[Posted 4:30 PM ET, Friday]
Note: StocksandNews has significant ongoing costs, such as this new site, and your support is greatly appreciated. Please click on the GoFundMe link or send a check to PO Box 990, New Providence, NJ 07974.
Special thanks to Betty M. for her ongoing support.
Edition 1,370
The situation in Gaza is beyond heartbreaking, and against all human standards of simple decency. It’s appalling and sickening. I talk about it in detail below, and yes, of course Hamas is to blame.
But Israel (prodded by the Trump administration) has to do better itself. The West has been saying this especially for the last year. Dr. Khalil al-Dragan, spokesperson for al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, told the BBC the other day that the situation in Gaza’s hospitals has become critical.
“Nineteen people, including children, have died of hunger,” he says. “Hospitals cannot provide a single bottle of milk to children suffering from hunger, because all baby formula has run out from the market.”
And Dr. al-Dragan added:
“Hospitals can no longer provide food for patients or staff, many of whom are physically unable to continue working due to extreme hunger.”
It’s this last statement that forced me to lead with the topic this week. I have further examples below of the doctors themselves saying they are finding it difficult to survive. It used to be they talked of having no medical supplies. But just in the last two weeks, even the doctors are now starving to death.
I worry not just for the kids, many of whom, if they survive to adulthood, will turn into terrorists.
But if you thought we had problems last year on our college campuses, for starters, I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like this Fall. I won’t be shocked by anything. I also don’t see how we can avoid multiple Kent State type incidents that could tear the country apart.
—
Wall Street and the Economy
Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said last week that continued tariff threats make it harder to figure out where inflation is headed. “The more we keep adding things to the mix that make it hard to figure out – ‘Are prices going to be rising or not?’ – the more it’s just throwing more dirt back in the air,” he said.
Recent surveys have showed that companies and consumers became less concerned about inflation in June – at least compared with a couple of months before, when the White House was announcing a rapid succession of on-again, off-again tariffs. In a survey of small businesses by the National Federation of Independent Business, just 11% of respondents said inflation was their biggest concern, the lowest level since September 2021. At the same time, the share of respondents who said they plan to raise prices was the highest since March 2024.
And there are distinct signs that tariffs are pressuring prices higher. The June consumer price index showed the overall cost of goods and core goods, which exclude food and energy, and outside of autos, increased in June, which suggests that companies in general are starting to pass their tariff costs on to their customers.
Companies are running down their inventories, after pulling supply forward in the spring before the tariffs began to hit in earnest, and as they finish the process, prices will rise.
My friend Mark R. and I, major grocery store shoppers, talk all the time about rising food prices…that’s just a fact.
So, while the Wall Street Journal had a story on the front page today about how U.S. corporations are largely absorbing much of the costs of the tariffs thus far, that won’t continue forever, which leads me to the Federal Reserve and next week’s key Federal Open Market Committee meeting (July 29-30).
Last weekend, President Trump posted on Truth Social:
“The Wall Street Journal ran a typically untruthful story today by saying that Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, explained to me that firing Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell, the Worst Federal Reserve Chairman in History, would be bad for the market. Nobody had to explain that to me. I know better than anybody what’s good for the Market, and what’s good for the U.S.A. If it weren’t for me, the Market wouldn’t be at Record Highs right now, it probably would have CRASHED! So, get your information CORRECT. People don’t explain to me, I explain to them!”
But during the week, Secretary Bessent kept saying the administration was not in a rush to nominate a new Fed Chair to replace Powell, while noting that the entire Federal Reserve needed to be examined as an institution and whether it had been successful.
Thursday, in an extraordinary visit to the Federal Reserve, with a large entourage, and met there by Chair Powell, President Trump downplayed his clash with Powell over cost overruns at the Fed during a tour of the renovation project, making it clear that he saw the issue of lower interest rates as a more pressing concern.
After the tour, Trump maintained there was “no tension” with the Fed chief and indicated that problems with the project probably weren’t reason enough to fire the central bank head.
“To do that is a big move, and I just don’t think it’s necessary,” Trump told reporters.
But the tour was not without moments of tension, which were also comical.
Starting out Trump brought up what he has called the exorbitant costs in renovating a federal building. A visibly uncomfortable Powell pushed back and shook his head when Trump claimed the cost had hit $3.1 billion.
When the president offered Powell a piece of paper he cast as offering details on the new estimate, Powell tersely told Trump his revised claim included a building that had already been complete.
“That’s a third building,” said Powell. “It was built five years ago.”
“It’s part of the overall work,” Trump said.
“It’s not new,” Powell responded.
Atta boy, Jay!
—
On the economic data front, June existing home sales came in less than expected, a 3.93 million annualized pace, down 2.7% month-over-month, unchanged year-over-year…not good. The median existing home price of $435,300, a record, is up 2% from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors.
New home sales for June were also less than forecast, 627,000. Overall, a dismal year for the housing sector. Affordability remains an issue.
President Trump is using affordability as another way to press Chair Powell to lower rates. “Housing in our Country is lagging because Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell refuses to lower Interest Rates,” Trump posted Wednesday.
June durable goods fell a deceiving 9.3%, but were up 0.2% ex-transportation. Durable goods rose 16.5% in May. It’s all about aircraft orders (Boeing), which is why you focus on ex-transportation with this metric. Orders soared in May and fell in June.
The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow barometer for second quarter growth is 2.4%, with the first official reading on Q2 GDP coming Wednesday.
Freddie Mac’s 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is at 6.74%.
Next week, aside from the Fed’s big Open Market Committee meeting, we have the GDP reading and, Thursday, following the Fed’s statements, including from Chair Powell, the June PCE info (personal consumption expenditures index), the Fed’s preferred inflation barometer, which is followed by the July jobs report. Goodness gracious, excitement galore, sports fans!
—
Meanwhile, on the trade front, last Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said he was confident the U.S. could secure a trade deal with the European Union, but August 1 is a hard deadline for tariffs to kick in.
Lutnick said he had just gotten off the phone with European trade negotiators and there was “plenty of room” for agreement.
“These are the two biggest trading partners in the world, talking to each other. We’ll get a deal done. I am confident we’ll get a deal done,” Lutnick said.
President Trump threatened on July 12 to impose a 30% tariff on imports from Mexico and the European Union starting on August 1.
“Nothing stops countries from talking to us after August 1, but they’re going to start paying the tariffs on August 1,” Lutnick told CBS.
So then as the week progressed, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. went to the White House with President Trump and left with a 19% tariff on all goods from his country, a mere one percentage less than what was put forward by Trump.
And then in a surprise move, Trump announced that the U.S. and Japan had reached an agreement, as he posted on Truth Social, saying he would set his so-called reciprocal tariffs at 15% for the country.
Under the deal, Japan will also invest $550 billion into the U.S., Trump said, writing the U.S. would receive “90% of the Profits” from the investments, without providing further details. And Japan will “open their Country to Trade including Cars and Trucks, Rice and certain other Agricultural Products,” Trump posted.
The 15% reciprocal tariff rate is lower than the 25% tariff that Trump threatened recently in a letter to the Japanese government, and would include automobiles and parts, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in Tokyo.
In return, Japan will accept cars and trucks built to U.S. motor vehicle safety standards, without subjecting them to additional requirements – a potentially major step to selling more American-built vehicles in the country. [Then again, how many Japanese want a huge SUV…I don’t want a huge SUV. I love my little Honda Civic…but I digress…]
Shares in Japanese carmakers surged.
Editorial / Wall Street Journal
“The trade deal President Trump announced with Japan Tuesday evening is good news – in the narrow sense that it defuses what could have been an extended tariff war with America’s most important ally in Asia. But if this is winning a trade war, we’d hate to see what losing looks like.
