Julie Bosman of the New York Times: “It took more than a decade of planning, a messy court battle with preservationists and years of plodding construction, but the Obama Presidential Center was finally unveiled on the South Side of Chicago on Thursday. The opening itself was a star-studded party, concert and celebration, the rare event that drew four former presidents standing together onstage — George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joseph R. Biden Jr., along with Barack Obama himself. (An invitation was not extended to ... [Donald] Trump, who recently compared the center to a trash heap.) The Roots kicked off the event; Christina Aguilera gave a rendition of 'What a Wonderful World;' Bruce Springsteen sang 'Land of Hope and Dreams.'...
“On the morning of the opening, under sunny skies, Chicagoans unfolded lawn chairs and blankets to watch on a giant screen from the grassy expanse of the Midway Plaisance, blocks from the museum. And hundreds of invited guests gathered at the museum next to the 225-foot granite-covered tower that is sometimes called the Obamalisk. They included former Vice President Kamala Harris; Representative Nancy Pelosi of California; Gov. Gavin Newsom of California; foreign dignitaries; and a who’s-who of Chicago boldface names. (Both Stephen Colbert, the former late-night host, and Martin Nesbitt, the board chair of the Obama Foundation, wore tan suits in a winking homage to Mr. Obama.)” (Also linked yesterday.)
Julie Bosman of the New York Times: “At the grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on Thursday, former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama delivered speeches before a crowd of international dignitaries, elected officials and Democratic supporters.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
Video of President Obama's full speech is here.
The Men in the Tan Suits. Jacob Gallagher of the New York Times: “The dress code did not call for khaki, but nonetheless, the tan suits were out in full force for the glittery opening of Barack Obama’s presidential library in Chicago on Thursday. David Letterman, Stephen Colbert and the Obama Foundation board chairman, Martin Nesbitt, all arrived at the event in same-same khaki suits. The men’s suits, of course, alluded to Obama’s notorious tan suit, which he wore in August 2014 at a news conference about the United States’ response to the Islamic State. Whatever Obama said that day about the goings-on in Syria is lost to popular memory. Instead, it was the tan outfit that drew all the attention and hand-wringing.... Coverage lasted for days, and the tan suit controversy received its own, quite thorough Wikipedia page.... As for Obama’s actual tan suit, it is not on display in the library. The former president gave it away.”
~~~~~~~~~~
The New York Times is liveblogging developments in the Iran War. From the pinned item at 5:15 am ET: “The preliminary deal to end the war between the United States and Iran faced fresh challenges on Friday after Switzerland said the next phase of talks had been postponed and Israel launched new strikes in Lebanon. Vice President JD Vance had been expected to fly to Switzerland for talks with Iranian officials but the White House said late Thursday that his trip had been delayed.... At a news conference on Thursday, Mr. Vance issued an unusually direct rebuke to Israeli critics of the deal. 'Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time,' he said. 'If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.' Israel is not a party to the U.S.-Iran talks, and its fighting with the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has threatened to derail the agreement.... A wave of deadly attacks in southern Lebanon on Friday showed that the fighting there was far from over.” ~~~
~~~ Barak Ravid of Axios: "Vice President Vance on Thursday issued a blunt warning to members of the Israeli government who have been attacking the deal with Iran: ... [Donald] Trump is the only friend you have left, and it would be unwise to cross him." ~~~
~~~ Ferdinand Knapp of Politico: “Tehran and Washington have postponed the direct talks to hammer out the details of their tentative agreement to end the war in Iran, Switzerland’s Foreign Ministry announced on Friday.”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of the New York Times: “Vice President JD Vance on Thursday defended the preliminary deal to stop the war with Iran as a 'win for the American people.' But he relied in part on a string of aspirational, vague and misleading claims about the agreement. Mr. Vance, speaking at the White House, sought to counter criticism that the deal would reward and embolden Iran without ensuring that the United States achieved the main objectives laid out by ... [Donald] Trump at the start of the fighting.... But he sought to divert attention from the text of the memorandum of understanding released by the two sides on Wednesday, which appeared to give Iran a number of immediate benefits.... Here is a look at the vice president’s main arguments in favor of the deal [MB: alongside the facts, which do not align with Mr. Vance's assertions].”
