Report: Trump Told Muslim Leaders He Would Not Allow Israel To Annex the West Bank

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Report: Trump Told Muslim Leaders He Would Not Allow Israel To Annex the West Bank

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) President Trump met with a group of Arab and Muslim leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday and reportedly told them that he wouldn’t allow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The Muslim and Arab leaders have reasons to doubt pledges from Trump since he has recently significantly damaged the US’s diplomatic credibility by using negotiations with Iran as cover to help Israel launch a war. The president has also claimed he was unaware of Israel’s plans to bomb Hamas leaders in Qatar, an attack that came while they were discussing a US ceasefire proposal, but, according to Israeli officials, he was informed beforehand and didn’t oppose the attack.

The meeting in New York comes ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fourth visit to the White House this year, where he is expected to push for US support for the Israeli annexation of at least some territory in the West Bank, something he wants to do in response to several Western countries recognizing a Palestinian state. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has previously suggested the US wouldn’t oppose Israel annexing the Palestinian territory and has expressed support for illegal Jewish settlements.

Before leaving for New York to attend the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu again reiterated his opposition to a Palestinian state. “The shameful capitulation of some leaders to Palestinian terror does not obligate Israel in any way. There will be no Palestinian state,” he said, according to a statement released by his office.

According to a report from Axios, Trump also presented the Arab and Muslim leaders with a plan to end Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. US envoy Steve Witkoff also attended the meeting and claimed a breakthrough on a Gaza ceasefire was close, but a source told Haaretz that a Gaza truce deal “was nowhere close to fruition,” and there’s no sign Trump is willing to put pressure on Netanyahu to end the slaughter.

The Arab and Muslim officials who attended the meeting, which included representatives from Qatar, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, the UAE, and Jordan, released a statement saying they were committed to working with Trump.

“The leaders emphasized the need to end the war and achieve an immediate ceasefire that would ensure releasing the hostages and allowing the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid as the first step toward a just and lasting peace,” they said, according to the Qatari Foreign Ministry. “They reiterated their commitment to cooperate with President Trump, and stressed the importance of his leadership to end the war and open horizons for a just and lasting peace.”

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com. 

 

Report: Trump Was Made Aware of Ukrainian Counteroffensive Plan That Requires US Intelligence Support

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Report: Trump Was Made Aware of Ukrainian Counteroffensive Plan That Requires US Intelligence Support

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) President Trump was made aware of a planned Ukrainian counteroffensive that requires US intelligence support before he posted a long statement on Truth Social where he insisted that Ukraine could retake all of the territory Russia has captured since 2022 and may even be able to go further, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

US officials told the Journal that the president made the post after spending time with his special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, and Mike Waltz, his former national security advisor who now serves as the US ambassador to the UN. Kellogg recently said the US could “kick Russia’s ass” and insisted Ukraine could win the war despite Russia’s continued gains in eastern Ukraine and its clear advantage with manpower and industrial capacity.

US officials said that Trump issued the statement in part to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to make a deal since there has been little progress since last month’s Alaska summit. But Putin and other Russian officials have made clear they’re prepared to continue the war until Ukraine agrees to their terms, and the Kremlin has brushed off Trump’s comments.

“The fact that Ukraine is being encouraged in every way to continue hostilities and the idea that Ukraine can win something back is, in our view, a mistake,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “The situation on the front lines speaks for itself.”

Peskov also said that it was clear Trump’s comment that Russia was a “paper tiger” was influenced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and that Russia would make its position known to the US. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines at the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.

Zelensky addressed the General Assembly on Wednesday and made an appeal for countries to provide him with more weapons to fuel the conflict. “If a nation wants peace, it still has to work on weapons. It’s sick – but that’s the reality. Not international law, not cooperation – weapons decide who survives,” he said.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com. 

 

Trump Administration Prepares for Mass Layoffs if Government Shuts Down

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Trump Administration Prepares for Mass Layoffs if Government Shuts Down

(Thérèse Boudreaux, The Center Square) With only six days until the federal government shuts down, Republicans and Democrats have yet to secure a funding deal – and the Trump administration is already planning on how to make the most of it.

