Atlantic: The World No Longer Takes Trump Seriously

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At parades and in the halls of global power, America has been sidelined.

The leaders of Russia, China, and North Korea are not good men. They preside over brutal autocracies replete with secret police and prison camps. But they are, nevertheless, serious men, and they know an unserious man when they see one. For nearly a decade, they have taken Donald Trump’s measure, and they have clearly reached a conclusion: The president of the United States is not worthy of their respect.

Wednesday’s military parade in Beijing is the most recent evidence that the world’s authoritarians consider Trump a lightweight. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and North Korea’s maximum nepo baby, Kim Jong Un, gathered to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. (Putin’s Belarusian satrap, Alexander Lukashenko, was also on hand.) The American president was not invited: After all, what role did the United States play in defeating Japan and liberating Eurasia? Instead, Trump, much like America itself, was left to watch from the sidelines.

But the parade was worse than a mere snub. Putin, Xi, and Kim stood in solidarity while reviewing China’s military might only weeks after Putin came to Alaska and showed no interest in moving to end Russia’s war against Ukraine. The White House tried to spin that ill-advised summit into at least a draw between Putin and Trump, but when the Kremlin’s dictator shows up with no interest in negotiation, speaks first at a press conference, and then caps the day by declining a carefully planned lunch and flying home, that’s a humiliation, not an exchange of views.

Nor has Trump fared very well with the other two members of this cheery 21st-century incarnation of SPECTRE. In the midst of Trumpian chaos, Xi is adroitly positioning China as the new face of international stability and responsibility. He has even made a show of offering partnership to China’s rival and former enemy India: Chinese diplomats last month said that China stands with India against the American “bully” when Trump was, for some reason, trying to impose 50 percent tariffs on India.

Likewise, the North Koreans, after playing to Trump’s ego and his ignorance of international affairs during meetings in the president’s first term, have continued their march to a nuclear arsenal that within years could grow to be larger than the United Kingdom’s. Trump was certain that he could negotiate with Kim, but the perfumed days of “love letters” between Trump and Kim are long over. Pyongyang’s leadership seems to know that it costs them little to humor Trump politely, but that they should reserve serious discussion for the leaders of serious countries.

Trump responded to his exclusion from the gala in Beijing by acting exactly like the third-tier leader that Xi, Putin, and Kim seem to think he is. As the event was taking place, Trump took to his social-media site—of course—to express his hurt feelings with a cringe-inducing attempt at a zinger. “May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration. Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America.”

Now, the reality is that Russia, China, and North Korea are conspiring against America, but it is beneath both the dignity and the power of an American president to whine about it. Trump continued his unseemly carping with a demand that China recognize the valor of the Americans who died in the Pacific:

The big question to be answered is whether or not President Xi of China will mention the massive amount of support and ‘blood’ that The United States of America gave to China in order to help it to secure its FREEDOM from a very unfriendly foreign invader. Many Americans died in China’s quest for Victory and Glory. I hope that they are rightfully Honored and Remembered for their Bravery and Sacrifice!

This message does not exactly project confidence and leadership; instead, it sounds like the grousing of a man beset by insecurities. A more self-assured commander in chief would have ignored the parade and, if asked about it, would have said something to the effect that the United States has always respected the sacrifices of our allies in World War II. But not Trump: He petulantly declared that he would not have attended even if the cool kids had invited him.

Authoritarians are unfortunately in good company in treating Trump as an incompetent leader. Even America’s allies have recognized that Trump may be their formal partner, but that they mostly get things done with the American president by soothing his ego and working around him. After Trump emerged from the summit in Anchorage essentially parroting Putin’s talking points, seven top European leaders rushed to Washington to tell Trump that he had done well and that they truly, really respected him, but that perhaps he should hold off on being a co-signer of Kremlin policy.

Trump’s damage to American power and prestige would be less severe if the president had a foreign policy and a team to execute it. He has neither: Trump ran for president mostly for personal reasons, including to stay out of prison, and his foreign policy, such as it is, is merely an extension of his personal interests. He holds summits, issues social-media pronouncements, and engages in photo ops mostly, it seems, either to burnish his claim to a Nobel Prize or to change the news cycle when issues such as the economy (or the Jeffrey Epstein files) get too much traction.

