Marie Burns: June 2026

June 10, 2026

Elections Results.

California Gubernatorial Race. Lauren Rosenhall of the New York Times: “Steve Hilton, a Republican former Fox News host who was endorsed by ... [Donald] Trump, has secured the second spot in the November general election for California governor, The Associated Press determined on Tuesday. He will face Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who served in the Biden administration. The candidates survived an unprecedented barrage of spending for a California governor’s race. Tom Steyer, a billionaire who ran as a progressive Democrat, devoted more than $216 million of his personal fortune toward his primary campaign, finishing third.” The AP report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

California Congressional Race. Kellen Browning of the New York Times: “Randy Villegas, a political scientist and school board trustee backed by progressives including Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, advanced in a high-profile primary in a battleground Central Valley House district, according to The Associated Press. Democrats view the district as crucial to their efforts to regain control of Congress this fall. In the general election, Mr. Villegas will face Representative David Valadao, a vulnerable but battle-tested Republican who has survived many past attempts to oust him. Democrats are eager to test the new lines they drew in Mr. Valadao’s Bakersfield-area district last year to make it even more competitive; they are also bullish about their ability to win back Latino voters.”

California Congressional Race. Jennifer Medina of the New York Times: “Representative Kevin Kiley, a former Republican who changed his registration and became an independent earlier this year, will face Richard Pan, a former Democratic state senator, in California’s newly redrawn Sixth Congressional District this fall. Mr. Kiley and Mr. Pan were the top vote-getters in a seven-way open primary, according to The Associated Press. The new district includes the City of Sacramento and is widely considered to be favorable for Democrats. Mr. Kiley was first elected to the House in 2022 to represent a more rural stretch of Northern California.”

Maine Senate Race. Kellen Browning of the New York Times: “Graham Platner, the military veteran and first-time candidate whose populist message resonated with voters in Maine, prevailed over the state’s governor to win the Democratic primary for Senate on Tuesday. Now, he will face Senator Susan Collins, a vulnerable Republican incumbent, in one of the most consequential races in the country this fall. Mr. Platner’s campaign has survived a series of scandals about his personal life, which Republicans began highlighting within minutes of his victory. And he used his speech Tuesday night to cast Ms. Collins as a tool of a political establishment that has let Maine down....

“On Tuesday, Mr. Platner attempted to shift the focus to his general-election matchup with Ms. Collins, a battle-tested incumbent, while also acknowledging his stumbles. In a fiery speech, he said that members of the political establishment 'keep looking for that one story, that one headline, that one moment in my life that they can define the campaign by.... In trying so hard to understand me, they failed to understand that this is not about me at all. This is a movement about us, about the far too many, working far too hard and struggling far too much.” An NBC News report is here.

Marie: With 81% of the vote counted, Platner led with 72.% of the vote. (NYT link.)

Nevada Gubernatorial Race. Reis Thebault of the New York Times: “Aaron Ford, the attorney general of Nevada, won the Democratic nomination for governor of the state on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. His victory sets up a showdown with one of the country’s most vulnerable incumbent governors, Joe Lombardo, a Republican. Mr. Ford faced a primary challenge from Alexis Hill, a commissioner from Nevada’s second most populous county, Washoe, but he consistently maintained a wide lead in polling, fund-raising and endorsements. He declined to debate Ms. Hill and instead focused on a prospective contest with Mr. Lombardo and the state’s struggling economy. In Nevada, a critical and politically volatile battleground, voters have not hesitated to oust incumbents, especially during tough financial times.”

South Carolina House Race. Nick Corasaniti & Bayliss Wagner of the New York Times: “Nancy Lacore, a former Navy admiral who was fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, advanced to a Democratic primary runoff for the First Congressional District of South Carolina, according to The Associated Press. Also advancing to a runoff against Ms. Lacore is Mac Deford, a Coast Guard veteran who was previously the general counsel for the town of Hilton Head Island. Whoever wins the runoff on June 23 will face a daunting task in the fall: flipping a seat currently held by a Republican, Representative Nancy Mace, who ran unsuccessfully for governor instead of seeking re-election. The coastal district was redrawn in 2021 to be more reliably Republican.... But Ms. Lacore has a higher-than-average profile for a political newcomer. Last August, she was fired by Mr. Hegseth after 35 years in the Navy. She has said she was given no cause for the firing, which came at a time when Mr. Hegseth was removing military officials who had delivered intelligence assessments that angered ... [Donald] Trump.” Politico's report centers on Mace's loss.

South Carolina Senate Race. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: “Senator Lindsey Graham won the Republican primary in South Carolina, according to The Associated Press, after staving off a challenge on Tuesday in a crowded election that had threatened to force him into a runoff. Mr. Graham, a four-term incumbent, defeated five other candidates, including Mark Lynch, a Greenville businessman who put millions of dollars of his own money into the campaign. South Carolina is a solidly Republican stronghold, and Mr. Graham will be favored to win re-election in November against the Democratic nominee, Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician.... Mr. Graham is the rare Republican who was able to get into Mr. Trump’s good graces despite having strongly criticized him in the 2016 presidential election. But the senator remains unpopular with many members of Mr. Trump’s MAGA base, who sometimes boo him when he shows up at the president’s rallies.” Politico's report is here.

The New York Times is liveblogging updates in the Iran War. From the pinned item at 8:15 am ET: Donald “Trump issued a new threat against Iran on Wednesday after U.S. and Iranian forces traded strikes across the Middle East, potentially upending a fragile cease-fire. 'They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!' Mr. Trump wrote on social media. He made the comments hours after the U.S. military said its jets hit Iranian targets, describing the strikes as a 'proportional response' to an attack on an American Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. Iran has not admitted or denied downing the helicopter. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said the American strikes were conducted 'under false premises.' In retaliation, Iran said it launched attack drones against U.S. naval targets in Bahrain, and fired missiles at American military facilities in Jordan.... A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry said the attacks undermined diplomatic efforts to end the war and that negotiations could not advance without 'a minimum level of conducive conditions,' according to Mehr, a semiofficial Iranian news agency.” ~~~

~~~ It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like a Forever War. Jon Gambrell of the AP: “The United States launched airstrikes early Wednesday against Iran after blaming Tehran for the crash of an American attack helicopter, prompting new attacks from Iran and further widening the retaliatory strikes that threaten to derail talks to end to the war. Iran launched attacks on sites in Bahrain, Kuwait, which both sounded alerts and fired air defenses in response. Jordan also reported shooting down five missiles that Iran shot at an air base hosting U.S. forces. Since the U.S. and Israel started the war with attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, the conflict has shaken the global economy, driven up energy prices around the world and made many basics, including food, more expensive.” ~~~

