Who do you believe???

Trump says it’s "our turn" to strike after intercepted Iranian attack

By Kevin Liptak at the White House

President Donald Trump pledged to forcefully respond to Iran’s attempted attack on US military positions, saying it was “our turn” in the ongoing attacks that briefly went quiet as he sought a diplomatic off-ramp.

“We’re going to be hitting them very hard because it’s our turn to hit them. They know it’s coming,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

Iran fired missiles toward US forces in the region overnight, according to the US military. All were intercepted.

It was a departure from the usual pattern in the tit-for-tat attacks, which have seen Iran responding to US strikes, and appeared to demonstrate Iran’s willingness to restart the hostilities.

“They’re asking us not to do it,” Trump said of the US retaliation, adding all the incoming fire had been “knocked down to the ground.”

“But they nevertheless took a shot, so it’s our turn,” he went on, “and we’ll see if we get there with an agreement at some point. But we’re going to hit them very hard.”

Later, Trump suggested the attack was carried out by a different faction of Iranian leadership than the officials the US has been talking to.

“It was a different group than we’re dealing with,” he said. “They’ve already apologized, but you know we gotta smack them a little bit.”

Ban new Chinese humanoid robots

Trump administration to ban new Chinese humanoid robots, protecting US AI buildout

Story by Alexandra Alper

The Trump administration on Tuesday plans to unveil bans that target imports of new Chinese robots and power inverters, seeking to protect the U.S. AI buildout from national security threats and reshore key industries slated for explosive growth, U.S. officials said.

The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday afternoon plans to roll out the measures, which bar Chinese imports of new humanoid and quadruped robots —  in addition to connected power inverters, which enable renewable energy sources and batteries to connect to grids and data center equipment, the people said.

The restrictions, whose imminent release has not been previously reported, show the Trump administration is aiming to safeguard the U.S. artificial intelligence supply chain from Chinese threats of disruption, data theft and cyberattacks, while also driving firms to shift manufacturing to the U.S.     

"The President has made clear that the United States must have independent and secure supply chains for critical and emerging technologies like robotic devices and power inverters," said an administration official, who declined to be named because the matter was not public.

"Economic security is national security, and the Trump administration continues to implement a nuanced and multi-faceted policy agenda to reindustrialize America," he added.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Humanoid robots, topped with AI-enabled "brains," are forecast by some analysts for broad adoption in consumer and industrial arenas, while explosive data-center construction in the U.S. will depend on reliable sources of inverters.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned that Chinese AI firms could face U.S. sanctions for stealing U.S. intellectual property. 

U.S. officials are also keen to avoid another scenario as happened with rare earth minerals — critical inputs for tech manufacturing so dominated by China that Beijing has been able to leverage access to them to secure big wins on the international stage.

FCC LIKELY TO EXEMPT NON-CHINESE SUPPLIERS

As part of the measures slated to be announced on Tuesday, the FCC will ban foreign imports of new models of targeted technologies and is then expected to exempt many non-Chinese suppliers from the restrictions, as it has done with recent bans on foreign drones and routers, four additional sources said.

The restrictions, which will go into effect upon publication, will apply only to robot and inverter models that have not yet been released, another U.S. official said. However, the FCC has the authority to revoke authorizations for sales of models that have already been authorized for purchase in the United States.

President Donald Trump is credited with bringing international attention to the tech threat posed by China during his first term, giving voice to concerns about intellectual property theft by Chinese firms, and the threat of state-sponsored spying by Chinese telecom juggernauts like Huawei . 

But he has so far taken a much more dovish approach during his second term, faced with Beijing's aggressive use of export controls on rare earth minerals last year.

The robot ban is expected to hit Unitree, a world leader in humanoid robots with just under a fifth of global market share, according to Counterpoint Research.

The firm, which is one of three Chinese companies dominating the nascent but buzzy industry, was recently added to the Pentagon's list of alleged Chinese military-backed companies, which can be a harbinger of tougher U.S. action. 

Unitree recently formed a partnership with Nvidia to use the AI chip company's cutting-edge Blackwell chip to power the brain of a Unitree robot. Nvidia has said data from the robots will remain in the U.S. and that Unitree's biggest customers are U.S. academic and research institutions.

China hawks fear the robots could spy on key U.S. industries, exfiltrating data to Beijing or disrupting their key functions. 

China is the world’s largest maker of inverters, led by Sungrow Power Supply and Huawei, already heavily sanctioned by the U.S. Beijing has been expanding its share in the Western inverter market by driving down prices.

Reuters previously reported that the FCC was working on a Chinese inverter ban, inspired by recent action by Europe and concerns around disruption and installation of malware.

Authorities want to avoid another Chinese government-linked hacking campaign like the one dubbed Volt Typhoon, revealed in 2023. By taking control of privately owned routers, the attackers sought to hide subsequent attacks on American critical infrastructure.

The U.S. Department of Defense is already barred from procuring solar photovoltaic cells, modules or inverters manufactured by a foreign entity of concern, which would include Chinese companies.

Unitree, Sungrow and Huawei did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A big Fuck You to the orange turd...

Against Trump's wishes, Calif. Young Republicans group endorses Democrat

By Anabel Sosa

In an unexpected move, a group of young Republicans endorsed a Democrat running in their Central Valley district instead of his Donald Trump-endorsed opponent. That bold move could cost that local chapter its official standing. 

Last week, the Madera Young Republicans endorsed Rep. Adam Gray, the incumbent Democrat who has represented California’s 13th Congressional District since winning the seat in 2024. The endorsement was spotted by an online poll tracker, which showed a screen capture of the group’s Instagram post. 

In response the California Young Republicans, the state’s umbrella organization, said it would take swift action against the satellite group. It said the move was an “egregious” violation of its bylaws, which prohibits member chapters from endorsing Democrats.

“We have initiated a formal disciplinary proceedings against the Madera chapter, including the beginning stages of disbandment and dischartering providers to remove this chapter from our organization,” a statement from the California Young Republicans said.

The group denounced the endorsement, calling it an action that “fundamentally betrays the conservative principles” of the organization. 

They continued that the “the decision to endorse a Democrat demonstrates a complete abandonment of the mission and values that define us as an organization dedicated to electing Republican candidates and preserving conservative ideals throughout California.”

Gray is not just any Democrat in California. He leans more towards the middle of the political spectrum, and on several occasions, he has split from his own party. He was notably the sole Democrat from California, and just one of 13 Democrats total, to vote to end the government shutdown last year, a move that signaled he is willing to compromise with Republicans to bring necessary funding, such as SNAP benefits and promised healthcare funding, to constituents. 

It’s unclear why the Madera Young Republicans diverged from the statewide organization, which endorsed Gray’s Republican opponent, Kevin Lincoln. 

Lincoln, a former military officer, won the endorsement of President Donald Trump and other major Republican figures, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and four other Republican congressmen, both current and former, in California. Lincoln also has the support of the Republican Party of Madera County. 

SFGATE reached out to the Madera GOP for comment but did not hear back before the time of publication. Contact information and social media pages for the Madera Young Republicans group are no longer publicly available. The Fresno Bee reported that the group no longer had a social media presence as of last Wednesday.

Gray flipped the Fresno-area seat in 2024, which includes Merced, San Joaquin, Madera, Fresno and Stanislaus counties, by unseating one-term Republican incumbent John Duarte. He notably won by just 187 votes. The district has become more Democratic since redistricting, but it is still looked at as a purple, battleground district. 

A spokesperson for Rep. Adam Gray said in an emailed statement to SFGATE that Gray welcomes any and all bipartisan support.

“Congressman Gray welcomes the support of Republicans, Democrats, and independent voters,” the spokesperson said. “The people of the Valley expect their representative to work with anyone when it means making life better for the communities we serve.”

It's just bullshit and they know it...........

Fauci invokes the Fifth Amendment and declines to testify in GOP-led Senate panel's COVID-19 hearing

By LAURAN NEERGAARD and ALI SWENSON

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions from senators in a Republican-led committee hearing about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The move injects new drama into the lingering tensions between Fauci and Republican lawmakers over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and accusations he lied about the origins of COVID-19, which he denies.

Fauci was set to answer lawmakers’ questions after being subpoenaed by Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has long had a fraught relationship with the now-retired infectious-disease expert and led the charge seeking that he testify, again, under oath.

Fauci’s decision to invoke the Fifth, at least for now, sidesteps calls for his prosecution if he is accused of lying at Wednesday’s hearing, part of a yearslong campaign for his arrest spearheaded by some Republicans in Congress. Though he received a presidential pardon from Democrat Joe Biden, some of Fauci's critics have suggested he could still face charges if he perjures himself under oath.

His refusal to answer questions may also further inflame partisan divides that have festered for years about the origins and handling of the pandemic, which was declared by the World Health Organization in March 2020.

Fauci, who helped lead the nation’s COVID-19 response, has long been a target of those frustrations. But to his supporters he is an emblem of sound scientific expertise.

In his opening statement, Fauci said Paul has an “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution.”

“The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this Committee is to prompt me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars,’” Fauci said, adding that while it pains him to do so, he is following his attorney’s advice by taking the Fifth.

Paul releases some of Fauci's diary

Paul in his opening statement sought to build the case that Fauci helped produce the COVID-19 pandemic by approving funding of research on virus mutations and then covered up his complicity.

Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the committee's ranking member, said the hearing was a partisan exercise that looked backward instead of focusing on current national security challenges.

Leading up to the hearing, Paul released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci’s personal diary covering the pandemic years. Pointing to some notes about early efforts at understanding how the virus emerged, Paul wrote on the social media platform X that what Fauci “wrote privately and what he told the country are two different stories.”

Some of the diary entries – including Fauci’s uncertainty in the pandemic’s earliest days as scientists around the world raced to understand the new virus and how best to curb it before vaccines could be created – already were reflected in a 2024 memoir and in interviews at the time.

But they have nonetheless drawn attention from people who blame Fauci for mask mandates, school closures and other policies they believe infringed on their rights as hundreds of thousands of people were dying.

Ahead of the hearing, President Donald Trump wrote on social media that he stopped relying on Fauci over the course of the pandemic because he felt Fauci made bad decisions on masks, shutdowns and other issues.

In a statement, Fauci’s attorney David Schertler said Paul’s accusations are “false and disgraceful, and we will examine all options to hold him accountable.”

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist before he entered public office, said Monday that his department gave the diary entries, which were created on a government computer, to the committee. He told a Fox News Channel host that he thought Fauci might lie before the committee, opening him to perjury prosecution.

Paul told Fauci that he may still face repercussions for obstructing a congressional investigation by refusing to testify. That could include a contempt of Congress citation, which would be referred to the Justice Department for consideration.

Scientists scrambled to Fauci’s defense ahead of the unusual hearing — the second time the longtime National Institutes of Health scientist has been back before Congress to discuss pandemic origins since leaving the government in 2022. While the COVID-19 pandemic introduced him to millions of Americans, he talked the nation through numerous outbreaks over decades, including HIV, Ebola and the 2001 anthrax attacks, while advising seven presidents.

Some disease experts criticize the accusations against Fauci

In a public letter, more than 150 infectious-disease experts and other scientists wrote that “no credible evidence has been produced to support these absurd charges” and that they are “urging our elected representatives in Congress stop these witch-hunts.”

The expected crux of Wednesday’s hearing was whether NIH-funded research in China may have played a role in how the pandemic started.

Many scientists believe the virus most likely emerged in nature and jumped from animals to people, coming to light when it spread at a wildlife market in the Chinese city of Wuhan. There’s no new scientific information supporting that the virus might instead have leaked from a laboratory, a theory Paul champions. A GOP-led subcommittee that studied the question in 2024 did not find any evidence linking Fauci to wrongdoing.

Fauci has long said publicly that he was open to both theories but that there’s more evidence supporting COVID-19’s natural origins, the way other deadly viruses including coronavirus cousins SARS and MERS jumped into people.

Republicans also have accused Fauci of lying about whether his agency funded what's known as gain of function research — the practice of enhancing a virus in a lab to study its potential real-world impact — at a lab in Wuhan.

The NIH for years gave grants to a New York nonprofit called EcoHealth Alliance, which used some of the funds to work with a Chinese lab studying coronaviruses commonly carried by bats. But the definition of gain of function covers both general research and especially risky experiments to enhance the ability of potential pandemic viruses to spread or cause severe disease in humans. Fauci has previously stressed he was using the risky experiment definition and that “it would be molecularly impossible” for those bat virus experiments to have turned into the pandemic virus.

Trump, a Republican, last year paused some federally funded gain of function research, and on Tuesday his administration announced new rules to tighten oversight.

Another fun day..........

Iran resumes missile attacks as U.S. and Saudis strike Tehran-backed militias in Iraq

By The Associated Press

Iran launched a barrage of missiles at American forces in the Middle East early Wednesday as the U.S. partnered with Saudi Arabia to strike Tehran-backed militias in neighboring Iraq, killing at least 20 fighters.

Middle East

U.S. and Iran pause airstrikes as diplomatic efforts move forward

The flare-up on multiple fronts, after several days of relative calm, raised the risk of a return to all-out war. It also underscored the difficulty of winding down a five-month conflict that has jolted the world economy and is unpopular among Americans. It was also likely to add to concerns that the U.S. is further drawing down already diminished stockpiles of sophisticated munitions needed to defend its bases and allies.

Saudi Arabia had accused the Iraqi militias of firing drones against its oil facilities over the past two days. An umbrella group of Iraqi militias initially denied the allegations, while another Iran-backed group — the Houthi rebels in Yemen — said they had attacked Saudi energy facilities as part of a separate but related conflict.

Before the latest eruption, mediators had expressed optimism about bringing the U.S. and Iran back to the negotiating table. An interim agreement collapsed in recent weeks over renewed fighting in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global energy supplies that Iranian attacks have again effectively closed.

The renewed hostilities sent oil prices spiking. Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 3.1% to $84.58 a barrel.

Jordan intercepts missiles and U.S. strikes militias in Iraq

Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it fired ballistic missiles at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base and the headquarters of the U.S. military's Central Command in Jordan, in a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency.

Jordan's military said five Iranian missiles had been intercepted and destroyed. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The U.S. military later announced that American and Saudi fighter aircraft had struck multiple logistics and weapons sites in eastern Iraq in response to the alleged drone attacks on Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Defense Ministry warned that it "does not seek escalation but will respond to any aggression."

The Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of primarily Shiite, Iran-backed armed groups that is officially under the command of the Iraqi military, said at least 20 fighters were killed and 32 others wounded in the overnight strikes.

The groups making up the PMF joined in the fight against the Islamic State group after it seized large sections of Iraq in 2014. The Iraqi government later designated PMF as an "independent military formation" within the armed forces, but in practice the militias have significant autonomy, and some have attacked U.S. facilities.

The office of Iraqi President Nizar Amidi condemned Wednesday's U.S.-Saudi airstrikes, calling them "an unacceptable attack and a blatant violation of Iraq's sovereignty, targeting its official security institutions."

The statement also said Iraq should not be a "launching pad or arena for attacks against neighboring countries or for settling regional and international scores." It called for dialogue and de-escalation.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi called an emergency meeting of the country's National Security Council Wednesday to discuss the strikes.

Two Iraqi government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly said a visit to Saudi Arabia by al-Zaidi that had been scheduled for Thursday had been postponed indefinitely.

Attacks on Saudi oil facilities could worsen global energy crisis

Saudi Arabia is also locked in a renewed conflict with the Houthis. The rebels have declared a blockade of Saudi shipping that could choke off another crucial trade route in the Middle East running through the Bab el-Mandeb strait between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.

On Monday, the Houthis said they had launched drones targeting oil facilities used to transport oil from Saudi Arabia's Eastern Region to the Red Sea port city of Yanbu, a key bypass for Saudi exports blocked by Iran's chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

The rebels said their attack was in response to a Saudi drone that they said had breached Yemen's airspace.

Planet Labs satellite imagery from Monday analyzed by The Associated Press showed damage to Saudi Aramco's Abqaiq oil processing facility in the kingdom's east. The massive facility is capable of processing approximately 7 million barrels of crude oil per day.

Attacks on Abqaiq claimed by the Houthis in 2019 disrupted production of 5.7 million barrels per day, spiking global oil prices and providing an initial demonstration of the vulnerability of Saudi oil facilities to missile and drone attacks.

Separately, a regional official said an oil refinery in Jazan, on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast, has temporarily shut down due to "relatively significant" damage from a Houthi attack on Saturday. The official, who was not authorized to brief journalists and spoke on condition of anonymity, said it would take several days to be repaired. The refinery produces 400,000 barrels per day.

The Texas-based IIR Energy consultancy said the facility shut down on Monday after initially operating at reduced rates since the attack two days earlier. Repairs and a tentative restart of the refinery were expected for Aug. 15, it said.

Iran rejects Oman proposal for managing Strait of Hormuz

The Strait of Hormuz has been a major flashpoint in the conflict. Iran's deputy foreign minister said his country rejected a proposal by Oman, which lies on the other side of the strait, for jointly managing ship traffic.

In an interview with Iran's state-run television that aired Tuesday night, Kazem Gharibabadi said the Omani proposal included dividing the strait into two routes, each allowing the transit of 50% of shipping passing through the waterway.

Iran offered a counterproposal with a temporary plan for transit of vessels through its territorial waters, he said, adding that Iran's policy is for the strait "never to return to its prewar situation." Before the conflict, ships transited freely.

Crash is normal now.......

Dow drops 750 points ahead of Fed decision

By John Towfighi

US stocks extended losses Wednesday morning ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates.

The Dow dropped 750 points, or 1.44%. The S&P 500 fell 0.75%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq sank 1.1%.

The Dow erased its gains from yesterday, when it closed higher by 537 points. The index was set to snap a three-day winning streak.

As tech and AI stocks sold off in recent weeks, investors rotated into other sectors like financials and industrials, helping boost the Dow. But the blue-chip index tumbled on Wednesday as investors dumped stocks across different sectors.

Goldman Sachs (GS) and Caterpillar (CAT) each dropped about 4%, weighing on the Dow. The index is price-weighted, so the larger a company’s share price, the more influence it has. Goldman and Caterpillar have the largest share prices in the index.

All told, the Dow is down just 2% since hitting a record high above 53,000 points in early July.

Meanwhile, weakness in tech and AI continues to weigh on markets: The Nasdaq is down about 9% since its last record high in early June, putting it on the cusp of a so-called correction.

