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

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Trump's gunboat diplomacy

Photo illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios; Photos: Getty Images

The U.S. has never been closer to armed conflict with Venezuela, with a fully loaded U.S. flotilla sitting off its coast and dictator Nicolás Maduro living under a $50 million bounty. The intrigue: Even close Trump advisers aren't entirely sure whether the gunboat diplomacy is a drug trafficking operation with undertones of regime change, or a Caracas coup operation masquerading as drug enforcement, Axios' Marc Caputo reports. ? Zoom in: President Trump ordered seven warships carrying 4,500 personnel — including three guided-missile destroyers and at least one attack submarine — to the waters off Venezuela. Officially, they're there to combat drug trafficking. But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt leaned into the mission's ambiguity yesterday, noting that the U.S. considers Maduro the "fugitive head of [a] drug cartel" — not Venezuela's legitimate president. "This is 105% about narco-terrorism, but if Maduro winds up no longer in power, no one will be crying," said a Trump administration official familiar with the policy discussions. Another administration official had a different view. "This could be Noriega part 2," the official said, referring to the U.S. military's 1989 operation to capture Panamanian President Manuel Noriega, who — like Maduro — faced U.S. drug-trafficking charges. "The president has asked for a menu of options. And ultimately, this is the president's decision about what to do next. But Maduro should be s***ting bricks." A third Trump adviser put it this way: "Leaving Maduro in power in Venezuela is like making Jeffrey Epstein the head of a day care." ? State of play: While administration officials have refused to rule out an invasion, nearly all privately believe it unlikely. However, Trump's deployment does include 2,200 Marines, the boots-on-the-beach branch of the military. That's hardly typical in drug enforcement. Flashback: Maduro was first indicted during Trump's first term as leader of a drug gang called Cartel de los Soles, which Treasury designated a foreign terror group last month. A superseding indictment could drop soon. The other side: "What they're threatening to do against Venezuela — regime change, a military terrorist attack — is immoral, criminal and illegal," Maduro said last week, calling on citizens to join a militia to fight off an anticipated U.S. invasion. ?️ Between the lines: Oil is the other major factor in U.S. relations with Venezuela, which has the world's largest proven reserves. Trump made early entreaties to Maduro with oil in mind, via special envoy Ric Grenell. But he also appointed an anti-Maduro hardliner, Marco Rubio, as secretary of state and national security adviser. Keep reading. ps:I thought he was a non-war president?? I guess it all depends if it's a dictator that he doesn't get along with!!

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? AI spikes power bills

Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios

Americans are paying more to keep lights on and air conditioners running as a perfect storm of aging equipment and AI demand slams the nation's grid, Axios' Ben Geman reports. Prices are up and projected to keep rising in 2026. The nationwide average retail residential price for electricity is about 7% higher than this time last year, and 32% higher than it was five years ago, according to Energy Department data. Zoom in: The surge is driven by infrastructure problems, public policy and, increasingly, massive new AI data centers. ⚡ Outdated power grid. "It's like a two-way highway that was built decades ago that's now expected to carry rush-hour traffic to and from a major city every [day]," Sen. Mike Lee, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said at a July hearing. ? Data center demand. Analysts point to power-hungry AI data centers as a driver of rising rates, especially in data center hot spots. Data centers consumed about 4% of the nation's total electricity in 2023. The Energy Department estimates it could increase to 12% by 2028. ?️ Red tape. Energy projects regularly face bureaucratic delays and denials. Many in Congress and the Trump administration seek to overhaul permitting to speed up projects, though they disagree about how much priority fossil-fuel projects should get. ? Mother Nature. Hurricanes, wildfires, high winds and other weather-related threats have spurred a need for investing in stronger — but costly — towers, poles and other equipment. Between the lines: All of this is happening while Trump is tamping down on renewable energy, a major potential source of electricity. U.S. investment in renewables plunged by about 36% in the first half of 2025 — roughly $20.5 billion — as uncertainty over federal support chills the market. Read on.

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? RFK's power play

Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios; Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could emerge in an even stronger position after the fallout at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The upheaval following CDC Director Susan Monarez's firing will make it difficult for any administration nominee who's willing to sign off on Kennedy's vaccine policy change to win Senate confirmation, Axios' Maya Goldman reports. Without a permanent director, Kennedy could end up with more influence. He and handpicked lieutenants could step into the power vacuum — and put the CDC's stamp on his agenda. ? The latest: Three CDC officials who resigned Wednesday were escorted out of the Atlanta headquarters by security yesterday, per the New York Times. And there was a staff walkout. What's next: President Trump named Jim O'Neill, deputy secretary of HHS, as acting CDC director. He can lead CDC for up to 210 days, but that term could be extended if the White House nominates someone whom the Senate rejects. The Senate confirmed O'Neill as Kennedy's No. 2 in June. A biotech investor with close ties to billionaire Peter Thiel, he criticized the CDC during COVID but told lawmakers in May he was "strongly pro-vaccine." Read on ... Rebecca Falconer contributed reporting.

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? Inside Trump's Gaza meeting

Tens of thousands of protesters use their phones as flashlights during a rally in Tel Aviv this week, calling for the Israeli government to sign a deal to release the hostages held in Gaza. Photo: Amir Levy/Getty Images The meeting President Trump convened on Wednesday to discuss a postwar plan for Gaza involved two high-profile invited guests, Jared Kushner and Tony Blair, and an unexpected third one: Israeli official Ron Dermer. The takeaway: Dermer told the senior officials that Israel doesn't want to expel the Palestinian population and occupy Gaza for good, but needs an acceptable alternative to Hamas to govern the enclave. Kushner and Blair got Trump's blessing to keep developing such a plan. But right now, they don't have an answer for who would take over, Axios' Barak Ravid reports. What to watch: A "day-after" plan for Gaza will be a key component of any diplomatic initiative to end a war that has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians over two years. But rebuilding an enclave that's utterly destroyed, and designing a political and security architecture that all sides can live with, will be extremely difficult. Keep reading.

