The Morning Sixpack - September 4, 2025

Trump tariffs at SCOTUS, GOP rushes Fed pick, RFK Jr. grilled on CDC chaos, FL ends mandates, weak jobs, new MAGA-led Jan. 6 probe

Trump Tariffs Head to the Supreme Court in Record Time

Trump’s trade war is on life support—and he’s racing to the Supreme Court for a legal ventilator.

The administration filed an emergency petition asking the justices to fast-track review a lower-court ruling that said Trump overstepped his authority by slapping tariffs on, well, basically everyone, haphazardly and for no reasons whatsoever, certainly not emergencies due to fentanyl, immigration, or trade imbalances.

Solicitor General John Sauer begged the Court to confirm the tariffs “to the maximum extent feasible,” claiming the White House can’t afford to wait around.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent chimed in with a doomsday memo: Global partners are questioning Trump’s authority, talks are stalling, and unwinding tariffs later could “cause significant disruption.” He even tossed out the number—up to $1 trillion in tariffs at risk of being reversed. Translation: This isn’t just a trade spat, it’s a potential economic implosion.

Meanwhile, the small businesses footing the bill are pleading for relief. “These unlawful tariffs are inflicting serious harm on small businesses and jeopardizing their survival,” said Jeffrey Schwab of the Liberty Justice Center. Hard to argue with that when your neighborhood wine importer is suddenly operating like it’s Prohibition.

The legal fight boils down to Trump’s creative use of a 1977 emergency powers law to justify global tariffs. A federal appeals court wasn’t buying it, ruling 7–4 that the statute doesn’t give the president the power to impose taxes. If the Supreme Court upholds that view, Trump’s crowning trade-policy achievement goes up in smoke—taking about 70% of future tariff revenue with it.

For now, the tariffs remain in place, but the clock is ticking. Trump warned that scrapping them would mean “devastation” for the country. Then again, the same guy once said tariffs are paid by foreign countries, so maybe double-check the math and the shit between his ears.

Source: Wall Street Journal (gift article)

Tariffs as “emergency powers” is peak Trump: Declare a crisis, cash in, and dare the courts to stop you. The man treats the Constitution like a Groupon code—good for whatever he’s buying this week.

GOP Tries a Speed-Run: Rush Stephen Miran onto the Fed Before the Next Rate Vote

Republicans are trying to strap a rocket to Stephen Miran’s nomination and land him on the Fed board before the Sept. 16 meeting.

With Trump demanding lower borrowing costs yesterday, Senate Republicans are sprinting to confirm the Council of Economic Advisers chair in less than 10 legislative days—hearing, committee vote, floor debate, the whole gauntlet. The goal is obvious: Get Miran seated in time to nudge a rate cut that Trump needs to tamp down the looming recession.

Democrats—and a few GOP skeptics—are throwing sand in the gears, pointing to the White House’s broader effort to bend the Fed to its will, including the attempt to oust Governor Lisa Cook over alleged mortgage fraud. Even some Republicans want assurances this won’t turn the central bank into a campaign arm.

As Sen. Mike Rounds put it, he’ll press Miran on “how important [Fed independence] is to the long-term success of the president’s economic plans and to the long-term stability of the dollar.”

Leadership is even eyeing rule changes to fast-track confirmations, but unanimity is fragile and clocks don’t care about talking points.

Then there’s the bigger picture: Trumpworld is running a full-court press on monetary policy. Senators like John Kennedy say they want to hear Miran pledge independence: “I don’t believe in having a Federal Reserve that acts on political considerations. I believe the Federal Reserve should be independent—and as evidence of that, I give you Turkey.” If Miran gets through on this timeline, expect the White House to walk into the next FOMC meeting a lot more confident.

Source: Semafor

If your plan for “strong, independent central banking” involves speed-dating nominees 10 days before a rate decision, maybe buy the flowers after the wedding, champ.

Let’s remember what the Senate did with the Justice Amy Coney Barrett… From nomination to confirmation took 30 days, which is about twice as fast as “normal” (since 1954, the average has been 55 days).

So this CAN happen.

RFK Jr. Faces the Senate with a Gut-Punched CDC and a Vaccine Agenda on Fire

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. walks into Senate Finance with a burned-down CDC, a war on vaccines, and a chorus demanding his resignation.

Kennedy arrives a week after pushing out new CDC chief Susan Monarez—then watching three senior CDC officials quit in protest—while HHS reels from an exodus approaching a quarter of its workforce. Officially, Thursday’s hearing is about the White House’s 2026 health agenda. In reality, it’s a stress test of whether Kennedy can defend chaos as “reform” and sell “Make America Healthy Again” without a functional public-health engine.

Expect senators to replay Kennedy’s pre-confirmation pledge—“If confirmed, I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines”—and ask why access to the new COVID booster is already spotty. He axed a key vaccine advisory panel in June and staffed it with longtime anti-vaccine allies who will soon weigh COVID, RSV, and measles recommendations. If those shift, insurers, pharmacies, and schools won’t just feel it—they’ll rewrite policies around it.

Kennedy’s counter is blunt: The CDC is broken and needs a reset. In his WSJ op-ed, he blasted “bureaucratic inertia, politicized science and mission creep,” promising to refocus on infectious disease and “rebuild trust through integrity and transparency.” He also shrugged off high-profile departures on Fox News, framing the churn as necessary housecleaning. Translation: The outages are a feature, not a bug.