Elsewhere in markets, oil prices rose and Treasury yields moved higher. The US 10-year yield rose to 4.63%.

Looking for new routes

Tankers looking for new routes amid widening Middle East conflict

By Tim Lister and Eleni Giokos

The shipping industry is looking for new options after the recent declaration by the Iranian-backed Houthis that Saudi ships trying to reach the Indian Ocean would be targeted, according to analysts.

A number of tankers are using the northern route out of the Red Sea through the Suez Canal or loading oil at Sidi Kerir on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, where crude arrives through a pipeline from Saudi Arabia, according to shipping data.

“Saudi Arabia’s crude export routes are proving more resilient than expected,” according to Amena Bakr at maritime analysts Kpler.

“Rising Sidi Kerir loadings suggest greater use of the Suez-SUMED (pipeline) system,” Bakr noted Tuesday in a post on X. Even so, the Egyptian route “cannot 100% replace Bab al-Mandeb for crude exports to Asia,” she added.

The Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabian ports on July 20 and have since claimed to have struck three Saudi tankers — the latest unconfirmed attack being on Tuesday.

Transits of the Bab al-Mandeb have fallen by 22% since the Houthi blockade was announced, according to maritime intelligence group Windward, from about 48 to 37 a day. Windward also noted that war-risk insurers are now excluding vessels with any Saudi port history from Red Sea coverage.

Transits through the Strait of Hormuz remain at very low levels, with the southern route supported by the US military seeing virtually no traffic, according to Windward.

“Hormuz recorded zero tanker crossings in either direction on Monday,” it said.

Crossings were higher on Tuesday, according to Kpler, with 12 confirmed transits, six leaving the Gulf and six entering. It noted the continued trend of ships using the Iranian corridor, which accounted for 10 of the 12 crossings.

“Saudi Arabia has the infrastructure to keep crude flowing, but every diversion comes at the cost of longer voyages, higher freight rates and greater operational complexity,” noted energy consultants MEES Wednesday.

“As the conflict spreads across multiple maritime fronts, resilience is becoming increasingly expensive — even if oil markets have yet to fully reflect that reality,” it said.

You wait.... My big brother is going to get you!!!!!

Trump says Iran "going to get a beating" after strikes targeting US forces

By Aileen Graef

US President Donald Trump promised retribution for an Iranian missile attack that was intercepted by US forces.

“We are going to beat the fucking shit out of them,” Trump told Fox News Wednesday morning.

“We’ll be hitting them hard. They’re going to get a beating.”

Trump also said the US coordinated with the Iraqis before US-Saudi strikes against Iran-backed Shiite militias in Iraq.

Trump called the militias a “cancer on the world” and did not rule out further action against proxies in the region.

Winning........

Oil jumps after Trump threatens to hit Iran hard

By John Towfighi

Oil prices jumped Wednesday morning after President Donald Trump told Fox News that Iran is “going to get a beating” in response to an attempted attack on US forces.

Brent crude rose 5.8%, to $86.82 per barrel. US crude jumped 6.4%, to $84.30 per barrel.

Dow futures were down 330 points, or 0.6%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were each down about 0.1%.

Like Hitler at the end, delusional......

Trump issues sharp warning to Iran as diplomacy dissolves after US-Saudi strikes

By Sana Noor Haq

US President Donald Trump warned Tehran was “going to get a beating” for an attempted Iranian attack on US forces in the Middle East. Speaking to Fox News today, the US president said, “We are going to beat the f**king sh*t out of them.”

It comes hours after joint strikes by Washington and Riyadh against Iran-backed militias in Iraq, in response to attacks on US forces and Saudi oil facilities, fracturing tenuous diplomacy.

Trump added that the US coordinated with Iraqi officials before the assault on Iran-aligned militias in Iraq. Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi postponed a planned trip to Riyadh, citing “today’s events.”

The US-Saudi strikes triggered fierce criticism from multiple wings of the Iraqi political body, with former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani cautioning against a “dangerous overstep of the principle of Islamic brotherhood.” The Iran-aligned Iraqi militia targeted in the salvo — the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) — echoed warnings of a “highly dangerous escalation.”

73% of US adults say that President Donald Trump is fucking stupid.....

Americans doubt Trump is paying enough attention to the country’s most important problems

By Ariel Edwards-Levy

A record-high 73% of US adults say that President Donald Trump hasn’t paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds, with just 27% saying he’s had the right priorities.

That comes amid increasingly bleak views of the Iran war, stagnating economic unhappiness, and broad discontent about Trump’s approach to these challenges.

Roughly two-thirds of Americans think that Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions and that his military decisions in Iran have hurt the US. Around three-quarters say the president is not in touch with the problems ordinary Americans face in their daily lives.

Trump’s overall approval rating, 34%, matches the career low he last saw at the close of his first term, following the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Half of Americans now strongly disapprove of him, a high across his terms, with a record-low 15% strongly approving.

Within his own party, his approval rating has hit a new low at 78% among Republicans, and just 19% of Republicans say they’re enthusiastic about the rest of his second term, down from 38% last spring.

While his ratings are underwater across a range of issues tested, Trump sees his lowest numbers on a trio of interconnected issues: Just 28% approve of his handling of the situation in Iran, 25% on inflation and 21% on gas prices, with significant pockets of disapproval even among his supporters.

With an increasing majority of Americans anticipating a long-term military conflict, only about one-quarter think Trump has a clear plan for handling the situation, down from 40% at the start of the war. And 62% now say Trump is not an effective world leader, up from 54% who felt that way early in his second term.

Just one-quarter now say the war has been worth the toll in American lives and dollars, with younger Americans particularly skeptical.

On the most tangible economic fallout of the conflict in Iran, 74% of Americans say rising gas prices have caused them at least some hardship, up from 63% in March, with just under one-quarter believing the president has a plan to address the issue. And 71% say Trump hasn’t gone far enough in trying to reduce the price of everyday goods, up from 58% a year ago.

There are few domestic bright spots for the president, whose issue approval ratings top out at 41% for handling voting rights and election integrity – one topic where his supporters have rallied most closely around him. Just 39% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of immigration, a relative positive at the start of his second term, with 35% approving of his management of the federal government.

Following two recent deadly ICE shootings, Americans say by a 20-point margin that the agency is making cities less, not more, safe. And amid the cyclospora outbreak and a surge in measles cases, they say by a 34-point margin that changes to health agencies like the FDA and CDC are leaving the public less, not more, safe.

Trump has never gotten high marks in polling as someone who’s in touch with the problems of ordinary Americans. In the latest poll, just 27% say that description applies to him, while about two-thirds say that he’s someone who does not put the good of the country ahead of his personal gain.

Those numbers reflect broad skepticism about the high-profile projects that would leave Trump’s mark on the nation’s capital. A 58% majority of Americans say they feel dissatisfied or angry about the construction projects Trump has undertaken in Washington, DC, including the effort to build a new White House ballroom and renovate the Reflecting Pool. Just 17% express positive feelings, with another 25% saying it doesn’t matter to them.

At the time of Trump’s second inauguration, nearly half of Americans thought it was at least somewhat likely that Trump would avoid conflicts between his family’s company and his work as president, but a scant 23% think he’s done so at least somewhat well. And 57% say it’s a bad thing that Trump earned more than $2 billion last year while serving as an elected official, including income from cryptocurrency holdings, royalty payments and property investments. Just 7% see that as a good thing, with 36% calling his earnings while president something that doesn’t matter much.

More than 6 in 10 say that Trump has gone too far in pursuing his personal business interests while serving as president and undertaking projects to remodel the White House and other Washington landmarks, with nearly as many saying he’s gone too far in making changes to cultural institutions like the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian.

These efforts aren’t even very popular among the president’s base. Only 43% of Republicans say they feel positively about Trump’s construction projects, with 35% saying that the projects don’t matter to them. And most Republicans say that his earnings as president are irrelevant, with those who do hold an opinion more likely to see it as a negative than a positive.

 

Will it ever be this good again, we ask. No, you have a kid.......

What “You Only Get 18 Summers” Gets Right About Parenting

The phrase pisses off some parents. But it captures the most cosmic thing about child-rearing: nostalgia for the present.

Inae Oh

Technically speaking, August is not the last month of summer—the season officially ends on September 21. But among faithful disciples of the fun season, it prompts urgency, for it contains what seems like the final stretch before grim responsibility sets in and the self-serious soup fans come out in earnest. It is during these weeks when last-minute beach trips are summoned. When we commit ourselves to plans defined by leisure, not labor. Will it ever be this good again, we ask.

Now, the soup people like to argue that it is precisely this attitude, one they dismiss as panicked and mawkish, that informs much of their opposition to summer. There’s so much pressure, they argue, to build out action-packed days and perfect vacation photos. Let me say emphatically: This camp is wrong. And the same forces that guide them animate the hum of outrage over the sentiment, “You only get 18 summers with your kids.”

Not familiar? Well, like most sources of derision on the internet, “you only get 18 summers” is something of a Rorschach test; its meaning, as much as there is one, depends on who you ask. But lately, my algorithm is brimming with denunciations from parents who see it as just another form of “mom guilt.” As a popular Instagram account for parents wrote in May, the phrase creates “pressure to make every summer magical. Every moment meaningful. Every memory count.” Another influencer lamented similarly on Substack: “The pressure of the ‘you only have 18 summers with your child’ content [pushes] us towards trying to create core memories every summer, to try and make it unforgettable for our kids, while maintaining our jobs, cooking 3 meals a day, and making sure everyone has their basic needs met.”

