Today, Senate Democrats on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee released a report in which they claim Trump’s trade war has “sold out American farmers” and “strengthened China’s hand while weakening America’s leverage.” The report goes on to say that “Trump’s tariffs have raised costs on farm inputs like fertilizer and equipment, squeezing farmers from both sides.”

Bolstering their argument are Chinese buyers having turned to Argentina for soybean purchases after Argentina did away with grain export taxes. For the past month, American farmers have been losing billions in soybean sales as South American suppliers, including Brazil, are now supplying China with what American farmers did before Trump’s tariffs.

Caleb Ragland, a farmer and president of the American Soybean Association, said “every time China turns to South America instead of the U.S., soybean farmers and our farm families here at home lose out. Without a trade deal that removes retaliatory tariffs, farmers like me are left watching key opportunities slip away.”

Then last week, the Trump administration agreed to quadruple the amount of Argentine beef imported into the United States to help lower the cost of beef at home. U.S. ranchers were furious with the move as Justin Tupper, South Dakota cattle producer and president of the United States Cattlemen’s Association, explains:

An agriculture industry lobbyist speaking on condition of anonymity told Politico, “The agricultural community is baffled by the president’s decision to focus on beef with everything else we’re dealing with in agriculture right now.”

Colin Woodall, CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association was explicit in his rebuke:

This plan only creates chaos at a critical time of the year for American cattle producers, while doing nothing to lower grocery store prices. We call on President Trump and members of Congress to let the market work, rather than intervening in ways that do nothing but harm rural America.

Following this agricultural realignment, Trump decided to continue backing Argentinian President Javier Milei and his La Libertad Avanza party for ideological reasons in Argentina’s elections on Sunday. Post-election, Trump told reporters travelling with him on Air Force One:

Argentina still owes $56 billion to the International Monetary Fund, yet will now likely receive the full $40 billion bailout from the U.S. to stabilize the Argentinian peso which is economically troubling given austerity measures were in theory implemented in Argentina to prevent the need of bailouts.

Meanwhile, due to the U.S. government shutdown, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will be unfunded starting November 1, which will affect the food security of more than 40 million Americans. Despite the government shutdown, the Department of Agriculture could utilize its nearly $5 billion in contingency funds to maintain the food stamp program but has refused to as political leverage over Democrats whom the Republican party continues to blame for the shutdown.

Consequently, 25 states (red and blue) and the District of Colombia sued the Trump administration yesterday over the impending lack of food stamp benefits. According to the lawsuit, “shutting off SNAP benefits will cause deterioration of public health and well-being. The loss of SNAP benefits leads to food insecurity, hunger, and malnutrition, which are associated with numerous negative health outcomes in children, such as poor concentration, decreased cognitive function, fatigue, depression, and behavioral problems.”

All of this is occurring as Americans across the nation continue to report higher prices and to remain concerned about inflation. The United States very much needs Trump to follow through on his words about his meeting tomorrow with Chinese President Xi Jinping:

And to end on a really spooky note to commemorate Halloween, the International Monetary Fund’s latest Fiscal Monitor forecasts that by 2030 the U.S. government’s debt-to-GDP ratio will overtake Italy and Greece for the first time this century.

When speaking to the ‘geographic center of the world’ in Riyadh in May, President Donald Trump attempted to define his vision of ‘commerce, not chaos’ that was in his eyes already forming in the Middle East:

..this great transformation has not come from Western intervention noise or flying people in beautiful planes giving you lectures on how to live and how to govern your own affairs. No, the gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called nation builders, neocons or liberal nonprofits like those who spent trillions and trillions of dollars failing..

That was just 5 months ago, and today a Venezuelan regime change is fomenting under the direction of Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio, the Vice President is wary of having to babysit a Gaza peace deal and the President is ineptly handling an end to the war in Ukraine.

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Meanwhile former President Barack Obama released an ad yesterday in California spurring voters to support Proposition 50, which would further Democratic efforts to redraw Congressional maps.

Even isolated from the rest of the world news, those developments are at the very least concerning. Yet when American democracy seems to be hanging by a thread, it is important to acknowledge moments it is still visible.

During the second Trump Administration, the Supreme Court has often been in the news for dozens of shadow docket cases, rapid nontransparent court rulings in emergency cases. Yesterday, however, the highest court in the land rejected Alex Jones’s appeal to pay $1.4 billion in damages for making repeated false claims that the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting was a hoax.

According to court papers, Jones disgustingly suggested more than once on his show that the 2012 massacre resulting in 26 deaths, including 20 children, was a “staged event.” As of yesterday, Jones can no longer avoid accountability for the immeasurable pain he caused the families of the victims.

While that despicable conspiracy may finally be put to bed, federal government propaganda is being rebuffed across our nation’s airports. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem attempted to show a video at American airports nationwide:

It is TSA’s top priority to make sure that you have the most pleasant and efficient airport experience as possible while we keep you safe. However, Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, many of our operations are impacted, and most of our TSA employees are working without pay.

Despite Transportation Security Administration requests to airports across the nation, the 10 largest U.S. airports (accounting for 35% of commercial passengers) and dozens of other airports are openly refusing to show the video citing the Hatch Act, which prohibits such partisan messaging. Airports not participating in the administration’s blatant propaganda efforts span both red and blue states, including airports in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, Seattle, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami and Chicago.

As propaganda efforts are being pushed back at national airports, further curtails to the First Amendment by the reemergent Department of War are being repudiated by mass media outlets. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth attempted to implement a repressive policy in which journalists could not ask members of the military to disclose classified (and unclassified) information. In essence, no more whistleblowing. More than 30 news outlets declined to adhere including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, NewsMax, Bloomberg News, Reuters and the Associated Press.

As all five major broadcast networks (Fox News Media, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News and CNN) stated jointly yesterday:

Today, we join virtually every other news organization in declining to agree to the Pentagon’s new requirements, which would restrict journalists’ ability to keep the nation and the world informed of important national security issues. The policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections. We will continue to cover the U.S. military as each of our organizations has done for many decades, upholding the principles of a free and independent press.

Speaking of war, a tentative ceasefire was reached in Gaza. Of course many steps remain and early news stories indicate how fragile a peace it may be. But after 2 years of terror and anguish in the region for all involved, 20 remaining Israeli hostages and nearly 2000 Palestinian prisoners were freed to go home. A true horror that began in early October 2023 with 1200 people killed in Israel and tens of thousands killed in retaliation in Gaza may not continue into the foreseeable future.

Those returning home cite brutal conditions endured in captivity, not all dead hostages have been returned and Hamas has not disarmed prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to threaten “all hell” to break loose. Yet the stakes of a ceasefire holding, even for a moment, are painfully clear as Tess Ingram, communications manager for UNICEF, told ABC News:

[Humanitarian organizations are] not asking for anything unreasonable. We’re asking for the volume of aid that entered Gaza Strip before the escalation in October 2023. I think that’s something to watch for in the coming days. Does the aid flow? Are the crossings open? Is the U.N. enabled to do its job, to serve the children of Gaza?. ... But the other part is, does the ceasefire hold? The stakes are really high right now, so that ceasefire has to hold.

The U.N. reported Sunday that “hundreds of thousands of hot meals and bread bundles were distributed in the north and south [Gaza]. Additionally, cooking gas entered the strip for the first time since March as well as tents, frozen meat, fresh fruit, flour and medicine.” Though only a trickle of what is needed for sustained relief for Palestinians, it is a start. And thankfully, food distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (legally registered in the state of Delaware), at which Palestinians were being shot and killed, are being shut down as per the terms of the ceasefire.

Of course, there are far more news stories this past week which can cause alarm and dismay. For those wanting to affect change, there will be another nationwide “No Kings” protest on Saturday, October 18th, which is projected to surpass the impressive 5 million protestor turnout in June.

Indivisible co-founder of the “No Kings” movement Ezra Levin predicted “We are looking at the largest protest in modern American history on Oct. 18.”

Last week, Trump notified Congress that the United States is actively engaged in “a non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, and to date the U.S. military has attacked at least 4 suspected drug boats originating from Venezuela and killed at least 20 “unlawful combatants” on board. The document sent to Congress provided no additional reasons for the attacks beyond what has been stated publicly.

