Marie Burns: July 2026

July 4, 2026

The BBQ Index. Here's yet another way Trump has screwed up the 250th celebration for the rest of us. Thanks to RAS for the link: ~~~

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Senator John F. Kennedy reads the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1957: ~~~

~~~ Here's a copy of the text.

~~~ "A Grand Experiment in Self-Governance." New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, July 3, 2026. Thanks to Patrick for the link: ~~~

~~~ Edward Helmore of the Guardian: “New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, exalted the city’s legacy of immigrants on Friday in a historically laden, ideological counterpoint to a US semiquincentennial address that was expected later in the day from Donald Trump – who has sought to deport immigrants en masse throughout his second presidency. Speaking from behind a desk at New York’s city hall that belonged to the US’s first president, George Washington, and which itself is a century older than the Resolute desk in the White House, Mamdani was surrounded by naturalized citizens like himself as he listed the waves of immigrants who shaped the city.”

~~~ Zohran Mamdani is not eligible to become president. Donald Trump, by contrast, is president* because he enjoys birthright citizenship.

David Sanger of the New York Times reflects upon the Declaration of Independence, which is so superfluous to this year's supposed celebration that hardly anyone even notices it. You can pop right in to the National Archives and take a close look at it. There's no wait! Sanger mentions what real U.S. Presidents thought of the Declaration on the occasions of the 150th and 200th anniversary of its signing. You can hear a re-creation of Calvin Coolidge's speech here and see Gerald Ford speaking here. Sanger writes,

“Reading the Coolidge and Ford speeches today comes with a bit of a shock: Neither man talks about himself, nor the accomplishments of his administration. The speeches — lengthy — are about the Founders, their ideals and how they apply to the present moment.... [Donald Trump] hasn’t said much about his view of the document’s significance. 'Well, it means exactly what it says, it’s a declaration,' he told ABC News in an interview last year. 'A declaration of unity and love and respect, and it means a lot. And it’s something very special to our country.' [Colleen] Shogan, the former archivist [of the United States whom Mr. Trump fired]..., said..., 'The document is about a lot of things, many ideals, but it’s not about unity,’ she noted. 'It’s about “dissolving the bands,’” she said, paraphrasing from the first, heavily edited line of the Declaration. It is the most famous breakup document in world history.'” ~~~

~~~ Marie: The fact that Trump has never bothered to read a word of the Declaration is not surprising. What's funny about his ignorance of its content is that he had the Archives install a copy of it in the Oval Office and he proudly shows it off to visitors. I suppose if he did bother to read it, he might get all upset if he has the brains to figure out it's very much a "no kings" document. ~~~

~~~ Political scientist Tom Schaller in Public Notice on "how Trump is shredding our founding document 250 years later.... The Declaration is loaded with meanings, some of them inherently self-contradictory. Its opening paragraphs are spine-tinglingly profound, but the bulk of the document is a grievous rant. The document set a global standard for freedom and self-governance as naturally inherent human rights, yet bounded those rights to a privileged white, male minority. It is timeless yet also somewhat outdated for American politics today.... [Nevertheless, ]were they alive today, and almost without exception, the revolutionary leaders would be appalled to see this anniversary presided over by a man who treats with contempt the project they risked their lives to bequeath to us. Almost daily, Donald Trump’s presidency dishonors their legacy by desecrating not only the White House, the National Mall, and the capital city during what should be a celebratory moment, but the rule of law itself."

Paul Krugman: "America’s 250^th birthday will be a grim, glum affair. As far as I can tell, even MAGA enthusiasts are feeling depressed. They certainly aren’t turning out to visit Donald Trump’s sad, shabby state fair. It’s a huge difference from the bicentennial..., which was somehow an uplifting occasion. This sunniness may seem odd, given that the U.S. was troubled in many ways. We had just suffered a humiliating defeat in Vietnam. Our cities were a mess.... Yet somehow ... there was a surprising amount of optimism in the air. One source of optimism was surely the end of the Vietnam War. Yes, it ended in defeat. But it did end, which meant that young Americans and their families no longer had to worry about the draft, and that the nightly news didn’t keep reporting on body counts. Another source of optimism — something people like JD Vance will never understand — was the fall of Richard Nixon.... The Watergate saga felt like an affirmation of the American spirit. Reporters were heroes and the media did its job. So did Congress. Nobody would call Gerald Ford a great president, but he was clearly a decent human being.... America, it seemed, still retained its soul. Who would say that now?"

The worst speech ever delivered supposedly in celebration of American independence -- presumably until tonight's scheduled speech ~~~

~~~ Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: Donald “Trump used the backdrop of Mount Rushmore one night before the nation’s 250th birthday to characterize his political opponents as 'godless,' 'evil' communists. 'We can only lose the midterms if we allow ourselves to lose the midterms, if we are foolish stupid and unwise,' he said on Friday, demanding that Congress pass his so-called SAVE America Act, which would impose stricter voter ID rules that would make it harder to vote. He called for terminating the filibuster.... Mr. Trump read from an apocalyptic script as the stony faces of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln looked on. He said the word 'communism' so many times, you might’ve thought the Cold War was still on.... As Mr. Trump’s speech drew to a close, he went in for one last attack. 'The Communist Party,' he concluded, 'is made up of illegal immigrants, criminals and everybody that doesn’t want to work.' Then he switched back to talking about how awesome America is for another minute. Fireworks shot out over the presidential noggins, and the familiar sounds of the Village People started up.” ~~~

~~~ Marie: That "communist" line is another bit of pure projection. I hope Democrats will have the sense to point out that, while they are by no means communists, the greatest communist leader today is Vladimir Putin, and he has no better friend or admirer in the West than Donald Trump. ~~~

~~~ Natalie Allison of the Washington Post: “... Trump did not use his speech below the granite carvings to advocate for making space for one more.... But it has been on his mind. [Link fixed.] As recently as five weeks ago, the president — twice in one evening — posted to Truth Social digital mock-ups of his face next to the mountainside carvings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.... 'There would be no better addition to the iconic Mount Rushmore than the 45th and 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump,' said Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, in a statement to The Washington Post.... Soon after he first took office, Trump told a congresswoman in private that joining them was his dream. When that Republican congresswoman, Kristi L. Noem, became South Dakota governor and gave Trump a sculpture depicting his face on Mount Rushmore next to Lincoln’s, he put it on display at his Mar-a-Lago office.... Trump, as he has danced around the idea of being added to Mount Rushmore since first taking office, has never batted it down.” ~~~

~~~ Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times notes how Donald Trump compares and contrasts himself with ten of his predecessors. Marie: On this subject, I missed something important yesterday about Trump's "conversation" with AI Teddy Roosevelt. (Trump later related that he had spoken to the real Roosevelt.) But RAS picked up on what I missed. Here's journalist Simon Marks' take: ~~~

Laura Wainman & Sarah Robinson of WUSA: "The Great American State Fair being held on the National Mall as part of the celebration of America's 250th birthday was temporarily shut down Friday afternoon due to extreme heat. The fair was expected to reopen by 5 p.m., according to fair organizers." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The Great American Fair Was Part of the Great American Grift. Marcy Wheeler: "The thing I can’t get over, with Trump’s Great American Fair, is that they set up a single ferris wheel, which multiple people describe continues to have technical issues. You only throw a fair with a single ferris wheel if the ferris wheel is just a prop (which is good, in this case, on account of its technical problems), something placed there for the pictures.... This is all a model for a large project of looting, literally the replacement of governance with a Potemkin village where the single ferris wheels [doesn’t] even work."