Worse, Trump is no longer surrounded by people who care about foreign affairs or can competently step in and create consistent policy. In his first term, Trump had a secretary of defense, James Mattis, who helped to create a national-defense strategy, a document that Trump might have ignored but was at least promulgated to a national-security establishment that needed direction from someone, somewhere. Now, at the Pentagon, Trump has Pete Hegseth, who shows little apparent inclination or ability to think about complexities.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was supposed to be one of the new “adults in the room,” but he has instead become a man in a Velcro suit, with the president sticking jobs and responsibilities onto him without any further guidance. He has been reduced to sitting glumly in White House press sprays with foreign leaders while Trump embarrasses himself and his guests. Meanwhile, the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, is spending her time trying to root out the spies she thinks hate the president. Unfortunately, the agents she’s hunting are Americans, which must bring a smile to Xi’s face and perhaps even produce a belly laugh from former KGB officer Putin.

America is adrift. It has no coherent foreign policy, no team of senior professionals managing its national defense and diplomacy, and a president who has little interest in the world beyond what it can offer him. Little wonder that the men who gathered in Beijing—three autocrats whose nations are collectively pointing many hundreds of nuclear weapons at the United States—feel free to act as if they don’t even think twice about Trump or the country he leads.

What do you expect when you turn your country over to a narcissistic grifter with dementia, 6 bankruptcies, and 34 felony convictions?

The World No Longer Takes Trump Seriously
At parades and in the halls of global power, America has been sidelined.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/09/trump-parade-china-putin-xi-kim/684113

Reuters: Exclusive: FBI employees worry Trump’s Washington surge is exposing unmarked cars

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  • Current and former FBI employees express concerns over national security risks
  • FBI’s undercover cars risk exposure due to federal law enforcement surge
  • Former DHS official warns of risks to sensitive investigations
  • FBI spokesman says ‘FBI leadership hasn’t received any of the concerns alleged’

President Donald Trump’s surge of federal law enforcement into Washington, D.C., is exposing the FBI’s fleet of unmarked cars, potentially risking its ability to do its most sensitive national security and surveillance work, nine current and former employees of the bureau warned.

The surge, which the White House has said is meant to crack down on violent crime but has featured many arrests for minor offenses, could make it harder for the FBI to combat violent criminal gangs, foreign intelligence services and drug traffickers, said the current and former employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

As part of the surge, FBI agents who normally conduct their investigative work out of the spotlight are now more involved in routine police work in Washington, appearing in high-profile areas dressed in tactical gear and emerging from unmarked cars, with the unintended effect of potentially identifying those vehicles to surveillance targets.

As the Republican president publicly muses about expanding his crackdown into cities such as Chicago and Baltimore, the employees said they are urging leadership not to continue to expose more vehicles in this way.

“Every time you see us getting out of covert cars wearing our FBI vests that car is burned,” said one of eight current FBI employees who spoke with Reuters on condition of anonymity.

“We can’t use these cars to go undercover, we can’t use them to surveil narcotraffickers and fentanyl suppliers or Russian or Chinese spies or use them to go after violent criminal gangs or terrorists,” said a second current FBI employee.

An FBI spokesman denied the current employees’ assertions.

“The claims in this story represents a basic misunderstanding of how FBI security protocol works — the Bureau takes multiple safeguards to protect agents in the field against threats so they can continue doing their great work protecting the American people,” Ben Williamson, assistant director of the FBI public affairs office said in an email.

“FBI leadership hasn’t received any of the concerns alleged here, and anyone who did have a good faith concern would approach leaders at headquarters or our Washington Field Office rather than laundering bizarre claims through the press.”

The White House referred questions to the FBI.

The use of as many as 1,000 FBI unmarked vehicles in Washington during highly public scenes comes amid an already heightened threat to law enforcement from cartels, gangs and hostile nations who actively seek to identify agents and their vehicles, the current and former FBI employees said.

“They’re putting federal agents in a more highly visible situation where they’re driving their undercover cars and they’re engaging in highly visible public enforcement action or patrol actions,” said John Cohen, a former Department of Homeland Security counterterrorism coordinator.

