September 15, 2025

Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: “A federal appeals court Monday refused the Trump administration’s   request to permit Federal Reserve board of governors member Lisa Cook’s firing before this week’s Fed meeting, setting the stage for a potential Supreme Court battle. Cook is set to participate in the Fed’s upcoming vote on interest rate cuts after a judge last week ruled her firing likely unlawful and reinstated her as the litigation proceeds. The 2-1 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit keeps that ruling intact, rejecting Trump’s bid to fire Cook over mortgage fraud accusations, for now.... Judge Brad Garcia wrote for the majority. Garcia was joined by U.S. Circuit Judges Michelle Childs, both nominated to the bench by former President Biden.... Judge Gregory Katsas, the panel’s sole Trump appointee, dissented.” ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: “The decision leaves the president just hours to ask the Supreme Court to oust [Lisa Cook] before a critical interest-rate setting meeting kicks off Tuesday.” The appeals court order is here.

~~~ MEANWHILE, in the Senate. Sylvan Lane of the Hill: “The Senate voted Monday to confirm ... [Donald] Trump’s top White House economist to the Federal Reserve board of governors. Senators voted along party lines, 48-47, to approve the nomination of Stephen Miran, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), to the remaining four months of a term on the Fed board.... He has promised to take an unpaid leave of absence from the White House until the expiration of his term in January.... Miran is expected to be sworn in as a Fed governor with enough time to vote Wednesday on whether the Fed should cut rates.”

Marie: Sorry, I thought I linked this yesterday. I did not: ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Mahler of the New York Times Magazine: “...  an extraordinarily successful scientific [cancer] research system — one that took decades to build, has saved millions of lives and generated billions of dollars in profits for American companies and investors — is being dismantled before our eyes. In a matter of months, the Trump administration has canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in cancer-related research grants and contracts, arguing that they were part of politically driven D.E.I. initiatives, and suspended or delayed payments for hundreds of millions more. It is trying to sharply reduce the percentage of expenses that the government will cover for federally funded cancer-research labs. It has terminated hundreds of government employees who helped lead the country’s cancer-research system and ensured that new discoveries reached clinicians, cancer patients and the American public. And the president’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year calls for a more-than-37-percent cut to the National Cancer Institute — the N.I.H. agency that leads most of the nation’s cancer research — reducing it to $4.5 billion from $7.2 billion. Adjusting for inflation, you have to go back more than 30 years to find a comparably sized federal cancer-research budget.” The link is a gift link.

Pay attention. Something dark might be coming.... The murder of Charlie Kirk could have united Americans to confront political violence. Instead, Trump and his anti-democratic radicals look to be readying a campaign to destroy dissent. -- Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), social media post Sunday ~~~

~~~ So that was Sunday. Let's see what happened Monday. -- Marie Burns ~~~

~~~ Katie Rogers & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: Donald “Trump and his top advisers threatened on Monday to unleash the power of the federal government to punish what they alleged was a left-wing network that funds and incites violence, seizing on Charlie Kirk’s killing to make broad and unsubstantiated claims about their political opponents. Investigators were still working to identify a motive in the death of Mr. Kirk, a prominent conservative activist who was shot last week in Utah. The Republican governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, has said that the suspect had a 'leftist ideology' and that he acted alone. But Mr. Trump and his top allies suggested that the suspect was part of a coordinated movement that was fomenting violence against conservatives, without presenting evidence that such a network existed.... 

“Mr. Trump said ... that he was talking to the attorney general, Pam Bondi, about bringing charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act against some of the people that you’ve been reading about that have been putting up millions and millions of dollars for agitation.'... Democrats have warned that the Trump White House could be using Mr. Kirk’s killing as a pretense to go after political dissent, not just hate speech or violence.” ~~~

Iris Sentner of Politico: “JD Vance ... on Monday hosted [Charlie] Kirk’s popular daily radio show, parading a slate of the most powerful figures in the White House into his official office for what amounted to both a tribute and promises of retribution for an audience that at time exceeded 250,000 on Rumble. Vance pledged to crack down on the 'radical left lunatics,' while Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said he’d use the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to disrupt unspecified networks that are responsible for provoking violence.” 

