Anchor and Correspondent, Bloomberg News | dgura2@bloomberg.net | Opinions are my own.
19,450 followers 88 following 497 posts
view profile on Bluesky
After the Trump administration dismantled USAID, and as foreign aid budgets continue to decline, I sat down with @crisisgroup.org’s Comfort Ero, to talk about what she calls a “chapter-defining moment” for the world, when institutions, norms, and principles “are all crumbling.”
We had this conversation on the sidelines of the @aspeninstitute.bsky.social’s Security Forum.
After the Trump administration dismantled USAID, and as foreign aid budgets continue to decline, I sat down with @crisisgroup.org’s Comfort Ero, to talk about what she calls a “chapter-defining moment” for the world, when institutions, norms, and principles “are all crumbling.”
Peter Brannen “is an effusive, maximalist writer, a mind vividly alive on the page.”
From an @annelamott.bsky.social guest essay in The New York Times:
What Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the Senate Finance Committee as its members considered his nomination:
What Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the Senate Finance Committee as its members considered his nomination:
Peter Brannen “has a gift for translating recondite scientific facts into gorgeous psychedelic passages that verge on pure poetry. This is history on a heroic scale.”
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook “has done her job with integrity,” former Fed Chair Janet Yellen writes. “For Trump to invoke cause here is a fiction; it is a pretext to justify an autocratic power grab.”
Transcript:
Lisa Cook, during her nomination hearing on February 3rd, 2022: "I have advised in a number of emerging markets and developing countries where the central bank was not independent, and everyday citizens of those countries suffered tremendously as a result."
Featuring the inimitable Michael McKee:
Buy his book:
Happy pub day to my brother-in-law!
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, in a statement: “President Trump purported to fire me 'for cause' when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022.”
From Paul Krugman’s latest newsletter:
In a letter to Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Associated Press’ Julie Pace and Reuters’ Alessandra Galloni “demand a clear explanation for the airstrikes that hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Aug. 25, 2025.”
“The dollar dropped and gold gained after President Donald Trump removed Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, raising concerns about the independence of the central bank.”
In a letter posted on his social media site, President Trump tells Lisa Cook she is “removed from [her] position on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, effective immediately.”
Today, @steveinskeep.bsky.social interviewed Ty Cobb, who led the White House response to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. “What did you think when you heard about the FBI search of John Bolton’s house and office?” Inskeep asked. “Well, I went down and locked my door,” Cobb replied.
dirigisme
Today, a United Nations-backed body declared a famine in Gaza for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war broke out. Earlier this week, I had a conversation about the hunger crisis there, with three of my colleagues covering the conflict:
I scored 190 on Pointed. Play at bloomberg.com/pointed so we can compare!
On February 21st, 2017, President Trump took a tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. This is from CBS News’ coverage of the visit:
Check out my brother-in-law’s new book:
“I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.” 2/2
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, in a statement: “I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet.” 1/2
Alaska → Washington → ???
Meanwhile, in Washington:
“President Donald Trump's pick to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics was among the crowd outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021,” NBC News reports. Here is E.J. Antoni, in a screenshot of a video archived from the social media site Parler:
Twilight on the Brooklyn Riviera
This is roughly 0.00008 percent of her $124.2 billion fortune.
“As things stand, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine will not be present as the Russian and American leaders discuss the fate and borders of his country,” the Financial Times’ Gideon Rachman writes. “And, as the saying goes: ‘If you are not at the table, you’re on the menu.’”
I joined @kairyssdal.bsky.social at the top of today’s @marketplace.org:
In a new executive order, President Trump extends his pause on “heightened tariffs on China” another 90 days, “until 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on November 10, 2025.”
“On Wednesday, Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive, met with President Trump at the White House and agreed to give the federal government a 15 percent cut, essentially making the federal government a partner in Nvidia’s business in China, said the people familiar with the deal.”
American dirigisme
From a speech President Zelenskyy delivered to the Ukrainian people today:
“Consumers face an overall average effective tariff rate of 18.6%, the highest since 1933,” according to the Yale Budget Lab. “After consumption shifts, the average tariff rate will be 17.7%, the highest since 1934.”
The @newyorker.com puts Amy Sherald’s “Trans Forming Liberty,” a portrait of the trans model and performance artist Arewà Basit, on its cover. After she learned the National Portrait Gallery was considering removing the painting from her show at the Smithsonian museum, Sherald decided to cancel it.
“When I was national security advisor, I never once for a moment thought, man, I have enough spare time to be secretary of state,” Jake Sullivan told me. “No way. Being national security advisor is more than a full-time job. So is being secretary of state.”
“Alan Dershowitz, a seasonal Chilmark resident and prominent attorney known for his controversial clients, is threatening litigation after he was denied a half dozen pierogi at the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market this week.”
Plus ça change…
As the White House and the European Union announce a preliminary trade deal, @sdonnan.bsky.social and I discuss the impact of President Trump’s protectionist policies on the global economy:
That’s history CONCENTRATOR, thank you very much.
