going to break this republic if we let him, and that’s the crime I worry about most,” Henneberger said.

READ MORE: Fox News abruptly ends interview with Texas Democrat after he turns question on host

Read the full Kansas City Star report at this link.

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Facts 'don’t care' about your feelings: How Trump is hiding from Epstein behind DC lies

Washington Monthly editor Bill Scher says President Donald Trump is not only dodging behind DC to escape his Epstein scandal but also behind bogus crime figures to build his cover.

“‘Facts don’t care about your feelings’ is a maxim popularized by the conservative commentator Ben Shapiro,” writes Scher, but the ‘facts don't care about your feelings’ crowd suddenly prefers "vibes" over D.C. crime statistics that demolish Trump's justification for federal police control.”

Scher notes right-wing podcaster Michael Knowles defended Trump’s federal takeover of the Washington, D.C. police, claiming it was “in response to skyrocketing crime.” This was despite the fact that the rate of violent crime in D.C in 2024 is down by more than a third since 2023, and more than half since 2010.

READ MORE: Trump's catastrophic collapse is real — and he may take us all down with him

But it’s not just right-wing media pushing the rising crime fantasy, said Scher. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough recently declared “I don’t care what the crime statistics say. Crime has been a problem in this city for the 32 years I’ve been living inside and outside of the city. I think Congress and the President should have stepped in 30 years ago.”

Scher also referenced Axios reporter Alex Thompson admitting “we have a 30-year low … [of] violent crime,” while also claiming he’d “talked to Democrat strategists” that think citing statistics is “sort of a tone deaf way to react” to crime.

But all this “hypothesizing about feelings” ignores a bigger issue, said Scher.

“We should look at the statistics, not to argue that crime is no longer a problem in D.C. or anywhere [but] … because when you do you will see that the President of the United States is brazenly lying about crime in D.C. to falsely claim there is an 'emergency' and exploit the law that allows the federal government to temporarily take over the D.C. police force in emergencies,” Scher said.

READ MORE: 'Where are the limits?' Judge explodes at Trump DOJ from the bench

And even if you are going strictly on “feelings,” Scher asks what is the evidence that there is an actual panic about crime? A poll by The Economist/YouGov asked respondents which of 15 different issues is most important to you, and “Crime” ranked 12th with only two percent.

“This is not a national electorate worked up about crime,” said Scher, adding “most Americans don’t see rampant crime in their neighborhoods and are not so easily manipulated by Trump’s attempts to turn the media spotlight away from less favorable topics such as his administration’s high tariffs and broken promises to release the Epstein files.”

But Trump needs a “distraction,” said Scher. “As an authoritarian at heart, he needs foils. He needs hellscapes to rail against. He needs excuses to justify power grabs. He needs problems, and he needs Democratic scapegoats for those problems.”

Scher added that “rationalizing” Trump’s actions as technically legal only sets the stage for more abuses in other cities. “The only thing 'tone deaf' in this dialogue is the downplaying of authoritarian encroachment into our daily lives.”

READ MORE: Fox News abruptly ends interview with Texas Democrat after he turns question on host

Read the full Washington Monthly report at this link.

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'Abject disaster': Data analyst says Trump is deep underwater on inflation

CNN analyst Harry Enten said Republicans have no hope of holding the House with current poll numbers.

“This is an abject disaster,” said Enten, pointing to an aggregate of recent surveys showing Trump's tariffs are being passed along to consumers — and consumers hate them.

“He won the 2024 election because [voters believed] he was more entrusted on inflation than Kamala Harris by a margin of nine points. But look at where his net approval stands today on inflation. My goodness gracious: into the gutter we go,” Enten said, pointing low to the CNN newsroom floor. “… He's 25 points underwater. That is where the Little Mermaid is, and … that's how far underwater he is on the issue that got him elected.”

READ MORE: Trump's catastrophic collapse is real — and he may take us all down with him

CNN reported inflation may be holding steady, but it is holding steady at unpleasant levels. When asked to look forward to 2026, when “a lot of Republicans are going to be on the ballot,” Enten declared polls “looking much better” for Democrats.

“Yeah, if Republicans in Congress think that they can escape the wrath of the voters when it comes to inflation, I have a bit of a rude awakening for them,” said Enten, pulling up additional survey responses.

“You go back to the 2022 midterms — look at this — Republicans led by 13 points on 'which party was more trusted on inflation'. But look at where we are now: Nearly a 15-point shift in the Democrats’ direction. It's within the margin of error, but the Democrats are up by a point,” Enten said. “This just looks totally different from where we were back in 2022, when Republicans took back the House.”

CNN anchor Jessica Dean asked Enten how high up inflation ranked on voter’s minds, however, compared to other issues. And again, Enten delivered bad news for GOP incumbents.

