June 2, 2026 (06/02/2026)

 

From the New York Times liveblog Donald's Disaster du Jour: Donald “Trump announced on Tuesday that he was naming Bill Pulte, a home-building heir who runs the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to be the acting director of national intelligence, replacing Tulsi Gabbard. The move is almost certain to draw criticism as Mr. Pulte has no known experience for a national security role.” 

Maggie Haberman: Donald “Trump announced in a Truth Social post that he is naming Bill Pulte, a home-bulding heir who runs the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to be the acting Director of National Intelligence. The move is almost certain to spark blowback; Pulte has no known relevant experience for a national security role.

“Pulte was confirmed by the senate as the Federal Housing Finance Agency chairman, meaning he should be able to serve as the acting head of the Office of Director of National Intelligence.

“Pulte is a pure Trump loyalist who has worked to get close to the president. He speaks to the president directly, according to several administration aides.

“Pulte will continue in his F.H.F.A. role and as chairman of the housing lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Trump said.

“Among Pulte’s most notable public moments over the past 18 months was a public fight with Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, at a party....” 

Glenn Thrush: “Over the past year, Pulte has angered Justice Department officials by agitating for prosecutions of Trump enemies, even when evidence of criminal wrongdoing was scant or nonexistent. From his perch as a top housing official, he pushed hard for the department to go after Letitia James, the New York attorney general, for purported irregularities on mortgage applications. Those efforts have failed spectacularly. 

“Pulte has often allied himself with Ed Martin, a far-right activist who ran the Justice Department’s 'weaponization' task force. Like Martin, Pulte has proved more adept at stoking Trump’s ire — and telling the president what he wants to hear — than delivering durable prosecutions or obtaining convictions.”  

Heather Cox Richardson posts a rundown of some of the slop Trump posted over the weekend as more evidence of his "deteriorating mental condition."  

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There are elections today in New Jersey, Iowa, New Mexico, Montana & California. Laurel Rosenthal & Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times on California races. And here's Reid Epstein of the New York Times on some of the other state races. ~~~

~~~ One of the primary races is in New Jersey's Seventh Congressional District where four Democrats are competing to challenge Rep. Thomas Kean, Jr., (R) who has missed 100 House votes and has not been seen in public since early March. Tracey Tully of the New York Times: “On Monday night..., [Donald] Trump ... claim[ed] that Mr. Kean has been 'working tirelessly' on behalf of his agenda. 'Tom Kean has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election,' the president wrote on social media, adding, 'HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!'” Right.

Big News. But. It Ain't Over Till the Fat Man Sings. Marc Caputo of Axios: "The Trump administration plans to drop its controversial $1.8 billion 'weaponization' fund the president sought to compensate alleged victims of prosecutorial conduct under his predecessor, two senior administration officials told Axios. 'It's dead for now,' one of the sources said.... The White House's discussions about dropping the fund came after two federal judges weighed in against the fund on Friday.... ' The plan right now is to halt it. But the president likes the fund, he believes in it. So nothing is final until it's final,' one of the sources said." Update: Jackie Alemany of MS NOW has matched Caputo's reporting on this. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yesterday afternoon I linked a New York Times liveblog that covered Donald's Disasters of the Day, but at the time, it didn't have the whole story: ~~~

    ~~~ Tyler Pager, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump is backing off his plan to establish a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who claimed they were victims of unfair prosecution by the government, two people familiar with the matter said on Monday. The people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the president’s thinking, said he had been leaning for days toward scrapping the fund.... [MB: Now, for the kicker:] It was unclear whether getting rid of the fund would affect another part of the legal settlement in the case, which provides Mr. Trump, his family and his businesses with significant immunity from audits.” MB: Yeah, I'll bet that's unclear. ~~~

~~~ Jordain Carney of Politico: “The Justice Department took a small step back Monday from its controversial $1.8 billion 'Anti-Weaponization Fund.' It wasn’t nearly enough to quell the furor on Capitol Hill.... They nudged President Donald Trump to make a more explicit move to renounce the fund.... 'It’s pretty clear that the president has to say very explicitly that there’s not going to be a weaponization fund,' Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told reporters.... Enough Republican senators to block progress on the immigration bill, given the united Democratic opposition, said there were unanswered questions that could keep the bill from moving forward without a clear resolution.... One House Republican granted anonymity to speak frankly about the situation said the fund was 'DOA' in the closely divided House.... In a scheduled appearance before a House Appropriations subcommittee [today, Acting AG Todd] Blanche is likely to face more pointed questions about the fund and its future. ”

