Trump Meets With South Korean President Amidst Concerns Over Their Democracy

Lee Jae Myung was elected in June after the over-reach and imposition of martial law by his predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol. Yoon was then quickly re-arrested by the leftist President Lee. In the months hence, Lee has been governing in a way that has led to concern over the future democratic governance on the southern portion of the Korean peninsula. Gordon Chang—a keen observer of southeast Asia for decades—has been sounding the alarm for months: “This is the moment that history will remember. We stand with you”; “President Trump, please tell Lee Jae-myung that he must end his attack on Korea’s democracy”; “South Korea’s democracy is dying.” (X, X, X). On Monday, the president was blunt on his Truth Social account: WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA? Seems like a Purge or Revolution. We can’t have that and do business there. I am seeing the new President today at the White House. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!! (Truth). The president dialed back the rhetoric in the wake of the meeting, but the point—we can hope—was made: The U.S. is watching closely:  “I am sure it’s a misunderstanding, but there’s a rumor going around about raiding churches,” President Trump said to Lee during a meeting in the Oval Office on Monday. “I’m sure that its going to be worked out fine,” Trump continued. Lee clarified that the raids were part of a “fact-finding investigation” into the “coup” by the former president, led by a special prosecutor outside the president’s control. Lee confirmed that there was a raid on the joint Osan Air Base in July but said that the country confined the operation to the “control system of the Korean military” and didn’t “conduct a search and seizure of American bases” (Axios).

Trump, South Korean President Focus on Shipbuilding and a Remaining Tariff Threat

The business on the table for Lee’s meeting with Trump focused on tariffs and shipbuilding. Bloomberg: President Donald Trump refused to change the terms of South Korea’s tariff agreement, despite a lobbying effort from President Lee Jae Myung during their first in-person meeting. Trump and Lee on Monday expressed optimism for close cooperation on North Korea, collective security and shipbuilding, yet the deal setting a 15% tariff on South Korean goods will remain unchanged, according to the US president. “We stuck to our guns,” the president told reporters Monday after the meeting. “They’re going to make the deal that they agreed to make” (Bloomberg). Wall Street Journal: In July, as the U.S. and South Korea entered a decisive phase of trade talks between the two countries, South Korean negotiators brought a sealed box for their American counterparts. Inside the box—which had been rushed from South Korea to Washington on a Korean Air flight—sat 10 red baseball caps bearing the slogan “Make America Shipbuilding Great Again,” or MASGA. U.S. and Korean flags adorned the hats. Along with the hats came a pledge: Seoul promised to spend $150 billion to help the U.S. revive its ship manufacturing, which has fallen badly behind China and has become a central concern for the Trump administration. “Great idea,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told the South Korean negotiators. The two sides soon sealed a trade agreement that, along with investment pledges for ships and other sectors, cut the country’s reciprocal tariff rate and levies on cars. Seoul agreed to buy $100 billion in U.S. energy, too (Wall Street Journal).  

Trump Signs Executive Order Ending Cashless Bail in DC

Signed in the White House on Monday. From the order: It is therefore the policy of my Administration that all necessary and lawful measures be taken to end cashless bail policies and ensure the pretrial detention of any criminal suspect who threatens public safety (Whitehouse). Wall Street Journal: Wall Street Journal: The D.C. order offers several routes to end the policy locally, where Trump has more control over law enforcement than in other major cities. It specifically asks Bondi to hold suspects arrested in the city in federal custody when possible, and in some cases, hold suspects in jail via additional powers she has over the city’s criminal justice system bestowed upon her by an emergency order Trump signed earlier this month. Additionally, Trump directed his administration to identify other actions—including withholding federal funding—to press the city to end its policy (Wall Street Journal).

Trump Signs Additional Executive Order to Pressuring States and Major Cities to End Cashless Bail

The president’s authority in in DC is cut-and-dry: He can change the practice there. As for the nation at large, it’s more complicated. Matthew Xaio of the Free Beacon explains: The executive order “directs the Attorney General to submit a list of States and local jurisdictions with cashless bail policies” and “instructs the Administration to identify Federal funds currently provided to cashless bail jurisdictions that may be suspended or terminated,” according to a White House fact sheet. The fact sheet points to New York City, California’s Yolo County, and Rockford, Ill., as three locations where cashless bail policies have led to the release of criminals who went on to commit more crimes (Free Beacon). From the order: It is therefore the policy of my Administration that Federal policies and resources should not be used to support jurisdictions with cashless bail policies, to the maximum extent permitted by law (White House).