READ MORE: Fox News abruptly ends interview with Texas Democrat after he turns question on host

“… What is the top issue for you right now? It's a runaway for inflation at 34 percent, compared to the economy, which is basically very similar at 16 percent, Medicare and Social Security are at 14 percent. … The bottom line is voters in poll after poll after poll say that Donald Trump has taken his eye off the ball, off the big issue of the day, which is inflation.”

“I can guarantee you this, Jessica: if these numbers look right now like they do or will look on Election Day 2026, there is no way on God's green earth that Republicans can hold on to the House of Representatives.”

Watch the video below, or by clicking here.

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'Gut punch': Missouri workers blast GOP paid sick leave repeal

The Guardian reports hourly workers are suffering after Missouri Republicans repealed a paid sick leave mandate that voters approved by 58 percent. The repeal will take effect on August 28.

“It was a literal gut punch,” ex-fast-food worker Bill Thompson told the Guardian. “… As an older worker, I have health issues from working on my feet and with my hands for many years with no breaks for eight to 10 hours a day. I have done it for 38 years now, living paycheck to paycheck.”

Thompson, 54, added that the state of Missouri does not mandate breaks during work.

READ MORE: Trump's worst crimes and destructions haven't even happened yet

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed the repeal, which also links minimum-wage adjustments to inflation, eight months after voters approved it, reports the Guardian. The repeal marked a major victory for the state’s largest business group and a frustrating defeat for workers’ rights advocates, who had spent years and millions of dollars building support for the successful ballot measure, the Guardian reports.

“I think that was the more important issue for the chamber of commerce and elected officials to try to push back on, because I think they’re really terrified that working people have a sense of our own agency in a state like this,” said Missouri Jobs With Justice Policy Director Von Glahn, who sponsored the worker benefit ballot initiative.

The Gurdian reports House and Senate authors of the bill to repeal the paid sick leave mandate did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but Gov. Kehoe’s office claimed in an email that the voter-approved Proposition A initiative was the work of “out of state special interests.”

Kansas City McDonald’s worker Richard Eiker disagrees. He told the Guardian the issue of paid sick leave is a public health issue, particularly for food service workers. He added that he has often had to go into work sick or injured because he couldn’t afford to take the unpaid time off from work.

READ MORE: 'Not plausible': Trump-appointed judge hands him major loss in court

“Whether it’s been an injury I’ve sustained at work or been an illness I’ve had, I’ve often found myself having to go into work regardless of whether I recovered fully or not, simply because I can’t afford to take the time off of work in order to take care of my bills and everything,” said Eiker, who was the primary caregiver for his mother before he came home to find her unresponsive after a stroke.

“At the time I was caring for her, her expenses, my expenses, and we were trying to keep the apartment we were in, all these pressures on me, if I had paid sick time off and I had been able to stay with her that day, I wonder if things could have been different,” Eiker told the Guardian.

Read the full Guardian report at this link.

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Kari Lake wants to shutter agency Trump tapped her to lead — but 'is she really the CEO?'

Former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is trying to shut down government-funded media outlets she was tapped to lead, but NPR reports challengers want her to define her job title before she does it.

"The government does not operate on the whims of a ‘Kari Lake’ or even of a ‘Donald Trump’," said Democracy Defenders Fund attorney Norman Eisen, who is representing press advocacy groups in lawsuits against Lake over her effort to shutter Voice of America. "If you have a role in government, it has to be defined and documented," Eisen told NPR. "Who knows if that's a self-anointed title? One way or the other, this raises the most profound legal questions."

NPR reports the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) has recently called Lake its acting CEO, but Lake may not be legally eligible for the job. That question could hold weight considering a federal judge voided directives affecting asylum rules in 2020 after finding Trump's appointment of the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was unlawful.

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NPR said it has “repeatedly asked the White House press office, Lake and another senior agency official” for documentation of Lake’s current role in the Trump administration, but has received no replies.

"It's important to find out — is she really the CEO? How did she arrive there?" asked Grant Turner, who served as chief executive of USAGM during Trump's first term. "If she doesn't have that authority — and she's claiming to have the authority — then it's really just invalid. There's so many things that may come back to haunt Kari Lake and USAGM."

"Maybe she just wants to have a cool title to wave around," Turner says, "but if she really doesn't have true legal authority to have that title, then they're really just begging for problems."

Lake was a two-time unsuccessful MAGA candidate for senator and governor in Arizona before Trump announced his plan to appoint her director of Voice of America. The problem with that, said NPR, is federal law does not allow a president to unilaterally appoint a director over the agency. So Trump essentially dissolved the government advisory board set up by Congress to oversee Voice of America’s international networks and named Lake a “senior adviser” to run it.

READ MORE: Fox News abruptly ends interview with Texas Democrat after he turns question on host

The Atlantic reports Lake is now working to deport non-citizen Voice of America employees who hold J-1 visas.