Denmark: Trumpists, Get Out! Jeffrey Gettleman & Maya Tekeli of the New York Times: “Every year for the past century, in the green hills of rural Denmark, thousands of Americans and Danes come together to celebrate the Fourth of July. The gathering is billed as the largest Fourth of July celebration outside the United States.... This year..., organizers are expecting the smallest crowd ever. Some locals say they are sitting it out. And the American government has been uninvited, something that has never happened before and in the past would have been unthinkable.... Just about every year, the American ambassador to Denmark makes an appearance. But this year..., [Donald] Trump’s threats to take over Greenland, a Danish territory, have soured the mood.... Lasse Olsen, a municipal council member who has agitated against the event for years, called Mr. Trump 'an imperialistic mad man.' He ... gave the event’s organizers an ultimatum: Cut American officials from the program or lose logistical support and public funds (typically around $50,000). The festival organizers agreed.... [They] also said that any Americans coming to the event this weekend in a private capacity were welcome.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump Tries to Take the “Self-Governance” Out of That “Grand Experiment in Self-Governance.” Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: “The assigning of 260 investigative analysts from the F.B.I. to a 'priority' investigation in Fulton County, Ga., came days after the Supreme Court ruled that states could count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day, rejecting Mr. Trump’s plans. And just last week, a federal judge permanently barred Mr. Trump from carrying out an early executive order that would have required people to show documentary proof of citizenship when they register to vote. At first glance, the ... deployment ... seems to be another stubborn assault on a fact that has refused to budge: Despite the president’s baseless claims, no evidence of fraud in the 2020 election has ever surfaced there. But critics contend that it is just one piece of a broader effort to sow doubt about the electoral process itself and the integrity of elections to come. And no matter how often [Mr.] Trump loses in court, he continues to use the machinery of the federal government to investigate or try to overhaul the nation’s election infrastructure to his benefit....

“As with the prosecutions of Mr. Trump’s political enemies, again front and center is the Justice Department, which has traditionally carried out investigations independent of a president’s wishes and grudges.... Mr. Trump has also gutted the homeland security agency tasked with supporting states on election security, while officials across the federal government have undertaken dozens of actions aimed at insulating Republicans from potential losses in November. As Mr. Trump’s popularity dips and as the primary season has ramped up, Mr. Trump has continued to amplify his rhetoric of rigged elections.”

The Biggest Grift. Eric Lipton & David Yaffe-Bellany of the New York Times: “Nearly 1 million people who bought ... [Donald] Trump’s memecoin have lost money through the end of June, according to a report by the cryptocurrency analytics firm Nansen. Their losses total $3.81 billion.... Mr. Trump profited whether the price of his memecoin went up or down. He collected returns whenever anyone traded the tokens, as he repeatedly pushed his followers to do, using his Truth Social account to promote the coin.... Since arriving at the White House, Mr. Trump and appointees have curtailed regulatory oversight of the industry, including policies related to memecoins.” The link appears to be a gift link.

Kenneth Vogel & Karen Zraick of the New York Times: “The White House announced on Friday that ... [Donald] Trump had issued pardons to 11 men, most of whom had been convicted of crimes related to the Clean Air Act, a bedrock environmental law. The president also pardoned Adam Kidan, a major donor to Republicans, including Mr. Trump. He had served about two and a half years in prison for his role in a fraud scheme involving the disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The Clean Air Act pardons benefited people who had sold or installed devices for diesel trucks that defeated their emissions controls, making them far more polluting. It was the latest move by the Trump administration to undermine laws intended to fight climate change and curb air pollutants that harm human health.” The link appears to be a gift link, so read on. The diesel emission control devices don't sound so great. This might be that rare case where Trump has issued a few justified pardons. Maybe. The AP report is here.

Vaughn Hillyard & David Rhode of MS NOW: “Dozens of intelligence officials began receiving notice of their terminations on Thursday under Bill Pulte, the new acting director of national intelligence. An intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to potential reprisal, told MS NOW that the individuals being removed by the Trump administration are officials 'who they believe are deep state.' Intelligence leadership alleges that the fired workers have not provided complete pictures of available intelligence, the official said. The moves come after Pulte’s elimination last month of six political appointees who served under Tulsi Gabbard, the previous director of national intelligence. Four former senior intelligence officials told MS NOW that they had never heard of intelligence officials withholding information from officials above them.... [A] former official said, 'This is a fantasy. It only hurts U.S. national security, and it’s helpful to Russia, China and Iran.'”

Alex Woodward of the Independent: “The Department of Justice is refusing to hand over redacted information from investigative files connected to Jeffrey Epstein, despite an order from a federal judge to either release the documents or explain why they were withheld. Hours before a deadline to turn over the materials, Associate U.S. Attorney General Stanley Woodward asked the judge to delay the deadline for another two months, or to dissolve the order entirely by accepting the Justice Department’s explanation for withholding those documents. Last month, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan sided with journalist Katie Phang after she filed a lawsuit accusing Donald Trump’s administration of violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which the president signed into law last year.... Woodward wrote that the government is 'committed to transparency and compliance' but 'strongly disagrees' with the judge’s order.”

John Ismay of the New York Times: “Last August..., [Donald] Trump ordered hundreds of soldiers and airmen from the National Guard to duty in the capital. He claimed he would “rescue” the city from “crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor,” even though violent crime had fallen to a 30-year low.... Now, nearly 5,000 Guard troops are in Washington — roughly equivalent to about eight Army battalions. They are still mostly in tourist areas and are expected to be on hand for the Fourth of July celebrations, with temperatures forecast to reach around 100 degrees.... The largest deployment of Guard forces in Washington came in response to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, when 20,000 troops were called to the city to provide security through the inauguration of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. ”

Aimee Ortiz of the New York Times: “An active-duty officer was placed into Air Force custody after he was arrested in uniform on Wednesday after an event in which he called for the impeachment, conviction and removal of ... [Donald] Trump and Vice President JD Vance. The U.S. Capitol Police arrested the officer, Maj. Jason Watson ... on the Capitol steps.... Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas, who has filed articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump at least six times, also attended the event. During his speech, Major Watson, who said he was not a member of the Democratic Party, accused the president and vice president of violating both the Constitution and their oaths of office.... 'It is generally against the law for the public to demonstrate on the House steps unless they are with a member of Congress,' the police said. The statement noted that Major Watson had been 'escorted to the House steps by a member of Congress' and that after the member left, 'our officers gave the man lawful orders to stop the illegal demonstration.' Jessica Denson, the founder of the Removal Coalition, said ... that the D.C. attorney general’s office elected not to prosecute Major Watson for his protest, but that he was 'taken directly into custody by the Air Force yesterday.'” A Military Times story is here.

The New York Times liveblogged the Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce wedding thing at Madison Square Garden. Marie: The front page of the paper of record seems to me to be an odd place for wedding celebration ephemera, but I have to admit it's better than watching Donald Trump speaking at Mount Rushmore. (Also linked yesterday.)

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Louisiana. Rick Rojas of the New York Times: “The Louisiana Supreme Court on Friday paused the prosecution of the state’s Republican attorney general just hours after a grand jury in New Orleans indicted her over letters she had sent city officials threatening that they could be removed from office. Attorney General Liz Murrill made an emergency filing asking the court to intervene after the grand jury handed up a 16-count indictment on Thursday that charged her with malfeasance in office and intimidation and retaliation against a public official. The court, whose justices are elected and the majority of whom are Republican, issued a stay early Friday morning. In the order, the justices wrote that Ms. Murrill 'makes a compelling argument' regarding possible flaws in the grand jury process and in its interpretation of the laws she was accused of breaking. 'The indictment appears to turn the law on its head and flows from what appears to be extraordinary procedural defects and improprieties,' the order said.” MB: I'm guessing the real “compelling argument” was, “I'm a Republican.”