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Ukraine

The Trump administration has approved the sale of more than 3,000 Extended Range Attack Munition missiles to Ukraine. If the $825 million deal is concluded as expected, the ERAM missiles — which have a range of 150 to 280 miles — could be delivered later this year. “Ukraine will use funding from Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway and Foreign Military Financing from the United States for this purchase,” a notice from the State Department said. While the Trump administration has approved several sales of equipment to sustain existing weapons, this appears to be the first major arms sale of new weapons to Ukraine announced by the administration. To date, diplomatic efforts have failed to reach a lasting ceasefire. This week, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow is still interested in peace talks. However, he emphasized that the “special military operation,” Russia’s way of describing the war, “continues.”   Immigration During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump made immigration his top issue. He described some undocumented migrants as criminals and terrorists, claimed they were eating people’s pets and vowed to deport 1 million a year. Seven months into his second term, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deported nearly 200,000 people. Another 150,000 immigrants were either self-deported or repatriated by US Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard. According to government records, more than 75% of people booked into ICE custody in fiscal year 2025 had no criminal conviction other than an immigration or traffic-related offense. And less than 10% were convicted of serious crimes like murder, assault, robbery or rape. Among those arrested this week: two firefighters who were detained by Border Patrol while they were battling Washington state’s biggest wildfire.   Ashli Babbitt Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran and pro-Trump rioter who was shot and killed on January 6, 2021, after breaching a sensitive area of the US Capitol, will now receive military funeral honors. Matthew Lohmeier, under secretary of the Air Force, also invited Babbitt's family to come to the Pentagon so he could personally offer his condolences. Military honors typically include a uniformed detail at the funeral, the playing of “Taps” and the folding and presentation of a US flag. These honors had been previously denied under the Biden administration. In May, the Trump administration also agreed to pay her family nearly $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit. The officer involved in Babbitt’s shooting death during the insurrection was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing. ps:So a rioter is going to get honors????? How pitiful!!!!!

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CDC Leader Drops Bombshell RFK Jr. Admission

A senior official spoke to the Daily Beast after quitting the CDC in a furious protest.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has never actually been briefed by CDC experts before making major public health decisions, according to a departing top official at the agency.

The bombshell claim from Dr. Demetre Daskalakis came in a Thursday night CNN interview after the ousting of the newly appointed director of the Centers for Disease Control left the agency in chaos. He gave further details in an interview with the Daily Beast.

Daskalakis resigned from his position as director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases on Wednesday in response to the firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez, who was appointed to the role by President Donald Trump. He is one of four top officials to quit in protest.

In his resignation letter, posted to social media, Daskalakis specifically named Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy and said that he was “unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.”

“I find that the views he and his staff have shared challenge my ability to continue in my current role at the agency and in the service of the health of the American people,” Daskalakis added.

Daskalakis expanded on his criticisms of Kennedy in a Thursday appearance on The Source with Kaitlan Collins, claiming that the 71-year-old has not been briefed by a CDC official on a number of key public health concerns, despite multiple requests from within the agency.

“I think that another important thing to ask the secretary is, has he been briefed by a CDC expert on anything, specifically measles, COVID-19, flu? I think that people should ask him that in that hearing,” Daskalakis told Collins, referring to Kennedy’s scheduled appearance before the Senate Finance Committee next week.

When Collins asked what Kennedy’s answer to that would be, Daskalakis’ response left her visibly shocked. “The answer is, ‘No.’ No one from my center has ever briefed him on any of those topics… He’s getting information from somewhere, but that information is not coming from CDC experts,” Daskalakis said.

“I think the CDC really is a place filled with great scientists and experts,” Daskalakis added. “And I think that if CDC is being characterized as troubled by Secretary Kennedy, I think we have to turn the mirror back to him, because I think that the trouble is emanating mainly from him. I think that the disregard for experts, the clear statement that experts should not be trusted, really makes it seem unlikely that his mission for CDC is to be a bastion of scientific expertise.”

There have been several measles outbreaks across the U.S. this year, resulting in 1,408 confirmed cases of the disease, more than in any other year since the disease was declared eradicated in 2000. Kennedy has previously argued that natural immunity, not vaccinations, is the best defense against the virus.

In an interview with the Daily Beast following his appearance on CNN, Daskalakis provided further details on the health secretary’s apparent reluctance to meet with CDC experts.

“It’s not just that he hasn’t asked us. I asked for us to be able to do briefings, and I was told by his Office of the Secretary officials, some of whom are now fired, that they would be happy to have us do briefings, that they would reach out to be able to set them up. They’ve never done so,” he said.

“I think if you ask others, sort of in other agencies, you’re going to get the same answer, that it’s highly atypical that subject matter experts aren’t requested by the secretary. And I’ll tell you that it’s even more atypical that when offered, to decline.”

The Daily Beast has sought comment from the Department of Health and Human Services and the White House.

A statement posted to HHS’ X account Wednesday said, “Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people. @SecKennedy has full confidence in his team at @CDCgov who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.”

Kennedy himself, however, claimed the CDC had “problems” during a Thursday morning appearance on Fox & Friends.

