Trump's Get Out Of Jail Card & SpaceX's Historic IPO Plan

Hi readers, happy Thursday! Today we’re covering Tuesday’s contentious primary elections, developments in Iran, a crisis in Bolivia, Putin’s Beijing visit, Trump’s immunity play, cops vs. Trump’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” and SpaceX’s IPO.

“A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

Trump Takes Massie To Task(ie)

Midterm season is officially entering full swing, and Tuesday marked the busiest election day so far this year. Voters in six states cast their ballots in primary elections on Tuesday, with a Congressional race in Kentucky capturing most of the headlines.

Thomas Massie, the incumbent representative for Kentucky’s 4th congressional district, lost to Trump-backed candidate Ed Gallrein in the Republican primary on Tuesday. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and two other pro-Israel political groups poured a whopping $16 million into ads criticizing Massie, making the race the most expensive House primary in history (with $32 million spent). That’s because Massie is a vocal critic of U.S. aid to Israel (as well as other Middle Eastern countries!), and also opposed Trump’s war with Iran. “Massie has been one of the most consistently hostile voices in Congress toward the U.S.-Israel relationship and the millions of Americans who support it. Our community was proud to support Gallrein and help ensure Massie’s defeat.” AIPAC wrote on X. “I would have come out sooner but I had to call my opponent and concede, and it took a while to find Ed Gallrein in Tel Aviv,” said Massie in his concession speech.

In an unusual move, both Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth personally traveled to Kentucky in order to rally votes for Massie’s opponent. That’s because Massie has been hounding the president over the Epstein files, and because the GOP has a razor-thin majority in the House. When margins come down to just a few votes, Republicans need to make sure that their legislators are voting together, especially on contentious issues like the Iran war. While the primary itself was a great source of entertainment due to the sheer volume of mud-slinging involved, it also reflects Trump’s continued influence over Republican voters despite his slumping approval ratings. 

The Strait Is Out Of Its Straitjacket (For Now)

According to international shipping data, one South Korea-flagged tanker carrying 2 million barrels of oil and two Chinese-flagged tankers bearing similar loads were able to exit the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, joining the handful of other tankers that have been able to make it out of the strait over the past few weeks. This doesn’t mean that the strait is actually safe for other tankers to make the same journey, but it does raise questions about Iran’s control of the critical waterway.

Earlier this week, Iran sent a peace plan to the White House, which was quickly rejected due to its similarity to previous proposals. Yesterday, Trump indicated that he’d be willing to wait a few more days to “get the right answers” from Iran, but also threatened that the U.S. is willing to attack the country in order to force an end to the war. “Either have a deal or ​we're going to do some things that are a little bit nasty, but hopefully that won't happen,” he told reporters. “Ideally I'd like to see few ⁠people killed, as opposed to a lot. We can do it either way.”

“If aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will extend beyond the region ​this time,” replied Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry added that it was engaging in peace negotiations “with seriousness and good faith, but it has strong and reasonable suspicion over America's performance.” The interior minister of Pakistan (which has been facilitating the negotiations) was in Tehran yesterday, which might signal that another peace proposal is coming soon.

Bolivia Under Blockade

• The six-month-old government of Bolivia – led by center-right, pro-American president Rodrigo Paz Pereira – is under threat. Over the past two weeks, a growing number of Bolivians have taken to the streets protesting the country’s ongoing economic crisis, which has seen the nation face dollar and fuel shortages while inflation runs rampant. 

• To be clear, Bolivia’s economy was already struggling before Paz Pereira took office, but while he promised to save the country via “economic shock therapy,” his policies – such as ending a decades-long fuel subsidy and importing low-quality gasoline, which damaged vehicles across the nation – didn’t help at all.

• Now, it appears that Bolivians have had enough of the Paz Pereira administration. Demonstrators have set up roadblocks all across the country, bringing the economy to a screeching halt (experts estimate that the economy is losing $50 million per day due to the blockages). Trump’s White House, a close ally of the young neoliberal government, has characterized the protests as a “coup d’état,” as Bolivian police forces continue to clash with protestors.

