Assessing the attack on Iran nuclear site
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth this morning attacked the news media for its efforts to report the truth about whether the Iranian nuclear program was obliterated as President Trump has repeatedly claimed. Hegseth spoke at a Pentagon briefing that also included a detailed explanation from a Pentagon expert on how the bunker-busting bombs dropped by the U.S. on Iran’s nuclear facilities were developed and are supposed to function. The news media has reported that a preliminary intelligence assessment found that Iran’s nuclear program was not obliterated, but merely set back three to six months as a result of the U.S. strike. Hegseth inadvertently admitted that intelligence does, indeed, show what the news media has reported when he blasted the media for reporting “part” of a leaked intelligence report.
Trump Administration refusing to share intelligence with Congress
The Trump Administration plans to further limit its sharing of classified information with Congress after the leak of an early intelligence assessment that said its attack on Iran wasn’t as successful as President Donald Trump claimed. Although White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt originally blamed the leak on “an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community,” the administration now believes the report was leaked after being posted to a system used for sharing classified intelligence with Congress, a senior White House official said. The Senate will receive a briefing on Iran today; the House briefing will be held on Friday. This is not the first time the White House has kept Congressional leaders — particularly Democrats — in the dark about classified matters. Although Trump and his team reportedly contacted top Republicans before the U.S. strikes, some key Democrats were not informed until after the attack.
Trump Administration sues federal judges
The Trump Administration has been blocked by federal judges in its efforts to deport immigrants without due process and is now trying a new tactic: suing all 15 federal judges in Maryland. Last month, Chief Judge George L. Russell III signed an order blocking the administration from immediately removing from the U.S. any immigrants who filed paperwork with the Maryland district court seeking a review of their detention. The administration claims the order violates a Supreme Court ruling and impedes President Trump’s authority to enforce immigration laws. Now, the administration wants all of the Maryland judges to recuse themselves so a federal judge from another state can hear the case. James Sample, a constitutional law professor at Hofstra University, described the lawsuit as further erosion of legal norms by the administration.
Appeals court issues order to Trump on immigration
A federal appeals court has ordered the Trump Administration to “facilitate” the return of a Salvadoran man who was deported last month just 30 minutes after the same court ruled he shouldn’t be removed from the U.S. Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, 31, is at least the fourth individual to be wrongly removed from the U.S, despite court rulings or protected status. In court documents, the U.S. government acknowledged that a “perfect storm of errors occurred to allow for Petitioner’s untimely, and inadvertent, removal, despite the Government’s assurance and the eventual stay order.”
Gross domestic product drops during first quarter of 2025
The U.S. economy is shrinking under President Trump according to new data from the Trump Administration. Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 0.5% in the first quarter of 2025 (January, February, and March), according to the third estimate released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis today. In the fourth quarter of 2024, real GDP had increased 2.4%. The decrease in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected changes in imports and a decrease in government spending. The price index for gross domestic purchases increased 3.4% in the first quarter. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index increased 3.7%, and the PCE price index excluding food and energy increased 3.5%.
Some House Republicans upset over changes to Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’
The Washington Post reported today that some Republicans in the House of Representatives are upset about changes being made by Senate Republicans to Donald Trump’s spending and taxation bill that the House had passed. The Senate version increases cuts to Medicaid, restores some of President Biden’s clean energy tax benefits, and keeps the current $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductibility that the House Republicans had increased to a $40,000 cap. Trump has told the Congressional Republicans to work through the 4th of July holiday weekend if necessary to pass a bill and send it to the White House.