“President Trump has very, very ambitious hopes for CDC right now and CDC has problems... We need to look at the priorities at the agency, if there’s really a deeply embedded malaise at the agency, and we need strong leadership that will go in there and be able to execute on President Trump’s broad ambitions,” Kennedy said.

Detailing mistakes he claimed the CDC had made, Kennedy cited “the misinformation coming out of COVID—they got the testing wrong, they got the social distancing, the masks, the school closures... they did so much harm to the American people."

He repeatedly declined to comment on personnel issues, but added, “The agency is in trouble, and we need to fix it, and we are fixing it. And it may be that some people should not be working there anymore.”

In a Thursday social media post, Kennedy credited White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for her claim that Trump and Kennedy “are committed to restoring trust and transparency and credibility to the CDC... We’re going to make sure that folks that are in positions of leadership there are aligned with that mission.”

Thanking Leavitt, Kennedy wrote, “Exactly! That’s how we will restore trust at the @CDCgov.”

He also reposted a tweet from Deputy White House Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich that said, “Public health and honest science will remain a cornerstone of President Trump’s administration and MAHA’s guiding light... America deserves a CDC that will pursue truth and follow the evidence, not one shackled by the whims of unelected bureaucrats.”

Appearing on CNN alongside Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director for Program and Science Dr. Deb Houry and Dr. Daniel Jernigan, former director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Daskalakis explained why they had tendered their resignations following the firing of Trump appointee Monarez.

“The people that have been installed by Secretary Kennedy are full of ideology and bias that will actually contaminate the science... I think that that is a clear sign that the direction that the country‘s public health is going is not one that is evidence-based or science-based, which is why our resignations are really, together, are trying to raise a red flag for everyone,” Daskalakis said.

Former acting CDC Director Richard Besser told Politico that Monarez was ousted after refusing to fire senior agency officials and agree to Kennedy’s proposed vaccine changes, which included ending COVID vaccine mandates and potentially banning COVID vaccines entirely.

The White House has said that Monarez was “not aligned with” Trump’s agenda, while Monarez’s lawyers said that she refused to “rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.”

Several senators have called for investigations into the departures at the CDC, including Republicans Bill Murray and Susan Collins, and independent Bernie Sanders. Democrat Patty Murray, a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, called for Kennedy to be fired.

“If there are any adults left in the White House, it’s well past time they face reality… We cannot let RFK Jr. burn what’s left of the CDC and our other critical health agencies to the ground—he must be fired," she said in a statement.

Following Monarez’s sudden departure, Kennedy’s number two, deputy Health Secretary Jim O’Neill, will serve as acting director of the CDC.

O’Neill previously worked in the Department of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush before moving into the private sector, where he worked with the right-wing venture capitalist Peter Thiel.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/cdc-leader-drops-bombshell-rfk-jr-admission/?

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Trump Wants Every Federal Building to Look Like His White House

The president wants D.C. to look just the way he likes it.

Not content with paving over the Rose Garden lawn, Donald Trump is now insisting that all federal buildings in the nation’s capital must meet his ye-olde design standards.

Trump signed a presidential order on Thursday titled ‘Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again’ to ensure that courthouses and government office buildings in Washington, D.C., are to his liking—and stick with the White House aesthetic.

His order complained that the Design Excellence Program established in 1994 while Bill Clinton was president resulted in federal buildings that “sometimes” impressed the “architectural elite” but not the American people. “Many of these new Federal buildings are not even visibly identifiable as civic buildings,” he stated.

The president now wants federal buildings to “embrace classical architecture to honor tradition, foster civic pride, and inspire the citizenry.” He said the “timeless architecture” of the White House and the Capitol Building is to be the “preferred and default” style for federal buildings in Washington.

The order also targets federal buildings with a modern or brutalist design, such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is relocating to Virginia. HUD Secretary Scott Turner told Fox News in March he was working in the “ugliest building in D.C.” It is also known as the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building.

In a fact sheet to explain the aesthetics of the new order, the White House pointed out that in the 1960s “traditional” designs were replaced with modernist and Brutalist ones, claiming the move was “deeply unpopular.”

The 10-story HUD building was finished in 1968 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

“A majority of American taxpayers want classical, regionally inspired public buildings that beautify public spaces, and their government should respect their preferences,” the fact sheet claims.

Any designs that deviate from Trump’s “classical architecture” blueprint with brutalist, deconstructivist, or other modernist designs will now be flagged with the president, who says buildings must “convey the dignity, enterprise, vigor, and stability of the American government and command public respect.”

In his order, Trump says he wants buildings to appeal to the general public, but clarifies that group does not mean “artists, architects, engineers, art or architecture critics, instructors or professors of art or architecture, or members of the building industry.”

He also lists some of his favorite styles of “traditional architecture” as Gothic, Romanesque, Second Empire, Pueblo Revival, and Spanish Colonial. At the top of Trump’s hit list was the “Deconstructivist architecture” movement of the 1980s, complaining that it featured “fragmentation, disorder, discontinuity, distortion, skewed geometry, and the appearance of instability.”

In his second term, Trump has already given the White House a makeover to suit his personal style. That has included gold ornaments and photo frames, and cherubs shipped in from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.

Trump had the Rose Garden lawn paved over and is planning to build a ballroom in the East Wing of the White House that will cost $200 million.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-takes-his-renovation-spree-beyond-the-white-house/?

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CDC gets new acting director as leadership turmoil leaves agency reeling The nation’s top public health agency was left reeling Thursday as the White House worked to expel the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director and replace her with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s current deputy. Read more.