In a leaked memo, the Office of Management and Budget outlines plans for federal agencies that would run out of funding during a government shutdown to “use this opportunity” to consider permanently eliminating certain positions in federal programs, projects, and activities “not consistent with the President’s priorities,” consistent with applicable law.

“[W]e must continue our planning efforts in the event Democrats decide to shut down the government,” the memo reads. 

“Once fiscal year 2026 appropriations are enacted, agencies should revise their RIFs [Reduction in Forces] as needed to retain the minimal number of employees necessary to carry out statutory functions,” it added.

The OMB’s plan builds on the Trump administration’s efforts during the past nine months to reduce the size and scope of the federal government. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently announced it will cut 40% of its workforce, the State Department has planned a 15% Reduction in Force, and the Department of Education will soon cut 1,400 employees.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the memo “an attempt at intimidation” and refused to back down from his plan to force a government shutdown if Republicans don’t accept Democrats’ funding demands.

While Republicans had introduced a clean Continuing Resolution that simply extends existing federal funding levels until Nov. 21 and provides extra security for lawmakers, Democratic appropriators came out with a short-term CR that includes healthcare-related policy rides costing up to $1.4 trillion.

Republicans’ CR already passed the House, but at least seven Democratic votes are needed for it to pass the Senate. Senators failed to pass either Republicans’ or Democrats’ funding stopgap options before recessing Friday, meaning lawmakers will have less than 48 hours to come to an agreement once they return.

Both sides are shifting the blame of a potential shutdown. Democrats have accused Republicans of ignoring rising healthcare costs and refusing to engage in negotiations. President Donald Trump cancelled a meeting with Democratic leaders Tuesday, saying no meeting “could possibly be productive” given their demands. 

House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole, R-Okla., countered that Democrats’ CR amounts to “a ransom note.” 

“House Republicans acted and passed a clean resolution to keep the government open. In contrast, Democrats are demanding extraneous provisions and more than $1 trillion in new spending for just four weeks of government funding,” Cole said in a statement Thursday. “That’s not a negotiation – it’s extortion.”

As of Thursday, political markets are betting there is a 75% risk of a shutdown.

Maine Watchdog Fines ActBlue $100,000 for Tardy Filing

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Maine Watchdog Fines ActBlue $100,000 for Tardy Filing

(Chris Wade, The Center Square) Democratic online fundraising platform ActBlue has been fined $100,000 by Maine’s campaign finance regulators for missing a deadline to disclose its contributions. 

The Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices approved the fine Wednesday after rejecting a request from ActBlue Maine to waive the penalty for missing the July 15, 2025 deadline to report $1.2 million worth of donations made during the proceeding fundraising quarter. The filing, which included contributions to Maine’s Democratic candidates and committees during the second quarter, was more than two weeks late, regulators said. 

The commission was initially considering a fine of up to $683,731 — which would’ve been the largest in its regulatory history — but ultimately reduced it, citing the group’s “exceeding cooperative” efforts to submit the paperwork despite processing errors and staffing issues. 

In a report to commissioners, the agency’s staff said the “informational harm” to the public from ActBlue’s late filing was “reduced somewhat” because some of the contributions to Democratic candidates and committees received by the fundraising group during the second quarter of 2025 were also disclosed by the candidates or committees in their own campaign finance reports. 

Commission staff noted that ActBlue’s July quarterly report contained a $4,150 contribution from writer Stephen King to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Hannah Pingree on April 23 for next year’s primary and general election. While ActBlue filed its report two weeks late, the public could still access information about the contribution on Pingree’s campaign finance report, commission staff wrote.

In August, ActBlue Maine wrote to regulators urging them grant a waiver of the “unprecedented” penalty or a “very significant reduction” in the proposed fine for its “inadvertently late” filing. The group cited the state filing system’s “long delays in processing data errors and generating result reports” for delaying its filing. 

