A critical look at Trump’s response to Medvedev’s provocative statements and the implications for global security.
Everybody’s tabbing for the weekend .
“Based on the highly provocative statements of the Former President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that,” Trump wrote 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 added.
Ed: Medvedev is Putin’s toady, and to a certain extent his alter ego in politics. Usually he’s best ignored, but this time he threatened war over sanctions, and Trump doesn’t want to normalize that. Medvedev quipped that Russia is not Iran as part of those threats; Trump could have said in reply that the US and NATO are not Ukraine either. This will drive the point home to Putin to put a muzzle on his toady, or perhaps allow him to be the next unfortunate victim of the Moscow Window Flu.
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News: Some White House officials are joining conservatives in Congress to push for a year-long CR, per multiple people familiar
GOP not on the same page: Senate Republicans want bipartisan appropriations bills
Subscribe to Principals for more https://t.co/B69TdVKuKm— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) August 1, 2025
Ed: Eh . what? I figured we’d have to do a CR, thanks to the delay in appropriations work caused by the rescission debate. I expected at most a 2-month CR while the normal 12 appropriations bills went through regular order. This would at least freeze spending at the rescission levels, but that wasn’t much of a DOGE victory as it was already.
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« Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations », said CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison in a statement. « CPB remains committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities and supporting our partners through this transition with transparency and care. »
The organization said in a statement that it told employees that a majority of staff positions will « conclude » when the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, 2025. A « small transition team will remain through January 2026 to ensure a responsible and orderly closeout of operations », the organization said.
Ed: John wrote about this earlier, but it’s remarkable enough to include here.
