Trump’s DEA Boss Doubling as Head of DC Police: Starting Line

Policing DC for Trump

President Donald Trump named Terry Cole, the head of the DEA, as interim commissioner of the D.C. police as part of his extraordinary takeover of the city’s law enforcement.

And he’s threatening to insert federal personnel into other cities, including New York and Chicago, citing “out of control” crime — a claim at direct odds with statistics.

More than 500 federal agents already deployed will eventually be supplemented by additional 800 troops from the DC National Guard, he said, to create “an overwhelming presence.”

Trump has more authority over those troops than he has over the guards of the 50 states. The Justice Department’s position is that they can be used for law enforcement purposes without violating the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 law enacted to prevent presidents from turning the military on civilians without express approval from Congress. Read More

And it’s day two of a three-day trial over Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles. Read More

Eye on the Economy

Fans of consistent government data may be a little on edge ahead of the first big report since Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, accusing her without evidence of manipulating numbers in a downward update of a jobs report.

The replacement choice — subject to Senate confirmation —was named yesterday: EJ Antoni, the Heritage Foundation’s chief economist. Antoni raised eyebrows when he said on Steve Bannon’s podcast that the absence of a Trump pick running the agency is “part of the reason why we continue to have all of these different data problems.”

The numbers being released today will reflect changes in the consumer price index for July. So far, the early signs indicate businesses are worried about customers bolting if they pass along tariff-caused price increases too quickly.

Also read: Bond Traders’ High Hopes for September Rate Cut Hinge on CPI

You also might be hearing more about a report from another group of government number crunchers, the Congressional Budget Office.

The CBO analyzed how Americans would be affected by the new tax law and concluded that it will result in about a 2.7% gain in the incomes of American households at the top of the earnings pyramid and an income cut of about 3.1% for people at the bottom.

That law includes much of Trump’s economic agenda, extending his 2017 income tax cuts while implementing a number of new and expanded breaks. To offset some of the cost, the law includes a number of cuts for clean energy initiatives and social spending programs, including Medicaid and food stamps.

Many of the cuts to social spending programs don’t take effect until after next year’s congressional elections. Read More

Tariff Watch

Trump reversed his team’s call on charging tariffs when gold comes into this country.

The backstory: a Swiss refiner asked US Customs and Border Protection what to expect when exporting one-kilogram and 100-ounce gold bars after the new country-based tariffs kicked in.

CBP answered that yes, those would be subject to tariffs, resulting in upheaval and confusion among gold traders. A social media post yesterday pulled that ruling back. “Gold will not be Tariffed!” Trump wrote. Read More

Right before the tariff truce with China was set to expire, Trump signed an executive order extending the deal by another 90 days. That may mean a meeting this fall between Trump and China’s Xi Jinping is more likely. Read More

Managing Expectations

As Trump gets closer to a face-to-face meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, it’s getting tougher to predict what Ukraine and its allies should anticipate.

Trump’s latest description is that will will be a “feel-out meeting.” That suggests that perhaps the US won’t lock down the terms of a ceasefire, though Trump raised questions about future borders when he suggested a deal to end the war may involve “some changes” in territory.

After leaving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy out of the invitation to meet in Alaska, Trump now says the next step would be a direct Putin-Zelenskiy meeting. Zelenskiy and leaders of France, Germany, the UK, Italy, Poland and Finland will hold a call with Trump and Vice President JD Vance tomorrow. The EU issued a statement yesterday that individual member states not including Hungary “are ready to further contribute to security guarantees based on their respective competences and capabilities.” Read More

Redistricting Stalemate

The end game is still unclear for the redistricting standoff in Texas. Outnumbered Democrats are still out of state, and without a quorum, Republicans are still unable to conduct other legislative business.

In a CNN interview, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) repeated that he’ll call more special legislative sessions if the current one ends without the new map Trump asked for. “If they think all they have to do is wait it out until November, December, they’re wrong,” he said. “I’m going to do this for the next two years, and they’re going to have to basically take up residency in Illinois,” he said.

In California, which is setting up for trying tit-for-tat redistricting to try to offset what Texas does, the governor sent Trump a letter saying he’s “risking the destabilization of our democracy” and should back off.

In addition to Texas, Republicans in Missouri and Florida are exploring whether to redraw their maps, Ohio is required to do another map, and depending on the outcome of a court case there also could be new lines in Louisiana before next year’s contests. Read More

In a BGOV OnPoint, legislative analyst Brandon Lee provides an overview of the special legislative session in Texas, which is supposed to be about more than just redistricting. Read More

Non-Human Reg Writing

You may recall that the Department of Government Efficiency has a plan to use artificial intelligence to help repeal federal regulations as fast as possible. Ian Kullgren reports that AI may not be up to the task.

Scholars who study the intersection of AI and law say AI models aren’t yet sophisticated enough for the regulation unwinding endeavor, plus the law makes it hard to let a bot decide what to wipe out.

Agencies are required to show their actions are well-reasoned, and showing the thoughts behind a decision is tough for AI. That would leave conclusions vulnerable to legal challenges.

“It’s naive both on the technology side and the side of understanding regulation,” said Cary Coglianese, a University of Pennsylvania law professor who studies regulations and technology. Read More

Before You Go

Pot Possibility: Trump said he’s considering whether to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug and would decide in “the next few weeks.” Read More

Release the Funds: A federal judge ordered the administration to unfreeze $95 million in National Endowment for Democracy grant money, Quinn Wilson reports. The organization argues that the funds aren’t subject to Trump’s first-day-in-office executive order. Read More

Dark Money: The New York Times reports that DNC Chairman Ken Martin wants the party’s leaders to discuss restricting undisclosed and corporate funds in the 2028 presidential primary.

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— With assistance from Ian Kullgren, Brandon Lee, and Quinn Wilson.

To contact the reporter on this story: Katherine Rizzo in Washington at krizzo@bgov.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rachel Leven at rleven@bloombergindustry.com; Herb Jackson at hjackson@bloombergindustry.com

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