Smart people don't like me. -- Donald Trump, at his Bedminster golf club, Saturday. Thanks to digby for the catch & Akhilleus for the link 

The Most Corrupt Presidency* in U.S. History. Eric Lipton, et al., of the New York Times: At the heart of a relationship between Donald Trump & his inner circle on the one hand, and the sheikhs of the United Arab Emirates on the other “are two multibillion-dollar deals. One involved a crypto company founded by the Witkoff and the Trump families that benefited both financially. The other involved a sale of valuable computer chips [controlled & limited by the U.S. government because of national security concerns] that benefited the Emirates economically. While there is no evidence that one deal was explicitly offered in return for the other, the confluence of the two agreements is itself extraordinary. Taken together, they blurred the lines between personal and government business and raised questions about whether U.S. interests were served.... The back-to-back deals violate longstanding norms in the United States for political, diplomatic and private deal-making among senior officials and their children, according to three ethics lawyers interviewed by The Times. And they have generated alarm among some former government officials.” The link is a gift link because everybody ought to have know what crooks Trump, Wykoff & the whole gang are. 

Jodi Cohen & Jennifer Richards of ProPublica: "The U.S. Department of Education has pulled funding for programs in eight states aimed at supporting students who have both hearing and vision loss, a move that could affect some of the country’s most vulnerable students.... They got caught in the Trump administration’s attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion.... The funding, which was expected to continue through September 2028, will stop at the end of the month.... The [Education Department complained to] the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, which oversees the [deafblind] project, [about its] policy of ensuring that women, minorities and disabled veterans would be included in the hiring process." The U.S. Department also was concerned that Wisconsin used the words "transition" (as in transitioning from one grade to another) and "privilege" because program staff had received a thank-you letter from a parent who said it was a privilege to work with them. MB: All of the states being shut out have some Democratic representation in Washington and most voted for Harris in 2024..

William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: “Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor who handled criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, is contesting her abrupt July firing in a lawsuit that challenges Donald J. Trump’s claim of sweeping presidential power. Ms. Comey, whose father, James B. Comey, is a former F.B.I. director, says in the lawsuit filed on Monday that she was never given a reason for her dismissal. She contends that no plausible explanation exists other than that she is the daughter of one of the president’s best-known adversaries — or her perceived political affiliations. Ms. Comey is among many federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials who have been fired in President Trump’s second term, with no reason given beyond Article II of the Constitution, which broadly describes the president’s powers.... Ms. Comey’s lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, names as defendants the Office of the President, the Justice Department, Attorney General Pam Bondi and others, and calls her firing from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York illegal.”

Benjamin Mullin of the New York Times: “Karen Attiah, an opinion columnist for The Washington Post, said she was fired last week after posting on social media about gun violence and 'racial double standards' following the assassination of the right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk. In a post on Substack announcing her firing, Ms. Attiah cited several social media posts made in the wake of Mr. Kirk’s death that expressed antipathy toward political violence and frustration with the lack of effort to curb gun violence. In one post, she criticized inaction from 'white America,' which she said 'is not going to do what it needs to do to get rid of guns in their country.' She wrote that The Post said her social media posts were 'unacceptable,'  'gross misconduct' and endangered 'the physical safety of colleagues,'  charges she rejects.” ~~~

     ~~~ Here is Attiah's Substack essay. MB: See, at the Bezos Post, an opinion writer can have opinions, and she can be Black, but she cannot under any circumstance express the true opinions of a Black lady opinion writer. I believe Charlie Kirk himself explained why when he said (as cited by Attiah), "Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously." 