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Ukraine/Russia. AP: “A Ukrainian drone attack struck an oil terminal in St. Petersburg on Saturday, Russian officials said, as Kyiv presses on with bombardment of Russia’s oil infrastructure. Almost daily long-range attacks on Russian oil facilities have created a fuel crisis and heaped political pressure on the Kremlin as its all-out invasion of Ukraine stretches into its fifth year. Gov. Alexander Beglov said the city’s Kirovsky district on the Baltic Sea was hit. He also said that air defenses shot down 72 Ukrainian drones across Russia’s second-largest city and the surrounding region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as part of Ukraine’s 'long-range sanctions' against Russia. He said that Ukrainian forces also hit a military target on the island of Kronstadt, just off the coast of St. Petersburg. 'The Ukrainian defense forces hit the port oil infrastructure, which earns money for the Russian war, and there were also hits on Kronstadt — an important military target,' he said in a post on Telegram.”

~~~ Paul Sonne of the New York Times: “President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, under pressure from increased Ukrainian strikes at home, appeared in fatigues in a rare frontline visit to a support post late Friday, where he touted battlefield progress and threatened to take more of Ukraine outside the Donbas region. Mr. Putin’s appearance was the latest indication that he was doubling down in the face of Ukraine’s expanding barrages. It appeared designed to show the Russian public that the heightened Ukrainian strikes in recent weeks would receive a response and won’t derail the Russian leader’s battlefield aims. The visit took place two days after Mr. Putin launched one of the biggest attacks on Kyiv of the war, which left at least 30 people dead and was widely seen as a delayed response to a string of Ukrainian successes of late that have brought the war home for more Russians.” ~~~

~~~ Marie: As you'll notice, Ukraine aims at destroying or disabling strategic military targets; Russia aims at killing civilians.

July 3, 2026

The New York Times is liveblogging the Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce wedding thing at Madison Square Garden. Marie: The front page of the paper of record seems to me to be an odd place for wedding celebration ephemera, but I have to admit it's better than watching Donald Trump go to Mount Rushmore & plead for his visage to be added alongside the real presidents'. ~~~

~~~ Here's a far better speech. Thanks to Patrick for the link: ~~~

~~~ Zohran Mamdani is not eligible to become president. Donald Trump, by contrast, is president* because he enjoys birthright citizenship.

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“There's Nothing Illegal.” John Marcus of the Independent: “... Donald Trump insists he is unaware of the happenings at his family’s crypto businesses, despite these companies netting the president more than $1 billion last year, according to financial disclosures. 'I could know about it,' Trump told CNBC on Thursday. 'I didn’t. There’s nothing illegal. There’s nothing wrong with it.'... Shortly before taking office, the Trump family reportedly secretly sold a $500 million stake in one of its crypto businesses to an Abu Dhabi royal, one of whose firms later used a Trump crypto coin to make a separate $2 billion deal. The royal was also involved in negotiations with the Trump administration to secure access to high-powered AI chips for the UAE. In October, the president pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who has worked with the Trump family’s crypto operations. Trump was once a crypto skeptic, but he wooed the industry during the 2024 campaign, and crypto companies were among his most influential and generous donors. The president has delivered in office on priorities for the industry, including scaling back crypto prosecutions, weakening the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and calling for a national Bitcoin stockpile.”

No. 1 Insider Trader, Ctd. Just a Coincidence! Michael Luciano of Mediaite: “On April 8, six days after ... Donald Trump sent markets spiraling downward by announcing sweeping unilateral tariffs on dozens of countries, Trump made 327 stock purchases. The next day on Truth Social, he urged people to buy stocks, shortly before declaring the tariffs paused.... At 9:37 a.m. ET on April 9, 2025, Trump posted, THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT' Later that day at 1:18 p.m. ET, he said, 'I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately.'... The Dow Jones Industrial Average [had] opened [that day] at 37,388 and closed at 40,608, a jump of nearly nine percent on the back of Trump’s revelation. The day before, Trump scooped up shares of several companies across 327 purchases, including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia. He purchased between $100,001 and $250,000 in shares of each of those companies. Apple and Nvidia had especially strong days on April 9, surging 15% and 19%, respectively.”

Will Lennon, et al., of ABC News: "Across ... Donald Trump's first year back in the White House, his investment advisers made more than 21,000 securities trades, amassing sizable holdings in companies that are directly involved in deals tied to his administration, according to a review of his annual financial report. According to the report, Trump's investment accounts grew to at least $858 million and included stakes in approximately 1,600 companies. The staggering number of trades across eight separate accounts marks a significant departure from previous presidents, who have either divested their holdings or traded exclusively in diversified mutual funds. By contrast, Joe Biden made a total of 13 stock trades during his entire tenure as president."

Andrea Fuller of the New York Times: “As ... [Donald] Trump took in a staggering haul from his cryptocurrency and real estate empire last year, earnings for the vice president and first lady also sharply increased, federal disclosures show.... All told, Mr. Vance earned between $1.4 million and $7.4 million in 2025, including his investment income. That was up from a range of roughly $213,000 to $1.3 million the prior year, though the form does not reflect his salary as a U.S. senator. The bulk of Mr. Vance’s income came from royalties and advances associated with his autobiography, 'Hillbilly Elegy,' published in 2016....”

There's nothing wrong with making money from your autobiography. Melanie's income, on the other hand ... “The income of the first lady, Melania Trump, surpassed that of the vice president, with her business earnings totaling between roughly $17.3 and $18.2 million last year. She took in less than $1 million in 2024, federal disclosures show. The bulk of her revenue came from a $10.7 million licensing agreement related to the 'Melania' movie, which was acquired and promoted by Amazon. The company’s founder, Jeff Bezos, has multiple business interests that could be affected by administration policies.... The first lady also earned $6 million from sales of her memecoin and roughly $500,000 from the publication of her autobiography, 'Melania.'”