Meanwhile, he’s touring with governors to police Cheetos while the lab lights flicker. Kennedy is touting state pushes to slash additives and block sugary-drink purchases with benefits, pitching it as the front line against chronic disease. Fine—nutrition matters—but it’s odd to wage war on Red Dye No. 40 while sidelining the country’s immunization backbone.

Source: NPR

If your health strategy is firing epidemiologists and lecturing kids about Skittles, you’re not reforming HHS—you’re running a wellness blog with subpoena power.

Private Hiring Stalls as Job Market Momentum Runs Out of Gas

The U.S. private sector added just 54,000 jobs in August—well short of expectations and a clear sign the labor market is losing steam.

ADP’s Thursday report showed hiring fell well below the 75,000 jobs economists had forecast and came in at barely half of July’s revised 106,000. As ADP chief economist Nela Richardson put it, “The year started with strong job growth, but that momentum has been whipsawed by uncertainty.” Translation: Workers and businesses alike are looking over their shoulders as the Trump tariff fiasco worries business leaders and looming inflation and recession weigh on the economy.

The pain points are clear: Trade, transportation, and utilities shed 17,000 jobs, while education and health services lost another 12,000. The only real bright spot was leisure and hospitality, which added 50,000 jobs—because apparently, Americans will cut everything except their bar tabs and vacation plans.

Wage growth is holding steady, with job-stayers seeing a 4.4% bump year-over-year and job-hoppers pulling in 7.1%. But that’s little comfort when jobless claims climbed to 237,000 and job openings just hit one of their lowest points since the pandemic era. The hiring engine is coughing, and Friday’s government jobs report could confirm it.

Markets aren’t waiting. Traders now see a 97% chance of the Fed cutting rates at its September meeting, up from 96.6% yesterday. Rate cuts may be inevitable, but they’re not a cure for layoffs in trucking, teaching, or utilities. They’re more like aspirin for a patient who needs heart surgery.

Source: CNBC

When leisure and hospitality is carrying the job market on its back, you know we’re basically just drinking our way through the downturn.

Florida Moves to Scrap All Vaccine Mandates, Sparking Public Health Alarm

Florida’s surgeon general says the state will end every vaccine mandate, even for schoolchildren—cheers from the crowd, panic from doctors.

At a Wednesday press conference, Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo declared, “All of them. All of them. Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”

Says the Black man…

He called mandates “immoral” and insisted government has no right to dictate what people put in their bodies. The room erupted in applause, but public health leaders across the country immediately raised red flags.

Florida law currently requires kids to be vaccinated to attend public schools. That safeguard is now on the chopping block. “The idea that children would be allowed to go to school unvaccinated is absolutely frightening,” said Dr. Richard Besser, a former CDC acting director. Pediatric groups warned this would roll back decades of progress against measles, polio, and other preventable diseases.

Ladapo insisted the state isn’t banning vaccines, just mandates. “You want to put whatever different vaccines in your body, God bless you. You don’t want to put whatever vaccines in your body, God bless you,” he said. Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine critic ally Dr. Robert Malone praised Ladapo as “a measured scientist who is on fire to change the system for the better.” That endorsement alone tells you where this train is headed.

The announcement coincided with Gov. Ron DeSantis launching the “Make America Healthy Again” commission, chaired by First Lady Casey DeSantis and stacked with administration loyalists. The commission is aligned with Trump and Kennedy’s national push to reshape U.S. health policy around “freedom of choice” over vaccines. Translation: Fewer shots, more slogans. Or, #FAFO.

Source: NBC News

Nothing screams “public health leadership” like throwing open the school doors to measles while setting up a commission with a campaign slogan baked into the name.

COVID broke more than a few brains. This guy has cred… and then in 2020-21, he decided that he knew more about infectious disease prevention than the actual experts and here we are.

House GOP Launches New Jan. 6 Probe, Rewriting the Rewrite

House Republicans just created a new subcommittee to “investigate” Jan. 6, four years and one 845-page report after the first probe already did it.

The resolution establishing the panel was slipped into a House rule vote Wednesday, blindsiding Democrats. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), long accused by critics of coddling conspiracy theories, is expected to lead the effort.

Republicans insist the original Democratic-led committee was biased against Trump, who has since pardoned or commuted sentences for nearly every Jan. 6 defendant.

Let’s not forget that Trump was IMPEACHED over Jan6 because he incited it and then did NOTHING to stop it. Fuck that guy and all the “Republicans” in Congress.

Loudermilk says the new inquiry will zero in on security failures, pipe bombs, and supposed inaccuracies in the original report. “I think it’s clear there’s a lot of information in that select committee report that is just not accurate,” he said. Democrats like Rep. Jamie Raskin fired back, calling the move “yet another chance to remind Americans of House Republicans’ ongoing complicity with—and embarrassing apologetics for—MAGA’s violent insurrection.”

Speaker Mike Johnson claims the panel will “uncover the full truth that is owed to the American people.” But critics note the first investigation already uncovered Trump’s role in inciting the mob and prompted DOJ prosecutions. Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chaired that committee, dismissed the reboot: “You can’t rewrite history, even though you might not like what occurred and what people saw with their own eyes.”

The GOP’s latest move reflects Trump’s grip on the party—he ran again, won, and is now granting clemency to rioters once described as “patriots.” Democrats argue this new panel isn’t about truth but about laundering the narrative for 2026. And they’re not wrong.

Source: Washington Post (gift article)

If the first Jan. 6 probe was “biased,” then this one is like letting the getaway driver run the crash investigation.