So First There's This. Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: “Iranian negotiators will stop exchanging messages with the U.S. through intermediaries, and Tehran will move to fully close the Strait of Hormuz, in retaliation for ongoing ceasefire violations, Iran’s state-affiliated news outlet Tasnim said Monday. The report, in a translated post on the social media site Telegram, homed in on Israel’s military operations in Lebanon against the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah. 'No dialogue will take place' until Israel fully withdraws from occupied areas in Lebanon and stops all attacks in both Lebanon and Gaza, per Tasnim. 'Also, the resistance front and Iran have resolved to completely block the Strait of Hormuz and activate other fronts including the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, in order to punish the Zionists and their supporters,' the report said.” ~~~

     ~~~ Nonetheless, here's what Trump Sez. Alex Sundby, et al., of CBS News: Donald "Trump said on his Truth Social platform Monday that indirect talks with Iran were continuing at a 'rapid pace,' hours after an Iranian news outlet linked to its Revolutionary Guard Corps said the regime was suspending the talks and opening 'other fronts' in the war.... " ~~~ 

~~~ Then, a Few Hours Later, There's This... Literally, Fucking Literally, He's Bored of Peace. Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: “... Donald Trump on Monday shrugged off the possible collapse of peace negotiations with Iran, telling CNBC, 'I don’t care if they’re over, honestly.... I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less,' Trump told CNBC’s Eamon Javers in a phone interview midday Monday, saying he thought the protracted discussions 'started to get very boring.'” (Also linked yesterday.) Here's the New York Times report, by David Sanger. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yesterday morning I wrote a joke headline about Trump's being Bored of Peace. (The NYT article I linked (Also by Sanger) had referred to the Board of Peace.) ~~~

     ~~~ But Wait. Hours After That.... Barak Ravid & Marc Caputo of Axios: Donald "Trump lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel's escalation in Lebanon in an expletive-laden call on Monday, two U.S. officials and a third source briefed on the call told Axios.... Summarizing Trump's remarks to Netanyahu, the U.S. official said: 'You're fucking crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.' A second source briefed on the call said Trump was 'pissed' and at one point yelled at Netanyahu: 'What the fuck are you doing?'" ~~~

     ~~~ In short, a mentally-ill, erratic, volatile dimwit is in charge of Middle East peace negotiations. Honest to Pete, even the Three Stooges -- Witkoff, Jared & JayDee -- are better than Trump. ~~~ 

     ~~~ Marie: Okay, in fairness to Trumplethinskin, you people are doing a lot of "chirping," which is making it too noisy for the fake author of The Art of the Deal to negotiate a peace agreement. ~~~

     ~~~ Ashleigh Fields of the Hill: Donald “Trump on Monday urged Democrats and 'seemingly unpatriotic Republicans' to stop 'chirping' about the administration’s negotiations with Iran.... Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that Iran 'really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the U.S.A. and those that are with us.... But don’t the Dumocrats, and various seemingly unpatriotic Republicans, understand that it is MUCH tougher for me to properly do my job and negotiate, when political hacks keep negatively “chirping,” at levels never seen before, over and over again, that I should move faster, or move slower, or go to war, or not go to war, or whatever.'...” ~~~

~~~ The Latest. From today's New York Times liveblog of Iran War developments: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Monday appeared to back off from a threat to strike Hezbollah in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, hours after ... [Donald] Trump and the United Nations Security Council leaned on Israel to de-escalate its military campaign against the Iran-backed militia. But Mr. Netanyahu made no mention of a cease-fire in Lebanon. Iran has said that among its conditions for a peace agreement with the United States is an end to hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon. On Monday, diplomats at an emergency meeting of the Security Council were nearly unanimous — with the exception of the United States — in calling for Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon and refrain from ramping up its attacks. Israel had warned that it would imminently strike Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.”