Leo Shane & Connor O'Brien of Politico: “Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker ... is among a chorus of influential Republicans to criticize the nascent deal. The Trump administration sent the 14-point document to Congress on Thursday.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Alex Nguyen of Mother Jones: Many Republicans across the right are bashing [the] interim deal between the US-Iran as an unnecessary surrender.... Trump seems to be aware of the dissatisfaction from his own party, stating that the deal isn’t 'final,' he may resume bombing if Iran doesn’t 'behave,' and that Vice President JD Vance — and definitely not the president — is responsible for the negotiated deal.... 'In my opinion, the Vice President of the United States, the chief negotiator on this particular project, has not well served the president,' [far-right commentator Ben] Shapiro concluded.” The link appears to be a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)
David Halbfinger of the New York Times: “Israel awoke to a frightening new reality on Thursday as it absorbed, with disbelief and largely in silence, the terms of ... [Donald] Trump’s preliminary agreement to end the war with Iran. It accomplishes none of Israel’s war aims, analysts and officials said, and arguably leaves the country in worse shape on each of them.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Barak Ravid of Axios: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was silent on Wednesday as ... [Donald] Trump released and signed a deal that Israeli officials see as a strategic and political disaster.... Netanyahu promised the Israeli public 'total victory' in Iran. He had to settle for Trump's memorandum of understanding — and frequent criticism from the president, all four months before an election.... There will be no repeat of Netanyahu's address to Congress in 2015 to rally opposition to then-President Obama's Iran deal. Netanyahu can't even go on cable news and bluntly oppose the deal, unless he wants a fight with Trump." (Also linked yesterday.)
Zeeshan Aleem of MS NOW: "Iran has become a lose-lose wedge issue for ... Donald Trump; there’s no way he can get around alienating part of his coalition over it. When he launched his war on Iran, he infuriated the isolationist wing of his party who believed his promise that he’d start 'no new wars.' Now his scramble to end the same war is alienating the hawkish sector of his party — who believe that Trump’s agreement with Iran to end the conflict looks like a humiliating surrender." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Oh, that can't possibly be true. Because ~~~
~~~ “Unconditional Surrender.” Michael Luciano of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump told Marc Caputo of Axios on Thursday that the U.S. had bombarded Iran into 'unconditional surrender.'” MB: So I guess all the generous giveaways to Iran in the MoU are just that -- giveaways that were totally unnecessary because Iran has cried uncle and accepted that its fate lies in the hands of Donald the Great. Pocketa-pocketa.
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| This is the Pool Guy. Really. |
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| That is not the fin of a blue shark emerging from the Reflecting Pond. That is about $100K worth of $14MM in "American blue" coating that has peeled off the the bottom of the pool. |
~~~ Alex Woodward of the Independent: “Days after an algae bloom turned the newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool into a green-tinted swamp, flaps of recently applied 'American flag blue' paint are bubbling on the surface. The
shallow pool, which Donald Trump repeatedly promotes as “bigger than
skyscrapers,” was refurbished with a shade of dark blue and outfitted
with 'advanced nanobubbler technology' to tackle algae blooms that have long plagued the landmark. But shortly after workers refilled the pool, the algae returned. Now, a section of recently applied sealant in the Trump-requested blue hue is starting to peel.” Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead.
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has transferred about $350 million from the Secret Service to White House security upgrades as ... [Donald] Trump builds a luxury ballroom on the grounds with a secure military bunker underneath. Two transfers, of $340.8 million and $10.75 million, were made last week, according to the Office of Management and Budget.” The Guardian's story is here. MB: These stories don't add much to a Washington Post story I gift-linked a couple of days ago. The ballroom itself is a major scandal, and the unsurprising discovery that Trump lied every time he claimed taxpayers wouldn't pay a thin dime for it should be enough to shut down the vanity project of all vanity projects.
