NOTUS: “Inspired by Dan Osborn’s surprisingly strong showing in Nebraska, independents are jumping into races across the country.”
Economic Elite Find Themselves in the Wilderness
Axios: “Bedrock concepts that economists hold dear — of central bank independence, reliable data collection, and technocratic decision-making — are under threat in ways that have left the global central banking community discombobulated.”
“In formal proceedings at the Kansas City Fed’s annual economic symposium this weekend, there were only the subtlest of references to the Trump administration’s actions that throw Federal Reserve independence and government economic data into doubt.”
“But in whispered private conversations against the stunning backdrop of the Grand Tetons, there was melancholy — a fear that the war for empiricism and independence may already be lost.”
Historic Immigration Drop Is Changing the Job Market
Wall Street Journal: “A virtual halt to unauthorized border crossings, plus stepped-up deportations and a souring climate for foreigners means net immigration this year could be negative for the first time in decades, some experts predict.”
“That has a short-run benefit, as Powell alluded to. It means slumping labor demand won’t necessarily push up the unemployment rate, which at 4.2% is historically low. But in the long run it could limit the economy’s potential growth and generate larger budget deficits.”
Inside Intel’s Tricky Dance With Trump
Wall Street Journal: “But the truce came with a cost: In return for Trump’s support, the administration proposed taking an equity stake in the company. It decided to convert nearly $9 billion in grants—promised to Intel as part of the 2022 Chips Act—into a 10% equity stake in the company, an unusual arrangement that makes the government Intel’s biggest shareholder.”
“The meeting was the pivot point in a frenzied period for Intel, once one of America’s most venerated technology companies, now stuck in a yearslong downward spiral. The company’s scramble to control the fallout from the president’s demand that Tan step down—triggered by a Fox Business Network segment—underscores the unpredictable environment major corporations face under Trump.”
CNBC: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel, as Trump expands control over private sector.
Trump’s D.C. Utopia
“President Trump is molding D.C. into his own personal Epcot — a political theme park where troops keep the peace, the White House glitters like Mar-a-Lago and museums answer to MAGA,” Axios reports.
“No president has asserted such direct and sweeping control over the nation’s capital. With America’s 250th anniversary coming next year, Trump has claimed dominion over D.C.’s crime, culture, cleanliness — even its rats.”
Kilmar Abrego Garcia Surrenders to ICE
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia reported to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Baltimore on Monday, just days after his release from jail. ICE alerted his attorneys on Friday that he could be deported to Uganda and was ordered to report to authorities,” Fox DC reports.
“Now, he faces the possibility of being sent to Uganda, a country where he has no known ties.”
How Democrats Can Fight GOP Gerrymandering
Nate Silver: “Democrats don’t merely have to reciprocate — tit-for-tat might be a game-theory optimal strategy over the long run, but it doesn’t work as well if you’re always a half-step behind. They should also consider acting preemptively, something few Democrats other than Beto O’Rourke of all people have dared to suggest.”
“In the long run, voters could turn against aggressive gerrymandering, especially if they see their longstanding moderate members of Congress replaced by partisan hacks. But to change that requires Congressional action, a new court, or a constitutional amendment — and all of those require winning elections. Democrats can’t be too proud to play by the rules of the game as they’ve so clearly been established under Roberts: they might even come out ahead.”
‘We Are All Lisa Cook’
Paul Krugman: “Donald Trump is threatening to fire Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, over allegations that she made false claims on mortgage applications before she went to the Fed.”
“I am not going to lead with a discussion of what Cook may or may not have done. That would be playing Trump’s game. Clearly, he’s just looking for a pretext to fire someone who isn’t a loyalist — and who happens, surprise, to be a black woman. If you write about politics and imagine that Trump cares about mortgage fraud — or for that matter believe anything Trump officials say about the affair without independent confirmation — you should find a different profession. Maybe you should go into agricultural field work, to help offset the labor shortages created by Trump’s deportations.”
“The real story here isn’t about Cook, or mortgages. It’s about the way the Trump administration is weaponizing government against political opponents, critics, or anyone it finds inconvenient.”
