Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

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Judge blocks immigrants’ deportation to South Sudan one day after Supreme Court clears the way

A federal judge on Friday temporarily halted deportations of eight immigrants to war-torn South Sudan the day after the Supreme Court greenlighted their removal, saying new claims by the immigrants’ lawyers deserved a hearing. Read More.   ps:Wow, ain't that interesting a judge is actually blocking what the Supreme Court has ruled on!!!!!   Dutch intelligence services say Russia has stepped up use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine Two Dutch intelligence agencies said on Friday that Russia is increasing its use of prohibited chemical weapons in Ukraine, including the World War I-era poison gas chloropicrin. Russian authorities didn’t immediately comment on the findings, but they have denied using chemical weapons in the past. Read More.   ps:And where is trump on this? Probably will say that the info from the Dutch intelligence can't possibly be right!!!!!   Trump said he didn't know an offensive term he used in a speech is considered antisemitic President Donald Trump says he didn’t know the term “shylock” is considered antisemitic when he used it in a speech to describe unscrupulous moneylenders. Read More.   ps: Right!!

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Trump signs his tax and spending cut bill at the White House July 4 picnic

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed his package of tax breaks and spending cuts into law Friday in front of Fourth of July picnickers after his cajoling produced almost unanimous Republican support in Congress for the domestic priority that could cement his second-term legacy.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-sign-tax-cut-bill-july-4-3804df732e461a626fd8c2b43413c3f0?

ps:He will definitely have a legacy of robing the poor to give to the rich!!!!!

Trump to start TikTok sale talks with China, he says, with deal ‘pretty much’ reached

Donald Trump has said he will start talking to China on Monday or Tuesday about a possible TikTok deal.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/05/trump-to-start-tiktok-sale-talks-with-china-he-says-with-deal-pretty-much-reached?

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Ramped-up deportation spectacle

Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The MAGA movement is reveling in the creativity, severity and accelerating force of President Trump's historic immigration crackdown. Why it matters: Once-fringe tactics — an alligator-moated detention camp, deportations to war zones, denaturalization of immigrant citizens — are now being proudly embraced at the highest levels of the U.S. government, Axios' Tal Axelrod and Zachary Basu write. ? It's an extraordinary shift from Trump's first term, when nationwide backlash and the appearance of cruelty forced the administration to abandon its family separation policy for unauthorized immigrants. Six months into his second term — and with tens of billions of dollars in new funding soon flowing to ICE — Trump is only just beginning to scale up his mass deportation machine. Driving the news: Trump on Tuesday toured a temporary ICE facility in the Florida Everglades dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," where thousands of migrants will be detained in a remote, marshland environment teeming with predators. MAGA influencers invited on the trip gleefully posted photos of the prison's cages and souvenir-style "merchandise," thrilling their followers and horrifying critics. Pro-Trump activist Laura Loomer drew outrage after tweeting that "alligators are guaranteed at least 65 million meals if we get started now" — widely interpreted as a reference to the Hispanic population of the United States. ? The big picture: Citing the millions of unauthorized immigrants who crossed the border under President Biden, Trump and his MAGA allies have framed the second-term crackdown as a long-overdue purge. The result is an increasingly draconian set of enforcement measures designed to deter, expel and make examples out of unauthorized immigrants. Some newer members of the MAGA coalition, such as podcaster Joe Rogan, have expressed deep discomfort with the targeting of non-criminal undocumented immigrants. Zoom in: Trump's deportation efforts exploded into a full-blown spectacle in March, when the U.S. flew hundreds of alleged gang members to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador. The operation was captured in glitzy promotional footage, distributed on official White House social media, that showed shaved and shackled migrants being marched off planes and buses at gunpoint. Zoom out: Trump's immigration toolkit has expanded since March, as his aides push for a dramatically higher pace of arrests and deportations. Trump federalized the National Guard in California and deployed troops in Los Angeles to protect federal ICE agents, giving the military a rare and highly contentious role in immigration raids. ⚖️ The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to deport undocumented immigrants to non-origin countries — including the war-torn nations of South Sudan and Libya. Hundreds of migrants are being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This week, Trump claimed that "conceptual work" is underway to reopen Alcatraz — the decrepit former island prison in San Francisco, now a tourist site. On Thursday, ICE announced it had arrested and was preparing to deport Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. — accusing him of cartel ties just days after he headlined an arena against influencer Jake Paul. What to watch: Denaturalization of U.S. citizens — once a legal backwater — is gaining traction as Trump and his MAGA allies push the envelope on nativist rhetoric. The Justice Department has begun prioritizing stripping naturalized Americans of their citizenship when they're charged with crimes and "illegally procured or misrepresented facts in the naturalization process." But some MAGA influencers are pushing to weaponize denaturalization more broadly — not just as a legal remedy for fraud, but as a tool to punish ideological opponents. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) has called for the Justice Department to investigate the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a U.S. citizen in 2018. Trump has echoed false claims about Mamdani being in the country "illegally," and threatened to arrest the democratic socialist if he impedes federal immigration operations in New York. The bottom line: MAGA is leveraging a precedent-busting president to set a new standard for immigration enforcement — one that could define Republican policy for years to come.