“Mr. Trump hailed the pact with characteristic modesty as ‘perhaps the largest Deal ever made.’ Details remain sparse, but the core appears to be a Japanese commitment to invest $550 billion in the U.S. while reducing barriers to imports of American agricultural products such as rice. In exchange, Mr. Trump will reduce his ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on Japan to 15% from 25% – including, apparently, on autos.
“The new tariff rate is good news only as relief from 25%. This is still a 15% tax increase on imports from Japan. And don’t believe the White House spin that Japanese exporters will pay this tax. They might absorb some of it, depending on the product and the competition. But American businesses and consumers will pay more too and thus be either less competitive or have a lower standard of living….
“One positive development is the apparent reduction in U.S. auto tariffs from 25%. Perhaps the Administration is noticing that forcing Americans to pay higher prices for the cars they want to buy isn’t a political winner. Yet the 15% rate still marks a substantial increase over the 2.5% tariff that applied to passenger cars before Mr. Trump took office. The U.S. already applies a 25% tariff on imported trucks.
“This highlights the economic bramble into which Mr. Trump has stumbled with his tariffs-first-negotiate-later approach to trade. U.S. auto makers are worried that Japanese companies will enjoy preferential tariff rates while Detroit could be stuck paying 25% on imports of cars and parts that U.S. companies ship from Mexico and Canada….
“By the time this trade war ends, if it ever does, the average U.S. tariff rate may settle close to 15% from 2.4% in January. That’s an anti-growth tax increase. The question for Trumponomics now, as in the first term, is whether the pro-growth elements of his tax and deregulatory agenda overwhelm the tariff damage. The Japan deal is at least one step toward removing harmful uncertainty.”
Which brings us to negotiations with the European Union, with reports midweek saying the U.S. and EU were progressing toward an agreement that would set a 15% tariff for most imports.
Steel and aluminum imports above a certain quota would face a higher tariff of 50%,
The EU is preparing countermeasures, including a package of tariffs on more than $100 billion worth of American goods, if a deal isn’t reached by next Friday, Aug. 1.
And today, President Trump put the odds of a trade deal with the EU at “50-50…maybe less than that,” he told reporters.
But we also just learned that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is meeting President Trump in Scotland on Sunday, which is a good sign.
At the same time, we’re also hearing that Japan doesn’t agree with Trump’s characterization of the new trade deal in terms of the split on profits from Japan’s $550 billion investment into the U.S.
Wall Street has been optimistic, equities hitting new highs, as they look back at how much worse tariffs might have been, but the wheels could come off if we see the impact of tariffs on earnings down the road.
Europe and Asia
We had flash PMI readings for July in the eurozone, courtesy of S&P Global & Hamburg Commercial Bank, with the composite at 51.0, an 11-month high. Manufacturing was 50.7, services 51.2. [50 the dividing line between growth and contraction.]
Germany: manufacturing 50.6, services 50.1
France: mfg. 48.6, services 49.7
UK: mfg. 50.0, services 51.2
Dr. Cyrus de la Rubia, Chief Economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank, said:
“The eurozone economy appears to be gradually regaining momentum. The recession in the manufacturing sector is coming to an end, and growth in the services sector accelerated slightly in July. Our GDP Nowcast, which also takes into account the HCOB Flash PMI, points to robust economic growth for the third quarter. However, further data should be awaited before too much weight is given to this assessment.”
Meanwhile, the European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged on Thursday after cutting eight times in a year. It’s biding its time while Brussels and Washington try to negotiate a trade deal that could ease persistent uncertainty over tariffs.
The ECB cuts its policy rate to 2% last month, half its level of a year earlier, after taming a surge in prices that followed the end of the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Inflation is now back to the ECB’s goal of 2%.
ECB President Christine Lagarde said, “The sooner this trade uncertainty is resolved, the less uncertainty we will have to deal with and that will be welcomed by many economic actors including ourselves.”
Turning to Asia…nothing worth reporting on from China this week.
Japan’s flash PMI readings for July showed manufacturing at 48.8, below expectations, with services a solid 53.5.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Monday he will stay in office to tackle challenges such as rising prices and high U.S. tariffs after a weekend election defeat left his coalition with a minority in both parliamentary chambers.
Ishiba’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito were short three seats to maintain a majority in the 248-seat upper house in Sunday’s vote. The coalition is now a minority in both houses of the Diet, or parliament, though the LDP is still the leading party.
Ishiba said he takes the result seriously but that his priority is to avoid creating a political vacuum and to tackle impending challenges, including the Aug. 1 deadline for a tariff deal with the U.S.
“While I painfully feel my serious responsibility over the election results, I believe I must also fulfill my responsibility I bear for the country and the people so as not to cause politics to stall or go adrift,” Ishiba said. “Challenges such as global situation and natural disaster won’t wait for a better political situation.”
Sunday’s vote comes after Ishiba’s coalition lost a majority in the October lower house election, stung by past corruption scandals, and his unpopular government has since been forced into making concessions to the opposition to get legislation through parliament. It has been unable to quickly deliver effective measures to mitigate rising prices, including Japan’s traditional staple of rice, and dwindling wages.
Commenting on Ishiba’s problems, with more right-wing parties cutting into the LDP’s conservative support base, Jeffrey Hall, a lecturer in Japanese Studies at Kanda University of International Studies, told BBC News:
“Prime Minister Ishiba is considered not conservative enough by many supporters of the former Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe,” he said.
“They think that he just doesn’t have the nationalistic views on history, he doesn’t have the strong views against China that Abe had.”
But then the U.S. and Japan reached the above-noted favorable trade agreement and Ishiba said reports that he was going to resign, mission accomplished, were “completely unfounded.”
The reports, however, are persistent that he will step down next month.
Street Bytes
—The market has been looking for clarity on U.S. trade policy as the implementation of tariffs looms, and the news on Japan was well-received, ditto rumors of an imminent deal with the EU, so the market continued to hit new all-time highs this week.
The Dow Jones closed the week at 44901, up 1.3%, but shy of its closing record of 45014. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit record highs day after day, including Friday; the S&P finishing up 1.5% on the week to 6388, and Nasdaq up 1.0% to 21108.
Next week is the biggest of the quarter for earnings…Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Boeing, UPS, UnitedHealth Group, Exxon Mobil and Chevron.
—U.S. Treasury Yields
6-mo. 4.27% 2-yr. 3.91% 10-yr. 4.38% 30-yr. 4.92%
Quiet time for the Fed and members of the Open Market Committee, ahead of their important meeting next week, Tuesday and Wednesday. And there are economic releases that could move the Treasury market bigly.
—Google-parent Alphabet beat expectations for its second quarter earnings results Wednesday afternoon; the shares rising at the open Thursday.
Earnings per share were $2.31, ahead of the Street’s consensus estimate of $2.18, and up from $1.89 last year. Revenue for the quarter reached $96.4 billion, above expectations of $94.0 billion, and up 14% on the year.
Leading the charge was Google Cloud, with sales up to $13.6 billion in the quarter, ahead of expectations of $13.1 billion and up 32% on the year.
The number of Google Cloud deals over $250 million doubled on the year, the company said, with as many billion-dollar deals in the first half of 2025 as there were all of last year.
Advertising revenue was strong in Search and YouTube. All told, ad sales were up 10% from 2024 and ahead of Wall Street expectations.
YouTube continues to drive advertising sales, up 13% on the year. Subscriptions are a growing portion of its revenue.
“A generation that grew up with YouTube on their devices is now increasingly watching their favorite creators and content on their televisions,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said on the earnings call. “That includes millions of sports fans too.”
Meanwhile, Google’s dominance in Search is being questioned for the first time as AI search from start-ups like OpenAI and Perplexity give users more complete answers to questions, though they still suffer from “hallucinations,” where they invent facts and relay them in a convincing fashion.
Google Search’s market share is still near 90% outside of China, but it’s falling and any degradation of that will lead to reduced growth and profitability. However, advertising from paid clicks rose 4% in the quarter!