Read the full NPR report at this link.

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'Failed to deliver': Latino voters are souring on Trump — and creating 'a huge liability for him'

It’s only been seven months but NPR reports Latino voters are already growing weary of President Donald Trump’s economic policies.

NPR reports Latino voters are among the nation’s more unreliable swing voters. They swung in greater numbers for Trump in the last election, and now they’re minds are on their wallets as consumer prices fail to drop.

"Republicans have failed to deliver on a lot of their campaign promises, particularly around lowering the cost of living," said Caitlin Jury, a research director at Equis Research. "If they want to retain any gains they may have made among Latino voters, they need to be sure to deliver on the promises they made that maybe gave them some additional support in the last election."

READ MORE: Fox News abruptly ends interview with Texas Democrat after he turns question on host

Daniel Garza, president of Republican mobilizing group Libre Initiative, said Latinos are generally not satisfied with the current economy.

"Still too many of us are living paycheck to paycheck," said Garza. "Folks aren't getting good paying jobs, wage growth, checks on inflation, affordable health care and housing and quality education."

Melissa Morales, founder and president of left-leaning Latino voter mobilization organization Somos Votantes, said her own group's polling has uncovered growing economic pessimism among Latino voters since January.

"The longer Trump is in office, the more frustrated Latino voters are becoming with his economic policies, and it's becoming a pretty huge liability for him," Morales told NPR.

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NPR reports the GOP currently has a very narrow majority in the House and the Senate, and congressional control will depend on next year's midterm elections. Many competitive races deciding those seats are in districts with large Latino populations.

Morales, who agrees that Latino voters are swing voters, say will likely again swing “one way or the other."

Read the full NPR report at this link.

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'Disgraceful' Vance mocked with 'fat baby' memes in England

The Guardian reports roughly 100 U.K. protesters gathered to demonstrate against Vice President JD Vance’s English countryside vacation in the Cotswolds.

Local residents and commuting critics converged for a “Dance against Vance” near the town of Dean, Oxfordshire, hefting chubby-faced Vance memes while Vance’s convoy of helpers, aides and security detail snarled traffic, reports the Guardian.

“He’s simply not welcome here,” said Sue Moon, a therapist from nearby Chipping Norton. “We don’t want anything to do with people like him.”

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The Guardian reports many protestors were appalled by Vance’s contribution to President Donald Trump’s Oval Office confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinsky, where Vance called the embattled Ukrainian leader disrespectful.

“Have you said ‘thank you’ once?” Vance demanded of Zelinsky, who’s nation is being invaded by his Russian neighbor.

U.K. resident Natasha Phillips traveled 70 miles to show her dislike for Vance, waving a sign saying, “JD Vance–the guy who bullied a war hero from the comfort of his couch.”

“The way he treated Volodymyr Zelenskyy was disgusting,” said Phillips. “The Ukrainian people are heroes. British people admire the way they are standing up to [Vladimir] Putin. I wanted to come here to show that.”

READM MORE: 'Where are the limits?' Judge explodes at Trump DOJ from the bench

The crowd circulated and lauded images of Vance as a bloated, wild-eyed baby. These were the same images that allegedly got a Norwegian tourist kicked out of the U.S. for having on his possession.

Chris Tatton, a former councilor from the neighboring town of Charlbury, where the protest took place, agreed Vance’s treatment of Zelinsky was “disgraceful,” according to the Guardian.

Other protestors, including retired union organizer Steve Akers, said they were protesting because of U.S. contribution to the destruction of Gaza.

“That wouldn’t happen without this U.S. government,” said Akers, referring to Israel using U.S. munitions and resources to bombard and invade the Palestinian territory.

READ MORE: Trump's worst crimes and destructions haven't even happened yet

Read the full Guardian report at this link.

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'Affront to the Great Leader': How Trump is closely following 'the authoritarian canon'

Salon Senior Writer Chauncey DeVega says President Donald Trump’s DC takeover is just Trump doing exactly what he’d planned to do all along.

“During the 2024 election, Donald Trump promised to be a dictator on ‘day one.’ Seven months after his return to power, he is earnestly expanding that promise,” writes DeVega.

Trump’s concerns about “law and order” in DC are “self-interested and wholly circumstantial,” said DeVega. He noted that Trump did not deploy the DC National Guard when an armed mob was laying siege to the U.S. Capitol in 2021 to try to help him hold on to power.

READ MORE: Trump's worst crimes and destructions haven't even happened yet

DeVega went on to write that, similar to other authoritarians, Trump is willing to manufacture statistics and public emergencies that do not exist. There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia, he writes. Violent crime in DC is at a 30-year low, and is down another 26 percent so far this year.

