
Trump: Didn't Speak To DOJ Official About Maxwell Meetings - The Source with Kaitlan Collins - Podcast on CNN Podcasts
New reporting as top Trump officials are set to meet tomorrow to discuss their Jeffrey Epstein strategy.
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New York Times
30 minutes ago
- New York Times
Trump Is Turning Us Into a Doddering Industrial Giant
The American economy seems to be slowing. Although the unemployment rate remains low, the jobs report released this month showed that the U.S. labor market has essentially been stalled since President Trump foisted 'Liberation Day' on us in April. Yes, it's true, the artificial intelligence sector remains white-hot, but once you look beyond it, the weather is chillier — the manufacturing sector may be shrinking, home building is slowing and most employment growth is happening in just one industry: health care. Perhaps this slowdown will soon reverse. But nearly seven months into his presidency, it's now clear that Mr. Trump and his officials' tax and trade policy — and their hatred for next-generation energy technologies — is distorting and, increasingly, robbing the economy of its complexity. And if he keeps at it, Mr. Trump will demote America into a deindustrialized power that relies on technology developed elsewhere and doesn't know how to sell much more than crypto, soybeans and petroleum products. You can see this, first, because Mr. Trump and his officials are waging a war on electricity infrastructure. This campaign is primarily driven by their opposition to the solar and wind farms that they associate with their foils, the Democrats. Even as electricity has clearly become more important to the economy — and even as the country's biggest technology firms strive to secure any spare electron for their new metropolis-size data centers — Mr. Trump and his team have begun a regulatory coup to smother new power development. That war began, of course, with Mr. Trump's signature domestic policy law, which pinched off long-running tax credits for wind and solar energy. But it does not stop there. In the past few weeks, the Trump administration has started an all-out war on renewable energy. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has weaponized his department's permitting process to slow down wind, solar and battery projects nationwide — every step of every federal permit for renewable energy must now pass under the eye of some political appointee. Another recent order has suggested that the federal government may essentially ban wind and solar farms from public land. A separate Transportation Department policy could even restrict companies' ability to build private wind farms on private land. At the same time, Chris Wright, the energy secretary, has killed federal financing for the Grain Belt Express transmission project, an electricity megaproject that was set to zip 5,000 megawatts of power across the Great Plains. Although the power line was fully permitted and approved, it had grown unpopular with some Missouri farmers, and thus with the Republican senator Josh Hawley. In other moods and moments, Mr. Wright has said that the country must build more power lines, not fewer. But in stranding the project, Mr. Wright has endangered a cheap new power supply and damaged the government's credibility. As long as he governs, executives cannot trust the Energy Department to keep its promises. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.


New York Times
30 minutes ago
- New York Times
There Is a Specter Haunting Trump's Economy: Stagflation
Since President Trump took office, economists have been waiting for his policies to work their way through the U.S. economy and reveal their consequences. The soft data, mostly surveys of consumers and businesses that track how people feel about the economy, turned down sharply months ago, while the hard data — jobs, G.D.P. growth, inflation — all seemed fine. But recently, a telling series of hard economic data rolled in that has rightfully raised alarm bells about slowing growth and increased inflation — a dreaded economic combination known as stagflation. Mr. Trump's tariffs are now clearly fueling inflation, particularly in goods such as home appliances, cars and food. In the first six months of the year, real (that is, inflation-adjusted) consumer spending, the main driver behind business cycles and robust economic expansion, barely grew, after rising 3 percent last year. G.D.P. growth slowed by about half, to 1.2 percent this year from 2.5 percent last year. When overall growth falls that sharply, the labor market tends to follow, which is precisely what happened: Job growth, at 35,000 per month on average between May and July, is dangerously close to stall speed. While