~~~ Trump Vowed to Escalate War with Iran. Jon Gambrell, et al., of the AP: “... Donald Trump blamed Iran for shooting down a U.S. Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday and said the United States must respond to the attack.... Trump said in a social media post that military officials told him 'the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters.'” (Also linked yesterday.) MB: Have any of those crack White House reporters asked Trump how a military he “obliterated” was able to down a U.S. helicopter? In an area the U.S. Navy is “protecting”? ~~~

~~~ Trump Posts “West Wing” Clip to Justify Strikes. Dan Diamond ;of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Tuesday night appeared to defend his latest military strikes on Iran by posting a short clip from 'The West Wing.'... 'Let the word ring forth from this time and this place, gentlemen — you kill an American, any American, we don’t come back with a proportional response. We come back with total disaster!' the fictional president [Jed Bartlet] says. Trump posted the 'West Wing' clip twice on his Truth Social platform, in one case alongside a post from U.S. Central Command announcing the strikes on Iran. Trump did not share other scenes from the episode, which concludes with Bartlet opting for the proportional response he initially dismissed after realizing that carrying out a 'disproportional response' would lead to many civilian deaths.”

Oh, gosh, somebody alerted "Law & Order SVU" detectives attending the Spurs/Knicks game Monday night: "tell them there's a sex criminal in the building." Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times in an article adapted from their forthcoming book “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump”: “On July 17, 2025, at around 6 o’clock in the evening..., [Donald] Trump’s top officials filed into the White House Situation Room.... [They] had gathered — without him — to figure out how to gain some measure of control over ... the Epstein files.... The president’s desperate attempts to kill the story had failed. His team now ... needed a gesture of transparency to appease an increasingly angry base, but also a way to convey the message that the president was sympathetic to his supporters’ concerns. Which itself was a problem, because he clearly wasn’t.” The link is a gift link. ~~~

~~~ Marie: I find this meeting extremely weird. This is a closed-door, top-secret meeting about a problem created by the POTUS*. Why didn't Trump attend the meeting? Conducting the meeting without him is a tacit acknowledgment by all the attendees that they are conspiring to protect a man who is too volatile, incompetent and/or senile to protect himself. And those Cabinet meetings where everybody tells the sleeping POTUS* what a wonderful job he is doing are also part of grand conspiracy to hoodwink the public. When Katie Rogers of the New York Times covers for Trump (see June 8 and June 9 Reality Chex pages), she makes the NYT part of the conspiracy, too. Hillary Clinton's "vast right-wing conspiracy" sounded like a joke way back when. But I don't think it was a joke then, and I know it isn't now.

Todd the Trumpity Toady. Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “When he was the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, Todd Blanche ejected his subordinate Ed Martin, then the leader of the agency’s 'anti-weaponization' task force [and a top Trump revenge enabler], from offices on the fourth floor at headquarters to a satellite site an 18-minute Uber ride across town.... [The ouster] seemed to feed into a narrative, which flourished and faded in the early days of the administration, that Mr. Blanche, a former federal prosecutor, would at least try to mitigate Mr. Trump’s excesses and caprices.... [Nobody thinks so now.] Even before [former AG Pam] Bondi’s abrupt removal, Mr. Blanche had been working with her on a spree of investigative actions intended to demonstrate progress to an impatient White House.... His record, both as Ms. Bondi’s No. 2 and as acting attorney general, has been one of loyalty to Mr. Trump. He has shown time and again a willingness to execute West Wing demands, even when he viewed them as politically unwise or destined to fail in court. His signature, often literally, is on every major action the department has taken.” ~~~

~~~ Heather Cox Richardson also takes a look at Blanche's stellar career at or near the top of the DOJ. ~~~

Nobody Trusts Todd. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “Lawyers challenging the Trump administration’s plan to create a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people claiming to have been unfairly prosecuted by the government expressed deep skepticism on Tuesday that the proposal was truly dead, even though the Justice Department has repeatedly vowed to drop the measure. One set of lawyers, representing the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed court papers questioning the department’s trustworthiness and doubling down on their request to a federal judge in Washington to stop the fund from being set up. A second set of lawyers, representing a former prosecutor who was fired by the Trump administration after working on the investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, asked a federal judge in Virginia to force the Justice Department to answer the critical question of whether the White House had 'actually abandoned' its plans to create the fund. The twin moves underscored the lingering doubts that have surrounded the Justice Department’s promises that the fund will indeed be killed.”

This Is an International Crime. Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: “Fifteen years ago, the world’s billionaires collectively had $4.5 trillion. By 2024, their wealth had more than tripled to $14.2 trillion. Now, their combined wealth totals $20.1 trillion — an amount that is equivalent to nearly a fifth of the entire world’s total yearly output. The stunning figures — calculated by the French economist Gabriel Zucman, director of the International Tax Observatory, a research organization funded by the European Union — reveal more than a surprisingly rapid increase in the concentration of wealth at the tippy top. They also reflect a series of important global trends: the growing dominance of a few technology companies leading artificial intelligence development; the shrinking slice of the economic pie that goes to workers; and a deepening inequality that will be handed down to the next generation.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The story linked above is illustrated by the story linked below. ~~~

~~~ akaWendy found a fine background story that adds a great deal of depth to the article by Judd Legum, which I linked yesterday: ~~~

~~~ Get to Know an Oligarch. Casey Michel in Mother Jones, adapted from his soon-to-be published book: Jared Kushner “has made an art of cashing in on his foreign relationships, which, for those partners, are also paying off as never before.... Even Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who led the charge against Hunter Biden, was taken aback: Kushner’s Saudi funding arrangements, he said, 'crossed the line of ethics,' and when a consultant close to Kushner called and asked him to tone down his criticism, Comer said he instructed the intermediary 'to tell Kushner to fuck off.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Marie: To become a billionaire in Trump's America, you don't have to be very bright and you don't have to be very accomplished. You do have to be willing to use the power of the U.S. government to leverage your position against rivals & others. It's as if a consortium of states got together and backed Vito Corleone to the point that he was able to present to his opponents offers they couldn't refuse. If you admire people because they're rich, because they're self-made men, stop it. It's more like they're made men. ~~~

~~~ Joshua Kaplan, et al., of ProPublica: Earlier this year, "an obscure Texas startup called America First Refining announced that it had received a nine-figure investment from [an Indian energy empire own by the Ambani family].... The deal puzzled numerous energy investors familiar with the project.... The company is run by a serial entrepreneur with a history of bankruptcy and lawsuits alleging fraud. After more than a decade of failed attempts to raise money, blown deadlines and rebrands, it had been floundering. [At the same time, Donald Trump had targeted the Ambani's company with his tariffs.] America First Refining’s unexpected breakthrough came after it forged a previously unreported relationship with [Donald] Trump Jr., who secretly acquired a stake in the startup.... The new details reveal the role the president’s son has played in a theme of Trump’s second term: overseas investors with interests before the administration putting money into the Trump family’s business interests. ~~~

~~~ Mike Pearl of Gizmodo: “According to [a] Reuters ... analysis, The Trump family has been able to 'generate at least $2.3 billion in profit from investors since Trump retook the presidency,' while losses for the approximately one million people who put their money in Trump-related crypto investments 'totaled $2.3 billion at the end of April.'”

