allynmortilla (allynmortilla)

The ‘SAVE America Act’ still doesn’t have the votes Those same two Republicans who insisted on having Blanche kill the settlement in writing have also been vocal in arguing the GOP should move on, for now, from Trump’s voting restrictions bill, which would impose new proof-of-citizenship requirements in addition to voter ID conducted in the states. For months, Trump has argued the bill is required to address the threat of mass voter fraud. There’s no evidence for that kind of fraud in the real world, as CNN’s Daniel Dale has repeatedly documented, but it remains an animating principle of Trump’s presidency. None of the political pressure from Trump or from the MAGA side of the GOP has created momentum to get enough votes for the legislation. And there wouldn’t be enough time to implement it before the midterm elections. Neither Tillis nor Cornyn will be on the ballot in November. Tillis, a longtime but selective Trump critic, is not running for reelection.

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A pause on handing more power to Trump’s political appointees Another Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, slipped language into a spending bill unveiled by Republican leaders to block, for now, a rule proposed by Trump’s Office of Management and Budget that would give political appointees, rather than subject experts, more power over federal grants. Collins, the only Republican running for reelection in a state Trump won in 2024, is locked in a tight reelection battle. Meanwhile, Trump’s approval rating is dipping to record lows — about one-third of Americans approved of his job as president in a CNN Poll conducted by SSRS and released last week. The last time a US president drew approval that low was at the tail end of Trump’s first term, after the storming of the Capitol by his supporters in January 2021. Two major drags on his popularity have been his handling of the economy and the war he launched on Iran.

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US national debt exceeds US$40 trillion for first time WASHINGTON: The US gross national debt has surged past US$40 trillion for the first time, government data showed on Wednesday (Aug 19), outstripping earlier forecasts at a pace fuelled in part by President Donald Trump's invalidated tariffs. The uptick in borrowing comes as longer-term US obligations linked to social security and health care have been growing, while interest payments have climbed as well. Total public debt outstanding stood at US$40.05 trillion at the close of business on Tuesday, according to data released on Wednesday by the Treasury Department. This stands in contrast to an earlier forecast by the Congressional Budget Office that overall borrowing would hit US$39.4 trillion by the end of fiscal year 2026.

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It is both more aggressive toward external enemies and more vigilant toward internal dissent. There are two parallel priorities, says Hamidreza Azizi at the Clingendael Institute, a think tank in the Netherlands: preparing the state for a more confrontational external environment and further securitizing the domestic sphere. “The emphasis on offensive operations, unified command, and faster decision-making suggests that the leadership wants to move from Ali Khamenei’s traditionally more cautious approach to deterrence toward what could be described as offensive deterrence,” Azizi told CNN. Most of the appointees have a background in intelligence, according to Saeid Golkar, associate professor of political science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. “The picture we are seeing is the Islamic Republic moving toward a security-dominated bureaucratic regime,” he told CNN.

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