The Conversation -- July 8, 2025

Ana Swanson & Tony Romm of the New York Times: Donald “Trump revived his trade war threat with more than a dozen countries on Monday, telling them that they would face steep tariffs on their exports as of Aug. 1 unless they agreed to trade deals by then. The president targeted two of America’s closest foreign allies, Japan and South Korea, as well as Malaysia, Indonesia and South Africa. Mr. Trump also officially extended the timeline for dozens of other countries to agree to deals with the United States or face tariffs, signing an executive order on Monday afternoon delaying the stiff levies that were supposed to snap back on July 9. Markets dropped as investors assessed the prospect of more trade conflict with some of America’s closest allies and largest trading partners. The S&P 500 ended Monday down 0.8 percent. Other major indexes also fell.” The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Gosh, that's funny. It was just Sunday that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was arguing that August 1 was not a new arbitrary deadline. Now it seems it is. Ofu course these tariffs are not taxes on Japan and South Korea, as Trump repeatedly claims. They are taxes on American consumers who pay them in the form of higher costs of both products made in other countries and in U.S.-made products that are similar to products made in other countries. When Trump boasts about the supposed big increases in federal revenue coming from the tariffs, those increases in U.S. Treasury revenue are coming directly from American importers/retailers and indirectly from consumers.

Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: “Unlike his predecessors, Mr. Trump has not hesitated to lean into partisanship during moments of major natural disasters.... When a hurricane hit North Carolina last year..., [Mr.] Trump claimed without evidence that the Biden administration was avoiding helping residents in Republican areas. When wildfires burned through Los Angeles earlier this year, Mr. Trump excoriated local and state Democrats for the calamity, making false assertions about water use policy. But after a catastrophic flood that tore through Texas last week, leaving at least 100 dead, Mr. Trump cautioned against casting blame. 'This is a hundred-year catastrophe, and it’s just so horrible to watch,' the president told reporters Sunday as he left his Bedminster golf course.... He appeared close to pointing the finger at former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. before stopping short: 'That was really the Biden setup. That was not our setup. But I wouldn’t blame Biden for it either.'... The extent of the federal response on the ground remains unclear, however. Mr. Trump has repeatedly proclaimed his intention to disband the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which coordinates the federal response to natural disasters, calling it inefficient and bungling.” ~~~

~~~ There's one thing you can count on when Texans experience a natural disaster: ~~~

~~~ Ted Cruz Will Go on Vacation Somewhere Else in the World. Rhian Lubin of the Independent: “Texas Senator Ted Cruz was overseas again when devastating floods struck his home state, but this time he promptly got on a flight home, his team claimed. Cruz was in Greece visiting the Parthenon in the capital city of Athens this weekend as disaster hit in Texas, reminiscent of when he went to Cancun, Mexico, in 2021 during one of the worst winter storms in the state’s recent history.... Cruz’s vacation was first reported by The Daily Beast after an anonymous eyewitness told the outlet they spotted him at the Parthenon around 6 p.m. local time/11 a.m. ET Saturday. '20 kids dead in Texas and you take a vacation?' the eyewitness claimed they asked the senator, who 'sort of grunted and walked on.'... According to The Daily Beast, Cruz arrived in Greece on July 3. On July 2, the Texas Division of Emergency Management announced it was activating state emergency response 'in anticipation of increased threats of flooding in parts of West and Central Texas.'...” MB: To be clear, Theodoros Cruzophopoulos went to Greece after the state first sent out emergency flooding notifications, and he took his family to visit the Parthenon after many reports of the devastation caused by the flooding aired. That is, if Ted wanted to see some ruins, he could find them way closer to home -- specifically, along the banks of the Guadelupe River.