presidents always take credit for good economic news and try to deflect bad news (in this president's case, by firing the messenger who delivered it), it's often hard to link what's going on in the economy to the current administration. Not this time. Whether it's historically high tariffs that never quite seem to stabilize, deportations that threaten to seriously disrupt labor supply in sectors like construction and health services, or a reverse-Robin Hood, budget-busting bill that takes money away from those most likely to spend it, Mr. Trump's policies have pushed economic uncertainty to levels last seen during the onset of the pandemic. This uncertainty has damped investment, hiring and consumption, while the tariffs increase prices. In other words: stagflation. For many American adults, the specter of stagflation may conjure thoughts of the 1970s. But if Mr. Trump's stagflation continues to grow, it will be different in one very important way: The economic damage will be almost entirely self-inflicted. In the '70s, stagflation was caused not by an unconstrained president but by 'exogenous shocks,' meaning big, unexpected disruptions originating from events outside the country and exacerbated by the inaction of the Federal Reserve to offset them. The biggest, and most famous, of these shocks involved the oil market. Because of the oil embargo the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries imposed on the United States in 1973 and the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the price of oil increased more than tenfold. As a result, by 1980, the United States was spending roughly six times as much on oil as it was in 1970. That change reverberated throughout the economy and caused inflation to reach a high of nearly 15 percent by the end of the decade. In what is now a famous horror story of monetary policy gone wrong, the Fed not only failed to respond to the rising inflationary pressures in the '70s; it actively made them worse. The reason was in part political: Arthur Burns yielded to pressure from the Nixon White House to disregard concerns about rising inflation and keep interest rates low to hold down unemployment. (Sound familiar?) The resulting stagflation crisis ended only when a new Fed chair, Paul Volcker, raised rates to almost 20 percent in 1980, leading to a deep and painful recession. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Cahill unopposed for ninth term as Hampton First Selectman
HAMPTON — Without a challenger, First Selectman Allan Cahill is poised to return to his seat in November, along with the Town Clerk and the Town Treasurer. Cahill, a Republican who has served since 2011. The Democratic Town Committee did not endorse a challenger, paving the way for Cahill's ninth term. The Democratic Town Committee did endorse two candidates to run against Cahill's running mate, John Russell, with the three candidates vying for two seats on the Board of Selectmen. The Democratic candidates are Bob Grindle and John Tillinghast, both of whom are already Selectmen. Tillinghast has served since 2021. Grindle has served alongside Cahill, although in opposite parties, since 2011. Incumbent Town Clerk Kaye Johnson was cross-endorsed by both parties. Incumbent Treasurer Ellen Rodriguez, a Democrat, is unopposed. Five candidates are running for Constable positions, a role that enforces order at public votes, as needed, and controls traffic during emergencies and celebrations. Democrats endorsed Christian Macias-Perez and incumbent Jeffrey Smith Jr. Republicans nominated Ralph Brand and incumbent Wanda Willard. Patrick Navin is a petitioning candidate for the role. For the Board of Assessment Appeals, Democrats nominated Kate Donnelly, while Republicans put up incumbent Board Chair John Berard. For the Board of Finance, Democrats endorsed Kate Donnelly and Frances Gustavesen. Gustavesen is a current alternate member. Republicans selected Juan Arriola and incumbent Board Chair Kathy Donahue. For the Board of Education, Republicans endorsed incumbents Juan Arriola, David Halbach and Timothy Studer, along with Laura Barrow, India McDermott-Arriola and Katherine Newcombe. Democrats nominated incumbents Stephanie Bora, Luther Gerlach and Elizabeth Lindorff, along with Ed Adelman, Irene Brown and Herlande Castillo-Reyes. For the Planning and Zoning Commission, the Republican nominee is incumbent Gary DeCesare, and the Democratic candidate is incumbent Board Chair Kevin Grindle. For the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Democratic caucus selected incumbents Zachary Burdick-Chapel and Shirley Freeman. The Republican party endorsed Mark Cardwell, a current alternate, and Lisa Siegmund. Both the Democratic and the Republican Town Committees caucused on July 15th.