Today’s notice: Bruce Springsteen’s feud with Trump hits D.C. A Supreme Court son and scoop. Will a pair of deadlines and an investigation force the administration to disclose more about the deadly boat strikes? And: The top HHS attorney who is willing to talk stock trades.
THE LATEST
The Boss v. the Boss: Treasonous. Corrupt. That’s how Bruce Springsteen described Donald Trump last night at his sold-out tour finale at Nationals Park in D.C., before belting out the stratospheric hit “War” first made popular as an anti-war protest song by Black singer and songwriter Edwin Starr. Later, he called the war with Iran “incompetent, unwise and illegal.”
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“Let ’em hear you at the fucking White House,” Springsteen, coined “the Boss” by his fans, said as he led an “ICE out now” chant almost four miles away from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for America’s boss.
Springsteen’s nearly six-minute call to action against the president and his agenda at the end of his set shows why some Republican superfans were reluctant to attend. “Can’t piss off Trump,” one GOP operative told NOTUS’ Sam Fortier. “I don’t think it would be a good look for me personally in my career,” another operative said.
All of the consternation among the Republican class about attending the “No Kings” tour — as it’s been unofficially dubbed — is just another sign that culture wars (in addition to actual wars) are still raging. And in a city where tepid criticism or even brief hesitation (*ahem* John Cornyn) is seen as a lack of loyalty, some Republicans say there can only be one boss.
“We’re watching Donald Trump on a revenge tour, and as incredible as it sounds, it is not out of the realm of possibility that somebody could be spotted at this concert and be told they don’t need to show up for work on Monday,” Doug Heye, a GOP consultant and die-hard Springsteen fan, told Sam.
Springsteen’s comments in the president’s temporary backyard are just the latest in the back-and-forth between the pair. Trump escalated his feud with the musician last month by calling him a “dried up prune” with “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” And Springsteen played one of the final episodes of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” a program Trump loudly celebrated once it was canceled.
Open tabs: Jill Biden says she was “frightened” by Joe Biden’s debate performance, thought he was having a stroke (CBS); Exclusive: Justice Department launches criminal investigation into Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll (CNN); Trump backs off pledge to suspend federal gas tax (USA Today); Reflecting Pool Contract Has ‘Inflated’ Profit Margin, Government Analysis Finds (NYT)
FROM THE AGENCIES
A progeny of the highest court in the land is flying under the radar in a politically appointed role, NOTUS’ Jose Pagliery scoops. Philip Alito, the son of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, quietly landed a job in the Treasury’s Office of the General Counsel at the start of Trump’s second term.
On the Treasury Department website, it’s as if Philip doesn’t exist, and he does not have a LinkedIn or a public résumé. One former official said “he’d just say, ‘Phil,’ not ‘Phil Alito’” when he introduced himself.
The arrangement could present a host of conflict-of-interest issues. Justice Alito did not recuse himself from reviewing a lawsuit against the Treasury challenging Trump’s use of emergency powers to issue tariffs, and court documents made no mention of his son’s job. And legal challenges against the Treasury-managed $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund could make its way to the Supreme Court soon.
The Treasury Department did not respond to questions about whether Philip Alito worked on legal matters pertaining to cases his father may hear or has heard. A communications officer for the court did not respond to a request for comment.
NOTUS INTERVIEW
Look who’s talking now: Most stock-trading government officials don’t want to talk about their buying and selling — or they pawn off responsibility to their financial advisers. But not Mike Stuart, the general counsel to the Department of Health and Human Services.
In an interview with NOTUS’ Dave Levinthal, Stuart said he proudly makes his own stock trades, including a purchase of shares in the industrial glass company Corning, which happens to sell HHS gobs of products.
“If I see something I like, I buy it,” he told Dave, denying that he knew the company did business with the department. “I don’t use any information I would glean inappropriately.”
But last week, when the Office of Government Ethics refused to certify Stuart’s disclosure for “non-compliance” with an ethics agreement he previously signed, Stuart said he simply sold the stock. And he’s defending himself publicly.
“My whole career, I’ve never had even a whiff of an ethical issue,” he said. Stuart’s other recent stock trades include hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of defense contractor stocks, purchased the week after the U.S. attacked Iran. “I’m extra careful that I am completely in compliance” he added.
THE BIG ONE
The Trump administration’s strikes on boats of alleged narco-terrorists in the Caribbean and Pacific are facing a moment of truth. Deadlines in two separate lawsuits and an investigation launched by the Defense Department’s inspector general are reigniting calls for accountability — though Brian Finucane, a former State Department career attorney, told NOTUS’ Akbar Shahid Ahmed he sees no end in sight of what he called a “killing spree on autopilot.”
The deadly campaign has been overshadowed by other U.S. military actions, like the Venezuela operation and the Iran war. Former career DOD attorney Sarah Harrison said it’s “terrifying” to see Trump “using the desensitization about the expansion of wars among the American public to now go out and murder without limitation.” Harrison claimed Trump’s recently released counterterrorism strategy, which lists narco-terrorists as the top threat, asserts “a license to kill.”
These pushes for accountability may not yield new public disclosures on the strikes because the U.S. government can cite privileged attorney-client discussions and classified military information.
A secret legal memo justifying the strikes does exist. Many lawmakers, including Sen. Eric Schmitt and Rep. Jason Crow, have already seen it — and their takeaways are split down partisan lines. Schmitt, a Republican, found the administration’s reasoning “sound” and sees the campaign as “very effective.” Crow, a Democrat, said his “general sense is they don’t want to make it public because it’s a pretty farcical analysis.”
NEW ON NOTUS
Sen. Ruben Gallego is launching a legal defense fund — not in direct response to an investigation from the Trump administration, but rather to get ahead of any potential fallout from a congressional ethics complaint, NOTUS’ Jenna Monnin reports. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna in April shared unsubstantiated allegations against Gallego, days after the Arizona senator’s longtime ally, Eric Swalwell, resigned from Congress over bombshell accusations of sexual misconduct.
From Gallego’s team: “Senator Gallego is under attack from right-wing conspiracy theorists like Anna Paulina Luna, the Trump Administration, and their cronies,” spokesperson Jacques Petit told NOTUS in a statement. “This White House has made clear it is their priority to abuse their power and target political enemies. Senator Gallego will not stand for it.”
NOT US
- Can Democrats Seize the Anti-Interventionist Vote? By Jasper Craven for New York
- Trump’s latest immigration move clouds the path to green cards, by Rebecca Santana and Gisela Salomon for The Associated Press
- The paper trail linking a US fuel trader to a notorious Mexican cartel, by Stefanie Eschenbacher, Stephen Eisenhammer and Shariq Khan for Reuters
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The newsletter was produced by Kelly Poe, Kate Nocera and Andrew Burton. Image by Kelley French.
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