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? Trump re-escalates trade war

Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios

President Trump said the U.S. will begin sending letters Monday to other countries setting a tariff rate on their imports. Why it matters: After months of threats, Trump is abruptly re-escalating the trade war, Axios managing editor for business Ben Berkowitz writes. For businesses craving certainty, who've had a period of relative calm of late, the move could once again upset that balance. It also injects a new risk into financial markets that have largely moved on to a post-tariff world. European stocks, and U.S. stock futures, fell yesterday as Trump warned the letters were coming. ? Catch up quick: Trump told reporters late yesterday aboard Air Force One that about a dozen letters would go out Monday. He didn't say which nations would be targeted or what rates would be set. On Thursday, he said the rates in the letters would go into effect Aug. 1 — and warned some could be as high as 70%. Reality check: The administration has used a similar tactic before — taking an aggressive posture on coming tariffs, but with a deadline just far enough out that trading partners could still bring last-minute offers. Reports in recent days suggest multiple trading partners, including South Korea and Thailand, are scrambling to do just that. Keep reading.

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? Supercharged "War on Terror"

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Getty Images

Mass surveillance. Pre-emptive military strikes in the Middle East. Shipping people to domestic and foreign prisons. Citing national security to hide information from the courts. Labeling people "terrorists" as a political and legal strategy. Why it matters: Donald Trump became president in part by running against the legacy of George W. Bush, the last Republican in the White House before him. But now Trump is supercharging many of the post-9/11 legal, tactical and political strategies Bush used, Axios' Alex Thompson and Brittany Gibson write. ? Zoom in: Trump's push to deport "millions" of unauthorized immigrants and his strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities in particular have many parallels to Bush's "War on Terror." Trump's sending unauthorized immigrants to high-security prisons in the U.S. and abroad — sometimes denying them due process. Bush sent alleged terrorists — including undocumented people in the U.S. — to prisons around the world and the U.S. military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Trump administration is now using "Gitmo" for detainees it says have criminal histories. Trump preemptively, and unilaterally, attacked Iran with 14 bunker-buster bombs and launched missiles at an Iranian-backed proxy group in Yemen, killing dozens. He said he ordered the first attack out of concern that Iran was close to gaining a nuclear weapon. Bush used a similar rationale for invading Iraq, though, unlike Trump, he got Congress' approval beforehand. The similarities don't stop there: Surveillance: Trump has enlisted tech company and defense contractor Palantir to help surveil and track unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. Bush enlisted telecom companies such as AT&T and Sprint for most of his domestic surveillance in the name of stopping terrorists. Executive orders: Trump's administration has invoked some of Bush's executive orders made after 9/11 to justify his immigration actions, as Semafor pointed out. Courts: Both the Trump and Bush administrations concealed information from judges and court hearings using the "state secrets privilege," claiming transparency was a national security risk. Habeas corpus: Trump has floated suspending habeas corpus — suspects' right to use the courts to fight unlawful detentions. Bush tried to do that in 2006 before it was overturned by the Supreme Court. ? Reality check: There are exceptions to the Trump-Bush parallels. Trump's immigration effort is far broader than Bush's, which focused largely on men suspected of having ties to terror groups. Trump's deportation efforts are targeted at millions more noncitizens in communities nationwide. Keep reading.

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?️ Hunger on the rise

Data: Morning Consult. Chart: Axios Visuals More Americans are going hungry, Axios' Emily Peck writes from new Morning Consult data. It's a shocking data point for the wealthiest country in the world — and comes at a time when the stock market is hitting record highs and President Trump just signed a bill slashing food benefits. Zoom in: The share of adults who tell Morning Consult in monthly surveys that they sometimes or often don't have enough to eat has been creeping up over the past several years. In May, 15.6% of adults said so, almost double the 2021 rate. ? Between the lines: Congress just passed a huge cut to food benefits, or SNAP, that is likely to make the situation far worse, says George Matysik, the executive director of a Philadelphia-area food back network that has seen demand surge 120% in the last three years. The other side: The White House and congressional Republicans argue that cuts to these benefits are a way to bring more people into the labor market and reduce dependence on government assistance, as well as an effort to reduce waste, fraud and abuse. Read on.

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Trump branded, browbeat and prevailed. But his big bill may come at a political cost

Through persuasion and browbeating, Trump forced nearly all congressional Republicans to line up behind his marquee legislation, despite parts some in the GOP viewed as unpalatable. But Trump’s victory will soon be tested during the 2026 midterm elections where Democrats plan to run on a durable theme: that the Republican president favors the rich on tax cuts over poorer people who will lose their health care. Read more.    ps:Well it should!!!!!   US completes deportation of 8 men to South Sudan after weeks of legal wrangling WASHINGTON (AP) — Eight men deported from the United States in May and held under guard for weeks at an American military base in the African nation of Djibouti while their legal challenges played out in court have now reached the Trump administration’s intended destination, war-torn South Sudan, a country the State Department advises against travel to due to “crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict.” https://apnews.com/article/trump-south-sudan-djibouti-deport-supreme-court-50f9162cff680b5c8729873e11d514e9?

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? New phase of tariff limbo

Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios

The White House promised a summer of tariff clarity. Now it looks like it might be another season of confusion, Axios' Courtenay Brown writes. Why it matters: The rules of global trade in the Trump era are just as hazy now as they were in early April, when the White House suggested "90 deals in 90 days" that would ease the uncertainty. The big picture: The fear among business leaders is that the trade wars started when Trump took office don't have a firm end date — a worry that grows with each shifting deadline. "Whatever deals there are going to be, let's just ink it and move on," Sue Spence, the chair of the Institute of Supply Management's manufacturing business survey committee, tells Axios. "But even if that happens, there is such a disbelief it will stick," says Spence, who surveys manufacturers each month to gauge the industry's health. Keep reading.