For some investors, the excellent results were overshadowed by a significant rise in Alphabet’s projected capital expenditures for 2025 from $75 billion, just reaffirmed three months ago, to $85 billion.
The wild card is Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving taxi service. It has the most advanced autonomous technology, and the service is operational in five U.S. cities, driving a total of 71 million miles with passengers through March. Waymo could become an important contributor to future revenue and profit.
—Tesla’s net income plunged 16% in the second quarter, marking another quarter of steep declines at the company as automotive sales continue to fall.
The company’s second-quarter revenue declined after a drop in automotive deliveries, which were down 13.5% from a year earlier.
Tesla reported $22.5 billion in revenue for the quarter, down 12% compared with the same period last year. Revenue from the company’s automotive business fell 16%. The energy business fell 7%.
The EV maker also reported adjusted earnings of 40 cents per share, matching analysts’ expectations.
Tesla shares fell 6% at the open on Thursday and declined from there.
Tesla also reported $439 million in revenue from other automakers that pay Tesla for carbon credits to offset their sale of conventional vehicles, less than half what it reported a year earlier. Many of those credits will go away this fall after recent changes to federal tax law eliminated many subsidies for EVs and environmental remedies.
The company sold just 384,122 vehicles in the second quarter, down 13.5% from 443,956 the year before.
Tesla faces more headwinds going into the third quarter as the federal government rewrites policies around EV incentives, eliminating the $7,500 consumer tax credit, as well as many of the valuable carbon credits paid by other manufacturers to Tesla to offset the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles.
But CEO Elon Musk talked up plans to “greatly expand” Tesla’s robotaxi service to half the country by the end of the year.
“We’re in this weird transition period where we’ll lose a lot of incentives in the U.S.,” Musk said, alluding to the expiring tax credits designed to boost EV sales. “But we’re still at the relatively early stages of autonomy.”
“We probably could have a few rough quarters. I’m not saying we will, but we could,” he told analysts, while adding he still expects autonomous vehicles to improve Tesla’s finances by the end of next year.
On Thursday, President Trump posted on Truth Social:
“Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon’s companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the U.S. Government. This is not so. I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE, in fact, THRIVE like never before! The better they do, the better the USA does, and that’s good for all of us. We are setting records every day, and I want to keep it that way!”
—Ryanair has decided not to switch MAX 10 aircraft due for delivery in early 2027 to the smaller MAX 8 aircraft following reassurances from Boeing that they will arrive on time, CEO Michael O’Leary said on Monday.
Boeing promised to tell Ryanair by the end of June whether the new aircraft would be ready, “or we would change back and take more additional (MAX) 8-200s,” O’Leary told analysts following the publication of results for the April-June quarter.
As for the earnings, the Irish low-cost carrier said it made net profit of 819 million euros ($952.2 million) for Q2, from 360 million euros in the same period of the previous year.
Revenue reached 4.34 billion euros compared with 3.63 billion euros. Of this,1.39 billion euros was ancillary revenue, which covers services such as baggage fees and food on board.
The airline flew 57.9 million passengers in the quarter, up 4% from a year ago.
Load factor reached 94%, the same level as last year, Ryanair said.
The carrier said traffic for fiscal 2026 remains on track to grow 3% to 206 million passengers, with heavily delayed deliveries of new Boeing aircraft weighing on the figure. However, it cautioned that second-quarter fares would be lower than in the previous three months.
—American Airlines forecast a bigger-than-expected third-quarter loss on Thursday, as sluggish domestic travel demand results in more unsold seats and an erosion in fares. The shares fell sharply.
Most U.S. airlines withdrew their financial forecasts in April due to uncertainty caused by President Trump’s tariffs and other moves.
Demand in the domestic travel market has remained subdued with budget travelers approaching their plans with caution. American, which had enhanced its focus on the U.S. domestic market, sees itself more exposed to the trend.
Summer, typically the peak money-making season for airlines, is falling short this year as sluggish demand for standard economy seats forces carriers to cut fares, undermining their pricing power.
American expects adjusted loss per share in the third quarter in the range of 10 cents to 60 cents, compared with analysts’ estimates of 7 cents.
The carrier reported a net income of $599 million, or 91 cents per share for quarter ended June 30, compared with $717 million, or $1.01 per share, a year earlier.
Fort Worth, Texas-based AAL said its bottom line for 2025, on an adjusted basis, is expected to come in between a 20-cent loss and an 80-cent profit.
In January, the company forecast full-year adjusted earnings of $1.70 to $2.70 a share. The guidance was given days before a mid-air plane collision over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., which airlines later cited as putting pressure on air-travel demand.
—Southwest Airlines Co. expects economic turmoil to erase as much as $1 billion of its annual pre-tax profit this year, prompting the airline to issue a much-reduced outlook for 2025.
Earnings before interest and taxes in 2025 will be $600 million to $800 million, Southwest said in a statement on Wednesday that also included second-quarter results that fell short of analyst expectations.
The carrier had originally forecast $1.7 billion in pre-tax profit at the start of the year.
Southwest is one of the first companies to put a price on the fallout from President Trump’s efforts to reset global trade, as inflation and economic uncertainty have crimped travel demand.
Southwest did say domestic leisure travel stabilized in the second quarter, “with recent trends showing signs of improvement.”
The airline is in the middle of rolling out an extensive makeover plan that breaks from a one-size-fits-all business model that set it apart from rivals for more than five decades. Premium seats with more leg room, assigned seats and a new boarding process will debut next year. The carrier also furloughed workers for the first time in its history earlier in 2025.
Southwest began charging for checked bags in May. It plans to start selling assigned seats July 29 for flights beginning Jan. 27.
The airline reported adjusted earnings of 43 cents per share in the second quarter, compared to the 53 cents per share analysts estimated. Second quarter revenue was $7.24 billion, slightly below consensus at $7.3bn.
The shares fell 11% on the news.
—TSA checkpoint numbers vs. 2024
7/24…109 percent of 2024 levels
7/23…101
7/22…86
7/21…99
7/20…117
7/19…96
7/18…100
7/17…114
—Hilton Worldwide lifted its forecast for 2025 profit on expectations of a complete recovery in domestic travel demand in the U.S. after a sharp pullback in March and April.
Domestic travel suffered a setback earlier this year after President Trump’s aggressive tariff announcements triggered fears of an economic recession that led consumers to rein in discretionary expenses.
Some travel companies recently flagged that travel demand in the U.S. has steadied, but international tourists from Canada and Europe have cut down U.S. visits following Trump’s new trade policy.
Earlier this month, U.S. legacy carrier Delta Airlines said that while bookings had stabilized, they were at a lower level than the airline had estimated at the start of the year.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has made similar remarks, saying that despite demand leveling off, the carrier finished the first half about five percentage points weaker than its original estimate.
And you see the comments from American and Southwest above.
A slower-than-expected recovery in travel demand also impacted Hilton’s second-quarter room revenue in the U.S., which fell 1.5% compared to a year earlier.
But the company remains hopeful. “We believe the (U.S.) economy…is set up for better growth over the intermediate term, which should accelerate travel demand,” said Hilton CEO Chritopher Nassetta.
The company now expects full-year adjusted profit to be in the range of $7.83 and $8 per share, compared with its earlier forecast of $7.76 to $7.94.
The Waldorf-Astoria-parent posted an adjusted profit of $2.20 per share in the second quarter, beating Wall Street estimates of $2.04.
Total revenue for the quarter ended June 30 was $3.14 billion, up 6.3% from a year earlier, which also beat consensus.
—General Motors’ profit and revenue declined in its second-quarter but the automaker easily topped expectations and the company stuck by its full-year financial outlook that it lowered in May.
GM CEO Mary Barra also said in a letter to shareholders on Tuesday that the automaker is attempting to “greatly reduce our tariff exposure,” citing $4 billion of new investment in its U.S. assembly plants.
“In addition to our strong underlying operating performance, we are positioning the business for a profitable, long-term future as we adapt to new trade and tax policies, and a rapidly evolving tech landscape,” she said.