Does it? I searched for the same militant instructions to build five-star memories, but they eluded me. Instead, I was surprised to find the phrase to be an oddly useful, even if corny, reminder to drop one of the worst habits I have as a parent: constantly counting down to the next activity, whatever thing that gets me closer to an imaginary finish line. To stop planning the next memory, quit all that counting, and just sit in it.

Now, finding an internet headline like “you only get 18” meaningful is a bit embarrassing to admit, like finding insight in “life’s a beach.” But for me, “you only get 18” echoes one of the most cosmic things I’ve discovered about parenting: the feeling of nostalgia for the present, even when it sucks. It’s a bittersweet yearning that defies logic, and yet, for so many of us, it’s real. As Stephanie Murray wrote in the Atlantic about why we long for difficult days of parenting:

Only with distance from the minute-to-minute anxieties of caring for a small child does its sweeping beauty come into full view. But this isn’t so much a shortcoming of youth as it is a gift of age. The experiences that follow early parenthood enrich our understanding of it, allowing us to ponder it anew. Hindsight allows us to put suffering into context and recognize the purpose it served in our lives. Hohlbaum likened it to laying bricks in a road: Only after we find out where the path leads are we able to see the purpose each brick served in getting us there. People with grown children have a deeper appreciation for the initial years of parenthood, because they are observing it from a perspective that only time can grant.

Don’t get me wrong. I relate, so acutely, to the parts of parenting that can reel the mind. (This includes the gauntlet of summer activities that, as Caitlin Murray of Big Time Adulting said in a recent video, can leave parents feeling like we are stuck in a “wet paper bag.”) Still, I can’t help but find the irritation over “you only get 18 summers” misplaced. Is it not an invitation for gentleness, to pause and consider, even mawkishly, to give grace to ourselves when we’re in the wet paper bag? Nothing about parenting will ever be perfect, just like those final weeks of August will never deliver the perfect summer. But it’s never been about the pursuit of some elusive perfect summer anyway. Summer is a season that celebrates saying fuck it: Slam those sweating hot dogs even when the meal prep is right there. Trade nice drinks in favor of cheap, ice-cold beers. Celebrate magic in the ordinary flecks of sunlight. Couldn’t we all use that reminder once in a while?

Stalled tax-administration bill

Finance markup of stalled tax-administration bill is back on, Crapo says

The legislation had been held up by Democrats’ fight against President Donald Trump’s audit immunity deal.

Brian Faler

The Senate Finance Committee announced it will take up a bipartisan tax-administration bill on Thursday that had been stalled by Democrats’ efforts to block the Trump administration’s plan to shield the president from IRS audits.

Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) also released an explanation of the legislation he wrote with ranking Democrat Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

The bill includes more than 50 relatively uncontroversial proposals. Among them: provisions cutting fees on low-income people who enter installment plans to pay off old tax debts; raising penalties on shady tax preparers; increasing protections for tax whistleblowers; and beefing up online services for taxpayers at the IRS.

The plan is projected to cost less than $400 million.

It was not immediately clear what would happen with Wyden’s proposed amendment to turn off President Donald Trump’s audit immunity. Crapo pulled the plug on a planned hearing last month on the legislation rather than face a vote on it.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of both the Finance and Judiciary committees, has since been demanding changes to the administration’s audit plan in exchange for his support to confirm Todd Blanche, who signed the immunity deal, as attorney general.

But Cornyn’s demands, which focus on limiting the scope of people who would benefit from the audit protections, likely won’t be enough to satisfy many Democrats.

The Judiciary Committee intends to take up Blanche’s nomination on Thursday. The Finance panel’s deadline for submitting amendments is noon tomorrow, and Wyden could still demand a vote. Either way, it appears the issue is unlikely to derail the hearing.

Tax writers in both the House and Senate are hoping to move a package of relatively uncontroversial tax changes in a lame-duck session of Congress. The House Ways and Means Committee approved more than a dozen such bills earlier this year.

“This week’s markup demonstrates the Committee’s bipartisan commitment to improving tax administration and ensuring the tax system works better for the American people,” Crapo said in a statement.

A vindictive Trump administration prosecution

Rand Paul’s about to get his chance to settle his feud with Anthony Fauci

The Kentucky senator believes the former Covid czar belongs in prison. A recent Trump administration prosecution suggests it might not be an idle threat.

By Carmen Paun and Simon J. Levien

Sen. Rand Paul’s said Anthony Fauci belongs in prison. The Kentucky Republican will get his chance to make the case Wednesday when the former Covid czar is slated to appear under subpoena before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that Paul chairs.

Paul reiterated his objective on X Monday, saying the pardon President Joe Biden gave Fauci — Biden said to shield him from a vindictive Trump administration prosecution — would not protect Fauci if he lies to Congress.

The two have a feud dating to the pandemic, when Paul accused Fauci of lying to Congress about funding risky research in China that Paul believes unleashed Covid-19. Fauci responded to Paul by accusing him of lying. Now 85, Fauci retired from federal service at the end of 2022.

In April, a federal grand jury indicted Fauci’s former senior adviser, David Morens, on three felony charges for allegedly circumventing federal public records laws by concealing Covid-related communications. Federal agents arrested Morens at his home in Maryland, reportedly putting him in handcuffs and making him disrobe. Morens pleaded not guilty.

Paul’s goals go beyond incriminating Fauci. He also wants to show that Fauci funded risky virus research in China.

“The goal is the truth,” Paul told reporters on Monday about Fauci. “I’d like to hear him say he’s sorry.”

The origin of Covid remains a fraught debate, with no scientific consensus on whether it was a lab accident or whether an animal infected a human. But most Republicans and President Donald Trump have embraced the lab leak theory.

Fauci has rejected Paul’s accusations and defended himself vigorously, including in some of the five previous hearings in which they’ve faced off.

He declined to comment.

The debate over Fauci’s legacy has long broken on party lines, and Democrats are expected to defend him against GOP attacks on Wednesday.

“They got a longstanding vendetta against Fauci. He seems to be almost obsessed,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee member, said of Paul on Monday.

Both Paul and Democrats on the committee have supported stricter oversight of gain-of-function research, which aims to make viruses more virulent or more transmissible in order to devise defenses against them. The panel has twice approved Paul’s Risky Research Review Act, which would take funding decisions away from Fauci’s old agency, the National Institutes of Health, and give them to a new Life Sciences Research Security Board appointed by the president. The White House also released Tuesday a new policy stopping high-risk biological research.

Senate online safety package

Kids’ safety advocates draw red lines for Senate online safety package

The letter comes as a markup in children’s online safety is expected in the Commerce Committee next week.

Owen Dahlkamp

A coalition of 60 child safety groups is urging top lawmakers on the Senate Commerce Committee to take up robust online safety legislation in a markup tentatively expected next week.

In a letter sent Monday and shared first with POLITICO, the bloc demanded that committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) only consider legislation with a “duty of care” standard that would require tech companies to mitigate harms they know their platforms cause children.

When the House passed a kids’ online safety package last month, it did not include the provision — an omission that the groups said neutered the bill and “would not actually make kids safer online.”

“This approach would immunize platforms from accountability for the design choices, such as engagement-maximizing feeds, autoplay, and algorithmic amplification, that drive documented harms to young people,” wrote the signers, which include Common Sense Media, Design It For Us, ParentsTogether Action and the Young People’s Alliance.

They also asked the senators not to preempt state artificial intelligence laws and to instead follow the House’s model, in which states could craft regulations stricter than the federal standard.

“Families who have lost children to online harms have spent years telling their stories to this Congress,” the coalition wrote. “And with each day Congress fails to act, more children are being harmed and are dying.”

Last week, Cruz and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who has been negotiating a safety-focused legislative package with the White House, met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Trump did not commit to throwing his political weight behind her effort after Cruz said it did not have enough support to clear the chamber.

Meanwhile, Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) introduced the Digital Age Assurance Act on Thursday. Modeled after a similar California bill, it would require operating system providers such as Apple and Google to collect users’ ages in an effort to ensure that children see only age-appropriate content online.

Cruz and Cantwell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Strait of Hormuz patrol?

Allies shrug as US pushes for Strait of Hormuz patrol

The Trump administration is urging the U.K. and France to lead a naval coalition to secure the strait, but allies want to see a ceasefire first.

By Paul McLeary and Esther Webber

European allies are refusing to support a U.S. push to create a joint Strait of Hormuz patrol until they see an enduring ceasefire in the Iran war — the latest sign that Washington’s repeated bashing of its closest friends has carried consequences.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is urging the U.K. and France to help lead the naval coalition. But even with the assistance of U.K. Defense Minister Wes Streeting, he’s facing skepticism across Europe, according to four British officials and one U.S. official.

Hegseth and President Donald Trump have spent months berating European countries for refusing to get involved in the Iran war. But this effort is the most concerted attempt to seek assistance from allies, and it comes after months of fighting has led to spiraling gas prices, a disaffected public and prolonged closure of the strait.

U.S. and British officials aim to convene an international conference in London that would define roles for countries and determine which warships would hunt for sea mines or protect civilian shipping through the strait, which Iran has effectively halted. But the five officials cautioned the effort has not progressed very far and they didn’t expect any movement soon. The people, like others interviewed, were granted anonymity to discuss internal plans.

