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Thank you all for your well wishes this week. I’m back on Instagram and back on my feet. Thank you to the engineers who got my account up and running, and to the doctors who got my body functioning well again.
This week I had a chance to speak to Senator Elizabeth Warren on two pressing issues facing Congress.
First, the escalating ICE tactics we're seeing nationwide — agents in masks grabbing people off sidewalks, taking down a sitting senator, and detaining officials trying to do oversight. I asked her about her reaction to what's happening and whether there's any chance for bipartisan pushback against these tactics. She shared her deep alarm about Washington's failure to rein in what she calls increasingly rogue behavior, especially when Republican senators only express concerns "very quietly behind closed doors."
Warren is especially focused on the budget bill moving through the Senate. The House already passed its version, but this week the Senate unveiled new language with changes might surprise you. Warren describes it as "the single biggest transfer of wealth from poor and working Americans to the richest people in this country in one bill in American history."
Unfortunately Warren had to run to a Senate vote, so our conversation is abbreviated. But that makes it a quick, essential watch. Whether you agree with her perspective or not, her breakdown of both the ICE situation and the bill's specifics is worth understanding. You can watch the conversation at the top of this newsletter.
Below we get into more of the week’s news.
Here Are Your Headlines:
Not Affirming: The Supreme Court today ruled 6–3 along party lines in favor of Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors. That means similar laws in 24 other states — where over 100,000 trans minors live — will be protected from legal challenges. “This ruling creates a class of people who politicians believe deserve healthcare and a class of people who do not,” a senior attorney at the ACLU of Tennessee said.
The Law: Tennessee’s law prohibits people under the age of 18 from receiving gender affirming surgery, puberty blockers, or hormone therapy.
Majority Opinion: “This case carries with it the weight of fierce scientific and policy debates about the safety, efficacy, and propriety of medical treatments in an evolving field,” Supreme Court Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. Though the Court ruled in 2020 that transgender people are protected from workplace discrimination under the Civil Rights Act, it determined today that Tennessee’s law does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections against sex discrimination. Several European countries have restricted (though not banned) gender-affirming treatment; in February the European Academy of Pediatrics stated that “whether biomedical treatments … for gender dysphoria are effective remains contested.”
Widely Accepted: Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the decision “incredibly dangerous.” She accused her colleagues of “retreating from meaningful judicial review exactly where it matters most” and abandoning “transgender children and their families to political whims.” Multiple studies of gender-affirming care conclude that it is safe, effective, and in many cases life-saving. Every major medical group in the US, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, endorses gender-affirming healthcare as essential.
By the Numbers: Given the amount of political energy directed at transgender kids, you might think there are a lot of them. You’d be wrong. According to a 2023 CDC study, 3.3% of high-school students self-identify as transgender. But a national study of over 5 million adolescents finds that just 18,000 — 0.34% — had an actual diagnosis of gender dysphoria, and even fewer received gender-affirming care. Gender dysphoria is the distress that can occur when someone's gender identity doesn't align with their assigned sex at birth.
Stable Geniuses: The Senate yesterday passed the GENIUS Act, which establishes a regulatory framework for stablecoins. (Defined below.) The bill grants the cryptocurrency industry legitimacy without mandating particularly strict regulations or limitations. (Win for the crypto bros…) 18 Democrats joined the GOP in support of the bill; 2 Republicans voted no.
Context: A stablecoin is a digital currency (i.e., exists online, not in coin form; they call it ”on chain”) that is backed by some other currency or commodity, usually the US dollar or gold. In theory, this backing protects stablecoins from sudden price swings like those seen in other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
What the Bill Means: Companies issuing stablecoins will now have to abide by certain rules to protect consumers and prevent money laundering or funding terrorism. For example, firms must hold a reserve of assets, which would theoretically protect consumers in the event of a mass sell-off.
Pros and Cons: “This opens the floodgates,” the founder of MIT Cryptoeconomics lab and supporter of the measure, told ABC News. That could be good — or bad. “This weak bill is worse than no bill at all,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) warned last month. She compared the “thin regulation” in the legislation to the approach that helped cause the 2008 crash. You can hear more about this in my conversation with her, which is at the top of this newsletter. The legislation bans lawmakers and their families from profiting off stablecoins — but not the president.
Democracy Manifest: Federal agents detained New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander while he was observing proceedings at an immigration courthouse on Tuesday. In videos, Lander can be seen holding on to a migrant being detained by masked ICE agents; he repeatedly asks to be shown a judicial warrant before being detained himself. The Department of Homeland security claims Lander was “arrested for assaulting law enforcement,” which the New York Times noted is “a lie so brazen, given that this is all on tape … that it makes the whole episode even more chilling.” Lander has since been released and had the charges against him dropped.
