PAST DEADLINE: Journalists from three organizations banned from the White House by President Trump last Saturday were allowed back in yesterday under court order. Federal Judge Timothy Kelly ruled that the White House had followed no due process in the suspensions and that the added claims of national security didn’t hold up.

  Trump continued his war against the press with the following post: “CNN and MSDNC’s Ratings have dropped considerably. The primary reason is NO CREDIBILITY! They only write badly about a man who won the Election IN A GIANT LANDSLIDE, winning all 7 Swing States, the Popular Vote, and 86% of the Counties, etc., and whose Popularity has grown because of the unprecedented SUCCESS our Country is having on both the World Stage, and at home.”

  Trump’s actual popularity in the polls is its lowest ever.  

  The presidential television news pool remains suspended by the networks until Trump formally allows CNN back in the rotation.  So it was yesterday that when Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House, there was no network video coverage of a national leader who himself has cracked down on independent news media and evicted foreign journalists whose coverage he doesn’t like. 

  Chinese media was present. Photographers in the Oval office said Trump remarked about how the Chinese had the friendliest press corps. 

  Right wing outlets Real America’s Voice and LindellTV, created by the My Pillow guy, have teamed up to provide a feed of White House events.

RED CARPET: President Trump hosting Xi Jinping for last night’s state dinner gave the Chinese leader a bald eagle sculpture and invited Xi to tour construction of the massive new ballroom that he says he’s building in part for reasons of national security.

  Trump said the eagle statue was made “by an extraordinary American artist” and “designed in personal collaboration with Melania and myself.”

  Among the swells, business leaders, and Trump family members at the dinner were: Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Jesse Watters, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI; Dr. Miriam Adelson, controlling shareholder of the Las Vegas Sands; David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance; Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla; and Jeff Bezos, chairman of Amazon.

WAR OF WORDS:

— In a combative speech before the UN General Assembly yesterday, Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his country’s joint war with the US against Iran as a “battle against barbarians” and attacked New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has said  Netanyahu should be brought before the International Criminal Court for committing war crimes in Gaza.

  Israel has killed an estimated 74,000 people in Gaza, but Netanyahu said that rather than committing genocide Israel has “prevented a genocide” against its own people by Hamas. He called claims of genocide against Israel “the greatest lie of the century.”

  Netanyahu called the Muslim Mamdani the “antisemitic mayor of New York.” He said, “Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of the city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York.” 

ECON 101: The average rate on a 30-year home mortgage has hit 7 percent, still about three-quarters of a point behind the recent peak in 2024. It was 6.3 percent a year ago.

  The higher interest rates are beginning to weigh on the housing market.

  The war on Iran and rising fuel prices have been reflected in the interest rates on government bonds. When they go up, mortgages go up.  Inflation has remained at 3.4 percent, moving the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to curb it. 

INFINITE SCROLL: 

— In one of their last votes before the November elections, Senate Republicans blocked a resolution to remove US forces from hostilities in Iran. The vote was 51-49. 

  Four Republicans joined Democrats on the resolution: Susan Collins of Maine, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman voted “no” with the Republicans. 

— The State of Nevada checked out a list of 185 suspected non-citizens who had registered to vote given to them by the Department of Homeland Security and found that all of them were in fact US citizens. DHS has yet to give Nevada the list of 16,000 people they have previously claimed were not citizens.

  Francisco Aguilar, the Democratic secretary of state in Nevada, said in a statement, “DHS officials continue their attempts to intimidate election officials into compliance and deter voters with huge claims of fraud with no evidence.” 

THE SPIN RACK: The White has been running on right wing media what it calls a “public service announcement” that features Donald Trump saying, “America Will never Be a Communist Country.” The ad that says it was paid for by the US government is an obvious promotion of Trump himself and is a likely violation of federal law against using government money for political purposes.

  Whipping up fear of communism is one of Trump’s latest ploys to keep a grip on power.

  Sen. Maggie Hassan, Democrat of New Hampshire, sent a letter to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles saying,  “The advertisement raises deep concerns about the Trump Administration’s use of taxpayer dollars and its compliance with federal laws that prohibit the use of appropriated funds for the promotion of a political party or candidate.” 

— The California Supreme Court ruled that the seizure of a half million special election ballots by Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco was against the law. The election resulted in approval of Proposition 50 that allowed the gerrymandering of congressional districts to squeeze out Republicans in retaliation for gerrymandering by Republicans majorities in other states.

BELOW THE FOLD: After discovering that nearly 8,000 Ukrainian OnlyFans creators had made more than $131 million during 2023, the country’s lawmakers are considering legalizing pornography so they can tax it to help pay for the war against Russia. A co-author of the bill said, “I believe we are already mature enough as a nation to acknowledge that sex exists.”

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