The Last 2 Months — and Next 2 Years — of U.S. Politics
Ezra Klein: Welcome to the second-ever 'Ask Me Anything' for subscribers.
If you're here, that means you have subscribed and linked your subscription. We are doubly grateful. We received a truly astonishing number of amazing questions — of which we will not get through even the most minute fraction. But we will do what we can.
I'm joined today — as I am so often, both in front of the mic and behind the scenes — by our wonderful executive producer, Claire Gordon.
Claire Gordon: Great to be here again, Ezra, for our first A.M.A. of the Trump era.
Reading through the questions, I would say the temperature of the audience right now is quite high. There were a lot of questions about whether we will have fair elections in 2028.
Klein: Will we?
Gordon: That's my first question.
Klein: That's where we're starting?
Gordon: How high is your internal temperature on this? What is the right temperature?
Klein: Your internal temperature should be feverish.
I think we're going to have elections. But I also think we're very likely going to have a constitutional crisis.
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Los Angeles Times
3 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Trump's Fed building tour ends with a relief signal for Powell
President Donald Trump's unprecedented walk-through of the Federal Reserve's now-controversial building renovation project with Jerome Powell ended with a sign of relief for the central bank chief who's been under pressure for months to slash interest rates. There's 'no tension' with Powell, Trump said after the Thursday tour — which featured the two men publicly trading barbs over the cost of a project that the president's allies have used to blast the Fed chair's leadership. Subscribe to the Bloomberg Daybreak Podcast on Apple, Spotify and other Podcast Platforms. The president indicated that problems with the project probably weren't reason enough to fire the central bank head. 'To do that is a big move, and I just don't think it's necessary,' he told reporters. Investors reacted, sending the dollar higher and gold prices lower. 'The Fed chair is apparently safe for the time being,' Ian Lyngen, head of US rates strategy at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a note to clients. 'It's notable that the rumblings on Powell's replacement are no longer center stage,' he added, while highlighting things may well change next Wednesday, with the Fed expected to keep rates on hold. The remarkable tour was not without moments of tension. The president joked that he might ordinarily remove a project manager who oversaw similar cost overruns. He ribbed Powell — who for months has faced presidential criticism — over interest rates. 'Well, I'd love him to lower interest rates. Other than that, what can I tell you?' Trump said. For its part, the Fed said in a statement Friday it was 'honored to welcome the president yesterday for a visit to our historic headquarters.' 'We are grateful for the president's encouragement to complete this important project,' the Fed said. The president's visit was a rare spectacle, with Trump being the first president to visit the Federal Reserve in nearly two decades — a dramatic example of how in his second term he has ramped up his pressure on the chairman, threatening longstanding norms about the central bank's independence and autonomy, in his bid to secure lower rates. Trump's second White House term has been marked by an expansion of executive power that's helped him bring myriad institutions and industries to heel — except the Federal Reserve. The tour opened with Trump and Powell, wearing white hard hats, coming down the dimly lit hallway to speak with reporters. Trump honed in on what he and his allies say is an exorbitant cost for renovating a federal building, while Powell shook his head. In a tense moment, a visibly uncomfortable Powell pushed back and shook his head when Trump claimed the renovation costs had hit $3.1 billion. 'Third Building' When the president offered Powell a piece of paper he cast as offering details on the new estimate, Powell tersely told Trump his revised claim included a building that had already been completed. 'That's a third building,' Powell said, interrupting the president. 'It was built five years ago.' Asked by a reporter what he would do if a manager on one of his construction projects had gone over budget, Trump replied bluntly. 'Generally speaking, what would I do?' Trump said. 