This week, the Trump administration cut off all diplomatic ties to Venezuela. And yesterday Trump said he is considering attacking drug cartels “coming by land,” which further exacerbates the legality of such attacks and killings. Beyond the obvious dearth of evidence presented publicly of what is on board these vessels and the identities of those killed, the dubious legality is under suspicion for actions occurring outside normal channels, specifically the complete lack of non-lethal halting of shipments and calling on the Coast Guard instead of the military in such cases.

Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said “Every American should be alarmed that their president has decided he can wage secret wars against anyone he calls an enemy.”

On Trump’s inaugural international trip of his second term, he spoke to an esteemed crowd in Riyadh of a great transformation in the Middle East in which “so-called nation builders, neocons or liberal nonprofits” were not involved in telling them “how to live and how to govern your own affairs.”

In Donald Trump’s new world order, humanitarianism no longer dictates American foreign policy. Maybe it never did; but why would Trump want to create a failed state in Venezuela?

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Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert appeared on each other’s talk show last night in solidarity for free speech. Though as comedian Tim Dillon commented tongue-in-cheek on his podcast, the “biggest free speech issue in the world” was why he was fired from the Riyadh Comedy Festival running until next week. After making an admittedly vulgar joke about slavery, Dillon was not offered to join fellow comedians Bill Burr, Kevin Hart, Dave Chapelle, Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari, Pete Davidson, Jimmy Carr, Hannibal Buress, Sam Morril, Jeff Ross, Whitney Cummings, Andrew Schulz and dozens of others at the festival.

Seemingly every major comedian was invited but a few did turn down the offer as explained humorously by Shane Gillis and Marc Maron:

Many Americans remain disillusioned and angry that a government accused of helping fund the worst terrorist attack on American soil in our lifetimes is still considered a U.S. ally. Last year, it was widely panned that Saudi Arabia was selected to Chair the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women.

Amnesty International Deputy Director for Advocacy Sherine Tadros commented at the time:

Saudi Arabia cannot prove its commitment to women’s rights merely by securing a leadership role in the commission. It must demonstrate its commitment through concrete actions domestically, including by abolishing the male guardianship system and repealing provisions from its laws that discriminate against women. Saudi Arabia’s authorities must also end their crackdown on freedom of expression and immediately release all those unjustly detained for expressing their views including expressing support for women’s rights.

Given that in the U.S. today nonconformist public speech can lead to perilous consequences, it is no wonder that the comedians who did accept the Saudi invitation to perform in Riyadh are being lambasted for not taking what critics believe to be a principled stand against an autocratic government which imprisons and kills its critics.

Years ago, Dave Chappelle, one of America’s most fearless and controversial comedians released a Netflix special in which he extolled comedians’ responsibility to speak recklessly. And yet Chappelle also appears in the Riyadh Comedy Festival lineup. Do entertainers have a moral responsibility to fight for free speech abroad?

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This week (and month), the United Nations is convening its annual General Assembly, now in its 80th year.

Leaders from around the world have spoken and will speak in what American leadership believes to be a failed effort to “confront complex global challenges" and to shape humanity’s “shared future.”

Prior to the first Trump administration, all 193 United Nations Member States adopted the sustainable development goals (SDGs) “to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.” This month marks the SDGs’ 10th anniversary.

If there was even a shred of doubt remaining that Donald Trump would in any way continue the old world order, he buried it yesterday in his address to the United Nations.

Given 15 minutes to speak, our president kept true to form and spoke for nearly one hour to share his vision of America’s ‘golden age.’

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At the time, the Associated Press was banned from the White House for committing the “unpatriotic” offense of not referring to the Gulf of America by its new name. ABC News settled Trump’s defamation lawsuit for $16 million, and Paramount Global (parent company of CBS News) was considering settling its $2 billion dollar lawsuit with Trump for their “deceptive editing” of an interview with then Vice President Kamala Harris that Trump’s legal team claims was tantamount to “election interference.”

Since then, Paramount Global settled for $16 million, and President Trump has sued the New York Times (NYT) for $15 billion while still fighting lawsuits against the Wall Street Journal and the Des Moines Register. Trump’s new lawsuit names individuals and companies involved in publishing “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success.”

Ranting and raving in his vengeance tour is not new to this President and his sycophants. What has changed is what new groups they sink their teeth into.

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Such action is demanded by the importance and magnitude of these functions, which affect the well-being of millions of our citizens. The programs carried on by the Public Health Service include, for example, the conduct and promotion of research into the prevention and cure of such dangerous ailments as cancer and heart disease..

There should be an unremitting effort to improve those health, education, and social security programs which have proved their value..

But good intent and high purpose are not enough; all such programs depend for their success upon efficient, responsible administration.

Yesterday, the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission publicly released their Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy Report to “advance gold-standard science” among other objectives. This strategy report follows the MAHA report released in May 2025 “to advise and assist the President on how best to exercise his authority to address the childhood chronic disease crisis.”

President Trump’s Executive Order in February 2025 stated the purpose of MAHA:

To fully address the growing health crisis in America, we must re-direct our national focus, in the public and private sectors, toward understanding and drastically lowering chronic disease rates and ending childhood chronic disease. This includes fresh thinking on nutrition, physical activity, healthy lifestyles, over-reliance on medication and treatments, the effects of new technological habits, environmental impacts, and food and drug quality and safety. We must restore the integrity of the scientific process by protecting expert recommendations from inappropriate influence and increasing transparency regarding existing data. We must ensure our healthcare system promotes health rather than just managing disease.

The MAHA Commission chaired by HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. includes, but is not limited to, the Secretaries of Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development, the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Director of the National Institutes of Health.

Prior to the MAHA strategy report release, a food lobbyist told Politico “The White House has certainly gotten the message, both from agriculture and the food sector, that they are on the edge of a nanny state.” The lobbyist went on to say, “the message we’ve gotten from the White House is, ‘Don’t worry, we’re not letting the crazy people run rampant over the food sector.’”

Which begs the question, are crazy people running rampant over other sectors?

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We're asking for a ban on high-capacity magazines.

You shouldn't have the ability to reel off 30 shots before you need to reload.

The move follows a mass shooting at a Catholic mass late last month, in which more than 100 casings were found from a semi-automatic rifle that was used to kill 2 children and to injure 18 more children (and 3 others) in mere minutes.

FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on X of the domestic terror at the Annunciation Catholic Church:

Robert Doar of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus responded, “The magazine capacity is irrelevant when you can carry as many firearms or as many magazines, you know, as you would like to, and it takes less than two seconds to swap them out.”

Former Vice Presidential Candidate and Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz spoke yesterday in front of Deerwood Elementary School:

If Minnesota lets this moment slide and we determine that it’s okay for little ones to not be safe in a school environment or a church environment, then shame on us.

Governor Walz will call a special legislative session to push for a vote on a gun control package, which will include an assault weapons ban.

The Trump administration chooses to respond differently.

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At the start of the month, now fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer submitted a jobs report, in which job growth was adjusted to be more than 250,000 lower than earlier projections. President Trump heatedly responded on Truth Social claiming the report was “RIGGED” and “FAKE.”

In yesterday’s 3-hour spectacle, each Cabinet member waxed poetic about early successes of Trump’s administration within their Departments without divulging missteps or shortcomings to-date.

Rarely in this type of setting can any leader get an honest assessment of how an organization actually fares, let alone a President of the greatest nation on earth. Perhaps the only meaningful response came from a Cabinet member who is not directly connected to American employment, Secretary of State Marco Rubio:

That theme was echoed by Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, today when the Trump administration announced it would take over Union Station, Washington, D.C.’s main transportation hub, to make what should be a source of national pride “beautiful again. [Trump] wants transit to be safe again. And he wants our nation’s capital to be great again.”

Therein lies the best of what the administration can deliver and why it repeatedly falls short.

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As President Trump welcomed Russian President Putin in Alaska on Friday, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee concluded 10 days of talks to establish an international commitment to limit plastic production and more seriously address plastic pollution.

More than 1,400 delegates representing 183 nations and approximately 1000 observers representing 400+ organizations attended. At the end of those negotiations, here is the UN Secretary-General’s entire statement:

I deeply regret that, despite earnest efforts, negotiations to reach an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, concluded without achieving a consensus. I welcome the determination of Member States in continuing to work to beat plastic pollution and keep engaged in the process, united in purpose, to deliver the treaty the world needs to tackle this monumental challenge to people and the environment.