“They may be unwittingly compromising the ability of those same personnel to go back and engage in sensitive investigations.”

The current and former FBI employees said they spoke to Reuters because of the depth of their concerns and the potential harm to national security and safety of the American public.

‘BAD FOR THE BUREAU’

Several of them urged an end to the practice of using undercover cars in the surge now before more are exposed.

“This is crazy, dangerous and bad for the bureau,” said former FBI agent Dan Brunner, who worked on cases involving the MS-13 street gang before retiring from the bureau in September 2023 after a two-decade career there.

“This is currently in D.C., which is the most saturated city with foreign nation spies, foreign actors so of course they’re going to be down there,” Brunner said. “So those guys, you know, their vehicles, their license plates are getting recorded.”

Reuters was not able to determine whether foreign actors were in fact tracking agents’ vehicles and Brunner did not provide evidence that they were doing so. But Brunner, Cohen and the current and former FBI employees said investigative targets, such as members of drug gangs and foreign intelligence entities, are constantly working to try to identify law enforcement agents and FBI in particular and said there would be no reason to think that would have stopped during the surge.

“It is a major threat facing U.S. law enforcement,” said Cohen, who now serves as executive director for the Center for Internet Security’s program for countering hybrid threats.

Cohen and several of the current and former FBI employees who spoke to Reuters cited a recent report by the Justice Department’s internal watchdog that detailed how this kind of information can be used against law enforcement.

In 2018, a hacker working for the Sinaloa Cartel homed in on an FBI employee working at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, accessing their phone records and tapping into the city’s network of cameras to help the cartel identify, track and kill FBI witnesses and sources.

“This isn’t a hypothetical issue, just look at what happened in Mexico City,” said a third current FBI employee.

Brunner, the retired agent, said that, at minimum, he believes the license plates of all the cars that were used in the surge need to be replaced. He and other current and former FBI employees said the bureau should consider using other cars if its agents are further deployed in future surges, perhaps renting them or borrowing them from other U.S. government agencies.

“There’s an argument to be made that highly visible law enforcement presence in high-crime areas can serve as a deterrent for crime,” said Cohen, the former DHS official.

“But at the same time, the value that comes from the federal government in fighting violent crime is through their investigations, which very often are conducted in a way in which the identity and the resources and the vehicles of the investigators are kept, you know, secret.”

Poor babies! With the fewest possible exceptions, ALL police cars should be conspicuously marked. There should be NO secret police in the United States.

Exclusive: FBI employees worry Trump’s Washington surge is exposing unmarked cars
Agents are appearing in high-profile areas dressed in tactical gear and emerging from unmarked cars.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fbi-employees-worry-trumps-washington-surge-is-exposing-unmarked-cars-2025-09-04

ABC News: DC attorney general sues to end federal National Guard deployment

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Nearly 2,300 troops from seven states have been stationed in D.C. since Aug. 11.

Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb filed a lawsuit on Thursday to end the Trump administration’s deployment of National Guard troops to the city, calling it an unlawful “military occupation.”

Nearly 2,300 troops from seven states have been stationed in the district since Aug. 11, a move Schwalb says goes beyond the president’s authority and violates local autonomy under the Home Rule Act.

The lawsuit argues the troops were placed under Defense Department command and later deputized by the U.S. Marshals Service to perform law enforcement, which Schwalb’s office says is “in violation of the foundational prohibition on military involvement in local law.”

By law, the president’s emergency deployment can last only 30 days unless extended by Congress, meaning the surge is set to expire Sept. 10.

Schwalb also alleges the federal government is unlawfully asserting command over state militias without formally bringing them into federal service, which he says is a violation of the Constitution and federal law.

The complaint says the deployments threaten to erode trust between residents and police, inflame tensions and damage the city’s economy — particularly in the restaurant and hospitality industries as, just last month, the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington extended summer restaurant week in an effort to draw customers during the surge.

The attorney general’s office further argues that the deployments violate the Home Rule Act by overriding local autonomy and undermining public safety “by inflaming tensions and eroding trust between District residents and law enforcement.”

Still, Gregg Pemberton, the D.C. union chairman said the long-term goal is for the Metropolitan Police Department to resume full responsibility.