The U.S. has paused strikes on Iran since Friday after 12 days of renewed bombing, although officials have not specified what led to the halt.

Hegseth floated the patrol idea during a call with Streeting on Friday, according to one British official. The person said the conversation focused on how the U.K. and U.S. can bring allies together to support American defense, rather than backing offensive strikes on Iran.

Hegseth and Streeting then had a call with French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin on Monday to discuss how to “work together to reassure shipping across the region,” one of the U.K. officials said.

Even with the delay, Streeting expects to speak with counterparts from across Europe to coordinate a future multinational mission in the strait, according to two of the U.K. officials.

“The Defense secretary has been having constructive discussions with allies on diplomatic and military efforts to strengthen maritime security, and these will continue in the coming days,” one of the two people said.

The Pentagon and the U.K. Ministry of Defence declined to comment. The White House and French Embassy did not respond to a request for comment.

Longtime allies remain frustrated by the Trump administration’s refusal to give a heads-up before the American-Israeli airstrikes on Iran began in February, according to two European officials. And they are wary of jumping into a risky new mission when they have not been treated as partners by the White House.

There was “no consultation with Congress, no consultation with allies, just boom,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said in an interview.

Trump is “deeply frustrated that Congress isn’t supporting it, the American people aren’t supporting it, our core allies aren’t supporting it,” he added.“ You can’t be surprised when you throw a party and you don’t invite anybody.”

Streeting cautioned Sunday that the U.K. has “not joined and will not join offensive U.S. military action in Iran. That’s an area where we have not agreed with the United States. But when it comes to securing maritime freedom and free commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, that’s where we are absolutely aligned.”

But the latest ceasefire is tenuous at best. Trump told reporters Monday that the two sides are “talking right now” and that there was “a good chance” a new round of diplomacy with Iran could yield a more permanent ceasefire or diplomatic breakthrough.

The Iranian leadership does not appear to agree.

“At present, what exists cannot be described as a ceasefire,” said Esmail Baghaei, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson.

Commercial shipping in the region remains at a standstill, with dozens of ships full of oil and other cargo bottled up in the gulf.

And delays have only appeared to build in recent weeks. No oil tankers crossed the once popular strait July 27, according to Windward Intelligence, a private security firm that monitors ship traffic in the region. The commercial ship crossings of the narrow Bab al-Mandeb, which is south of the strait and connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, has fallen 22 percent since the Iran-backed Yemeni Houthis declared a blockade July 20. Tanker transits have fallen 39 percent and Saudi-linked crossings dropped 46 percent, according to the firm.

Two American aircraft carriers are still sitting in the Middle East alongside several other warships, including some carrying about 2,500 Marines. Back-to-back deployments have raised concerns in the Pentagon over keeping them there.

“The particular challenge with Navy vessels, particularly the carriers or submarines out there, is that we are deferring maintenance on them, and at some point you’ve got to pay the piper,” said a former military officer with knowledge of discussions within the Pentagon. “There’s some real readiness concerns that have to be seriously discussed as we continue to resource this operation.”

Returned to open conflict after a temporary peace framework collapsed

Iran launched 'attempted surprise attack' on US forces, CENTCOM says

The two countries have returned to open conflict after a temporary peace framework collapsed earlier this month.

By Emilio Perez Ibarguen

Iran launched “multiple missiles” at U.S. forces based in the Middle East Tuesday evening that were successfully intercepted, the Pentagon said, marking a return to fighting after a short respite over the weekend.

U.S. Central Command, in a social media post Tuesday night, said the launches were an “attempted surprise attack.” The post did not provide additional details about the intercepted attack, and CENTCOM declined to provide further comment when reached by POLITICO.

The attacks come after U.S. forces conducted 13 consecutive days of strikes against Iran, which concluded on Thursday, according to the Defense Department. Most of those strikes were characterized by the Pentagon as attacks meant to weaken Iran’s grasp on the Strait of Hormuz — a key waterway for much of the world’s energy supply and a frequent sticking point in peace negotiations.

Fighting resumed this month after a temporary peace framework between the two countries fell apart following Iranian attacks on shipping vessels moving through the strait, which led to U.S. strikes in retaliation.

The U.S. has not publicly said whether retaliatory strikes will be ordered for this most recent attack.

On Wednesday, Trump threatened to begin striking “one bridge or power plant” for every ship attacked in the Arabian Gulf — though the Geneva Conventions prohibit strikes on civilian infrastructure acknowledged to be “indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.”

And the war, which has proven immensely unpopular at home amid rising gas prices and the deaths of American soldiers, shows few signs of ending soon. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed to reporters and in public addresses that Iran is desperate to negotiate for a ceasefire, but Iran’s refusal to capitulate as Trump steps up threats of attacks from the skies appear to some to be demonstrative of the limits of an air war alone.

Also on Tuesday, CENTCOM announced that U.S. and Saudi forces struck sites belonging to “Iran-aligned terrorists” in eastern Iraq, in retaliation for attacks on U.S. forces and Saudi energy infrastructure over the past three days.

The strikes do not appear to be directly related to the earlier Iranian attack.

“The unwarranted attacks against U.S. forces were not successful,” the announcement stated.

Russia sanctions bill

Senators vote to advance Russia sanctions bill in Graham’s name

The procedural vote came just hours after the funeral of the bill’s main architect, Sen. Lindsey Graham.

By Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing

Senators voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night to advance a sweeping Russia sanctions bill that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) had long sought to move forward before his unexpected death.

The 86 to 12 procedural vote tees up the bill for final passage in the upper chamber later this week.

The vote came shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed senators on Capitol Hill — and followed the funeral of the South Carolina senator, who was a stalwart supporter of Kyiv until his passing.

The legislation gained momentum after Graham’s death, galvanizing senators to take action on the bill in his name. Lawmakers renamed the bill after their former colleague.

It would sanction Russian leaders, its energy sector and shadow fleet. It also would extend certain sanctions on Iran — a last-minute addition after lawmakers struck a deal to expand the scope of the legislation earlier Tuesday.

The bill, which has 62 co-sponsors, is widely expected to pass in the upper chamber. The legislation’s path toward passage is likely but not guaranteed, as House lawmakers adjourned for August recess before taking it up.

While House Democrats are likely to push back on the legislation over concerns that it grants Trump wider tariff authority, the bill has broad bipartisan support — and the White House’s blessing.

Graham and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn) led a bipartisan cohort of lawmakers that worked to advance the legislation since April of last year. But the bill hit several roadblocks — including resistance from the White House, which wanted more leeway for the president to decide which entities to sanction, and by how much.

After multiple false starts, Graham announced from Kyiv just days before his death that he had secured the green light from the White House on revised text of the legislation.

The revamped bill expands the number of Russian entities that would be subject to mandatory sanctions — including Russia’s shadow fleet of ships ferrying oil — but it also grants Trump broad waiver authority.

The bill would also use tariffs against the top buyers of Russian energy to pressure countries to reduce their reliance on Moscow’s exports. That provision proved problematic for Democrats, who were wary about expanding Trump’s tariff authority.

“It is extremely dangerous to give Trump massive new tariff powers, particularly after we’ve seen the disastrous impacts of his corrupt, chaotic, and inflationary tariff spree,” House Ways and Means ranking member Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and Senate Finance ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement after the latest version of the bill was unveiled.

But the vast majority of Democrats still voted to advance the legislation Tuesday. Only 11 Democrats and Republican Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) voted against the bill.

Ahead of the evening vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that the move would show Russian leader Vladimir Putin that “he can’t bully Ukraine” and that the U.S. “stands by” its ally.

The White House confirmed Trump backed the revised iteration of the bill, and Trump earlier this month demanded that Republicans tack sanctions against Iran onto the legislation because “that’s what Lindsey wanted to do.”

That made for a minor speedbump in the bill’s path, though ultimately Democrats agreed to the move since it only extended preexisting sanctions against Tehran.

Rate hikes loom on horizon

Fed on collision path with Trump as rate hikes loom on horizon

Any rise in borrowing costs in the run-up to the midterm elections would come at a precarious time for Republicans, with Americans so sour on the economy.

By Victoria Guida

President Donald Trump is demanding that his new Federal Reserve chief slash interest rates. Wall Street investors are increasingly — and overwhelmingly — taking the opposite bet.

The latest flare-up of the fighting in Iran, along with the imposition of new global tariffs, the breakneck investment in data centers, and resilient consumer spending, are fueling a conviction in the markets and within the Fed that the central bank will need to stifle prices.

While Chair Kevin Warsh, who took over the Fed in late May, will likely stave off an increase by the rate-setting committee when it meets on Wednesday, he might not be able to hold his colleagues off for too much longer if inflation doesn’t sustainably improve. That’s a dramatic turnabout from earlier this year, when the strong consensus was that borrowing costs would come down and boost the economy.

“I don’t think they can go past September if the data keeps coming in like it is,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG, a major consultancy and one of the Big Four global accounting firms.

Any rate hikes in the run-up to the midterm elections would come at a precarious time for the Republicans, a dynamic the Fed usually tries to avoid, with polls showing Americans deeply dissatisfied with Trump’s economy. Higher borrowing costs would enrage the president, who greeted the end of Jerome Powell’s chairship with hopes that he would finally get the lower rates he has been clamoring for — a call he repeated earlier this week.