Though the statement attempts to end on a positive note, the distress caused by oil- and gas-producing nations refusing to limit plastic production and to ban chemical additives is hard to ignore. Key detractors include Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United States, who are concerned limiting production could have adverse economic consequences and favored an approach specifically focused on pollution.

While there is a sound argument for wanting all nations to improve waste collection, reuse and recycling efforts, the U.S. is once again presented with a moral moment to lead a global effort to safeguard future generations and intentionally chooses to shirk away.

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Against the backdrop of a global howl watching horrors unfold that much of the Western world thought not possible after the Second World War, the U.S. State Department yesterday released its annual reports on human rights, as mandated by Congress. The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices inform U.S. policymakers on human rights abuses that can impact U.S. foreign aid, trade agreements, arm sales and asylum cases. Below are some relevant excerpts from how the State Department drafted this year’s reports:

The Country Reports rely on information available from a wide variety of credible sources, including foreign government officials; victims of alleged human rights abuses; academic and congressional studies; and reports from media, international organizations, and nongovernmental organizations..

We minimize the amount of statistical data in the report. In the age of the internet, the underlying data are generally available..

Evaluating the credibility of reports of human rights abuses remains difficult. Most governments and opposition groups deny they commit human rights abuses and occasionally go to great lengths to conceal any wrongdoing..

Many governments that profess to respect human rights may in fact secretly order or tacitly condone abuses. Consequently, the Country Reports look beyond statements of policy or intent to examine reports of what a government did, or did not do, to protect human rights and promote accountability, including the extent to which the government investigated, brought to trial, or punished those responsible for any abuses.

Response to the State Department reports from international human rights groups:

Sarah Yager, Human Rights Watch Washington director:

The State Department’s new human rights report is in many places an exercise of whitewashing and deception.

Entire categories of abuses have been erased, while serious rights violations by allied governments have been papered over.

Amanda Klasing, Amnesty International USA’s national director of government relations and advocacy:

We have criticized past reports when warranted, but have never seen reports quite like this. Never before have the reports gone this far in prioritizing an administration’s political agenda over a consistent and truthful accounting of human rights violations around the world – softening criticism in some countries while ignoring violations in others.

Uzra Zeya, Human Rights First’s President and CEO:

Attacking democratic U.S. allies for so-called free speech violations while seeking to imprison law-abiding college students at home for peaceful expression against U.S. foreign policy exemplify this administration’s destructive and hypocritical approach to human rights.

Israel, case in point:

Just this past weekend, six members of Al Jazeera were killed in a targeted Israeli military strike in Gaza. To date more than 180 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, compared to less than 20 journalists which have been killed in Ukraine since Russia invaded.

Sara Qudah, the Committee to Protect Journalists Regional Director, responded to these recent killings: “Israel wiped out an entire news crew. It has made no claims that any of the other journalists were terrorists. That’s murder. Plain and simple.”

In the State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Israel, West Bank and Gaza, the official United States’ assessment of “physical attacks, imprisonment, and pressure” towards journalists in the region:

The Union of Journalists in Israel received reports of five journalist detentions and 13 physical attacks by security forces against journalists during the year.

In terms of censorship, the State Department reports, “Israel occasionally ordered the closing of Palestinian radio stations in the West Bank for ‘inciting behavior that could harm public safety or public order’ including support for terrorism.”

Regarding prolonged detention without charges:

Israeli law generally prohibited arbitrary arrest and detention and provided for the right of any person to challenge the lawfulness of their arrest or detention in court for nonsecurity related criminal charges.

Yet the New York Times reported today that Israel has not prosecuted a single person for the Oct. 7 attack:

Several hundred Palestinians have been detained on suspicion of direct involvement, and at least 200 of them remain in custody, according to public records. Israeli military officials have said that at least several dozen Palestinians were arrested in or near Israeli territory around the time of the attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

In addition to those detainees, Israel is holding roughly 2,700 other Palestinians who were rounded up in the Gaza Strip over the 21 months since the attack, according to government data.

Under the section ‘War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity, and Evidence of Acts that May Constitute Genocide, or Conflict-related Abuses,’ the entire State Department analysis:

Terrorist organizations Hamas and Hizballah continue to engage in the indiscriminate targeting of Israeli civilians in violation of the law of armed conflict.

Zero mention of mass starvation and killings of Palestinians at aid distribution sites.

And just yesterday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Israel about real concerns regarding alleged sexual violence committed by their armed forces such as “genital violence, prolonged forced nudity of captives, and abusive and degrading strip searches aimed at humiliation and interrogation.”

Clearly the State Department in crafting its Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Israel, West Bank and Gaza chose not to source credible information from a multitude of media outlets, international human rights organizations, its European Allies or the United Nations. Yet many Country Reports, including those for Cambodia, Brazil and Samoa, do specifically report on ‘Acts of Antisemitism and Antisemitic Incitement.’

Congressional perspective

In the official Congressional report on U.S. foreign aid to Israel since October 7, 2023:

Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II. Successive Administrations, working with Congress, have provided Israel with assistance reflective of robust domestic U.S. support for Israel and its security; shared strategic goals in the Middle East; and historical ties dating from U.S. support for the creation of Israel in 1948. To date, the United States has provided Israel $174 billion (current, or non-inflation-adjusted, dollars) in bilateral assistance and missile defense funding.

That report cites the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which states “no security assistance may be provided to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”

Released at the end of May 2025, the congressional report did acknowledge:

Over the past few years, some Members of Congress have become more openly critical of U.S. military aid to Israel and have focused more on issues of Palestinian human rights. This trend has accelerated since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023 and the ensuing war in Gaza, with its associated humanitarian crisis. At the same time, many other Members of Congress have continued to voice support of continued U.S. support for Israel. Congressional majorities have continued to vote consistently in favor of U.S. military aid to Israel through the appropriations process, though some Members have expressed opposition to unconditional U.S. security assistance by, for example, more frequently voting for resolutions of disapproval aimed at halting certain U.S. arms sales to Israel.

Disregard and contempt for human rights

Throughout the Country Reports, the State Department (permanently?) jeopardized America’s voice on human rights by valuing ideology instead of integrity.

El Salvador, notorious in recent months for accepting Venezuelan immigrants into their mega-prison from the US regardless of whether crimes were committed, was described as having “no credible reports of significant human rights abuses.” In fact, the US State Department actually described the government of the self proclaimed ‘coolest dictator in the world’ as having taken “credible steps to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses.”

Brazil, on the other hand, was called out for a declining human rights situation due in no small part for “restricting access to online content deemed to ‘undermine democracy,’ disproportionately suppressing the speech of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro as well as journalists and elected politicians, often in secret proceedings that lacked due process guarantees.”

Though many Country Reports do continue to call out nations, friendly or otherwise, for human rights abuses (e.g. Qatar despite gifting President Trump a $400 million private jet), selectively misrepresenting certain nations sullies the credibility of the reports as a whole. When asked by reporters yesterday about the perception of ‘watered-down’ reports, State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce said:

It does look different. It is a different approach. Philosophically the American people voted in an approach that Donald Trump had described to them. And this happens again with every administration during the transition year when it comes to what matters to them and how they’re going to project their own point of view while also still making sure that Americans see the nature of what is happening around the world cause it’s an important issue.

Americans have seen the nature of what is happening around the world; millions of them expect their government to see it too.

The foundation of international human rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights drafted by the United Nations after World War II, “represents the universal recognition that basic rights and fundamental freedoms are inherent to all human beings, inalienable and equally applicable to everyone.”

With immigrants and Palestinians being deported and “resettled” in far-off nations, recorded atrocities being dismissed as fake news and government accountability determined on a case-by-case basis, human rights deeply venerated after fascism was defeated will need to be redefined by a future American generation when they are forced to revoke modern authoritarianism.

Post-Liberation Day, Donald Trump embarked on his first official international trip of his second term, visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. During that trip, the president addressed the U.S.-Saudi Investment Event in Riyadh attended by CEOs and executives from Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Tesla, Citigroup, BlackRock, OpenAI, and others and said:

a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts of tired divisions of the past and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos

While none of the three countries Trump visited on that trip rank as a top 10 trading partner of the United States (then or now), the sovereign wealth funds for those three countries each rank in the top 10 in the world and in total equate to roughly $2.5 trillion.