DC attorney general sues to end federal National Guard deployment
D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb has filed a lawsuit to end Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to D.C., calling it an unlawful “military occupation.”

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dc-attorney-general-sues-end-federal-national-guard/story?id=125240857

ABC News: Army extends orders for DC National Guard through Nov. 30: Officials

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The president could still cut the order short or extend them, officials said.

The Army is extending orders for the Washington, D.C., National Guard to remain on active duty in the nation’s capital through Nov. 30, two U.S. officials told ABC News Thursday.

President Donald Trump could still cut the mission shorter than Nov. 30 if desired — or extend the deployment past that date, the officials noted. That essentially leaves the deployment open-ended for now.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll signed off on the plan on Wednesday, enabling Brig. Gen. Leland D. Blanchard II, commanding general of the D.C. National Guard, to update the initial orders.

The Nov. 30 plan for the estimated 950 members of the D.C. Guard, which has not been previously reported, does not apply to the other 1,300 troops deployed to D.C. from other states, including Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, South Carolina, and West Virginia. Those troops remain under the control of their governors with many of them already under orders to remain through the end of December, one of the officials said.

Blanchard alluded to the plan in a video message on X released Thursday.

“Our mission is not complete,” he said. “I’ve made the decision to extend the encampment as we continue to work to ensure everyone that walks these city streets is safe.”

Trump mobilized the D.C. National Guard last month to address what he insisted was “out of control” crime.

Since then, troops have been seen hanging out around the National Mall and other low-crime areas, often posing with tourists or spreading mulch as part of Trump’s “beautification” project.

According to the latest update provided by the Guard, troops have cleaned roadways, collected more than 677 bags of trash and disposed of five truckloads of plant waste in coordination with the U.S. National Park Service.

The decision to extend the Guard through Nov. 30 was a practical one, sources told ABC News. Instead of reupping orders every 14 to 29 days as is typical, the troops can plan on the extended stay.

National Guard troops typically leave other full-time civilian jobs during the deployment, and this would allow their employers to make other arrangements, officials say.

The plan also ensures there would be no gap in pay or benefits, which can happen when tours of duty need to be reapproved several times.

A spokesperson for Joint Task Force-DC told ABC News that all Guards members who are deployed to D.C. have already been extended beyond initial orders — some which would have lapsed on Sept.10 — in order to secure their eligibility for benefits including pay and health care.

The Siege of Washington will continue until 30 November. Herr Trump ist der Sieg!

Army extends orders for DC National Guard through Nov. 30: Officials
The Army is extending orders for the D.C. National Guard to remain on active duty in the nation’s capital through Nov. 30, two U.S. officials told ABC News Thursday.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=125266247

Washington Post: How Stephen Miller is running Trump’s effort to take over D.C.

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The deputy White House chief of staff has emerged as a key enforcer of the D.C. operation in the month since Trump federalized the local police department.

From the head of the conference table in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, Stephen Miller was in the weeds of President Donald Trump’s takeover of policing in the nation’s capital.

The White House deputy chief of staff wanted to know where exactly groups of law enforcement officers would be deployed. He declared that cleaning up D.C. was one of Trump’s most important domestic policy issues and that Miller himself planned to be involved for a long time.

Miller’s remarks were described to The Washington Post by two people with knowledge of the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House business. The result is a behind-the-scenes glimpse of one of Trump’s most trusted aides in action, someone who has emerged as a key enforcer of the D.C. operation in the month since Trump federalized the local police department and deployed thousands of National Guard troops to patrol city streets. While widely seen as a vocal proponent for the president’s push on immigration and law and order, Miller’s actions reveal how much he is actually driving that agenda inside the White House.

“It’s his thing,” one White House official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. “Security, crime, law enforcement — it’s his wheelhouse.”

Miller’s team provides an updated report each morning on the arrests made the night before to staff from the White House, Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security, among others. The readouts include a breakdown of how many of those arrested are undocumented immigrants.

He has also led weekly meetings in the Roosevelt Room with his staff and members of the D.C. mayor’s office. Last week, he brought Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to two people briefed on the meeting. It’s unclear why Bessent attended the meeting.

A person familiar with Bessent’s thinking said he was encouraged by D.C. officials’ enthusiasm and collaborative tone.