'I'd fire 'em.' Powell laughed as Trump knocked him on the arm and the president added that he did not 'want to be personal.' 'I just would like to see it get finished,' Trump said. The scene suggested there wasn't much of a thaw between the two men, who almost immediately assumed the stances they have taken for months. The renovation at the bank has offered Trump and his allies another weapon to intensify their criticism of Powell as they seize on cost overruns, casting the renovation as an extravagant project that is wasting money. Thursday's visit to see the work first-hand put Trump standing side-by-side with the central bank chief that he has regularly lambasted and tried to humiliate on social media. Still, at the conclusion of the tour, Trump was asked if he had seen evidence of mismanagement and waste and ultimately demurred. While he said he saw a 'very luxurious situation taking place,' the president conceded that he understood that security measures and need for construction in the basement brought with it high costs. 'Look, there's always Monday morning quarterbacks — I don't want to be that,' Trump said. 'I want to help them get it finished.' And while the real estate mogul, who regularly touts his experience having overseen massive construction projects in his home of New York, said he had undertaken bigger jobs than the Fed work in the past and kept costs manageable, he indicated he did not consider the cost overruns alone enough to remove Powell from the job. 'I don't want to put that in this category,' Trump said. The president also repeatedly turned his focus back to the central bank's rate-setting policies. 'I just want to see one thing happen, very simple: Interest rates have to come down,' he said. More broadly, Trump said he and Powell had a 'good meeting' but declined to characterize their private discussion on interest rates, alluding to the Fed's current blackout period ahead of their meeting next week. 'You know, his term comes up soon. I think he's going to do the right thing. Everybody knows what the right thing is,' he added. Federal Reserve officials are widely expected to hold interest rates steady for a fifth consecutive time following their meeting next week. A majority of policymakers expect to lower rates at least twice before year end, according to projections released in June. But Powell and several other officials have said they prefer to approach policy adjustments carefully, as they guard against the possibility that Trump's tariffs policies will lead to persistent inflation. Policymakers have also said an overall stable labor market provides them room for patience on interest-rate cuts. Despite Trump's pressure, which has seen him consult lawmakers on whether he should fire Powell and at time insist he has no such plans, the chairman has given no indication that he's considering leaving early or even ruled out staying on as a regular board member once his term as chair expires in May. Trump's entourage includes some of the most strident critics of Powell in the administration, including Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, who has accused the chairman of misleading Congress about the renovation and called for his resignation. and budget director Russ Vought. Speaking to reporters after the tour, Vought said that the tour had given administration officials more insight into the work but that they still had questions that had not been answered. Vought said that some of the work could have been done better and that the renovation had to control costs. Powell has called reports about the renovation work inaccurate and after Republican criticism intensified in recent weeks, made a request for the bank's inspector general to review the restoration work. Earlier Thursday, Fed staff led reporters on a tour of the active construction site, which they said hosts about 700 to 800 workers daily over two shifts. Cost overruns have been driven in part by security requirements, including blast-resistant windows, officials said. Still, the overall project's budget has grown to $2.5 billion in 2025 from $1.9 billion in recent years, fueling questions about overruns. In a social media post after he returned to the White House, Trump said the renovation work 'would have been much better if it were never started, but it is what it is and, hopefully, it will be finished ASAP,' before again pivoting to interest rates. 'With all of that being said, let's just get it finished and, even more importantly, LOWER INTEREST RATES!,' he wrote. Wingrove and Omeokwe write for Bloomberg.