Watch: Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) gave a moving, tearful speech on the Senate floor yesterday. He recounted his mistreatment at the hands of federal officers last week, who handcuffed him when he attempted to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a question. “It’s time to wake up,” he warned.
Shock Killing: Vance Boelter was charged this week with shooting two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses. State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed along with their golden retriever; state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were wounded. Boelter was dressed in tactical armor, his face covered in a silicone mask, and his outfit completed by a police-style badge. In other words, he looked like a law enforcement officer — so much so that an actual officer, who encountered Boelter near the home of a public official, assumed he was a “law enforcement officer providing protection” for the unnamed official.
Profile: Boelter seems to have been involved in a strand of militant, conservative Christianity that advocates for believers to “pray at least one violent prayer a day.” After “being oriented into this kind of … thinking,” one expert warned, “it’s just a matter of time before an individual or group of individuals take some kind of action against the enemies of God and the demons in their midst.” Officials found Boelter’s notebook, which includes about 70 potential targets, including Planned Parenthood centers, abortion advocates, and Democratic legislators. Republican lawmakers and Trump allies like Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) have boosted conspiracies that Boelter is a “Marxist,” “Democrat,” and “leftist”; Boelter’s friends described him as an evangelical conservative who attended Trump rallies and advocated against abortion.
Possible Motive: Before Rep. Hortman’s murder, Minnesota’s state House was evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. The Senate is similarly divided, with 34 Democrats and 33 Republicans.
Wider Fears: Prosecutors claim Boelter visited the homes of at least two other state lawmakers.
No Autonomy: Doctors have delivered a premature child via C-section from a brain-dead woman in Georgia who was kept on life support since February. Doctors feared taking her off would violate the state’s anti-abortion laws. Adriana Smith was declared brain dead in February while eight weeks pregnant. With the baby now delivered, she was reportedly taken off life support yesterday. The state Attorney General’s Office argued in May that the law did not require Smith be kept alive, as doctors reportedly claimed.
Even Bigger, Even Beautiful-er: Senate Republicans have released their final version of the “Big, Beautiful Bill.” Their version deepens cuts to Medicaid, decreases the cap for tax deductions, and slightly softens rollbacks to green energy tax credits. “This is political stupidity,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) said of the Medicaid cuts. “It’s political suicide.” Other Republicans oppose the bill for still not cutting enough; Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) warned the bill “is definitely dead if it were to come over to the House in anything resembling its current form.”
Too Big To Comprehend: According to Democrats, the Senate GOP’s version would impose $1 trillion in healthcare cuts to pay for tax cuts. Some 16 million Americans would lose health insurance. Some Democrats argue additional “red tape” requirements have been added specifically to make people give up on getting coverage.
Big Debt: According to an updated estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, the bill will increase the national debt by $3.4 trillion. That’s a lot more than the $2.4 trillion it originally estimated.
Fighting Back: Democrats plan to challenge non-budgetary items in the bill, like the ban on AI regulation or shuttering of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Under what’s called the Byrd Rule, budget bills can’t include “extraneous” items that would barely impact the budget; the budgetary impact of any provision must also be the reason it was included, and not “merely incidental.” For example, in 2017 Republicans attempted to include a provision defunding Planned Parenthood. It was removed for violating the Byrd Rule, because its inclusion in the budget bill was motivated by anti-abortion sentiment rather than budgetary reasons.
Will He or Won’t He: The pressing question on Iran is will Trump send US forces into direct combat with Iran. According to a new report in the Wall Street Journal, Trump told aides last night that he’s approved a US attack plan on Iran, though he hasn’t issued a final order. He’s reportedly waiting to see if Iran will give up its nuclear program before ordering a strike. Publicly, Trump insists he hasn’t made a decision. “The next week is going to be very big,” he said today. “Maybe less than a week.” Today the UK’s Prime Minister called an emergency meeting to decide whether to support the US military if they receive a request to do so.
Context: One of Iran’s nuclear sites, known as Fordo, is buried under a mountain. “The entire operation,” Israel’s ambassador to the US says, “has to be completed with the elimination of Fordo.” It’s so carefully hidden and guarded that public knowledge is limited, but analysts agree that Iran enriches uranium there. As far back as 2009, then-President Barack Obama said that “the size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program.” Targeting a facility so deeply buried and fortified requires a special kind of ordinance: a massive bunker-buster bomb. The US is the only country with that bomb and the aircraft able to deliver it — a U.S. B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. Will Trump use it? There are concerns that destroying Fordo could release radioactive material into the environment and only set Iran’s nuclear program back temporarily. “I may do it,” Trump said today, “I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.” You can read more about the decades long debate about targeting Fordo here.