As the White House and the European Union announce a preliminary trade deal, @sdonnan.bsky.social and I discuss the impact of President Trump’s protectionist policies on the global economy:
R.I.P. I’d wondered if he’d emerge from his self-imposed seclusion to sing “Fight Fiercely, Harvard” at the university’s commencement this year.
“When I was national security advisor, I never once for a moment thought, man, I have enough spare time to be secretary of state,” Jake Sullivan told me. “No way. Being national security advisor is more than a full-time job. So is being secretary of state.”
Hard hats were discussed. 👷👷♀️
Jake Sullivan, on October 7th and the war in Gaza: "It weighs on me every day. It keeps me up at night." My wide-ranging conversation with President Biden's national security advisor:
www.politico.com/f/?id=000001...
The list of journalists who have left The Washington Post, compiled by Politico, fills three pages:
happy friday
They helped build the global trade system President Trump is trying to dismantle. Bob Zoellick and Mike Froman, who oversaw trade policy under Presidents Bush and Obama, respectively, join me for a conversation about Trump’s trade war, and what’s likely to happen next:
Six hours after Louisville Public Media lost $376,000 in annual funding, it held an emergency pledge drive. In a post on LinkedIn, the organization’s president and CEO says it raised more than $500,000. “This is what happens when a community refuses to let something valuable die.”
“President Trump has said that he anticipates receiving at least $20 million in advertising, public service announcements or similar programming from incoming Paramount Global owner Skydance as part of a settlement to resolve a lawsuit that 60 Minutes conducted with Kamala Harris.”
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has worked for eight presidents, tells me this may be the “most perilous time” ever. Our conversation:
You can listen to it here:
Thanks to Apple for featuring my conversation with former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
The United States is withdrawing from UNESCO.
End of an era:
Coca-Cola, in its earnings report today: “This fall in the United States, the company plans to launch an offering made with U.S. cane sugar to expand its Trademark Coca-Cola product range.”
NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher, to @texaspublicradio.bsky.social: The network’s board of directors “made the decision that we would go ahead and reduce NPR's own operating budget by about $8 million in the year ahead…”
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has worked for eight presidents, tells me this may be the “most perilous time” ever. Our conversation:
NEW: The CBO says the tax and spending bill’s “net effect on the deficit, relative to CBO’s January 2025 baseline (current law), over the 2025-2034 window is $3.394 trillion,” and it “estimates the law will increase by 10 million the number of people without health insurance in 2034.”
According to a recent Washington Post-Schar School poll, “Half of all D.C.-area adults now ‘like’ or ‘love’ the [Washington Commanders] name,” the Post reports. “In 2024, only 34 percent liked or loved the new name.”
This will help you find a public radio or television station that stands to lose 50 percent or more of its revenue:
At 12,095 feet, halfway beyeeen Twin Lakes and Aspen:
NPR CEO Katherine Maher, in a statement: “This vote is an unwarranted dismantling of beloved local civic institutions, and an act of Congress that disregards the public will.”
This is a meaningless trick. A court cannot violate rule 6(e), which prohibits public disclosure.
Another picture President Trump “wrote” sold for $16,000:
President Trump, to The Wall Street Journal: “I never wrote a picture in my life.“ Currently available for purchase on eBay:
What a shame.
Will he? Won’t he? Remember, the Supreme Court recently addressed the “Can he?” question:
I admire your glass half-full read of this situation.
Greetings from Hartsfield-Jackson, the world’s busiest airport, where, at 9:30 a.m. ET on a weekday, there doesn’t seem to be a newspaper available for purchase anywhere.
The trade agreement with #Indonesia was announced on Truth Social, and confirmed on Instagram:
The Partnership for New York City released this statement after approximately 150 members of the business advocacy group met with the Democratic nominee for mayor, Zohran Mamdani:
In 1987, ten children from a church camp at the Pot O' Gold Ranch in Comfort, Texas, drowned when the Guadalupe River flooded. "Many who lived through the tragedy in Comfort see the 1987 flood as a harbinger for what washed through Hill Country on the Fourth of July."
The chairman of the House Budget Committee tells us that, with the ink barely dry on "The One Big Beautiful Bill," he and his fellow Republicans have already started work on a sequel.
What could happen if President Trump dismisses Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell? My colleague Simon Kennedy summarizes the conclusions of a new note by George Saravelos, Deutsche Bank’s global head of FX strategy:
The United States of America, 2025
Objecting “to the notion of a so-called TACO trade,” Secretary Scott Bessent told moguls gathered at the "summer camp for billionaires” in Sun Valley, Idaho, that President Trump's strategy “is more akin to FAFO, an acronym popular on social media that stands for ‘F--- Around and Find Out.’”
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in a statement: “Brazil is a sovereign nation with independent institutions and will not accept any form of tutelage.”
ICYMI, the U.S. Constitution gives lawmakers the power “to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations.”
Citing "the concerns expressed by many of our brothers and sisters regarding fears of attending Mass due to potential immigration enforcement actions by civil authorities," the Bishop of San Bernardino issues a decree dispensing the faithful in his diocese from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass.