GrabAGun, Another Trump Family Grift. Perry Stein of the Washington Post: “GrabAGun sells and ships ammunition, and some gun accessories, directly to consumers in some states using its website.... Donald Trump Jr. ... is on GrabAGun’s board and is a consultant to the company.... [He has] a 1.1 percent ownership stake in the company.... Trump Jr. became formally involved in GrabAGun in December 2024, shortly after his father was elected to his second term....[GrabAGun] must rely on middlemen to actually transfer the firearm to the customer. That’s because federal regulations prohibit sending handguns to individuals through the mail, and they require that firearms background checks and transfers be conducted in person. The administration has proposed regulatory changes that, for the first time, would let firearms sales take place entirely online, with handguns mailed directly to buyers’ doorsteps. Such changes could enormously benefit GrabAGun and the president’s son, creating a potential conflict of interest that has attracted the attention of ethics watchdogs.” ~~~

~~~ But Wait! It doesn't stop there: “GrabAGun offers a 'Shoot Now Pay Later' financing option through a company called Credova Financial. Credova is a subsidiary of Public Square Holdings, where the president’s son is a board member and investor. In August, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau dropped an investigation of Credova, which had been accused of wrongly charging fees to customers. It said the inquiry, which started during the Biden administration, was politically biased against companies affiliated with firearms. When GrabAGun went public, it merged with Colombier Acquisition Corp. II, a firm designed to combine with other companies and take them public. Colombier is led by Omeed Malik, a major Republican donor who chairs 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm that includes Trump Jr. as a partner.” A derivative Raw Story report is here.

What Are the Trump Toadies Doing Today? ~~~

1. FBI Analysts Drop Everything to Pursue Phantom 2020 Election Conspiracy Theories. Nick Corasaniti, et al., of the New York Times: “The Federal Bureau of Investigation is assigning an army of 260 investigative analysts to a 'priority' investigation related to the 2020 election in Fulton County, Ga., a reflection of President Trump’s ongoing push to prove his baseless claims that the 2020 election there was rigged. The effort is outlined in an internal memo obtained by The New York Times and confirmed by a person familiar with the investigation. The memo says that the surge is part of a “priority” effort by Kash Patel, the director of the F.B.I. The analysts will work to complete 'approximately 708 records checks,' according to the memo. The type of records being checked is unknown. The deployment of such a large number of F.B.I. personnel to the most populous county in Georgia comes amid the Justice Department’s ongoing criminal investigation into the 2020 election in the state.

“In January, the F.B.I. raided an election warehouse in Fulton, seizing more than 600 boxes of election materials — including original ballots from the 2020 election. But an unsealed affidavit that was used to obtain the search warrant for that raid relied heavily on debunked claims about ballot anomalies in 2020. Those claims have been revived inside the White House by Kurt Olsen, an election denier who works in the Trump administration and who set off the current investigation, according to the affidavit.” MS NOW's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

2. Her Boss Is a Serial Criminal, But U.S. Attorney Boxwine Indicts an Olympics Star. Campbell Robertson & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “A former Olympic canoeist who had been arrested in June on charges that he had vandalized the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has been indicted, according to court documents. He is charged with 'destruction of property $1,000 or more,' a felony.... [Donald] Trump blamed vandals for the problems following a quick and costly makeover of the pool, and the canoeist, David Carter Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Md., was among the first to be charged. The U.S. Park Police had arrested Mr. Hearn near the pool on June 19, and accused him of destroying government property. Past administrations have wrestled with leaks and algae in the pool, but experts said the recent problems could have been caused by the pool’s hasty makeover.... On Thursday, Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, said in a news briefing that prosecutors had 'tremendous evidence' underpinning the indictment, and she condemned what she called 'unchecked vandalism and civil disorder.'... Mr. Hearn has acknowledged immersing his hand and touching the peeling sealant during a pause in a bike ride, but he has said that is all he did.” (Also linked yesterday.)

David Fahrenthold & Andrea Fuller of the New York Times: “A company with deep ties to ... [Donald] Trump is organizing some of the biggest events in Washington this weekend, including the Great American State Fair and the record-breaking fireworks display planned for Saturday. Those events will be funded, in part, by $68 million in taxpayer money. But because the Trump administration has routed those funds through an opaque nonprofit, it is unclear how much the company close to the president will receive. Event Strategies, Inc., a Virginia-based company, is run by former Trump campaign aides and veterans of what is informally called the political advance industry, meaning they set up speeches and rallies for candidates. The firm helped organize Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign kickoff in 2015, and handled logistics for the rally on Jan. 6, 2021, where he urged supporters to march on the Capitol....

“The Great American State Fair drew sparse crowds after it opened on June 25 [on the National Mall.]...” (Also linked yesterday.)MB: Everything is going very smoothly. Almost all of the performers scheduled for opening night backed out when they learned the fair would be politically-charged; numerous states chose not to participate, and most state exhibits appeared to be thrown together at the last minute. The ferris wheel, which seems to be the main attraction, lost power and didn't run on its debut night; the food is awful and ridiculously expensive; and a mock-up of the Arc de Trump started falling apart in the rain. Thursday, we learned that Trump & his cronies may have engaged in public "corruption, wire fraud and pay-to-play schemes." We also learned that "the stage for Freedom 250's July Fourth celebration fell apart during rehearsals Thursday, with a large component of the structure's ceiling falling roughly two stories down and landing behind a group of dancers and musicians. Miraculously, no one appeared injured." (Thanks to RAS for the lead.) Maybe the MAGA crowd enjoys seeing death-defying acts, but generally these acts are planned stunts, not potentially-deadly structural failures visited upon unsuspecting performers. ~~~

~~~ Michael Luciano of Mediaite embeds a segment from Chris Hayes' show last night, in which Hayes spoke with Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Ca.), who led the Democratic committee report on how Trump hijacked the semiquincentennial celebration (stories and the report linked here yesterday) by devious and likely illegal means. Luciano also publishes a transcript of a portion of the interview. I do know what a bummer this, is and I sympathize if you're sick of reading about how Trump stole your holiday weekend and made you pay for it, but knowledge is power. Or something.

Zach Montague of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Thursday confronted a Justice Department lawyer about ... [Donald] Trump’s plans to build a championship-level golf course on a peninsula in Washington, after she ordered the department to come before her with more specific details about possible construction. Judge Ana C. Reyes of the Federal District Court in Washington grew impatient during a hearing in which Michael Robertson, the government lawyer, struggled to provide a timeline or vision for what appeared to be accelerating efforts by the president to start work on transforming the East Potomac Golf Links. It was the latest in a long series of standoffs and mistrustful interactions between federal judges and the Trump administration over the president’s second-term efforts to remake parts of the capital.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Dan Diamond & Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration should pick an 'alternative site' for ... Donald Trump’s planned 250-foot-tall triumphal arch, a Washington, D.C., official told the administration last month, warning that Trump’s plan to build the structure by Arlington National Cemetery would be 'divisive.' David Maloney, the city’s historic preservation officer, said the plan to build in Memorial Circle — a traffic roundabout across the river from the Lincoln Memorial — would 'severely damage an exceptional cultural landscape and one of the most important symbolic places in the nation.' Maloney instead suggested a different spot that he said would be a better fit for the towering arch: an empty traffic oval located on South Capitol Street between Nationals Park and Audi Field.... Rodney Mims Cook Jr., a Trump appointee who chairs the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, had previously identified that site as a prospective location to build a triumphal arch.... Maloney told the Park Service on Thursday afternoon that his suggestion to build the arch on South Capitol Street 'was not an endorsement of locating an arch at this location.'...” ~~~

~~~ Marie BTW: Here's a photo of Milan's Arco della Pace, an early 19th-century construction located at the site of a gate in the city's Roman walls. Look closely and you'll see people standing under or near the massive arch. The Arco della Pace is about 82 feet tall. Trump plans to build an arch 250 feet tall (three times the height of Milan's arch). It's ridiculous. It's embarrassing.

Matt Viser of the Atlantic: “Donald Trump has often prided himself on being a builder of grand things.... But so far, he has done more demolition and renovation than construction [in Washington, D.C]. The capital city is an absolute mess. The White House is an active construction site, with cement trucks going through the same gates typically used by the president’s armored limousine. There’s a gaping hole where half of the building once stood, a project held up by lawsuits. The South Lawn and the Ellipse, a 52-acre park between the White House and the Washington Monument, are completely torn up. The once-green grass where a temporary arena held a bloody UFC fight last month has turned brown. It looks like a demolition derby took place.” And so forth. Thank you to akaWendy for this gift link. As she writes, “Everything he touches dies.”

Coming Soon -- Trumpy Social Security Cards. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: “To commemorate America’s 250th birthday, the Social Security Administration will issue limited-edition Social Security cards to babies born from Thursday to the end of the year. The cards look similar to the standard blue wallet-sized Social Security cards the agency has issued for decades, but they are stamped with the 'Freedom 250' logo. Freedom 250 is the public-private initiative the Trump administration launched last year to organize events — often aligned with the administration — for the nation’s semiquincentennial. It is different from America250, a nonprofit established by Congress in 2016 to organize such celebrations. The Social Security Administration said Thursday the agency was not paying any licensing fees for the Freedom 250 logo and that there were no arrangements to share cardholders’ data with Freedom 250.”

Kathryn Wilkens of Mediaite: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly helped block Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from announcing a reduction of U.S. troops in Europe last month, according to a Thursday exclusive from The Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported that Hegseth had planned to tell NATO’s top military leaders during a June meeting in Brussels that the Pentagon was preparing another round of force reductions in Europe, in addition to the previously canceled armored brigade rotation to Poland and the withdrawal of an infantry brigade from Romania. But after the proposal was shared with Rubio and other senior administration officials, it was rejected, according to people familiar with the matter. Instead of unveiling new troop cuts, Hegseth told NATO officials the Pentagon would conduct a review of the U.S. military’s force posture in Europe, a process that could take up to six months.”

Maxine Joselow of the New York Times: “A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that the Trump administration could continue removing signs and exhibits about slavery, climate change and other fraught topics at national parks across the country, at least for now. The decision reversed a lower court’s ruling that blocked the National Park Service from carrying out ... [Donald] Trump’s directive to remove all 'negative' displays. It was a temporary victory for Mr. Trump, who has sought to purge national parks, Smithsonian museums and other federal sites of what he has called 'woke' ideology. In practice, it means that the Park Service can continue deleting materials while the appeals court considers the legality of the president’s directive, an executive order titled 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.'”

Say, how is the Department of Energy helping Americans get through the massive heat wave? ~~~