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Trump eyes Gaza endgame

President Trump wants to reach an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in their meeting today on terms for ending the war in Gaza, two U.S. officials tell Axios' Barak Ravid.

• Why it matters: Trump is trying to seize the momentum from the Israel–Iran ceasefire to secure a breakthrough in Gaza this week. After four months of failed talks, there has been fresh momentum in recent days towards a ceasefire deal.

The deal on the table is a 60-day truce involving the release of 10 live Israeli hostages and 18 deceased hostages.

• Trump hopes it will be a step toward a bigger peace agreement, though Netanyahu has thus far been unwilling to sign any deal to end the war.

Friction point: If a temporary ceasefire is reached, the post-war situation in Gaza will become the central topic in negotiations during the 60-day truce.

• The U.S. side wants to reach an understanding with the Israelis about who will govern Gaza without Hamas, and what security guarantees will prevent the group's return.

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? Surf’s up… but guard yourself. If you visited one of the National Park Service’s 88 coastal seashores or Great Lakes beaches this holiday weekend, you may have noticed empty lifeguard towers. That’s because Trump’s cuts at the agency have saddled these federally run beaches with a lifeguard shortage. A seasonal worker hiring freeze instituted by the Trump administration means that fewer than half of these 7,700 temporary positions — including lifeguards — were filled before the summer season’s start, KFF reports. 

? Consulting giants get DOGE’d. As part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s push to clean up the federal bureaucracy, Trump officials are putting pressure on consulting firms to justify their billions of dollars in federal contracts, reports The Wall Street Journal. The administration recently sent a letter to several major consulting companies, including McKinsey, asking them to explain how their work benefits the government and propose cost-cutting measures.

Big Pharma loves the Big Beautiful Bill. While stripping health care coverage from millions of Americans, Trump’s megabill rewards the pharmaceutical industry by exempting more drugs from a provision of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that aims to lower drug costs through price negotiations between Medicare and drugmakers. Pharma’s been fighting the law for years, arguing that such negotiations disincentivize drug research, leading to fewer lifesaving medications for patients. However, a new study reveals that innovation hasn’t dried up since the Inflation Reduction Act passed — in fact, pharmaceutical companies have increased their spending on research and development. 

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Debate erupts over role Trump cuts played in response to deadly Texas floods

Former federal officials and outside experts have warned for months that President Donald Trump’s staffing cuts to the National Weather Service could endanger lives. After torrential rains and flash flooding struck Friday in the Texas Hill Country, the weather service came under fire from local officials who criticized what they described as inadequate forecasts. Read More.

Flooding from Chantal's remnants forces dozens to flee homes in North Carolina

Heavy rain and flooding from the remnants of Tropical Storm Chantal forced dozens of people to flee their homes in central North Carolina, officials said Monday. Read More.

Trump to put 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea, new import taxes on five other nations

President Donald Trump on Monday placed a 25% tax on goods imported from Japan and South Korea, as well as new tariff rates on Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Laos and Myanmar. Read More.

Epstein 'client list' doesn't exist, Justice Department says, walking back theory Bondi had promoted

Jeffrey Epstein did not maintain a “client list,” the Justice Department acknowledged Monday as it said no more files related to the wealthy financier's sex trafficking investigation would be made public despite promises from Attorney General Pam Bondi that had raised the expectations of conservative influencers and conspiracy theorists. Read More.   A Vermont dairy farm was raided. The mixed messages from Washington since then have increased fears The arrest of eight Vermont dairy farmers in April sent shock waves throughout New England's agriculture industry, and fears haven't eased since then. That's because migrant farm workers are still getting mixed message about such raids. Read More. Federal officers deployed to Los Angeles park in neighborhood with large immigrant population Dozens of federal officers in tactical gear roamed a mostly empty park in a Los Angeles neighborhood with a large immigrant population on Monday for about an hour before clearing out. The operation included 17 Humvees, four tactical vehicles, two ambulances and the armed soldiers, defense officials said. Read More.

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MAGA's Epstein shock

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

The MAGA movement erupted in disbelief today after the Trump administration said convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had not blackmailed elite figures, kept a "client list" or been murdered in prison. Even declarations from MAGA stalwarts like Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, the top two officials at the FBI, are not enough to placate some adherents to Epstein conspiracy theories, Axios' Tal Axelrod reports. ? What they're saying: "As trusted voices like Dan Bongino, Kash Patel, and Pam Bondi align with the official story, many are asking: Who's still willing to demand real answers?" LindellTV, the outlet helmed by Trump ally Mike Lindell, posted on X. "Assuming this leaked Epstein Files memo is true, then we all know this is a shameful coverup to protect the most heinous elites," added influencer Rogan O'Handley, who goes by DC Draino. ⚡️ Between the lines: Patel and Bongino were both prominent purveyors of conspiracy theories around Epstein's death prior to Trump's inauguration.