The New York Times Review of Books about Trump
Tim Balk of the New York Times: “'Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,' a new book by two New York Times reporters, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan..., set to be released on Tuesday, describes Mr. Trump’s relentless, norm-shattering efforts to bend the federal government, cultural institutions and news cycles to his will.... After Mr. Trump won the 2024 election, the book says, he reveled in the ways that tech leaders who had once scorned him were now 'kissing my ass.'... Mr. Trump likes to poll allies [including Rupert Murdoch] on whether they prefer his vice president, [JD] Vance, or his secretary of state, Marco Rubio.... Trump wanted revenge against those he felt had wronged him — even when he couldn’t remember their names [like Chris Krebs, Trump's cybersecurity director, whose misdeed was to say the 2020 election was fair].... The Trumps have eagerly profited from the presidency.... Trump enjoyed comparisons of his power to that of Mao and Genghis Khan.” Oh, and Trump personally super-glued some of those hideous gold-painted geegaws to the marble fireplace. MB: He should have been arrested for defacing public property. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Daniel Lippman of Politico: “... Donald Trump was angry with Vice President JD Vance last summer after he failed to parrot Trump’s declaration that Iran’s nuclear weapons program was 'totally obliterated,' according to a new book [by] Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.... 'Trump told one associate, “Everyone needs to say fucking 'obliterated.' … That’s the word. Everyone just needs to copy what I say. Obliterated. Obliterated.”’... The book recounts that Trump snapped at Vance 'I know what I’m doing' when the vice president suggested that he soften some of a speech he was making [the night after the first strikes]....” ~~~
~~~ Alex Griffing of Mediaite: “Hugo Lowell, who covers the Trump White House for WIRED, published shocking new details from Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s upcoming book on how tech titans Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos tried to suck up to Donald Trump, only to get 'mocked' by the president and Elon Musk behind their backs.... Here are some takeaways from the book[.]” ~~~
~~~ Will Weissert of the AP: “The book spells out a thesis that Trump himself believes: Had he not lost the 2020 election, he would not be as powerful in his second term as he is now — emboldening him to trample norms, dismantle established institutions and push the limits of presidential power. ~~~
~~~ Kathryn Wilkins of Mediaite: “An excerpt from The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s upcoming book, published on Thursday by the Daily Mail, revealed that White House staff allegedly needed to monitor ... Donald Trump’s trash after it was discovered that “he was sometimes throwing out” sterling silver utensils.... 'A nighttime snacker..., [Trump] would frequently leave an array of empty potato chip bags, Starbucks wrappers, and ice cream cartons in the trash, or on the floor,' they wrote.... Also in the Daily Mail exclusive, the pair describe his intense interest in redecorating his private living space — at times competing with First Lady Melania Trump — and recount concerns among staff over a carpeted bathroom that allegedly required frequent attention. 'Once, when staff gently reminded the President that he was taking things from the Center Hall his wife had personally selected, he made clear he didn’t care,' they wrote. 'He seemed almost to be competing with her – determined to have the better room.'” The Daily Mail story is firewalled. ~~~
~~~ But, wait! Maybe Trump is a decent human being, after all. ~~~
~~~ Okay, No. Annie Karni of the New York Times: “'Glory, Grief and the Gavel,' a new book by a top aide to [former House Speaker Kevin] McCarthy, offer[s] a rare inside look at how Mr. Trump has kept his iron grip on congressional Republicans with a mix of political favors and raw intimidation. John Leganski, who managed the floor for Mr. McCarthy throughout his short and tumultuous tenure, gives a fly-on-the-wall account of the drama of his former boss’s once-in-a-century, 15-round floor fight to win the gavel, a battle that foreshadowed the deep dysfunction that has come to define the House under Republican control.... His real-time account of the arm-twisting sessions that Mr. Trump has employed for years to keep Republican lawmakers in line provides fresh insight into a familiar phenomenon that is seldom recounted on the record by someone who witnessed it firsthand.... [When McCarthy turned to Trump for help in securing the speakership,] Mr. Trump screamed expletives [at the holdouts and threatened to primary them]. (Also linked yesterday.)
The Freedom to Get Sick & Die for No Reason. Greg Jaffe & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “A major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. troops
would no longer be required to be vaccinated for the flu, defense
officials said. The outbreak at the
base in San Antonio raced through an Air Force Basic Military Training
wing, where new recruits sleep on bunk beds in open bays and share meals
at large communal tables. A trainee
in his sixth week of basic training died after falling ill on Friday
and being taken to Brooke Army Medical Center, the Air Force said in a
news release. It was not immediately clear whether the death of the
trainee, Keon McDaniel, was related to the flu outbreak.” The link appears to be a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)
They Really Don't Know What They're Doing. Hamed Aleazis of the New York Times: The idea was that “Immigration and Customs Enforcement would purchase more than a dozen empty warehouses across the United States to massively expand its capacity to detain people deemed to be in the country illegally, which in turn would spike deportations. A year into Mr. Trump’s term, it had bought 11 facilities at a cost of $1 billion. But in a major turnabout, the agency is planning to offload seven warehouses purchased for more than $700 million by either giving them to other federal agencies or selling them outright, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. The decision to sharply scale back the warehouse plan is a rejection of a signature initiative under the previous homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, who pushed the boundaries of what the government can do to aggressively round up potential deportees.... The agency appears to still be moving forward with four of the warehouses purchased for detention purposes.” The link appears to be a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “On the night of his arrest, Paul Johnson says he lay for hours in a hospital bed in Minneapolis, woozy from the pain pills and addled from the head blows he claims he received from federal agents. He was alone, he said, unable to communicate with anyone and strapped in place by the shackles on his leg.... Waking on a January morning, he tried to call his wife..., but the agents would not let him, according to court papers filed last week. When a nurse tried to sneak a phone into his room, he said, the agents stopped that too. Eventually, careful not to dislodge the I.V. in his arm, Mr. Johnson, a longtime progressive activist, reached out with his free leg and managed — with his toes — to hook the cord of a nearby landline. He dragged the receiver toward himself, he said, and quietly placed a call. By the end of the day, his lawyer finally arrived, finding him in a state of panicked isolation.... After The New York Times repeatedly over four days asked the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security about Mr. Johnson’s case, federal prosecutors suddenly moved to dismiss the charges he faced of assaulting federal officers during the protest.... Mr. Johnson’s story reflects what critics say is the aggressive nature of the Trump administration’s response to those who have protested its immigration crackdown, especially in Minnesota....”