Why this matters: Two administration officials said Jim O’Neill, the second-in-command at the Department of Health and Human Services, would supplant Susan Monarez, a longtime government scientist. O’Neill, a former investment executive who also served at the federal health department under President George W. Bush, does not have a medical background.   The saga began Wednesday night with the administration’s announcement that Monarez would no longer lead the CDC. In response, three officials — Dr. Debra Houry, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis and Dr. Daniel Jernigan — resigned from senior roles at the agency.   The turmoil triggered rare bipartisan alarm as Kennedy tries to advance anti-vaccine policies that are contradicted by decades of scientific research. A flashpoint is expected in the coming weeks as a key advisory committee, which Kennedy has reshaped with vaccine skeptics, is expected to issue new recommendations on immunizations.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Photos show workers rally for departing senior CDC officials   WATCH: White House defends CDC firing, issues warning to others who aren't aligned with Trump's vision   Departures roil the CDC leadership. What’s next for the agency?

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Hegseth Puts Up Painting of Confederate General With a Chilling Detail at West Point

The move is part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to honor people who fought for the Confederacy.

Defense chief Pete Hegseth is restoring to West Point Military Academy a giant painting of rebel Gen. Robert E. Lee that shows him wearing his gray Confederate uniform and accompanied by a slave guiding his horse.

The painting was originally hung in the storied academy’s library in 1952—at the height of racial segregation, voter suppression, and Jim Crow laws in the South—as part of an effort to rehabilitate the disgraced general’s image, The New York Times reported.

Its return is part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to reintroduce Confederate symbols, restore monuments that whitewash the evils of slavery, and remove references to slavery from national museums and parks.

Lee had a long history with West Point, attending from 1825 to 1829 and graduating at the top of his class. He later returned as the academy’s superintendent from 1852 to 1855.

His family was shocked when, after more than 30 years of service, he resigned from the U.S. Army in 1861 to fight on the side of the Confederacy.

When Congress passed a law in 2020 creating a commission to remove Confederate names and symbols from military institutions—including bases and academies—his likeness was all over West Point, and at least five roads and buildings were named in his honor.

The commission decided that portraits of Lee in his blue Army uniform could stay up, but ordered the removal of the portrait that shows him in Confederate gray and accompanied by his slave. The commission also recommended renaming the areas bearing his name.

It’s not clear how Hegseth could bring the Confederate portrait back out of storage without breaking the law, the Times reported.

“At West Point, the United States Military Academy is prepared to restore historical names, artifacts, and assets to their original form and place,” Army communications director Rebecca Hodson told the paper. “Under this administration, we honor our history and learn from it — we don’t erase it.”

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and the Department of Defense for comment.

Already before its removal in 2022, the academy’s diverse, 21st-century officer corps and alumni had begun pushing back against Lee’s sanitized image, which emerged as a result of a process called “Reconciliation,” West Point’s Modern War Institute wrote in 2020.

After the Confederates surrendered in November 1865, the federal government spent more than a decade pursuing a policy of Reconstruction to reunify the nation and transform the South’s slave-based society into something more equitable.

The Reconstruction effort, however, ended in 1877 and was replaced by a policy called “Reconciliation” that, in the words of the Modern War Institute, “downplayed the Confederacy’s treason,” “papered over the issue of slavery,” and “ignored the underrepresented black officers of the U.S. army.”

The federal government also withdrew troops from the South, allowing the former Confederate states to impose racial segregation, deny Black people the right to vote, and terrorize Black communities.

Lee’s Confederate portrait was donated to the West Point Library in honor of the 100th anniversary of his taking the helm of the academy.

During the unveiling, Gen. Maxwell Taylor declared that, “Few fair-minded men can feel today that the issues which divided the North and South in 1861 have any real meaning to our present generation,” The Modern War Institute reported.

The Army had only decided to pursue full desegregation a month earlier. Emmett Till’s murder, Rosa Parks’ arrest, the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, Freedom Summer, the Selma to Montgomery March, and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. were all still years away.

Lee personally owned several families of slaves at various points in his life. After his father-in-law died, he managed hundreds of enslaved people belonging to his wife’s family and personally ordered their whippings on occasion, according to the National Parks Service.

In 1856, he wrote to his wife that slavery was a “moral and political evil,” but that it was a “greater evil to the white man than to the black race,” because “the painful discipline” of slaves fell to white people. This discipline was “necessary for their instruction as a race,” he wrote.

When his home state of Virginia seceded from the Union, he decided to resign from the U.S. Army after 30 years of service and joined the insurrection—despite having received a request to command Union troops, the National Parks Service reported.

He agonized over the decision, according to the NPS, but ultimately chose to fight for the Confederacy despite claiming to oppose both slavery and secession.

During the war, his Virginia estate was seized and later turned into Arlington National Cemetery to honor fallen Union soldiers. Lee nevertheless said that his “duty demanded” that he fight for the Confederacy, and that he would do it all over again.

The resurrection of his Confederate portrait comes after the Trump administration has brought back Army bases named after Confederate soldiers, restored a statue of a Confederate general, re-erected a monument devoted to the idea that the Civil War was a noble “lost cause” that enslaved Black people supported.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-puts-up-painting-of-confederate-general-with-a-chilling-detail-at-west-point/?

ps:What's the matter with these people?????

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Trump blocks $4.9B in foreign aid Congress OK’d, using maneuver last seen nearly 50 years ago

President Donald Trump has told House Speaker Mike Johnson that he won’t be spending $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid, effectively cutting the budget without going through the legislative branch. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

Trump ends ex-Vice President Harris’ Secret Service protection early after Biden had extended it Texas governor signs new voting maps pushed by Trump to gain five GOP seats in Congress in 2026 14,000 US-bound migrants have returned south since Trump border changes, UN says   ps:You have to just shake your head!! What is so awful about giving aid to people that need it?????

