The Morning Sixpack - August 18, 2025
Trump floods D.C. with troops, cozies to Putin, squeezes Zelensky, fuels tariff-driven inflation, and emboldens MAGA violence.
Trump Plays Peacemaker While Putin Drops Bombs
Russia unleashed a wave of missiles and drones on Ukraine just hours before Volodymyr Zelensky and Europe’s top leaders head to the White House to beg Donald Trump for real security guarantees.
Moscow’s overnight assault killed at least seven people in Kharkiv, including two children and their grandmother, and three more in Zaporizhzhia. Zelensky called it “a demonstrative and cynical Russian strike” meant to undermine talks, insisting Ukraine cannot negotiate “under the pressure of weapons.” In other words, Putin bombs first, negotiates later.
Trump’s team, fresh off last week’s Anchorage summit, is pitching the Kremlin’s promises of “robust security guarantees” as a breakthrough. Supposedly, Russia will pass a law swearing off more invasions once a deal is inked. Former officials aren’t buying it. As ex-foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev reminded everyone, Putin already signed binding treaties in 2003—and then tore them up with the 2014 invasion.
Even Trump himself sounded unconvinced, admitting he has “good conversations” with Putin, only to return home and see “a rocket hit a nursing home.” Yet after Friday’s summit, he shrugged off sanctions, preferring to roll out a red carpet for Putin and pressure Ukraine to cut a deal that could cost them the fortified Donbas region. Giving up Donbas, analysts warn, is basically handing Putin a highway to Odesa.
Now, with Ursula von der Leyen, Macron, Starmer, Merz, Meloni, and other European heavyweights joining Zelensky in D.C., the stakes are brutally clear. Ukraine needs ironclad protection, not the paper-thin promises of a Russian Duma law.
The question is whether Trump plans to act like NATO’s reluctant guardian—or Putin’s best real estate agent.
When your “security guarantees” come from the same guy who bombs playgrounds and maternity wards, it’s less a peace plan and more a protection racket with extra paperwork.
Source: Washington Post (gift article)
The Trump-Zelensky Summit Kicks Off With... a Dress Code Debate
The White House actually asked Ukraine if Volodymyr Zelensky will wear a suit to his meeting with Trump.
Yes, you read that right. Ahead of a sit-down that could determine Ukraine’s fate, Washington is apparently fixated on Zelensky’s wardrobe. Axios reports officials wanted to know if he’d show up in something more formal than his now-iconic military green. It might sound trivial, but it’s not the first time this has turned into a diplomatic sideshow—Zelensky’s outfit caused an Oval Office dust-up back in March.
Meanwhile, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Trump, fresh from a Putin summit beatdownin Alaska, has already backed away from supporting a ceasefire and hinted it’s on Zelensky to make concessions. As if deciding whether to hand over Crimea wasn’t enough, now Zelensky’s tailoring choices are being treated like a foreign policy crisis.
Zelensky, for his part, seems unfazed. He’s already in Washington, reminding the world that “Russia must end the war it started” and making clear he won’t cede territory to Moscow. The European leaders flying in to join him aren’t showing up for a fashion show—they’re hoping to keep Trump from sliding into Putin’s narrative.
Still, you can’t help but notice the absurdity. A war that’s killed and displaced millions, and the White House is checking the guest’s outfit. You’d think NATO membership or ceasefire terms would matter more than whether Zelensky buttons his jacket.
If Trump’s team thinks a suit will fix this, maybe they should loan Putin a tuxedo and call it peace.
Source: Axios
U.S. Tariff Talks Stall as Allies Lose Patience
America’s closest trading partners are fed up with Washington dragging its feet on tariff relief deals.
A sweeping trade agreement with the European Union is stuck because the U.S. wants Brussels to loosen its Big Tech regulations, according to the Financial Times. Meanwhile, Japan, South Korea, and the U.K. are all twiddling their thumbs, waiting for the White House to deliver on promises to cut tariffs that were supposed to grease the wheels of global commerce.
On paper, these deals were billed as economic game-changers. In reality, much of the promised investment looks more like smoke and mirrors. As The Atlantic put it, the supposed concessions “don’t add up to much.”
The EU’s irritation is particularly pointed. They’re not thrilled about being strong-armed into watering down tech rules designed to rein in Silicon Valley giants. Europe wants tariff relief—what it doesn’t want is to look like Washington’s regulatory errand boy.
The longer this drags on, the bigger the risk the U.S. looks unreliable to its own allies. And in a world already fractured by wars, tariffs, and trade blocs, playing hardball with friends may not be the brightest move. At some point, America’s partners might just stop waiting for the U.S. to get its act together.
Funny how “free trade” always seems to come with fine print written in Trump Sharpie ink.
Source: Semafor
Trump Floods D.C. With National Guard Troops as Federal Takeover Deepens
Three Republican-led states are sending hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., bolstering Trump’s unprecedented federal takeover of the city’s police force.
West Virginia, South Carolina, and Ohio announced deployments totaling more than 700 Guardsmen after Trump’s executive order this week seized control of the Metropolitan Police Department and activated 800 local Guard members. “West Virginia is proud to stand with President Trump in his effort to restore pride and beauty to our nation’s capital,” said Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who is sending up to 400 troops. South Carolina and Ohio governors followed suit.
