Putin Is Buttering Trump Up Before Their Big Ukraine Summit

On the eve of what President Trump calls a “feel-out meeting” in Alaska with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president seems well aware of a no-cost way to curry favor with Trump.

On Thursday, per the AFP, Putin said the United States is making “quite vigorous and sincere efforts to halt hostilities, end the crisis, and reach agreements that serve the interests of all parties involved in this conflict.” He also dangled the possibility of “long-term conditions for peace … if we reach agreements on strategic offensive arms control.”

Max Seddon of the Financial Times observed that, in buttering up Trump, Putin was seemingly appealing to the president’s long-standing yearning for a Nobel Peace Prize. Last month, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said a Trump Nobel Prize is “well past time,” while citing misleading claims about the president’s foreign policy. On Thursday, the influential Norwegian financial newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv reported that Trump recently called Norway’s finance minister, Jens Stoltenberg, “out of the blue” to say “he wanted the Nobel Prize—and to discuss tariffs.”

Lately, several world leaders have played to Trump’s apparent hankering for a Nobel. Leaders of countries such as Pakistan, Israel, Guinea-Bissau, Gabon, Azerbaijan, and Armenia have seemingly caught onto this easy route to the president’s heart.

At the Alaskan summit, Trump is hoping to set a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire in motion—though he’s managed expectations, saying, “I think it’ll be good, but it might be bad.” (The president’s promise to end the war on “day one” is now broken by nearly seven months.)

While, as Seddon noted, Putin appears to be dangling a gold Nobel medal before the president, Trump reportedly may offer rare earth minerals in return.

The Telegraph reports that, among other economic incentives, the president is considering giving Russia access to mineral deposits in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, which houses a sizable portion of Europe’s lithium supply. He is also weighing giving Russia opportunities to exploit Alaska’s natural resources, namely in the oil- and gas-rich Bering Strait.

A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration’s targeting of immigrants attending immigration court violates their due process rights.

In a scathing opinion released Thursday, Judge Dale E. Ho wrote that Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in immigration court had turned the procedure into “detention roulette.”

Over the span of 31 pages, Ho wrote that Carlos Javier Lopez Benitez, a 27-year-old from Paraguay, had his constitutional rights violated when he attended court on July 16 in pursuit of asylum.

“Mr. Lopez Benitez appears to be far from alone,” Ho wrote. “His counsel assert that his treatment is part of a ‘nationwide campaign,’ as set forth in an ICE internal memo that has been described in various media reports, which suggests that millions could be swept up in the same way.”

Since May, ICE agents have been arresting immigrants immediately after their immigration court hearings. The strategy has gained nationwide attention in the wake of two high-profile consequences: the indictment of a judge in Wisconsin who allegedly helped an immigrant evade authorities outside her courtroom, and the detention of New York City Comptroller and then–mayoral hopeful Brad Lander, who was attempting to escort an immigrant out of the courthouse.

Ho noted that while the government could not confirm or deny the existence of that policy, they “appear to maintain that they must categorically detain all undocumented immigrants who they believe have entered the United States unlawfully—no matter how long they have been residing in the country since.”

Citing Velasco Lopez v. Decker, Ho further argued that the “suggestion that government agents may sweep up any person they wish” for no reason whatsoever, “so long as the person will, at some unknown point in time, be allowed to ask some other official for his or her release offends the ordered system of liberty that is the pillar of the Fifth Amendment.”

Lopez Benitez’s case may be the new normal in Trump’s America, but it is far from the historical standard. Immigration authorities used to stay away from courthouses, fearing that their presence could disengage people from following procedure and navigating the legal system. But White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s agenda has effectively unrooted that, tasking federal agents with arresting 3,000 undocumented immigrants per day—a quota so astronomical that it has forced the agency to find unconventional subjects of detention, including legal residents and even U.S. citizens.

Senator Markwayne Mullin revealed that he actually has no idea who the mayor of Washington even is.

During an interview on Fox News Wednesday, the Oklahoma Republican attempted to excoriate D.C.’s “very racist mayor” for making Donald Trump’s authoritarian takeover of the nation’s capital about race.

“And people may get eyebrows when I raise that, but he is the one that brings in race into the conversation, so he’s the one that’s pointing the fingers at it, and when you point one finger you got three pointing back at ya,” Mullin said. “But for him to say that, and flat out lie to the American people, he knows exactly what’s happening.”