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MAGA vs. Wall Street

Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios

President Trump is pioneering his own unique, sometimes conflicting, brand of populism: He's championing workers against corporate elites on the one hand... and protecting big business on the other. Why it matters: Trump has managed to sell a mix of populist red meat and old-fashioned capitalism, write Axios' Tal Axelrod and Ben Berkowitz. The intrigue: The unorthodox blend works for Trump and his loyal MAGA base. But it leaves no clear blueprint for the movement's next leader, who'll almost certainly lack his gravitational pull. 1. On the worker side: Trump used tariffs to remake the global trading order and, he argues, to protect jobs — policies in conflict with Wall Street and long-standing GOP ideals. He's waged a public war on the Fed — railing against high interest rates for punishing ordinary Americans, but alarming those in the business community who value Fed independence. Trump's "big, beautiful bill" includes targeted tax breaks for workers — while avoiding the biggest cuts to Medicare and Social Security long sought by GOP deficit hawks. 2. On the pro-business side: Trump delivered major wins for corporate America, extending the 2017 tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans and aggressively slashing regulations. Friction point: The president flirted with protections for undocumented farmworkers, a position that inflamed MAGA activists but aligned with Big Agriculture's demands for cheap labor. For the record: White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai told us the administration is "rectifying the broken policies that have put America Last — from lopsided 'free' trade deals to no-strings-attached taxpayer giveaways to the largest companies in the world." Desai said Trump is "doubling down on the policies — like working-class tax cuts, energy abundance, and rapid deregulation — that have delivered for the American people."

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Court finds Trump’s tariffs an illegal use of emergency power, but leaves them in place for now

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump had no legal right to impose sweeping tariffs on almost every country on earth but left in place for now his effort to build a protectionist wall around the American economy.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-appeals-court-b714cfc8dff51289b1d5291f46d71f3f?

ps:What sense does that make? If you feel that way just do what you think is right!! That's just being wishy washy!!!!!

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Financial Gymnastics (Photo-Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Andrew Harnik / Getty.)

View in browser Right at the beginning of the second chapter of The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump declares that his “style of deal-making is quite simple and straightforward.” Crucially, this was long before the invention of cryptocurrency. Earlier this week, the company behind the Trump-branded social-media app Truth Social announced an extremely convoluted partnership with Crypto.com, the Singaporean financial firm and trading post. The deal essentially results in the formation of a brand-new company—the dry-sounding Trump Media Group CRO Strategy—the primary purpose of which is to accumulate and hold massive amounts of Crypto.com’s own homespun cryptocurrency, “Cronos.” There’s also a third founding partner in the mix, Yorkville Acquisition Corp., which will allow the whole operation to go public on the Nasdaq. If this sounds like opaque financial gymnastics—three companies forming a new, fourth company in an attempt to pump a little-known cryptocurrency—that’s because it is. Ever since Trump promised, on the 2024 campaign trail, to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet,” the Trump family and its business liaisons have been orbiting the world of cryptocurrency in ever more elaborate ways. First came World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm managed in part by Trump’s two eldest sons, surprising not only for its deep ties to the Trump family but also for its being announced the day after Trump survived a second apparent assassination attempt. Once elected, Trump dived into the world of memecoins, cryptocurrencies that explicitly reject the need for underlying business fundamentals and instead rely purely on online hype to drive prices up and down. $TRUMP, as the venture is known, quickly made the president (temporarily, on paper) a crypto billionaire. Since the advent of that memecoin (and the inevitable Melania Trump–themed spin-off), Trump-aligned businesses have pursued a strategy of accumulating cryptocurrencies in a variety of different forms—a shopping spree that reached its peak in this week’s $6.4 billion Cronos deal. I wrote for The Atlantic in June about how the Trump family’s pivot to crypto was only growing in scale. At the same time, the Trump White House has embarked on a campaign of mass deregulation, reversing the Biden administration’s far more skeptical approach to the industry; Trump signed the GENIUS Act, a landmark piece of pro-crypto legislation, last month. This extended crypto bear hug has been a chance both to reward an industry that was oh-so-generous during Trump’s reelection campaign and to inflate Trump’s own personal net worth, much of which is now inextricably linked to the ebbs and flows of the crypto market as a whole. Trump has never really felt the need to justify these apparent conflicts of interest or the ways in which they open him up to brazen ethical and administrative violations. Yes, he is supporting some American companies in a mostly non-American industry; yes, the crypto-investment schema ostensibly falls within the broader MAGA doctrine of supercharging tech. But Trump has largely failed to articulate an ideological basis for his interest in the crypto industry. With every new venture he announces, he is quietly admitting what any passive observer could tell you: that the long list of crypto endeavors is also meant to bolster the Trump corporate empire and the image it rests on. It is, in other words, another form of self-promotion. It’s hard to overstate just how far Trump has taken crypto from its original principles. Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency, was born out of the anti-establishment animus of the 2008 financial crisis. The province of hackers and tech experimentalists, it at one point represented a future governed by independent financial systems rather than by greedy bankers. It was—and you’ll have to trust me on this, because I know it seems unfathomable in 2025—countercultural. Once crypto’s inherent privacy component (bitcoin doesn’t require users to submit their real name) made it a haven for scammers, the nascent industry was split between the true believers and the opportunists looking to make a quick buck. In part thanks to Trump, crypto is now intimately connected with many of the powerful institutions it once sought to disrupt. This week’s Cronos treasury deal is a clear example of Trump’s self-promotional ethos in action, but it also reflects the deepening relationship between crypto and the White House. Crypto.com has enjoyed a kind of hyper-visibility in the U.S. since the company purchased the naming rights for what used to be Los Angeles’s Staples Center in 2021, and its foreign origins haven’t prevented it from making inroads with the Trump administration. Back in December, the firm’s CEO, Kris Marszalek, posted a picture of himself standing shoulder to shoulder with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, miming the smile-and-thumbs-up pose that has become the president’s signature. The accompanying caption read, “Honored to have a seat at the table.” That early willingness to connect with Trump seems to have worked out pretty well for Marszalek: Crypto.com said in March that an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into possible securities-law violations had been summarily dropped. Now the company can look forward to a billion-dollar Trump co-sign, as well as Cronos being dubbed the official “platform token” of Truth Social, which will only further entwine the site and the coin. Yesterday, the Commerce Department began publishing some of its quarterly GDP numbers on the blockchain. The whole thing is a superfluous and cumbersome exercise; you can access this information online without the surrounding layer of cryptographic security. But even this move, which doesn’t at first appear to point back to Trump personally, is ultimately just PR. Announcing the plan during a live Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that the department would be putting these stats on the blockchain because—and here he turned to look right at Trump—“you are the crypto president.” Related: Trump’s crypto playbook is now clear. Anne Applebaum: Kleptocracy, Inc.

