Meanwhile, Donald Trump says he’ll do pretty much everything in two weeks, he shut down an LGBTQ+ specific suicide hotline and he went on a Juneteenth journey
Close watchers of Donald Trump will have noticed a little thing he does, often when he’s under a lot of media scrutiny.
He will make a big announcement on the subject, saying he’ll make a decision on it in two weeks. It’s almost always two weeks, unless it’s tariffs or the TikTok ban, in which case it’s 90 days.
And it’s a pretty decent strategy. It takes the heat out of the issue, makes the media feeding frenzy calm down, and gives him a chance to talk about the things he wants to talk about. The things that his supporters like to see him talking about, like immigration or flagpoles or eggs.
He does it so often, someone’s already done a supercut of him doing it that lasts several minutes.
Anyway, with that in mind, let’s have a look at everything that’s gone on in Trump
1. Trump is going to decide what to do about Iran in two weeks
With pressure mounting on Trump to make a decision on whether to get involved with Israel’s bombardment of Iran, Karoline Leavitt last night came to the press briefing with a message direct from the President.
He said, she told reporters: “Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.”
2. JD goes to Hollywood
The White House has announced Vice President JD Vance will today visit Los Angeles, to “tour a multi-agency Federal Joint Operations Centre”, a “Federal Mobile Command Centre” – and meet with the Marines who are definitely there legally.
It would be churlish to suggest this is a pretty good way to divert attention away from Trump dilly dallying on Iran, and back towards the protests and ICE raids, where he thinks he’s winning the argument. So I’ll just wish JD safe travels and leave it at that.
3. Trump ordered a LGBTQ+ youth suicide hotline shut down
The 988 National Suicide & Crisis Life line will stop providing tailored support options for young LGBTQ+ people on July 17.
The decision preempts the Trump administration’s 2026 budget proposal to cut funding for 988’s LGBTQ+ youth and young adult services, and is raising alarm bells among LGBTQ+ advocates.
Federal data shows the LGBTQ+ youth program has served nearly 1.3 million callers since it started in September 2022. The services were accessible under the “Press 3” option on the phone or by replying “PRIDE” via text.
The decision was was made to “no longer silo” the services and “to focus on serving all help seekers, including those previously served through the Press 3 option,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said in a statement.
4. He gloated at a court backing him on deploying the National Guard
An appeals court on Thursday allowed President Donald Trump to keep control of National Guard troops he deployed to Los Angeles following protests over immigration raids while California’s legal challenge continues.
The court case could have wider implications as the president vows to expand deployments within the United States while prioritising deportations from other Democratic-run cities.
Gavin Newsom, the governor of California said: “The court rightly rejected Trump’s claim that he can do whatever he wants with the National Guard and not have to explain himself to a court.
“The President is not a king and is not above the law. We will press forward with our challenge to President Trump’s authoritarian use of U.S. military soldiers against citizens.”
But Trump declared victory, gloating on Truth Social: “BIG WIN in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on the President’s core power to call in the National Guard! The Judges obviously realized that Gavin Newscum is incompetent and ill prepared, but this is much bigger than Gavin, because all over the United States, if our Cities, and our people, need protection, we are the ones to give it to them should State and Local Police be unable, for whatever reason, to get the job done. This is a Great Decision for our Country, and we will continue to protect and defend Law abiding Americans. Congratulations to the Ninth Circuit, America is proud of you tonight!”
5. Trump has gone on a Juneteenth journey
For UK readers who may not know, Juneteenth – June 19th – is a federal holiday marking the day in 1865 when General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, one of the last bastions of Confederate slavery and announced that enslaved people in the state were free.
It’s been celebrated for more than 150 years, but was only made a federal holiday by Joe Biden in 2021.
There are 11 federal days off a year in the US, which sounds like a lot – we have just 8 bank holidays in the UK.
But most American workers get far fewer annual leave days.
Anyway, Trump yesterday chose this one out of the eleven – the one that is among the most pertinent to the African American community – to have a moan that there were too many non-working holidays.
Karoline Leavitt confirmed, too, that he and the White House had no plans to mark the holiday or make a proclamation.
Days of celebration the White House has marked with proclamations in Trump’s second term have included Father’s Day, the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, National Ocean Month, National Maritime Day, National Physical Fitness and Sports Month, Mother’s Day, and World Intellectual Property Day.
But Trump’s ambivalence to celebrating Americans no longer being owned by other people has been on something of a journey.
When he scheduled a MAGA rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 19th 2020, Trump tweeted saying he was going to cancel it.
He wrote: “Many of my African American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out of respect for this Holiday, and in observance of this important occasion and all that it represents I have therefore decided to move our rally to Saturday June 20 in order to honour their requests.”
6. Did ICE visit the Dodgers?
There’s some confusion over whether ICE tried to raid the LA Dodgers baseball stadium.
The team tweeted: “This morning, ICE agents came to Dodger Stadium and requested permission to access the parking lots. They were denied entry to the grounds by the organisation.”
But the department of Homeland Security tweeted to say the vehicles were from the Customs and Border Patrol service, and were “in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement.”
The local ICE brigade later tweeted, a little more punchily: “False. We were never there.”
7. Trump posted a meme with three (3) different QAnon catchphrases
The President’s official account, on the President’s own social network, posted an image of him with three different slogans on it – all of them connected to wild conspiracy theory QAnon.
The main slogan – “I was the hunted, now I’m the hunter” – was used in various forms by “Q” in posts during July 2019.
The other two – “Nothing can stop what is coming” and “Trust the plan” are long running slogans used by the deeply weird movement.
Since launching Truth Social in 2022, Trump has shared more than 130 posts from QAnon-adjacent accounts, including images of him wearing a Q lapel pin, and using the slogan “Where We Go One, We Go All”.
We *think* it’s the first time he’s done three in one post.
8. We should probably talk about how Trump talks about the chair of the Fed
The chair of the Federal Reserve is an independent role, a bit like the chairman of the Bank of England.
The Fed, as it’s known, sets monetary policy and interest rates on its own, without interference or influence from the White House or Congress. That’s been the law since 1977.
Historically, presidents have shown a fair amount of deference to the Fed, and respected its independence.
Fed chairs are nominated by the President and confirmed by Congress – but can’t legally be fired by the President before the end of their four-year term.
The current chair, Jerome Powell, is in his second term, and was originally nominated in 2017 by Donald Trump.
But it seems Trump has cooled on his pick, somewhat. Might have something to do with Powell being re-nominated for that second term by his nemesis, Joe Biden.
In any case, Trump is stuck with him until next May, and almost every time he’s in front of a camera or a computer with an internet connection, he fumes about it.
Here’s what he had to say yesterday: “”Too Late” Jerome Powell is costing our Country Hundreds of Billions of Dollars. He is truly one of the dumbest, and most destructive, people in Government, and the Fed Board is complicit. Europe has had 10 cuts, we have had none. We should be 2.5 Points lower, and save $BILLIONS on all of Biden’s Short Term Debt. We have LOW inflation! TOO LATE’s an American Disgrace!”
It’s worth pointing out that this kind of rhetoric from a President is not normal, and some fear it could spark uncertainty in the markets – something Trump has done quite often since returning to office – and be directly detrimental to the economy.