Luke Broadwater & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Monday that the United States would send more weapons to Ukraine to help it fend off Russia’s invasion, arguing that Moscow’s recent assault on Ukrainian cities left him with little choice. Mr. Trump’s comments appeared to signal a reversal from the president after his administration paused some arms transfers to the country just last week, raising fears that the United States was retrenching its support. Instead, Mr. Trump said on Monday that he had grown unhappy with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who has frustrated Mr. Trump’s hopes to broker a cease-fire.... After [speaking by phone with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday], Mr. Trump spoke positively about supplying additional support to Ukraine, telling reporters on Air Force One that 'we’ve been helping them, and we’ll continue to help them.'” The AP's report is here. ~~~

~~~ Tim Zadorozhnyy of the Kyiv Independent: "... Donald Trump told President Volodymyr Zelensky during a phone call on July 4 that he was not responsible for the suspension of U.S. arms shipments to Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on July 7, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. The suspension of aid, which includes Patriot air defense missiles and precision-guided munitions, has drawn criticism from Kyiv amid an intensifying Russian aerial campaign that has killed and injured hundreds of civilians in recent weeks. According to WSJ, Trump told the Ukrainian president that he had ordered a review of Pentagon munitions stockpiles following last month's U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites, but he did not direct the military to halt weapons deliveries. NBC News reported on July 4 that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unilaterally halted the shipment to Ukraine on July 2, despite internal Pentagon assessments showing the aid would not compromise U.S. military readiness." ~~~

     ~~~ Gordon Lubold, et al. of NBC News (July 4): "The Defense Department held up a shipment of U.S. weapons for Ukraine this week over what officials said were concerns about its low stockpiles. But an analysis by senior military officers found that the aid package would not jeopardize the American military’s own ammunition supplies, according to three U.S. officials. The move to halt the weapons shipment blindsided the State Department, members of Congress, officials in Kyiv and European allies, according to multiple sources.... Suspending the shipment of military aid to Ukraine was a unilateral step by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to three congressional aides and a former U.S. official.... It was the third time Hegseth on his own has stopped shipments of aid to Ukraine, the sources said. In the two previous cases, in February and in May, his actions were reversed days later."

Luke Broadwater & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Donald “Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confronted several high-stakes issues when they met for dinner on Monday night, including the long-term future of Gaza and the prospect of Israel normalizing relations with its Persian Gulf neighbors. But first, they indulged in some self-congratulation. The two celebrated the U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, and Mr. Netanyahu used the occasion to further ingratiate himself to the American president by telling Mr. Trump he had nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize. 'He’s forging peace, as we speak, in one country in the region after another,' Mr. Netanyahu said, lavishing praise on Mr. Trump, who has long made known his desire for a Nobel Prize. Mr. Trump, for his part, compared his decision to authorize airstrikes on Iran to President Harry S. Truman’s decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan during World War II.” The Guardian's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Manchild and the Promised Land Visitor. Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: “In light of Donald Trump's contentious Oval Office meetings with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and South African leader Cyril Ramaphosa, foreign leaders and diplomats are looking for a roadmap for how to deal with Donald Trump when they meet with him privately and before the cameras.... [A CNN] report notes, 'There are signs ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned White House visit Monday that even he is looking to avoid any chance of a fight, despite his close relationship with Trump.... According to Gérard Araud, who served as France’s ambassador during Trump’s first presidency the first rule is, 'You never contradict Trump publicly, because he will lose face and that’s something that he can’t accept.... You should first be profusely grateful. You should really compliment the president. There is a sort of North Korean side in the White House. And you should let Trump really talk and talk.'... [Araud suggested] visitors treat Trump like 'a whimsical and unpredictable child.'...”

The documents filed with the court today show that the administration has not been honest with the court or the American people. -- Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward ~~~

~~~ Who's in Charge? Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “For the past several months, the Trump administration has insisted in court that it has no control over the nearly 140 Venezuelan immigrants it deported to a prison in El Salvador this spring.... Both in filings and at hearings, Trump officials have asserted that because the men are being held by jailers in El Salvador, the Salvadoran government has control over their fate. The administration has repeatedly made that claim to argue that it has no real authority to bring the immigrants back... [to the U.S]. On Monday, however, lawyers for the Venezuelan men produced a document indicating that the government of El Salvador recently told the United Nations that it, in fact, bears no legal responsibility for the men. The document, written in response to a U.N. inquiry examining some of the deportations, also claimed that the Salvadoran government was merely doing the United States’ bidding when it accepted the men into its prison system.