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Bonfire of expertise

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Centuries' worth of experience vanished from key government agencies this summer, including high-level departures from the CDC, Pentagon and intelligence community just this week, Axios' Dave Lawler reports. Why it matters: President Trump and his allies see the "Deep State," scientific establishment and federal bureaucracy as ripe for a purge. They're building a government where officials maintaining nuclear weapons, monitoring medical trials, or guarding state secrets, have shorter résumés and smaller staffs — likely for years to come. ⚕️Driving the news: Three top CDC scientists quit this week after director Susan Monarez was fired, prompting a staff walkout in support of their outgoing colleagues and opposition to HHS leadership. Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned as the CDC's vaccine chief, accused HHS leaders, including Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., of data manipulation "to achieve a political end." Kennedy, who once called the CDC a "cesspool," said it needs a long-term purge to "change the culture." ✂️ Zoom out: 3,000 CDC staffers have left since January, with thousands more gone from the FDA and NIH. The expertise drain also hits cyber defense, nuclear safety, weather forecasting and disaster response. In the past week, Defense Intelligence Agency director Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse was fired, Defense Innovation Unit head Doug Beck quit, and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin retired early. Since Trump took office, the heads of the Joint Chiefs, NSA, Coast Guard and other senior military leaders have departed. ? The bottom line: "I've been going to these going-away parties every week," one veteran told Axios. "You look at what we're losing ... It's depressing." For Trump's team, the message is clear: good riddance. Go deeper.

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White House believes Europe secretly undoing war's end

Senior White House officials tell me that some European leaders are publicly supporting President Trump's effort to end the war in Ukraine, while quietly trying to undo behind-the-scenes progress since the Alaska summit.

• The White House has asked the Treasury Department to compile a list of sanctions that could plausibly be imposed by Europe against Russia.

Why it matters: Two weeks after the summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, there has been little clear progress toward ending the war. Frustrated Trump aides contend the blame should fall on European allies, not on Trump or even Russian President Vladimir Putin.

? Behind the scenes: White House officials are losing patience with European leaders, whom they claim are pushing Ukraine to hold out for unrealistic territorial concessions by Russia.

• Trump was visibly frustrated about the situation during Tuesday's Cabinet meeting. "Everybody is posturing. It's all bullshit," he said.

? Axios has learned that the sanctions the U.S. is urging Europe to adopt against Russia include a complete cessation of all oil and gas purchases — plus secondary tariffs from the EU on India and China, similar to those already imposed on India by the U.S.

• "The Europeans don't get to prolong this war and backdoor unreasonable expectations, while also expecting America to bear the cost," a top White House official told Axios. "If Europe wants to escalate this war, that will be up to them. But they will be hopelessly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory."

What they're thinking: The Europeans are said to be pushing Zelensky to hold out for a "better deal" — a maximalist approach that has exacerbated the war, Trump's inner circle argues.

• The U.S. officials believe British and French officials are being more constructive. But they complain that other major European countries want the U.S. to bear the full cost of the war, while putting no skin in the game themselves.
• "Getting to a deal is an art of the possible," the top official said. "But some of the Europeans continue to operate in a fairy-tale land that ignores the fact it takes two to tango."

A senior White House official told Axios' Barak Ravid that Trump is seriously considering stepping back from the diplomatic efforts until one or both parties begin to show more flexibility.

• "We are going to sit back and watch. Let them fight it out for a while and see what happens," the official said.

ps:I'm all for a seize fire, but if trump would put more pressure on putin to stop his continued invasion of Ukraine! When that happens there will be a seize fire!!!!!

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Trump’s envoys are ticking off other countries. The White House isn’t doing much about it

Do not antagonize one’s opponents unnecessarily, a basic principle of diplomacy says. But as the United States faces a trade war with China and various tensions overseas, President Donald Trump’s emissaries are increasingly ticking off allied countries and being called to account. Read more.

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Federal judge issues order blocking Trump effort to expand speedy deportations of migrants

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from carrying out speedy deportations of undocumented migrants detained in the interior of the United States.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-deportations-immigration-expedited-removal-d7146e4e633426afe86031cdf14a60d4?