~~~ Detaining the Worst of the Worst. Jacob Soboroff, et al., of MS NOW: "Since the Trump administration entered the White House last year, at least 500 babies and toddlers have spent some of [the] pivotal time [for intellectural and emotional development] in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.... That number is 10 times higher than it was in the previous 12 months under former President Joe Biden.... Parents in ICE detention have complained of substandard conditions that frequently left their young children sick, isolated and regressing in their physical and intellectual development." ~~~

~~~ They Really Don't Know What They're Doing. Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: “The country’s largest immigration detention center opened so hastily in Texas last year that it failed to meet national standards for safety and security and has wasted millions of dollars on unnecessary services, according to a federal report released on Tuesday. The facility, called Camp East Montana, which is at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, was rushed to completion in 2025 to make space for the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign and has been mired in controversy ever since. Many of the migrants at Camp East Montana, which can hold around 5,000 detainees, have described harrowing conditions, and three people have since died there.The Army awarded and administered a $1.3 billion contract to open the center last August, according to the report released on Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan agency that helps Congress keep track of federal spending. It handed contract administration duties to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in October.”

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: “The House on Tuesday narrowly passed Republicans’ $70 billion immigration enforcement bill, as the G.O.P. banded together to steer around unified Democratic opposition and send ... [Donald] Trump legislation to fund his deportation crackdown through the end of his term. The vote was 214 to 212 along party lines, with every Democrat opposed. The action capped a tempestuous and dysfunctional journey to push through the multiyear bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. Republicans did so using a maneuver that was never supposed to be employed for routine spending, after Democrats refused to fund the agencies unless changes were made following the fatal shooting of two Americans by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis. Its passage was a major victory for Republican leaders in Congress, who had toiled for weeks to unite their conference around legislation that Mr. Trump had demanded they pass, and that G.OP. lawmakers were eager to advance.”

Jennifer Scholtes & Katherine Tully-McManus of Politico: “The end result is the enactment of supercharged budgets for both agencies [ICE & Border Patrol] — and the guarantee that they will be funded beyond the end of Trump’s presidency.”

Olivia Diaz of the New York Times: “The House on Tuesday approved a Democratic bill aiming to fast-track contract negotiations between employers and newly created unions, after 20 Republicans defied their leaders to force it to the floor and push it to passage. The measure, which passed on a 230-to-193 vote, faces a slim chance in the Senate and would be all but certain to be vetoed by ... [Donald] Trump even if it were to reach his desk. Still, the vote was the latest reflection of Speaker Mike Johnson’s weak hold on his narrow majority, whose members have steered around him time and again and teamed with Democrats to win passage of legislation that he has toiled to block. On Tuesday, a sizable bloc of Republicans, including several from competitive districts who are slogging through tough re-election fights, joined with Democrats to push through a pro-union bill. It would impose an initial 90-day deadline on contract negotiations for new unions and their employers, along with paths to mediation and arbitration if the parties reach an impasse.” Politico has an item here.

Meredith Hill of Politico: "A key U.S. spy law remains on track to expire at the end of the week after Speaker Mike Johnson met Tuesday with ... Donald Trump about the future of a key section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Trump indicated in the private White House meeting that he’s not inclined to appease Democrats and pave the way for a FISA extension by nominating a permanent director of national intelligence to succeed Bill Pulte, the acting director he installed last week....” MB: Evidently, Pulte is very important to Trump's midterm elections strategy.

More Sports News.

ESPN News Service: "Somali referee Omar Artan was denied entry into the United States after getting selected to officiate at the World Cup. U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed Monday that a Somali national who was planning to referee in the World Cup had been denied entry after arriving to Miami International Airport from Istanbul on Saturday. The CBP statement didn't mention the person by name, but FIFA later confirmed it was Artan, who was the only World Cup referee from Somalia." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: So what if it's Africa? You have to send the White people. Especially the persecuted ones. (Also linked yesterday.)

UFL to Control White House Grounds Sunday. Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “The White House press corps won’t be allowed on White House grounds Sunday because of a UFC fight being hosted on the South Lawn, according to an email sent by the White House Correspondents’ Association .... Weijia Jiang, the association’s president, told members in an email that only the White House press poolers — the designated journalists who follow the president on behalf of various news outlets when he is in locations that cannot accommodate a larger group — will be allowed on White House grounds unless UFC gives them press credentials.”

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Let's see if we can find an illustration of why monopolies and billionaires are bad for democracy: ~~~

~~~ Ariel Zilber of the New York Post: "CBS News boss Bari Weiss is likely to gain editorial oversight of CNN if and when Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery is approved, according to a report. Paramount executives are said to have held preliminary discussions with several candidates who would come in and run the business-side operations next to Weiss while she continues to oversee editorial." ~~~

~~~ Oh, Don't Worry; Everything Will be Roses & Rainbows. Benjamin Mullin & Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: “David Ellison, the chief executive of Paramount, promised to respect the editorial independence of '60 Minutes' in a call with Lesley Stahl, one of the show’s correspondents, she told The New York Times on Tuesday. The call to Ms. Stahl, made on Sunday, was one of the first signs that Mr. Ellison was personally taking steps to calm the turmoil at the news network after the firing of the show’s leadership and several of its star correspondents. The overhaul, overseen by Bari Weiss, the network’s editor in chief, was met with a rebuke from Scott Pelley, a star correspondent at '60 Minutes' who has since been fired.... [Stahl], Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim, the remaining stars of the program, had agonized about whether to stay in the aftermath of the staff changes and Mr. Pelley’s firing. But in a letter to the show’s staff Friday, they concluded that they had to remain at the show because they didn’t 'want to see ‘60 Minutes’ die.'” ~~~

~~~ Marie: Does Stahl get a bonus or what for peddling this crap? Of course, she has always been on the establishment team. Like that time she noticed the sitting POTUS, Ronald Reagan, exhibited symptoms of dementia and she didn't bother to report it.