“'The actions of the state of El Salvador have been limited to the implementation of a bilateral cooperation mechanism with another state, through which it has facilitated the use of the Salvadoran prison infrastructure for the custody of persons detained within the scope of the justice system and law enforcement of that other state,' the document said. 'In this context... the jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these persons lie exclusively with the competent foreign authorities, by virtue of international agreements signed and in accordance with the principles of sovereignty and international cooperation in criminal matters.' The document was included in a new court filing submitted to Judge James E. Boasberg, who has been hearing a long-running legal case brought by the Venezuelan men in Federal District Court in Washington.” MB: I don't think Judge Boasberg will be amused. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Lee Gelert of the ACLU said on MSNBC that the Trump administration appears to have been holding the El Salvador document for three months without turning it over to the court or to the defendants' lawyers despite the discovery requests of defendants' attorneys.

Alan Feuer & Minho Kim of the New York Times: “The Justice Department said on Monday that Trump officials would immediately begin the process of expelling Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia from the country again if he is released from custody next week on charges filed after his wrongful deportation to El Salvador in March. That plan, laid out by a Justice Department lawyer at a hearing in Federal District Court in Maryland, directly contradicted a statement by the White House last month describing the possibility that the administration might re-deport Mr. Abrego Garcia as 'fake news.' At the hearing, Judge Paula Xinis, who is overseeing the original civil case emerging from the wrongful deportation, expressed frustration at the government’s shifting statements about its plans to handle Mr. Abrego Garcia. The statements in court by the Justice Department lawyer, Jonathan Guynn, further muddied an already unclear picture of Mr. Abrego Garcia’s future after the administration abruptly returned him to the United States last month to face criminal charges. At one point, Judge Xinis compared getting certain answers out of the government to 'nailing Jell-O to a wall.' At another point, she described the 'complete chaos' that had arisen from Mr. Abrego Garcia’s being 'caught' between his civil case in Maryland and his criminal case in Federal District Court in Nashville.... Much of the confusion has stemmed from ambiguous and contradictory statements from the Trump administration and from what appears to be dueling views from the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security about how to handle the case.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Abrego Garcia's case is arguably the most high-profile deportation case the Trump administration has "managed" to date in what is supposed to be Donald Trump's "signature" issue and a grave "national emergency." Given all that, one would think that the administration would take extra effort to appear professional, prudent and unified. Instead, they have taken on the serious matter of the future of this young man and his family as if they were all hoping to be the leads in a Three Stooges short film. KKKirsti has even got the studio's wardrobe mistress to provide her with a complete set of costumes for her audition.

Devlin Barrett & Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: “For months, Attorney General Pam Bondi promised the release of documents on the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein that could reveal damaging details, drumming up anticipation over the files, long a source of speculation and conspiracy theories. But on Monday, a memo by the Justice Department undercut her own statements, pouring cold water on baseless claims. It amounted to a catalog of conclusions that affirmed those reached years earlier by investigators, including that Mr. Epstein killed himself while in a Manhattan cell awaiting trial. 'This systematic review revealed no incriminating “client list,’” the memo said. 'There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.' 'No further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,' the memo continued, adding that the work of the Justice Department and the F.B.I. on the records had been thorough.... In February, asked on Fox News about the so-called client list, Ms. Bondi replied, 'It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.'” Emphasis added. You might think Pam Blondie is a liar. ~~~

     ~~~ Joe Patrice of Above the Law: "One of two things happened here. Either the Attorney General is currently engaged in covering up a damning client list that would expound upon allegations of the the pedophile sex trafficker’s ties to at least some key Trump donors.... Or there never was a client list and Bondi was just bald-faced lying for attention when she explicitly said that it was on her desk.... The former would be a criminal conspiracy run from the highest halls of government. The latter is that the Attorney General exhibits a level of weaponized stupidity that should disqualify her from managing a Chipotle.... The Justice Department is fully untethered from any professional crime-fighting standards.... Epstein was a monster. And the AG treated it as a carnival act." ~~~

     ~~~ Matt Gertz of Media Matters: "... Donald Trump appointed conspiracy-obsessed MAGA media favorites to the highest levels of federal law enforcement, and now those figures are coming under fire from the right-wing fever swamp for failing to confirm their bullshit.... While the Epstein saga is a bit of a sideshow in the grand scheme of things, what it highlights about the underlying dynamics of the MAGA movement is deeply unsettling. It demonstrates that the Trump administration is in hock to some of the most deranged conspiracy theorists imaginable, treating them as among its closest allies and devoting substantial resources to their care and feeding.... One ironic aspect of the Epstein saga is that while MAGA influencers were apparently certain that the Trump administration was going to implicate a wave of prominent individuals in Epstein’s sex crimes and, perhaps, his death, there are few figures as prominent with ties as close to Epstein as Trump himself."