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What Peter Baker Noticed. Peter Baker of the New York Times: “Mr. Trump has long made clear that coming together is not the mission of his presidency.... While other presidents have typically tried to lower the temperature in moments of national crisis, Mr. Trump turns up the flames.... He acts as president of red America and the people who agree with him, while those who do not are portrayed as enemies and traitors deserving payback.... He vowed 'retribution' against those who in his view have betrayed him or the country, and he has spent the first eight months of his second term exacting it against Democrats, wayward Republicans, estranged allies, law firms, universities, news outlets and anyone else he considers disloyal or excessively liberal. He sees a country riven into two ideological and political camps: one that supports him and one that does not. He governs accordingly.” ~~~

~~~ Ted Johnson of the Washington Post: “More than 20 years ago, at the Democratic National Convention, in the speech that would carve his path to the White House, then-Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama told the nation that 'there was no red America and no blue America, only the United States of America.'... Today, however, the former president has endorsed California’s partisan gerrymandering plan to make the state explicitly more blue. The state is retaliating for Texas redrawing its congressional districts to increase the number of Republicans in Congress, at the request of the White House. Not only has time proved the younger Obama wrong, but the elder statesman is leading part of the charge.... Few things expose the flaws in our republic like the partisan gerrymander. It puts the interests of politicians and the parties ahead of the people and our democracy.” 

 

~~~ Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: “Work crews have started cutting down trees, removing shrubs and digging up parts of the South Lawn of the White House as they begin work on ... Donald Trump’s project to construct a $200 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom on a site just south of the building’s East Wing.... Details of the project remain shrouded in secrecy and uncertainty. The White House has not released architectural plans for the building or its exact location and has, so far, not submitted the project to the National Capital Planning Commission, the government body that typically reviews plans for changes to federal property in the capital region. Officials have not specified how many trees on the mansion’s grounds will be removed to make way for the new ballroom.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: BTW, the toady Trump appointed to head up the planning commission is also his staff secretary, Will Scharf. You will recognize Scharf as the little guy who stands behind the Resolute Desk and hands executive orders to Trump for signature. It's a sad scene you may have witnessed: a youngish man passing off a document and trying to explain it to a confused old man. The old man accepts the binder and responds with vague signals of approval like, "Oh. That's important," or "That's a big one." Bewildered, he signs his name anyway, and the process repeats itself. ~~~

     ~~~ The Monstrosity Is Growing! Todd Spangler of Variety, republished by Yahoo! News (Sept. 13): “... Donald Trump’s major new addition to the White House — a large, gold-plated ballroom annex — will be even larger than the original plans called for, he said. 'We’re making it a little bigger,” Trump told NBC News in a phone interview Saturday. “It will be top-of-the-line, as good as it can get anywhere in the world.' Under the expanded plans, the ballroom will be able to accommodate up to 900 people, Trump told the outlet, an increase of 38% from the White House’s previous estimate that it would have a seated capacity of 650.”

Ben Berkowitz of Axios: Donald "Trump on Sunday said the U.S. welcomes foreign experts to train Americans how to build high-tech goods, days after hundreds of arrested South Korean workers left the country.... The blowback from the arrests threatened to rupture one of the most important U.S. alliances in Asia, and put hundreds of billions of dollars in investment pledges at risk.... Hundreds of workers were arrested, shackled and hauled off to detention, which provoked national outrage in South Korea. Officials in Seoul eventually sent a plane to retrieve and repatriate those workers. On Sunday, South Korean media reported that Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau had visited the country and 'conveyed his deep regrets' for the arrests. That came just days after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told 'The Axios Show' it was Hyundai's fault the workers didn't have the right visas, and that the company should have called him for help." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Maybe you didn't think anyone could be a more obnoxious, narcissistic know-it-all than Donald Trump, but Howard Lutnick is trying.

