The Dictatorship
Wednesday’s Mini-Report, 6.17.26
Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The saber-rattling continues: “President Donald Trump said Wednesday at the G7 conference that the U.S. will ‘go right back to dropping bombs’ if he doesn’t like the Iran deal.”
* If White House officials were counting on a interest rate cut, they have reason to be disappointed: “Federal Reserve officials signaled Wednesday that their next move may be to raise interest rates, not cut them, a striking reversal at Kevin Warsh’s first meeting as chairman and a sign of how sharply the inflation outlook has turned. The Fed held its benchmark rate steady, in a range of 3.5% to 3.75%, in a unanimous vote.”
* On a related note: “Asked about the Fed’s decision to maintain interest rates, President Trump told reporters, ‘It’s alright, whatever.’”
* An intensifying crisis: “Health officials on Tuesday warned that the Ebola outbreak in East Africa could significantly worsen, saying it could last as long as a year and infect thousands of people if current transmission rates go on unabated. The outbreak is already one of the largest on record, and has spread most in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where distrust of the authorities and violence in eastern regions have hampered health workers’ ability to help people.”
* Adding insult to injury: “Even as the world is racing to contain the deadly Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Trump administration is moving ahead with a plan that could decimate support for programs that detect and snuff out exactly such outbreaks.”
* It’s about time: “All detainees at an immigration detention center in an isolated airstrip in the Florida Everglades, known as ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ have been transferred to other facilities, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said, citing concerns related to the hurricane season.”
* The first named storm of 2026: “Tropical Storm Arthur is the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, and it’s already bringing heavy rains to the northwestern Gulf Coast. Arthur is currently 170 miles west-southwest of Lake Charles, La., according to a National Hurricane Center advisory.”
See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”