For the three months ended June 30, GM earned $1.89 billion, or $1.91 per share. A year earlier the company earned $2.93 billion, or $2.53 per share.
Adjusted earnings of $2.53 per share handily beat the $2.34 per share analysts expected.
Revenue declined to $47.12 billion from $47.97 billion, but still topped the Street’s estimate of $45.84 billion.
The shares declined a bit.
Barra remains optimistic about the electric vehicle market.
“Despite slower EV industry growth, we believe the long-term future is profitable electric vehicle production, and this continues to be our north star,” she wrote. “As we adjust to changing demand, we will prioritize our customers, brands, and a flexible manufacturing footprint, and leverage our domestic battery investments and other profit-improvement plans.”
Automakers and independent analyses have indicated that the tariffs could raise prices, reduce sales and make U.S. production less competitive worldwide. Trump has portrayed the changes as a bridge toward automakers moving more production into the United States.
But as for the trade deal with Japan, the rate of 15% also applies to cars and car parts, according to people familiar with the deal. That means it is cheaper for Japan to export cars to the U.S. than for Ford or GM to import vehicles from their plants in Mexico. The U.S. is charging 25% on those imports, part of Trump’s sectoral tariffs on the auto industry.
Further, U.S. auto makers are paying more for steel, aluminum, and copper than foreign auto makers because of Trump’s tariffs on imported metals.
–Staying on topic, Stellantis reported a preliminary 2.3 billion euro ($2.7 billion) first-half loss as it faces the dual challenge of revamping its product ranges in Europe and the United States while also dealing with the impact of U.S. tariffs on vehicles and auto parts.
Stellantis said on Monday it booked 3.3 billion euros in pre-tax charges for the first half as it canceled programs, including a hydrogen fuel cell project, kept setting aside money for fines linked to U.S. pre-Trump carbon emission regulation, while investing more in popular hybrid cars in Europe and large gasoline-powered models in the U.S. market.
The owner of a sprawling portfolio of brands including Fiat, Peugeot, Chrysler and Jeep, said Trump’s tariffs have cost it 300 million euros so far as the company reduced vehicle shipments and cut some production to adjust manufacturing levels.
–Back to Elon Musk, he is doing all he can to keep pace in the artificial-intelligence arms race.
Just weeks after Musk’s xAI raised $10 billion through sales of stock and debt, the startup is working with a trusted financier to secure up to $12 billion more for its ambitious expansion plans, people familiar with the situation said.
Valor Equity Partners, an investment firm whose founder, Antonio Gracias, has close ties to Musk, is in talks with lenders to raise the capital. The money would be used to buy a massive supply of advanced Nvidia chips that would be leased for xAI for a new jumbo-sized data center meant to help train and power the AI chatbot Grok.
Musk needs all the financial firepower he can get to stay in the wildly costly AI battle with well-funded rivals like Google, Microsoft and Meta.
Cash at xAI is going out the door almost as soon as it arrives. Under projections shared with potential creditors a few months ago, xAI was slated to burn about $13 billion in cash in 2025, according to reports.
It took only 122 days for xAI to build its first giant data center in Memphis, Tenn., dubbed Colossus. It originally housed 100,000 Nvidia graphics processing units, or GPUs, among the world’s largest cluster of AI chips. Just 92 days later, xAi doubled Colossus’ size to 200,000 GPUs.
“That is like superhuman, and as far as I know there’s only one person in the world who could do that,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on a podcast last year. “Elon is singular in his understanding of engineering and construction and large systems and marshaling resources.”
—Microsoft said hackers exploited a security flaw in its software to breach governments, businesses and other organizations across the globe and steal sensitive information, according to officials and cybersecurity researchers.
Microsoft over the weekend released a patch for the vulnerability in servers of the SharePoint document management software. The company said it was still working to roll out other fixes after warnings that hackers were targeting SharePoint clients, using the flaw to enter file systems and execute code.
Hackers have already used the flaw to break into the systems of national governments in Europe and the Middle East. In the U.S., they’ve accessed government systems, including ones belonging to the Department of Education and Florida’s Department of Revenue.
Microsoft then accused Chinese state-sponsored hackers, identifying two groups supported by the Chinese government, Linen Typhoon and Violet typhoon, as leveraging flaws in the SharePoint software used by customers who managed it on their own networks, as opposed to in the cloud.
“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits is still ongoing,” Microsoft said. “With the rapid adoption of these exploits, Microsoft assesses with high confidence that threat actors will continue to integrate them into their attacks.”
The security company Eye Security has detected compromises on more than 100 servers representing 60 victims, including organizations in the energy sector, consulting firms and universities.
—OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned the financial industry of a “significant impending fraud crisis” because of the ability of artificial intelligence tools to impersonate a person’s voice to bypass security checks and move money.
Altman spoke at a Federal Reserve conference Tuesday in Washington.
“A thing that terrifies me is apparently there are still some financial institutions that will accept the voiceprint as authentication,” Altman said. “That is a crazy thing to still be doing. AI has fully defeated that.”
—The FCC approved Skydance Entertainment’s merger with Paramount Global on Thursday, clearing the way for the more than $8 billion deal to close and ending a multiyear saga.
Skydance and Paramount, the parent of the CBS television network, are expected to close the merger in the next few weeks, and then Skydance, a movie-and-television-production company, is expected to move quickly to make changes to the Paramount Pictures movie studio and the CBS broadcast network.
As part of the government’s approval, Skydance CEO David Ellison pledged to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr that Paramount Global’s CBS News would commit to unbiased journalism and that the network’s “editorial decision-making reflects the varied ideological perspectives of American viewers,” according to a letter the company filed at the agency detailing the meeting.
“Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly,” Carr said. “It is time for a change. That is why I welcome Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network.”
Paramount Global early this month agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit by President Trump alleging “60 Minutes” deceitfully edited an interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris to make her sound better. CBS denied any wrongdoing or doctoring her comments.
And last week, CBS said it was canceling Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” after the host’s contract expires next year.
—Texas Instruments shares fell hard, over 10%, after the chipmaker offered a disappointing outlook, a potentially ominous sign from this bellwether for the tech industry and the economy. It is the first major chip maker to report June quarter earnings. Management told investors the auto market hasn’t recovered and the risk of new tariffs isn’t over.
TXN sells basic chips that go into products in nearly every sector of the economy, from autos and industrials to consumer electronics. While it beat June quarter expectations, it forecast earnings of $1.36 to $1.60 a share for the current quarter, below expectations.
The company is spending $60 billion across seven U.S. manufacturing sites to boost production, including a mega-site in Texas.
—Intel then reported on Thursday, offering a better-than-expected revenue outlook and outlined the dramatic steps it has taken to revive its performance, including cutting 15% of its workforce and gutting plans to build new chip facilities in Europe. Instead it is refocusing on artificial-intelligence chips and personal-computer processors.
The chip maker said it has completed a majority of the layoffs for the plan it announced last quarter. Intel expects to end the year at 75,000 employees through a combination of job cuts and attrition – down from 96,400 at the end of the second quarter.
For the June quarter, Intel reported revenue of $12.9 billion and a loss of 10 cents a share. Current quarter guidance was robust; Intel forecasting revenue of $12.6 billion to $13.6 billion. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said they are laser focused on strengthening their core products.
Intel said the June quarter results benefited from smaller-than-feared tariffs and a better-than-expected economic environment.
—Verizon Communications beat Wall Street’s earnings expectations and hiked its 2025 earnings guidance on Monday, sending the stock higher.
The wireless carrier reported adjusted quarterly earnings of $1.22 per share, as revenue climbed 5.2% from a year ago to $34.5 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $1.19 on revenue of $33.7 billion.
The only thing that could overshadow the beat-and-raise was that more customers opted to quit their phone contracts, perhaps due to cheaper plans becoming more appealing at a time when many are worried about a potential flare-up in inflation. Verizon lost 9,000 postpaid wireless subscribers across its consumer and business divisions, when analysts were looking for 13,000 additions.
