NEWS-FINANCE -QUOTE-EDUCATIONAL AND MOTIVATIONAL
Trump says he’d ‘like to be asked’ to send troops into blue cities
The president just said that Democratic governors should call him after witnessing the administration’s federal takeover of the police and deployment of the National Guard.
“I’d say, ‘President Trump, we need your help’,” he said. “This is going to be the safest place on earth. And we’ll do the same thing in Chicago. But I’d like to be asked, as opposed to just going in and doing it. Because you know, when you go in and do it, then they start screaming, ‘oh, he shouldn’t be here’.”
Trump went on to say that he “would love” for Illinois governor JB Pritzker to call him for help. “We will stop that problem in Chicago in two months, maybe less, two months, we’ll stop it,” he said. The president added that he hoped other Democratic governors and mayors would ask him to send troops to their cities to quell, what he characterizes as, rampant crime.
For their part, Democratic leaders across the country have pushed back against the president’s threats to send military into blue cities and states. “If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me – not time or political cirblockstance – from making sure you face justice under our constitutional rule of law.” Pritzker wrote in a post on X.
Key events
The president kept his answer short and snappy when asked about Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s comments that Russia wasn’t interested in a long-term peace deal with Ukraine.
“Doesn’t matter what they say. Everybody’s posturing. It’s all bull***,” Trump said.
The president said that “it takes two people to tango … you got to get them together,” when asked about the prospect of a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He also said that “Zelenskyy isn’t exactly innocent either”.
He added:
It’s no different than the worst wars that I’ve ever seen, and if I can stop it – because I have a certain power or a certain relationship – I had a very good relationship with President Putin, very, very good. That’s a positive thing again.
Trump says he’d ‘like to be asked’ to send troops into blue cities
The president just said that Democratic governors should call him after witnessing the administration’s federal takeover of the police and deployment of the National Guard.
“I’d say, ‘President Trump, we need your help’,” he said. “This is going to be the safest place on earth. And we’ll do the same thing in Chicago. But I’d like to be asked, as opposed to just going in and doing it. Because you know, when you go in and do it, then they start screaming, ‘oh, he shouldn’t be here’.”
Trump went on to say that he “would love” for Illinois governor JB Pritzker to call him for help. “We will stop that problem in Chicago in two months, maybe less, two months, we’ll stop it,” he said. The president added that he hoped other Democratic governors and mayors would ask him to send troops to their cities to quell, what he characterizes as, rampant crime.
For their part, Democratic leaders across the country have pushed back against the president’s threats to send military into blue cities and states. “If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me – not time or political cirblockstance – from making sure you face justice under our constitutional rule of law.” Pritzker wrote in a post on X.
Donald Trump is now saying that Democrats are “against crime prevention”, and conflates this argument with trans athletes playing sports. It’s been a common refrain from the president when asked about Democrats’ pushback to his crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital.
He goes on to say that “crime will be the big subject of the midterms and will be the big subject of the next election”.
Trump says he’s prepared for legal fight from Lisa Cook
The president says he’s prepared for a lawsuit from Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook – whose lawyer said that she plans to pursue legal action challenging the president’s move to fire her.
“She seems to have had an infraction, and she can’t have an infraction,” Trump said. “She’s in charge of, if you think about it, mortgages, and we need people that are 100% above board, and it doesn’t seem like she was.”
Cook has not been charged with any crime. Her counsel, Abbe Lowell, said earlier that Trump had “no authority” to remove her from the Fed’s board of governors. Lowell added that the president’s attempt to fire Cook was “based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis”.
Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting has been going on for more than two hours. The president was scheduled to meet with Indiana Republicans at 1pm ET today, but there’s not been any word on if/when that might take place later.
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth says the military, America’s largest employer, is now “merit-based, gender neutral, color blind”.
This, he claims, is a marked difference from the previous administration, which was managed by “social justice”, “political correctness” and “divisive ideologies seeping into the ranks and changing how well we do to our job”.
He goes on to express support for the president’s suggestions this week to rename the Department of Defense as the ‘Department of War’:
George Washington started the Department of War because he wanted us to win our war … Our founders didn’t want endless foreign entanglements. They didn’t want endless contingencies and deployments. They wanted an empowered military, that was the handcuffs were taken off to fight, to win, and then bring those troops home.
Bessent also praised the president for “restoring confidence in government” when it comes to Trump’s targeting of the Federal Reserve.
“The Federal Reserve’s independence comes from a political arrangement between itself and the American public. Having the public’s trust is the only thing that gives it credibility,” Bessent said. “You, sir, are restoring trust to government. You are weeding out the waste, fraud and abuse and the old ways of doing things are not good enough.”
Bessent says tariff revenue could reach ‘half a trillion’ a year
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent just projected that revenue from tariffs could reach half a trillion dollars a year.
“On the international front, you have leveled the international trading system whereby countries took advantage of us, and that’s over,” Bessent said, praising Donald Trump.
He added:
I had been saying we were running at a rate of $300bn a year. You chastised me for saying that that number is too low. And as usual, you’re right. We had a substantial jump from July to August, and I think we’re going to see a bigger jump from August to September. So, I think we could be on our way to well over half a trillion, maybe towards a trillion dollar number.
Elon Musk’s Doge put sensitive social security data at risk, whistleblower says
Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) copied and uploaded sensitive Social Security Administration (SSA) data to a vulnerable cloud server, potentially risking the safety of hundreds of millions of Americans and violating federal privacy laws, according to a whistleblower complaint filed on Tuesday.
The complaint from Charles Borges, the chief data officer at the SSA, alleges that Doge staffers effectively created a live copy of the entire country’s social security data from its numerical identification system database. The information is a goldmine for bad actors, the complaint alleges, and was placed on a server without independent oversight that only Doge officials could access.
“These actions constitute violations of laws, rules, and regulations, abuse of authority, gross mismanagement, and creation of a substantial and specific threat to public health and safety,” the complaint states.
The whistleblower complaint, first reported by the New York Times, is one of the most high-profile insider accounts of how Doge staffers have allegedly taken confidential government information and used it for their own ends, at great risk to the public. The database that Doge officials allegedly uploaded to the cloud contains highly personal information about hundreds of millions of US citizens and residents. It includes details such as names, place and date of birth, race and ethnicity, names of family members, phone numbers, addresses and social security numbers.
The Social Security Administration denied that the sensitive data had been compromised and stated that it takes all whistleblower complaints seriously.
Trump administration will seek death penalty in DC homicide cases, president says
As part of his vision for “a crime-free city” Donald Trump has just said that his administration will be seeking the death penalty for homicide in Washington DC.
He told the cabinet meeting:
Anybody murders something [sic] in the capital, capital punishment. Capital, capital punishment. If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington DC, we’re going to be seeking the death penalty. And that’s a very strong preventative, and everybody that’s heard it agrees with it.
I don’t know if we’re ready for it in this country, but we have no choice.
So in DC – states are going to have to make their own decision – but if somebody kills somebody … it’s the death penalty, OK?