But Mayor Muriel Bowser isn’t a “he” or a “him.” She’s a woman. And she didn’t suggest Trump’s takeover was about race—she’s just Black.

Several people online, including CNN senior reporter Edward Isaac-Dovere, suggested that Mullin might be referring to comments from Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March 2024. Scott accused his critics at the time of being racist. (Spoiler alert, calling someone the “DEI mayor” is racist.)

Clearly, not only do guests on Fox News not have to be experts on the people they want to complain about, but they don’t even have to know what city they’re talking about.

“Crime is not down, the lack of prosecution is down,” Mullin continued. “They don’t allow the prosecuting attorneys to actually prosecute, they’ve taken all the felonies, and they’ve dropped them down to dang near misdemeanors.”

On Monday, Bowser called Trump’s executive action “unsettling and unprecedented,” adding that she wasn’t surprised given Trump’s past rhetoric. It’s unclear whether she meant his echoing of racist narratives about urban areas, or his specific grievances about Washington, of which he has many.

On Tuesday, Bowser struck a stronger tone. “This is a time where community needs to jump in and we all need to, to do what we can in our space, in our lane, to protect our city and to protect our autonomy, to protect our home rule, and get to the other side of this guy, and make sure we elect a Democratic House so that we have a backstop to this authoritarian push,” she said.

The most recent producer price index numbers directly contradict two of Trump’s favorite narratives: that his tariffs won’t lead to significant price increases and that other countries will foot the bill if they do. 

If that was true, the PPI numbers, which track inflation on the producer side, would be dropping. But Trump was lying. The U.S. economy just experienced its largest PPI rise in three years, with a 0.9 percent increase in July. Inflation is rising, and it’s Trump’s fault. 

“So much for foreigners paying tariffs. If they did, PPI would be falling,” RSM chief economist Joseph Brusuelas wrote Thursday on X. “Wholesale prices up 3.3% from a year ago & 3.7% in the core. The temperature is definitely rising in the core. This implies a hot PCE reading lies ahead.”

Prices on fresh and dry vegetables have also risen 38.9 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. Prices on meats, diesel fuel, jet fuel, and eggs are also up. 

Last time Trump got a bad economic report, he fired the BLS commissioner. How will he hide the negative impacts this time? What will the spin be?

“The projected number was 0.2%,” wrote Aaron Fritschner, deputy chief of staff for Virginia Representative Don Beyer, referring to the 0.9 percent rise. “This isn’t just a huge inflationary increase, it’s an order of magnitude larger than what was expected. And no question at all that it’s being driven by Trump’s tariffs.”

Companies won’t be volunteering to eat this price increase as Trump has wrongly suggested in the past, and other countries certainly won’t either. American consumers should expect the president to lie his way through this obvious economic failure.  

The U.S. president is still on his quest to cast doubt on crime and safety in the nation’s capital.

In a lengthy post on Truth Social Wednesday evening, Donald Trump attempted to further justify his total takeover of the city’s law enforcement by undermining the credibility of the city’s homicide statistics, which his own administration boasted Monday had hit a 30-year low.

“Washington, D.C., has one of the Highest Rates of Crime in the World, more than many of the most violent Third World Countries,” Trump wrote, claiming that the city’s homicide rate is higher than Mexico City, Bogota, Islamabad, Addis Ababa, and Fallujah, Iraq.

“If D.C. were a State, it would have the highest Homicide Rate of any State in America,” he continued. “The Violent Crime Rate in D.C. has worsened, and the Murder Rate has essentially DOUBLED in just over a decade—But these are only the ‘official’ statistics released by corrupt City Officials. The REAL numbers are many times worse.”

Washington doesn’t even place in the top 50 for the most dangerous cities in the world.

Violent crime has been on the decline in D.C. since 2023, funneling into a nationwide crime drop the following year that saw homicide rates plummet across the country, reported The Washington Post. In 2024, crime in the nation’s capital was down 35 percent from the previous year, according to data from the Metropolitan Police Department.

But that hasn’t fit into Trump’s narrative. Instead, the commander in chief alleged that a precinct commander had been “suspended for allegedly manipulating the Violent Crime Statistics,” and quoted the D.C. police union as a source for the higher crime rates.

“Because the Democrat Government of D.C. has largely stopped investigating, arresting, and prosecuting most Crime, the published statistics don’t even capture a fraction of the actual Violence,” Trump wrote. He claimed that the city had stopped arresting people for shoplifting, derided schools as “dysfunctional” while describing youth gangs as out of control, and alleged that citizens no longer walked the streets, “essentially becoming captive prisoners in their own city.”