Still, wireless service revenue climbed 2.2% to $20.9 billion from a year ago.
–Shares of homebuilder D.R. Horton jumped 16% after the company reported fiscal third-quarter results that surpassed Wall Street’s expectations. The nation’s largest homebuilder announced earnings of $3.36 per share on revenue of $9.23 billion. These figures comfortably beat consensus estimates.
Although total revenue and net income declined year-over-year, investors focused on the better-than-expected performance in a challenging housing market characterized by affordability issues. The company’s net sales orders for new homes also topped forecasts, coming in at 23,071 units against an expected 22,114.
—Coca-Cola beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter revenue on Tuesday, as the beverage giant benefited from resilient demand for its sodas.
Coca-Cola’s well-known brands and its global presence have thus far cushioned it from a broader weakening in demand for sodas in the United States.
The company has been able to raise prices in inflationary markets such as Latin America and the U.S., while volume growth has remained steady.
Prices rose 6% overall in the second quarter, following a 5% rise in the prior quarter.
Demand for its protein milkshake brands in the United States has also been strong as consumers look for healthier beverage and snacking options.
The company’s comparable revenue rose 2.5% to $12.62 billion, beating expectations of 1.9% and $12.54 billion.
Coca-Cola Zero Sugar jumped 14%, driven by growth across all geographies.
But the company did say it will release a version of Coke using cane sugar this fall, days after President Trump said in a social media post that the company had agreed with him to do so.
Other countries, such as Mexico, already use cane sugar in their version of the soda – but the American version of Coke uses high-fructose corn syrup, a different type of sweetener that has the same amount of calories. Many people prefer the so-called Mexican Coke, which, while less common, is also available for purchase in stores and restaurants around the United States.
In all honesty, I haven’t had a soda in probably 30 years.
—Domino’s Pizza shares surged after the company beat analysts’ expectations for second-quarter U.S. same-store sales on Monday, driven by new items on the menu and promotions, amid persisting macroeconomic uncertainties.
The world’s largest pizza chain introduced items such as the parmesan-stuffed crust pizza to its list, and attracted value-conscious consumers through deals under its rewards program.
These efforts helped offset the impact from President Trump’s fluctuating tariff policies and the resulting trade tensions.
Consumer spending has declined in recent months due to rising inflation and uncertainty surrounding Trump’s policies, prompting customers to seek value offerings rather than expensive dine-out options, which has benefited pizza chains like Domino’s.
“In the U.S., both delivery and carry out grew, driving meaningful market share gains,” Dominio’s CEO Russell Weiner said.
Domino’s posted a 3.4% rise in same-store sales in the U.S. for the quarter ended June 15, exceeding analysts’ average estimate of a 2.2% rise.
International same-store sales grew 2.4%, while quarterly revenue rose 4.3% to $1.15 billion, in line with estimates.
Domino’s posted quarterly earnings per share of $3.81, compared with the Street’s estimate of $3.95.
—Chipotle Mexican Grill shares fell 12% at the open Thursday after the company posted second-quarter earnings and revenue that both met analyst expectations, but investors are worried about the burrito chain’s declining same-store sales.
For the three months ended in June, Chipotle posted 33 cents in earnings per share, 2.9% down from a year ago, while net revenue increased by 3% to $3.1 billion as analysts had expected.
Much of Chipotle’s revenue growth was driven by footprint expansion. In the second quarter, the company opened 61 new restaurant openings, making the total 3,839. Same-store sales for existing restaurants, however, declined 4% from a year ago.
For full-year 2025, Chipotle expects comparable sales to be flat from 2024.
Chipotle plans to open a total of 315 to 345 new company-owned restaurants in 2025. The company also said it plans to drive traffic growth through increased advertising, elevated hospitality, and more limited-time offers at its restaurants.
–The tech company Astronomer said its CEO, Andy Byron, has resigned after he was shown embracing a woman on a screen during a Coldplay concert.
Astronomer’s board of directors accepted the resignation Saturday, saying it will begin a search for a replacement. The company said Friday that it launched a formal investigation into Byron after the video of him went viral online.
The woman was identified as Astronomer human resources chief Kristin Cabot.
Astronomer, a privately held company based in New York, makes software that helps companies implement workflow management technology.
Foreign Affairs
Russia/Ukraine: Moscow and Kyiv agreed to a prisoner swap during their third set of direct talks in Istanbul on Wednesday, but made little progress on ceasefire terms or a possible summit between their presidents – with the meeting lasting a mere 40 minutes.
The talks came days after President Trump gave Moscow a 50-day deadline to make peace or face “very severe tariffs.”
Vladimir Putin has yet to publicly acknowledge Trump’s ultimatum, and Russia has continued to pummel Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles while its ground troops grind forward in the east.
The Russian delegation Wednesday said a summit between Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky was only appropriate to sign an agreement.
Hours after the talks, a Russian airstrike using drones hit the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, causing fires to break out in the city’s UNESCO-listed historic center.
The attack injured four people in the city, according to Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper. The drones caused a fire at the iconic Pryvoz market, one of the city’s main landmarks.
“Russia continues its terror and obstructs diplomacy, which is why it deserves full-scale sanctions responses, as well as our strikes on their logistics, their military bases, and their military production facilities,” Zelensky said in a post on X Thursday morning, following the strikes.
Meanwhile, according to Deep State, a Ukrainian group that maps the conflict using drone footage and its links with the Ukrainian military, Russia gained more than 214 square miles of Ukrainian territory in June, up from 173 square miles in May.
But that is less than 0.1 percent of Ukraine’s vast territory each month.
This week, Ukrainian forces said they had pushed back more than 50 attacks in the Pokrovsk area of eastern Ukraine, where Russia has concentrated much of its firepower in recent months.
–Last weekend, Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine overnight into Saturday with hundreds of drones, killing at least one person, part of a stepped-up bombing campaign.
President Zelensky posted on X, saying Russia fired over 300 drones, along with more than 30 cruise missiles. The death was in Odesa.
Tuesday, a child was killed in a separate attack when a Russian glide bomb hit an apartment block in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, local officials said. Six areas of Kyiv had earlier come under a combined drone and missile attack.
—There has been growing political turbulence in Ukraine, following a move by Zelensky to weaken the country’s independent anti-corruption agencies. Protests erupted across the country in response, becoming the first mass demonstrations in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Protesters, which number in the thousands in Kyiv, fear Zelensky’s moves will roll back reforms introduced after a pro-Western revolution 10 years ago.
The government move against the anti-corruption bodies has stoked public outrage, alarmed officials and raised quick concern among Ukraine’s European allies who are becoming the country’s main lifeline for weapons and economic aid amid uncertain support.
But as the protests grew, Zelensky showed signs of imminent backtracking, and indeed Friday submitted a draft law to reinstate the freedom of two anti-corruption bodies.
Israel/Gaza: The Palestinian Health Ministry said that 85 people were killed while waiting for aid at locations across Gaza on Sunday.
The Israeli military published new evacuation warnings for areas of central Gaza on Sunday.
Israel and Hamas have been holding ceasefire talks in Qatar, but no breakthroughs. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed that expanding Israeli military operations in Gaza will pressure Hamas to negotiate, but negotiations have been stalled for months.
And then Thursday, special envoy Steve Witkoff said the U.S. is cutting short Gaza ceasefire talks and bringing home its negotiating team for consultations after the latest response from Hamas “shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.”
Witkoff said “Hamas does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith.”
He said it was “a shame that Hamas has acted in this selfish way” and that the U.S. is “resolute” in seeking an end to the conflict in Gaza.
Over the weekend, Britain, France and Japan were among 25 countries that called Israel’s conduct “unacceptable” and demanded that Israel end the war immediately.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France would become the first of the Group of 7 major industrialized nations to recognize a Palestinian state.