What happens to Trump’s tariffs now that a federal appeals court has knocked them down?

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has audaciously claimed virtually unlimited power to bypass Congress and impose sweeping taxes on foreign products.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-court-ruling-trade-1c5a02ad38597c3629eff5977490813a?

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Chicago mayor defies Trump’s plan for the city The mayor of Chicago pushed back Saturday against what he called the “out-of-control” Trump administration’s plan to surge federal officers into the nation’s third-largest city, which could take place within days. The Chicago Police Department will be barred from helping federal authorities with civil immigration enforcement or any related patrols during the surge, according to an executive order signed by Mayor Brandon Johnson. Read more.

Why this matters: Chicago is home to a large immigrant population, and both the city and the state of Illinois have some of the country’s strongest rules against cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts. That has often put the city and state at odds with Trump’s mass deportation agenda.   Johnson’s order builds on the city’s longtime stance, saying neither Chicago nor Illinois officials have sought or been consulted on the federal presence and demanding Trump stand down on those plans. In response to Johnson's harsh words for Trump during his news conference, the White House insisted the potential flood of federal agents was about “cracking down on crime.”

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ DHS Secretary Noem confirms more ICE resources are heading to Chicago for immigration crackdown   Judges, defense lawyers and grand jurors poke holes in cases from Trump’s DC federal intervention   Trump taps federal agents to tackle local policing. That’s not always helpful, critics say   Missouri is next to answer Trump’s call for redrawn maps that boost GOP in 2026   EPA fires employees who publicly criticized agency policies under Trump   Trump plans a hefty tax on imported drugs, risking higher prices and shortages   Colleges face financial struggles as Trump policies send international enrollment plummeting   With CDC in chaos, scientists and physicians piece together replacements for agency’s lost work   Trump’s new CDC chief: A Washington health insider with a libertarian streak   Government shutdown looms as Congress returns after monthlong August recess    What to know about Abrego Garcia’s asylum claim. Experts say it’s a smart but risky legal move   Trump wants to axe an affordable housing grant that’s a lifeline for many rural communities   Key US inflation gauge holds mostly steady though core inflation ticks higher   Trump is cutting 500-plus jobs at Voice of America and its parent agency despite legal challenges   PBS, NPR stations working to cope with — and survive — government funding cuts   A conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice won’t run again, creating an open seat   Utah Supreme Court blocks execution of prisoner with dementia who chose to die by firing squad   Rudy Giuliani injured in New Hampshire car crash, his spokesperson says

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States begin to see job losses from Trump’s cuts, housing and spending slowdowns

Virginia and New Jersey may be among the states most affected by the hiring slowdown that enraged President Donald Trump when it appeared in an Aug. 1 jobs report showing the United States had 258,000 fewer jobs than initially reported in May and June.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2025/09/01/states-begin-to-see-job-losses-from-trumps-cuts-housing-and-spending-slowdowns/?

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Trump’s Ugly Scheme to Exploit RFK Jr.: Author

“America’s public health apparatus appears to be on fire,” said host Joanna Coles, “and the arsonist is RFK Jr.”

President Donald Trump is wrestling with the second pandemic of his presidency as the CDC’s top minds drop like flies in resignations tied to Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s takeover of the agency.

The chaos has set America’s public health apparatus “on fire” and “the arsonist is RFK Jr.,” said Daily Beast podcast host Joanna Coles on Monday’s emergency episode of Inside Trump’s Head.

Co-host and Trump biographer Michael Wolff added, “I don’t think we should express surprise that Donald Trump would put any incompetent in any job. The administration is filled with them.”

Susan Monarez lasted less than a month as the first non-physician in 70 years to lead the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as director before she “ran afoul” with Anti-vaxxer-in-Chief RFK Jr. and was fired last week.

Monarez’s lawyers said she “refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives,” and her exit has triggered at least four renowned doctors and agency officials to follow in her wake—with some of them releasing statements backing up Monarez’s claims.

“Recently, the overstating of risks [of vaccines] and the rise of misinformation have cost lives, as demonstrated by the highest number of U.S. measles cases in 30 years and the violent attack on our agency,” wrote CDC’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry in a resignation letter reviewed by NBC News.

According to Wolff, the whole situation smacks of RFK Jr.’s wacky health views making the agency and its top officials sick.

According to Wolff, bitterness is at the center of RFK Jr.’s “wastrel life of drug abuse, womanizing, and domestic upheaval.”

“He’s very bitter about the fact that his bad behavior has prevented him from the power and the status he believed he was entitled to by his family name,” Wolff said, and it put him “basically in exile” in the Kennedy family as he “couldn’t have the career he thought he was entitled to.”

Then Trump opens pandora’s box by appointing RFK Jr. secretary of health and human services in a bid to win over the scion’s MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) base, explained Wolff, who alleges that Trump initially offered RFK Jr. the vice presidency as he strategized a ticket to beat the Democrats.

“At some point, RFK Jr. turns him down on this and Trump is very disappointed,” said Wolff. When RFK Jr. bows out of the race and moves his MAHA base to endorse Trump, Wolff suggested the president has been forced to “tolerate RFK Jr.” to keep the support.

“And I think you can read between the lines here on dismissing the head of the CDC,” Wolff told Coles. “I would say Trump is showing ... I mean, [he] hasn’t come out in direct support of RFK Jr. on this, and he’s probably a little squeamish about it. But again, RFK Jr. represents that vax position that he has to subscribe to.”

As a result, “we have a man who had a brain worm, openly talked about having a worm eat part of his brain, running the Health and Human Services Ministry,” said Coles.