But if the Fed does increase rates this year, his wrath looks likely to turn on other central bankers, rather than his appointee Warsh, at least initially. Trump has picked three of the Fed’s seven-member board of governors.

“Kevin’s fantastic, but he’s got a board, and the board members are very political,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Monday. “He wants to do the right thing. I know what he wants to do. But you need the consent of some people that have perhaps bad intentions. Rates should be lowered.”

Powell, whom Trump tapped as Fed chair in 2018, was initially named to the central bank by President Barack Obama. He remains on the Fed board even after stepping down as chair in May, a move he said was intended to help preserve the institution’s independence. He has not spoken about monetary policy since leaving the Fed’s top job, but several of his colleagues have suggested the central bank might need to raise rates soon.

One of Trump’s key economic surrogates, White House official Kevin Hassett, has said it would be a “mistake” to lift rates.

But inflation has been above the Fed’s 2 percent target since 2021, and in May, the consumer price index logged its biggest 12-month increase since 2023. The Iran war, which has sharply driven up energy costs, is the wild card, with repeated efforts to resolve the conflict falling short. The danger is that those prices feed higher prices for other goods and services as well.

“I do expect we’ll see lower energy prices over the next couple of months,” particularly as the administration eyes the midterm elections and tries to facilitate more movement of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group. “But they’re still up from where they were before the hostilities with Iran started.”

One risk for Warsh and his fellow central bankers is that markets could take a decision to keep rates steady on Wednesday as a sign that they are hesitant to rein in inflation. That could cause investors to push up longer-term rates, thereby raising borrowing costs anyway.

Joe Lavorgna, a former senior aide to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and now chief economist at SMBC Americas, said there are other risks to not acting right away. For example, inflation could come in hot before the Fed’s meetings in September or October, when rate increases would be even more awkward politically.

“Does the Fed want to hike rates then?” he said. “I guess if they have to, they will. But that’s not going to play well. And then if they say, ‘Well, it’s too close to the midterms, let’s wait.’ And they wait till December. Does it need to get worse?”

The White House won’t be pleased if the Fed moves this week, he said.

“But if you’re the Fed ... waiting is not going to help you longer term,” Lavorgna said. “Once [inflation] does become embedded in the system, you generally have to raise rates a lot more to really dampen the economy.”

It’s possible the data for the rest of the year could paint a more benign picture that allows the central bank to simply keep rates steady. If energy costs ease, wage growth continues to slow, and tariff costs put a drag on companies, all of that could make it harder for prices to keep rising.

But Trump’s dream of significantly lower rates keeps getting further away.

“Our forecast, as of July, is no rate hikes this year,” Faucher said. “But if I’m wrong, we’re much more likely to see rate hikes than rate cuts in 2026.”

Democrats smell blood.

FIFA is going into business with a Kushner. Democrats smell blood.

Gianni Infantino's plan to sell World Cup stakes to Joshua Kushner's investment fund has Europe’s soccer elite in open revolt and House Democrats circling.

By Sophia Cai

Gianni Infantino’s political future may be on the U.S. midterm ballot.

For years, FIFA’s president has nurtured one of the closest relationships between any world leader and President Donald Trump, links that helped turn this summer’s World Cup into a logistical and financial success for soccer’s governing body.

But if control of Congress flips this fall, those same ties could become a political liability for Infantino as he seeks reelection atop the Swiss-based nonprofit he has led for a decade.

The House Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat has said he intends to use his party’s majority to probe FIFA’s political machinations in Washington and ticket-pricing policies that critics have called opaque and exploitative.In a letter this week, Rep. Jamie Raskin, the committee’s ranking Democrat, requested information including a list of gifts provided to Trump, communications concerning Justice Department matters, and visitor logs for FIFA’s Miami headquarters and Trump Tower office.

Raskin and his fellow Democrats would gain the power to demand those records — and potentially compel Infantino’s testimony — if they win a House majority. FIFA is likely to be just one of many such targets for Democrats probing Trump allies who built up their political careers and business fortunes during his terms in office.

In Infantino’s case, the timing of the Nov. 3 election is especially inopportune. It comes two weeks before potential challengers to Infantino would have to declare their candidacies in a presidential election decided next March by a vote of FIFA’s 211 member countries.

“The perfect-storm scenario in FIFA world,” said one person involved at the highest levels of global soccer, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal politics. “I think they will find a candidate to run against him, especially if midterms flip control and if things were to start pouring out. But a lot needs to happen in the next four to five months.”

Internal opponents critical of Infantino’s efforts to ingratiate himself to political leaders, especially in the United States and Middle East, were given new reason for concern on Tuesday. The Times of London reported that Infantino is pursuing a plan to sell stakes in FIFA’s World Cup competitions, with an investment fund led by Joshua Kushner, the brother-in-law of Trump’s daughter Ivanka, intent on recruiting sovereign wealth funds to contribute.

“FIFA, Donald Trump’s favorite corrupt racketeering enterprise in world sports, is now going directly into business with the Trump family!” Raskin said in a statement to POLITICO. “Apparently the fake Peace Prize and giant lease with Trump Tower weren’t enough — now Infantino performs a kickback hat trick by pursuing a multibillion-dollar deal with Jared Kushner’s brother to sell ownership stakes in the World Cup to private investors.”FIFA and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Infantino first encountered Trump nearly a decade ago, as the newly elected president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner threw the White House’s support behind a joint bid by the U.S., Mexico and Canada to host the World Cup. Afterwards, Infantino began appearing regularly at Trump’s side as FIFA rented office space in Trump Tower and awarded FIFA’s inaugural “peace prize” to Trump.

During the World Cup, the relationship between Infantino and Trump began to shape every aspect of the game. When Trump asked Infantino to review a red-card suspension issued to the U.S.’ leading goal-scorer, Infantino heard Trump’s complaints and FIFA later dropped the one-match ban. During the final match, Trump also looked past the North American heads of government standing beside him to lavish attention on Infantino.

Now Infantino is poised to deepen his financial ties to the Trump family, as well. The proposal to sell shares in the World Cup would rely heavily on Thrive Capital, the venture capital firm founded by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

On Tuesday, FIFA announced that it wants to separate its commercial operations from its governing body — a model inspired in part by Formula One. Thrive Eternal, the firm’s long-duration investment vehicle, has agreed to backstop FIFA’s effort to find investors, which is expected to be run by JP Morgan.

“Our next stage of growth needs a structure built for it, one where the commercial side of the game operates as a focused, dedicated business, with its value shared more and better all around the world,” Infantino said in a statement.

Kushner is investing through Thrive Eternal, which is betting that live sporting events will be an even hotter ticket in an AI-driven world. It plans to leverage its own investment by courting long-term institutional investors from around the world, according to a person with direct knowledge of the firm’s thinking, relying principally on sovereign wealth funds.

Already, Jared Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, has drawn congressional scrutiny for raising billions of dollars from foreign sovereign wealth funds — including those controlled by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — as he leads U.S. diplomatic negotiations with those governments. The Kushner brothers operate separate businesses.

The investment proposal has ignited a backlash within global soccer. UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, issued its strongest public rebuke yet of Infantino’s leadership, encouraging other confederations and national federations to speak up against Infantino.

“This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross,” UEFA said in a statement. “UEFA takes it extremely seriously. So should every national football association. So should every stakeholder: leagues, clubs, players, supporters, governments, and everyone who cares about the future of the game. The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially. None of us are owners of football. It is not FIFA’s to sell.”

Infantino has spent nearly a decade consolidating support among FIFA’s 211 member associations through expanded development funding and greater financial distributions. Under the latest plans reported by The Times, each federation would receive an ownership stake under the proposed investment structure, potentially worth around $20 million, creating another financial incentive for members to support the plan.

Joshua Kushner’s belief that global sports properties are durable assets in an increasingly AI-driven economy has helped shape discussions with Infantino, whom Kushner has known for years, according to the person familiar with the firm’s thinking. The proposal would consolidate FIFA’s media rights, sponsorships, ticketing, hospitality, licensing and other commercial operations into a new subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise, while leaving FIFA’s nonprofit governing structure intact. FIFA plans to name an interim leader for FIFA Forward Enterprise, which will be governed by a board of directors.Infantino has recorded a video message outlining the proposal and making the case for the new commercial structure, which will be sent to the 211 national member association that will vote on the proposal. If the plan were approved, participation in FIFA Forward Enterprise would be voluntary, with each federation that chooses to join receiving a $20 million stake in the new new subsidiary.

Over the weekend, Infantino published an unusually combative 15-slide Instagram post accusing critics of “spreading hate and false rumors” while FIFA was “delivering the best show in the world” — a striking departure for a president whose social media accounts typically feature celebratory images with world leaders, football stars and trophy ceremonies.

Infantino has already drawn opposition from European parliamentarians, who have alleged that he violated the football federation’s own political neutrality rules through his relationship with Trump.

“The World Cup belongs to the federations, the fans, the athletes, and the communities that view soccer as a social and cultural heritage — not to investment funds,” said Carolina Morace, a retired Italian soccer star who now serves as a member of European Parliament. “Sport cannot be governed by the logic of the financial markets. Merit, not business, must be at the heart of sport."Interest from U.S. politicians in the internal workings of FIFA has been rare. In 2015, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing “examining the governance and integrity of international soccer” after several FIFA officials, including Infantino’s predecessor as president, were indicted by the U.S. Justice Department on corruption charges. No one from FIFA testified at the hearing, which had bipartisan interest from committee members.