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? Trump reignites trade war

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

President Trump abruptly re-escalated the global trade war today, following months of threats, Axios' Courtenay Brown and Ben Berkowitz report. South Korea and Japan were both hit with 25% tariffs, effective Aug 1. That's similar to the levies the White House announced on April 2 — "Liberation Day," as Trump called it — before swiftly pausing the implementation for 90 days. Trump later announced tariffs for Myanmar (40% tariff), Laos (40%), South Africa (30%), Kazakhstan (25%) and Malaysia (25%). ? What we're watching: Markets initially sold off to hit session lows, rebounded and then dropped to the lows of the day again. Trump vowed to up the ante if countries threatened to retaliate. Go deeper.

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• 90 California National Guard troops, 17 Humvees and four tactical vehicles were deployed to a largely empty park in Los Angeles today to safeguard a potential immigration raid. It's not clear whether any arrests were made. Go deeper.
• Law enforcement officers killed a heavily armed man who opened fire this morning at a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas. Go deeper.
• ?? Israeli officials think President Trump could green light renewed attacks against Iran, sources tell Axios' Barak Ravid.

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No Coherent Policy (Anna Moneymaker / Getty)

View in browser Remember when the United States engaged in an act of war against a country of some 90 million people by sending its B-2 bombers into battle? No? Well, you can be forgiven for letting it slip your mind; after all, it was more than two weeks ago. Besides, you’ve probably been distracted by more recent news. The United States has halted some weapons shipments to Ukraine, despite the increased Russian bombing of Ukrainian cities as Moscow continues its campaign of mass murder. Fortunately, last Thursday Donald Trump got right on the horn to his friend in Russia, President Vladimir Putin. Unfortunately, Putin apparently told Trump to pound sand. “I didn’t make any progress with him today at all,” Trump said to reporters before boarding Air Force One. Meanwhile, the president has decided to review AUKUS, the 2021 security pact between the United States, Australia, and Great Britain, a move that caught U.S. diplomats (and their colleagues in Canberra and London) off guard and has generated concern about the future of the arrangement. Technically, the president didn’t decide to review it, but rather his handpicked secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, did. Well, it wasn’t him, either; apparently, the review was ordered by someone you’ve likely never heard of: Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, a career-long Beltway denizen who initiated the process on his own. But at least someone’s keeping an eye on Asia: CNN is reporting, based on a Ukrainian intelligence report, that North Korea is planning to send as many as 30,000 more soldiers to assist Russia in its war of conquest. Of course, this is largely based on a single source, but Pyongyang has already sent at least 10,000 troops into the European battlefield over the past nine months, and things are going poorly for Russia’s hapless conscripts, so perhaps a deal really is in the works to provide the Kremlin with another shipment of foreign cannon fodder. All of this raises an obvious question: Who’s running America’s foreign and defense policies? It’s not the president, at least not on most issues. Trump’s interest in foreign policy, as with so many other topics, is capricious and episodic at best. He flits away from losing issues, leaving them to others. He promised to end the war in Ukraine in a day, but after conceding that making peace is “more difficult than people would have any idea,” the president has since shrugged and given up. It’s not Marco Rubio—you may remember that he is technically the secretary of state, but he seems to have little power in this White House. It’s not Hegseth, who can’t seem to stop talking about “lethality” and trans people long enough to deliver a real briefing that isn’t just a fawning performance for Trump. (As bad as Hegseth can be, he seems almost restrained next to the State Department’s spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, whose comments about Trump—she thanks God for him from her podium and says he is “saving this country and the world”—have an unsettling Pyongyang-newsreader lilt to them.) It’s not the national security adviser. That’s also Rubio. Apparently, American defense policy is being run by Bridge Colby, and perhaps a few other guys somewhere in the greater Washington metropolitan area. Their influence is not always obvious. The order to halt shipments, for example, came from Hegseth, but the original idea was reportedly driven by Colby, who backed the moves because, according to NBC, he has “long advocated scaling back the U.S. commitment in Ukraine and shifting weapons and resources to the Pacific region to counter China.” (Per the NBC reporting, an analysis from the Joint Staff showed that Colby is wrong to think of this as an either-or situation; the Ukrainians need weapons that the U.S. wouldn’t even be using in a conflict in the Pacific.) In this administration, the principals are either incompetent or detached from most of the policy making, and so decisions are being made at lower levels without much guidance from above. In Trump’s first term, this kind of dysfunction was a lucky break, because the people at those lower levels were mostly career professionals who at least knew how to keep the lights on. In Trump’s second term, though, many of those professionals have been either silenced or outright replaced by loyalists and inexperienced appointees. Ironically, allowing various lower offices to fill the policy void empowers the unknown appointees whom MAGA world claims to hate in other administrations. The Trump White House’s policy process—insofar as it can be called a “process”—is the type found in many authoritarian states, where the top levels of government tackle the one or two big things the leader wants done and everything else tumbles down to other functionaries, who can then drive certain issues according to their own preferences (which seems to be what Colby is doing), or who will do just enough to stay under the boss’s radar and out of trouble (which seems to be what most other Trump appointees are doing). In such a system, no one is really in charge except Trump—which means that on most days, and regarding many issues, no one is in charge. In Trump’s current administration, irrational tariffs and brutal immigration enforcement are the two big ideas. Both have foreign-policy ramifications, but they are being pursued by Trump and his team primarily as domestic political issues. Everything else is on the periphery of the White House’s vision: Pakistan and India, nuclear weapons, the Middle East (or nuclear weapons and the Middle East), the Ukraine war. All of these get Trump’s temporary attention in the form of a quick evaluation of their utility to Trump personally, and then they’re dumped back outside the door of the Oval Office. Even the Iran strike—one of the most important military actions taken by the United States in years—has apparently lost its luster for the president. Trump said that Iran’s nuclear program was “obliterated”; other parts of the U.S. defense and intelligence communities said they weren’t sure; Israel thanked America; Trump moved on. This might be because the political advantage of the bombings never materialized: The American public disapproved of Trump’s actions, and so the president is now looking for some other shiny object. Today, that trinket seems to be in Gaza. Over the weekend, Trump claimed that he has a “good chance” of making a deal, perhaps in the coming week, with Hamas for the release of more hostages. This is foreign policy in the Trump era: Announce deals, push their resolution out a week or two, and hope they happen. If they don’t—move on and declare success, regardless of any actual outcomes. No one in Trump’s administration has any incentive to fix this, because serious changes would be admissions of failure. Repopulating the National Security Council with people who know what they’re doing means admitting they were needed in the first place. Hegseth or top people resigning would admit the enormity of the mistake that Trump made in hiring them. Reining in policy freelancers and curtailing the power of lower-level policy makers (as Rubio has at least tried to do with regard to diplomacy) is to admit that senior leaders have lost control of their departments. This administration was never directed or staffed with any coherent foreign policy in mind beyond Trump’s empty “America First” sloganeering. Less than a year into his second term, it’s clear that the goals of Trump’s 2024 run for the presidency were, in order of importance, to keep Trump out of prison, to exact revenge on Trump’s enemies, and to allow Trump and his allies to enrich themselves by every possible means. No one had to think much about who would defend America or conduct its diplomacy; Trump’s appointees were apparently chosen largely for shock value and trolling efficacy rather than competence. The rest of the world’s most powerful nations, however, are led by grown-ups and professionals. Some of them are enemies of the United States and are quite dangerous. Undersecretary Colby has had some bad ideas, but Americans had better hope that he and the handful of other guys trying to run things know what they’re doing. Related: A crisis is no time for amateurs. The one-and-done doctrine