“Unlike instances in the MECF penalty appeal record that show significant reductions despite filers’ inattention or completely missed filing deadlines, ActBlue worked in good faith before the deadline to make a timely filing. System errors unique to this filer’s massive data counts exacerbated the problem,” George Gilmer, ActBlue Maine’s treasurer, wrote in a Aug. 21 letter to the agency. “Equitable treatment under applicable Maine law is all we ask.” 

The commission staff report said it “appreciates that ActBlue needed to file campaign finance or tax reports in 15 other jurisdictions which may have required hiring an outside compliance firm to assist its permanent staff.” 

“We would urge the Commission not to put too much weight on this factor, however,” they wrote. “Candidate and ballot question campaigns in Maine are often short-staffed. ActBlue is a large nonprofit that should be expected to obtain sufficient staffing to get the job done on time in all jurisdictions.”

Report: Soros Foundation Gave $80M to Groups Tied to ‘Extremist Violence’

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Report: Soros Foundation Gave $80M to Groups Tied to ‘Extremist Violence’

(Sarah Roderick-Fitch, The Center Square)  Amid President Donald Trump officially designating Antifa a domestic terror organization, a new report details how a prominent billionaire may be funneling millions to extremist groups engaging in violent uprisings nationwide.

A new report from Capital Research Center details how billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations has given more than $80 million to groups “tied to terrorism or extremist violence.”

The foundation has awarded more than $23 million to seven groups “that directly assist domestic terrorism and criminality” in the U.S., including engaging or providing material support to “violence, property destruction, economic sabotage, harassment” among others that meet the domestic terrorism definition, according to the report.

The report, authored by Ryan Mauro, details a nexus between domestic terror activities and support for international terrorism, specifically Hamas, in addition to communist sympathizers.

“Open Society has sent millions of dollars into U.S.-based organizations that engage in ‘direct actions’ that the FBI defines as domestic terrorism,” according to the report. “These groups include the Center for Third World Organizing and its militant partner Ruckus Society, which trained activists in property destruction and sabotage during the 2020 riots, the Sunrise Movement, which endorsed the Antifa-linked Stop Cop City campaign, in which activists currently face over 40 domestic terrorism charges and 60 racketeering indictments.”

The report highlights the Sunrise Movement, which it says has received at least $2 million from Open Society, adding that it has “endorsed and solicited financial support” for Antifa-associated groups such as Stop Cop City/Defend the Atlanta Forest coalition. The coalition has been tied to arson and violence against law enforcement and utility workers, including an attack on the construction of a police training center by throwing Molotov cocktails, bricks and rocks, as well as setting construction equipment on fire.

As part of its outreach, the Sunrise movement has urged supporters to donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which supports protestors in various capacities, including legal defense and physical supplies, according to the report.

“The Fund admits it posts bail and provides legal defenses for the arrested protestors. Prosecutors allege it also provides funds for ammunition, surveillance equipment, handheld radios, a drone, and an array of camping supplies for Stop Cop City terrorist activities,” according to the report.

Among the other groups Open Society supports, according to the report, is $400,000 since 2020 to the Center for Third World Organizing/Ruckus Society/BlackOUT Collective. The report claims the group “boasts it ‘threw down with people in the streets’” during the George Floyd riots in the summer of 2020.

“The Center says it ‘trained thousands, supported over 100 organizations’ in 2020-2021 and took part in ‘uprisings’ by teaching ‘new tactics for actions during lockdown.’ The Center offers training for ‘direct actions,’ a term that is used to refer to confrontational and usually violent and destructive protests,” according to the report. “The Center has unified three extremist groups into its ‘hub,’ including at least two that promote criminality: The anarchism-associated Ruckus Society, a militant ‘direct action’ group that boasts of its assistance to rioters, like those in Minnesota in 2020.”

The report indicates that one of the founders of Ruckus Society also founded an anarcho-environmentalist terror group, citing InfluenceWatch, which says the society’s “own training materials state that the group provides instruction in ‘tactics to resist the unjust system. Some of these may be legal strategies while others may be outside of the law, such as the use of civil disobedience.’”