Macron made the surprise announcement in a post on social media, saying he would formally introduce that plan at the UN General Assembly in September.
The WHO (World Health Organization) has accused Israeli forces of attacking a building housing its staff and their families in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah on Monday, and mistreating those sheltering there. “Male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot, and screened at gunpoint,” it added. The UN agency’s main warehouse was also attacked and destroyed. Israel’s military has defended its decision to fire shots in Deir al-Balah. In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said troops identified shots being fired at them and “responded toward the area from which the shooting originated.” According to the UN, about 87.8% of Gaza is affected by Israeli evacuation orders or Israeli militarized zones, leaving its 2.1 million residents squeezed into about 46 sq km of land where essential services have collapsed.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on Tuesday 15 people, including four children, had died from malnutrition across the territory over the past 2 hours.
The UN also said it had received growing reports of children and adults suffering from malnutrition and warned that “the last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing.”
Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, who leads the pediatric ward at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, said the number of children dying of malnutrition had risen sharply in recent days. “There is no one in Gaza now outside the scope of famine, not even myself,” Dr. al-Farra said. “I am speaking to you as a health official, but I, too, am searching for flour to feed my family.”
Thursday, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement that the situation has “gone beyond the world’s worst fears.”
“Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe. Israel’s denial of aid and the killing of civilians, including children, seeking access to water and food cannot be defended or ignored,” Albanese calling on Israel to immediately allow the United Nations and aid organizations to carry out their work safely.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also called on Israel to “change course” and allow aid to enter Gaza without delay. “The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible,” he said.
Syria: Editorial / Wall Street Journal
“Syria is set to release an internal report Tuesday concerning responsibility for the March massacres of some 1,500 Alawites by regime forces and militias. Its findings arrive with impeccable timing – right after new massacres by regime-aligned forces have wound down in Sweida in southern Syria. This time they targeted the Druze minority.
“Syria’s ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa can tell his investigative committee to get back to work, but hard questions remain about the former al-Qaeda commander’s regime. Why, after Syrian regulars withdrew from Sweida on Thursday morning for a ceasefire – after executing dozens of Druze in the field – were large forces of irregulars from Bedouin tribes then allowed to attack the non-Muslim minority?
“Hundreds have died since July 13, and videos circulated of atrocities on both sides, including one of three Druze men forced to jump off a building. Trump envoy Ric Grenell shared a report of a Druze American from Oklahoma executed with his Syrian family.
“For four crucial days Damascus declined to block the few roads carrying Sunni tribal forces pledging revenge against the Druze to the fighting in Sweida. ‘We are grateful to the tribes for their heroic actions,’ Mr. Sharaa said on Saturday. He asked merely that they let the state handle security. When will the tribes be disarmed, as he demands of the Druze and Kurds?
“The Sweida massacres are a reminder of what can happen in the Middle East to the weak, or even to the strong if they let their guard down. The well of brutality that is summoned against Israel has too often risen to purge or kill the region’s other minorities, including Christians….
“Greater caution regarding the U.S. embrace of Mr. Sharaa is called for, as some in Congress have noticed. The House Financial Services Committee is set to consider legislation by Rep. Mike Lawler (R., N.Y.) that would establish oversight and place conditions on the lifting of more Syria sanctions.
“President Trump garnered headlines for an executive order providing Syria relief, but in the fine print it established authority to sanction anyone there who disrupts the peace. The carrots and sticks are ready, should the West ask more of Mr. Sharaa than pretty words.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says over 600 have been killed in the Sweida fighting.
Iran: President Trump on Truth Social last weekend:
“All three nuclear sites in Iran were completely destroyed and/or OBLITERATED. It would take years to bring them back into service and, if Iran wanted to do so, they would be much better off starting anew, in three different locations, prior to those sites being obliterated, should they decide to do so. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Iran reached an agreement in principle to hold talks with the UK, France and Germany over its nuclear program, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
Discussions are ongoing to finalize the location, with the talks possibly taking place “next week,” the report said Sunday.
The three European countries, or E3, are parties to the original nuclear agreement, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which President Trump abandoned in 2018.
But then a top Iranian official, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, warned Wednesday that European threats to reimpose sanctions could lead Iran to withdraw from an international pact that limits the spread of nuclear weapons (the older Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1970), one of the last remaining safeguards against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
If Iran does exit the treaty, it will be just the second country to do so, after North Korea in 2003, whose withdrawal has never been formally accepted.
Taiwan: There is a rather bizarre election being held on the island Saturday. Taiwan goes to the ballot box to decide whether 24 lawmakers from the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) – around 20 percent of Taiwan’s legislature – can keep their jobs. Seven more seats are to be voted on next month.
The outcome could allow the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to recapture a majority in the legislature, currently controlled by its opponents the KMT and the smaller Taiwan’s People Party (TPP).
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te has struggled to get his agenda through parliament and he’s endorsed the recall as he tries to keep relations on solid ground with the United States amid the growing threats from China.
What I didn’t know is that Taiwan’s constitution allows for lawmakers to be put to a recall vote after their first year in office if at least 10 percent of registered voters in their constituency sign a petition. Recalls are thus quite common, but not at this level.
Supporters of the recall movement have cast their campaign as “anti-communist,” seeking to get rid of “pro-China” opposition KMT lawmakers perceived to be collaborators of Beijing’s Communist Party, which of course vows to “reunify” Taiwan, by force if necessary.
I’m kind of glad we don’t have this system here for the House.
But I sure wouldn’t be a supporter of the KMT, which favors warmer ties with Beijing and sees Taiwan as part of “one China.” That’s surrender…and bye-bye democracy (see also Hong Kong).
Random Musings
–Presidential approval ratings….
Gallup: New numbers, and they aren’t good…37% approve of President Trump’s job performance, while 59% disapprove. 29% of independents approve (July 7-21).
The 29% with independents matches the lowest for Trump in either of his terms. That’s potentially deadly come the mid-terms.
When Trump was inaugurated back end of January, the split was 47-48, 46% independents.
Rasmussen: 48% approve, 51% disapprove (July 25).
A new CBS/YouGuv poll had Trump approval rating at 42%, with disapproval at 58%. The survey previously found Trump’s approval rating was 45% in June and 47% in mid-April.
A new Wall Street Journal poll has Trump with an approval rating of 46% – unchanged from April – with 52% disapproving. The president’s base remains critical for him, with 88% of GOP voters approving of his job performance.
A majority of 52% oppose Trump’s landmark legislative achievement, the tax and domestic policy bill that narrowly passed in Congress, 10 percentage points higher than the share supporting it.
Disapproval of his tariffs agenda outweighs approval by 17 points. Even on immigration – Trump’s signature issue – voters give him tepid marks: By narrow margins of 3 points or less, voters disapprove when asked about his handling of “immigration” and approve of his handling of “illegal immigration.” By 16 points, more voters say the country is headed in the wrong direction rather than on the right track, compared with a 10-point gap in April.
—President Trump musing on his first six months in office on Truth Social:
“Wow, time flies! Today is that (sic) Sixth Month Anniversary of my Second Term. Importantly, it’s being hailed as one of the most consequential periods of any President. In other words, we got a lot of good and great things done, including ending numerous wars of Countries not related to us other than through Trade and/or, in certain cases, friendship. Six months is not a long time to have totally revived a major Country. ‘One year ago our Country was DEAD, with almost no hope of revival. Today, the USA is the ‘hottest’ and most respected Country anywhere in the World.’ Happy Anniversary!!!”
And….
“My Poll Numbers within the Republican Party, and MAGA, have gone up, significantly, since the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax was exposed by the Radical Left Democrats and, just plain ‘troublemakers.’ They have hit 90%, 92%, 93%, and 95%, in various polls, and are all Republican Party records. The General Election numbers are my highest, EVER! People like Strong Borders, and all of the many other things I have done. GOD BLESS AMERICA. MAGA!”