Maxine Joselow of the New York Times: “The Trump administration is abandoning its plan to dismantle a $368 million ocean monitoring system critical to understanding climate change and marine ecosystems, bowing to a bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill. The National Science Foundation had said in May that it would begin removing hundreds of underwater instruments this month that collect data on coastal flooding, marine heat waves and other climate and weather events. But the agency announced on Thursday that it will pause efforts to take apart the system, known as the Ocean Observatories Initiative, while convening an expert panel to determine its future.” The link appears to be a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Zach Montague of the New York Times: “A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that the city of Philadelphia cannot prevent the federal government from removing references to slavery at Independence Historical Park in the city, delivering a sharp blow to the city’s efforts to maintain some control over the site. The ruling reversed a lower court, which had ordered the Trump administration to reinstall exhibits at a historic home where George Washington once lived after the city sued over the changes. The ruling handed significant authority over the historical district to the Trump administration, which had moved to scrub the references to slavery as part of ... [Donald] Trump’s effort to reshape how American history is portrayed at many federal monuments and institutions.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Maybe this will cheer up Trump. Nobody invited the No. 1 White Nationalist to the Real Presidents' Party in Chicago, but he does get to erase remembrances of some late-18th-century slaves. Great work, you disgraceful old goober!
Alexei Koseff & Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: “Mysteriously absent from Congress for much of the year, Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-New Jersey) will be back at work at the end of the month, a spokesman said Thursday.... Kean, in his second term representing an affluent swing district in northern New Jersey, has missed House votes since March 5 without providing a public explanation, other than that he is dealing with an unspecified 'personal medical issue.'” MB: My fervent hope is that the gentleman from New Jersey returns to work as a Congresswoman.
Lindsay Whitehurst of the AP: “The Supreme Court ruled Thursday against a broad federal ban on gun ownership by marijuana users, the latest in a line of firearm cases from a court that has expanded gun rights. The justices decided unanimously in favor of Ali Danial Hemani, a Texas man who argued that a law barring guns from anyone who regularly uses illegal drugs violates the Second Amendment.”
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Maine Gubernatorial Race. Jenna Russell of the New York Times: “Hannah Pingree, a former Maine House speaker who later worked on policy initiatives for Gov. Janet Mills and won her endorsement, won the state’s Democratic nomination for governor after a ranked-choice runoff, state officials said early Friday. She will face Bobby Charles, a conservative Republican and former State Department official. The runoff, a feature of Maine’s ranked-choice voting system, was necessary because none of the candidates in either primary received more than 50 percent of the vote.... Finally, in the early hours of Friday, a state official pushed a button, and a computer rapidly performed successive rounds of tabulations in which last-place candidates were eliminated and their votes were awarded to each voter’s next choice. That continued until one candidate, Ms. Pingree, received more than 50 percent.”
Maine House Race. Tim Balk & Bayliss Wagner of the New York Times: “State Auditor Matt Dunlap, a progressive Democrat, won the Democratic primary in northern Maine’s battleground House district early Friday, according to state election officials. The race call came 10 days after voters went to the polls. Elections officials tabulated second-choice votes under the state’s ranked-choice system after no candidate won more than 50 percent of the first-choice vote. Mr. Dunlap, 61, advanced out of a four-way primary that included a centrist state senator, Joe Baldacci, and a progressive former congressional staffer, Jordan Wood. Mr. Dunlap had narrowly trailed Mr. Baldacci in the initial count of first-place votes, but was lifted to victory by second-choice ballots.... Mr. Dunlap is set to face the Republican nominee, former Gov. Paul LePage, in the November general election.”