Here's How Trumponomics Is Working. Abha Bhattarai of the Washington Post: “More Americans are facing stretches of unemployment of six months or more, a worrisome sign for the U.S. economy. More than 1 in 4 workers without jobs have been unemployed for at least half a year, new data [show]. That number is a post-pandemic high and a level typically only seen during periods of economic turmoil. In all, more than 1.9 million Americans had been unemployed 'long term'  in August, meaning they have been out of work for 27 weeks or more.... That’s more than double the 1 million people who were in a similar position in early 2023.... Six months of unemployment often signals a turning point in a person’s job search.... They’ve likely run out of unemployment insurance benefits and severance payments by then, leaving them on shakier financial ground. People who have been unemployed for more than six months are also more likely to become discouraged and stop looking for work altogether.... The pickup in months-long unemployment coincides with broader cooling in the labor market.”

Sarah Mervosh & Michael Bender of the New York Times: “The Trump administration plans to inject nearly $500 million into historically Black colleges and tribal universities, a windfall funded largely by cuts to programs elsewhere for minority students. The administration will also redirect money to other political priorities for ... [Donald] Trump, including an extra $137 million for American history and civics education and $60 million more for charter schools.... To pay for the changes, the administration cut money from other parts of the education budget. The biggest cut ... is a $350 million hit to programs that support minority students in science and engineering programs, schools with significant Hispanic enrollment, and other federal grants at minority-serving institutions.... [Mr.] Trump has routinely sought to align himself with historically Black colleges and universities as a way to earn good will from Black voters....”

Jack Healy & Orlando Mayorquín of the New York Times: “Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah on Sunday provided new information about the background and political leanings of the 22-year-old accused of killing Charlie Kirk, saying that the suspect had a 'leftist ideology' and had also been in a romantic relationship with a partner who was in the process of transitioning from male to female. Mr. Cox, speaking on NBC’s 'Meet the Press,' described the suspect, Tyler Robinson, as a 'very normal young man' who appeared to have been 'radicalized' some time after he dropped out of college and moved back to his hometown in southern Utah, where he had spent the past few years.... Mr. Cox said Mr. Robinson had spent much of his time immersed in online gaming, message boards and parts of what the governor called the 'deep, dark internet.'” The NBC News story is here. MB: I don't suppose the “deep, dark internet” could have “radicalized” this “very normal (i.e., Republican) young man.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

⭐Rebecca Solnit of the Guardian: “I remember how normalized the sexual exploitation of teenage girls and even tweens by adult men was [in the 1970s and beyond], how it showed up in movies, in the tales of rock stars and 'baby groupies', in counterculture and mainstream culture, how normalized rape, exploitation, grooming, objectification, commodification was.... The just-released 2003 Jeffrey Epstein birthday album is a late relic of that culture, as is Donald Trump’s attitude toward women.... It was feminism that exposed the ubiquity of child abuse, rape, sexual harassment and domestic violence, that denormalized these abuses that were so much part of patriarchal society.” Thanks to akaWendy for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I urge you to read Solnit's essay, partly for the proofs she provides. To those of you who weren't there, or who were there but not paying attention, I assure you that Solnit's characterization of those times is accurate. Today, as Trump and right-wingers rail against "politically correct" or "woke" constraints, what they're really objecting to is the notion that they should even pretend women and minorities have dignity, much less accord us genuine respect. Indeed, it is the policy of the Trump administration is to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion. Trump signed an executive order to that effect, and his minions proceeded with glee to eliminate so much as a mention of outstanding Americans who were not right-wing white men. Trump and his mobsters are dedicated to stamping out everybody's rights but their own. 

Tony Romm of the New York Times: “The Trump administration sought to convince a federal court on Sunday that ... [Donald] Trump possesses vast powers and 'discretion' to fire federal officials, as it raced to block Lisa Cook, a governor on the Federal Reserve, from participating in this week’s meeting of the central bank. The government offered its latest arguments to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where judges are weighing an emergency request by Mr. Trump that would allow him to proceed with firing Ms. Cook after a lower court halted those plans last week.... Newly reported documents have called into question the president’s assertions [that Ms. Cook had falsified mortgage documents before she joined the Fed]. But the administration told the court on Sunday that the decision to remove Ms. Cook is 'an unreviewable exercise of the discretion Congress vested' in the president.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump's argument is simple: “I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.” The assertion renders moot every Constitutional provision and every law that either constrains the president* or grants powers to the other branches -- or to the people. There is no point, for instance, to a law that says a Federal Reserve board member can be fired only for cause if the president* can invent “the cause” -- and even if “the cause” he invents is proved to be not true, he can still invoke it.  