~~~ Kathianne Boniello of Mediaite: “The U.S. Department of Energy apparently deleted its longstanding guidance that homeowners keep their air conditioning set to 78 degrees, after critics slammed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) for giving the exact same advice during the current heat wave. DC local Fox affiliate news anchor Jim Lokay noted the deletion on Blue Sky Thursday afternoon and included screenshots. The department then appeared to delete multiple web pages on air conditioning, heating and cooling, and home cooling, Mediaite found Thursday.” ~~~

~~~ Evan Halper of the Washington Post: “As punishing heat sends the U.S. power grid to the brink and Americans reel from rising electricity costs, the Trump administration is moving to weaken efficiency standards for home appliances proven to cut power demand and lower utility bills. The Energy Department on Thursday said the proposal would 'Permanently End Green New Scam Appliance Mandates.' It takes aim at energy conservation standards for a host of appliances, including air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines. For decades, Congress has required those standards to be continually updated, creating pressure on manufacturers to make each generation of new appliances more efficient.... If ultimately approved by the Energy Department following a period of public comment, the plan would inhibit future administrations from pursuing more efficient appliances and could result in Americans using gigawatts more energy than they would under the current program guidelines.” ~~~

~~~ Marie: There's no public-policy reason for this. Maybe some appliance manufacturers save a little money by not having to re-engineer their machines to meet new standards. But no one -- not even A MAGAmoron -- is pleading, "Please raise my power bill by making my washing machine more inefficient." And how about this? ~~~

~~~ Rachel Dobkin of the Independent: “Federal regulators are looking at easing restrictions on radiation exposure at the nation’s nuclear power plants. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an independent agency aimed at ensuring the safe use of radioactive materials, proposed Wednesday eliminating a standard to keep radiation exposure 'as low as is reasonably achievable,' also called ALARA.... The changes could save the nuclear industry about $9.53 million a year, according to documents from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission obtained by The Hill. Edwin Lyman, a physicist and nuclear safety advocate..., told Reuters, 'In eliminating its use of the ALARA principle, the agency's sweeping new proposed rule would allow nuclear facility workers and the general public ⁠to be exposed to higher levels of cancer-causing radiation just to save the nuclear industry money.'... [In May 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive] order [that] specifically called for reconsidering the commission’s reliance on the linear no-threshold model, describing it as 'flawed.'”

Ann Marimow of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for a former Fox News reporter to be required to reveal a confidential source or pay $800 a day in court fines, in a case with broader implications for the work of journalists. Catherine Herridge, the reporter, had refused to reveal her sources for articles she wrote about a scientist who was investigated by the F.B.I. She asked the justices to intervene after she was ordered by a federal judge to pay daily sanctions until she disclosed the information. The justices denied Ms. Herridge’s request in a three-sentence order that did not include reasoning or a vote count, as is often the case when the court issues emergency orders. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh noted his disagreement and said he would have granted the journalist’s request. Ms. Herridge’s case, which has alarmed First Amendment advocates, involves articles she and her colleagues wrote in 2017, when she worked at Fox News.” Politico's report is here.

Julian Barnes & Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times: “U.S. officials believed that Israel might have been plotting to kill Iran’s top negotiators while Washington was engaged with Tehran in delicate talks this spring to reach an interim peace deal, according to current and former American officials. Killing senior Iranian leaders had been part of Israel’s strategy from the start of the war. But American concerns about the targeting of two particular Iranian officials — Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Parliament — spiked during delicate cease-fire negotiations that began in April.... The United States ... went so far as to ask other countries in the region to warn Iran about the possibility Israel could target the two officials. U.S. officials acknowledged that during the intense phase of the war, Mr. Araghchi and Mr. Ghalibaf, as senior government officials, could have been legitimate targets for Israel, which was intent on toppling Iran’s hard-line government. But after the negotiations started in earnest in April, American officials believed that any attempt to kill the Iranian leaders would end the talks and reignite the fighting.” Update: the link has been changed to one that appears to be a gift link.

But Will He Call It the KKK? Tim Balk of the New York Times: “Tucker Carlson, the influential conservative media commentator, said in an interview that he planned to help start a new political party after leaving the Republican Party, but that he had no interest in running for office. Mr. Carlson, a former close ally of ... [Donald] Trump who has broken with the Republican Party over the war with Iran, told the Columbia Journalism Review that he was 'going to help build a third party.'... In the Columbia Journalism Review interview, he described some of the policies that might animate his new party, saying he supports 'ending all immigration.' A longtime nativist and immigration hard-liner prone to conspiratorial views, Mr. Carlson said immigration drives unemployment. (Many economists say it does not.)”

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Louisiana. Safiyah Riddle & John Hanna of the AP: “Louisiana’s attorney general was indicted Thursday over accusations she threatened the jobs of New Orleans leaders who fought a Republican-led overhaul of local courts in the heavily Democratic city. The 16-count indictment against Republican Liz Murrill, handed up by a New Orleans grand jury, charges Louisiana’s first female attorney general with intimidation and malfeasance. At the center of the case are deepening rifts between state leaders in Louisiana, which is heavily Republican, and Democrats who control the state’s most prominent city. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry promised a swift pardon, saying Murrill would not have her reputation tarnished by an 'Orleans Kangaroo court.' Mayor Helena Moreno, a Democrat, was among those who had accused the state’s top law enforcement official in May of making threats against public officials.”

New York. Marie: I can't even watch:

~~~ Miles Cohen & Hurubie Meko of the New York Times: “Two people who illegally ascended the needle of the Empire State Building on Wednesday trespassed onto the Manhattan landmark overnight and broke into several restricted areas before making their climb, according to a criminal complaint made public on Thursday in criminal court. The couple, Angela Nikolau, 33, and Ivan Beerkus, 32, unfurled a banner with a message about love and got engaged as news helicopters whirled around them. Then they were arrested by the police. They were arraigned on Thursday in criminal court on multiple charges, including burglary and reckless endangerment. According to prosecutors, Mr. Beerkus, who is identified in court documents as Ivan Kuznetsov, told the police he wanted to 'do something special for his engagement.'... The couple, who are from Russia, were the subjects of a 2024 documentary, 'Skywalkers: A Love Story,' about their romance and quest for thrills and fame. They have climbed commercial buildings worldwide, often posting about it to their large social media following.”

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Iran. Nasser Karimi & Jon Gambrell of the AP: “Iran prepared Friday for the dayslong funeral of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with banners across Tehran urging the public to rise up in support of the Islamic Republic after the devastating war that killed the 86-year-old cleric. The country’s theocracy plans to see millions flood the streets of the capital beginning Saturday in scenes reminiscent to the burial of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.”

July 2, 2026

What Are the Trump Toadies Doing Today? ~~~

“The Great American State Fair drew sparse crowds after it opened on June 25 [on the National Mall.]...” MB: Everything is going very smoothly. Almost all of the performers scheduled for opening night backed out when they learned the fair would be politically-charged; numerous states chose not to participate, and most state exhibits appeared to be thrown together at the last minute. The ferris wheel, which seems to be the main attraction, lost power and didn't run on its debut night; the food is awful and ridiculously expensive; and a mock-up of the Arc de Trump started falling apart in the rain. Thursday, we learned that Trump & his cronies may have engaged in public "corruption, wire fraud and pay-to-play schemes." We also learned that "the stage for Freedom 250's July Fourth celebration fell apart during rehearsals Thursday, with a large component of the structure's ceiling falling roughly two stories down and landing behind a group of dancers and musicians. Miraculously, no one appeared injured." (Thanks to RAS for the lead.) Maybe the MAGA crowd enjoys seeing death-defying acts, but generally these acts are planned stunts, not potentially-deadly structural failures visited upon unsuspecting performers.

