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- ☀️ The end of Elonald
☀️ The end of Elonald
PLUS: Fungus among us, number nerds, and lone wolves
Good morning! A doctor in California is suing a Thai restaurant over a dish she ordered in 2023, claiming she “incurred permanent injuries and will forever be damaged.” Now, that obviously sounds ridiculous. Still. Maybe think twice next time you get the urge to tell the cute waitress you can toootally handle that 5/5 spice level on your pad Thai. She won’t judge.
BUDGET
💔 Elon calls Trump’s budget ‘disgusting abomination’
Have we seen the end of Elonald? Owing to the 130-day legal limit on special government employees, Elon Musk left his position at the White House last week. He got a literally golden sendoff, too, when Trump gave him a ceremonial golden key to the White House. But slamming the president’s giant, super important budget bill as a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled … disgusting abomination” might be tough to come back from.
Why the hate? The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the bill will run up the government’s debt, which is currently $36 trillion, by $2.4 trillion over the next decade. That’s a tough pill to swallow for a guy who’s spent the last year trying to cut spending by $2 trillion per year.
The CBO is Congress’s nonpartisan den of math nerds. They crunch the numbers on everything Congress produces, but never make policy recs.
Politicians have a love-hate relationship with the CBO. When they score your bill positively, they’re geniuses. If they say your bill sucks, they’re morons. House Republicans are in the latter group right now.
It’s not all bad news for Republicans. The CBO also says Trump’s tariffs will cut the deficit by $2.8 trillion over the next decade — if they’re left in place. That more than offsets the projected $2.4 trillion deficit spike caused by this budget.
What else is in here? Elon probably doesn’t love that the bill slashes tax credits for electric vehicles, including Teslas. But it also prevents states from regulating AI for 10 years. That could benefit his other company, xAI.
Attracting a ton of controversy from Democrats are the bill’s changes to Medicaid. Those include work requirements and cuts to benefits for, in the CBO’s words, people without “satisfactory immigration status.”
Critically for Trump, the bill re-ups his 2017 tax cuts, which were set to expire soon.
Future: This thing still has to pass the Senate, so there’s a long road ahead before any version of it becomes law. As for Elonald? The president brushed off Musk’s criticisms. The Senate Republicans taking Elon’s side, though? Not so fast.
GOVERNMENT
🏫 The U.S. Department of Education is kicking its battle against fancy Ivy League schools up a notch. The target? Columbia's accreditation. The department notified the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, a regional accreditation nonprofit, that Columbia University broke federal law by deliberately failing to protect Jewish students from discrimination on campus. The federal government doesn't accredit universities, but it does oversee the nonprofits that do. Columbia will now have to defend itself in an investigation. If that goes poorly, bye-bye accreditation — and the ability to accept federal student loans. Meanwhile, a judge ruled on Wednesday that Trump must reverse course on his plan for mass layoffs at the Department of Education.
🍄 Two Chinese researchers have been charged with trying to smuggle a deadly crop-killing fungus into the U.S. One has already skipped town back to China. The other, unlucky one is in court facing hefty prison time. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says the fungus causes $1 billion in damage each year to American crops. This fungus already exists here, and bringing in weird science-y stuff is fine as long as you follow the rules. Yunqing Jian and Zunyong Liu claim they were planning to use it for research at the University of Michigan. But the FBI uncovered suspicious texts and research articles.
👮 The State Department transferred $250 million to its pals at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The cash came from State's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, which oversees refugee assistance programs. DHS plans to use its newfound wealth to fund its voluntary deportation program. The new program, announced in May, provides a flight home and a cash bonus "to encourage and assist illegal aliens to voluntarily depart the United States."
DIPLOMACY
👎 U.S. nixes U.N. vote on Israel
The swanky, New York City penthouse apartment reserved for the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is empty. President Trump’s pick for the role, noted Signal fan Mike Waltz, is awaiting his Senate confirmation hearings. But the show goes on, thanks to career Foreign Service officers.
To that point, the U.S. vetoed a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution that called for "immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire" between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Resolutions like this are sort of legally binding. It’s like a babysitter telling a kid to pull weeds in the yard. Sure, she’s in charge. But, y’know, not like that.
Acting U.N. Ambassador Dorothy Shea — a career, non-political appointee — said the U.S. wouldn’t support “any measure that fails to condemn Hamas and does not call for Hamas to disarm and leave Gaza.”
There are ongoing diplomatic efforts in the region to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza. Shea said this resolution would hurt those efforts.
The U.S. was the sole holdout in a 14-1 vote. That’s not a rare situation for Israel-related UNSC votes.
The UNSC is a 15-member body of the United Nations that’s supposed to maintain “international peace and security” (how’s that going?). Ten seats are elected and rotate between countries around the world. The other five permanently belong to the big boys: China, France, Russia, the U.K., and the U.S.
The five permanent members have veto power over UNSC resolutions. As you might imagine, the U.S., China, and Russia rarely agree on anything security-related.
Replacements were elected this week for the five (of 10) elected members who will rotate out in 2026. Current members include Algeria, Denmark, Pakistan, Slovenia, and South Korea.
In other diplomatic news, Putin told Trump during a 75-minute phone call that he’ll “have to respond” to Ukraine’s wild, Trojan horse-style drone attack against air bases deep inside Russia.
TRIVIA
We're not saying it's a publicity stunt designed to sell books. But we're not not saying that either. Karine Jean-Pierre, after serving as President Biden's White House press secretary for nearly three years, has officially left the Democratic Party and become an independent ... just in time to land a book deal about "freeing ourselves of boxes" and thinking "outside the party lines.”
Of course, her former colleagues don't seem too thrilled with the move. Their reactions include words like "grift" and "lol" and jokes about how she couldn't land a job on cable news. We’ll find out this fall whether she’s got any juicy details about the late-stage Biden administration. Until then, we’ll have to get our news from the current presidential talker. Who is the current White House press secretary?
Hint: Her initials are KL.
BRIEFS
● President Trump on Wednesday banned people from 12 countries, including Haiti and Sudan, from entering the U.S. over security concerns. Visas issued before June 9 will still work, and the order includes exceptions for adoptions, pro athletes, and more.
● Trump's Department of Justice is suing the State of Texas over a state law granting cheaper, in-state college tuition to undocumented immigrants. The feds say it’s illegal for schools to “provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens."
● Some European auto plants are shutting down over a lack of tech-critical rare earth minerals. China, which controls ~90% of the world’s supply, suspended exports back in April. The E.U. is working on a solution as the U.S. tries to ramp up production.
● Due to ongoing trade talks, the U.K. avoided Trump’s new 50% tariff on steel imports. Now, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he’s confident the rate on steel imports from the U.K. will be knocked to zero soon.
● Japan has hit rock bottom and started digging. Just 686,000 babies were born there in 2024. That’s a 5.7% drop from 2023 and the first time they’ve seen less than 700,000 newborns since they began keeping records in 1899.
QUOTE
Stop whining and get to work.
ANSWER
Karoline Leavitt took office in January as the youngest-ever White House press secretary at just 27 years old — no pressure on the rest of us or anything. For the record, Trump went through four of these folks last time around. And the first one only lasted six months. Time will tell if he’s finally found his woman.