Speaking of the Board of Peace. Karen DeYoung & Gerry Shih of the Washington Post: “Seven months after ... Donald Trump announced his peace plan for Gaza and more than four months since he convened his Board of Peace to implement and pay for it, the plan is stalled and expected donations to the fund it created are nonexistent. Disarmament negotiations with Hamas, a crucial part of the plan, have remained deadlocked. The heavily armed militants still control Gaza’s 2 million people, now confined to less than half of what was, before the war, already one of the most densely populated places on earth. Israel’s military has expanded its occupation of 60 percent of the enclave that has been cleared of Palestinians and says it intends to take more. Despite the ceasefire declared on Oct. 9, Israel’s near-daily strikes have killed more than 900 Palestinians, according to Gazan health authorities.... The glitzy proposal of apartment complexes, high-tech industries and waterfront tourist resorts displayed by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and Gaza negotiator, at the board’s February meeting has been shelved.”

Frank Bruni of the New York Times argues that Trump's bluster is a pose: “... when he talks now about his willingness to suffer whatever political price he must to eliminate Iran as a nuclear threat, that’s not high-minded, farsighted, selfless leadership. (Have you met Trump?) It’s damage control. 'I don’t care about the midterms' is what you say when you may have botched them and are trying to alchemize incompetence into valor.... Beneath all that bluster and makeup, he’s sweating.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: More evidence of panic and night sweats: his tweeting obsession. I heard on the teevee yesterday that Sunday night and until 1:00 am ET Monday morning, Trump posted 70+ tweets. That's weird for anyone, much less the POTUS*. 

Only White Men Need Apply. Greg Jaffe & Kate Kelly of the New York Times: “In a move that disproportionately targets women and minority officers, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently blocked the promotions of at least seven Navy officers who had been selected by a board of senior Navy admirals. The net result of Mr. Hegseth’s intervention is a slate of 22 nominees to be one-star admirals that bears little resemblance to the broader force these officers will help lead. At least two of the officers removed by Mr. Hegseth from the promotion list are women and two are Black men. An additional three are white men. Mr. Hegseth’s actions ... appear to violate the rules governing a promotion system that is supposed to be apolitical and merit-based.... According to Pentagon rules, the defense secretary is only supposed to pull officers from the list for moral, mental, physical or professional failings that raise questions about the officers’ fitness to lead.... No female officers were included on the new one-star list, which was released publicly in late May, despite the fact that women make up about 21 percent of the active-duty Navy. The list appears to include only two nonwhite officers, even though sailors who identify as racial minorities make up about 38 percent of the active-duty Navy.” (Also linked yesterday.) Update: the link has been changed to one that appears to be a gift link. An ABC News story is here.

Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “The Defense Department has designated its press office a classified space and banned journalists from accessing it to meet with the public affairs officers who have traditionally answered their questions.... The move comes amid a months-long legal battle over whether journalists should have unescorted access to unclassified spaces in the Pentagon. Members of the media traditionally have been allowed to access public spaces in the Defense Department, talking to sources and attending regular briefings.” What they did, see, is turn the press office into a SCIF and move in some speechwriters who handle classified material. MB: Extraordinary. The link is a gift link. Thanks to RAS for the original link. The AP's report is here.

Liars & the Lying Liars They Represent. Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times: “... [in] several heated rulings ... in recent weeks [federal judges have] castigat[ed] the government’s lawyers for withholding information and making assertions that turned out to be at odds with the facts. The government lawyers whose honesty the judges have called into question are a mix of career civil servants, political appointees and newcomers brought in as the Justice Department makes a public hiring push to fill its depleted ranks. Their missteps in court come as the department’s leadership takes an unusually combative tone with judges who rule against them, and department lawyers try to balance judges’ demands against the often stubborn posture of the executive-branch clients they represent. But regardless, an increasing number of judges appear to be questioning the longtime assumption that Justice Department lawyers can be taken at their word, part of the 'presumption of regularity' that experts say allows federal courts to operate swiftly and smoothly.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: “Former F.B.I. officials are starting a group to help embattled bureau employees grapple with the Trump administration’s rapid efforts to reshape its agency, saying that the work force is under incredible strain under its director, Kash Patel. The group, called the F.B.I. Support Network, is an offshoot of the Justice Connection organization, made up of former Justice Department employees who offer legal, mental health or job search services to current agency employees.... 'There’s an incredible amount of tension inside the agency right now,' said Michael Mason, a former senior executive in the bureau. 'We want our colleagues who are still in the service of the F.B.I. to know there are people out here who recognize what is happening. People are being fired without any due process as the Justice Department is being weaponized in a way that is totally unfamiliar to those of us who served long and distinguished careers there.'” (Also linked yesterday.)