Trump’s Cornering Strategy

In focusing on issues like policing and crime and enforcement of penalties, the American people are overwhelming with the president. His political adversaries have been taking the president’s bait hook, line and sinker. Ed Morrissey explains: Bill Clinton employed a triangulation strategy to co-opt Republican voters. Donald Trump has spent the first seven months of his presidency employing a cornering strategy. Trump has used his bully pulpit — perhaps in the most literal sense since the Roosevelts — to force Democrats to corner themselves onto the fringe positions on issues that matter most to American voters. This month, Trump has used executive action on crime to force Democrats to side with criminals. He’s about to force them to double down with his latest move to end cashless bail in Washington DC, and his efforts to use federal funding to leverage the same change across the country…. What Trump wants with both policies, though, is to bait Pritzker, Newsom, and other Democrat leaders into a fight where they have to defend lawlessness and crime. Furthermore, the success thus far of the National Guard mission in DC — where no murders have taken place in almost two weeks now — creates a sharp contrast to the progressive policies in other blue-city and blue-state jurisdictions where crime is out of control. Trump is cornering Democrats into doubling down on their failed progressive governance … and so far is succeeding at it, too. When Salena Zito warned people to take Trump seriously rather than literally, this is precisely what she meant. Democrats are still falling for this cornering strategy, and in fact are getting worse at recognizing it, because they think shrieking over Trump matters more than fixing the real problems their failed policies have created. One has to wonder what it will take for Democrats to break this spell, but don’t expect them to wake up and smell the coffee burning any time soon (Hot Air).

Drug Cartel Leader “El Mayo” Pleads Guilty Pleads Guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court

The patriarch of the Sinaloa Cartel was captured in July last year. He thought he was boarding a plane to meet with the governor of the Mexican state of Sinaloa (Hill). The guilty plea will keep him behind bars for the rest of his life. Attorney General Pam Bondi: “This foreign terrorist committed horrific crimes against the American people — he will now pay for those crimes by spending the rest of his life behind bars in an American prison,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Today marks a crucial victory in President Trump’s ongoing fight to completely eliminate foreign terrorist organizations and protect American citizens from deadly drugs and violence.” “Today’s plea is a proud moment for the FBI and its partners as the founders of a notoriously violent drug trafficking organization, one that engages in an array of illegal activity including murder and corruption, face the consequences of their actions,” said FBI Director Kash Patel (Justice). Wall Street Journal: Zambada has information U.S. authorities would love to know, said Margarito Flores, who with his twin brother made Chicago a drug-distribution hub for Sinaloa before becoming informants for U.S. authorities. “Zambada is the Sinaloa Cartel,” said Flores, who now runs a consulting firm that teaches police officers how to catch drug traffickers. Zambada styled himself a plain-spoken cattleman, but had an air of command, said Flores, who met many times with Zambada at a mansion in Culiacán and a ranch in the Sinaloa mountains. During the eight or so years Flores worked for Zambada, he sold some 80 tons of cocaine for the drug boss, sending back to Mexico some $3 billion in bulk cash to the Sinaloa Cartel, Flores said. “He knew how powerful he was, and spoke of himself in the third person,” said Flores (Wall Street Journal).

Trump Escalates Battle Over Blue Slips

A “blue slip” is the figurative label of a Senate protocol that only allows a federal judge nomination to move forward if both Senators from the relevant state agree. In the era of Trump, Democrats are stonewalling all they can. Senators—given to decorum and tradition and more accustomed to at least a semblance of bipartisanship—don’t want to abandon the practice. Politico: President Donald Trump is escalating his war against a long-time Senate precedent that allows home-state senators to effectively block district court and U.S. attorney nominees they oppose. Over the past 24 hours, Trump has gone from calling out Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley for upholding the so-called blue slip practice to announcing plans to launch a long-shot lawsuit arguing that it’s unconstitutional. “We’re … going to be filing a lawsuit on blue slipping,” Trump told reporters Monday. “You know, blue slips make it impossible for me as president to appoint a judge or U.S. Attorney because they have a gentlemen’s agreement. It’s nothing memorialized, it’s a gentlemen’s agreement that’s about 100 years old” (Politico). The Hill: Trump’s latest salvo grated on GOP senators who were already frustrated with the president’s attacks on Grassley, the longest-serving senator of the current Congress who has been a stalwart in the GOP conference for decades. Many believe the barbs are unwarranted and that Trump is making a strategic error. “Why you’re picking a fight you can’t win is really beyond most of our comprehension,” one Senate Republican told The Hill. “It also doesn’t make sense in the face of other members who have said regardless of what the chair may do that I would uphold the blue slip policy for the remainder of this Congress,” the Senate GOP member continued. “It makes no sense picking a fight that the president has no way of winning. Period. Full stop.” Trump’s initial comments came on Sunday night when he declared that his “Constitutional Right” to appoint judges and U.S. attorneys “has been completely taken away from me” (Hill).