According to Wolff, it’s all setting RFK Jr. up for a 2028 presidential run—which he has vehemently denied that he would run.

“I certainly have no doubt in my mind running for president in 2028,” said Wolff. “And let’s realize the more he is antagonistic to the health establishment, the more that solidifies his MAGA base, the more you have a solid MAGA base, the more credible you will be as a Republican candidate.”

The Daily Beast has contacted RFK Jr.’s office and the White House for comment.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung has previously described Wolff as “a sack of s--t” and said, “He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-ugly-scheme-to-exploit-rfk-jr-author-michael-wolff/?

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? 92-point gap in Trump approval

Data: Gallup. Chart: Jacque Schrag/Axios This finding leapt out at me as a vivid new measure of our 50-50 nation: 93% of Republicans approve of President Trump's overall job performance, compared with just 1% of Democrats, a 92-point gap, Gallup found in an August survey. Context: Gallup says this "is on par with Democrats' 2% approval rating of Trump in June 2020 and July 2025, and similar to their 3% ratings of George W. Bush in 2008 during the global financial crisis."

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? Trump's existential tariff talk

The Trump administration is putting maximum pressure on the Supreme Court — and the court of public opinion — in an attempt to frame the future of President Trump's trade regime in existential terms, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes.

• Why it matters: The cornerstone of Trump's economic agenda is under threat after a federal appellate court ruled that the tariffs implemented under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were illegal. 

The decision allows them to remain in place through at least Oct. 14 — and doesn't include every tariff Trump has imposed.

? What they're saying: Trump on Friday quickly warned the ruling could "literally destroy the United States" and suggested a Supreme Court appeal was coming.

• White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said yesterday on Fox's "Sunday Morning Futures" that it would be "the end of the United States" if the Supreme Court ultimately struck down the tariffs.
• "This was weaponized partisan injustice at its worst. Politicians in black robes," he added.

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? Rural crime surprise

Data: FBI. Map: Axios Visuals Rural states in the American South and West had some of the nation's highest violent crime and homicide rates in 2024, driven by violence in small communities, Axios' Russell Contreras writes from FBI data. Why it matters: A state-by-state comparison paints a complex picture of U.S. crime trends, as President Trump threatens to send the National Guard to Democrat-controlled cities in blue states. ? The big picture: The president has already dispatched the National Guard to D.C., and has mentioned sending troops to Chicago; Oakland, Calif.; and Baltimore. Now Trump is facing questions about whether he'll send troops to communities in red states — many of them largely rural — where crime rates are actually higher than the areas he's targeted. "Sure, but there aren't that many of them," Trump said in the Oval Office last week when asked about sending the National Guard into red cities and states that are seeing high crime. (Watch the video.) Keep reading.

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Scoop: "No tax on tips" for these jobs

Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios

The Treasury Department gave Mike a first look at the list of 68 jobs that qualify for a new tax deduction under the "no tax on tips" pledge in President Trump's "big, beautiful bill." Why it matters: Until now, the administration hadn't specified the eligible occupations. There's good news on the list for everyone from golf caddies and party DJs to home electricians. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who made a Labor Day swing through three Washington-area restaurants to promote the tipping provision, told Axios the list of covered occupations is "expansive but fair." "For workers, $20 here and $20 there can make a big difference," Bessent said during an interview at McLean Family Restaurant in suburban Virginia. Here are the categories and some of the jobs: 1. ? Beverage and food service Bartenders, wait staff, cooks and fast-food workers. 2. ? Entertainment and events Gambling staff, dancers, musicians and coatroom attendants. 3. ?️ Hospitality and guest services Bellhops, concierges, desk clerks and hotel maids. 4. ?‍? Home Services Home maintenance workers, landscapers, electricians, plumbers and cleaners. 5. ? Personal services Planners, photographers or officiants for private events; tutors, babysitters, nannies and pet caretakers. 6. ? Personal appearance and wellness Massage therapists, hairdressers, manicurists, tattoo artists, exercise trainers, and tailors. 7. ⛳️ Recreation and instruction Golf caddies, tour guides and sports instructors. 8. ? Transportation and delivery Taxi, rideshare or bus drivers; delivery people, home movers and vehicle cleaners. See the full list. ps:This is all well and good, but take the time to look up as to how long this is for!!!!! Than look up how long the tax break is for the wealthy!!!!!!!!!! Than tell me how great this tax break is NOW!!!!!

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?? Modi joins hands with Xi and Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping talk ahead of today's regional summit in Tianjin, China. Photo: Indian Prime Minister's office via AP Facing tariffs and taunts from President Trump, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a far friendlier interaction on Monday with his Russian and Chinese counterparts during his first visit to China in seven years. The big picture: Successive U.S. presidents have aggressively courted India as a counterweight to China. ?? Trump is actively trying to drive a wedge between India and Russia, while also seeking to peel Russia away from China. ? So the image of all three leaders literally holding hands is, at the very least, a symbolic blow. Between the lines: From Modi's perspective, the pageantry is at least in part a message to Trump. ? Trump's 50% tariffs, doubled last week over India's continued purchases of Russian oil, have sparked outrage in the country. So have insulting comments from Trump and some on his team. ? Trump doubled down on Monday, calling U.S. trade with India "a totally one-sided disaster." The bottom line: Modi has signaled India won't stop buying oil from Russia, and has moved to patch up ties with China. Those aren't the outcomes Trump is aiming for. ps:Really? What is trump aiming for????? The stupidity is just amazing!!!!!!!!!! Well how does East rises up against the West sound now??