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Trump says US must send more weapons to Ukraine, days after ordering pause in deliveries

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday the U.S. will have to send more weapons to Ukraine, just days after ordering a pause in critical weapons deliveries to Kyiv.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-drone-attacks-c7a1bf1a28ecd2853c037f1864ef7edc?

ps:What is it with this guy? I can end this war as soon as I become president!! They need weapons, we're not sending them anymore weapons, oh they need more weapons, and on and on and on, etc.!!!!!

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Scoop ... Waltz finally testifying

Mike Waltz at a press conference in February. Photo: Hu Yousong/Xinhua via Getty Images

President Trump's former national security adviser Mike Waltz is scheduled to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee next Tuesday or Wednesday for his confirmation hearing to be ambassador to the UN, we have learned. Why it matters: Waltz's hearing will give Democrats an opportunity to put Trump's foreign policy on trial and grill the former Florida congressman and Green Beret on everything from his role in Signalgate to the White House's long-term goals on Iran and China. Trump dismissed Waltz from his position on May 1, about a month after he inadvertently included The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg in a Signal chat discussing sensitive details about a strike in Yemen. In announcing his firing as national security adviser, Trump also found Waltz a new position, UN ambassador, a post that had been promised to but was pulled from Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.). Since then, Waltz has kept a low profile. The intrigue: On Iran, Waltz was perceived to be more hawkish than Vice President Vance and Steven Witkoff, Trump's envoy. But less than two months after Waltz was ousted, Trump ordered strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. Zoom out: Waltz's ouster was the first major shake-up of Trump's second term. It came after he ran afoul of Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer. He also clashed with other members of the Cabinet and White House staff. On a March trip to Greenland, Vance counseled him about "working more collaboratively" with the Cabinet, Axios reported at the time. Zoom in: Democrats on the foreign relations committee, including Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.), have been deeply critical of Trump's foreign policy. Kaine forced a War Powers Act vote on the floor after Trump's Iranian strikes, but it failed. There's also broad concern among Democrats about Trump's commitment to international institutions like the UN and how the White House will use them to counter China's growing influence. — Hans Nichols

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Tariff Goalposts Move

The US is set to impose a 25% blanket tariff on all imports from Japan and South Korea, effective Aug. 1, according to an announcement yesterday from President Donald Trump. He also disclosed new rates for 12 other countries, including Malaysia (25%), Kazakhstan (25%), South Africa (30%), Bangladesh (35%), Laos (40%), and Myanmar (40%). The upcoming measures were communicated through formal letters to the countries' leaders, which Trump shared on social media.    Trump yesterday also signed an executive order delaying so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries from tomorrow to Aug. 1. The tariffs had initially been postponed from April to July to give countries more time to negotiate agreements; the US has so far reached deals with the UK and Vietnam, as well as a preliminary framework with China. See a tariff tracker here.     The latest trade updates from the White House reflect the administration's broader strategy of pressuring trading partners into new bilateral deals and reducing the US trade deficit (see overview).