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Marie: I've had only a vague idea of how Trump managed to hijack the 250th celebration. The Guardian article linked next helps fill in the blanks. ~~~

⭐~~~ David Smith of the Guardian: “Donald Trump staged a hostile takeover of the US’s 250th anniversary celebration to enrich political allies, harvest voter data and promote Christian nationalist ideology, according to a congressional investigation released on Thursday. The interim report, 'From Vanity to Insanity: How the White House Cheated the American People Out of Their 250th Birthday', outlines a web of alleged corruption, wire fraud and pay-to-play schemes orchestrated through a shadow corporation embedded within the National Park Foundation (NPF). The document was produced by Democratic staff of the House of Representatives’ natural resources committee’s oversight and investigations subcommittee. It has not been officially adopted by the committee. 'Under President Donald Trump, this anniversary has been hijacked and perverted into a hotbed of corruption and self-enrichment,' it states, contending that the machinery built for a national commemoration was converted 'into an apparatus for raising and spending money in service of the President’s ego, political ideology, and pet projects.'” Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

~~~ Here's the Congressional Democrats' report. In the executive summary, Democrats allege, "Freedom 250 may have conducted wire fraud by luring unsuspecting donors who intended to support
the congressionally chartered foundation and giving them Freedom 250 bank information instead." ~~~

~~~ Ben Binday & Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: “Some donors who intended to give money to a bipartisan effort to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary were, instead, steered to a White House-backed initiative under false pretenses, House Democrats allege in a report released Thursday morning, citing whistleblower interviews and newly obtained documents. The donors meant to give money to America250, a congressionally chartered initiative to celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial, according to Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee. They instead were given routing and account numbers that directed their funds to Freedom 250, which ... Donald Trump established last year to organize anniversary events, the report says.... In interviews, Democrats ... said their report ... shows how the president transformed a bipartisan celebration of the nation’s anniversary into an initiative that benefited him and his allies.” MB: Donald Trump sure finds a lot of ways to steal other people's money.

What does the best Air Force 1 ever need to make it truly superlative? Why, rows of fake leather-bound books to show off exactly how classy its principal criminal rider is:

~~~ Kathianne Boniello of Mediaite: “A sharp-eyed social media user called out an unusual feature on the new, $400-million Air Force One after the aircraft’s Wednesday debut: a shelf full of apparently fake books. The critique was sparked by a bubbly X post from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who included a trio of images of herself and ... Donald Trump on or in front of the new jet.... The main image showcased a beaming Leavitt sitting at a table aboard the plane, with shelves full of books surrounding a screen in the wall behind her. X user @nickmmark ... re-posted Leavitt’s happy post and zoomed in on the bookshelf — revealing tome after tome with the label 'LIBRARY' on the spine. 'Of course a plane full of people who have never read a book has a bookshelf of fake books with titles like “Library,”' he wrote.”

Must Be Joe Biden's Fault. Jeff Cox of CNBC: "The U.S. economy saw job creation cool sharply heading into the summer, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. Nonfarm payrolls for June increased by a seasonally adjusted 57,000 for the month, slower than the downwardly revised 129,000 added in May and worse than the 115,000 Dow Jones consensus forecast. The unemployment rate, however, dropped to 4.2%, slightly ahead of the 4.1% where it was a year ago."

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Trump Flaunts His Grandest Emolument. Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Wednesday boarded his first flight aboard the new Air Force One, a Boeing 747-8 that the government of Qatar gave to the United States last year, raising ethical questions. 'This will be the first flight of what I think is maybe the greatest commercial plane ever built,” Mr. Trump told reporters before climbing the stairs to the plane, which was painted red, white and blue.... The plane is not only among the largest gifts from a foreign government ever made to the United States, but under the terms of the deal, it would be donated to Mr. Trump’s presidential library when he leaves office..., potentially making it available for his personal use after 2028. Since accepting the plane as a gift, the U.S. government has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into refurbishing it to make it secure enough to carry the president.... Mr. Trump’s inaugural flight comes just one day after financial disclosure reports showed that the president had pulled in at least $2.2 billion in 2025, the first year of his second term....” ~~~

~~~ Heather Cox Richardson: “Trump told reporters he was 'excited about the first flight. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. They just completed it, they made it appropriate for a president — that means the security and all the different bells and whistles they put on — very complex stuff. But it’s really quite something.... Frankly,' he said, 'we couldn’t build a plane like this because we wouldn’t be willing to spend the kind of money necessary. They spent top dollars.' As Marina Dunbar of The Guardian noted, the plane is a retrofitted Boeing 747-8, built in the United States.... Trump’s announcement he would accept the $400 million plane from a foreign country raised a bipartisan outcry. The Pentagon then stepped in to say it would accept the plane. So, officially Qatar gave the plane to the Pentagon, but a source told Aileen Graef of CNN they expect the plane, newly painted in red, white, and blue like Trump’s private jet, to leave the service of the United States when Trump leaves the White House, going to Trump’s presidential library.”

Richardson goes on to recount more of Trump's unparalleled corrupt schemes, all of which have been recently reported: for instance, “... economic analyst Steve Rattner graphed the gains and losses of the Trump family and investors in crypto ventures. The numbers show the Trumps taking about $2.3 billion in income since the beginning of Trump’s second presidency. The numbers show investors in those ventures losing about the same amount.”

It is hard to wrap your head around that the president of the United States would engage in this level of self-enrichment at the expense of so many of his supporters.... This is a president of the United States who has made more money off crypto since he took office than he made in any prior year in his entire business career. -- Lee Reiners, a former Federal Reserve Bank examiner ~~~

~~~ Eric Lipton, et al., of the New York Times: “The president’s 927-page financial disclosure showed how Mr. Trump and his family reaped huge financial rewards in 2025 through his money-losing Trump Media venture and a separate cryptocurrency firm called World Liberty Financial, even as routine investors suffered vast losses. He also amassed hundreds of millions through deals that involved foreign governments or corporations with agenda items pending before the Trump administration. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump dismissed questions about how much money he had made after returning to the White House, suggesting that he left personal financial decisions related to his investments to others.” The link appears to be a gift link.

In the first year of his presidency, Trump made more money than in the rest of his life combined... Meanwhile, most Americans worked hard to just break even. This is the cost of corruption. -- Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), on social media ~~~