The report goes on to claim that The BlackOUT Collective has “produced a pro-Hamas guide that glorifies the October 7 terror attacks in Israel.”

“The guide also provides Ruckus Society materials that advocate for and provide instructions for executing illegal ‘direct actions,’ including property destruction, evading law enforcement, using false IDs, occupying buildings and land, seizing assets, revealing the identities of government agents, blockades, interfering with governmental or industrial operations, and economic shutdowns. All of these actions qualify as acts of domestic terrorism,” according to the report.

The report argues that Open Society’s tax exemptions could be at risk because it funds “groups that brazenly acknowledge their prohibited behavior,” which could lead to investigation.

During an announcement in the Oval Office on Aug. 15, The Center Square asked the president if he was considering designating Antifa a domestic terror organization. The president fully supported the idea, leading to the designation one week later.

Trump told The Center Square that he would consider designating other groups, but wouldn’t indicate others by name. He said he’s talked with Attorney General Pam Bondi about bringing federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charges against some of these organizations and their donors.

“There are other groups, yeah, there are other groups. We have some pretty radical groups, and they got away with murder. And also, I’ve been speaking to the Attorney General about bringing RICO against some of the people that you’ve been reading about that have been putting up millions and millions of dollars for agitation,” Trump said. “These aren’t protests. These are crimes. What they’re doing, where they’re throwing bricks at cars of the of ICE and border patrol.”

The report comes amid a rise in left-wing violence, including multiple attacks on ICE officials as well as facilities, specifically Wednesday’s shooting at a Dallas ICE facility, leading to the death of one detainee and injuring two others.

Man Who Opened Fire on ICE Hated US Government, Sought to Kill Federal Agents, Officials Say

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Man Who Opened Fire on ICE Hated US Government, Sought to Kill Federal Agents, Officials Say

(Headline USA) The gunman who opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas, killing a detainee and critically wounding two others, left behind a note saying that he hoped the attack would “give ICE agents real terror,” the FBI director said Thursday.

The post by Kash Patel on the social platform X offered the first hint of a motive behind the shooting on Wednesday that targeted the ICE building, including a van in a gated entryway. The detainees were in the van. No ICE personnel were wounded.

The assailant, who authorities said fired indiscriminately from a nearby rooftop, was involved in a “high degree of pre-attack planning,” Patel said, and agents have seized electronic devices, handwritten notes and other evidence from a Dallas-area home.

“One of the handwritten notes recovered read, ‘Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, is there a sniper with AP rounds on that roof?’” Patel wrote, quoting an apparent abbreviation for armor-piercing bullets.

The gunman had also downloaded a document titled “Dallas County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management” containing a list of Homeland Security facilities, Patel said.

Hours before the shooting, the assailant conducted multiple internet searches for ballistics information and video of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on a Utah university campus this month, Patel said. Last month, the man searched for apps that tracked the presence of ICE agents, he added.

Joshua Jahn, 29, was identified as the shooter by a law enforcement official who could not publicly disclose details of the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

On Wednesday, Patel posted a photo on social media showing a bullet found at the scene with “ANTI-ICE” written on it. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered more security at ICE facilities across the U.S., according to a post by the DHS on X.

The attack was the latest high-profile targeted killing in the U.S. It happened two weeks after Kirk was killed by a shooter on the roof of a building at Utah Valley University and as heightened immigration enforcement has prompted a backlash against ICE agents and fear in immigrant communities.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association called the shootings “a stark reminder that behind every immigration case number is a human being deserving of dignity, safety and respect.”

“Whether they are individuals navigating the immigration process, public servants carrying out their duties, or professionals working within the system, all deserve to be free from violence and fear,” the group said in a statement.

Authorities have given few details about the shooting and did not publicly release the names of the victims. The FBI said it was investigating the shooting as “an act of targeted violence.”

The gunman used a bolt-action rifle, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Edwin Cardona, an immigrant from Venezuela, said he was entering the ICE building with his son for an appointment around 6:20 a.m. when he heard gunshots. An agent took people who were inside to a more secure area and said there was an active shooter.