“Citizens are afraid to speak up or, call the Police, lest they be targeted,” Trump wrote. “The REAL Crime Rates are probably five to ten times what has been reported. D.C. has been under siege from thugs and killers, but now, D.C. is back under Federal Control where it belongs. The White House is in charge. The Military and our Great Police will liberate this City, scrape away the filth, and make it safe, clean, habitable and beautiful once more!”

Meanwhile, large crowds in Washington protested law enforcement checkpoints set up around the city Wednesday night, booing and jeering at the increased police presence.

Washington, D.C. residents are beginning to see the actual impact of Donald Trump’s National Guard invasion, and they’re already sick of it. 

Various photos and footage taken on 14th Street around 9:50 p.m. Wednesday night in Northwest D.C. show a large police checkpoint with officers from the Metropolitan Police Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in both marked and unmarked cars. Many of them were masked, and they pulled people over and out of their cars, reportedly arresting at least one person, a Black woman. 

In one clip, a crowd gathers around the officers at the checkpoint, booing loudly with a few “fuck you’s” in the mix. In another from the same checkpoint one incensed woman can be heard yelling “none of us want you here, go home!” at the officers. 

“You are surrounded by a mob of people that hate you!” yelled another. “Go home!” 

“Leave us alone!” said one more, before boos rained down again. 

This all comes just days after Trump announced his federalization of the MPD and his deployment of 800 National Guardsmen into the city, which began Wednesday morning. Residents have already seen an increased ICE and DEA presence in calm neighborhoods like Adams Morgan and Georgetown. On Monday night, U.S. Park Police were seen randomly harassing Black residents smoking cigarettes, that the officers reportedly mistook for weed, on the steps of their home, “Because Donald Trump’s tired of it.”  

Trump has suggested that this federal takeover will only grow lengthier and more intense, even as crime remains at a non-emergency level and citizens begin to grow angry. This upcoming weekend is likely to be busy, placing a city and its residents—who Trump swears he’s keeping safe—on edge.

E.J. Antoni, the MAGA partisan Trump tapped to replace Erika McEntarfer as head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, reports NBC News. The Heritage Foundation economist and Project 2025 contributor can be seen among J6ers in footage archived by ProPublica.

One video, reportedly taken just about 10 minutes before the mob forced its way into the building, shows Antoni on the west side of the Capitol.

Tear gas is deployed in the air at the front of the crowd, causing people to shift. Shortly thereafter, a man NBC identified as Antoni, sporting what appears to be a University of Pennsylvania varsity jacket, gradually makes his way from around the center of the crowd toward the back. (According to The Guardian, Antoni seems to have familial ties to UPenn.) He can be seen visibly face-on starting at the 1:40 mark, as well as from behind at around 2:15, soon before the camera pans over to Alex Jones with bullhorn in hand.

NBC reports that additional footage depicts Antoni on the Capitol’s east side, walking away from the building.

A Trump administration official told NBC that Antoni was a “bystander” on January 6, who did not engage in “anything inappropriate or illegal.” Antoni was “in town for meetings” with his then employer, and had meandered to the Capitol from an office just blocks away after seeing the news, the White House claims.

Antoni’s LinkedIn indicates he was then a research fellow at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. Although the White House did not specify the location of the meeting from which he allegedly “wandered,” the organization’s address is listed on its website as an over 40-minute walk (or a quick drive) from the Capitol building.

When Trump on Wednesday announced KISS as a Kennedy Center Honoree, the president called the rock band’s founding members, including bassist and vocalist Gene Simmons, “incredible people.”

The feeling doesn’t seem entirely mutual, as the KISS frontman (whom Trump fired on his reality show The Apprentice in 2008), is a vocal critic of Trump’s influence on U.S. politics.

While Simmons recalls being “happy” Trump announced his candidacy in 2015—and, in April 2016, then-candidate Trump thanked the rock star for his favorable comments—KISS turned down an invitation to play at Trump’s first inauguration. “In this polarizing era, it’s not a good idea,” Simmons said.

The musician apparently began to sour on the president some time during his first term, specifically due to his election lies, culminating in the January 6 Capitol riot.

Simmons’s mentions of Trump on Twitter largely consist of links to news stories about the Big Lie and his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Throughout January 2021, Simmons frequently engaged with users propagating Trump’s claims about election fraud—debunking them, calling them “misinformed,” and urging them to do more research on the matter.