~~~ Declan Harty of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Wednesday pointed to the stock market’s rise as the fuel behind his mammoth financial windfall in 2025, saying 'everybody’s profiting.'... But the president didn’t make the more than $2 billion he reported on his financial disclosures on the backs of blue-chip stocks.... Instead, his earnings were propelled by a string of Trump-backed cryptocurrency ventures that accounted for more than $1.4 billion of his 2025 income.... And while those digital assets companies paid off handsomely to early supporters like Trump, many of the traders who followed him into the market are saddled with investments that are deep in the red, with few signs of hope. The $TRUMP memecoin ... has plunged 98 percent from its January 2025 peak. First lady Melania Trump’s own memecoin has similarly cratered in value. And another crypto asset from the Trump family-backed firm World Liberty Financial is down 87 percent from its all-time high price from September.” ~~~

~~~ Insider Trader Number 1. Donald Shaw of Sludge: "The day before ... [Donald] Trump announced a 90-day pause on his sweeping tariffs, sending markets exploding higher, his investment accounts quietly purchased hundreds of stocks near the market low, trades that were not publicly disclosed until more than a year later despite federal disclosure requirements. The purchases, finally disclosed in a 927-page annual financial disclosure filed with the Office of Government Ethics on Monday, reveal a churn of transactions that was quietly playing out all last year: Trump's accounts were actively trading stocks throughout 2025 while he was making policy decisions that moved markets, and the public had no idea. On April 8, 2025, the day before Trump announced the tariff pause, the disclosure shows 327 individual stock purchases worth as much as $12.8 million, one of the largest single-day stock buying sprees disclosed in the filing.... The S&P 500 jumped nearly 10% the following day when Trump announced the pause, one of the largest single-day gains in the index's history.

"Federal ethics law requires executive branch officials, including the president, to publicly disclose securities transactions worth more than $1,000 within 45 days.... Trump filed no such reports covering the April trades—or virtually any of the thousands of stock trades his accounts executed throughout 2025. A note from an OGE reviewer on the cover page of the annual filing states: 'The filer paid late filing fees related to transactions not previously reported on 278-Ts.' The late fee under federal law is capped at $200."

Trump Thumbs His Nose at Customary Ethical Standards. Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: Donald “Trump returned to the White House with an epiphany about mixing business and politics during his first term in office. 'I found out that nobody cared,” Mr. Trump told The New York Times in January, revealing a remarkable indifference to potential conflicts of interest.... Mr. Trump has ... smash[ed] through the few norms he paid even glancing attention to in his first term, like having his family restrain its international business activity. 'I got no credit in the first term,' he said in January.... One Pew Research Center survey from September found that more than 60 percent of Americans felt that Mr. Trump in his second term 'definitely or probably' had 'improperly' used the office of the presidency to enrich himself, friends and his family. The same poll found that nearly two-thirds of Americans believed that Mr. Trump had not set a high moral standard for the presidency....

“Mr. Trump told reporters on Wednesday morning before boarding the luxury plane donated by Qatar that now serves as Air Force One, 'You know why I’m profiting? Because the stock market is going up.'... The stock market’s movements ... do not explain the bulk of his financial haul in 2025, including when an investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates bought nearly half of the Trump family’s main crypto company.” The link appears to be a gift link.

I know more about that museum than the people that built it. -- Donald Trump, speaking of the new Theodore Roosevelt Library

Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: Donald “Trump traveled [to North Dakota]with a large entourage to oversee the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, at the foot of the national park named after the 26th president.The library was the passion project of Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, when he was North Dakota’s governor. He was there proudly leading the president around. Many conservationists have objected that Mr. Trump and Mr. Burgum are the wrong stewards of Roosevelt’s legacy, given their own environmental records. At the library’s opening, Mr. Trump described people opposed to oil drilling as 'environmental lunatics.' He also complained about his Supreme Court losses and attacked Democrats in vicious terms, taking an event that could have been an agreeably happy tent-pole moment of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations — people love Teddy Roosevelt — and pumping it full of hot political invective. Not that the crowd seemed to mind. It was full of Trump fans.... [Some] wore T-shirts that said 'Jesus Is My Savior, Trump Is My President' and hissed at the cameramen of the 'fake news.'” ~~~

~~~ Nicole Charky-Chami of the Raw Story: During his remarks, Donald Trump told the "a crowd about how he talked to the nation's 26th president, who died in 1919. 'I even had a conversation with Theodore Roosevelt. I asked how do you feel about the fact that the Democrats gave the Panama Canal away to Panama for $1,' Trump said." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

~~~ Marie: This seems to be a window into how some of the worst people in the world deal with their never-ending string of bad behavior: they live so completely in a fantasy world that they can't distinguish fact from fantasy, even when their fantasies are impossible. Trump so wants to associate himself with a real President who is generally well-regarded that he pretends their friends who chat about president-y things. Anyway, the current POTUS* is a madman. ~~~

~~~ Update: So here's sort of an explanation of why Trump thinks he talked to Teddy Roosevelt. As RAS suggested yesterday, his public remarks on the "conversation" are still bizarre. He continues -- IMO -- to seem like a befuddled old man. Bush I lost re-election largely because he was perceived as being "too out of touch" because he didn't know how a supermarket scanner worked. Trump thinks an AI-generated construction of Teddy Roosevelt is the real Roosevelt returned from the dead just so he could talk to Trump.

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: “When ... [Donald] Trump’s annual financial disclosure was released on Tuesday, it showed that he reaped at least $2.2 billion from his various businesses last year, a singular haul for a president. Many of the gains stemmed from ventures that intersect with his administration, posing unparalleled potential conflicts of interest. Here are some of the biggest moneymakers for Mr. Trump and how they could be affected by his administration’s policies[.]” The link appears to be a gift link. ~~~

~~~ Marie: I don't get why these obvious conflicts are almost always called “potential conflicts of interest” or “ an appearance of conflict of interest.” If you make money on a deal in which you have the power to regulate one or more of the parties, it is a conflict of interest, whether or not you let your own self-interest affect how you regulate the parties. ~~~

~~~ Robert Reich: "How can we possibly expect that he’s working for the people of the United States rather than for himself? Trump doesn’t have any conflicts of interest. That’s because he really has only one interest: Trump."

Trump Ruins Everything, Ctd. Katie Rogers of the New York Times: “Presiding over a series of fenced-off or under-construction festivities ahead of the country’s 250th celebration is ... [Donald] Trump, who does not seem to mind that some of the nation’s most enduring symbols of liberty and expression are closed off and militarized.... In his drive to “beautify” the nation’s capital, Mr. Trump seems to have turned portions of the city into either a construction zone or an armed camp as he seeks to prove that he alone can improve a city he interacts with primarily from his armored limousine or presidential helicopter.... As the hunt for [Mr. Trump's imaginary] vandals continues, federal officials have effectively closed off access to the Reflecting Pool.” MB: Yes, there's nothing more beautiful than aluminum chain-link fences unless it's troops, brightly-striped barriers and traffic cones defending the streets against ordinary people wishing to see the sights on their vacations. ~~~

~~~ J.D. Wolf of Meidas News: “The safety data sheets (SDS) for multiple Rhino Linings products reportedly used during the recent renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool warn that their uncured components are 'toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects.' One of products seen in a large barrel at the reflecting pool was RHINO 405 A thixotropic high viscosity epoxy resin, which was used as part of a multi-layer coating process. The warning for the product applies to the materials during handling, application, spills, and before they have fully cured.... Several dead ducks were found in or near the pool....” (MB BTW: I read the Raw Story's report on this before reading Wolf's report. The Raw Story report-on-the-report is riddled with errors and misstatements of Wolf's report.) ~~~

~~~ Jake Spring of the Washington Post: “Fireworks for this year’s July Fourth celebration are expected to cause hazardous levels of pollution around the National Mall and 'very unhealthy' conditions in central D.C., according to internal National Park Service documents.... The show, billed by the Trump administration as the largest pyrotechnic display in history, will include some 850,000 fireworks in a roughly 40-minute show expected to start at 10:30 p.m. or 11 p.m., according to organizers.... Donald Trump will speak as part of the event, which marks the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence.... A draft air-quality analysis, based on the National Park Service’s modeling, states that people should 'avoid prolonged exposure' to the pollution around the Mall.... The Park Service, in a separate document..., said that people should 'wear an n95 mask when outdoors' and 'remain indoors as much as possible during and after the show.'” Update: the link has been changed to a gift link.

Sarah Blaskey & Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post (June 30): “White House officials last year secretly awarded a no-bid contract worth up to $500 million for the construction of the East Wing ballroom in an unusual arrangement that sidestepped typical contracting procedures designed to control costs.... The White House routed the contract through the Executive Residence, the document shows, an office that is exempt from rules that require federal agencies to solicit competitive bids and disclose details to the public. The office is typically responsible for routine repairs, entertainment expenses, and the purchase of furniture, art and other items for the executive mansion.... Records also show that ... Donald Trump was directly involved in negotiating some costs for the project.” (Also linked yesterday.)