Back in early February, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) to establish an American sovereign wealth fund. While that EO states a funding plan would be determined within 90 days, it is obvious a budget surplus which typically funds sovereign wealth funds would not be a legitimate source of financing as the U.S. currently faces a $1.8 trillion deficit.

State of the U.S. economy and trade

To address the deficit and to Make America Affordable Again, the administration passed the “big, beautiful bill” and declared a Liberation Day to “forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to Make America Wealthy Again.” Since Liberation Day, more than half of Americans continue to disapprove of how Trump is handling the economy, with the latest polling indicating 52% disapprove and less than 40% approve.

Even Republicans this week are voicing discomfort with how Trump’s tariffs are affecting the state of the American economy.

In terms of how a volatile tariff policy will impact consumer pricing and business operations:

A key economic indicator of Trump’s trade wars is the U.S. agricultural trade balance, which in only 5 months has declined to a $24.5 billion deficit, the largest recorded since 1976. The USDA “projects a $49.5 billion agricultural trade deficit for all of fiscal year 2025.” The American Farm Bureau Federation in its Outlook for U.S. Agricultural Trade: May 2025, reported “trade barriers, retaliatory tariffs and ongoing disputes have limited access to important markets such as China and the European Union. Some foreign buyers are turning to lower-cost suppliers like Brazil and Argentina.”

Speaking of Brazil, the White House just last week claimed members of Brazil’s government are “politically persecuting a former President of Brazil” and “have taken unprecedented actions that harm and are a threat to the economy of the United States.” Consequently, Trump found it “necessary and appropriate to impose an additional ad valorem duty rate of 40 percent on certain products of Brazil,”

In an interview with Reuters today, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva responded, “today my intuition says [Trump] doesn't want to talk. And I'm not going to humiliate myself. We had already pardoned the U.S. intervention in the 1964 coup. But this now is not a small intervention. It's the president of the United States thinking he can dictate rules for a sovereign country like Brazil. It's unacceptable." President Silva went on to say he fully intends to contact other members of BRICS, starting with China and India, to discuss a joint response to U.S. tariffs.

India may be open to such talks as Trump signed an Executive Order today to increase tariffs on imports from India to 50% for “directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil.” The punitive tariffs are a result of the “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States” that Russia’s war with Ukraine poses.

According to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air’s June 2025 analysis, multiple countries import Russian fossil fuels including the Netherlands, France, Belgium, China and Turkey. Granted India and China are the largest buyers of Russian fossil fuels, but it is noteworthy the EU reached a much more favorable trade deal with the U.S. in comparison.

Yet, Trump told CNBC yesterday that India is fueling the Russian war machine. An Indian official speaking on condition of anonymity responded, “if we stop buying Russian oil, who will replace those barrels to maintain balance (in the market) and at the same time prevent the prices from shooting up? We don't want a repeat of 2022 when prices shot up to $137 a barrel."

While foreign governments continue to realign without the United States, the billions in tariff revenue the United States has received during Trump’s second term could be in jeopardy. “Trump’s own Justice Department has acknowledged in legal briefs filed with a U.S. Court of Appeals in recent months that if the tariffs were ruled unlawful, importers would be entitled to refunds.”

State of U.S. consumer debt and the labor market

As the Trump administration continues to negotiate trade deals, Bloomberg reports the percentage of US consumer debt in serious delinquency has reached its highest level since early 2020. Household debt in the aggregate are 30% higher than just prior to the pandemic, and student loans continue to rise. Combined with declining consumer spending, initial reports are proving American households are experiencing growing financial distress prior to the downstream impact of tariffs recently implemented.

Adding to these concerns is legitimate concern about the U.S. labor market. David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, told Fortune, “given the continued retirement of the baby boom and considering the possibility that deportations and voluntary departures of immigrants entirely offset new immigration in the next few years, it is quite possible that the next five years will see no growth in workers at all.” He went on to say, “[investors] should no longer bet broadly on a strongly rising U.S. economic tide or lower interest rates.”

On a related note, some of the largest foreign investments Trump secured on his May trip to the Middle East were in artificial intelligence. Joseph Briggs, senior global economist at Goldman Sachs, told CNBC there are already signs of a hiring pullback in the tech sector despite the fact that “most companies have yet to deploy artificial intelligence in production cases.” To illustrate the potential impact to come, companies like Alphabet and Microsoft are reporting almost 30% of coding on some projects are being done by AI, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in June “that AI handles as much as 50% of the work at his company.”

State of the market

Recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly jobs report:

Employment showed little change over the month in other major industries, including mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; construction; manufacturing; wholesale trade; retail trade; transportation and warehousing; information; financial activities; professional and business services; leisure and hospitality; and other services.

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for May was revised down by 125,000, from +144,000 to +19,000, and the change for June was revised down by 133,000, from +147,000 to +14,000. With these revisions, employment in May and June combined is 258,000 lower than previously reported.

In response to an unfavorable report, President Trump fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Commissioner Erika McEntarfer crying foul play.

Kathy Utgoff, a former BLS commissioner appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, said “the commissioner has no ability to change the numbers that come out of computers at the last minute. [BLS staffers] hand the commissioner the press release with the numbers in it” less than 2 days prior to the jobs report announcement. Utgoff went on to say “revisions are not mistakes, they are improvements.”

William Beach, the BLS commissioner during Trump’s first term, said “[Trump’s firing] does a great deal of damage, by the way, because BLS is a highly trusted worldwide organization at bankers in Dusseldorf [Germany]. I had one call me one time who says, we actually stop trading in Dusseldorf 10 minutes prior to 8:30 on Eastern time, because we want to make sure we're ready for that report to come out. That's how accurate they see it and how important it is.”

Wall Street would seem to agree with that assessment. Michael Feroli, chief US economist at JPMorgan, told the Financial Times that “trust in institutions is why the US has been a destination for foreign investment. One of those institutions is the country’s statistical agencies.” JP Morgan is telling clients that McEntarfer’s firing “presents risks to the conduct of monetary policy, to financial stability, and to the economic outlook.”

Vincent Reinhart, chief economist at $2.1tn-in-assets BNY Investments, said “the concerning thing is that, if people start to worry about the politicisation of the BLS, that can show up in market prices.” Mike Riddell, a fund manager at Fidelity International, added to Reinhart’s concern saying that “a political appointee to head an independent agency in charge of economic statistics, which includes inflation, has the potential to spook markets.”

In the near-term, the American economy may be defined by chaos, not commerce.

On April 2nd, Trump declared ‘Liberation Day’ in the White House Rose Garden to firmly assert his administration’s America First trade policy using national emergency powers to declare sweeping tariffs on all US imports. After the stock market’s initial reaction, JP Morgan posted the following less than 2 weeks after ‘Liberation Day’:

The [market] chaos suggests a questioning of confidence

Despite President Trump's ‘pause’ on some planned tariffs, uncertainty looms large: What's the White House's ultimate goal? Can tariff revenue truly bridge the $6 trillion deficit? Will uncertainty stifle U.S. investment? Can consumers absorb the shock? Is AI investment still viable with rising tech costs?

In the meantime, duties remain at their highest in the post-war period.

Since ‘Liberation Day,’ those mounting concerns have hit U.S. stocks, bonds, and the dollar hard—a rare trifecta.

In response to the market chaos, Trump paused tariffs for 90 days and his administration infamously claimed that would be enough time to make 90 trade deals. Those 90 days would have ended on July 8th, but TACO Trump extended that deadline to August 1st, this Friday.

On July 8th, Trump posted on Truth Social letters the White House sent to 14 countries announcing steep tariffs to take effect on August 1st if deals were not reached. Those nations were Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Laos, Myanmar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tunisia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Serbia, Cambodia and Thailand.

At the July 8th Cabinet meeting, President Trump threatened a 200% tariff on pharmaceutical imports. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC, “With pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, those studies are being completed at the end of the month, and so the president will then set his policies then, and I’m going to let him wait to decide how he’s going to do it.”

To address the market, Stephen Miran, chairman of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, spoke to CNBC about whether the administration believed tariffs would cause consumer prices to rise:

Rare events happen. We get pandemics or, or meteors or whatever. [But] there’s just no evidence thus far of it happening.

With the trade deadline only days away, how fares the US economy?