In August 2021, he spoke to Yahoo! Entertainment, and the conversation drifted toward Trump: “Look, we all lie to some extent,” he said, “but what happened in the last four years was just beyond anything I ever thought imaginable for people who have lots of power—not just him, but the administration, everybody … all these QAnon people.”

Regarding the importance of speaking one’s mind, Simmons added, “In a political dialogue, if somebody spews complete fiction and QAnon stuff, you want to be able to have somebody who says, ‘Are you out of your fucking mind? What, do you just shit in your diapers and forget to wipe it?’”

In May 2022, Simmons told Spin that Trump made America more polarized and “got all the cockroaches to rise to the top. Once upon a time, you were embarrassed to be publicly racist and out there with conspiracy theories. Now it’s all out in the open because he allowed it.

“I don’t think he’s a Republican or a Democrat,” Simmons, who endorsed Mitt Romney in 2012, continued. “He’s out for himself, any way you can get there. And in the last election, over 70 million people bought it hook, line and sinker.”

In a November 2022 interview with Bill Maher, Simmons agreed with Maher that Trump “doesn’t understand how government works and doesn’t care to learn.” These past criticisms aside, Simmons was grateful for Wednesday’s recognition: “We are deeply honored to receive the Kennedy Center Honor,” he told TMZ.

The Trump administration and the aviation companies working for it have been purposely hiding the tail numbers on immigration flights to avoid public scrutiny and accountability, CNN reports. This move comes as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown ratchets up in frequency and aggression, as deportation flights are up 15 percent from last year.

A plane removing a tail number is the equivalent of a car removing a license plate. With the tail number, civilians, journalists, and immigration organizations alike can keep an eye on which deportation flights are leaving, and to where. It also helps loved ones track their deported family members.

The flights are run by multiple private charter companies and at least one commercial airline, each of which have lucrative contracts with ICE.

Flightradar24, one of the websites that covers immigration, noticed in March that those subcontractors requested that their tail numbers be hidden from public flight-tracking sites and records, making them extremely difficult to follow. The bulk of these flights are domestic, moving detainees from facility to facility.

“Flights operated on behalf of the United States government are often unidentified at the government’s request. As subcontractors to the United States government, we ask that you direct your questions to them,” said a spokesperson from Avelo Airlines, a company that has dedicated three of its planes to ICE deportations.

“This is vital information to be able to understand how ICE is conducting its enforcement and deportation activities,” ACLU National Prison Project senior counsel Eunice Cho told CNN. “Sometimes this is the only information that the public has with respect to where ICE is placing people because of a general lack of transparency around detention and deportation under this particular administration.”

The Department of Homeland Security has yet to comment.

Trump administration officials are offering blunt warnings for sanctuary cities: The democratically elected immigrant protection status does not matter.

Speaking with Fox News Wednesday, border czar Tom Homan spilled that Washington’s sanctuary city status was irrelevant now that the president had federalized the capital’s law enforcement.

“Does the fact that there’s National Guard now there—it’s a sanctuary city, like sanctuary cities across the country—but it’s unique in that it has federal control, and now you have the National Guard on the ground side by side with ICE. Does that combination basically negate the sanctuary city status in Washington, D.C.? At least for these 30 days, in terms of what you can do there, Tom?” asked host Martha MacCallum.

“Yes,” Homan said, plainly. “I think D.C. under federal control is not going to be a sanctuary city.

“We’re working with the police hand in hand, and when we encounter a criminal illegal alien, they will be turned over to ICE,” the former acting director of ICE continued. “And that’s the way it should be.

“I’m not saying every illegal alien in D.C. is a criminal. But many are,” Homan said. “There is no sanctuary for these people in the city of D.C.”

Washington’s City Council unanimously approved the Sanctuary Values Amendment Act in 2019, and Mayor Muriel Bowser signed the act into law that same year. But Bowser has worked to undo that legacy since Trump returned to the White House, attempting to repeal Washington’s sanctuary status law in a 300-page budget bill. In June, the D.C. City Council erased the language in the budget that would have killed the sanctuary law in the board’s effort to retain the designation.

But Washington isn’t the only sanctuary city in the hot seat. In late May, the Department of Homeland Security released a list of some 35 regions, including 13 states, that it considered to be “deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws and endangering American citizens.” The states included California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, in addition to the nation’s capital.

During a press conference Monday announcing the imminent takeover, Trump warned that several of America’s liberal bastions could experience the same fate, specifically calling out New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Oakland.