Ryan Reilly, et al., of NBC News: “FBI Director Kash Patel’s activities during the investigation of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination raise questions about his decision-making during a crisis, four former FBI officials and two administration officials told NBC News.” Read the story through. The people cited criticize and contradict Patel throughout, from his decision not to give up a coveted reservation at Rao's restaurant during the early hours of the Kirk investigation to his profanity-laced criticisms of FBI personnel to his criticism of local law enforcement officials to his boast about solving the case (which the Utah Department of Public Safety disputed). One former official said it appeared Patel was “grandstanding to impress an audience of one.”

Oh, the FBI Is in Very Capable Hands. Sakshi Venkatraman of BBC News: "Fourteen staff members at a US animal shelter have been taken to hospital after the FBI used an incinerator at the facility to burn two pounds of seized methamphetamine. Staff and some 75 cats and dogs were evacuated from the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter in Billings, Montana, when the building filled with smoke on Wednesday. The incinerator is usually used by animal control officers to dispose of euthanised animals, but local authorities said it can also be used by law enforcement to burn seized narcotics. The cats and dogs have been relocated, and the animals which experienced the most smoke exposure are now under supervision." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Crowley of the New York Times: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio began his visit to Israel with a visit on Sunday to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, where the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, welcomed him with an affirmation of the U.S.-Israel relationship, even as it is tested by the war in Gaza.... Before departing Washington on Saturday, Mr. Rubio told reporters that he would emphasize Mr. Trump’s impatience for an end to the war in Gaza, as well as Mr. Trump’s concern that Israel’s airstrike against Hamas leaders in Qatar last week might set back efforts to reach a cease-fire deal with the group.” 

Damien Cave of the New York Times: “Most governments are trying to fight vaccine hesitancy with science and investment, while the United States heads in the opposite direction.... The United States an obvious outlier, though not because of public opinion, which still favors vaccination. Rather, experts say, it is because of the government. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other vaccine critics are now in charge of public health and ... they are stripping away support for vaccine development, promotion and distribution.... Mr. Kennedy has defunded vaccine research. He has replaced vaccine experts with critics on a key advisory panel, limited access to Covid shots and muddied official guidance on many others, worrying experts who see confusion eroding vaccine confidence worldwide.”

Here's Another Sample of What American Fascists Think the Country Should Look Like. Stephen Prager of Common Dreams: “Free speech advocates are sounding the alarm about a bill in the US House of Representatives that they fear could allow Secretary of State Marco Rubio to strip US citizens of their passports based purely on political speech. The bill, introduced by Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), will come up for a hearing on Wednesday.... Rubio has previously boasted of stripping the visas and green cards from several immigrants based purely on their peaceful expression of pro-Palestine views [including Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk], describing them as 'Hamas supporters.'... Journalist Zaid Jilani noted on X that 'judges can already remove a passport over material support for terrorism, but the difference is you get due process. This bill would essentially make Marco Rubio judge, jury, and executioner.'” Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The bill, as described, could not possibly pass a judicial smell test, but it's depressing that at least one member of Congress (and most likely many more) thinks it's fine to deprive U.S. citizens of their fundamental First Amendment rights.

