~~~ Julia Manchester of the Hill: “'THE SAVE AMERICA ACT’S non-passage is CRAZY, and a serious threat to any politician who votes against it!' Trump exclaimed in a lengthy Truth Social post.... Trump’s comments come just hours before the bipartisan housing legislation ... is automatically set to go into law at midnight if the president does veto the bill. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has said that Trump will not stop the legislation even if he doesn’t sign it.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Sho' Nuf. Michael Gold of the New York Times: Donald “Trump allowed a bipartisan housing bill to become law without his signature on Saturday, hours after he said he would refuse to sign it because Republicans had failed to pass an unrelated voting restriction bill that does not have enough support to clear the Senate.... The measure, the first major legislative effort to address the nation’s housing crisis in more than three decades, became law at midnight after a constitutionally mandated period without the president vetoing the measure. But Mr. Trump’s pronouncement is still a remarkable dismissal by a president of efforts by his own party to address a major political vulnerability.”
Tweets of a Bigot, Ctd. Trump Targets Five-Year-Olds. Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: “Hateful emails and phone calls targeted a Minnesota school serving Somali families after ... Donald Trump shared a video of its kindergartners on Truth Social this week, an episode that many Somali Americans see as an escalation of a sustained campaign of political and rhetorical attacks during Trump’s second term, community leaders said. On Wednesday, Trump reposted a video from a kindergarten graduation ceremony at Gateway STEM Academy, a K-8 charter school in St. Paul. In the clip, children wearing blue graduation gowns, including girls wearing hijabs beneath their mortarboards, sing in Somali as they celebrate the end of the school year. Trump amplified another user’s caption: 'Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.' The faces of the young children were clearly visible in the video shared with Trump’s 12.9 million followers.... The replies to Trump’s post quickly filled with anti-Muslim invectives, including one user who called the children 'future terrorists.'”
Questions, But Few Answers. Audra Burch & Mark Bonamo of the New York Times: “An otherwise unremarkable gas station in Bristol, Pa., lured passing drivers this week with something many had not glimpsed in months: a price of $3.47 per gallon. The former Valero station is one in a chain of 25 newly branded Freedom Fuel gas stations in the Philadelphia region, promoted by ... [Donald] Trump and the White House but with no information about who owns them — or why they are willing to undercut competitors by at least 50 cents a gallon.... On Tuesday, the White House released a video featuring a Freedom Fuel gas station in Philadelphia, with customers lauding Mr. Trump.... But a White House spokesman said the Trump administration had no role in the effort but to praise it.”
Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: “The Trump administration issued subpoenas on Friday to several journalists for The New York Times, after the news outlet reported this week on security concerns involving ... [Donald] Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One. The subpoenas — which seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday — were an extraordinary escalation in [Mr.] Trump’s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations. In some cases, the subpoenas were delivered by federal agents who showed up at reporters’ homes. The Times denounced the administration’s actions.... The subpoenas ... were issued by Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan. Mr. Clayton ... was recently nominated by Mr. Trump to serve as director of national intelligence.” Update: the link has been changed to one that appears to be a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Noah Robertson of the Washington Post: “Jay Clayton, the Trump administration’s pick to lead the intelligence community, will appear before the Senate on Wednesday — weeks after ... [Donald Trump] abruptly canceled his previously scheduled confirmation hearing. The hearing before the Senate Intelligence Community could clear a path for lawmakers to replace Bill Pulte, a mortgage agency official and Trump loyalist, as the acting director of national intelligence.”
~~~ Erik Wemple of the New York Times: “The New York Times said in a court filing on Friday that the Trump administration had violated the newspaper’s First Amendment rights by suing it for employment discrimination. The Times called the government’s suit an act of retaliation for its coverage of the Trump presidency. In May, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a civil rights lawsuit against The Times in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, claiming that the newspaper unlawfully discriminated against a white male employee who did not get a sought-after promotion.... The Times said the E.E.O.C. had sued after President Trump and his aides lashed out at the company for its coverage of the administration, including articles about Mr. Trump’s plans to build a ballroom at the White House, his health and the war with Iran. It said the lawsuit had been filed just days after The Times published two articles about the E.E.O.C. In one, agency employees described feeling pressure to bring in cases alleging discrimination against white men and antisemitism on college campuses.”
Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: “U.S. forces sharply ramped up their attacks against Iran this week, hitting more than 170 Iranian military targets on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Pentagon said. It was one of the most intense rounds of strikes since the war began more than four months ago.... On Friday..., [Donald] Trump said on social media that he had agreed to continue negotiating with Iran, but that “the Cease Fire is OVER!” It was unclear what his administration’s next steps might be.... [Among the targets was] a railway bridge in northeastern Iran more than 700 miles from the [Strait of Hormuz].... Mr. Trump ,,, [said last week that] U.S. forces could target civilian infrastructure in Iran, including electricity plants and bridges, even though that could constitute war crimes.” ~~~
~~~ NEVERTHELESS. David Sanger of the New York Times: “U.S. officials said on Friday that they expected Iran would issue in coming days a public statement acknowledging that all channels through the Strait of Hormuz are open, and that Iranian forces will cease shooting at ships passing through the narrow waterway. The officials ... said that if Iran did not issue the statement and stick with it, 'we’re not going to have a good outcome for them.' In a 30-minute conversation, the officials said that Iranian negotiators had told them the drone attacks on ships passing through the strait had been conducted by rogue units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps who were trying to undermine the vague nuclear accord signed last month. But they said that the Trump administration planned to continue negotiating on the broader, permanent deal on the future of Iran’s nuclear program, and would respond militarily to any more strikes on ships.”
Markwayne Is Kristi, But Sneakier. Jazmine Ulloa, et al., of the New York Times: “The fatal shooting of a man this week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Houston has brought into focus an aggressive ramp-up of immigration arrests across the country that has largely occurred outside the public eye. From large cities like Chicago and Las Vegas to small suburbs outside Milwaukee and San Antonio, immigrants have been picked up and detained at courthouses, ICE check-ins and traffic stops, with daily arrests doubling in the last week of June and continuing to climb. 'The operations have purposely been done behind the scenes,' said Getsy Hernandez, a community organizer with Escucha Mi Voz Iowa.... In the days since [immigration agents in Houston, Texas, fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo], the killing has galvanized thousands of protesters, led to calls from local leaders and Latino civil rights groups for independent investigations and prompted promises of legal action from President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico.
“Federal immigration agents have shot at more than 20 people since September, nearly all of them in their cars. Some of the shootings have been fatal.... In a period of five days at the end of June, ICE officers arrested more than 10,000 people.... After a brief lull during the July 4 holiday weekend, arrests picked back up by Tuesday, the day Mr. Salgado Araujo was shot. From Tuesday through Thursday, ICE officers across the United States arrested more than 6,000 people, internal records show, a pace of about 2,000 arrests a day.”
Pooja Salhotra & Orlando Mayorquín of the New York Times: “Hours after three witnesses questioned the official account of how an immigration agent killed a man in Houston this week, city officials said they would begin their own investigation of the federal government’s actions. Mayor John Whitmire of Houston said he, the city’s police department and the district attorney’s office would work aggressively to obtain all evidence and uncover the truth, reversing his earlier position that the city had no jurisdiction over the case. 'We are not settling to wait for an F.B.I. report,' Mr. Whitmire said during a news briefing on Friday afternoon. 'We want answers.'”
Miriam Jordan & Madeleine Ngo of the New York Times: “The Homeland Security Department told employers on Friday that they must let go in coming weeks the hundreds of thousands of foreign workers who have been allowed to live in the United States through a humanitarian program the Trump administration has sought to dismantle. The work permits of Haitians with Temporary Protected Status will expire on July 24. Such permits will also lapse on July 17 for those from Ethiopia, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen, according to notices issued for each affected country by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversees the legal immigration system. The guidance comes on the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision last month upholding the Trump administration’s authority to end protections for T.P.S. holders from Haiti and Syria. Once the terminations take effect, the recipients become vulnerable to deportation. More than 330,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians have been living in the country under the program....”
Trumpists Do Everything Wrong. Catrin Einhorn & Maxine Joselow of the New York Times: “The Trump administration on Friday moved to open the habitats of imperiled animals to farming, drilling, mining, real estate development and other activities in what environmentalists characterized as the most severe erosion of protections for wildlife in half a century. It did so by recasting a single word, 'harm.' For more than 50 years, the federal government has used a broader definition of harm to animals under the Endangered Species Act, a bedrock environmental law. It included any significant 'modification or degradation' of habitat that kills or injures animals by impairing their ability to eat, shelter or breed. The Supreme Court upheld this interpretation in 1995, ruling against property owners who argued that harm should only mean directly killing or injuring an endangered animal. But on Friday, the Interior Department and the Commerce Department announced a final rule that rescinded this longstanding interpretation. Under the rule, destroying an endangered species’ nest or habitat would no longer be considered illegal.”
Ana Ley, et al., of the New York Times: Even though health inspector were not allowed beyond the food prep areas, they found plenty of dangerously unsanitary conditions and unsafe food storage practices at the Delaney Hall immigrant detention center in Newark, New Jersey. (MB: It kinda makes you sick just to read the report.) MEANWHILE, DHS Secretary Markwayne seems to be living the life of leisure & luxury. (Also linked yesterday.)
