THE WAY IT GOES: Former national Security Adviser John Bolton yesterday became the third of President Trump’s enemies and critics to be indicted by a federal grand jury. Bolton has been under investigation for suspicion of possessing or mishandling classified information. He has become a big critic of Trump.

  Reacting to the news Trump said; “I think he’s a bad person. I think he’s a bad guy yeah, it’s too bad. That’s the way it goes.”

  The 18-count indictment accuses Bolton of using personal email and a messaging app to share more than 1,000 pages of “diary” notes about his activities as Trump’s first-term national security adviser. The notes were sent to two family members who did not have security clearances. 

  Unlike the thin indictments of James Comey and Letitia James, Bolton could be in real trouble.

  Trump on Wednesday named three more people he wants to see indicted; former Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought two indictments against Trump; Andrew Weissmann, a former FBI official who was senior in the team investigating the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia in the 2016 election; and Lisa Monaco, the deputy attorney general under President Joe Biden.

HELLO VLAD: Following a lengthy telephone call yesterday with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, President Trump is set to meet today with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky as the President continues to seek a peace deal in the Ukraine war.

  Trump called the Putin call “productive” and said the two will meet again in person. But Trump is also considering giving Ukraine long range missiles that could strike deep into Russia to provide tactical balance. Trump said he mentioned that to Putin and, “He didn’t like that.” 

THE REGIME:

— A federal judge in California has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from carrying out mass layoffs during the government shutdown, agreeing with unions that have argued that the firings were illegal.

  The President shrugged it off, continuing to threaten cutting federal agencies, firing more workers, and rearranging the budget while the government is paralyzed in a shutdown.

  Judge Susan Illston of the US District Court for the Northern District of California wrote in her order that the White House budget office has “taken advantage of the lapse in government spending and government functioning to assume that all bets are off, that the laws don’t apply to them anymore and they can impose the structures that they like.”

— The Trump administration is considering changes to the immigration system that would give preference to English speakers, white South Africans, and Europeans who oppose migration.

— Adm. Alvin Holsey, the head of US Southern Command in charge of operations in which suspected Venezuelan drug boats are being blown out of the water in the Caribbean, is leaving his job less than a year into a three-year posting.  The NY Times reports according to sources that Holsey had raised concerns about the mission and the attacks on the suspected drug boats.

  Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement, “ The departure of our top military commander in the region sends an alarming signal of instability within the chain of command.”

— Harvard University announced that it ended the fiscal year with a $113 million deficit after being denied federal money by the Trump administration. The blow was softened by donations of $600 million, a one-year record for the school in response to the clash with Trump. Harvard also ran a deficit during the pandemic.

— The 10 biggest and busiest airports in the country are refusing to display to travelers the video of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blaming Democrats for the government shutdown and travel delays. As many as three dozen airports are keeping the message off their video screens.

  In the video Noem tells travelers “Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government,” claiming that is why “most of our TSA employees are working without pay.” 

— The White House recently issued a video supporting President Trump’s claim that “Chicago’s a mess” overrun with crime. The video showed an array of immigration enforcement actions to illustrate the seriousness of the situation.

  An investigation by Agence France-Presse (AFP) found that:  “The White House’s video lifted numerous additional shots from footage of immigration-enforcement operations in California, Arizona, Texas, South Carolina and Nebraska. Some of the videos date to 2024 and 2023, when former president Joe Biden was in office.”

THE OBIT PAGE: Susan Stamberg, one of the original voices of National Public Radio and a comforting presence over the airwaves, died yesterday at the age of 87. She delivered the news nightly on All Things Considered. NPR host Scott Simon said Stamberg was the first real human being to host a regular evening newscast.

— Ace Frehley, the original lead guitarist and founding member of the rock band KISS, has died at age 74. Frehley had been on life support since falling in his studio and suffering a brain bleed.

  KISS, for those not in the know, is the heavy metal band that dresses in black leather with pieces of metal armor, platform boots, and faces painted in designs of black and white. Frehley left the band in 1982.

THE SPIN RACK:  A second round of “No Kings” rallies protesting the presidency of Donald Trump is set for tomorrow all over the country. Conservative writer David Brooks says in the latest Atlantic that what the country needs right now is a mass uprising to save Democracy. He asks, “Are we just going to stand in passive witness to the degradation of our democracy.”

BELOW THE FOLD: President Trump is proposing to build a giant neoclassical arch at the entry of the National Mall to mark the 250^th anniversary of the United States. Similar to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, it would be topped with eagles and a gilded, winged statue. The proposed arch has also been dubbed “The Arc de Trump.”

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