Miller frequently frames Trump’s approach to crime-fighting as a moral and spiritual war against those who oppose him.

“I would say to the mayors of all these Democrat cities, like Chicago, what you are doing to your own citizens is evil. Subjecting your own citizens to this constant bloodbath and then rejoicing in it is evil,” Miller said on Fox News last week. “You should praise God every single day that President Trump is in the White House.”

Trump has signaled that his crackdown on cities will continue, recently naming Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore and Oakland, California, as places that might require federal intervention. Critics have characterized the moves as counterproductive, a waste of federal resources and illegal. Supporters see the effort as bringing long-awaited relief to cities afflicted by violent crime.

In D.C., crime was already trending down before Trump moved to take over the police department, according to city data. But rates have decreased further when comparing the 15 days before the Aug. 11 order with the 15 days after Trump’s operation, with violent crime decreasing by roughly 30 percent and property crime decreasing by roughly 16 percent.

Since Trump initiated an unprecedented incursion into D.C. affairs, the city has transformed from a place that proudly welcomed immigrants into one primed for their deportations. D.C. police officers now work with agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who have detained people in front of schools and restaurants. Park Police officers, now operating as beat cops, have chased vehicles with tinted windows, fake tags and broken headlights — a major departure from a city policy to avoid pursuits that pose safety threats. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has attributed the drop in crime to the federal surge.

Miller and others close to Trump have celebrated the changes in Washington, which they see as a winning political issue and central to their plans to host a series of events for America’s 250th birthday next year. White House officials expect the increased federal law enforcement presence to continue in the District through the end of 2026 — a period that would not only come after the semiquincentennial celebrations but also the midterm elections. D.C. officials have not publicly committed to that timeline.

This week, members of the Republican National Committee were briefed on a call about the D.C. crime operation, getting data on arrests and talking points for how to tout the initiative in their states.

Bowser and other top D.C. officials have gone out of their way to show willingness to work with Trump and his staff, positioning themselves as allies in his public safety crackdown. They see that tactic as their best chance at maintaining power given D.C.’s unique status under the U.S. Constitution, which grants Congress ultimate say over city laws and budgets.

Miller has been less involved in working directly with the mayor.

City Administrator Kevin Donahue, Deputy Mayor of Public Safety and Justice Lindsey Appiah and the D.C. police department’s executive assistant chief Jeffrey Carrol have all attended Miller’s weekly meetings in the Roosevelt Room.

Bowser has maintained a separate line of communication with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, with Bondi speaking with Bowser sometimes daily, the White House official said.

Last week, as Trump’s complaints about the mayor escalated, Bondi and Wiles met with Bowser at the White House. Soon after, Bowser gave White House officials an executive order to review — which ultimately ordered indefinite coordination between the city and federal law enforcement officials. The president has since changed his tune on Bowser, holding her up as an example of how blue-city mayors should behave.

“Everyone at the White House is pleased with Mayor Bowser and the ongoing partnership,” a White House official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share internal thinking.

Miller has made a point of being seen around the city since Trump infused it with federal troops. Last month, he appeared at a D.C. police station to address line officers and visited Union Station with Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Over the weekend, Miller and his family walked around the National Mall.

“Beautiful day to take in our monuments,” his wife, Katie Miller, wrote on X. “Thank you President Trump for Making DC Safe Again!”

She posted a picture in front of the Reflecting Pool, which stretches between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. Stephen Miller looked at his children and pointed toward the camera.

As deputy chief of staff, Miller oversees Trump’s domestic policy agenda. But he also serves in the lesser-known role of homeland security adviser, directing roughly 40 federal law enforcement officers in the Homeland Security Investigation division assigned to work on D.C. crime. Miller and his deputy on homeland security matters — a veteran law enforcement officer whose name the White House has declined to publicize — are also in close contact with the other federal and D.C. law enforcement agencies, the White House official said.

White House officials emphasized that Miller is acting on behalf of the president, who is personally invested in producing a successful operation. The officials said that his top domestic policy priority at the moment is reducing crime in large cities nationwide. Every day, those around him say, Trump inquires about the details of the D.C. operation. He has asked questions about the people arrested and how many guns and drugs officers seized from the streets, the White House official said.