According to an estimate from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, “real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 3.0 percent in the second quarter of 2025 (April, May, and June).” That growth exceeds the Dow Jones 2.3% projection for the quarter. CNBC reports “financial markets reacted little to the report, with stock index futures mixed and Treasury yields higher.”

The US dollar strengthened against major peers after announcements of the US-EU trade deal and the Federal Reserve decision to keep interest rates unchanged. Reuters reports the dollar index “was up 0.96% at 99.82, hitting its highest level since May 29 and on course to post its first month of gains this year.”

However, the Treasury Department announced this morning it will “issue more short-term debt to help fund its widening budget deficit.” For just this quarter, the department needs to raise $1 trillion “to keep the government running,” which is nearly double the $554 billion raised last quarter (April to June 2025).

Are tariffs generating significant revenue?

Revenue from tariffs has grown to $20 billion per month which would pace to $240 billion per year. While that is a significant improvement over prior years, the current tariff revenue realized is measured in 12 figures annually while the national deficit is measured in 13 figures, with the Congressional Budget Office estimating the federal budget deficit totaled $1.3 trillion in the first nine months of fiscal year 2025.

Part of the issue is the Trump administration falling very short of its stated goals of 90 deals in 90 days. To date, only six trade deals have been announced. Tariffs on goods from the European Union and Japan will be at 15%, from the United Kingdom at 10%, from Indonesia and the Philippines at 19% and from Vietnam at 20% (with goods being routed through Vietnam at 40%).

As Trump’s self-imposed trade deadline rapidly approaches, trade deals with China, Canada and Mexico are still unresolved. For context, America’s top importers last year were the European Union ($605.8 billion), Mexico ($505.9 billion), China ($438.9 billion), Canada ($412.7 billion), Japan ($148.2 billion) and Vietnam ($136.6 billion). And of the 14 nations which Trump publicized his trade letters, only Japan has reached a verbal agreement which has not yet been signed. Not to mention a lack of trade deals with the rest of the world.

Even within announced trade deals, significant ambiguity remains. For example, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the US-EU trade deal “did not contain any decision regarding the wine and spirits industry,” which should be detailed in the coming weeks. Regarding pharmaceuticals, a 15% tariff on goods from the EU “could cost the pharmaceutical industry between $13 billion and $19 billion.” Pharmaceuticals represent the EU’s largest export to the US totaling near $120 billion last year. Given Trump’s statements earlier this month, the pharma sector cautiously awaits details to be finalized in the trade agreement. Their concerns were voiced by Alex Schriver, the senior VP of public affairs for pharmaceutical industry’s largest lobbying group: “Every dollar spent on tariffs is a dollar that cannot be invested in American manufacturing or the development of future treatments and cures for patients.”

What about consumer pricing?

At a press conference today, Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell summed up why market uncertainty remains:

Our obligation is to keep longer term inflation expectations well anchored and to prevent a one time increase in the price level from becoming an ongoing inflation problem. Higher tariffs have begun to show through more clearly to prices of some goods, but their overall effects on economic activity and inflation remain to be seen.

Since the tariffs deadline has not yet arrived, consumer prices have not yet been affected. Trump indicated last week that the base level for foreign tariffs will be 15% and as high as 50%, with lower rates applied to countries which increase American imports. To alleviate public concern, White House spokesman Kush Desai told CBS, "The administration has consistently maintained that the cost of tariffs will be borne by foreign exporters who rely on access to the American economy, the world's biggest and best consumer market."

US companies would disagree. Carmakers, for example, have been mostly absorbing the extra costs and losing profits. Companies like Walmart and Procter & Gamble have already stated they will raise prices. And companies like Nestlé and General Electric are also considering increasing consumer prices to curb the effects of tariffs on their profit margins. Yale Budget Lab projects prices for foreign-made leather goods could increase by more than 40% and electronics by at least 20%. Plus US consumers do not know how the pharmaceutical industry will respond to tariffs.

Adding to tariffs are supply chain issues and labor shortages. Yesterday a new analysis released suggests factory costs could increase between 2% to 4.5%. Chris Bangert-Drowns, the researcher who conducted the analysis, said “there’s going to be a cash squeeze for a lot of these firms.” Given factories’ small profit margins, increased costs “could lead to stagnation of wages, if not layoffs and closures of plants.”

Combined with factory costs is the administration’s crackdown on immigrant labor. According to the Economic Policy Institute, “4 million deportations would result in the loss of 3.3 million jobs held by immigrants in the US and 2.6 million US-born employees, hitting industries including construction and childcare.”

The White House’s Council of Economic Advisers reported this month “prices of imported goods have not only fallen this year, but also declined faster than overall goods prices since February. These findings contradict claims that tariffs or tariff-fears would lead to an acceleration of inflation.”

To be continued after the trade deadline..

Overlooking, at least for now, the potential power vacuum a foreign power like China could fill, the United States is cementing its anti-woke agenda on the international stage. In the State Department’s official statement regarding UNESCO:

UNESCO works to advance divisive social and cultural causes and maintains an outsized focus on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy. UNESCO’s decision to admit the “State of Palestine” as a Member State is highly problematic, contrary to U.S. policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization.

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar called America’s withdrawal “a necessary step, designed to promote justice and Israel's right for fair treatment in the UN system."

Meanwhile the world community is coalescing to condemn Israel.

Francesca Albanese, the UN-appointed independent expert on the Occupied Palestinian Territory who was sanctioned by the United States for working with the ICC to investigate Israeli actions in Gaza, spoke last week at a Hague Group Emergency Summit to 'Halt the Genocide in Gaza':

For too long, international law has been treated as optional – applied selectively to those perceived as weak, ignored by those acting as the powerful. This double standard has eroded the very foundations of the legal order. That era must end.

The two day emergency summit held in Bogotá, Colombia included representatives from 30 nations spanning Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas “to take collective action grounded in international law.”

Twelve nations signed off on their official statement and then on Monday 28 countries, including the UK, France, Canada and Japan, signed a joint statement with a clear and direct message:

The war in Gaza must end now..

The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity. We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food..

Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law.

Recent developments in Gaza have extended far beyond horrors documented before.

Dr. Nick Maynard, a British surgeon who has been going to Gaza since 2010 and is currently working in Nasser hospital, told NPR in an interview Monday:

Each time I've come, I saw the signs of malnutrition on both my previous trips in December '23, January '24 and then later that year. But the malnutrition now is much, much worse..

The Israelis are commonly using these fragmentation bombs, which release many, many thousands of very small metal pieces, which then tear through the body..

I think seeing four young teenagers come in, in the space of one hour, with gunshot wounds to their testicles, which we have never seen before, is beyond coincidence..

I think what we're witnessing is a very deliberate plan to erase the Gaza population from this land. I do not believe for a minute this is just about destroying Hamas. They are deliberately killing many, many, many thousands of innocent civilians by their withholding of aid and medicines and food.

The Intercept published a story documenting what it was like for a local named Khalil going to a Gaza aid distribution site:

He stood in line with hundreds of others. There were children, women, and elderly men. “Some were barefoot, some had been waiting since the night before,” he recalled.

As his group inched closer to the point where they hoped they would be able to grab a parcel of items, gunshots rang out. Khalil ran for his life.

“They began shooting directly at unarmed civilians,” he said. “The bullets were chasing us as if we were targets on a shooting range, and not just hungry people. We scattered under a hail of bullets. I got closer to death that day than a piece of bread.”

Yesterday the UN human rights office declared more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed attempting to get food, most of them while in close proximity of aid sites. Of course, the Israeli military and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) which runs the current aids sites claim they have ever only fired warning shots.

The GHF is legally registered in the state of Delaware, and in recent months has replaced the UNRWA which Israel believed was not careful to remove members of Hamas working for them. The GHF currently has only 4 distribution hubs in Gaza, a region with a population exceeding 2 million. The UN World Food Programme says the levels of starvation in Gaza have reached "new and astonishing levels of desperation."

Today, a joint statement signed by 115 aid groups was released:

Massacres at food distribution sites in Gaza are occurring near-daily.

The Government of Israel’s restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death. An aid worker providing psychosocial support spoke of the devastating impact on children: “Children tell their parents they want to go to heaven, because at least heaven has food.”

Doctors report record rates of acute malnutrition, especially among children and older people.