In the run-up to this year’s World Cup, political attitudes towards the sports body polarized on partisan lines, with Democrats emerging as critics of the reluctance of FIFA’s leadership to push back on Trump administration policies that could affect the tournament. Most prominent Democrats quieted their criticism during the World Cup, but some have picked up again since its conclusion on July 19.

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have since launched an investigation into FIFA’s relationship with Trump and its ticketing policy, but without a majority have few legal tools to secure records or interviews with key officials.

Serving a subpoena on the head of an international sports federation presents practical challenges. House subpoenas generally must be served in person, and U.S. marshals lack authority to serve them overseas. But that does not necessarily place Infantino beyond Congress’ reach.

FIFA has dramatically expanded its U.S. footprint ahead of a decade packed with major international tournaments. The organization plans to maintain its Miami headquarters as its Americas hub through next year’s centennial World Cup, the soccer tournament at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and the 2031 Women’s World Cup, giving lawmakers multiple opportunities should Infantino travel to the United States.

Congress has encountered similar obstacles before. During the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into workplace misconduct within the Washington Commanders, then-owner Dan Snyder initially sought to avoid congressional testimony by remaining aboard his yacht in international waters while the committee sought his appearance. Snyder ultimately testified before the committee.

Comey team attacks charges

‘Preposterous’: Comey team attacks charges over alleged threat to Trump

FBI turned to convicted mafia killer to attempt to show ‘86-47’ could be a call for assassination.

By Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein

A May 2026 FBI interview with notorious mobster “Sammy the Bull.” A text message from a disgruntled acquaintance misled by a Rudy Giuliani podcast. An actress’ late-night television routine.

The strange tale that led to former FBI Director James Comey being prosecuted over a May 2025 photo of seashells arranged to read “86-47” grew stranger still Tuesday as his defense attorneys laid out what they contended were bizarre aspects of the federal investigation that resulted in him being indicted in April on charges of threatening to kill President Donald Trump in an Instagram post.

New details about the probe emerged in a fusillade of motions Comey filed late Tuesday to kill the criminal indictment, contending that it was rooted in Trump’s personal animus for the FBI chief he fired in 2017, and based on misleading evidence used to improperly obtain search warrants for Comey’s digital records.

Among the details, supplied by Comey’s lawyers: The White House’s intense interest in every aspect of the initial Secret Service probe, with senior officials asking for details even as Trump flew home from Europe. The filings also indicate that as Comey drove from North Carolina to northern Virginia shortly after the posting, law enforcement tracked the former FBI director via his cellphone.

Such “exigency” tracking, which takes place without a warrant, requires law enforcement to claim that there’s “an imminent threat to life or limb,” a Secret Service official wrote, according to Comey’s legal team.

The official, whose identity was redacted, added in a memo filed by the defense that when initially contacted by the Secret Service Comey declined to say where he was, although he said he would meet with investigators the following day in Washington. “We did not believe that anyone’s life was in immediate danger and legally it was a bad idea to ping the phone,” the official concluded.

Aspects of the Secret Service’s unusual tracking of Comey were first reported last year by The New York Times.

Appended to Comey’s latest motions were two search warrants the FBI used to obtain Comey’s information from Apple and Google. The first was approved by a magistrate judge on March 23, 2026, just days before Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi amid frustration about her failures to prosecute his political nemeses. The second was approved in May by a different magistrate judge.

The warrants show that the FBI’s case against Comey was largely based on a disputed interpretation of “86,” a term of ambiguous origin that has typically been used in the restaurant industry to represent an item that is out of stock. But some have interpreted it in a more sinister sense, defining it as old Mafia slang for murder. The bureau contended that Comey’s years prosecuting organized crime would have exposed him to that darker definition — and his decision to post the picture to Instagram represented a “true threat” to Trump’s life.

In their filing, Comey’s defense team called that explanation ludicrous and devoid of any evidence. Prosecutors went so far to prove Comey’s violent intent that they interviewed Salvatore Gravano, better known as “Sammy the Bull,” in May. Comey’s team said Gravano supported the notion that law enforcement officials would know the term “86” had a violent definition, but he added that mobsters wouldn’t use it because it would be too obvious.

Trump publicly called for Comey to be prosecuted last year, in a social media post directed at Bondi. Days later, his handpicked prosecutor Lindsey Halligan secured an indictment in the Eastern District of Virginia, charging Comey with false testimony to Congress in 2020. The case was thrown out two months later, after a federal judge concluded Halligan was illegally appointed. Comey had similarly argued that the first indictment was rooted in Trump’s personal animus, but the case collapsed before that motion was resolved.

In the seashell case, both search warrant affidavits included claims from a Comey associate who said they texted Comey’s wife Patrice Comey to express disapproval of the post and then contacted the Secret Service, alleging James Comey must have known of the more violent connotation of “86.” But that associate — who was labeled “Person 1” in the filings Tuesday — based their view in part on a May 20, 2025, Giuliani podcast in which Giuliani pointed to Comey’s long history prosecuting organized crime as proof he understood 86 meant “kill.” The FBI reinterviewed this associate in April 2026.

Comey’s lawyers say the unnamed associate is estranged from Comey and is simply wrong— there’s no evidence in any of Comey’s cases that he encountered someone using the term “86,” they say. And Gravano, who admitted involvement in more than a dozen murders, offered up no specifics to support the idea that Comey was aware of the term’s alleged violent meaning, Comey’s lawyers said.

Gravano also urged FBI agents to contact longtime prosecutor John Gleeson to corroborate the violent connotations of the expression. Comey’s team took the longtime mobster up on it, appending a six-page affidavit from Gleeson disclaiming any suggestion that the mob used the term “86” to refer to murder.

“The claim that ‘86’ is mafia jargon for ‘kill’ is preposterous,” wrote Gleeson, who became a federal judge after his stint as a prosecutor but returned to private practice in 2016. “If it weren’t made in the context of seeking to deprive a man of his liberty, it would be laughable.”

Underscoring the point, Gleeson provided a painstaking account of his work on organized crime cases — including “thousands of hours of debriefings and conversations” with members of the Mafia. Not once, he said, was the term “86” used as “mafia jargon” for murder.

The FBI affidavit seeking Comey’s Apple iCloud records noted that Comey made an appearance on “The Late Show” on May 20, 2025, to discuss the seashell flap. The agent then quoted a Slate interview by “Scandal” actress Darby Stanchfield, who described doing “pre-interviews” ahead of her own late-night TV appearances. Based on Stanchfield’s account, the agent wrote, Comey likely did his own pre-interviews about the seashells.

On Monday, Comey’s attorneys filed a separate motion with U.S. District Court Judge Louise Flanagan, arguing that she should throw out the case because Comey’s posting of the “86-47” image can’t be considered a “true threat” under Supreme Court precedent and allowing the prosecution to proceed would violate the former FBI chief’s First Amendment rights.

Flanagan, a George W. Bush appointee, has set an Oct. 21 trial date for Comey.

Went rogue and mounted an unprecedented, autonomous cyberattack.. Isn't that nice????

OpenAI's rogue models roamed the internet for 4 days and staged a second attack

A new analysis reveals that the artificial intelligence company’s most powerful models spent days probing the open internet before breaching AI developer platform Hugging Face.

By John Sakellariadis, Maggie Miller and Dana Nickel

The powerful artificial intelligence models from OpenAI that went rogue and mounted an unprecedented, autonomous cyberattack earlier this month spent more than four days loose on the internet orchestrating the hack, according to a new analysis from the platform that was breached.

Separately, a second AI company confirmed that one of its customers was also targeted by OpenAI’s models during the same event, raising questions about how OpenAI failed to detect the alarming activity for days.

OpenAI admitted last week that two of its most advanced models escaped a closed testing environment and strung together a series of advanced hacking techniques to breach AI developer platform Hugging Face before being discovered.

But in a new analysis published Tuesday, Hugging Face said OpenAI’s two models — one publicly released and a second unreleased — did much more: They carried out 17,600 hacking actions on the internet between July 9 and July 13, during which time the models moved from their first foothold on the open internet to inside Hugging Face’s servers.

Hugging Face first detailed the hack on July 15, but it was not clear until OpenAI’s disclosure last week which models were behind the breach — and that no human had prompted them to launch the cyberattack.

While the techniques detailed in Hugging Face’s analysis were not beyond the reach of most skilled hackers, the AI company wrote that the two models were able to reconnoiter and expose holes in the company’s layers of cyber defenses much faster than any human.

Adding to the scope of the situation, the chief tech officer of cloud computing platform Modal Labs, Akshat Bubna, confirmed to POLITICO that OpenAI’s models also compromised a customer account during this time frame.

Bubna said in a statement that the company is “aware a Modal customer published an unauthenticated endpoint that allowed anyone on the internet to use their sandboxes for code execution. This was used by the rogue agent. Modal’s platform was not compromised in any way.”

While OpenAI has not yet directly addressed the statement that its models had targeted a Modal customer, it acknowledged in a blog post on Tuesday that in its ongoing review of the Hugging Face incident, “we have been finding a small number of cases where the models identified and used publicly exposed credentials at the account-level on other publicly-available services.”