O'Kavanaugh Unaware of His Own Rulings. Mark Sherman of the AP: “Justice Brett Kavanaugh says the genius of the American system of government is that no one should have too much power, even as he and other conservatives on the Supreme Court are facing criticism for deferring repeatedly to ... Donald Trump. Invoking the list of grievances against King George III that the nation’s founders included in the Declaration of Independence, Kavanaugh said Thursday the framers of the Constitution were set on avoiding the concentration of power. 'And the framers recognized in a way that I think is brilliant, that preserving liberty requires separating the power. No one person or group of people should have too much power in our system,' Kavanaugh said at an event honoring his onetime boss, Kenneth Starr.... The court’s liberal justices also have objected to the conservatives’ repeated votes in favor of Trump’s emergency appeals to the Supreme Court....” Thanks to RAS for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So it isn't that O'Kavanaugh has no idea of the principle of balance of powers on which this country was founded. He knows. He just doesn't think it should apply when a president*/dictator of his own party holds all of the power. ~~~

     ~~~ He Comes to Bury Starr AND to Praise Him. Of course Starr merits all that honoring. Besides writing the infamously salacious Starr report (with help from O'Kavanaugh himself), Sherman points out that Starr "represented Jeffrey Epstein when the financier was first accused of having sex with underage girls ... and accepted a light sentence.... Starr ... [was] president of Baylor University, also in Waco. But he was forced out of the Baylor job in 2016 in the midst of a sexual assault scandal involving players on the school’s football team.... Then in 2020, Starr joined Trump’s defense team that won Senate acquittal of the president after his first impeachment." That is, Ken Starr was horrified that Democrat Bill Clinton "did have sexual relations with that young woman" (who was legally of age), but he was good with Jeffrey Epstein sexually abusing hundreds of underage girls and with football players routinely assaulting young women. Then of course he helped Republican Trump beat the rap for trying to bribe an ally into falsely accusing Democrat Joe Biden of wrongdoing. AND kudos to Sherman & the AP for pointing out the head-spinning hypocrisy of both Kavanaugh and Starr.

Kilmeade Sorry He Said What He Thinks. Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “'Fox & Friends' co-anchor Brian Kilmeade apologized on-air Sunday, days after saying that mentally ill unhoused people should be given 'involuntary lethal injection.'... '... I apologize for that extremely callous remark.... I am obviously aware that not all mentally ill, homeless people act as the perpetrator [of an unprovoked murder we were discussing] did in North Carolina, and that so many homeless people deserve our empathy and compassion.'... Spokespeople for Fox News sent out Kilmeade’s apology Sunday, which they said also serves as the network’s response.... MSNBC fired contributor Matthew Dowd, a former political strategist for George W. Bush, following comments he made on-air Wednesday, after Charlie Kirk was shot but before he was confirmed dead.” 

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Florida. Marie: According to Google AI, “Examples of 'Florida Man' stories, which are known for their absurdity and bizarre nature, include a man throwing an alligator through a drive-thru window, a man stealing a chainsaw and hiding it in his shorts, an individual attacking an ATM, and another man who arrested for rigging his home door to electrocute his pregnant wife.” So if Florida Man is absurd and bizarre, "Florida Woman" is brave and strong: ~~~

     ~~~ “Florida Woman Fights off Alligator to Save Her Puppy,” reads the headline of a New York Times story by Johnny Diaz. This particular Florida Woman is Danie “Wright, 53, a former college rugby player from Massachusetts,” and she did save her dog, while sustaining some bites from the five-foot (so smallish) gator. 

New York. Gov. Kathy Hochul, in a New York Times op-ed, endorses Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor. She explains why. ~~~

      ~~~ Emma Fitzsimmons & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: “Ms. Hochul’s endorsement, after months of deliberation, is the latest sign that Democratic leaders who have been skeptical of Mr. Mamdani’s leftist views are beginning to coalesce around him. Ms. Hochul and Mr. Mamdani represent divergent sectors of their party. She is a moderate who recently declared herself a lover of capitalism, vowed not to raise taxes and supports Israel. He is a democratic socialist who wants higher taxes on the richest New Yorkers and is highly critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza.” An NBC News story is here.

Texas. Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: “Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), a longtime lawmaker who has at times disagreed with ... Donald Trump on foreign policy issues, will not seek reelection next year, he announced Sunday. McCaul ... joined the House in 2005 and previously chaired both the Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs committees.”