And….
“BREAKING NEWS: We have just filed a POWERHOUSE Lawsuit against everyone involved in publishing the false, malicious, defamatory, FAKE NEWS ‘article’ in the useless ‘rag’ that is, The Wall Street Journal. This historic legal action is being brought against the so-called authors of this defamation, the now fully disgraced WSJ, as well as its corporate owners and affiliates, with Rupert Murdoch and Robert Thomson (whatever his role is!) at the top of the list. We have proudly held to account ABC and George Slopadopoulos, CBS and 60 Minutes, The Fake Pulitzer Prizes, and many others who deal in, and push, disgusting LIES, and even FRAUD, to the American People. This lawsuit is filed not only on behalf of your favorite President, ME, but also in order to continue standing up for ALL Americans who will no longer tolerate the abusive wrongdoings of the Fake News Media. I hope Rupert and his ‘friends’ are looking forward to the many hours of depositions and testimonies they will have to provide in this case. Thank you for your attention to this matter. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Well, to go back to the beginning, support for Trump’s immigration policies fell in the aforementioned new CBS/YouGov poll, with stark differences among Republicans and Democrats on deportations and the use of detention facilities.
The poll, released Saturday, found that immigration is the top issue that swayed respondents’ opinion on the president. Sixty-one percent said immigration and deportation policies ‘mattered a lot,’ followed by inflation and the economy.
Fifty-six percent disapproved of the president’s immigration stances, while 44% approved. That’s a 10-point drop from polling at the beginning of Trump’s second term in February.
The poll specifically asked respondents about the administration’s mass deportation efforts. Support for the removals has also dropped ten points since February, with a majority now opposed. Less than half – 49% – of respondents said they approved of the deportations in July, compared to 59% in February.
Support for Trump’s immigration policies is split among party lines. Nearly all Republicans surveyed – 91% – say they approve of the president’s deportation program. Among Democrats, 14% say they approve, while a majority – 86% – disapproved. Among independents, 59% were against the deportations and 41% were for them.
—President Trump on Sunday publicly demanded that the Washington Commanders change the team name back to the Redskins – labeling them derisively the “Washington Whatever’s.”
He also said the Cleveland Guardians should revert to being the Indians.
Both teams had rebranded several years ago due to concerns that their Native American-inspired names were offensive, but Trump argued that the pendulum has since swung back against political correctness.
“The Washington ‘Whatever’s’ should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football team. There is a big clamoring for this,” Trump declared, unprompted on Truth Social.
“Likewise, the Cleveland Indians, one of the six original baseball teams, with a storied past,” the president went on. “Our great Indian people, in massive numbers, want this to happen. Their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them. Times are different now than they were three or four years ago.”
“We are a Country of passion and common sense. OWNERS, GET IT DONE!!!”
The Cleveland Guardians had rebranded away from their old name, the Cleveland Indians, in 2020 – after dropping the “Chief Wahoo” logo years earlier.
That same year, after long resisting pressure to do so, the Washington Commanders retired the old name, the Washington Redskins. For two years, they played as the Washington Football Team before eventually deciding to call themselves the Commanders in 2022.
Trump then posted:
“My statement on the Washington Redskins has totally blown up, but only in a very positive way. I may put a restriction on them that if they don’t change the name back to the original ‘Washington Redskins,’ and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, ‘Washington Commanders,’ I won’t make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington. The Team would be much more valuable, and the Deal would be more exciting for everyone. Cleveland should do the same with the Cleveland Indians. The Owner of the Cleveland Baseball Team, Matt Dolan, who is very political, has lost three Elections in a row because of that ridiculous name change. What he doesn’t understand is that if he changed the name back to the Cleveland Indians, he might actually win an Election. Indians are being treated very unfairly. MAKE INDIANS GREAT AGAIN (MIGA)!”
Yes, these were distractions initiated by Trump to get people talking about anything other than Jeffrey Epstein.
Ditto the decision to speed the release Monday of documents related to Martin Luther King Jr. even though they were supposed to remain sealed until 2027. The records of the FBI’s surveillance of MLK Jr. comes despite the opposition of almost all the members of his family.
And then there was Trump calling on the Justice Department Tuesday to prosecute former President Obama for allegedly ordering an assessment that Russia meddled to help him with the 2016 election.
“Whether it’s right or wrong, it’s time to go after people,” Trump said in the Oval Office after referencing newly aired allegations of Obama’s role in allegations of Russian interference after Trump won his first term of office.
“It’s criminal at the highest level,” the president added, referring to documents released last week by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who is pathetically trying to get back into the inner circle after being shunned.
“It would be President Obama, he started it. And Biden was there with him, and Comey was there, and [James] Clapper – the whole group was there, and [John] Brennan,” said the president.
Trump added: “The leader of the gang was President Obama… He’s guilty.
“This was treason, this was every word you could think of. They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election.”
This is outrageous. The documents Gabbard relayed last Sunday, she claimed, called for the DOJ to investigate and potentially prosecute Obama-era officials who, she alleged, had concluded one thing in private but said something different in public.
That conclusion? That Russia had not manipulated voting machines in the 2016 election.
But as Defense One’s Patrick Tucker noted, that’s just what U.S. officials said!
What was the actual meddling? Russia’s hack of Democratic Party emails and its efforts to sway U.S. votes through mis- and disinformation, as documented in 2020 by the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee. And who was the Chair of same? Then-Sen. Marco Rubio.
Tucker: “The new ODNI report, in short, misrepresents a documented Russian influence campaign aimed at voter perception as a cyber campaign to manipulate vote totals. It also omits a subject of more current relevance: the evidence that Russia is continuing its efforts to reshape perceptions of truth to America’s disadvantage.”
A spokesperson for Obama said in a statement that while the office “does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,” the administration’s new “bizarre” and “ridiculous” allegations warranted one.
“Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 president election but did not successfully manipulate any votes. These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio,” Patrick Rodenbush wrote.
Editorial / Wall Street Journal
“In a White House outpouring Tuesday, President Trump accused President Obama of ‘treason,’ calling him a ‘ringleader’ of efforts by U.S. intelligence officials to steal the 2016 election. On Sunday his Truth Social account posted a fictitious video depicting FBI agents handcuffing Mr. Obama in the Oval Office, to the tune of ‘YMCA,’ while Mr. Trump looks on and laughs….
“Has Mr. Trump so quickly forgotten his victory at the Supreme Court in Trump v. U.S.? The Justices held 6-3 that a President can’t be prosecuted for exercising ‘core constitutional powers,’ and he has ‘presumptive immunity’ for ‘official acts.’ This surely includes Mr. Obama’s supervision of spy agencies….
“ ‘Putin ordered the Russian effort to hack computer networks and accounts affiliated with the Democratic Party,’ the Senate Intelligence Committee said in a 2020 report, released by acting Chairman Marco Rubio, now Secretary of State. ‘Moscow’s intent was to harm the Clinton Campaign, tarnish an expected Clinton presidential administration, help the Trump Campaign after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and undermine the U.S. democratic process.’
“Mr. Trump is still angry, understandably so, about the lurid and fictional Steele dossier and how he was dragged down an empty ‘collusion’ rabbit hole. Yet special counsel John Durham has already picked over this episode.
“By calling to ‘go after people,’ Mr. Trump is demanding more partisan lawfare, identifying targets and urging prosecutors to find crimes to charge them with. It’s the same thing that was done to him by Manhattan’s Alvin Bragg, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Mr. Biden, whose White House leaked that he supported prosecuting Mr. Trump.
“Now, Mr. Trump is back in power, after telling voters he would end the ‘weaponization’ of law enforcement. That lawfare backfired on Democrats, and our guess is that it would do the same on Republicans and Mr. Trump.”
And today, Friday, in a press spray prior to his trip to Scotland, President Trump admitted the Supreme Court decision benefiting him also benefits former President Obama.