Your Not-Trump Report. In a fascinating docu-music-video, Jimmy Kevin & Kira re-enact Peter, Paul & Mary's performance of a first draft of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind." You can see right here why Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature: ~~~

June 9, 2026

~~~ The story linked above is illustrated by the story linked below. ~~~

~~~ akaWendy found a fine background story that adds a great deal of depth to the article by Judd Legum, which I linked earlier: ~~~

Trump Vows to Escalate War with Iran. Jon Gambrell, et al., of the AP: “... Donald Trump blamed Iran for shooting down a U.S. Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday and said the United States must respond to the attack.... Trump said in a social media post that military officials told him 'the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters.'”

Oh, gosh, somebody alerted "Law & Order SVU" detectives attending the Spurs/Knicks game Monday night: "tell them there's a sex criminal in the building." Thanks to RAS for the link.

More Sports News. ESPN News Service: "Somali referee Omar Artan was denied entry into the United States after getting selected to officiate at the World Cup. U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed Monday that a Somali national who was planning to referee in the World Cup had been denied entry after arriving to Miami International Airport from Istanbul on Saturday. The CBP statement didn't mention the person by name, but FIFA later confirmed it was Artan, who was the only World Cup referee from Somalia." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: So what if it's Africa? You have to send the White people. Especially the persecuted ones.

Kudos to Randy Rainbow for this one. He out-Gilberts-and-Sullivans Gilbert and Sullivan:

~~~~~~~~~~

If It's Tuesday, Americans Must Be Voting. Kellen Browning of the New York Times: “Voters in Maine will weigh in on one of the most consequential and high-profile Senate races in the country on Tuesday, when they are expected to cement a matchup between Senator Susan Collins, a vulnerable Republican, and Graham Platner, a scandal-plagued Democrat hoping to oust her. Their likely face-off in November could determine control of the Senate, and political observers will be watching this week’s result closely to see if Mr. Platner’s many controversies have dampened voter enthusiasm for his populist campaign pitch. Tuesday will also feature primary elections in South Carolina, Nevada and North Dakota."

Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: “The Kennedy Center on Monday removed ... Donald Trump’s name from its website, although the front of the venue still read: .The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.' The change came more than a week after a federal judge ruled the center’s board of trustees had illegally renamed the venue and ordered the restoration of its title, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. On Thursday, the center ordered staff to erase Trump’s name from official materials, giving them until this Friday to restore the website and make all other changes.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Jennifer Millman of NBC News 4 New York: "Sorry, Knicks fans: No Madison Square Garden watch party tonight. You won't even be able to walk close. The NYPD and U.S. Secret Service announced another spate of street closures and security measures in anticipation of ... Donald Trump's historic trip to the Knicks' NBA Finals game. No sitting president has ever attended an NBA Finals. And the security will be pretty historic, too. Starting at 4 p.m., 30th to 35th streets will be closed between Seventh and Eighth avenues. That means no vehicular traffic -- and no pedestrian traffic either." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Allison Detzel of MS NOW: Many Knicks fans are not happy that Trump and his security requirements are interfering with the game. “One fan said the president should be prepared for those unhappy with his visit to make their feelings heard during the game. 'Hey, let him come. We’re gonna boo the f[uck] up out of you, bro,' he said.” (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

~~~ Update: sadly, Trump jinxed the game for the Knicks, who lost to the Spurs, ending the Knicks' month-plus-long winning streak. But to borrow from Jimmy Kimmel, maybe Trump was rooting for the Spurs? It's what got him out of Vietnam. (Thanks to RAS for the link.) ~~~

~~~ Albert Samaha of the Washington Post: “ There was no announcement inside Madison Square Garden when ... Donald Trump arrived in a suite a few minutes before his hometown New York Knicks took on the San Antonio Spurs in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday night. Then, midway through the national anthem, the screen at center court showed Trump’s face, and the crowd drowned out the song: 'Booooooooo!'... The jeers were louder than the Spurs had received when they took the floor — a collective roar from fans who had shown up hours before tip-off to inch through lines, funnel through fences and give themselves over to a security protocol that resembled an airport more than a sporting event, all to accommodate the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game. ” ~~~

~~~ But what did the out-of-touch, insane president* have to say about being so roundly booed in his hometown? Something out-of-touch and insane, of course: “Speaking to reporters after the game, Trump said he thought the reception he got from Knicks fans was 'amazing.... It was I think mostly cheers … It was loud and it was very enthusiastic,' he said.” An NBC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Marie: As reasonable a person as I am (ha ha), I do believe I'd be a tad put out if I had to pay $5,000 to watch a ball game (that my team ultimately lost), then show up for the event an extra two hours early because an elderly man wanted to nap in the VIP box. ~~~

~~~ Evan Hurst of Wonkette: “It was a close game — 115 to 111! — but its conclusion was unfortunately foreordained, because Trump was there, and if he touches something, it loses.... Yes, 'sports' happened, there were technically 'reasons' the Knicks ultimately lost last night, involving 'balls' and 'baskets' and 'the score.'”

~~~ Rachel Maddow opened her show last night showing New Yorkers giving Trump the finger as his limo passed by & booing Trump before the Knicks game got underway. She goes on to highlight other Trump scandals, like his attempt to undermine the California elections. And the intrepid explorers Jared & Ivanka's "discovery" (Land ho! Move over, Columbus!) of the tiny Albanian island/bird sanctuary of Sazan and the pink flamingo protests Javanka's purchase & development plans have engendered. You can watch this pirated copy here, or if it gets taken down, elsewhere on YouTube with a quick search for "Rachel Maddow." ~~~

~~~ Update: MS NOW just posted part of Maddow's opening segment where she shares the crowds' reactions to Trump & also discusses the brawl scheduled to take place June 14 on the White House lawn: ~~~

In Other Sports News, Joyce Vance reports that Judge Amit Mehta is moving at "lightning speed for a court" on the lawsuit requesting emergency relief from the White House lawn UFC cage fight scheduled to celebrate Trump's 80th birthday." Vance says she will keep abreast of the case & report updates.

Marie: Margaret Sullivan had the same reaction I did (see yesterday's Reality Chex) to the Times' reporting on the hissy-fit Trump threw when NBC News' Kristen Welker fact-checked him: “Trump — who talked over [Welker] boorishly for much of the interview — had no actual answer for [her] reasonable questions, so he resorted to insult and then abruptly walked out.... It was a shameful performance, and in some cases, the news media paid it little mind. The New York Times, for instance, gave the abrupt departure a single line in the eighth paragraph of its story about the interview: 'Mr. Trump eventually ended the wide-ranging interview after being repeatedly pressed by Ms. Welker about claiming, without evidence, that recent elections in California were rigged.'... The Washington Post, by contrast, gave prominent display to an article all about Trump’s temper tantrum.... It’s awful ... to see the president of the United States becoming so abusive and pushing lie after lie.” ~~~

~~~ Sullivan also provides this gift link to Lulu Garcia-Navarro's interview of Scott Pelley in the Times Magazine. I linked the report of the interview yesterday, but I did not provide a gift link. Sullivan recommends your reading the interview, and I recommend your reading Sullivan's post.

Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has defined his career in politics with displays of dominance and control. But in the Middle East, he faces a rolling crisis that keeps thwarting those impulses. On Sunday, Mr. Trump lashed out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling The Financial Times that the Israeli leader 'won’t have any choice' but to accept a U.S.-negotiated deal with Iran. 'I call all the shots,' he said. But early Monday, Mr. Trump was still trying to rein in Mr. Netanyahu, writing on social media just after 5:30 a.m.: 'Israel and Iran must immediately stop “shooting.”’... Mr. Trump is grappling with his own version of the sort of Middle East military quagmire that beset his predecessors — and that he promised to avoid. (On Sunday, Mr. Trump tried to deny that he had ever made such a pledge, telling NBC News that 'I don’t like these endless wars' but also that 'this is not an endless war.') He won a tactical reprieve on Monday when Iran and Israel both said they would hold their fire after their first strikes on each other since April.”

Marie: When Donald Trump was floundering around looking for way to justify his "little excursion" into Iran, one he didn't mention was, "So my family & friends can make money." And major media, with the evidence in front of them, didn't mention that motivating factor, either. ~~~

~~~ Judd Legum of Popular Information: “... according to CBS News, the Trump administration is pursuing a plan to 'use Iranian assets to help U.S. Gulf allies recover from damage caused by Tehran’s regime during the Iran war.'... The initiative, Bloomberg reports, 'risks further chilling negotiations....' The move to divert Iran’s frozen assets to other nations highlights the acute conflict of interest between [Jared] Kushner’s dual role as a top negotiator for the Trump administration and the private equity manager of $6.2 billion in funds from foreign governments. Many of the potential top recipients of frozen Iranian assets — including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar — are also Kushner’s top investors at his private equity firm, Affinity Partners.... The idea that Kushner can repeatedly represent the United States in high stakes international negotiations and retain his status as a volunteer is not consistent with the Department of Justice’s longstanding interpretation of the law.... Coverage of the Trump administration’s plans to transfer Iranian assets in CBS News, Bloomberg, Reuters, Fortune, and CNBC did not include any discussion of Kushner’s dual role. This is part of a broader pattern of the media ignoring or downplaying his historic conflict of interest.”

Jonathan Swan & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “For ... [Donald] Trump, any Democratic election victory is suspicious on its face.... 'Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the L.A. runoffs after the big lead he had,' Mr. Trump wrote on social media on Monday. '3rd World Nation.' On election night last Tuesday, Mr. Pratt — the reality-television personality and Trump-endorsed Republican — led the progressive city councilwoman Nithya Raman for second place to advance to November’s mayoral runoff.... But as election officials spent the following week counting late-arriving mail ballots, which were disproportionately from Democrats, Ms. Raman edged ahead of Mr. Pratt. On Monday evening, The Associated Press said that she had indeed prevailed.... By baselessly framing Ms. Raman’s rise as a Democratic scam, Mr. Trump extended his long-running project to erode public faith in elections — and gave an unusually clear preview of how he could greet any disappointing results for his party in November, when control of Congress is at stake.” Related stories about the L.A. mayor race linked under “California” below.

Kyle Cheney of Politico: “A federal judge has blocked ... Donald Trump’s bid to slap a $100,000 fee on employers who seek to hire foreign workers for specialized roles, labeling the policy an unauthorized 'tax' that required congressional approval. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin concluded that the president’s proposed payments for so-called H-1B visa applications, part of a September 2025 proclamation quickly implemented by the State Department and Department of Homeland Security, violated the separation of powers.” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times report is here.

George Chidi of the Guardian: “Donald Trump nominated Todd Blanche to serve permanently as attorney general on Monday, lining up his former personal lawyer to be the country’s ⁠top ⁠law ⁠enforcement officer.... Under Blanche, federal prosecutors have pursued a series of controversial actions, including the unveiling of criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director, representing an escalation of its investigation into former CIA director, John Brennan, and the removal of press releases about prosecutions of rioters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6. Blanche’s close personal connection to the president has been fodder for Democratic attacks.... As an important Trump ally in the department, Blanche also played a key role in the effort to create a $1.8bn secretive fund to compensate Trump’s allies, as part of the administration’s broader policy attacking the 'weaponization' of the justice department. Blanche also signed the justice department memo attached to the anti-weaponization settlement permanently blocking the IRS from auditing or pursuing past tax claims against ... [Donald] Trump, his sons, and the Trump Organization.” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here. ~~~

~~~ All the President*'s Men. Meagan Vazquez of the Washington Post: “... Trump has selected fewer women to serve in these senior roles than during the same period of his first term. There also has been a historic amount of turnover among women in Trump’s Cabinet.... Every departure has been a woman — with a man chosen to replace each of them.”MB: Yes but, to be fair, the women Trump chose, when compared to the men he chose, are equally stupid, bigoted, cruel, mean-spirited & incompetent.

Speaking of all the president*'s men, Paul Krugman weaves together diverse facts & trends to demonstrate that "a combination of big money and fragile male egos drives Green Derangement Syndrome. And the same is true for both the Iran debacle and the refusal to learn from the catastrophe by turning to Ukraine."

Of Course They Did. Molly Redden & Avi Asher-Schapiro of ProPublica: "Trump administration officials earlier this year killed a federal criminal investigation into the coal empire owned by Sen. Jim Justice, a Republican from West Virginia and a close ally of the president’s. The investigation examined potential criminal violations of the Clean Water Act by the multistate mining operations largely run by Justice’s son, Jay, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter. The criminal probe was a significant escalation in the yearslong effort to police serial pollution offenses by Virginia-based Southern Coal and dozens of affiliated mining operations controlled by the family.