The UN-led humanitarian system has not failed, it has been prevented from functioning.

States can and must save lives before there are none left to save.

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer responded "there is no famine" in Gaza and claiming “suffering exists because Hamas has made it so.”

In an op-ed posted today in the Times of Israel, founding editor David Horovitz wrote:

Israel has proved unwilling and/or unable to foster any kind of alternative to Hamas for the governance of Gaza — not via local clans, not via the Palestinian Authority, and not via any kind of regional or US-directed mechanism.

Thus the development that would most trouble Hamas — the prospect of another entity or entities displacing it in ruling a postwar Gaza — has not been advanced..

The Gaza terror state built by Hamas in its ongoing declared goal of destroying Israel is largely in ruins, largely uninhabitable, and the Gazans that Hamas most deliberately placed in harm’s way are indeed suffering terrible harm — but with Israel, not Hamas, now having chosen to make itself responsible.

In the United States, it would seem the most pressing issue is what are in the Epstein files as evidenced by the Democrats on the House Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement securing the vote to subpoena Jeffrey Epstein files before the August Congressional recess.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) even admitted after the vote, “In some fashion, in some way, [Speaker Mike Johnson] is going to have to handle it and deal with it. And it sounds like, yeah, that’ll be a September [issue].”

As we all know, President Trump remains furious about the ongoing Epstein debacle wishing his MAGA base (and the media) were more focused on trade deals, NATO nations agreeing to significantly increase their share of defense spending and the president’s “big, beautiful bill.”

This week, the Trump administration went ahead and released thousands of federal records covering Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination and is now accusing former President Barack Obama of treason for manufacturing and politicizing intelligence suggesting Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Given the timing of these events, they are likely meant to distract from the current political narrative consuming DC; the JFK and RFK assassination files were released earlier this year, and current Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat on the then Senate Intelligence Committee which “concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election through social media bots and the hacking and leaking of Democratic emails.”

Yes, there is a moral case to be made that the American public should know about any and all known associates of Jeffrey Epstein who participated in illegal acts.

There is a much more powerful moral case that the United States needs to reexamine its relationship with Israel when overwhelming evidence strongly suggests Israel is openly condemning international humanitarian law.

In the UN Declaration of Human Rights co-drafted by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in the aftermath of the the Allies defeating fascism in WWII, the preamble states:

The Supreme Court hears roughly 80 cases per year. In addition to those merit-based cases in which both parties must file written briefs and the court issues a majority opinion following deliberations, the Supreme Court also hears emergency cases, also known as shadow docket cases, to answer legal issues requiring a more immediate ruling. Unlike typical Supreme Court cases, shadow docket cases determine whether a policy can move forward, not whether the policy itself is legal. In these specific emergency cases, the Supreme Court is not ruling on the law itself so there is no majority opinion issued to explain how the court came to its decision; lower courts will ultimately be able to rule on the policy’s legality in future cases.

Shadow docket cases are intended to be rare. Only a handful were presented during each of George W. Bush’s and Barack Obama’s tenures in office (both presidents served 2 full terms). In Trump’s first six months in office in his second term, his administration has already made 20 emergency appeals to the Supreme Court. In the Supreme Court’s most recent shadow docket ruling, the court is permitting the Trump administration to move forward with gutting the Department of Education.

Though the Supreme Court majority is not required to (and did not) submit an opinion as to why they ruled as they did in this case, the minority did issue an opinion penned by Justice Sotomayor:

The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave..

Neither the President nor Secretary [of Education] McMahon made any secret of their intent to ignore their constitutional duties. President Trump repeatedly called for the immediate abolition of the Department both during his campaign and after taking office.

Joined by two other Supreme Court justices, Sotomayor in her dissent is clearly troubled by her other colleagues permitting the Trump administration to gut an agency when that decision should be determined by the legislative branch, Congress. A growing concern in Trump 2.0 is the absence of any meaningful checks on executive power. And now that alarm will force a nation to more deeply appreciate the state of education in America.

Within 2 hours of the Supreme Court ruling, the Department of Education notified staff of its intent to press forward and markedly downsize by August 1st (approximately 2 weeks from today). Presumably the Department of Education will follow its March 2025 plan to reduce the department by half, comprised of 600 employees who already accepted the federal government’s voluntary resignation opportunity and more than 1300 staff to be officially laid off. Part of the duties of those cut by the department include protecting “students and teachers from discrimination, assisting college financial aid offices and compiling data about the nation's schools.”

In the Department’s note to staff:

The Department appreciates your service and recognizes the difficulty of the moment. This RIF [reduction in force] action is not a reflection upon your performance or conduct and is solely due to agency restructuring, as described in previous correspondence.

To help illustrate the known impact, schools K-12 will lose roughly 10% of their funding, as that currently comes from the federal government. Universities this year will continue to have extensive issues with financial aid administration as that particular federal office had the highest number of employees cut. And ironically for an administration so focused on revenue generation, student loan borrowers may receive significantly less payment reminders as federal student loan servicers will not be returning to work. In President Trump’s Executive Order, the administration admits the federal student loan portfolio of more than $1.6 trillion is roughly the size of Wells Fargo’s loan portfolio; but since that bank has more than 200,000 employees, the Trump administration thinks a federal staff of less than 1,500 cannot possibly do the job (so now the Treasury Department may do it, which itself lost 11,000 employees in March but currently has over 100,000 employees for all Treasury functions including tax collection via the IRS).

These drastic federal cuts follow the Trump’s administration threatening to cut Ivy League universities’ federal funding for supposed antisemitism and detaining/deporting students who protested the war in Gaza. In March, the Department of Education reported five dozen universities were under investigation for antisemitism, and just yesterday officials from three non ivy universities testified before Congress regarding antisemitism on their campuses.

Faculty and staff at those universities (Georgetown University, CUNY and UC Berkeley) wrote in response to the most recent of nine Congressional hearings on antisemitism at college campuses:

Despite their stated purpose, these congressional hearings are not about actually addressing antisemitism in higher education. Rather, their agenda is to bring the higher education sector to heel. The hearings are part of longstanding and ongoing efforts to attack academic freedom, faculty governance and higher education as a public good.

Though there is sufficient merit to believing advocating for the Palestinian people and their rights is the primary reason for these Congressional hearings, it cannot be ignored that any university found not in federal compliance could potentially lose federal funding. And if that were not enough, the Trump administration intends to cut federal funding to tribal colleges and universities by almost 90%, which would obviously devastate higher education for Indigenous communities.

After the Supreme Court ruling, 24 states and the District of Colombia sued the Trump administration to unfreeze more than $6 billion in federal funding. Arizona, a plaintiff in this case, has a school district in which classes resumed today. For schools across the nation, the rapidity of funds being frozen will make it extremely difficult for administrators to adjust their budgets and resourcing in time for the upcoming school year.

Even senior Republican lawmakers are upset. Senator Susan Collins (R - ME), chair of the House appropriations committee, told Education Week:

I strongly oppose the administration's decision to pause the delivery of education formula grant funding to states and local school districts across the country ... The administration should release these funds without any further delay.

Representative Tim Walberg (R-MI), chair of the House education committee, said:

It is my understanding that the administration is working to ensure these funds are being used to support students and make sure the civil rights of students and educators are not being violated within these programs. However, these funds were appropriated by Congress, and it is important that all funds Congress appropriated be promptly distributed.

Echoes of Justice Sotomayor’s grave concern can be heard in Republican Representative’s Walberg’s comments. In the minority’s dissent, Sotomayor wrote the majority’s decision “will unleash untold harm, delaying or denying educational opportunities and leaving students to suffer from discrimination, sexual assault, and other civil rights violations without the federal resources Congress intended.”

Of course the potential damage to students and teachers is unknown as the Constitutional crisis plays out. Major Department of Education functions could be potentially outsourced to other government departments - civil rights issues to the Justice Department, student disability rights handled by Health and Human Services and student loans managed by the Treasury Department.

However, what department or individual will ensure equity of education, which was the intent of the Department of Education following intense civil rights and anti-poverty movements in the United States? Do we know if the Trump administration honestly believes equal access to education is considered accomplished or no longer a concern. Both? Neither?

Camp Mystic is a private Christian summer camp for girls.

The staff at Mystic strives to provide young girls with a wholesome Christian atmosphere in which they can develop outstanding personal qualities and self-esteem.

