[Join me for a Substack livestream on Saturday, August 2, at 9 am PDT / 12 pm EDT]
Jill and I will be attending a performance at the Hollywood Bowl on Friday evening, so I am preparing this short note to “auto-send” at 1:30 am Pacific. If I fail to address something big, it is because I will be “offline” for eight hours on Friday afternoon/ evening.
Reality keeps beating Trump.
Yesterday, I commented that Trump is in a pitched battle with reality and that reality will eventually win. Friday, Trump’s woeful mismanagement of the economy began to manifest itself in an underwhelming employment report and a significant slide in market confidence.
While we should never wish for bad news, especially news that relates to the financial well-being of the working class and retirees, economic reality slapped Trump in the face on Friday, and he was not happy. We should take confidence from the fact that reality and political gravity are catching up to Trump.
As Trump’s house of lies begins to crumble, we must redouble our efforts to convince Americans that the Democratic Party is the only path forward. We cannot count on Trump and his Republican enablers to defeat themselves, but we should be prepared to capitalize on their weaknesses and missteps.
Trump appears to have been so rattled by the weak jobs report and downturn in the stock markets that he began a dangerous war of words with Russia to distract from the disappointing economic news.
In a stark admission that reality is diverging from Trump’s blatant lies about the performance of the economy, Trump fired the labor statistics chief hours after the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a disappointing jobs report. See The Guardian, Trump fires labor statistics chief hours after data showed jobs growth slowed.
Trump recognizes that he owns the performance of the economy—good or bad. Shortly after the disappointing jobs report, he posted the following:
Today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.
Trump is correct in asserting that the jobs report makes him look bad because he has been roiling the economy with illegal tariffs that punish American consumers and cause retailers to pull back in hiring and investment.
By the close of business on Friday, most major indices had tumbled because of the economic uncertainty created by Trump’s unlawful tariffs. See Reuters, Stocks slump on latest tariffs, soft jobs data.
Per Reuters,
U.S. stocks slumped on Friday, and the S&P suffered its biggest daily percentage decline in more than two months as new U.S. tariffs on dozens of trading partners and a surprisingly weak jobs report spurred selling pressure.
As the bad economic news mounted on Friday, Trump got into a war of words with Russia’s former president, Dmitry Medvedev. Demonstrating that he has no sense of irony or history, Trump warned Medvedev that the former Russian president should exercise caution when posting to social media.
Trump posted on Truth Social,
Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances.
Trump then said that he would be repositioning “nuclear submarines” to appropriate positions. See NYTimes, Trump Says He Ordered Subs Repositioned in Rare Nuclear Threat to Russia. (Accessible to all.)
The use of the phrase “nuclear submarines” is both provocative and ambiguous. As noted by the New York Times, attack submarines are nuclear-powered and might fit Trump’s description. Such submarines can be repositioned to place them in proximity to an enemy’s ships and submarines.
But Trump’s description could also refer to submarines that carry nuclear weapons. As noted by the Times, those submarines can operate from anywhere in the world and do not have to be “repositioned” to be effective in launching long-range nuclear missiles. So, the most reasonable interpretation of Trump’s remarks is that he was referring to repositioning nuclear-powered submarines designed to engage in naval battles, not submarines that carry nuclear weapons.
In either event, the locations of US submarines are closely guarded, and there is no way to know whether Trump is bluffing.
Two other stories of note:
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is shutting down after Republicans approved rescission of $1 billion in funding for public radio. See NPR, CPB to shut down after public media loses federal funding.
Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell was moved from a high-security prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison in Texas. According to persons with knowledge of transfers and redesignations within the federal prison system, transfer to a minimum-security prison is highly unusual for someone convicted of child sex trafficking. See USA Today, Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell quietly moved out of Florida prison.
The move may be a prelude to a pardon. Right-wing media is working overtime to paint Maxwell as the victim of Joe Biden’s justice department. (In fact, Ghislaine Maxwell was indicted in July 2020—when Donald Trump was president.)
No, the NSA didn’t conduct an audit of the 2024 election.
On Friday, I received a steady stream of emails from readers forwarding a Substack article claiming that a CIA whistleblower disclosed that the Department of Defense’s National Security Agency conducted an audit of the 2024 election. The alleged NSA audit purportedly proves that Kamala Harris won by a wide margin.
The article peddles stale conspiracy theories that have been debunked many times over. If someone forwards you the article, please spend ten minutes conducting online searches to determine if the claims have any basis in fact. You will find that claims have been debunked many times over.
While I don’t have time this evening to do a comprehensive rebuttal, the premise of the article is that Kamala Harris was leading in the polls and that her loss contradicted the polling. To the contrary, Kamala Harris’s staff revealed after the election that her internal polling showed that she NEVER led Trump in swing states. See MSN, Harris aides say internal polling never had her ahead of Trump.
(“National” polling referred to in the article can be misleading. We don’t elect presidents by national popular vote. Kamala Harris’s internal pollsters never showed her ahead in swing states that would lead to an electoral college victory for her.)
Second, many media outlets and independent polling organizations conducted election day exit polling. Those independent results matched up with the outcomes reported by election officials. Of course, the conspiracy theorists never mention the most relevant and contemporary information that serves as an independent check on the results. Why? Because those independent checks confirm the state-by-state outcomes reported by the respective secretaries of state.
Opportunity for Reader Engagement
Please join the Media and Democracy Project for an event with legendary media reform activist and Emmy-winning journalist Sue Wilson Monday August 4, 2025 8pm ET / 5pm PT via Zoom, “Help Improve Local TV News — at the FCC and in our home towns.”
Sue Wilson will discuss the MAGA-FCC plans for local TV ownership, why the FCC matters to democracy, and how to engage as individuals and communities in media reform and advocacy.
The FCC plans further deregulation of limits on local TV station ownership, which will allow more consolidation of local news ownership–which is bad news for communities, journalists, and democracy.
Register for this free Zoom webinar here**:** Help Save Local TV News
Concluding Thoughts
I received an email from a reader today who noted that yesterday’s newsletter mentioned Trump numerous times. He suggested that I take a break from mentioning Trump to give readers a break.
I responded that needing a break is absolutely understandable. If you need a break, take one! This newsletter attempts to review the news through the lens of hope. I supply the lens of hope, but reality supplies the news. We are witnessing a broadside attack on democracy by Trump. I wish it were otherwise, but it is simply not possible to talk about the news without mentioning Trump.
But I get it. It can be too much even in the streamlined, hopeful outlook of this newsletter. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a break. We need you for the long run. And we will be waiting with open arms when you are ready to reengage.
If you need a dose of optimism and enthusiasm, join me as I host a Substack livestream on Saturday, August 2, at 9 am PDT / 12 pm EDT.
Otherwise, take a break over the weekend if you are able, and come back no Monday, raring to go!
Daily Dose of Perspective
The image below is straight from the scope, no post-processing: The Lagoon Nebula, taken on 7/31/25 from my backyard.
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