The company also noted that the unreleased AI model that carried out the attack is an “internal-only research prototype and was never intended for public release,” and has since been “deactivated, encrypted and restricted from research access.”

News of the Hugging Face hack has prompted calls for tighter AI regulations and a slowdown of AI development. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is meeting this week with top Trump administration officials and lawmakers, and will also discuss the incident with Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.).

Altman said in an episode of the “Invest Like the Best” podcast, released Tuesday, that the Hugging Face incident was “the first security incident that I have felt very viscerally.”

“We may have to pace the rate of AI development to give ourselves enough time for society to harden around some of these new capability levels,” Altman said.

Deny four Democratic disaster requests

Trump overrode his own agencies to deny four Democratic disaster requests

President Donald Trump cast aside bipartisan precedent when he rejected eligible disaster requests from four blue states.

By Thomas Frank

President Donald Trump overruled his own agencies when he denied disaster aid for four Democratic-led states this month.

Emails between state and federal officials obtained by POLITICO along with more than 150 pages of documents submitted to FEMA by three states — New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island — provide new details about Trump’s low rate of approving disaster aid for his political adversaries. He also denied a request by New York after administration officials verified that it had met federal standards for approval, according to state officials.

Trump’s rejections came after regional offices of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and NOAA determined that the states met government thresholds for receiving aid following a record-breaking snowstorm in February.

“The Blizzard of 2026 certainly achieved a pinnacle ranking in the memories of those who experienced it and climatologically in the historical rankings of snowstorms,” said a NOAA report confirming Rhode Island met the requirement for disaster aid.

Presidents retain sole authority over granting federal disaster aid to states, but it’s highly unusual to deny a governor’s request after FEMA field offices have verified that damage estimates exceeded preestablished levels, according to a former agency official who worked under Republican and Democratic administrations.

“I can’t think of a time a declaration was denied” for a state that met FEMA and NOAA standards, said the former FEMA official who was granted anonymity to speak about internal decision making.

The emails and documents, which haven’t previously been reported, shed new light on Trump’s decisions to reject an overwhelming number of requests for disaster aid from Democratic-led states, even as he has approved nearly 90 percent of requests from states that are governed by members of his own party. The revelations also offer a fuller picture of Trump’s tenure over the most partisan distribution of FEMA aid since the agency was created in 1979.

Trump’s recent rejections involving snow diverge from the actions of other presidents, including Trump in his first term, who routinely approved similar requests from governors of opposing parties.

Presidents since George W. Bush approved all 69 state requests for snow assistance that met FEMA standards except for a 2016 request from New Mexico, which was being investigated for mishandling FEMA funds, according to a POLITICO analysis of agency records.

The four states sought $227 million in aid altogether after the paralyzing February storm dumped record snowfall over areas of the East Coast, leading to unprecedented snow-removal costs. POLITICO obtained the emails and state documents through open records requests submitted to New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. New York officials said federal agencies also validated their request for aid, but POLITICO could not independently confirm that.

The Trump administration defended its denials. Neither FEMA or a White House spokesperson answered questions about why the states’ requests were rejected after meeting federal thresholds that historically have triggered the disbursement of aid.

“There is no politicization to the President’s decisions on disaster relief,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement. Trump handles disaster requests “with great care” to ensure state aid is used “to supplement — not substitute, their obligation to respond to and recover from disasters.”

FEMA has paid roughly $850 million in snow assistance since 1999. Eighty-two percent has gone to states that are now led by Democrats — having a governor and two senators from the Democratic Party. Six percent went to Republican-led states.

The disparity is largely the result of Democrats holding power in snowy regions where aid is requested such as New England and the mid-Atlantic.

States met federal guidelines — but were still rejected

Snow assistance was targeted for elimination last year in a memo by FEMA leadership as a way to reduce spending. Congress pushed back on that idea — a signal the administration may have disregarded.

“If the federal government is paying for regular operations like snow removal, what next? Garbage removal?” a FEMA spokesperson said in a statement about the recent denials. “The federal government’s role is not to fund routine functions.”

Officials in Rhode Island and Massachusetts did not respond to requests for comment.

“Without that aid, our local governments will be stuck with the costs of an unprecedented snowstorm that didn’t care about political boundaries,” New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said in a statement to POLITICO.

Matt Janiszewski, a spokesperson for the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul believes “disaster relief should not be political.”

“New York State exceeded both the financial damages and snowfall thresholds necessary to receive a Major Disaster Declaration for February’s blizzard, and we will be appealing the decision,” Janiszewski said.

A 1997 federal regulation aims to prevent FEMA from funding cleanup after routine snowstorms by making assistance available “only for cases of record or near record snowstorms.” Snow depth is to be determined by “official government records.”

The blizzard that slammed the East Coast in late February broke historical records in each of the three states. For example, it dropped 37.9 inches in 24 hours on Rhode Island, according to the National Weather Service, an arm of NOAA whose data is used by FEMA field offices to help verify state damage estimates.

Other regulations require FEMA to assess disaster damage jointly with the state requesting the money. The estimate is then used to make recommendations to the president about whether disaster aid is warranted. FEMA sets a cost threshold for each state and typically suggests approving disaster aid when the level is met or surpassed.

“Simply having record or near-record snowfall does not automatically qualify a state or community for federal aid if the overall impact and damages do not meet the necessary criteria,” FEMA said in its statement.

On April 3, FEMA’s New England regional office approved an estimate showing that Rhode Island easily met its cost threshold, according to the emails.

“FEMA has completed validations for the Rhode Island February 22-23 Severe Winter Storm Preliminary Damage Assessment,” Alex Johnston, a FEMA emergency management specialist, wrote to Lawrence Macedo, a senior official with the state’s emergency management agency.

The “total validated amount,” Johnston wrote, was $19,305,057.13 — the exact figure Gov. Dan McKee had included in his April 7 letter to Trump requesting disaster aid.

The damage figure is nine times higher than FEMA’s $2.1 million cost threshold for Rhode Island.

McKee told Trump that snow-removal costs “exhausted available resources, including personnel, equipment, and budgeted emergency funds.” Quoting federal law, he added, “Effective response and recovery exceed the capabilities of the State and affected local governments.”

McKee also attached 33 pages of documentation by NOAA showing that the storm shattered snowfall records in each of the state’s five counties, surpassing the regulatory snowfall requirement.

In May, as Trump considered McKee’s request, NOAA published a news release headlined, “Rhode Island Receives New 24-Hour State Snowfall Record.”

“Another case of the White House putting politics ahead of people,” McKee said after Trump rejected his request. McKee appealed the decision.

Other governors sent Trump similar evidence supporting their aid requests.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey included an eight-page NOAA report showing snowfall records were set in three of the state’s 14 counties. She also sent a “validated Joint Preliminary Damage Assessment” by the state and FEMA showing $45 million in snowstorm-related costs — mostly for snow removal.

FEMA’s cost threshold for Massachusetts is $13.6 million.

Sherrill attached a 16-page NOAA report showing snowfall records in seven New Jersey counties. A 12-page spreadsheet developed by the state and FEMA documented $84.4 million in costs — mostly for snow removal.

FEMA’s cost threshold for New Jersey is $18 million.

The federal agency did not respond to questions about whether it disputed the information it received from the states.

Hochul, a Democrat, also requested snow assistance for the February storm. The state said FEMA and New York validated $79 million in snowstorm costs — double the threshold for the state. The request was denied.

‘Truly extraordinary events’

The recent requests mirror appeals for snow assistance during previous administrations.

When Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was North Dakota’s Republican governor and sought snow assistance after a 2022 storm, he included a NOAA report documenting snowfall records and a spreadsheet showing $1.7 million in storm damage — just above the state’s FEMA threshold. Then-President Joe Biden approved Burgum’s request in 23 days.

FEMA is now suggesting that it would be more difficult for states to receive federal help after snowstorms, even if they break records.

“Federal assistance is reserved for truly extraordinary events that overwhelm local and state capabilities,” FEMA said in its statement. “States that regularly experience snow should plan and handle these activities as part of their regular operations.”

FEMA noted that Trump approved snow assistance last month for the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, which it said “is in Massachusetts, a ‘blue’ state.” The federally recognized tribe is a sovereign nation.

Erica Bornemann, who ran Vermont Emergency Management from 2017 to 2023, said federal assistance helps states prioritize snow removal — and potentially save lives. FEMA reimburses states for 75 percent of eligible costs.

“The basis of providing support for snow removal is because you’re removing snow that’s causing a health and safety hazard to the public,” Bornemann said, adding that snowstorms can strand drivers, block roads and cut off access to hospitals.

In a memo to the White House Office of Management and Budget last year, FEMA’s top political appointee at the time said Trump could “deny major disaster declarations for snowstorms” to save federal dollars. The memo, obtained by POLITICO, listed four other policy changes that would cut FEMA spending, none of which are likely to have a partisan tilt.

The author, Cameron Hamilton, then-FEMA’s acting administrator, was fired after clashing with his boss, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, over other issues.

But the memo by Hamilton, whom Trump recently nominated to be FEMA’s permanent administrator, shows the difficulty of eliminating entrenched federal aid programs.

The Senate Appropriations Committee said in a report last year that it “reaffirms Congress’ intent … that snowstorms shall be eligible for Federal disaster relief.”

Chair Susan Collins, a Republican, is from Maine, which has received roughly $20 million in FEMA snow assistance.