Trump Says Roger Clemens Should Be in the Hall of Fame
Donald Trump demanded that Roger Clemens be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame after golfing with him.
JD Vance Gets His History Wrong
Vice President JD Vance told NBC News that it’s right to negotiate with Vladimir Putin because “if you go back to World War II, if you go back to every major conflict in human history, they all end with some kind of negotiation.”
Playbook: “Which was certainly news to WWII historians, given the total capitulation of the Germans and the Japanese.”
Justices Could Give Immigration Agents Broad Powers
This year’s most far-reaching immigration case is likely to decide if immigration agents in Los Angeles are free to stop, question and arrest Latinos they suspect are here illegally, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Bernie Sanders Draws Huge Crowds to Rallies
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) continued to pull huge crowds in Wisconsin and Chicago this weekend for his “Fight Oligarchy” tour, the Chicago Sun Times reports.
Sanders said the nation is now “of the billionaire class, by the billionaire class and for the billionaire class.”
He added: “What the media doesn’t talk about very often, and what you almost never hear in the halls of Congress, is the reality that today you are living in a nation where a handful of incredibly wealthy people, multi multi billions, have enormous powers and control over our economy, over our media, over our political system. And we are gathered here today to say, that is going to change.”
Democrats Face Internal and Fundraising Struggles
“Ken Martin is in the fight of his life,” the AP reports.
“The low-profile political operative from Minnesota, just six months on the job as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is charged with leading his party’s formal resistance to President Donald Trump and fixing the Democratic brand.”
Said Martin: “I think the greatest divide right now in our party, frankly, is not ideological. The greatest divide is those people who are standing up and fighting and those who are sitting on the sidelines.”
Politico: Democrats brace for battle over 2028 primary calendar to “explode.”
Putin Ignores Trump
Playbook: “The silence from Putin is still deafening, 10 days on from his tête-à-tête with Trump in Alaska. Trump had initially hoped a follow-up summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could happen within hours, then within days … Then last Friday he gave Putin a(nother) couple of weeks. But there have been no positive noises from the Kremlin.”
Putin’s top envoy Sergey Lavrov told NBC News there were no plans to meet with Zelensky.
New York Times: Trump relies on personal diplomacy with Putin. The result is a strategic muddle.
Trump Suggests Chris Christie Could Be Prosecuted
President Trump explicitly suggested last night that former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie could be next in line for “justice” after watching Christie criticize him on ABC News.
New York Times: Trump threatens to investigate Christie over “Bridgegate.”
Foreign Diplomats Worried About the Rule of Law in U.S.
Ankush Khardori: “Donald Trump’s second term in office has been marked by a series of unprecedented and highly controversial law enforcement decisions — everything from mass pardons to an immigration crackdown that has pushed, if not blown right through, the most basic constitutional constraints. Recent public polling suggests that a growing number of Americans are rattled by what they have seen and are increasingly concerned about the future of the country’s law enforcement apparatus and legal system. The news on Friday that the FBI raided the home of John Bolton, a former Trump official turned critic, is not likely to help matters.”
“Now those concerns are going global.”
“Senior officials in some of America’s closest European allies are quietly fretting about the law enforcement priorities of the Trump administration and even the conduct of the Justice Department, according to four European diplomats who are stationed in Washington and who were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive trans-Atlantic diplomatic and law enforcement matters.”
National Guard Now Carrying Weapons in D.C.
National Guard members in Washington are now carrying weapons and “detentions may occur leading to arrests,” potentially deepening the military’s involvement in President Trump’s federal takeover of D.C. police, the Washington Post reports.
Guard members will carry their service-issued weapons, which may include M4 carbine rifles and M17 pistols.
CBS News: “The step is an escalation in Mr. Trump’s intervention into policing in the nation’s capital and comes as nearly 2,000 National Guard members are stationed in the city, with the arrival last week of hundreds from several Republican-led states.”
Epstein Accuser’s Memoir to Be Published After Her Death
A posthumous and “unsparing” memoir by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent accusers, Virginia Giuffre, will be published this autumn, Politico reports.
Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice is scheduled for release on October 21.