AND akaWendy found out that Trump hasn't given up on affixing his name at the top of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In fact, he (or probably his legal advisors) have had a Plan B in place for a while in case Plan A -- just doing it -- fell through: ~~~

~~~ Janay Kingsberry of the Atlantic: “Department of Justice lawyers representing the Kennedy Center yesterday urged a federal appeals court to restore Donald Trump’s name to the institution, arguing that taking it down jeopardizes “hundreds of millions” of dollars in gifts and pledges tied to an entity, unheard-of until this month, called the Trump Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Foundation.... Bylaws for the foundation (which DOJ lawyers first mentioned in a June 12 filing in the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit) require that gifts be 'returned, refunded, or terminated' if the president’s name is removed from the building, its branding, or other affiliated materials, the Kennedy Center wrote in a filing yesterday. Seeking an emergency stay to restore the president’s name to the building, the center argued that donors had pledged generous sums because Trump’s name was attached to the institution.” Read on. There are, of course, complications. Thanks to akaWendy for this gift link.

Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: “The humanitarian crisis gripping Venezuela after last week’s earthquakes is testing ... Donald Trump’s claim of American leadership in the Western Hemisphere, as officials tout their surge of U.S. money and manpower to the country after gutting America’s foreign assistance apparatus early in the administration.... The U.S. aid presence now in Venezuela — including search-and-rescue teams along with military and civilian logistical support — is an example of the big, brash displays of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief that the administration says it favors over slower-paced development work.

Raja Abdulrahim & Falih Hassan of the New York Times: “The United States has resumed some air shipments of U.S. dollars to Iraq, several months after it suspended them in a bid to pressure the government to distance itself from Iran, according to two aides to Iraq’s prime minister. The Trump administration stopped the flow of dollars to Iraq’s cash-based economy in April, withholding the country’s own money earned from oil sales. It was an extraordinary measure in light of the longstanding alliance between the two countries.... The punitive measures were taken at a moment when Iraq was in the process of selecting a new prime minister and the United States was trying to block candidates viewed as sympathetic to Iran. Washington was also demanding that Iraq’s government rein in an array of Iran-linked militias that operate largely outside of government control and have periodically attacked U.S. targets in the country.”

Emily Chang & Molly Nagle of ABC News: "The Trump administration announced Wednesday that the U.S. will not renew the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a key trade deal that ... Donald Trump negotiated in his first term.... The USMCA was negotiated by Trump to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed during the George H.W. Bush administration, which allowed free trade among North American neighbors. In a statement on the decision, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer pointed to 'shortcomings and our trade deficits with these countries' as the reason for the U.S. decision not to renew the USMCA. Instead, officials indicated the U.S. will pursue new trade deals with Mexico and Canada."

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “Since late last year, senior officials at the Justice Department and their allies in the news media have been unabashedly discussing a pair of investigations into John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director, who has long been one of ... [Donald] Trump’s most reviled political enemies. On Wednesday, Mr. Brennan’s lawyers publicly fired back, putting the Trump administration on notice that if prosecutors bring charges against their client, they intend to fight them by claiming they are an act of vindictive retribution. The warning came as part of a lawsuit filed in Federal District Court in Washington that asked a judge to force Mr. Trump and top officials at the Justice Department to preserve any records or communications they might have related to the inquiries into Mr. Brennan.... The request for a judicial order requiring officials to keep records about a case that has not even been filed was somewhat unusual.” An Axios report is here.

Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “Federal immigration officials have detained more than 10,000 people in the last five days, a major surge that has stemmed from a push within Immigration and Customs Enforcement to increase arrest rates.... ICE officers have arrested people at check-ins with immigration authorities, during traffic stops and on the street. The push has apparently yielded results, with recent arrest numbers roughly doubling from the 1,000 picked up each day earlier this year.... The rise in arrests suggests that ... [Donald] Trump is determined to meet his pledge of mass deportations, a goal that is popular among his conservative supporters but that has fueled a political backlash amid the administration’s heavy-handed tactics.... Top ICE officials were told to make sure that as many officers as possible were working seven days a week, and to put 80 percent of their officers on arrest operations....”

Calen Razor of Politico: “Last July 4 recess, House Republicans were triumphantly celebrating the massive victory of clearing the party’s tax and spending bill. Fast forward a year and Speaker Mike Johnson can’t even get enough votes to open his chamber’s floor for debate.... A rebellion by a small band of conservatives now jeopardizes members’ top priorities as the legislative calendar ahead of the midterms rapidly shrinks.... Now lawmakers will return July 13 to a chaotic mess of a to-do list.” ~~~

~~~ Meredith Hill of Politico: The voter-suppression-oriented SAVE America Act “can’t even pass the House — at least not the version Trump is pushing.... Speaker Mike Johnson ... and other House leaders have stuck with an older version of the SAVE America Act that focuses on proof-of-citizenship requirements but otherwise lets states run their elections as they see fit.... The added provisions Trump wants include a blanket prohibition on transgender people playing women’s sports, a ban on gender-affirming surgeries for minors and the mail voting crackdown — which could effectively end the no-excuse policies both blue and red states employ to send ballots out widely.... In the Senate, where even the narrower House-passed version of the bill has languished due to GOP divisions and a Democratic filibuster, there is also an understanding that the expanded bill Trump wants is DOA.”

Frank Thorp, et al., of NBC News: “Paramedics responded to a report of a 'cardiac arrest' for an “unconscious” person at a known address for Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on the day his office disclosed he had been hospitalized, according to police scanner audio.... McConnell, 84, has faced a slew of health issues in recent years. ”

Zach Montague & Adam Sella of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Washington on Wednesday blocked the United States Postal Service from carrying out changes to its delivery of mail-in ballots, writing that recent policies directed by ... [Donald] Trump ran afoul of legal terms the agency accepted more than four years ago to ensure timely delivery of mail ballots. In a brief opinion, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan pointed to a settlement agreement reached between the N.A.A.C.P. and the Postal Service in December 2021, after the group sued the government arguing that postal delays threatened to disenfranchise voters. At that time, the agency agreed to 'prioritize monitoring and timely delivery of election mail.'... The parties had agreed [the settlement agreement] would run through the 2028 election cycle.” The Guardian's report is here.

Sarah Rumpf of Mediaite: '... for Sean Davis, co-founder of The Federalist, lobbying Congress to pass legislation is an insufficient response to the Supreme Court's ruling [upholding birthright citizenship as a Constitutional mandate]. In a long social media post, Davis accused Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett of having made the 'choice' to 'nullify the 14th amendment and extra-constitutionally replace it with their own language,' and he offered several 'ways forward' from the court's ruling. Among the ideas he shared were having red states refuse to issue birth certificates to 'non-citizens,' packing the court with additional justices, denying entry to all pregnant foreigners, denying entry to all pregnant foreigners, sterilization of all foreign visitors, and even '[d]issolution of the Union,' because '[a] nation which can't even restrict who gets to be a citizen isn't a nation.'" Thanks to RAS for the link.

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Colorado. Jack Healy of the New York Times: “Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado on Wednesday fired two members of his clemency board after they spoke out against his decision to commute the prison sentence of the election denier Tina Peters. The board members, Hannah Seigel Proff and Azra Taslimi, had objected to Mr. Polis’s decision in May to release Ms. Peters from prison after pressure from ... [Donald] Trump. After the commutation, Ms. Proff and Ms. Taslimi revealed that the board — appointed by Mr. Polis — had twice voted unanimously to reject Ms. Peters’s application for a shortened sentence. Mr. Polis, a Democrat, has the final decision, and overruled the board.... They received a letter from the governor saying they were being dismissed for violating the board’s confidentiality standards.... 'He’s saying the public doesn’t have the right to know his own advisory board told him no — twice,' Ms. Taslimi said. 'He’s not protecting a process. He’s protecting himself from scrutiny.'” MB: She's right. Polis should have fired himself -- that is, resigned. Update: the link has been changed to one that appears to be a gift link.

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Ukraine/Russia. David Stern & Kostiantyn Khudov of the Washington Post: “Russia pounded the Ukrainian capital [Kyiv] with airstrikes overnight, killing at least 17 people, injuring more than 90 others and causing fires throughout the city, officials said Thursday. It was the latest major attack on the Ukrainian capital as Moscow finds its war stalling and casualties mounting, with little prospect of renewed ceasefire or peace negotiations.”