Thousands Rally in Sacramento Against Parent-Threatening Legislation; “This is just insane”

The legislation—that we’ve looked at here in Daybreak in recent days—is AB 495, a bill that would make it exceedingly easy for parents to lose custody of their child. ABC Reports on last week’s protest: A controversial bill that would allow short-term guardianship for children whose parents are deported or detained by ICE led to pushback from hundreds of people at the state capitol on Tuesday. “‘The Family Preparedness Plan Act’ creates a new joint guardianship process allowing parents facing any long-term separation to designate a joint guardian while preserving their parental rights upon their return,” said the author of AB 495, Assemblymember Celeste Rodriguez. As AB 495 continues to move forward in the California legislature, on Tuesday hundreds of people rallied on the steps of the Capitol against the bill. AB 495 is aiming to expand authorization of who can become a child’s caregiver to “… any adult caregiver who has an established familial or mentoring relationship with the child..” Language that is concerning other assemblymembers. “It does not just pertain to children who are here with undocumented parents that have been detained. Instead, it applies to all children, in any circumstance, where a complete stranger can simply claim authority over a child, and then start making all sorts of decisions for the child’s welfare, for health treatment. This is just insane,” said Assemblymember Carl DeMaio (ABC). California Family Council: Speakers throughout the day emphasized that AB 495’s danger lies not in abstract hypotheticals but in very real consequences. Legal experts agreed with California School Boards Association legal guidance, schools can release children to anyone presenting a caregiver affidavit, even if parents never approved that person. For families, this means a neighbor, activist, or even a casual acquaintance could lawfully remove their child from school without the parents’ knowledge. Alliance Defending Freedom’s legal team, along with other constitutional attorneys, issued clear warnings: AB 495 undermines parental rights, lacks due process, and exposes children to potential harm (California Family).

Democrats Gather in Minneapolis Over Concerns Their Party Is in Freefall; DNC “almost irrelevant”

Honest normal Democrats are concerned about the trajectory of their party. This summer’s conference of the DNC has given them little reason for comfort. It started with a land acknowledgement: “The DNC acknowledges and honors the Dakota … people, who are the original stewards of the lands and waters of Minneapolis,” a speaker from the Saginaw Ojibwe Nation said in a clip posted to the social media platform X. “The Dakota cared for the lands, lakes, and … the great river, the Mississippi River, for thousands of years before colonization,” the speaker continued. “This land was not claimed or traded; it’s a part of a history of broken treaties and promises. And, in many ways, we still live in a system built to suppress indigenous peoples’ cultural and spiritual history (Western Journal). DNC Chair Ken Martin is panicky over the Dems lack of a spine: DNC Chair Ken Martin: “We cannot be the only party that plays by the rules anymore. We’ve got to stand up and fight. We’re not going to have a hand tied behind our back anymore. Let’s grow a damn spine and get in this fight Democrats!” (C-SPAN). CNN: CNN’s conversations with over three dozen Democratic elected officials, top aides, donors, DNC insiders and other leading party figures reveal Martin’s paradox: The state party chairs and other insiders who chose Martin as chair think he’s doing great, while many of the leaders and strategists otherwise charged with trying to get the party back into shape tell CNN they barely think of him at all. The DNC is “almost irrelevant,” said Tory Gavito, a Democratic activist and president of Way to Win, a group made up of major donors (CNN).

The Problem With Today’s Democrats: They’re Crazy

Victor Davis Hanson expounds on what drove today’s second major party to near irrelevance for the working class and the middle class: irony abounds when Democrats resonate with the claims of the vestigial Never Trumpers that the MAGA movement “hijacked” the Republican Party. In characteristic projectionist fashion, the left is simply falsely attributing to their opposition the very hijacking that hit the Democratic Party…. The Democratic project is bleeding out because it either does not address what the middle class is worried about, or it offers no solution to popular anger—namely over inflation, the out-of-control DEI commissariat, illegal immigration, crime, high energy prices and tyrannical Green New Deal policies, steep interest rates, unaffordable housing costs, and anemic foreign policies. Instead of winning on issues, the left resorts to melodramas that no one believes in anymore: the planet is about to boil, requiring net-zero elimination of affordable fossil fuels!…  But while the public knows how the left/Democratic agenda is imploding, they are confused over why the Democratic Party is hellbent on such nihilist missions. Why did Democrats become unrecognizable to the middle class, and who is responsible for their collective self-destruction? Globalization, Illegal Immigration, The Rise of the Guilt-Ridden Professional, Higher Education…. Add it all up, and there is no more Democratic Party as America once knew it. The Democrats abandoned the middle class because they saw it as a global loser and themselves as worldwide winners (American Greatness).