Forbes
2 days ago
- Forbes
Apple Issued A New Spyware Warning To Iranians—What To Know
Researcher believed Iran's government is behind the Apple spyware attacks. Apple has been issuing spyware warnings for some time, to alert those targeted by the dangerous malware so they can take action. Recently, one of these warnings was targeted at Iranian dissidents living in the country and overseas, according to a report in Bloomberg. The claims come from a report by Miaan Group, a digital rights organization that focuses on Iran, and Hamid Kashfi, an Iranian cybersecurity researcher who lives in Sweden. The pair told TechCrunch they had spoken to Iranian iPhone users who have received the Apple notifications over the last year. 'Two people in Iran come from a family with a long history of political activism against the Islamic Republic. Many members of their family have been executed, and they have no history of traveling abroad,' Amir Rashidi, Miaan Group's director of digital rights and security, told TechCrunch. 'I believe there have been three waves of attacks, and we have only seen the tip of the iceberg.' Iranian iPhone Users Targeted Ahead of Iran-Israel War The spyware victims' iPhones were hit ahead of the Iran-Isarel war, raising interesting questions about who could have been behind the attacks. More than a dozen Iranian iPhone users were identified as having been targeted by the government spyware, but human rights groups estimate that this is just a fraction of the total. The attacks could have been perpetrated by another nation state, such as Israel — or even in a joint initiative with the U.S. This has happened before, in 2010, when the two are alleged to have been behind a devastating attack on an Iranian nuclear facility using a worm called Stuxnet. However, Miaan Group's Rashidi told TechCrunch he believes Iran's government is behind the Apple spyware attacks. Further investigation is needed, but there is no reason for members of civil society to be targeted by anyone else, he said. It is unclear which spyware maker is behind the recent attacks on iPhones. However, the most recent reports have seen Paragon Graphite target devices. The news that Iranian dissidents were targeted comes as researchers at Lookout identified Iranian government affiliated threat group MuddyWater using DCHSpy spyware to attack Android users. DCHSpy collects WhatsApp data, accounts, contacts, SMS, files, location and call logs — and can record audio and take photos. I asked Apple to comment on this latest report and will update this article if the firm replies. Spyware Targeting iPhones — What To Do I have covered numerous reports of spyware targeting iPhone users, with variants including Pegasus and LightSpy which take advantage of unpatched software vulnerabilities. It's therefore integral that people who could be attacked keep their iPhones up to date. In addition, turning your iPhone on and off again can disrupt the malware, temporarily disabling it. Apple itself recommends Lockdown Mode, which reduces the functionality of your iPhone but also stops spyware from taking hold. If you do think you're a victim of spyware, or if Apple has sent you a notification, contact Access Now or Amnesty for help.
CNET
3 days ago
- CNET
CNET Daily Tariff Price Impact Tracker: I'm Watching 11 Key Products for Inflation
Price hikes resulting from Trump's tariffs could be closer than ever. James Martin/CNET The question of how new tariffs will impact prices is more relevant than ever, as President Donald Trump punts another major deadline down the road and a new Consumer Price Index summary showing that inflation was 2.7% in June, the biggest jump since February. We might not see the worst-case-scenario impacts of these tariffs until Aug. 1 at this point, but that CPI report makes it clear that their effects are very real. Amid these lingering concerns, I've been tracking prices every day for 11 key products likely to be hit by tariff-induced price increases, and the answer I've come to so far is this: Not so much, at least not yet. The winding road of tariff inflation still stretches before us into an uncertain future, so the threat of price hikes continues to cloud the horizon. To date, I've seen two noteworthy price increases, one for the Xbox Series X and the other for a popular budget-friendly 4K TV. Some other products -- including Apple's popular AirPods -- have gone on sale for brief periods. CNET Tariff Tracker Index Above, you can check out a chart with the average price of the 11 products included in this piece over the course of 2025. This will help give you a sense of the overall price changes and fluctuations going on. Further down, you'll be able to check out charts for each individual product being tracked. Based on the numbers so far, the average has gone up noticeably since the start of the year, but this has been driven mostly be a big shifts for a few products, as most price are still stable. We'll be updating this article regularly as prices change. It's all in the name of helping you make sense of things, so be sure to check back every so often. For more, check out CNET's guide to whether you should wait to make big purchases or buy them