Apparently, someone left the cake out in the rain. I don't think that Trump can take it: ~~~

~~~ Tara Copp, et al., of the AP: “Federal officers and National Guard troops fanned out around a mostly empty Los Angeles park in a largely immigrant neighborhood on foot, horseback and military vehicles on Monday for about an hour before abruptly leaving, an operation that local officials said seemed designed to sow fear. The Department of Homeland Security wouldn’t say whether anyone had been arrested during the brief operation at MacArthur Park. Federal officials did not respond to requests for comment about why the park was targeted or why the raid ended abruptly.... 'What I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege, under armed occupation,' said Mayor Karen Bass, who showed up at the park alongside activists. She said there were children attending a day camp in the park who were quickly ushered inside to avoid seeing the troops.” The New York Times story is here.

A New Record for Trump-RFKJ's HHS: Lena Sun of the Washington Post: “The United States has reached its highest annual measles case tally in 33 years, hitting at least 1,277 confirmed cases across 38 states and the District of Columbia. The milestone marks a public health reversal in defeating a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease as the anti-vaccine movement gains strength.... Authorities said at least 155 people have been hospitalized and three people have died of measles-related complications this year.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Chris Cameron of the New York Times: “The Department of Veterans Affairs has scaled back its effort to reduce its work force by more than 80,000 people, saying on Monday that it intended to cut nearly 30,000 jobs by the end of September instead. The department effectively abandoned its previous plan to fire tens of thousands of workers as part of ... [Donald] Trump’s wide-reaching plan to slash the federal bureaucracy. The new target, outlined in a department news release, would slash a work force that numbered 484,000 earlier this year to about 455,000. Nearly 17,000 employees have already left. Instead of firing workers, the rest of the cuts would be made by offering early retirement or severance payments, along with what the department described as 'normal attrition' — the small percentage of employees who quit or move to other jobs every year.”

Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has withdrawn its plan to rewrite a ban on the last type of asbestos still used in the United States. The Biden-era ban was a victory for health advocates who had long fought to prohibit the carcinogenic mineral in all its forms. Last month the Trump administration said it planned to reconsider the asbestos ban, which would have delayed its implementation by several years. But late Monday, it withdrew that filing.... The filing is part of a court case brought by the industry challenging the restrictions. Chrysotile asbestos, known as 'white asbestos,' is banned in more than 50 countries for its link to lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer that forms in the linings of internal organs. White asbestos, however, has been imported for use in the United States for roofing materials, textiles and cement. It is also used in gaskets, clutches, brake pads and other automotive parts, as well as in chlorine manufacturing.... The about-face came after a public outcry over plans to reconsider Biden-era restrictions on the carcinogenic material.”

David Fahrenthold of the New York Times: “The I.R.S. said on Monday that churches and other houses of worship can endorse political candidates to their congregations, carving out an exemption in a decades-old ban on political activity by tax-exempt nonprofits. The agency made that statement in a court filing intended to settle a lawsuit filed by two Texas churches and an association of Christian broadcasters. The plaintiffs that sued the I.R.S. had previously asked a federal court in Texas to create an even broader exemption — to rule that all nonprofits, religious and secular, were free to endorse candidates to their members. That would have erased a bedrock idea of American nonprofit law: that tax-exempt groups cannot be used as tools of any campaign. Instead, the I.R.S. agreed to a narrower carveout — one that experts in nonprofit law said might sharply increase politicking in churches, even though it mainly seemed to formalize what already seemed to be the agency’s unspoken policy.” The AP's report is here.

Katie Benner of the New York Times: “Planned Parenthood won a temporary injunction on Monday that allows its clinics to continue to receive Medicaid funding for services that are unrelated to abortion. The organization sued the Trump administration earlier on Monday over a new law that essentially bars Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving federal Medicaid payments, claiming that the legislation is an unconstitutional attack on Planned Parenthood’s national organization and its locally run health care clinics. The lawsuit, which was filed in Federal District Court in Massachusetts, challenges part of the new domestic policy bill that ... [Donald] Trump signed on Friday. Judge Indira Talwani issued the temporary injunction, which expires in 14 days.” The CBS News story is here. 

The other day, Akhilleus pointed out that Trump's megabill will finance enough new secret ICE agents to comprise a private army reporting to Trump. Jason Zengerle has another idea: ~~~ 