“I was afraid for my family, because my family was outside. I felt terrible, because I thought something could happen to them,” Cardona said, adding that they were later reunited.

The ICE facility is along Interstate 35 East, just southwest of Dallas Love Field, a large airport serving the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, and blocks from hotels.

Hours after the shooting, FBI agents gathered at a home in suburban Fairview, outside Dallas, that public records link to Jahn.

The house sits on a tree-lined cul-de-sac in a neighborhood dotted with one- and two-story brick homes. The street was blocked by a police vehicle, and officials wearing FBI jackets could be seen in the front yard.

A spokesperson for Collin College in nearby McKinney, said via email that a Joshua Jahn studied there “at various times” between 2013 and 2018.

In late 2017, Jahn drove cross-country to work a minimum-wage job harvesting marijuana for several months, said Ryan Sanderson, owner of a legal cannabis farm in Washington state.

“He’s a young kid, a thousand miles from home, didn’t really seem to have any direction, living out of his car at such a young age,” Sanderson told the AP.

Shortly after the shooting and before officials said at least one victim was a detainee, Vice President JD Vance posted on X that “the obsessive attack on law enforcement, particularly ICE, must stop.”

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who represents Texas, continued in that direction, calling for an end to political violence.

The Catholic Legal Immigration Network, an advocacy group, said the shootings are “a heartbreaking reminder of the violence and fear that too often touch the lives of migrants and the communities where they live.”

Noem noted a recent uptick in targeting of ICE agents.

On July 4, attackers in black, military-style clothing opened fire outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, southwest of Dallas, federal prosecutors said. One police officer was wounded. At least 11 people have been charged in connection with the attack.

Days later, a man with an assault rifle fired dozens of rounds at federal agents leaving a Border Patrol facility in McAllen. The man, identified as Ryan Louis Mosqueda, injured a responding police officer before authorities shot and killed him.

In suburban Chicago, federal authorities erected a fence around an immigration processing center after tensions flared with protesters. 

President Donald Trump’s administration has stepped up immigration enforcement in the Chicago area, resulting in hundreds of arrests.

Dozens of immigration field offices across the country house administrative employees and are used for people summoned for check-in appointments and to process people arrested before they are transferred to long-term detention centers. They are not designed to hold people in custody.

Security varies by location, with some in federal buildings and others mixed with private businesses, said John Torres, a former acting director of the agency and former head of what is now called its enforcement and removals division.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.

Leftist Pregnant Women Protest Trump’s Tylenol Warning by Popping Pills

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Leftist Pregnant Women Protest Trump’s Tylenol Warning by Popping Pills

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) A group of leftist pregnant women has resorted to a bizarre act of defiance to protest President Donald Trump’s warning that Tylenol use during pregnancy may be linked to autism. Their form of protest? Taking Tylenol on camera.

Several women posted videos this week in response to Trump’s Monday comments, even though Tylenol itself has advised against using its products while pregnant.

Some clips of the protests, shared on TikTok and X, have garnered millions of views, with many critics slamming the women for potentially endangering their unborn children just to attack Trump.

One TikTok user, @natalie.kehl, lashed out at Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., saying she would not “take her medical advice from a man who doesn’t have a degree in science, health care or medicine, and who had a parasitic brain infection and was addicted to heroin for 14 years—I’ll trust my doctors who have their degree.”

The video has since been removed likely in response to mounting backlash.

A second user, @aileenbystronova, vowed to take Tylenol “as soon as I find out I’m pregnant because this whole Autism thing seems to be working for Mark, Elon and all other Tech billionaires.” Her comment appears to refer to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and X owner Elon Musk, both of whom have acknowledged being autistic.

Newsweek was the first outlet to report on the trend.

The outlet noted that Dr. Michelle Vu, who claims to be a fertility medicine specialist, also posted a video of herself taking Tylenol, declaring her baby “won’t have autism.”

Their protests followed a joint press conference where Trump and Kennedy raised alarms about rising autism rates in children. Trump urged mothers-to-be to “fight like hell” to avoid Tylenol during pregnancy.