Those measles outbreaks were canaries in the coal mine: ~~~ 

~~~ This Is What MAGA & MAHA Hath Wrought. Maggie Astor & Dani Blum of the New York Times: “Doctors around the country say they are seeing more cases of serious, sometimes life-threatening illnesses that vaccines have long kept at bay, including whooping cough and bacterial infections that can cause pneumonia or meningitis. The concern among doctors comes on the heels of a resurgence of measles nationwide, fueled by distrust in vaccines that grew during the Covid-19 pandemic, and that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and ... [Donald] Trump have amplified. Public health experts have long seen measles as a harbinger: Because it is so exceptionally contagious, it can be the first disease to spike as vaccination rates broadly decline, and a sign of more to come.”

Margot Sanger-Katz & Sarah Kliff of the New York Times: “A new rule by the Trump administration could make it even harder for millions of sick Americans to obtain or stay on Medicaid after work requirements start next year. The work requirement was established last summer as part of Republicans’ major tax and domestic policy legislation, and requires poor adults without disabilities to prove they worked, volunteered or attended school at least 80 hours a month or lose their Medicaid eligibility.... The law laid out a series of exceptions for vulnerable people, including a carveout for people who are 'medically frail.' But the law did not define that term clearly.... [A strict, narrow] interpretation was reflected in the final rule.” A NOTUS report is here.

The Trumplodytes operate on the same assumptions a two-year-old does. A toddle thinks if he covers his eyes, nobody can see him. The Trumpettes think if they're not recording something, it's not happening. ~~~  

~~~ Eric Niiler of the New York Times: “The Trump administration is dismantling a $368 million deep-ocean observation system that was put in place a decade ago to monitor coastal environments, marine ecosystems and powerful currents that affect the global climate. The National Science Foundation said it would send ships in June to begin removing more than 900 deep-sea instruments anchored off Oregon, Washington State, Alaska, North Carolina, and an area between Greenland and Iceland known as the Irminger Sea. Scientists have used data from the system to understand how the ocean is absorbing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, how changes in ocean temperature such as marine heat waves might affect fisheries or signal bigger shifts in the climate, and coastal flooding along the East Coast.... The ocean observation system began operating in 2016 and was expected to continue for 25 years....

“Craig McLean, who was the acting chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during the first Trump term, said..., 'This reflects the further lack of understanding that the current administration has of scientific value and scientific merit,' Dr. McLean said. 'By dismantling such a system, we push the United States back yet again into a rear seat in global scientific leadership.'” Update: the link has been changed to one that appears to be a gift link.

Todd Wallack & Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: “Dozens of higher education groups are lobbying the Education Department to revise proposed regulations that could cut off federal student aid for thousands of programs whose graduates earn meager salaries, including in cosmetology, theology and the performing arts.... The system is an outgrowth of the politically charged 'gainful employment' rule. That Obama-era regulation threatened to revoke federal financial aid eligibility from career-training programs that saddled students with unaffordable education debt.... To pass the earnings test, undergraduate programs must show alumni have higher incomes than high school graduates four years after completing a degree, using the median earnings for people ages 25 to 34 with only a diploma.” Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

     ~~~ Marie: Oooh, that theology standard is going to rile some Trumpists. While the rule may seem reasonable to some people, most well-educated people would tell you -- whether they believed it or not -- that the main purpose of higher education is to gain knowledge. So isn't it better for a preacher to actually understand some of those Biblical lessons she's extolling and for a cosmetologist not to burn off all a customer's hair because she didn't know any better than to use a toxic product?   

