A bunch of new tariffs go into effect today. Expect unemployment and prices to go up while the quality and variety of goods deteriorate. We all have reason to be worried, but perhaps none more than William Wiatrowski, acting head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, whose boss was just fired for reporting accurate numbers, and who may soon be in the position of reporting even worse numbers. Happy Thursday.
Dinner Is Off. The Scheming Continues.
by William Kristol
Dinner on a summer evening at the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory here in Washington can be a very nice occasion. The food and service are, of course, first-rate; drinks before dinner on the porch can be very pleasant, if it’s not too hot; and it’s a relief to get away from the pressure and hubbub of the White House complex a couple miles away, to unwind a bit in a more relaxed environment.
So when I read yesterday morning that there was to be a dinner hosted by Vice President JD Vance at the residence, fond memories (if indistinct ones—it was a long time ago!) came back of occasional dinners hosted by my former boss, Vice President Dan Quayle, which I had the privilege of attending. There’d usually be some guests from outside the administration as well as some colleagues from within, gathered to informally discuss issues of our day—perhaps the end of the Cold War, or the economy, or the first Gulf War, or Murphy Brown(!). The guests were impressive, the sessions stimulating.
But I don’t think we ever had, at one time, the White House chief of staff, the attorney general, the deputy attorney general, and the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
That was to be the A-list dinner Vance hosted last night, with Susie Wiles, Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche, Kash Patel and others assembled to decide how to handle Donald Trump’s Jeffrey Epstein problem. Multiple outlets reported that the event was scheduled to happen.
Until, alas, the dinner was cancelled. Their planned high-level strategy session was called off after word of it leaked out. They’ll now have to get together in less pleasant surroundings to tweak their Epstein coverup.
But why, you might wonder, the need for a coverup in the first place? After all, their boss, President Trump, explained yesterday that the whole Epstein files controversy “is a hoax. It’s put out by the Democrats . . . [It’s] something that’s total bullshit.”
But if the files are harmless or meaningless, why not just release them (obviously with survivors’ names and personally identifiable information redacted)?
Well, because, as Trump explained earlier in the week, he’s concerned about not embarrassing people who haven’t done anything wrong. He doesn’t mean the victims, of course; he’s never expressed any concern about them. Trump’’s worried, he said, about those people who might be mentioned but “aren’t involved” and who could “be hurt by something that would be very, very unfortunate, very unfair to a lot of people.”
This excuse is, to quote the president of the United States, “total bullshit.” The names of many of the big shots who associated with Epstein, but who claim not to have been involved in or aware of his sex trafficking, are already out there. If the files mention those people once again, and they were simply innocent guests, associates, or bystanders on the fringes of Epstein’s dark world, they’ll have no problem explaining that. They’ve done it before.
It won’t be so easy for the ones who weren’t simply innocent bystanders.
Which brings us to one Donald J. Trump.
It’s worth recalling that after reviewing the files, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel ordered FBI agents to black out every mention of Trump, according to Bloomberg News. Why did they do that? After all, if Trump only pops up occasionally in the files as an innocent bystander, or as a subject of third-party hearsay with no supporting or corroborating evidence, why the need to blackout the mentions? If Trump did nothing “concerning” while spending time with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein—as Ghislaine Maxwell is reported to have told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche before being moved to a far nicer federal prison facility—then what’s the problem? Why not just release the files, let Trump debunk whatever unverified suggestions may be in there, and avoid accusations of a coverup?
Perhaps because the files tell us more about the Trump-Epstein relationship? Perhaps because they suggest Trump has something to hide?
That would be the simplest explanation of Trump’s own behavior over the last several months. That would be the simplest explanation of the behavior of Bondi and Blanche and Patel. That would be the simplest explanation of why they thought there was a need for such a high-level dinner to figure out how to salvage their unraveling coverup.
The dinner was cancelled. But the coverup is still on. And the questions about the files aren’t going away.