Washington, D.C. Mayoral Race. Jenny Gathright, et al., of the Washington Post: “Janeese Lewis George won the Democratic primary for D.C. mayor, the Associated Press projected, setting her up to become the first democratic socialist mayor of the nation’s capital and validating a campaign she built around workers’ rights and affordability.”
8 comments:
Jonathan Chait, for The Atlantic on the deal and GOP Strategy
""Yesterday, Donald Trump admitted that he was being crafty when he elevated J. D. Vance to sell the resolution of the war with Iran. “If it works out, I’m going to take the credit,” Trump said of the peace deal. “If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming J.D.”
Trump was smirking when he said this, but it was not a joke. Judging by the messaging emanating from across the Republican Party, letting the president claim victory while making the vice president own an obvious defeat is the GOP strategy.
Conservatives on the Hill are stunned that Vance would erase all of Trump’s military victories in such a terrible deal. Trump effectively won the war and at the 11th hour Vance is negotiating his way to a loss,” one unnamed congressional Republican told NewsNation’s Kellie Meyer. The conservative commentator Ben Shapiro complained, “The vice president of the United States, the chief negotiator on this particular project, has not well served the president.” On Fox News, Brian Kilmeade tentatively suggested, “I just wonder if the vice president, who was against this, by all reports was against the conflict to begin with, maybe he wasn’t the right person to bring this conflict to an end.”"
Graeme Wood, for The Atlantic, writes that Iran Has Humiliated Trump
"Normally one would have to pay a lot of money to a discreet professional to be humiliated this badly. Watching Trump and his aides sell the deal is in some ways as humiliating as the deal itself.
....
The humiliation is the point. Iran got the United States to sign a document that even Americans described as degrading, mortifying, a total capitulation.
...
The existence of an understanding, with humiliating terms for America, is a heap of symbolic and emotional capital that no Iranian regime has enjoyed since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Now it is time to see how Iran will use the dividends from this humiliation. The $300 billion in investments is hardly the biggest opportunity for Iran to cash in. "
"The Retreaty of Versailles"
ProPublica
"Before SpaceX IPO, Investors in China Secretly Acquired Stakes
A businessman with ties to Chinese military contractors was among the overseas investors who acquired stakes in SpaceX while it was still a private company. An entity linked to the Qatari royal family also took a stake.
The new details come from a private investor list obtained by ProPublica that sheds light on a particularly delicate issue for Elon Musk’s rocket company: which people in countries like China bought into the company, and how. SpaceX built its business off sensitive U.S. government work like making spy satellites for the Pentagon. While there is no ban on Chinese investment in U.S. military contractors, such investment is heavily regulated."
"Republicans Block Pentagon Investment Ban Aimed at Trump Family"
When is the last time Republicans made anything better?
"“Delayed Care, Preventable Suffering, Lives Lost”: Sen. Murphy Joined Protect Our Care to Sound the Alarm as 1,000 Hospitals and Clinics Nationwide Face Possible Closure or Cuts"
The crazy talk about his deal to negotiate a deal
"On Wednesday — the day Trump physically signed the deal to negotiate a deal — Trump knocked that 20 down to less than three years. In a largely overlooked passage — which, I’m not knocking anyone for overlooking it, there was a lot to underlook — Trump admitted that the deal his memo is understanding has no understanding of possible mechanisms to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapon other than bombing them.
So there ya have Trump’s nuclear deal with Iran:
No developing a nuclear bomb for two years and seven months.
Trump will nuke anyone he’s pretty sure sells Iran a nuclear weapon.
Maybe letting Iran enrich uranium for purposes of electricity and things like that,
Trump on Wednesday dismissed reports that Russia and China helped provide arms, surveillance, and/or technology for Iran to use against U.S. troops.
As if accepting the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay Not Based on Anything in Reality, Trump thanked Russia and China:"
Michelle Cottle outlines the nefarious ways in which Trump &Co. have coopted planning for the nation's celebration of its 250th birthday. Although all states were invited to participate, some are declining the "honor." I'm happy that my home state of Washington is on that list, and I frankly will lose respect for any state that participates in this partisan sham.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/19/opinion/trump-freedom-250-america-ufc-birthday.html
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