"In the past decade, Southern Coal and other Justice corporations have racked up tens of thousands of alleged violations of the Clean Water Act and have been sued repeatedly by state and federal prosecutors over their failure to properly follow environmental laws at their mining sites. The investigation shuttered by the Trump administration was a joint effort by prosecutors and investigators with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Justice’s Environmental Crimes Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Virginia to probe whether the incessant violations of antipollution laws had risen to the level of criminal behavior, people familiar with the matter said. People familiar with the investigation told ProPublica that prosecutors believed they had a strong case." (Also linked yesterday.)

Raquel Uribe & Tara Prindiville of NBC News: “Vice President JD Vance announced Monday that he is referring Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison — both Democrats — to the Justice Department for a criminal fraud investigation involving social services programs.... Vance wrote on X ... that his referral was prompted by a letter and a report from the Republican-led House Oversight Committee.... Vance was named head of the task force in February after ... Donald Trump announced a 'war on fraud' in his State of the Union address. Shortly after that announcement, Vance and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz said they were pausing federal Medicaid reimbursements to Minnesota.... The Justice Department launched a probe into Walz and Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey in January, alleging they conspired to impede federal immigration enforcement through public statements.”

Michelle Boorstein & Sammy Westfall of the Washington Post: “The Defense Department on Monday edited its new list of religious 'codes' for service members so that no group is labeled 'Christian' — drawing praise from Mormon lawmakers who were angered last week when their faith was categorized as outside of Christianity. On Friday, the Pentagon released a new, dramatically pared-down list of religious groups. It classified groups including Catholic, evangelical and Methodist, among others, with the tag: 'Christian.' The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was listed without the tag. After the outcry from several leaders who are members of the Mormon Church, the revised list simply states religious groups, without adding the tag 'Christian' to any.” (Also linked yesterday.) Politico's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Heather Cox Richardson incorporates the list editions into an essay on James Madison's belief that the new nation must protect freedom of conscience. She also hits on Sen. Mike Lee's (R-Utah) strenuous objections to the Pentagon's decision to characterize Mormons as non-Christians. Jennifer Welch voices a highly-partisan, but fairly accurate take on the Pentagon's recognized religions list. The segment on the LDS church begins at 1:53 minutes in.

“Grotesque Stupidity.” Ashifa Kassam of the Guardian (June 7): “The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has been accused by historians and rights campaigners of 'grotesque stupidity' and desecrating the memory of the soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy after he sought to link immigration to the D-day anniversary, saying Europe was facing a different 'invasion' of its shores.... The English historian, author and television presenter Simon Schama described them as a 'special kind of loathsomeness: a blend of historical deafness, grotesque stupidity and comically ludicrous self-importance'.... Hours before Hegseth’s speech, the US vice-president, JD Vance, also waded into the matter with a social media post that blamed immigration for the killing of Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old British student stabbed in the UK. Nowak’s killer, a British-born Sikh, was convicted of murder and jailed for life with a minimum of 21 years.” ~~~

~~~ Grotesque Stupidity. Michael Shear of the New York Times: “The stabbing death of an 18-year-old college student in an English port city has become the latest flashpoint in a debate over policing, racism and Britain’s deteriorating relationship with the United States. Vice President JD Vance claimed in a social media post on Friday that the murder of Henry Nowak last year by Vickrum Digwa, 23, was evidence that 'European elites' had failed to oppose the 'politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants.'... Mr. Vance’s intervention has been met with a fierce response by British government officials, who noted that Mr. Digwa was not an immigrant. A spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused Mr. Vance of trying to 'interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets.'”

Eric Schmitt, et al., of the New York Times: “A U.S. Army Apache helicopter gunship went down near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, and the two crew members were safely rescued.... It was not immediately clear whether the Apache was shot down by Iranian fire, experienced mechanical failure or encountered some other problem.... The incident occurred after days in which hostilities in the region escalated and then ebbed, as Israel and Iran exchanged military strikes before stepping back, the latest example of the tenuous nature of the cease-fire.... [Donald] Trump told reporters early Tuesday that the crew members were fine. He did not provide further details, saying that a report on the incident would be issued soon.”

Andrew Ackerman of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration came to Washington last year seeking to shutter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the watchdog agency that had survived industry anger, Republican opposition and years of legal challenges. A year in..., [after] courts blocked the administration’s attempts to lay off almost all of its staff..., a much smaller bureau is still standing and has been remade to advance the president’s political goals. The bureau has begun to probe a class of smaller, mostly nonprofit lenders that Russell Vought, the acting director of the bureau, has characterized as unduly 'woke.' On Friday, the bureau issued guidance that could make it harder for immigrants in the country illegally to obtain mortgages and credit cards. Meanwhile, the bureau’s public website invites consumers to complain if they have been refused service — or de-banked' — for political or religious reasons, reflecting a priority of the administration and its allies in the conservative movement and the crypto industry.”

Madeleine Ngo of the New York Times: “The Trump administration said on Monday that it was seeking to strip the citizenship of 17 immigrants, escalating its aggressive push to find and expel people who federal officials say improperly obtained U.S. citizenship. The Justice Department said it filed the denaturalization cases in district courts across the country, targeting people who were accused of concealing previous crimes or committing fraud during the naturalization process. Although denaturalization cases have been rare, the Trump administration has vowed to use every tool at its disposal to root out immigrants who it believes should be stripped of their status and removed from the country. The push to denaturalize more immigrants is also the latest sign that the administration is setting its sights on the legal immigration system, expanding the focus of its crackdown beyond people living in the country unlawfully.”

Ana Ley & Mark Bonamo of the New York Times: “Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey on Monday was allowed to visit Delaney Hall, a detention center in Newark that has drawn protests for two weeks after immigrants inside complained about inhumane living conditions. Ms. Sherrill described the visit as closely controlled and limited, and she said she was not permitted to meet with or speak directly with detainees. 'That is unacceptable,' Ms. Sherrill said in a prepared statement. Ms. Sherrill, a Democrat, said that she would continue to ask for a more thorough inspection of the center, including a visit by the state’s Department of Health. The New Jersey attorney general has sued the center’s operator, Geo Group, which is one of the largest private prison operators in the United States. The attorney general is asking that state health inspectors be given full access to the facility.”

Gregory Barber of the New York Times: An AI system solved a complex mathematical problem that a team of six mathematicians had been working on for two years. “Gauss is an artificial intelligence system built by Math, Inc., a California start-up. It had taken the team’s road map for formalizing [the solution] ... and completed it in just five days. While A.I. is popularly associated with stumbles in arithmetic (like ChatGPT’s meme-worthy failure to correctly count the number of R’s in the word strawberry), technology companies have poured vast resources into reasoning systems that can solve open math problems.... >For the thousands of graduate students in the United States currently envisioning their futures in pure math, and who learn the craft through many of the same skills and problems that A.I. is beginning to master, dire prognostications can be hard to avoid.... In early June, a global group of mathematicians published a declaration acknowledging the benefits of A.I. while also urging caution. The mathematicians are concerned about A.I. companies’ unwillingness to reveal basic insights into their methods, failure to properly credit human authors and eagerness to conflate mathematical prowess with the idea of machine superintelligence.”

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California. Los Angeles Mayoral Race. Shawn Hubler of the New York Times: “Nithya Raman, a progressive Democrat who has drawn comparisons to New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, will face Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles in a two-person race in November, The Associated Press determined on Monday. Ms. Raman, 44, a City Council member and former Bass ally, was behind in the initial vote count but came back in later returns to edge out Spencer Pratt, a Republican reality TV star who lost his home in the 2025 wildfires that devastated Pacific Palisades, a wealthy coastal enclave. Mr. Pratt had jumped out to an early lead in a field of more than a dozen contenders, in part because Republicans, who make up about 15 percent of the city’s electorate, had coalesced behind him. But his margin shrank as ballots from thousands of liberals who voted closer to Election Day were processed.” The AP report is here. ~~~