Each summer, Mystic challenges its campers to meet the Mystic ideals:

1. Be a better person for being at Mystic

2. Let Mystic bring out the best in them

3. Grow spiritually

Though several hundred in the area have been rescued, the latest reporting indicates nearly 120 are confirmed dead and more than 170 are still missing. Two days prior to the flooding, the Texas Division of Emergency Management did move state emergency response personnel and equipment to West and Central Texas in anticipation of heavy rainfall. Since the floods, more than one thousand local, state and federal personnel have been on the ground assisting the rescue operation.

According to AP News, a short timeline of events could be summarized as:

After a flood watch notice midday Thursday, the National Weather Service office issued an urgent warning around 4 a.m. that raised the potential of catastrophic damage and a severe threat to human life. By at least 5:20 a.m., some in the Kerrville City area say water levels were getting alarmingly high. The massive rain flowing down hills sent rushing water into the Guadalupe River, causing it to rise 26 feet (8 meters) in just 45 minutes.

In response to questions about why the local community did not receive more warning or why more preparations were not made, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha responded, “Those questions are going to be answered. I believe those questions need to be answered, to the families of the loved ones, to the public.”

All witnesses describe the event with horror. Matthew Stone said police knocked on doors at 5:30am but “We got no emergency alert. There was nothing" then "a pitch black wall of death.” Gustavo Valdes told CNN, “The screams is what haunts me. Every time I close my eyes I hear people screaming.” Captain Jason Waldrip of the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office spoke about the rescue efforts through the flood-ravaged ground of Texas’ Hill Country at a news conference today, “We have spotters on the ground. So as this material is being removed, we are looking for anything of a sign of a person that may be within this material.” First responders are working tirelessly to find dead bodies to help give families closure.

State officials have differing perspectives on the disaster response. Texas Governor Greg Abbott when pressed about “who’s to blame” pushed back on the criticism with “Know this: that’s the word choice of losers. Let me explain one thing about Texas, and that is Texas—every square inch of our state—cares about football.” As he continued talking about football, he points out that all teams make mistakes and only losing teams point fingers to blame while winners confidently handle their business. Not all in Texas government share the governor’s perspective. Democratic Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas responded, “This is not a game. People’s lives are at stake and the losers are the ones that don’t learn from the mistakes, that don’t hold people accountable. In this case, I think there are accountability issues at every level of government.”

While much is being made of Texas Senator Ted Cruz once again being on vacation while a disaster wreaked havoc on his home state, the federal response was never meant to be handled by the incapable hands of its elected federal representative. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter signed an Executive Order to create the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate government efforts and to provide resources, technical expertise and public communications support for all domestic disasters, whether natural or man-made. FEMA’s creation follows a 1968 law making flood insurance possible, a 1973 act making flood insurance mandatory in Special Flood Hazard Areas and a 1974 act to clearly establish the process of Presidential disaster declarations.

Yet the current administration feels very differently about FEMA’s value. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security and its Secretary said today, “Federal emergency management should be state and locally led, rather than how it has operated for decades. It has been slow to respond at the federal level. It’s even been slower to get the resources to Americans in crisis, and that is why this entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today and remade into a responsive agency.” Putting aside the fact that the agency in question is Secretary Noem’s direct responsibility, her attitude is the exact opposite position of why successive Republican and Democratic presidential administrations advanced measures to make FEMA possible - because local and state governments need the federal government to effectively address domestic disasters.

Also today, Neil Jacobs, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told Congress he believes the government’s response will be improved by retooling federal weather data collection processes through greater collaboration with private sector companies “to return the United States to the world’s leader in global weather forecast modeling capacity.” He went on to say at his confirmation hearing that the standard “will require embracing new technologies, novel approaches and partnering with industry to advance global observing systems.” The NOAA and FEMA work together on wireless emergency alerts, a nationwide effort to improve emergency preparedness.

The National Weather Service (NWS), which is part of the NOAA, lost nearly 600 staff this year as part of the Trump administration’s concerted efforts to reduce the size of the federal government. Among those no longer employed at the NWS was Paul Yura, the warning coordination meteorologist at the NWS's Austin/San Antonio office, whose duties included being a liaison between public safety officials, emergency managers and government officials. The warning coordination meteorologist is among 6 open vacancies at the Austin/San Antonio Weather Forecast Office.

A Kerr County government report last year warned the threat of flooding is getting worse and future floods could be more severe than historical floods. Samantha Montano, professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, said “This is the exact kind of storm that meteorologists, climate scientists, emergency management experts have been talking about and warning about for decades at this point, and there’s absolutely no reason that this won’t happen in other parts of the country. This is what happens when you let climate change run unabated and break apart the emergency management system – without investing in that system at the local and state level.” To her point, a record-breaking flash flood just hit a New Mexico village yesterday killing 3 and damaging dozens of homes.

Last month, President Trump told reporters “We want to wean off of FEMA and we want to bring it down to the state level.” Both he and Secretary Noem have repeatedly expressed their desire to revamp if not remove the agency entirely. Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” signed into law last week cut $150 million of funding to the NOAA and created a special FEMA fund to help fund ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ which is being used as an immigration detention center in Florida.

According to a June 2025 AP-NORC Center poll, more than 60% of respondents are confident in FEMA and 85% are confident in the National Weather Service. In terms of the government’s role in natural disasters, 72% believe the government should play a major role in ‘tracking weather events and warning people about natural disasters.’ Seventy-four percent believe the government should play a major role in ‘helping to rebuild communities affected by natural disasters,’ and 81% want the government to have a major role in ‘providing aid to communities in the immediate aftermath of natural disasters.’

Though national football teams - Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings - have each contributed $500,000 to Texas rescue and relief efforts, the memories of those who died at Camp Mystic should not only be charity after the fact but a government effectively providing for the common defense before the next natural disaster hits.

The official Reagan library describes their namesake as the first true conservative president in more than 50 years, implying no truly conservative president has sat in the Oval Office since before Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Entering office in 1981, the Reagan administration addressed double-digit inflation by reducing taxes in an effort to spur private enterprise. Reagan “vowed to protect certain entitlement programs (like Medicare and Social Security) while cutting the budgets for other social programs by targeting waste, fraud and abuse.” Despite the administration successfully reducing inflation, Reagan also oversaw double-digit unemployment, a significant recession and an ever growing national debt. Moreover, the record annual “budget deficit was exacerbated by a trade deficit. Americans continued to buy more foreign-made goods than they were selling.”

In the midst of an ongoing trade war and consumer inflation, House Republicans are scrambling to pass the Senate’s version of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” by July 4th. With a slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives (220-212), the President is calling some members and inviting others to the White House to get the bill over the finish line by Trump’s self-imposed deadline.

The bill channels “voodoo economics” by adding a projected $3.3 trillion to the deficit and cutting health insurance for nearly 12 million Americans over the next 10 years. If passed, Trump will undoubtedly tout $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, an extra $350 billion in border and national security and $25 billion to build a Golden Dome missile defense system. He most certainly will obfuscate and misrepresent work requirements for Medicaid recipients, curtailed health services in rural districts, higher premiums for those insured by the Affordable Care Act Marketplace and increased out-of-pocket medical expenses for any Medicaid recipient earning above the official federal poverty level ($15,650 for an individual in 2025). And Trump will likely not even mention that already 26 million Americans are without health insurance and that the Congressional Budget Office estimates that number will rise to more than 1 out of 10 Americans by 2034. (*The U.S. Census Bureau projects US population to be 373.5 million by 2040)

Just before the pandemic, an academic research cited medical costs led to nearly two-thirds of all personal bankruptcies in the United States. As of today, only one trade deal has been made with the United Kingdom and another announced with Vietnam. And due in no small part to the ongoing trade war, the U.S. dollar has declined in value plummeting to a 3 year-low, which could further lower American purchasing power.

The Senate narrowly passed Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” thanks to Senator Lisa Murkowski’s (R-AK) “agonizing” decision to vote yes (while securing Alaska specific provisions) and Vice President JD Vance’s assured tie-breaking vote. And within hours (or days) Republican holdouts in the House will also likely “agonizingly” vote yes, resulting in a wider wealth gap, likely more household bankruptcies and possibly another recession.