Lean Willingham of the AP: “Former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell used one of his first major public appearances since leaving office to defend independent institutions while accepting an award Sunday honoring his efforts to preserve the central bank’s independence. Speaking at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library overlooking Boston Harbor, Powell called universities, courts, Congress and the central bank 'the foundation and the embodiment of our democracy' and argued that the Fed’s independence was a 'priceless asset' that must be protected. It was one of his most direct defenses of Fed independence.... While Powell never mentioned [Donald] Trump by name Sunday, he repeatedly returned to the importance of protecting institutions from political pressure and preserving public trust in their independence.” Powell was at the Kennedy Library to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. RIP, CBS News, Ctd. Michael Grynbaum & Benjamin Mullin of the New York Times: “CBS News faced a fresh wave of turmoil on Monday after Scott Pelley, the '60 Minutes' correspondent, laced into the show’s newly hired executive producer during a staff meeting and accused Bari Weiss, the network’s editor in chief, of “murdering” the longstanding Sunday news program. In an extraordinary exchange, Mr. Pelley, his newscaster’s baritone sometimes shaking in anger, told Nick Bilton, the new executive producer, that he had 'slender' qualifications for his new job and questioned the network’s commitment to the future of the program, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The New York Times.” The link appears to be a gift link. See also Akhilleus' commentary below. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sabotage at Black Rock. Let's see now. The CBS News meeting began at 10 am ET. By early afternoon Monday, the New York Times had a story up and running about the content of the meeting, based on a recording of the meeting. Gosh, it almost seems as if the person who recorded the meeting couldn't run fast enough to get that recording to the New York Times. Do you think maybe, just maybe the "60 Minutes" staff is incensed at what Bari & the Suits are doing to the network's news department? Or maybe the wonderful Joan Cusack is working at CBS News now.

     ~~~ Looks like Joan ran the tape over to Oliver Darcy, too. (The article is firewalled, but you can read the first bit of it.) Update: Darcy broke the story. (Also linked yesterday.)

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Marie: I'm going to bet that Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) knew that for a person to receive a pardon or a sentence commutation, the person should have expressed remorse for her wrongdoing and apologized and promised to mend her ways and maybe done some good deeds and led an exemplary life and all. But no, that didn't matter to Jared Polis because he is so effing stupid that he "reasoned" that if he released a Trumpette, Donald Trump, full of grace, would rain many federal grants upon the State of Colorado. Jared hasn't see the grants, but there's this: ~~~

~~~ Colorado. Chase Woodruff of the Colorado Newsline: "Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters on Monday used the new freedom granted to her by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to promptly renew her baseless allegations of widespread election fraud, casting doubt on the legitimacy of recent Democratic victories and the upcoming midterm elections. Peters, 70, was convicted in August 2024 on multiple felony counts related to a 2021 breach of her office’s secure elections equipment in a failed attempt to uncover evidence of fraud. She was sentenced by a Mesa County judge to nine years in state prison, but Polis’ commutation of her sentence on May 15, which came under pressure from ... Donald Trump and Peters’ other allies in the election conspiracy theory movement, freed her after just 20 months." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: Let us hope this is the end of your career, Jared, you nitwit.

Maine Senate Race. Alex Griffing of Mediaite: “MS NOW host Elise Jordan pulled no punches on Monday morning in hammering progressive Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner. Jordan argued that Platner’s campaign has been a 'slow-motion train wreck' ever since his Nazi-linked tattoo was revealed.” MB: We should bear in mind that Jordan is a recovering Republican, so her opinion of Democrats can be taken with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, I think Sen. Cory Booker, whom Griffing also cites, is on the money in expressing his concerns. I would vote for Platner in the general election, but if I were an independent Mainer, I might vote for Collins as a far safer bet. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Hans Nichols of Axios has some updates. Like this: "Platner will have an opportunity to address [Democratic] senators' concerns during a meeting with Senate Democrats tomorrow afternoon, followed by two fundraisers, as Axios scooped today." AND this: Gov. Janet Mills (D) " fueled speculation [Monday] that she could rejoin the race, telling the Portland (Maine) Press Herald: 'People have the impression that I "withdrew" or "dropped out,'"but I simply suspended active campaigning. I am still on the ballot.'"

New York Redistricting. Bill Mahoney & Nick Reisman of Politico: “Democrats have finalized their plans for a state constitutional amendment to change New York’s redistricting process — joining a national battle over drawing congressional boundaries. The changes would enable Democrats to shift as many as four Republican-held House seats to their column in the 26-member delegation — giving the party a slight edge in a state with several swing districts. According to a memo summarizing the plan reviewed by POLITICO, the amendment would remove the state constitution’s prohibition on mid-decade changes, let Democrats approve maps with a simple majority vote, and delete a prohibition on maps drawn to benefit political parties.”