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? Trump's Ukraine missile plans

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos via Getty Images

President Trump's decision to send defensive weapons to Ukraine last night followed days of talks with aides and other world leaders about where those arms would actually come from, Axios' Marc Caputo and Barak Ravid write. Why it matters: The Trump administration had paused shipments of some arms to Ukraine, including Patriot missile interceptors. Now the desperately needed weapons are on the way. But Trump is also seeking alternative solutions, including pressing Germany to send its own Patriot battery. "We are going to have to send more weapons to Ukraine. Defensive weapons, they have to defend themselves," Trump told reporters yesterday. "At President Trump's direction, the Department of Defense will send additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace," the Pentagon said later last night. ?️ The big picture: Trump and his team are reluctant to part with many Patriot interceptors. He wants the Europeans to send more of their own money and materiel as well. With stocks dwindling amid multiple ongoing wars, there's increasing concern among NATO countries about giving up munitions — particularly interceptors — more quickly than they can be produced. "Getting a Patriot missile isn't like going to Walmart and picking 10 off the shelf and going home," one Trump adviser told Axios. Behind the scenes: Trump's change of heart started to become clearer on Friday when he spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in what both sides said was their best phone call since Trump assumed office. Trump told Zelensky he wants to help Ukraine's air defenses but stressed that the U.S. had to pause the latest weapons shipment to review its own stockpiles, according to two sources briefed on the call. Two sources said Trump promised to immediately send 10 Patriot interceptors — fewer than had been planned in the paused shipment — and help to find other means of supply. Keep reading.

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Trump Makes Stunning Reversal After Humiliating Phone Call With Putin

The U.S. will now send more weapons to Ukraine, just days after they were halted by Pete Hegseth.

Cameron Adams Reporter  Ewan Palmer Reporter

Updated Jul. 8 2025 9:46AM EDT / Published Jul. 8 2025 3:59AM EDT 

President Donald Trump has announced plans to send more weapons to Ukraine after his own administration took drastic steps to suspend military aid to the country as it battles a Russian invasion.

In a stunning reversal, Trump told reporters during a White House dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Nentanyahu that the U.S. is going to “send some more weapons. We have to.”

“They have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard now,” he added. “We’re going to have to send more weapons, defensive weapons, primarily. But they’re getting hit very, very hard. So many people are dying in that mess.”

Trump’s announcement, later confirmed by the Pentagon, arrived days after the president’s Thursday phone call with Vladimir Putin. Trump expressed frustration at the lack of progress toward a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, and said he was “not happy” with the Russian leader as the conflict drags on after nearly three and a half years.

“He wants to go all the way, just keep killing people, it’s no good,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday.

The announcement that the U.S. will send more weapons to Ukraine could prove embarrassing for two leading Pentagon figures: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Elbridge Colby, the undersecretary of defense for policy.

Politico originally reported that the U.S. halted shipments of military weapons and munitions to Ukraine over concerns about dwindling stockpiles. NBC News later reported the move to stop sending military aid to Kyiv was a “unilateral step” taken by Hegseth and based on misleading claims about a shortage of weapons.

In another phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, Trump said he had not signed off on the decision to halt the shipment of U.S. weapons to Kyiv, The Wall Street Journal reported.

On Monday, a statement from chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said, “At President Trump’s direction, the Department of Defense is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops.”

It follows Trump saying on Friday he wasn’t sure if he could end Russia’s war against Ukraine, contradicting his repeated campaign promise to end the conflict in 24 hours.

“I can’t tell you whether or not that’s going to happen,” Trump told reporters.

Hours after the phone call with Trump last week, the Russian president launched 550 drones and missiles against Ukraine. It was the largest single aerial bombardment since Russia’s full-on invasion was launched in 2022.

The Council of Foreign Relations says the U.S. has provided weapons worth tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine, along with other assistance, since February 2022, when Russia launched its invasion of the country.

Ukraine is now the top recipient of U.S. foreign aid, although in March Trump froze all military assistance to Ukraine, before reversing the decision after ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia.

Trump’s willingness to help Ukraine in the war could fracture his cozy relationship with Putin, which Trump has often cited as a reason why he could end the war.

Conversely, it could help further patch up an diplomatic ties with Zelensky after the pair, along with Vice President JD Vance, had an explosive argument in the Oval Office in February over the conflict.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-makes-stunning-reversal-after-humiliating-phone-call-with-putin/?

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Cuts and chaos

The Trump administration’s broadsides against scientific research have caused unprecedented upheaval at the National Cancer Institute. There has been an exodus of clinicians, scientists and other staffers. Some were fired, and others are leaving in exasperation.

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A Distraction (Jim Vondruska / Getty)