Trump’s comments echoed those of Tylenol’s parent company, which wrote on X (then Twitter) in 2017: “We actually don’t recommend using any of our products while pregnant. Thank you for taking the time to voice your concerns today.”

 

SHOCKER! Inflation Is Worse Than the Government Data Reveals

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SHOCKER! Inflation Is Worse Than the Government Data Reveals

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) You can file this under things you already knew. Price inflation is worse than the official data indicates.

Based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), price inflation is running at 2.9 percent, with core inflation a little hotter at 3.1 percent. Both numbers are far above the mythical 2 percent target, but the situation is even worse for real people trying to live real lives.

Gene Ludwig served as Comptroller of the Currency under President Bill Clinton, and he recently wrote a book titled “The Mismeasurement of America: How Outdated Government Statistics Mask the Economic Struggle of Everyday Americans.” He asserts that the CPI is “not tremendously relevant to the lived experience of middle and low-income Americans.”

The CPI encompasses some 80,000 goods and services, from baby formula to college tuition. However, most people don’t purchase the vast majority of the things captured by the CPI.

“If we’re going to have a number that is relevant to them, it’s got to be a smaller group of items that matter to their lives.”

A Bloomberg article summed it up this way:

“The problem with this dependence on a single indicator is that not all Americans experience inflation the same way. The CPI includes many items beyond the reach of working families, such as sports tickets, air travel, second homes and golf carts. If the costs of basic necessities such as rent and medical care rise faster than those of nonessential goods, the index may not truly reflect the reality many households face.”

Ludwig and his team came up with an alternative measure called the True Living Cost (TLC). The metric only includes minimal household needs such as housing, transportation, food, medical care, childcare, along with necessary items as cell phones, clothing, and items for personal hygiene.

Since 2001, the TLC has risen 1.3 times faster than the CPI.

The TLC not only includes a smaller range of items. It also uses a different methodology. For instance, to calculate housing costs, the TLC uses data on fair market rents instead of the made-up “owners’ equivalent rent” calculation employed by the CPI.

This raises another issue with the government CPI data. It is intentionally formulated to understate rising prices.

The government revised the CPI formula in the 1990s so that it understated the actual rise in prices. Based on the formula used in the 1970s, CPI is nearly double the official numbers. So, if the BLS used the old formula, we’d be looking at CPI closer to 6 percent. And using an honest formula, it would probably be worse than that.

It’s notable that when you inflation-adjust wages using the TLC, they have fallen over the past 20 years. This represents a real erosion of the average person’s purchasing power. We see the devaluation of the government’s paper money in the rapid upward trajectory of the price of real money – gold and silver.

The bottom line is inflation is real. And it’s worse than they’re telling you.

Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.

In a Rare Moment of Honesty, Fed Chair Powell Admits Risk

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In a Rare Moment of Honesty, Fed Chair Powell Admits Risk

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and his fellow central bankers are stuck between a rock and a hard place – and he knows it.

He admitted as much during a recent speech at the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce 2025 Economic Outlook Luncheon, held in Warwick, Rhode Island, earlier this week.

Powell confessed that there is “no risk-free path.”

I’ve been writing about the Fed’s Catch-22 for months, but it is unusual for a central banker to acknowledge risk. They want to maintain the illusion that they have everything under control.

They don’t.

Although Powell didn’t use the word, he described a stagflationary setup, with deteriorating economic conditions reflected in the labor market, coupled with “somewhat elevated” inflation.

“Near-term risks to inflation are tilted to the upside and risks to employment to the downside—a challenging situation. Two-sided risks mean that there is no risk-free path.”

Powell & Company is walking a tightrope, and it would only take a little nudge for them to fall to one side or another.

Powell described the risk.

“If we ease too aggressively, we could leave the inflation job unfinished and need to reverse course later to fully restore 2 percent inflation. If we maintain restrictive policy too long, the labor market could soften unnecessarily. When our goals are in tension like this, our framework calls for us to balance both sides of our dual mandate.”