David Lawrence, formerly a top DOJ anti-trust lawyer, in a New York Times op-ed: “The day after the [Supreme C]ourt’s ruling [last week to expand the president's powers], the Trump administration lifted restrictions it had imposed on access to top artificial intelligence models from Anthropic, a leading A.I. company, seemingly on the condition that the company submit to ongoing government oversight. On Tuesday, OpenAI finally announced that it will release broadly its new artificial intelligence model, GPT-5.6, access to which has been restricted at the request of the U.S. government. Only a limited set of customers — those approved by the Trump administration — have been allowed use of the A.I. tool. These restrictions on the A.I. industry are the latest instance of the White House creating its own parallel administrative state, sidestepping Congress. Congress and the courts must push back.
“The right vigorously criticizes government control of private industry as a kind of communist central planning.... The president’s unauthorized intervention in private business poses a ... direct threat to free enterprise.... The A.I. business is not the only industry that Mr. Trump has subjected to his new form of unitary executive.... The need to rebalance power in Washington was clear before the Supreme Court’s latest round of rulings. It grows more urgent each time the executive writes and enforces its own rules.” MB: Lawrence doesn't even mention the golden opportunities for corrupt practices of which Trump will avail/has availed himself.
Ian Austen & Tyler Pager of the New York Times: “Despite the best efforts of ... [Donald] Trump, the Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, will open on July 27, the government of Canada announced on Friday evening. The soaring 6.4 billion Canadian dollar ($4.5 billion) structure has reshaped the skylines of the two border cities, between which roughly $300 million in trade flows each day. It is also precisely the kind of large infrastructure project Prime Minister Mark Carney has championed as a bulwark against the economic damage caused by Mr. Trump’s trade war with Canada. Officials in Canada and the United States said on Friday that the two countries had reached a deal about how tolls would be distributed, allowing the bridge to finally open....
“In February, Mr. Trump said in a rambling social media post that he intended to block the bridge’s opening. A ceremony scheduled for early June was called off after invitations had already gone out, and the Trump administration spent the months that followed his first post offering shifting explanations for the president’s opposition. Mr. Trump’s initial post came hours after Matthew Moroun, the billionaire scion of the family that has owned the Ambassador Bridge upstream from the Gordie Howe Bridge since 1979, met in Washington with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick....”
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Maine Senate Race. Alec Hernandez of Politico: “Graham Platner has formally withdrawn his candidacy from the Maine Senate race, according to election officials — triggering the process to name his replacement on the ballot. 'The Secretary of State’s Office today confirmed that a formal notice has been received from U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner,' the office said in a statement Friday. 'Because the candidate officially withdrew before 5 p.m. of the 2nd Monday in July, ... his name will not appear on the ballot, and his political party may replace him.'” ~~~
~~~ Reid Epstein & Tim Balk of the New York Times: “Maine Democrats will hold a convention on July 25 where they will select a new Senate nominee to replace Graham Platner, Charles F. Dingman, chair of the state party, said Friday. The convention will be held at the Cross Insurance Center, a small arena in Bangor, Maine, according to rules released by the state party. Maine Democrats are planning to hold county meetings to choose delegates next weekend and the state convention the weekend after that to pick a replacement for Mr. Platner, who filed paperwork to end his campaign on Friday. He had faced widespread pressure from party leaders and allies to bow out after a rape allegation, which he denies. Officials in the state are trying to create a process to choose a Platner replacement by a July 27 deadline, a herculean task for a small state party.”
New York. William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: “New York City investigators and Manhattan prosecutors have opened a preliminary criminal inquiry into what caused columns inside a Midtown building to buckle this week, according to a city official and a person with knowledge of the matter.... The criminal inquiry is likely to be complex and labor intensive. The construction project at the site, the former headquarters of the drugmaker Pfizer, was set to be the largest residential conversion in the United States, and such projects can involve dozens of companies, subcontractors and developers with different roles and obligations. Piecing together what happened and why — and whether anyone was criminally responsible — can take months or years....”
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U.K. Royal Watch. Zane Irwin & Megan Specia of the New York Times: “In a step toward mending one of the world’s most-followed family feuds, Prince Harry, his wife and their two children met for the first time in years with Harry’s father, King Charles III, and Queen Camilla, Buckingham Palace said on Friday.... In 2020, Harry and his American-born wife, Meghan, stepped down from their royal duties, lost their 'royal highness' titles and moved to the United States. Friday’s visit was a sign of a détente between Harry and his father. Harry had not returned to Britain with wife and children since Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022. Harry had visited his father in Britain by himself last fall.... It was the first time in several years that Charles, 77, and his grandchildren, aged 7 and 5, met in person. Buckingham Palace said there would be no images released of the family visit at Highgrove House, a country estate that is one of the king and queen’s residences.”
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