View in browser In the early hours of July 4, the Guadalupe River flooded. Heavy rainfall, enhanced by atmospheric moisture leftover from a recent tropical storm, dumped water across parts of central Texas. By 6:10 a.m., a gauge in Hunt, a community in Kerr County, measured that the river had become a 37.52-foot wall of water, flowing at a rate far exceeding the average flow over Niagara Falls. A swollen Guadalupe washed away houses and highways, and yanked up trees by the root. The death toll has ticked upward each day since: The latest estimate—roughly 111 people, but likely more—includes at least 30 children. It didn’t take long for the finger-pointing to begin. While search-and-rescue operations were getting under way (at least 161 people remain missing in Kerr County alone), false claims circulated on social media that Texans received no warnings about the impending flash flood. Some state officials suggested that the National Weather Service—a federal agency responsible for issuing weather-related warnings—hadn’t accurately forecast the severity of the rain. Experts questioned whether the Trump administration’s staffing cuts to the NWS and its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, had affected emergency response. The speculation prompted the weather service to release a timeline of their flood alerts. Congressional Democrats are demanding an inquiry into whether NWS staffing shortages have affected the death toll, and President Donald Trump took a swipe at Joe Biden for setting up “that water situation,” before conceding that he couldn’t blame Biden, either: “This is a hundred-year catastrophe.” After a tragedy of this scale, one human impulse is to try to extract answers from the onslaught of collective grief. Another impulse can soon follow: the desire to assign blame. But that comes at the risk of oversimplification. “A common refrain in the emergency management and disaster community is that a disaster is rarely the result of one failure or event,” Alan Gerard, a retired NOAA official, recently wrote on his Substack. It’s more often the result of a confluence of events ungovernable by one person or one decision. Another name for the Guadalupe River and the surrounding area is “Flash Flood Alley.” The region’s steep terrain, rocky soil, and high levels of rainfall make the river especially prone to high-water runoff. In Texas Hill Country, through which the river runs, some residents are inundated with flash-flood warnings during rainy seasons. These warnings come frequently but usually do not materialize into a visible threat. Flash floods are among the most difficult weather events to forecast, in part because current technology doesn’t allow us to determine where a storm will hit with exact precision and ample lead time. Cellphone reception in the area can also be spotty, meaning that the loud phone notifications for flash flooding may not come through for everyone. The NWS had communicated the threat of moderate to heavy rainfall two days before July 4. Despite claims that the agency’s local offices were understaffed, the New Braunfels office—which is responsible for some of the areas hit by the flood—reportedly had five forecasters working during the storms. On clear days, they usually would have two. (New York Times reporting did find, however, that the Trump administration’s cuts left vacant a role for a warning-coordination meteorologist, who would have worked with local officials to plan a response.) Meteorologists reviewing the NWS’s alerts have repeatedly affirmed the agency’s timeliness. Some factors the agency’s forecasters couldn’t predict: how late in the night the river’s threat would become imminent, and how fast and hard the rain would fall. Most of the deaths, including at least 27 children and counselors from Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp, occurred in Kerr County. The area is no stranger to the Guadalupe’s surges. On July 1 and 2, 1932, heavy rains bloated the river; its waters crested at 36.6 feet and killed seven people. Flash floods swept away summer-camp cabins that had lined the river banks, including Camp Mystic’s, but didn’t kill any campers, in large part because the river rose during the daytime, giving them notice to evacuate. On July 17, 1987, 11 inches of rainfall near the Guadalupe’s headwaters produced another flash flood; this time, the river engulfed a bus and van that were evacuating the Pot O’ Gold camp, killing 10 teenagers. After the 1987 flood, some alarms were installed along the Guadalupe to monitor the river. But in 2017, Kerr County officials dismissed a proposal to install a flood-warning system, citing the high cost after the county’s bid for a $1 million grant was rejected. Earlier this year, Texas state lawmakers voted no on a bill that would have established a council responsible for an emergency-response plan and a grant program for emergency-communication infrastructure. The bill would have gone into effect on September 1, and the initial cost was estimated at $500 million, a factor that many lawmakers pointed to when declining the measure. Nonpartisan support for weather services is souring. Natural disasters and extreme weather have lately fueled conspiracy theories from government officials: Responding to Hurricane Helene’s path through majority-red areas last year, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene ominously said that “they can control the weather.” These events are also treated as a way to get a leg up on political opponents, a tactic fine-tuned by Trump himself, who visited Helene-ravaged Georgia ahead of Election Day and falsely claimed that the state’s governor hadn’t been able to reach Biden, because he was “sleeping.” The specter of Trump has loomed over social-media discourse and Democrats’ talking points this week. He is pushing to eliminate FEMA, which distributes disaster-relief funding, meaning that states might have to spend more on disaster response than they do on preparedness. His plan for NOAA involves lopping off about 27 percent of its budget for the next fiscal year and eliminating federal research centers that study the weather, oceans, and climate. But that budget has yet to be approved by Congress, and so far, this year’s NWS cuts don’t appear to be a dominant reason behind the flash flood’s high death toll (though this assessment is subject to change as more information about the flood is revealed). In the meantime, the blame game is a distraction. Alan Gerard, the retired NOAA official and meteorologist, told me that he is concerned that such squabbling will turn policy makers’ attention away from the real challenge: “How do you prevent this from happening again?” The president’s 2026 proposal for NOAA’s budget opens the possibility of commercializing America’s weather services, an idea ripped straight from the Project 2025 playbook. Critics warn that this could result in private companies creating a pay-to-play system for states that need access to crucial warnings and safety infrastructure. Corporations would reap little financial benefit from investing in the poorest rural areas of America, places highly susceptible to weather-related calamities. People tend to bank on hope as protection against natural disasters, which works until it doesn’t, Gerard said. In other words, we keep playing a game of chance with forces indifferent to us—until we are finally reminded of the cost of losing. Related: Why disaster alerts keep failing Photos: Deadly flooding in Texas

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Epstein memo

President Trump shrugged off questions during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday about a Justice Department memo that said there was no evidence Jeffrey Epstein had kept a “client list” or was murdered. However, many of Trump’s MAGA allies have spent years accusing the government of hiding evidence about the late financier and accused sex trafficker, and are incensed by this new claim. Far-right activist Laura Loomer has urged Trump to fire Attorney General Pam Bondi over her handling of the investigation. And tech mogul Elon Musk, who recently left his position in the White House, posted on his social media site: “How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won’t release the Epstein files?” ps:So who actually is trump's advisor?

