The Latest: Mike Waltz will face questions over Signal chat at Senate hearing for new UN job

San Francisco Chronicle​

21 hours ago

Mike Waltz, President Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will face questioning from lawmakers Tuesday for the first time since he was ousted as national security adviser in the weeks after he mistakenly added a journalist to a private Signal chat used to discuss sensitive military plans.
He is set to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at 10 a.m. ET.
The hearing will provide senators with the first opportunity to grill Waltz over revelations in March that he added The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a private text chain on an unclassified messaging app that was used to discuss planning for strikes on Houthi militants in Yemen.
Waltz has spent the last few months on the White House payroll despite being removed as national security adviser. The latest list of White House salaries, current as of July 1, includes Waltz earning an annual salary of $195,200.
Here's the latest:
Worsening inflation poses a political challenge for Trump, who promised during last year's presidential campaign to immediately lower costs. Higher inflation will also likely heighten the Federal Reserve's reluctance to cut its short-term interest rate, as Trump is loudly demanding.
The Labor Department said Tuesday that consumer prices for things like gas, food and groceries rose 2.7% in June from a year earlier, up from an annual increase of 2.4% in May. On a monthly basis, prices climbed 0.3% from May to June, after rising just 0.1% the previous month.
Trump's sweeping tariffs are also pushing up the cost of a range of goods, including furniture, clothing, and large appliances.
Trump urged supporters to see conspiracies everywhere. With Epstein, that's coming back to haunt him
As his supporters erupt over the Justice Department's failure to release much-hyped records in Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking investigation, President Trump's strategy has been to downplay the issue.
His problem? That nothing-to-see-here approach doesn't work for those who have learned from him that they must not give up until the government's deepest, darkest secrets are exposed.
On Saturday, Trump used his Truth Social platform to again attempt to call supporters off the Epstein trail amid reports of infighting between Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino over the issue. He suggested the turmoil was undermining his administration, but that did little to mollify Trump's supporters, who urged him to release the files or risk losing his base.
The political crisis is especially challenging for Trump because it's one of his own making. The president has spent years stoking dark theories and embracing QAnon-tinged propaganda that casts him as the only savior who can demolish the 'deep state.' Now that he's running the federal government, the community he helped build is coming back to haunt him. It's demanding answers he either isn't able to or does not want to provide.
Trump sounds more positive about NATO
Trump hailed as 'amazing' the news from the NATO summit last month that member countries will increase defense spending to 5% of their gross domestic product.
'Nobody thought that that was possible,' Trump told the BBC.
He has complained for a long time that the U.S. shoulders too much of the NATO burden and has demanded that countries devote more of their budgets to defense.
Reminded that he previously had called NATO 'obsolete,' Trump said, 'I think NATO is now becoming the opposite of that. I do think it was past.'
Trump says he wants to have a 'good time' on his upcoming UK state visit
Speaking about British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump noted in the BBC interview, 'I really like the prime minister, even though he's a liberal.'
Trump and Starmer have met several times, including in the Oval Office, and the prime minister was quick to negotiate a trade framework with the United States to avoid the steep tariffs Trump is imposing on other countries.
Trump is due to visit Britain in mid-September for an unprecedented second state visit. Asked about his goals for the trip, Trump said, 'I want to have a good time and respect King Charles, because he's a great gentleman.'
Trump and his wife, first lady Melania Trump, are set to visit the U.K. between Sept. 17 and 19 and will be hosted by King Charles III and Queen Camilla at Windsor Castle.
No U.S. president has been invited for a second state visit. Trump previously enjoyed state visit pomp and pageantry in 2019 during his first term when he was hosted by Charles' late mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
Trump says he's 'disappointed' but not 'done' with Putin, dodges on whether he trusts Russia's leader
Asked about Putin in a telephone interview with the BBC that aired on Tuesday, Trump said, 'I'm disappointed in him. But I'm not done with him, but I'm disappointed in him.'
Trump said he thought he and Putin had reached a deal several times to end Russia's invasion of neighboring Ukraine, only to find out that Russia had just attacked Kyiv again.
The president dodged when asked if he trusts Putin. 'I trust almost nobody, to be honest with you,' Trump said.
The Kremlin says more US weapons for Ukraine will extend the war
The Kremlin said Tuesday that new supplies of U.S. weapons to Ukraine announced by President Trump will extend the conflict.
Asked about comments by Trump, who threatened Russia with steep tariffs if it fails to agree to a peace deal in 50 days and announced a rejuvenated pipeline for American weapons to reach Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that 'such decisions made in Washington, in NATO members and in Brussels are perceived by the Ukrainian side as a signal for continuing the war, not a signal for peace.'
He reaffirmed that Russia is open to continuing the talks with Ukraine in Istanbul, but is still waiting for Kyiv to offer a date for their new round. 'We are ready to continue the dialogue,' he said, adding that 'we haven't yet received signals about the third round and it's hard to say what's the reason.'
Supreme Court allows Trump to lay off nearly 1,400 Education Department employees
The Supreme Court is allowing President Donald Trump to put his plan to dismantle the Education Department back on track and go through with laying off nearly 1,400 employees.
With the three liberal justices in dissent, the court on Monday paused an order from U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston, who issued a preliminary injunction reversing the layoffs and calling into question the broader plan.
The layoffs 'will likely cripple the department,' Joun wrote. A federal appeals court refused to put the order on hold while the administration appealed.
The high court action enables the administration to resume work on winding down the department, one of Trump's biggest campaign promises.