But back to the Jeffrey Epstein case, many Republicans have now been falling in line. The president made progress taming Republican influencers who used to demand accountability and transparency when it comes to Epstein’s powerful friends and his suicide in prison while awaiting trial.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is among the Republicans who have said they want to see more transparency. But he also gave Trump a major assist by delaying any House vote on measures related to the Epstein case until September at the earliest, ostensibly by sending lawmakers home a day earlier ahead of the five-week summer recess, which prevented a vote on legislation to unseal the files related to Epstein.
But there are a few Republicans who are rather upset, such as South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman, who said, “The American people deserve action, not excuses.”
You’ve had a slow drip of stories highlighting Trump’s contacts with Epstein in the decades before Epstein’s controversial plea deal with the government and their falling out.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said he would seek to interview Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.
Blanche then interviewed Maxwell, an extraordinary step for a deputy AG, Thursday and Friday.
After his roughly five-hour initial interview with Maxwell in a Florida courthouse, the department said it “will share additional information about what we learned” from Maxwell “at an appropriate time.”
Such a response is what fuels the anger, including among Republicans. What is the administration hiding?
The above-mentioned Wall Street Journal poll shows 76% of voters, including 64% of Republicans, said they believe the Justice Department is hiding important information from its findings in the Epstein investigation.
A judge on Wednesday rejected a Trump administration request to unseal transcripts from grand jury investigations of Jeffrey Epstein years ago in Florida, though a similar records request is pending in New York.
U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg in West Palm Beach said the request to release grand jury documents from 2005 to 2007 did not meet any of the extraordinary exceptions under federal law that could make them public.
Also Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that when Justice Department officials reviewed what Attorney General Pam Bondi called a “truckload” of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein earlier this year, they discovered that Donald Trump’s name appeared multiple times, according to senior administration officials.
In May, Bondi and her deputy informed the president at a meeting in the White House that his name was in the files, the officials said. Many other high-profile figures were also named, Trump was told. Being mentioned, however, isn’t a sign of wrongdoing.
They told the president at the meeting that the files contained what officials felt was unverified hearsay about many people, including Trump.
White House communications director Steven Cheung said, “This is another fake news story, just like the previous story by The Wall Street Journal.”
The Journal reported Thursday that among the messages in the birthday album for Epstein were messages from former President Clinton and another five dozen influential well wishers, names we’ve all heard before.
—Michael Bloomberg on RFK Jr. in an op-ed for Bloomberg News:
“It’s not too late for Senate Republicans to begin correcting the worst mistake they’ve made this year: confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services. In just a few months, Kennedy has helped bring a pox upon the country – and until Republicans get serious about holding him accountable, more Americans will die, and the president’s legacy on health and safety will be badly tarnished.
“Kennedy, who has no training in medicine or health, has long been the nation’s foremost peddler of junk science and the crackpot conspiracy theories that flow from it. The greatest danger in elevating him to HHS secretary was always that he would use his position to undermine public confidence in vaccines, which would lead to needless suffering and even death. And so it has come to pass.
In 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared that measles had been effectively eliminated in the US, thanks to vaccine rates that hovered around 95%, the level needed for herd immunity. Now, in no small part because of the doubt Kennedy has been sowing about the safety of vaccines, the US is in the midst of what is shaping up to be the worst measles outbreak since the early 1990s.
“Before this year, no one in the US had died from measles in a decade. This year, three people have died, two of them children. Yet Kennedy downplayed the outbreak, saying it was ‘not unusual.’
“In the aftermath of the deaths, he did not use his position to urge patients to vaccinate their children, or warn of the dangers of failing to do so, or declare vaccines safe, or allay misplaced concerns about them. Instead, he did what he has been doing for decades: He presented the safety and efficacy of vaccines as an open question for individuals to decide. Not surprisingly, the outbreak continued – and has worsened….
“Measles is hardly the only infectious disease that could make a comeback under Kennedy, and his assault on lifesaving vaccines has stretched well beyond his use of the bully pulpit. In addition to firing scientists and cutting research across a variety of agencies, he recently fired all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, which recommends the vaccines Americans should get. In their place, he appointed a variety of people without significant expertise in immunology, including those in the anti-vaccine movement – which promises to make the unfolding disaster even worse….
“Senate Republicans have made this mess, and they need to clean it up. They have a constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight of Kennedy, and they have a moral responsibility to do everything possible to constrain Kennedy’s deadly actions – or force him out. That should include demanding that the White House pressure Kennedy to start promoting faith in vaccines, including by appointing more qualified people to the vaccine panel – or fire him.
“If they won’t do it to save lives, they should do it to save their own skin. Democrats could hardly dream up a better line of attack than the one Kennedy is giving them, by turning the GOP into the party of measles – the Grand Old Pestilence. That’s not going to play well with parents.
“Making America healthy again starts with bringing Kennedy to heel – or sending him packing. Until Senate Republicans summon the courage to do that, more Americans will get severely sick and die – and Republicans will suffer the backlash at the polls.”
—Columbia University agreed to pay a $200 million fine to settle allegations from the Trump administration that it failed to do enough to stop the harassment of Jewish students, part of a sweeping deal reached on Wednesday to restore the university’s federal research funding, according to a statement from the university.
Harvard, which has sued the administration over funding cuts, is also negotiating for restoration of its federal money. The expectation is that the Columbia settlement provides a template for future deals.
Columbia receives about $1.3 billion in federal research grants annually, and the university said it would have all been at risk if it had remained on the White House’s blacklist.
—High temperatures caused 1,180 deaths in Spain in the past two months, a sharp increase from the same period last year, the Environment Ministry said as of last week.
The vast majority of people who died were over 65 and more than half were women, the data showed.
The most affected regions were in the northern half of the country, where traditionally cooler summer temperatures have seen a significant rise in recent years.
Spain, like other countries in Western Europe, has been hit by extreme heat in recent weeks, with temperatures often topping 40 degrees Celsius (104F).
The 1,180 were died of heat-related causes between May 16 and July 13 compared with 114 in the same period in 2024, the ministry said.
—At least 10 firefighters and rescue workers were killed Wednesday and many others injured while battling a wildfire in northwestern Turkey, the Forest Ministry said.
–Speaking of this country, I was reading a rather scary apiece about the city of Istanbul and its future…as in, in the next 30 years, geophysicists predict Istanbul has a 40 to 60 percent chance of a major earthquake, which could imperil its ancient architecture.
There are roughly 40,000 historical sites in Istanbul that need to be protected from earthquakes; but, in addition, thousands of residential buildings are condemned or at high risk. Up to 700,000 people could die…700,000…if a major earthquake strikes the city, according to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.
Of course, the cost to preserve and reinforce all the buildings would be humongous. We’ve all seen devastating earthquakes in Turkey over the course of our lives. It’s just a matter of time before Istanbul gets hit.
—The number of missing people in the Texas county hardest hit by the devastating July 4 floods fell to just three last weekend (and now two), a dramatic drop from the nearly 100 officials had reported just days earlier. Many were confirmed to be safe, local officials said on Saturday. The overall death toll stands at 136, 108 in Kerr County.
—
Pray for the men and women of our armed forces…and all the fallen.
Slava Ukraini.
God bless America.
—
Gold $3341
Oil $65.12
Bitcoin: $116,682 [4:00 PM ET, Friday]
Regular Gas: $3.16; Diesel: $3.74 [$3.52 – $3.83 yr. ago]
Returns for the week 7/21-5/25
Dow Jones +1.3% [44901]
S&P 500 +1.5% [6388]
S&P MidCap +1.5%
Russell 2000 +0.9%
Nasdaq +1.0% [21108]
Returns for the period 1/1/25-7/25/25
Dow Jones +5.5%
S&P 500 +8.6%
S&P MidCap +3.1%
Russell 2000 +1.4%
Nasdaq +9.3%
Bulls 51.9
Bears 22.2
Hang in there.
Brian Trumbore