~~~ Melanie Mason, et al., of Politico: “Social media sites, particularly X, were awash with conspiracy theories about Nithya Raman’s surge since Election Day.... The cheating fixation persists, in no small part because it’s amplified by the most powerful man in the world. Trump said during an interview on Meet the Press on Sunday the California elections were rigged — as well as repeating his baseless claims about the 2020 presidential election being fraudulent — before he abruptly ended his interview with Kristen Welker and walked out. [Gov. Gavin] Newsom’s press office declared the outburst 'the most severe case of California Derangement Syndrome we’ve ever seen.'” ~~~

~~~ John Light of TPM: “The particularly Trumpy top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, Bill Essayli, made his entrance into the fever swamps on Friday, noting that his office has 'multiple election fraud investigations underway' — though he did, in a separate social media post late that night, attempt to debunk a specific, absurd claim circulating online: that Pratt got 'zero votes' in one ballot drop.... And on Monday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson opined that the election 'stinks to high heaven.'”

Texas Senate Race. An Unusual Endorsement. Stephen Neukam of NOTUS: “A Texas lawyer who helped lead Republican Ken Paxton’s defense during his 2023 impeachment trial is endorsing Democrat James Talarico in the state’s critical Senate race this November. Dan Cogdell, a Houston-based defense lawyer who represented the Texas attorney general in both the impeachment trial and a long-running securities fraud case, told NOTUS in a statement that his former client 'has lost sight of his core mission, which is to represent the people of Texas.... And unlike Ken, I believe to my core that James Talarico believes in unity over division and that he knows how to assemble not only Democrats, but Independents and Republicans, and we need that right now.'... Cogdell has donated a total of $6,500 to Paxton’s campaign last year and then gave $1,000 to Talarico’s campaign in March, according to campaign finance reports.” The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday.

June 8, 2026

George Chidi of the Guardian: “Donald Trump nominated Todd Blanche to serve permanently as attorney general on Monday, lining up his former personal lawyer to be the country’s ⁠top ⁠law ⁠enforcement officer.... Under Blanche, federal prosecutors have pursued a series of controversial actions, including the unveiling of criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director, representing an escalation of its investigation into former CIA director, John Brennan, and the removal of press releases about prosecutions of rioters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6. Blanche’s close personal connection to the president has been fodder for Democratic attacks.... As an important Trump ally in the department, Blanche also played a key role in the effort to create a $1.8bn secretive fund to compensate Trump’s allies, as part of the administration’s broader policy attacking the 'weaponization' of the justice department. Blanche also signed the justice department memo attached to the anti-weaponization settlement permanently blocking the IRS from auditing or pursuing past tax claims against President Trump, his sons, and the Trump Organization.”

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At Long Last, Welker Did Her Job. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump stormed out of a Meet the Press interview Sunday — after moderator Kristen Welker repeatedly fact-checked his claims on a variety of topics including; Jan. 6, his 'anti-weaponization' fund, and election fraud. The heated six-minute final block of the interview began with Welker pressing Trump about the $1.8 billion 'anti-weaponization' fund he continues to promote — despite his administration officially abandoning its efforts to launch the fund. Welker pressed — attempting to confirm that Trump is indeed throwing in the towel.” The rest of Christopher's report lays out the dialog, including his repeated insults of Welker, a woman of color. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Katie Rogers of the New York Times: Donald “Trump, who campaigned on a central promise to keep the United States out of overseas wars, denied in an interview aired on Sunday that he’d ever made the pledge.... Mr. Trump eventually ended the wide-ranging interview after being repeatedly pressed by Ms. Welker about claiming, without evidence, that recent elections in California were rigged.” (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

~~~ Marie: Well, thank you, Ms. Rogers, for that exemplary job of first-class sane-washing. Yes, Trump did "eventually end" the interview. He did it after repeatedly shouting at Welker in a rage, interrupting her, insulting her and the network, lying to her again and again, then tearing off his mic & tossing it on the ground, struggling to stand up, grabbing Welker's shoulder to steady himself, then lumbering off, stoop-shouldered, in a huff. This is not serious reporting. Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post does a much better -- i.e., more honest and accurate -- job of reporting Trump's meltdown. ~~~

~~~ I don't believe we would be in the horrible mess we're in if not for "journalists" like Rogers, if not for White House staff, if not for family & friends, and if not for members of Congress who never stop indulging Trump's lies. If you watch the interview embedded above, I think you'll agree that Trump seems to believe his own ludicrous, long-disproved assertions. That's at least partly because no one ever challenges him to his face. When Welker confronts him with a couple of well-established facts, he is outraged. He calls her "either crooked or stupid." He's a monster, but everyone who gets near him aids & abets his monstrous behavior. ~~~

~~~ Heather Cox Richardson noticed, “Weirdly, [Trump] kept referring to the U.S. as 'your' country when he was speaking to Welker, and to 'your' elections. It was almost as if he was a foreign observer offering criticism of the U.S.” Marie: So this fits rather neatly into my mostly-facetious theory that Trump is a foreign agent, either because some foreign entity (say, Putin) is blackmailing him or -- more likely --because there are payoffs for his agency. To be candid, I would not be slightly surprised if it turned out that Trump had a network of overseas friends with benefits, not because he is anti-American but because he lacks any moral compass whatsoever. Whatever it is (okay, within some unknown limits), if there's something in it for Trump, he'll do it.

~~~ Jane Timm of NBC News: "Throughout the interview..., Trump made a series of false, misleading or exaggerated comments. NBC News reporters dug into some of the president’s remarks. Here are the facts behind the claims." ~~~

