Doug Burgum will spend $84,000 on about a dozen National Park Service signs outside the National Museum of American History, telling visitors the exhibits inside push the curators’ “personal viewpoints.” Trump’s Interior Secretary put the price in a September 3 letter to Senators Jeff Merkley and Lisa Murkowski, which The Atlantic published Tuesday. Nobody has written the signs yet. The curators are historians; Burgum’s signs tell the public to doubt them before they walk in. The same week, Bari Weiss opened her first 60 Minutes season Sunday to 7.94 million viewers — 2.09 million fewer than last September, the smallest premiere TheWrap can find since at least 2000. CBS blames a weaker football lead-in, but the share of the football crowd that stayed for the broadcast actually rose, so the two million did not leave with the Packers. They left after CBS ousted Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega and executive producer Tanya Simon in May, and fired Scott Pelley a day after he accused Weiss of “murdering” the broadcast. Everybody knows what happened at 60 Minutes. Two million people decided not to watch it.
U.S. officials met a Houthi delegation at the American embassy in Muscat, Oman, on Sunday, Reuters reported. The Houthis told the Americans they have no intention of attacking American ships, and they extended the promise to Israeli and other commercial ships — but not to Saudi-flagged vessels, a Yemeni source told The Media Line. Overnight the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a Houthi drone south of Mecca, the first Mecca-area alert of this war, and called it a “red line.” Trump has been at war with the Houthis’ patron since February 28, and his embassy now takes their word while they keep Saudi oil under fire and the price of gas up, seven weeks before an election. Mohammed bin Salman hosts the U.S. bases Iran hit, takes the drones near Mecca, and finds out he is on his own.
Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament in Strasbourg this morning she wants Canada as the first associate member of the European Union, with Mark Carney sitting in the chamber. Zev ran the tape: “I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to be the first associate member of the EU.” The chamber stood for Carney. No such category exists in the EU treaties, the 27 governments decide who joins, and three diplomats told Politico Europe nobody consulted the capitals. MEP Manon Aubry asked her from the floor, “Who gave you a democratic and popular mandate for that?” Carney himself said Sunday, “We’re not looking to become a member.” Trump’s 50 percent tariffs on Canadian goods took effect the same day, and von der Leyen never said Trump, United States or tariffs in 25 pages. She did not need to. Together the EU and Canada make a $23.6 trillion economy, second only to the United States. The door opening in Strasbourg is the door closing on Washington.
Speaker Mike Johnson canceled the House’s last votes before the election Wednesday and sent members home until November 9. Thomas Massie filed eight articles of impeachment against War Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday, which forced a floor vote by Thursday; Johnson killed Thursday. Zev ran Johnson’s explanation: “The House has done its work… it’s time for our members to go home to their districts and make their case to the American people.” Tuesday night seven Republicans — Massie, Barrett, Davidson, Fitzpatrick, Mace, Miller-Meeks and Nunn — voted with Democrats to end the Iran war, 220 to 204, and Johnson is making sure nobody counts them again before November. Massie lost his May primary and leaves in January. He can still force the vote — on November 9, six days after the voters have had theirs.
Kevin Warsh raised interest rates a quarter point at 2 PM Wednesday, to a range of 3.75 to 4 percent — the Fed’s first hike since July 2023 and his first as chair. The vote was 12 to nothing. Trump installed Warsh in May to cut. “The main fact is that inflation is too high,” Warsh said at his first press conference, and when a reporter asked when he last spoke to the president: “I don’t have anything for you on discussions with the president, and I’m not a Wall Street newsletter. Part of the independence of the Federal Reserve is we stay in our lane. Independence is a two-way street.” Zev did the math on what the quarter point costs anyone not locked in:
“That was a ballsy move,” Anne P. Mitchell said. “Despite the fact that he’s a Trump appointee or whatever, I have to give him credit for that.” Trump said in January he wanted “somebody that wants to cut rates,” and this month he blamed “11 of Warsh’s colleagues” for standing in the way. All 11 voted to raise, and Warsh voted with them. Nobody enjoys a rate hike. The man Trump hired to cut rates just told him to stay in his lane. Unanimously.
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