now and get expert tips about how to prepare for a recession. Watch this: Should You Buy Now or Wait? Our Experts Weigh In on Tariffs 09:42 Methodology We're checking prices daily and will update the article and the relevant charts right away to reflect any changes. The following charts show a single bullet point for each month, with the most recent one labeled "Now" and showing the current price. For the past months, we've gone with what was the most common price for each item in the given month. In most cases, the price stats used in these graphs were pulled from Amazon using the historical price-tracker tool Keepa. For the iPhones, the prices come from Apple's official materials and are based on the 128-gigabyte base model of the latest offering of the iPhone 16. For the Xbox Series X, the prices were sourced from Best Buy using the tool PriceTracker. If any of these products happen to be on sale at a given time, we'll be sure to let you know and explain how those price drops differ from longer-term pricing trends that tariffs can cause. The 11 products we're tracking Mostly what we're tracking in this article are electronic devices and digital items that CNET covers in depth, like iPhones and affordable 4K TVs -- along with a typical bag of coffee, a more humble product that isn't produced in the US to any significant degree. The products featured were chosen for a few reasons: Some of them are popular and/or affordable representatives for major consumer tech categories, like smartphones, TVs and game consoles. Others are meant to represent things that consumers might buy more frequently, like printer ink or coffee beans. Some products were chosen over others because they are likely more susceptible to tariffs. Some of these products have been reviewed by CNET or have been featured in some of our best lists. Below, we'll get into more about each individual product, and stick around till the end for a rundown of some other products worth noting. iPhone 16 The iPhone is the most popular smartphone brand in the US, so this was a clear priority for price tracking. The iPhone has also emerged as a major focal point for conversations about tariffs, given its popularity and its susceptibility to import taxes because of its overseas production, largely in China. Trump has reportedly been fixated on the idea that the iPhone can and should be manufactured in the US, an idea that experts have dismissed as a fantasy. Estimates have also suggested that a US-made iPhone would cost as much as $3,500. Something to note about this graph: The price listed is the one you'll see if you buy your phone through a major carrier. If you, say, buy direct from Apple or Best Buy without a carrier involved, you'll be charged an extra $30, so in some places, you might see the list price of the standard iPhone 16 listed as $830. Apple's been taking a few steps to protect its prices in the face of these tariffs, flying in bulk shipments of product before they took effect and planning to move production for the US market from China to India. A new Reuters report found that a staggering 97% of iPhones imported from the latter country, March through May, were bound for the US. This latter move drew the anger of Trump again, threatening the company with a 25% tariff if they didn't move production to the US, an idea CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly shot down in the past. This came after Trump gave a tariff exemption to electronic devices including smartphones, so the future of that move seems in doubt now. Duracell AA batteries A lot of the tech products in your home might boast a rechargeable energy source but individual batteries are still an everyday essential and I can tell you from experience that as soon as you forget about them, you'll be needing to restock. The Duracell AAs we're tracking are some of the bestselling batteries on Amazon. Samsung DU7200 TV Alongside smartphones, televisions are some of the most popular tech products out there, even if they're an infrequent purchase. This particular product is a popular entry-level 4K TV and was CNET's pick for best overall budget TV for 2025. Unlike a lot of tech products that have key supply lines in China, Samsung is a South Korean company, so it might have some measure of tariff resistance. After spending most of 2025 hovering around $400, this item has now seen some notable upticks on Amazon, most recently sitting around $450. This could potentially be in reaction to Trump's announcement of 25% tariffs against South Korea this week. Xbox Series X Video game software and hardware are a market segment expected to be hit hard by the Trump tariffs. Microsoft's Xbox is the first console brand to see price hikes -- the company cited "market conditions" along with the rising cost of development. Most notably, this included an increase in the price of the flagship Xbox Series X, up from $500 to $600. Numerous Xbox accessories also were affected and the company also said that "certain" games will eventually see a price hike from $70 to $80. Initially, we were tracking the price of the much more popular Nintendo Switch as a representative of the gaming market. Nintendo has not yet hiked