AROUND THE BULWARK
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As Trump Evolves on Ukraine, MAGA Won’t Admit It Was Wrong… The president’s “peace” plan failed, and his former supporters are conspicuously quiet, observes MATT JOHNSON.
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How to Fight Back Against Gerrymandering… On How to Fix It, Texas state legislator JAMES TALARICO joins JOHN AVLON to focus on solutions for defending democracy against partisan power grabs.
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Winning Is Everything When You’re Up Against Trump… If the strongest candidates are “old,” embrace their candidacies but hold them to one term, writes JILL LAWRENCE.
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Putin’s Growing Body Count… On Shield of the Republic, ELIOT COHEN and ERIC EDELMAN talk with FRED STARR, former Oberlin president and current CACI chair, about Russia’s struggles, including major logistical, human, and material losses.
Quick Hits
LT. GOV. ANIMAL HOUSE: On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security proudly announced the opening of a new detention facility in Indiana, dubbed the “Speedway Slammer.” “Following Alligator Alcatraz,” boasted a press release, “this marks the second state partnership to expand ICE detention space.”
ICE’s enthusiasm wasn’t shared by a group of citizens who gathered to pose questions about it to Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith. In a video posted to the YouTube page of Vigo County, Indiana, a questioner can be heard asking Beckwith: “Are you going to make sure all the people coming to [the new facility] have due process?”
“These people are not seeing a judge,” the questioner added.
Beckwith responded: “They don’t have a right to see a judge. They came here illegally! . . . When the Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor, did we give them due process to actually see a judge?”
The back-and-forth devolved from there.
Beckwith’s comparison is insipid in many ways, but in a sense, it’s also revealing: He doesn’t distinguish between a premeditated, coordinated, violent act of war by an expansionist foreign power and immigrants who risked and sacrificed to get here to find work, pay taxes, raise families, and keep their heads down.
The Pearl Harbor line wasn’t the only asinine thing Beckwith said during the 108-minute event. He also claimed that “every nation is a theocracy” and asserted that the cause of the Holocaust was excessive democracy. It’s a wild ride.
ONLY IN NEW YORK: Donald Trump is no longer a resident of New York, but he has strong feelings about who should be its next mayor, according to the New York Times. So strong, in fact, that he is considering intervening to ensure Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani doesn’t win.
In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has quizzed a Republican congressman and New York businessmen about who in the crowded field of candidates, which includes Mayor Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, has the best chance of beating Mr. Mamdani, the leftist front-runner. . . .
And in a previously undisclosed call in recent weeks, Mr. Trump spoke about the race directly with Mr. Cuomo, an old associate and foil, according to three people briefed on the call, who were not authorized to discuss it.
If Trump were being realistic about what he could do to ensure Mamdani loses, he would probably endorse Mamdani.
IT MAKES LITTLE SENSE(US): Donald Trump announced Thursday morning that he had instructed the Commerce Department to begin a highly unusual new non-decennary census: “I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024,” he said, adding, “People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
That last instruction might encounter some opposition Trump doesn’t expect. According to 2022 data from the Pew Research Center, some of the states with the highest percentages of illegal immigrants in their populations are ones that regularly send Republicans to Congress and award their electoral votes to Republican candidates. Nevada, a swing state, tops the list with 5.8 percent of its population being undocumented. But Trump’s home state of Florida comes third, with 5.2 percent. Arizona and Georgia—two other swing states—are all in the top fifteen on the list, with undocumented immigrants making up between 3.2 and 3.5 percent of their populations.
But the biggest kahuna is Texas, coming second overall with an undocumented population percentage of 5.4 percent. That’s enough people—some 1.6 million—for Texas to lose two House seats and Electoral College votes if Trump’s plan comes to fruition. Imagine how mad Republicans would be if he makes them draw two new sets of district maps back-to-back and they end up with barely anything to show for it.