Episode Details

Today's Headlines: Trump had a rough weekend legally — a federal judge blocked the Traitor Fund in response to a lawsuit from a fired January 6th prosecutor, and another judge ordered Trump's name removed from the Kennedy Center within two weeks on the grounds that he never had legal authority to put it there. Trump responded by posting he has "no interest" in the Kennedy Center anymore and threatening to cancel his own America 250 celebration, which is already in freefall after nearly every performer dropped out once they realized it was Trump's birthday rally and not the legitimate congressional celebration — leaving Vanilla Ice, Kid Rock, and eventually Trump himself as the headline act for anyone who paid $1.5 million for a VIP package expecting a concert. On the Iran beat, Trump is requesting edits to the deal his own negotiators already agreed to, with a senior official explaining the response will take three days because…caves. The Delaney Hall ICE detention center in Newark escalated to a mandatory curfew for the surrounding half-mile, with ICE in riot gear pepper spraying protesters while detainees continue a 10-day hunger strike over conditions that remain uncorrected. Pam Bondi's Epstein testimony was exactly as useless as expected — she blamed Todd Blanche, refused to answer Trump-related questions, and wasn't under oath — so the House Oversight Committee is now going after Blanche directly. In AI-is-a-scam news, a Pizza Hut franchisee is suing corporate for $100 million after a mandatory AI rollout tanked delivery times, and Starbucks scrapped its AI inventory system after nine months because it could not count milk — hallucinating bottles that weren't there — which is a real thing that happened with technology that costs more than a person with eyes. And finally, a three-foot meteorite may have landed in Cape Cod Bay on Saturday, with a double boom heard from Delaware to Montreal, which would normally be bigger news if we had any remaining capacity for surprise.

Resources/Articles mentioned:

NBC News: Judge halts Trump ‘anti-weaponization’ fund after Jan. 6 prosecutor sues

Axios: Trump's name must be removed from Kennedy Center, judge orders

Politico: Trump vents about judge who blocked Kennedy Center changes

ABC News: Trump to headline 250th anniversary celebration on National Mall after several artists back out

CNBC: New York passes Mamdani's pied-a-terre tax. Here's who pays and how much

NYT: Dell Gets a $9.7 Billion Defense Contract. Trump’s Portfolio Stands to Benefit

WaPo: Trump misses deadline to disclose tens of millions of dollars in stock trades

ABC 7 NY: Delaney Hall protests: Newark Mayor Ras Baraka orders mandatory curfew for half mile surrounding facility

Politico: Bondi shifts responsibility for Epstein files’ release to Todd Blanch