Russia Summit
The stakes are high for President Donald Trump’s summit today with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump threatened “very severe consequences” if Putin doesn’t agree to an end to the war in Ukraine – and key senators plan to keep a close eye.
“There’s no doubt that Russia has been and continues to be the aggressor and obstacle to peace in this conflict with Ukraine,” said Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Dave McCormick (R-Pa.). “My hope is that this meeting will be an opportunity for President Trump to take on Russia’s aggression and bring the parties a step closer to a lasting ceasefire.”
Democrats are openly skeptical about the prospects for a peace deal from this initial meeting in Alaska, which doesn’t include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
“Given President Trump’s record of face-to-face meetings with President Putin, I have real concerns that Putin will see this as a reward and another opportunity to further prolong the war instead of finally seeking peace,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee.
In a Fox News Radio interview, Trump said if the summit is successful, there’ll be a bigger meeting that includes Zelenskiy. “The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that’s going to be where they make a deal,” he said.
Waiting in the Senate is a bipartisan sanctions bill (
See also:
- Trump and Putin Have Different Ideas of Success at Alaska Summit
- Putin Flatters Trump While US Leader Tempers Summit Expectations
- Ukraine Attacks Russian Refinery with Trump, Putin Set to Meet
- Russian Hackers Lurked in US Courts for Years, Took Sealed Files
Redistricting Clash
Democratic lawmakers in California are getting ready to reveal how they want to redraw congressional district lines. They could release their draft maps — designed with the goal of creating five more blue seats — later today.
The likely targets are districts now represented by Republican Reps. Doug LaMalfa, Kevin Kiley, David Valadao, Ken Calvert, and Darrell Issa.
It’s a direct response to the effort in Texas to quickly draw five more red seats into its map.
“They want to rig these elections, and they want the power gerrymandering provides because they know what Donald Trump knows—they’re going to lose the midterms,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) told a Los Angeles rally promoting his counter-redistricting plan.
Andrew Oxford reports that Newsom wants voters to approve a new congressional map in a Nov. 4 special election. The ballot measure is being crafted so that redistricting would be temporary, and take effect only if another state does it first. California lawmakers return Monday from their summer recess, and will rush to meet an Aug. 22 deadline set by election officials. Read More
As for Texas, Greg Giroux walks through the five biggest changes ready to be executed once Democrats return to Austin and the legislature is able to legally meet.
He also flags a key question for the GOP: Will their revised seats be red enough to achieve the intended result?
In Trump’s first midterm, the Democrat Beto O’Rourke carried three of the five proposed districts against Sen. Ted Cruz (R), and effectively tied him in a fourth. Then in 2024, Cruz won significantly fewer votes than Trump in all five jurisdictions.
Dig deeper into the Texas plan, with data visualizations by Jon Meltzer.
See Also:
- Louisiana Effort to Redistrict Black Voters Rejected on Appeal
- Illinois Judge Rejects Texas Bid to Arrest Fleeing Lawmakers
Government as a Business Partner
This could have an impact on both the economy and next year’s elections: the Trump administration is in talks with Intel Corp. to have the US government potentially take a stake in the company.
The size of the potential stake isn’t clear.
Intel has been slashing spending and cutting jobs. The company had once promised to turn a site in Ohio into the world’s largest chipmaking facility, though it’s been repeatedly delayed.
It’s easy to imagine the campaign ads if federal tax dollars are directly responsible for adding jobs in Ohio, where Democrats have been looking forward to a candidacy announcement from former Sen. Sherrod Brown, viewed as their best chance for defeating Sen. Jon Husted (R) next year. Read More
Eye on the Economy
Analysts and investors will scour today’s retail sales report and the next installment of the University of Michigan’s consumer survey for a readout on how American households are feeling about the economy.
Those watching the cardboard box industry say they already have an idea.
Companies don’t yet know how Trump’s tariffs will affect costs and long-term demand for their finished products, and they’re not stocking up on bulky packaging while they wait to find out. The trade group Fibre Box Association said its second-quarter reading fell to the lowest level since 2015.
Consumer spending makes up almost 70% of the economy, so any retrenchment in retail activity is noteworthy, though the experts will keep in mind that today’s Census Bureau report will cover retail sales during a month that included a boost from Prime Day online bargain-hunters.
See Also: US Consumers See More of a Markup From Trump’s Tariffs
Show Me the Money
Today’s the court-ordered deadline for the Trump administration to resume publicly sharing how it’s spending federal dollars.
An appeals court demanded that the administration bring its spending database back online while the underlying legal fight goes forward. The administration contends the disclosure law intrudes on the executive branch’s authority.
Here’s where the database used to be: https://apportionment-public.max.gov/
Powell Talks
As we look ahead, one of next week’s most-watched events is shaping up to be a speech from an economic policy-maker who doesn’t like to go off-script.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to talk Friday at an economic policy symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo. That’s just two days after everyone who’s interested gets to look behind the curtain, with the scheduled release of the minutes from the most recent meeting in which the Fed’s interest rate-setting panel decided to hold tight a little longer.
Upcoming economic reports include updated figures on new housing starts on Tuesday and on sales of existing homes Thursday.
Before You Go
Mike Castle Dies: As Delaware’s lone representative in the U.S. House from 1993 to 2011, Mike Castle became a leader of centrist Republicans, earning a reputation as a fiscal conservative and social moderate not afraid to challenge the party line on issues ranging from government spending to environmental protection and abortion. The former governor has died at the age of 86, The Associated Press reports.
Reshaping Vaccine Oversight: Earlier, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired the experts of a vaccine advisory panel. His followup is to revive a vaccine task force that was disbanded in 1998. He said the goal is to improve vaccine safety; others said safety could suffer, depending on who he puts on the Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines. Read More’
Workplace Safety: Three new Illinois laws look to preserve worker protections amid efforts in Washington to withdraw or rewrite federal regulations, Tre’Vaughn Howard reports. Read More
Power Pushback: Washington Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and the city’s top legal official are pushing back against orders from US Attorney General Pam Bondi ordering making Terry Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the District’s “emergency police commissioner” and suspending DC policies limiting police cooperation with federal immigration authorities, the Washington Post reports.
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