~~~ Jason Zengerle of the New York Times Magazine in the New York Times on “the Ruthless Ambition of Stephen Miller”: “Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who reportedly accompanied Mr. Miller on his visit to ICE headquarters, seems to defer to him. 'It’s really Stephen running D.H.S.,' a Trump adviser said. The attorney general, Pam Bondi, is so focused on preparing for and appearing on Fox News that she has essentially ceded control of the Department of Justice to Mr. Miller, making him, according to the conservative legal scholar Edward Whelan, 'the de facto attorney general.' And in a White House where the chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is not well versed or terribly interested in policy..., another Trump adviser said ... Mr. Miller is typically the final word.... With the passage of the big policy bill, ICE will have an even bigger budget to execute Mr. Miller’s vision and, in effect, serve as his own private army.” The link appears to be a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Garrett Graff: "... it’s hard not to look at [Trump's megabill] and fear, most of all, how we’re turbo-charging an increasingly lawless regime of immigration enforcement and adding superpowers to America’s newly masked secret police.... [Here's why.]... No healthy law enforcement agency can grow quickly. And ICE is far from a healthy law enforcement agency.... When a law enforcement agency at any level grows too rapidly..., hiring standards fall, training is cut short, field training officers end up being too inexperienced to do the right training, and supervisors are too green to know how to enforce policies and procedures well.... The types of people who will be attracted to a job in the wake of Kristi Noem’s special-forces cosplay, the eye-popping photo ops at El Salvador’s CECOT torture gulag and the Alligator Alcatraz concentration camp are ... specifically attracted by the rough-em-up, masked secret police tactics, no-holds-barred lawlessness that ICE has pursued since January...." DHS isn't ground in rule-of-law considerations the way DOJ enforcement officers are supposed to be.... Trump and his entire administration are increasingly lawless.

Jon Stewart, who was off last week, has a full review of Trump's super-bill: ~~~

⭐Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dan Froomkin of Press Watch: "The sad fact is that there is nothing terribly out of character about the New York Times’s decision to publish a deceptive hit piece about New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, based on hacked data supplied by a noted eugenicist to whom they granted anonymity. The newsroom will go to extreme lengths to achieve its primary missions —  and one of them, most assuredly, is to take cheap shots at the left.... Consider everything that was wrong with the article. It’s a long list." Froomkin runs down the list. MB: Froomkin, as usual, is excellent. Everything he covers which I already knew about is accurate, IMO. And Froomkim covers some things I didn't know about; for instance, what/who made Krugman decide he'd had enough.

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Russia. Paul Sonne of the New York Times: “Russia’s transport minister was found dead from a gunshot wound, the Russian authorities said on Monday, hours after the Kremlin announced he had been relieved of his duties. Law enforcement authorities said they were investigating the death as a possible suicide. The minister, Roman V. Starovoyt, 53, served as governor of the Kursk region for nearly six years before being appointed to the transport post in May 2024. Three months after his promotion, Ukraine forces crossed into the region and seized territory that its military held until earlier this year. The monthslong occupation of Kursk was the first invasion of Russian territory since World War II and a major embarrassment to President Vladimir V. Putin. It set off domestic recriminations that in recent months have gathered steam. The Russian authorities have arrested former officials from Kursk and accused them of embezzling more than $12 million in funds ... during Mr. Starovoyt’s tenure as governor.” MB: Sounds like a kind of suicide that similar to the kind where Russian politicians jump out of sixth-storey windows.