the price of its handheld-console hybrid and stressed that the $450 price tag of the upcoming Switch 2 has not yet been inflated because of tariffs. Sony, meanwhile, has so far only increased prices on its PlayStation hardware in markets outside the US. AirPods Pro 2 The latest iteration of Apple's wildly popular true-wireless earbuds are here to represent the headphone market. Much to the chagrin of the audiophiles out there, a quick look at sales charts on Amazon shows you just how much the brand dominates all headphone sales. While Prime Day might be in the rearview mirror at this point, you can grab a pair of these earbuds for $169, a $30 discount from where they've been most of the year. HP 962 CMY printer ink This HP printer ink includes cyan, magenta and yellow all in one product and recently saw its price jump from around $72 -- where it stayed for most of 2025 -- to $80, which is around its highest price over the last five years. We will be keeping tabs to see if this is a long-term change or a brief uptick. This product replaced Overture PLA Filament for 3D printers in this piece, but we're still tracking that item. Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank Anker's accessories are perennially popular in the tech space and the company has already announced that some of its products will get more expensive as a direct result of tariffs. This specific product has also been featured in some of CNET's lists of the best portable chargers. Bose TV speaker Soundbars have become important purchases, given the often iffy quality of the speakers built into TVs. While not the biggest or the best offering in the space, the Bose TV Speaker is one of the more affordable soundbar options out there, especially hailing from a brand as popular as Bose. Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush They might be a lot more expensive than their traditional counterparts but electric toothbrushes remain a popular choice for consumers because of how well they get the job done. I know my dentist won't let up on how much I need one. This particular Oral-B offering was CNET's overall choice for the best electric toothbrush for 2025. This product hasn't seen its price budge one way or another most of the year, but while Prime Day might have come and gone, there's still a $10 coupon listed on Amazon right now, letting you save a little bit of money for the time being. Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Lenovo is notable among the big laptop manufacturers for being a Chinese company making its products especially susceptible to Trump's tariffs. For now, its price has been largely unchanged in the last few months. You can, however, grab it on Amazon right now at a $20 discount, but we'll have to see how long that actually lasts. Starbucks Ground Coffee (28-ounce bag) Coffee is included in this tracker because of its ubiquity -- I'm certainly drinking too much of it these days -- and because it's uniquely susceptible to Trump's tariff agenda. Famously, coffee beans can only be grown within a certain distance from Earth's equator, a tropical span largely outside the US and known as the "Coffee Belt." Hawaii is the only part of the US that can produce coffee beans, with data from USAFacts showing that 11.5 million pounds were harvested there in the 2022-23 season -- little more than a drop in the mug, as the US consumed 282 times that amount of coffee during that period. Making matters worse, Hawaiian coffee production has declined in the past few years. All that to say: Americans get almost all of their coffee from overseas, making it one of the most likely products to see price hikes from tariffs. While this particular bag of beans from Starbucks hasn't seen its price budge for most of the year, in recent days it ticked up by less than a dollar on Amazon, which could be a sign of further increases to come. Other products As mentioned, we occasionally swap out products with different ones that undergo notable price shifts. Here are some things no longer featured above, but that we're still keeping an eye on: Nintendo Switch: The baseline handheld-console hybrid has held steady around $299 most places -- including Amazon release of the Switch 2 remains to be seen. This product was replaced above with the Xbox Series X. release of the Switch 2 remains to be seen. This product was replaced above with the Xbox Series X. Overture PLA 3D printer filament: This is a popular choice on Amazon Here are some products we also wanted to single out that haven't been featured with a graph yet: Razer Blade 18 (2025), 5070 Ti edition: The latest revision of Razer's largest gaming laptop saw a $300 price bump recently, with the base model featured an RTX 5070 Ti graphics card now priced at $3,500 ahead of launch, compared to the $3,200 price announced in February. While Razer has stayed mum about the reasoning, it did previously suspend direct sales to the US as Trump's tariff plans were ramping up in April. Asus ROG Ally X: The premium version of Asus's Steam Deck competitor handheld gaming PC recently saw a price hike from $799 to $899, coinciding with the announcement of the company's upcoming Xbox-branded Ally handhelds.