~~~ The "Red Mirage." Marie: Here's why the Lying Liar Who Lies insisted to Welker that the California election was "rigged" and why he has sent Department of Injustice thugs out to "investigate" the election. More often than not, late-counted votes favor Democratic/liberal voters. Unlike Republican voters, Democrats have no fear and loathing of mail-in ballots. For obvious reasons, it takes longer to hand-count mail-in ballots than it does to automatically tabulate voting machine results. So mail-in ballots are reported later. These later-counted votes that move reported totals from Republican candidates to Democrats (as from Trump to Biden in 2020) have caused Trump either to believe or to say he believes that it's "not fair" to count votes after midnight on election night. (This, again, is as aspect of his babyish peek-a-boo belief that if you cover your eyes nobody can see you): ~~~

~~~ Shawn Hubler of the New York Times: “Nithya Raman, a progressive member of the Los Angeles City Council, pulled ahead of the reality TV star Spencer Pratt in the Los Angeles mayoral primary on Sunday, as a surge in the vote count signaled a potential shift in the race for second place. Five days after the election deadline, it remained officially undetermined who will face Mayor Karen Bass, the incumbent, in the November contest to decide who will lead the nation’s second most populous city. The Associated Press, which estimates that about 80 percent of the vote has been counted, has not determined a winner. But late returns have trended heavily in favor of the liberals who make up an overwhelming majority of the city’s electorate. Ms. Bass, 72, a former Democratic congresswoman who has already advanced to the November runoff, remained in the lead with 34.7 percent of the vote, according to the updated tally released by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office.” The NBC News report is here. MB: Trump endorsed Pratt, who is MAGA-esque.

Sean James of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump said Israel has 'no choice' but to accept whatever peace deal he strikes with Iran during an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday. The president said Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu — his longtime ally and friend — has no say in the matter, either. 'I call the shots. I call all the shots,' Trump told FT. '[Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots.'” MB: Really, Donald? Scroll on down to the bottom of today's page. You'll find that Bibi is not the obedient servant of our Dear Leader.

From the Chronicles of Emperor Donaldo I, Ctd. Gloria Oladipo of the Guardian: “Donald Trump is reportedly weighing a plan to buy the Chagos Islands from Mauritius amid stalled plans from the UK to cede sovereignty of the territory, the Telegraph first reported.... Under the reported proposal, the Trump administration would sidestep UK officials and purchase the island, securing control of the US-UK Diego Garcia military base. The island, however, would first have to be made sovereign, allowing the US to negotiate its purchase with Mauritius directly, the Telegraph reported. Previous legislation to hand the islands to Mauritius were shelved in April after the US removed its support of the deal.” Oracle of the North: I am seeing a huge -- but "eco-sensitive" -- Trump-Kushner resort in the Chagos' future.

Zach Montague of the New York Times: “A political activist and a Vietnam veteran represented by an anti-corruption organization filed a lawsuit on Saturday challenging what it called the 'night of cage fights' that ... [Donald] Trump planned to hold at the White House as part of the celebration of the country’s 250th anniversary. The case was filed just over a week before the event, which is scheduled for June 14 and is being organized by the mixed-martial arts promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship. The White House has been overshadowed in recent weeks by the construction of the venue for the fights, which includes a 600-ton steel arch on the South Lawn. The lawsuit argues that the transformation of the grounds was never authorized by Congress, and that the event will serve as an extraordinary use of government space to benefit both the chief executive of U.F.C., Dana White, and Mr. Trump, who is an investor in U.F.C.’s parent company.... Beyond the procedural claims that the lawsuit skipped an environmental review and took over federal spaces for an event without the approval of Congress, the case focuses heavily on questions of improper financial gains.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Marie: I don't suppose this suit doesn't stand much of a chance, but a temporary restraining order -- one that ran at least through the 14th -- would be sweet. After all, there's no possible "national security" pretense that the White House must host a cage fight on Trump's birthday.

Sean James of Mediaite: “Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for ripping the 'invasion' of Europe by Muslim immigrants during a speech honoring D-Day veterans, with the Texas conservative calling it 'inappropriate.'... 'Well, as the son of a D-Day veteran, look, there’s a time and place for these issues of immigration,' McCaul told ['This Week'] co-host Martha Raddatz. 'That was not the day, the anniversary of D-Day.'”

First, Do No Harm? Hah! Do Nothing But Harm. Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: “[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] has shown little interest in managing the details of work in his department, according to multiple colleagues. Instead, they say, he is single-mindedly focused on his top priorities, including food recommendations and pesticide exposures, and hunting for evidence to support his long-held beliefs that vaccines are harmful. Deeply mistrustful of career civil officials, the secretary has surrounded himself with a close circle of handpicked advisers and stacked agencies with political appointees aligned with his views. While major posts have sat vacant and a wave of veteran health experts and scientists have departed, Mr. Kennedy has remained isolated from much of the department’s top staff. He rarely engages with members of Congress, colleagues said, unless he is asked to testify. He has made just one known visit to the C.D.C., after a gunman opened fire on its headquarters and killed a police officer last August.”

Lulu Garcia-Navarro of the New York Times Magazine interviews Scott Pelley in his first sit-down interview since CBS News fired him. Includes video of the interview. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Adeel Hassan of the New York Times extracts five "takeaways" from the Pelley interview.

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Iran/Israel., et al. Lior Soroka & Sammy Westfall of the Washington Post: “Israel said it struck military targets in Iran, hours after Tehran fired a barrage of missiles toward the country for the first time since a ceasefire took effect in early April. The exchange of fire threatened to further complicate efforts to broker a lasting peace deal to end the months-long U.S.-Israeli war with Tehran and raised the prospect of a return to open conflict. The Israeli Air Force hit sites in western and central Iran, its military said on social media early Monday local time, without providing further details. Iran’s attack on Sunday followed Israeli military strikes on what Israel said were suspected Hezbollah positions in Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier in the day.” The AP's report is here. ~~~

~~~ Marie: My, my. Looks as if Bibi is not following Donald's instructions: ~~~

~~~ Barak Ravid of Axios: Donald "Trump will call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and press him not to retaliate for Iran's missile attack, Trump tells Axios. 'I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate. Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike, and Iran had its strike. We don't need another one,' Trump said."