“As President Trump has said himself many times, making D.C. safe and beautiful again is a top priority for the entire Trump Administration,” said White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson. “The results of the highly successful operation speak for itself. President Trump has driven down crime in the District, removed countless violent criminals from the streets, and kick-started beautification efforts to make D.C. the greatest city in the world.”

Miller and his homeland security deputy, along with Terry Cole, the Drug Enforcement Administration chief whom Trump named D.C.’s “emergency police commissioner” last month; Gady Serralta, director of the U.S. Marshals Service; Bondi; and representatives from the FBI have all met with Trump a handful times since Trump signed the emergency declaration about D.C., according to the White House official.

By law, Trump’s federalization of the D.C. police force lasts 30 days and is set to expire next week. The White House has not announced its next steps, but those who know Miller say he almost certainly has a plan.

We must remember that Stephen Miller is an unrepentant bigoted racist whose #1 goal in life is to make America white again. The actions they are taking in L.A. and D.C. are targeted at Democrat mayors; the many Republican mayor of cities with HIGHER crime rates are getting a free pass. This is all about racism and politics, not public safety.

How Stephen Miller is running Trump’s effort to take over D.C.
The deputy White House chief of staff has emerged as a key enforcer of the D.C. operation in the month since Trump federalized the local police department.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/09/05/trump-dc-takeover-stephen-miller-white-house

No paywall:

How Stephen Miller is running Trump’s effort to take over D.C.
The deputy White House chief of staff has emerged as a key enforcer of the D.C. operation in the month since Trump federalized the local police department.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-stephen-miller-is-running-trump-s-effort-to-take-over-dc/ar-AA1LW0Uf

CNN: US considers banning Iranian diplomats from shopping at Costco during UN meeting

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… The movements of Iranian diplomats are severely limited in New York, but one proposal being floated would bar them from shopping at big, members-only wholesale stores like Costco and Sam’s Club without first receiving the express permission of the State Department.

Such stores have been a favorite of Iranian diplomats posted to and visiting New York because they are able to buy large quantities of products not available in their economically isolated country for relatively cheap prices and send them home.

It was not immediately clear if or when the proposed shopping ban for Iran would take effect, but the memo said the State Department also was looking at drafting rules that would allow it to impose terms and conditions on memberships in wholesale clubs by all foreign diplomats in the US….

So what’s to stop them from pre-ordering a shitload of stuff from Amazon and having it delivered to their hotel?

Being so mean and petty seems pointless to me. It only reinforces the idea we are enemies. Smother them with kindness and let them go shopping, and you might change their impressions of the United States.

US considers banning Iranian diplomats from shopping at Costco during UN meeting | CNN
The movements of Iranian diplomats are severely limited in New York, but one proposal being floated would bar them from shopping at big, members-only wholesale stores like Costco and Sam’s Club without first receiving the express permission of the State Department.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/05/middleeast/us-ban-iranians-shopping-costco-during-un-latam-intl

Bloomberg: World Meat Prices Reach New High as Consumers Clamor for Beef

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Cattle farmers in many parts of the world are dealing with climate change and disease, curbing production. The American herd is the lowest in decades …

Global meat prices hit a fresh record in August as strong American and Chinese demand for beef continued to fuel a monthslong rally at a time when global cattle supplies have been dwindling.

A United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization index tracking the price of meat last month surpassed the record set in July. The surge is already worsening inflation headaches in some countries. In July, consumer prices for beef and veal were almost 25% higher in the UK.

Cattle farmers in many parts of the world are dealing with climate change and disease, curbing production. The American herd is the lowest in decades and numbers are also tightening in top shipper Brazil, with increasingly volatile weather adding to the challenges to rebuild.

For beef, strong demand from the US boosted Australian prices, according to the FAO’s report on Friday. Meanwhile, good Chinese imports from Brazil have helped support that market despite lower sales to America after higher levies kicked in.

The higher costs of dairy products is also weighing on supply as fewer cattle are available for slaughter.

“The beef meat market is also linked to the fact that you have a high dairy prices,” said Monika Tothova, an economist at the FAO. With high butter and cheese prices “you will not slaughter your cows to sell them as meat.”