The problem is that the current scenario requires the Fed to pursue two opposite paths. It needs to hold rates higher for longer to keep inflation under control. (By “under control,” we mean not so high that you notice it.) It also needs to cut rates to keep the air in this debt-riddled bubble economy.

It can’t do both.

So, Powell & Company are walking the tightrope with their fingers crossed, hoping they don’t go splat.

Using typical Fed-speak, Powell set the stage for the central bank to plausibly pursue any path moving forward, insisting policy is “not on a preset course.”

“We will continue to determine the appropriate stance based on the incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks.”

It’s worth noting that Powell continues to insist that monetary policy is “modestly restrictive.”

It’s not. At least not from a historical perspective. In fact, based on the Chicago Fed’s National Financial Conditions Index, monetary policy has remained historically loose throughout the entire hiking cycle.

As a result, the money supply only contracted modestly at the height of the hiking cycle, and it has been increasing for well over a year. That is, by definition, inflation.

The bottom line is that Powell and his minions had to make a choice.

They chose inflation.

Powell said he can no longer describe the labor market as “solid.” That necessitated a “more balanced approach.”

“The increased downside risks to employment have shifted the balance of risks to achieving our goals. We therefore judged it appropriate at our last meeting to take another step toward a more neutral policy stance, lowering the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 4 to 4-1/4 percent.”

In other words, we cut rates even though inflation is alive and well because the economy can’t keep creeping along without another dose of its easy money drug. The economy is addicted, and the pusher just delivered another dose, hoping to keep the party rolling just a little longer.

Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.

Classified Files Found at John Bolton’s House

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Classified Files Found at John Bolton’s House

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Disgraced former National Security Advisor John Bolton reportedly kept classified documents in his downtown Washington office, according to court documents filed by the Justice Department. 

Bolton is currently under criminal investigation for the unauthorized removal or retention of classified documents tied to his 2020 anti-Trump book, The Room Where It Happened. 

A search warrant targeting Bolton’s office on Aug. 22 turned up materials referencing weapons of mass destruction, the United Nations, and records tied to U.S. strategic communications, Politico reported on Tuesday. 

Some of the recovered documents reportedly bore “classified” and “secret” markings, which only sitting government officials are authorized to retain. 

The “secret” classification is the middle of three levels used by the government for internal, sensitive documents. It is ranked above “confidential” and below “top secret.” 

Bolton has not been charged with any crime as of publication, though that could change at any time. 

A separate search of Bolton’s Maryland home did not yield classified documents, the outlet reported. 

“Categories of potentially classified records that the FBI reported finding at Bolton’s office included: travel memo documents with a ‘secret’ label; confidential documents from the U.S. mission to the U.N.; confidential documents related to strategic communications; and classified documents related to weapons of mass destruction,” Politico reported. 

In the filings, the FBI noted that Bolton was well aware of the rules surrounding classified materials. The bureau cited his criticism of Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of records and the media-manufactured scandal over Mike Waltz’s use of Signal for internal discussions in the Trump administration. 

“Initially, I was totally without words,” Bolton said of the Waltz incident. “I couldn’t find a way to express how stunned I was that anybody would do this. You simply don’t use commercial means of communication, whether it’s supposedly an encrypted app or not for these kinds of discussions.” 

Bolton himself had criticized President Donald Trump after Biden’s FBI raided Mar-a-Lago. “I don’t think he cared about the classification system. I don’t think he appreciated the sensitivity of this information,” he said in 2022.

Bolton’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, dismissed concerns about the records in remarks to the media. 

“These are the kinds of ordinary records, many of which are 20 years old or more, that would be kept by a 40-year career official who served at the State Department, as an Assistant Attorney General, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and the National Security Advisor. Specifically, the documents with classification markings from the period 1998-2006 date back to Amb. Bolton’s time in the George W. Bush Administration,” Lowell said, as quoted by Politico.  

“An objective and thorough review will show nothing inappropriate was stored or kept by Amb. Bolton,” he added. 

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