Many want to believe that the Constitutional value of “promoting the general welfare” includes securing social services like Medicaid, food assistance programs, education and environmental protection. The “big, beautiful bill” will drastically cut federal funding to all of those initiatives while highly suspect trade revenues could imperil future generations with colossal debt.

In 1984, then President Reagan ran for reelection with an ad campaign claiming:

It's morning again in America, and under the leadership of President Reagan, our country is prouder and stronger and better. Why would we ever want to return to where we were less than four short years ago?

Reagan won that election in a landslide. Perhaps the definition of “promoting the general welfare” is a moving target?

Did the atomic bombs effectively end World War II or mark the beginning of the Cold War with the Soviet Union which followed? Does anyone who speaks into President Trump’s ear know enough history to advise him on how a global conflagration begins or ends?

The president’s current understanding of geopolitical realities in the Middle East may be summarized in a way only Trump could say as President - “We basically have two countries [Israel and Iran] that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.” Living thousands of miles away from the conflict, many Americans may feel similarly. But then why did the US actively participate?

America’s reticence to enter foreign wars stretches back more than 100 years. Decades after a bloody civil war between brothers on American soil, the anti-war sentiment was evoked by none other than the man who would eventually call on Congress to join World War I. Excerpts from President Wilson’s 1914 message on neutrality:

I suppose that every thoughtful man in America has asked himself, during these last troubled weeks, what influence the European war may exert upon the United States..

The spirit of the Nation in this critical matter will be determined largely by what individuals and society and those gathered in public meetings do and say, upon what newspapers and magazines contain, upon what ministers utter in their pulpits, and men proclaim as their opinions on the street..

..this great country of ours, which is, of course, the first in our thoughts and in our hearts, should show herself in this time of peculiar trial a Nation fit beyond others to exhibit the fine poise of undisturbed judgment, the dignity of self-control, the efficiency of dispassionate action..

Shall we not resolve to put upon ourselves the restraints which will bring to our people the happiness and the great and lasting influence for peace we covet for them?

America first, living in peace thousands of miles away from foreign regional conflicts has been central to the American spirit since before every American today was born.

On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said America’s mission in Iran, “was not an attack on Iran, it was not an attack on the Iranian people. This wasn't a regime change move. This was designed to degrade and/or destroy three nuclear sites related to their nuclear weaponization ambitions, and that was delivered on yesterday."

Vice President JD Vance when asked about the US military operation told Meet the Press, “ I certainly empathize with Americans who are exhausted after 25 years of foreign entanglements in the Middle East. I understand the concern. But the difference is that back then we had dumb presidents and now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America's national security objectives. So this is not going to be some long, drawn-out thing. We've got in. We've done the job of setting their nuclear program back.”

Senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI in response to the US military strikes in Iran held conference calls on Sunday with governors, their staffs and hundreds of law enforcement officials to discuss how the US military operation in Iran may impact safety and security in their states in the immediate aftermath.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly declared “Congratulations, President Trump. Your bold decision to target Iran’s nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history. In Operation Rising Lion, Israel has done truly amazing things. But in tonight’s action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, America has been truly unsurpassed. It has done what no other country on earth could do.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X:

Shortly thereafter, Iran responded by attacking a US Air Base in Qatar, but only after notifying the United States it would attack and effectively preventing the loss of American lives:

Trump reiterated the administration’s position yesterday on Air Force One in regards to regime change in Iran, “I don’t want it. Regime change takes chaos and, ideally, we don’t want to see much chaos.” Global reaction however does not share the president’s belief peace and harmony is on the way.

China strongly condemned the attacks and thinks “the actions of the United States seriously violate the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and international law, as well as Iran's sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity. They have exacerbated tensions in the Middle East and dealt a heavy blow to the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.”

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev posted on X:

A leaked Defense Intelligence Agency assessment indicates that the American attack only set back Iran’s nuclear program by less than six months. Iran has more than 30 nuclear facilities and several are securely deep underground. According to NPR reporting, the US strikes likely missed Iran’s uranium stockpiles. Commercial satellite imagery days before the attack show trucks sealing tunnel entrances to where Iran stores their uranium. “[Independent] experts believe Iranians could have also moved their enriched uranium out of the sites in the run-up to the U.S. strikes.”

Europe has called for further diplomacy, and currently a tentative ceasefire is being observed. While Trump attends the NATO summit this week touting his legitimate success of having NATO members raise their defense spending levels from 2% of GDP to 5%, actors in the Middle East are likely still plotting what comes next.

In Paris on Monday, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the last shah of Iran, held a press conference to announce he would form an opposition front to secure a regime change. He said “This is our Berlin Wall moment” and added “We stand at a crossroads: One road leads to bloodshed and chaos. The other — to a peaceful and democratic transition.”

America is very familiar with an exiled official boasting of a return to democracy in their homeland if the regime is toppled. The President himself over the weekend posted on Truth Social:

Though Trump has walked back that sentiment, those in the region have harbored it for decades. A few months prior to the Obama administration finalizing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which limited Iran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for lifting economic sanctions, Netanyahu delivered a speech in March 2015 to the United States Congress:

Iran's goons in Gaza, its lackeys in Lebanon, its revolutionary guards on the Golan Heights are clutching Israel with three tentacles of terror..

I don't believe that Iran's radical regime will change for the better after this deal. This regime has been in power for 36 years, and its voracious appetite for aggression grows with each passing year. This deal would only whet Iran's appetite for more.

Netanyahu failed to sway President Obama and reportedly President George W. Bush before him. In General Wesley Clark's book Winning Modern Wars in 2003, Clark describes a conversation he had with a military officer in the Pentagon shortly after the 9/11 attacks:

As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and finishing off Iran.

If accurate, Israel and Netanyahu have been plotting a regime change in Iran for more than 20 years (at least).

When President Trump spoke at his first official foreign trip of his second term, he boldly declared a new world order in which he called upon responsible nations to “put aside your differences and focus on the interests that unite you, then all of humanity, will soon be amazed at what they will see right here in this geographic center of the world.” He wanted all to believe that “Before our eyes a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts of tired divisions of the past and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos.”

From thousands of miles away, there are moments when that vision can appear to be true. But as a former American president failed to do, our current president must allow other nations to solve their own problems and truly be America First by “[exhibiting] the fine poise of undisturbed judgment, the dignity of self-control, the efficiency of dispassionate action.”

A tale of two Trumps within 8 hours of each other - the first revealing a closet neocon willing to ride shotgun to Israel’s desired regime change in Iran; the latter portraying what so many MAGA voters thought would be a truly America First president.

Today, when reporters at the White House asked Trump about a potential US strike on Iran, the president responded “I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin said, “We control the skies over Tehran. We are striking with tremendous force at the regime of the ayatollahs. We are hitting the nuclear sites, the missiles, the headquarters, the symbols of the regime."

Iran’s response on X today:

Since Friday, Iran has reported more than 200 deaths from Israeli attacks, and Israel claims two dozen civilians have died from Iranian strikes.

Coincidentally, Russian and Iranian officials met today for a conference on “Russian-Iranian cooperation in a changing world.” As of today, Russia is staying out of the fray, but as reported by The Guardian, a source close to the Russian foreign ministry said “If the current Iranian regime collapses, it would be both a strategic and reputational blow for Russia. A bigger loss than the fall of Damascus.”

The G7 - composed of Japan, Italy, France, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States - issued a joint statement on the burgeoning conflict:

We, the leaders of the G7, reiterate our commitment to peace and stability in the Middle East.

In this context, we affirm that Israel has a right to defend itself. We reiterate our support for the security of Israel.

We also affirm the importance of the protection of civilians.

Iran is the principal source of regional instability and terror.

We have been consistently clear that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.

We urge that the resolution of the Iranian crisis leads to a broader de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza.

We will remain vigilant to the implications for international energy markets and stand ready to coordinate, including with like-minded partners, to safeguard market stability.

Developments are continuously pouring in, but at this moment let’s not forget what Benjamin Netanyahu said in front of the United States Congress in September 2022 (one year after 9/11):

If you take out Saddam, Saddam's regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region and I think that people sitting right next door in Iran young people and many others will say the time of such regimes of such despots is gone. There is a new age, something new is happening.

If Trump decides to ultimately be America First, to let Israel fight its own wars without American political, financial or military support, then something new can happen.

Otherwise we all know how Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq played out.