Thank you, King Donald, for your divine leadership.

Hit me with another tarriff, please!

World Meat Prices Reach New High as Consumers Clamor for Beef

https://archive.ph/YajX1#selection-1771.0-1807.222

Alternet: Legal expert warns Trump saving this ‘big heavy gun’ for ‘when all hell has broken loose’

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In an article for Democracy Docket published Thursday, journalist Jim Saksa argued that President Donald Trump is systematically expanding his authority to deploy military force within U.S. cities, and that the lack of sufficient legal or legislative pushback risks making such aggressive domestic deployments routine.

Saksa noted that over the past two weeks Trump has repeatedly threatened to send the National Guard not only to Chicago, but also to New York, Baltimore, Seattle, New Orleans and other major American cities. These threats follow earlier deployments of thousands of troops to Los Angeles in June and Washington D.C. in August.

Most recently, Trump signed an executive order establishing a National Guard “quick reaction force” prepared for rapid nationwide mobilization.

While these troop deployments are of questionable legality, Saksa pointed out that previous actions, particularly the deployments to LA and D.C., have largely gone unchecked by either the courts or Congress.

This, he warned, could embolden the president to continue deploying military force in Democratic-led cities

Trump’s rhetoric has reinforced this trajectory. He described Chicago as “a killing field right now,” despite evidence of its safest summer in decades.

He further asserted, “I have the right to do anything I want to do. I’m the President of the United States of America,” and added, “If I think our country is in danger, and it is in danger in these cities, I can do it.”

Saksa examined the legal response: a district court in California ruled that Trump’s administration violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which broadly prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement, but the court did not deem the deployment itself illegal.

The Ninth Circuit, moreover, upheld the administration’s actions, concluding the deployment to LA was lawful. As a result, around 300 National Guard personnel remain on federal active duty in Southern California nearly three months later.

The article noted the slow governmental response: nearly a month passed before Washington filed a legal challenge, a delay compounded by the District’s unique legal status.

Meanwhile, the White House continues to rely on obscure statutes and novel legal theories, while avoiding reliance on the Insurrection Act of 1807, a more traditional yet controversial legal pathway to deploy troops domestically.

David Janovsky, acting director of the Project on Government Oversight’s Constitution Project, told the outlet that courts and Congress have been “mostly feeble” in response to what he termed a “power grab.”

He voiced concern that there may be no clear limits left on such presidential authority: “I don’t know what the next meaningful limit is,” he said.

The article also included comments from William Banks, professor emeritus at Syracuse University College of Law, who said: “The insurrection act is the big heavy gun.”

He added: “It was intended to be utilized, if at all, when all hell is broken loose. It’s for extreme circumstances.”

Legal expert warns Trump saving this ‘big heavy gun’ for ‘when all hell has broken loose’

https://www.alternet.org/trump-military-deployment

Alternet: ‘Never been this bad’: Young MAGA influencers say their income is ‘tanking’ due to Trump

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The Bulwark’s Will Sommer reports young MAGA activists appear to be breaking away from their elders when it comes to their support for President Donald Trump.

This week, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones got into a spat with his younger employee Owen Shroyer while production staff on his InfoWars show played videos in the backdrop of exploding dams and Russian women. This was one of many recent instances of Jones storming into Shroyer’s “War Room” show and ordering him what to cover. Last week, Jones blasted onto the set and told him, essentially, to cheer up about the state of the country under Trump, according to Sommer.

Shroyer had had enough, announcing that he was quitting InfoWars and launching his own online show, to Jones’ fury.

“… [F]or ten years Owen Shroyer has been sucking off the InfoWars teat,” Jones howled. “And you want to try to stab your mother in the back because you’re a big boy leaving the nest.”

“In his goodbye video, Shroyer said Jones was always pressing him to be more positive and supportive of Trump (and by extension, Israel),” writes Sommer. “By quitting InfoWars, Shroyer is getting out from under the outlet’s devotion to Trump.”

And Shroyer is hardly the only right-wing media personality moving on, reports Sommer.