But autocrats and demagogues use false claims of crime and disorder as pretexts to “declare a permanent state of emergency and to suspend the rule of law, along with civil rights and liberties," writes DeVega. Salon democracy expert Katherine Stewart called the tactic “one of the most frequently telegraphed stunts in the authoritarian canon.”

Trump’s war on the homeless and the poor is yet another example of an authoritarian at work, says DeVega, explaining that they are “human proof of how a government and its leaders have failed the people,” and they are “a form of narcissistic injury to an authoritarian who presents himself as being all-powerful and perfect.” He referenced Trump’s social media announcement of the DC takeover, in which he promised “Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum will DISAPPEAR. I will, MAKE OUR CAPITAL GREAT AGAIN!”

“Inconvenient” and “disposable” people must be removed or erased because “they are an affront to the Great Leader, the Party and the myth of national greatness,” says DeVega, adding it’s a category that “inevitably expands to include political ‘enemies.’”

READ MORE: 'Not plausible': Trump-appointed judge hands him major loss in court

DeVega added that simply “being American” may not be the antidote that political observers hope it will be.

Read DeVega's full Salon essay at this link.

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Trump threatens to sue 'grossly incompetent' Fed leader over debunked numbers

President Donald Trump is threatening to sue Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as higher consumer prices threaten the mid-terms.

“I am … considering allowing a major lawsuit against Powell to proceed because of the horrible, and grossly incompetent, job he has done in managing the construction of the Fed Buildings,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday. “Three billion dollars for a job that should have been a $50 million dollar fix up. Not good!”

Trump appears to be pushing the purported $3 billion renovation price tag weeks after Powell repeatedly corrected him before reporters.

READ MORE: Trump's worst crimes and destructions haven't even happened yet

“So, we're taking a look and it looks like it's about $3.1 billion,” Trump said in July while touring renovations of the Fed building. “It went up a little bit, or a lot, so the $2.7 [billion] is now 3.1 [billion]."

“I'm not aware of that,” said Powell. “I haven't heard that from anybody.”

“Yeah, it just came out,” Trump said, handing Powell a list from his pocket.

“Are you including the Martin [Building] renovation?” Powell asked after some exchange. “You just added in a third building, is what that is. That's a third building.”

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“But it's a building that's being built,” Trump pointed out.

“No, it's been built. It was built five years ago,” Powell insisted. “We finished Martin five years ago.”

“—as part of the overall work,” Trump argued.

“No, it's not new.” Powell said.

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Trump is sticking to his guns, despite being corrected, however. And he’s complaining of appointing Powell during his first administration.

“Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell must now lower the [interest] rate. [Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin] really gave me a ‘beauty’ when he pushed this loser,” Trump added. “The damage he has done by always being Too Late is incalculable.”

The Daily Beast reports Trump is irritated at Powell’s refusal to lower interest rates as the president’s own tariffs ramp up consumer prices this month.

“His attack on Tuesday came as the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) released that morning showed core inflation, which excludes food and energy, came in slightly hotter than expected and had its largest one month increase since January when the president took office,” the Daily Beast reports. “The CPI found core inflation was up 0.3 percent for last month and up 3.1 percent from a year ago, the largest annual increase since February.”

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Read the full Daily Beast report at this link.

White House plots sweeping Smithsonian review to 'ensure alignment with' Trump

The Wall Street Journal reports the White House will conduct a sweeping review of Smithsonian museum exhibitions, materials and operations to align it with President Donald Trump’s interpretation of American history.

Three top White House officials, said the Journal, sent a letter to Lonnie Bunch, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, claiming they want to ensure the museums’ “unity, progress, and enduring values” reflect President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”

The White House intends to inspect and adjust public-facing exhibition text and online content. It also wants to have a say in future exhibition planning, as well as the use of collections and artist grants, say Journal reporters.

READ MORE: Trump's worst crimes and destructions haven't even happened yet

“This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions,” states the Aug. 12 letter.

Critics railed against Trump’s January executive order demanding a Trump-approved version of U.S. history that erases chapters that fail to align with Trump’s vision of American greatness, reports the Guardian.

“He’s ignorant of economic history, he’s ignorant of political history. And his idea for the 250 [anniversary] is to use it as a way to celebrate him,” said Jonathan Alter, a historian and biographer to the Guardian. “We don’t know yet exactly how he’ll hijack that event next year, but he will certainly try to do so.”

The Journal reports Trump singled out the Smithsonian Institution in his executive order, claiming the Smithsonian had “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology” that promotes “narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”

READ MORE: 'Not plausible': Trump-appointed judge hands him major loss in court

The Smithsonian’s Board of Regents had already agreed to conduct a thorough review of its museum and zoo content to eliminate political influence and bias, according to the Journal.

This may not be the first time the White House has tinkered with museum exhibits. After outcry, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History restored references to Trump after removing them from a presidential impeachment display in late July.

Read the full Wall Street Report at this link.

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