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The Texas Flash Flood Is a Preview of the Chaos to Come

Climate change is making disasters more common, more deadly and far more costly, even as the federal government is running away from the policies that might begin to protect the nation.

https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-flash-flood-camp-mystic-climate-change-trump-noaa-fema?

Trump’s FEMA Proposals and Feud With Gavin Newsom Could Devastate California’s Disaster Response

In January, Katie Clark’s one-bedroom rental of more than 15 years, and nearly everything inside, was incinerated by Los Angeles County’s Eaton fire, one of the most destructive wildfires in California history. For her troubles, she received a one-time payment of $770 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which she used to replace clothes, food and a crate for her dog. While it was only a fraction of what she needed, the money was at least available while she waited for other funding.

https://www.propublica.org/article/california-disasters-fema-trump-funding-fires?

Utah Sen. Mike Lee Says Selling Off Public Lands Will Solve the West’s Housing Crisis. Past Sales Show Otherwise.

On Monday, June 23, a crowd of about 2,000 people surrounded the Eldorado Hotel & Spa in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet had come for a meeting of the Western Governors’ Association. “Not for sale!” the crowd boomed. “Not one acre!” There were ranchers and writers in attendance, as well as employees of Los Alamos National Laboratory, all of whom use public land to hike, hunt and fish. Inside the hotel ballroom where the governors had gathered, Michelle Lujan Grisham, the New Mexico governor, apologized for the noise but not the message. “New Mexicans are really loud,” she said.

https://www.propublica.org/article/utah-mike-lee-public-lands-sell-off?

FDA Layoffs Could Compromise Safety of Medications Made at Foreign Factories, Inspectors Say

Inspectors charged with safeguarding America’s drug supply say they are reeling from deep cuts at the Food and Drug Administration despite promises by the Trump administration to preserve the work of the agency’s investigative force.

https://www.propublica.org/article/fda-cuts-drug-factory-inspections?

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Unhinged Trump Audio Released: ‘Bomb the S**t Out of Moscow’

New audio tapes from Trump’s 2024 fundraisers revealed some shocking insights.

President Donald Trump privately bragged to campaign donors last year that he made a bold threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s face over the Ukraine war, according to new audio.

A series of audio tapes from fundraisers for then-candidate Trump in New York and Florida last year were obtained by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf, authors of the new book 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America. The tapes were aired Tuesday night by CNN.

“With Putin, I said ‘If you go into Ukraine, I’m gonna bomb the s–-t out of Moscow,” Trump told his donors. “‘I’m telling you, I have no choice—the public.’ So he goes like, ‘I don’t believe you.’ He said, ‘No way.’ And I said, ‘Way.’”

Trump then claimed that Putin believed his threat “10 percent.”

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told the Daily Beast that “Russia never dared invade Ukraine” in Trump’s first term.

“It happened only when Biden was in office,” she said. “Thanks to this president’s leadership, America is once again the leader of the free world, and peace through strength is restored.”

Since Trump took office at the start of the year, however, the conflict has seen numerous escalations that have left hundreds dead. Trump also vowed to end the war in a day, but has so far been unsuccessful in brokering a peace deal.

Trump has grown increasingly impatient with the lack of progress toward a resolution to the conflict. On Tuesday, he announced that the U.S. would send more weapons to Ukraine.

“We also talked about, as you know, the war with Ukraine,” Trump told reporters last week about a call with Putin. “I’m not happy about that. I didn’t make any progress with him today at all.”

The new tapes provide insight into private conversations with Putin that Trump has alluded to in the past but refused to elaborate on.

In 2022, Trump told Fox News that he had a “very strong conversation” with his Russian counterpart but said he “won’t go into the great details of the conversation because nobody has to know that.”

In another tape aired by CNN, Trump revealed that he issued a similar threat to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“I’m with President Xi of China. I said the same thing to him. I said, you know, ‘If you go into Taiwan, I’m gonna bomb the s–-t out of Beijing.’ He thought I was crazy. He said, ‘Beijing?! You’re gonna bomb-’ I said, ‘I have no choice. I got to bomb you. We’re gonna bomb Bei-’ and he didn’t believe me either.”

Trump claimed that Xi also believed him “10 percent.”

“Ten percent is all you need. In fact, five percent would have been okay, too. And we never had a problem. We would have never had a problem.”

Other tapes unveiled private comments that Trump made to donors about pro-Palestine student protesters.

“One thing I’d do is any student that protests, I would throw them out of the country,” he said, drawing applause. “Those people made a big mistake. Throw them out of the country, and I think that will stop it.”

The president has since made good on those promises, with the administration cracking down on international students who have protested the war in Gaza.

“If you get me elected, we will set that movement back 25 to 30 years,” he said.

In another tape, Trump touted how he got one billionaire donor to write him a bigger check.

“He wants to have lunch with me over a million dollars,” he said of the donor. “I said, ‘You’re worth five or six billion dollars, you’re talking about a million dollars, and I got to have lunch? I’m not having lunch. You got to make it 25 million.”

“And he said, ‘Oh, that sounds like a lot,’” Trump went on. “And he did it. He gave me 25 million dollars. It’s crazy.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/unhinged-trump-audio-released-bomb-the-st-out-of-moscow/?

ps:What kind of games is he playing with the lifes of millions of people?? What's he waiting for? The Ukrainians to kiss his rear end like the Israeli's??????????