“White nationalist podcaster Nick Fuentes, for example, is already positioning himself to undermine Vice President JD Vance’s frontrunner status for the next Republican primary,” Sommer said. “Fuentes focused much of his time this summer on attacking Vance, who he called “an awkward, clumsy, weird freak … and declared himself ‘Never Vance’ on the grounds that Vance is ‘fat.’”

And judging by the behavior of some in the right-wing media, Sommer said there are already hints that their audience’s attention “is drifting to non-Trump topics.”

Sommer said popular right-wing culture-war commentator Jeremy Hambly, who goes by the name “The Quartering,” convened “a livestreamed meeting with two right-wing personalities to complain that his views — and by extension, his income — were tanking.”

“It has never been this bad,” Hambly said. “And I’ve been producing content nonstop for maybe twelve years.”

A lame duck president doesn’t appear to draw the crowds like he once did, said Sommer, adding that pro-Trump commentator Tim Pool is also complaining about his dropping viewership. Maybe it’s something to do with a president “appearing at a press conference to demonstrate that he is still, in fact, alive,” said Sommer.

As for Shroyer, Sommer reports in the two days since his departure from InfoWars, he’s raised “nearly $30,000 to finance his next venture, where he’ll presumably be more critical of Trump.”

Read the Bulwark report at this link.

Poor crybabies! You cast your lot with the wannabe usurper behind the January 6 insurrection, now serving as our Grifter-in-Chief with 6 bankruptcies and 34 felony convictions under his belt. You chose to suck up to Trump and join his gaggle of sycophants, you can suffer right along with Bubba himself.

‘Never been this bad’: Young MAGA influencers say their income is ‘tanking’ due to Trump

https://www.alternet.org/trump-maga-influencers-2673961340

Alternet: ‘He was an FBI informant’: Mike Johnson makes stunning admission about Trump

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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) appeared to say that President Donald Trump once doubled as a confidential informant for the FBI before he ran for office.

Johnson made the comment while speaking to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday about Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-Ky.) effort to force a vote on releasing the Department of Justice’s remaining evidence on convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. When CNN congressional correspondent Manu Raju asked Johnson about Trump calling the ongoing controversy over Epstein a “hoax,” the speaker insisted that Trump’s statement was being misconstrued by the media.

“I’ve talked with him about this many times,” Johnson said. “It’s been misrepresented. He’s not saying that what Epstein did is a hoax. It’s a terrible, unspeakable evil. He believes that himself. When he first heard the rumor he kicked [Epstein] out of Mar-a-Lago. He was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down.”

Trump’s status as an FBI informant remains unconfirmed. However, he has a history of being willing to cooperate with the FBI in the past. BuzzFeed News reported in 2017 on a 1981 FBI memo in which he said he would to “fully cooperate” with the bureau. Trump reportedly agreed to accommodate undercover FBI agents at his Atlantic City, New Jersey casino who were investigating organized crime.

In 2016, the Washington Post reported that Trump “welcomed [agents] in” to his Manhattan office, and that the meeting came at a pivotal time in Trump’s career when he was trying to cement himself as a real estate tycoon in New York. The report detailed how Trump became close friends with both an FBI informant who worked for Trump as a labor consultant and investigator Walt Stowe, who at the time was one of the informant’s handlers.

If Trump indeed worked as an FBI informant to take down Epstein, it may have happened sometime between 2004 and 2005, when the two had their famous falling-out over a $41 million mansion in Palm Beach, Florida. The New York Post reported last year that the mansion became a “centerpiece of an intense rivalry” between the two men who were formerly close friends. The initial investigation into Epstein’s exploitation of underage girls began in March of 2005, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Trump previously said that he ended his friendship with Epstein after he “stole” Virginia Giuffre — one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers who died by suicide earlier this year — from the Mar-a-Lago spa in 2000. However, journalist and author Barry Levine said that Epstein maintained his paying membership at Mar-a-Lago as late as 2007, which was well after his initial arrest and subsequent prosecution for preying on teenage girls.

They’re trying to infer that perhaps Trump was an FBI informant who ratted out Epstein.

But the math just doesn’t work out: Epstein was a due-paying member of Mar-A-Largo for years after Trump claimed to have shown him the door.

‘He was an FBI informant’: Mike Johnson makes stunning admission about Trump

https://www.alternet.org/trump-fbi-informant-2673962593