The White House insists the troops are there to “protect federal assets” and deter crime, not to arrest residents—though officials now admit they “may be armed.” That’s a reversal from earlier assurances that Guard members wouldn’t carry weapons at all. The shifting rules only fuel concerns that this isn’t about crime prevention but about flexing federal muscle in a city where violent crime is, inconveniently, lower than during Trump’s first term.
Local leaders, forced to comply under federal law, are trying to balance cooperation with resistance. D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued over Trump’s plan to install the DEA chief as “emergency police commissioner,” prompting the administration to backtrack. Mayor Muriel Bowser told residents, “Our limited self-government has never faced the type of test we are facing right now.”
It’s called fascism.
Protesters gathered at Dupont Circle on Saturday under banners declaring “No fascist takeover of D.C.” as federal agents appeared in busy neighborhoods, unnerving locals. Trump, meanwhile, spent the day at his Virginia golf club fresh off his cuck session with Putin in Alaska.
For Trump, the optics of military occupation in a Democratic city is the point.
Funny how “restoring law and order” always seems to come with golf breaks and power grabs, not actual data about crime.
Let’s just remember that D.C. crime is DOWN since 2023. In fact, here’s a quote from Trump administration US Attorney, Matthew Graves:
“The strategy this Office began to employ shortly after I came into this role has been to work with our law enforcement partners to focus on the drivers of violence - those gangs or crews of people who are dealing drugs, protecting turf, committing carjackings and other robberies, all while armed,” said U.S. Attorney Graves. “It takes time to develop these investigations and prosecutions, but this is the fruit of that labor - a reduction in the violent crime - that D.C. is now seeing.”
Source: Justice.gov
Source: CBS News
Trump’s Tariffs Fuel Biggest Wholesale Price Surge in Three Years
Wholesale prices just jumped at the fastest pace since 2022—and tariffs are driving the inflation that’s about to hit American wallets.
The producer-price index (PPI), a key measure of wholesale inflation, spiked 0.9% in July, pushing the annual rate up to 3.3% from 2.4%. Wall Street economists didn’t see it coming, but the culprit isn’t exactly a mystery. Trump’s tariff blitz is making imported goods more expensive, and businesses are now passing those costs along. As one analyst put it, “inflationary pressure is bubbling.”
The details are grim. Food prices rose, metals got pricier, and service costs—already the biggest inflation driver—surged 1.1%, their largest increase in years. Even deeper in the supply chain, raw materials soared nearly 2%.
That’s inflation building from the ground up, the kind you can’t just hand-wave away.
For now, consumers haven’t felt the full sting, but the pipeline is clear: Higher wholesale costs today mean higher consumer prices tomorrow. That’s an immutable fact.
Investors are still betting the Fed will cut interest rates next month, but this report makes that gamble a lot riskier. “This is a most unwelcome surprise,” said Chris Zaccarelli of Northlight Asset Management. Translation: Forget the “guaranteed” cut Wall Street was banking on.
The bigger picture is this: Tariffs are taxes (on imports), and right now Americans are footing the bill. Trump promised trade wars would be “easy to win.” Instead, they’re showing up in grocery aisles and service bills. Inflation might not yet be out of control, but this is the canary in the coal mine.
Funny how the “America First” policy always ends with Americans paying first, too.
Source: MarketWatch (gift article)
Fake ICE Agents Are Terrorizing Immigrant Women—and MAGA Culture Is Giving Them Cover
Criminal predators posing as ICE agents are intimidating, kidnapping, and raping immigrant women—and Trump’s policies have emboldened them.
Across multiple states, men have been arrested for impersonating immigration officers to terrorize women with precarious legal status. In Maryland, one man raped a Latina woman after claiming he was ICE. In North Carolina, a woman says she was kidnapped and assaulted by a man pretending to be law enforcement. And in Brooklyn, another woman was robbed and nearly raped by a man who also claimed to be with ICE.
As Philadelphia’s DA Larry Krasner put it: “The policies coming from the current administration in Washington, D.C., are making it easier for U.S. citizens to commit crimes against marginalized people, such as immigrants.”
The cruelty isn’t just from impersonators—ICE itself has a track record of abuse. One pregnant mother detained by ICE said her food was infested with cockroaches and she was denied medical care, eventually giving birth to a stillborn child while shackled and under guard. Another woman, the wife of a U.S. Marine veteran, was ripped from her breastfeeding infant after a routine green card appointment. These aren’t isolated tragedies; they’re the pattern.
Activists point out this fits into a much longer history of racialized violence against women of color—from forced sterilizations of Black and Latina women to reproductive abuse in ICE custody today.
As Maribel Hernández Rivera of the ACLU put it: “We have leadership at the top that dehumanizes people who are immigrants, and now this is the outcome of that dehumanizing.”
When the president celebrates an immigrant detention center in the Everglades nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” is it any wonder predators feel licensed to act out the same cruelty?
This is more than policy failure—it’s the cultural rot of a movement that elevates misogyny, racism, and xenophobia into government practice. When leaders normalize violence, it trickles down to the streets, where women of color pay the price with their safety, their families, and their lives.
Dress it up however you want—“border security,” “law and order,” “taking our country back.” What it really looks like is state-backed terror and everyday predators getting the green light. Or, in other words, it’s anarcho-fascism—lawless thuggery wrapped in authoritarian theater.
Source: Ms. Magazine