Xi Puts Putin In Trump’s Seat

• A week after hosting Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to Beijing as well. Putin was given a welcome mirroring Trump’s, including a military honor guard and a display of cannon fire. The identical diplomatic summits, held one after the other, are clearly an attempt by Beijing to position itself as a neutral party engaged with both of the rival nations.

• While the warm meetings with two of the most powerful countries in the world might be a messaging win for China, Putin’s visit (much like Trump’s) didn’t lead to any concrete, actionable takeaways. The leaders did sign off on a 9,935-word joint statement outlining shared sentiments on nuclear security, Taiwan, and various animals (including Amur tigers, giant pandas, and golden snub-nosed monkeys), but weren’t able to flesh out a concrete agreement regarding their shared Power ​of Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline, which is still missing a timetable and other key details.

Additional World News

• Israeli security minister stirs diplomatic outrage with flotilla activist abuse video (Guardian)

• Trump says he will speak to Taiwan President Lai about arms sales (BBC)

• Germany's Merz pitches 'associate' EU membership for Ukraine (Reuters)

• Ukraine's attack on Moscow is another sign the war is not so distant anymore for Russians (AP)

• China’s Housing Slump Shows Signs of Bottoming Out. We’ve Been Here Before. (NYT, $)

• Trump and Netanyahu diverge on Iran war’s future in tense phone call (CNN)

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Trump Gets A Get Out Of Jail Card

• On Tuesday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that, as part of the larger settlement between Trump and his IRS, the government will basically grant Trump blanket immunity from any legal claims – present and future – filed by the federal government. 

• That sounds crazy, so here’s the specifics of the settlement. As stated in a document released by Blanche on Tuesday, the entire federal government – every agency – will be “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting or pursuing” Trump, the entire Trump family, every Trump entity, and every Trump trust if those legal cases are: (1) related to any matter that was “raised or could have been raised” in Trump’s case against the IRS; (2) somehow defined as “Lawfare and/or Weaponization”; or (3) include “any matters currently pending or that could be pending (including tax returns filed before the Effective Date) before Defendants or other agencies or departments.”

• That statement casts a very, very wide scope of immunity for Trump and his associates, and can’t be undone at the moment because it’s already been agreed to by Trump’s government. But that doesn’t mean it will actually last “FOREVER.” For example, a  future Department of Justice could go back and nullify the settlement for its legal overreach, and the settlement also doesn’t affect state governments’ ability to file cases against Trump or his affiliates. But it does grant them some immunity… for now.

These Cops Are Policing The Government

• Two police officers who defended the Capitol during the January 6 riots are suing the federal government in an attempt to block the operations of Trump’s new $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which was set up as part of a settlement deal Trump has struck up with his own government. The fund is set up to pay “victims of lawfare and weaponization,” and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has refused to rule out the possibility that it could be used to give federal money to January 6 rioters.

• The attorneys representing officers Daniel Hodges and Harry Dunn, who were both attacked by rioters on January 6, described the fund as “the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century.” Their suit claims that the fund“encourages those who enacted violence in the President’s name to continue to do so,” adding that their clients “already face credible threats of death and violence on a regular basis; the Fund substantially increases the danger.” The officers are asking for the fund to be dissolved and for any payouts it’s made to be reversed.

Additional USA News

• Bipartisan home affordability bill passes the House (NPR)

• Trump moves to police frontier AI models (Politico)

• US charges Raúl Castro with murder as Trump escalates pressure on Cuba (Reuters)

• After Town Bans Flock, Councilmember Crashes Out, Proposes Internet and Phone Ban (404 Media) 

• Texas Inspectors Find Mysterious Pipe Discharging Black Liquid at Tesla’s $1 Billion Lithium Refinery (autoNotion)

• 3 dead in New Mexico and first responders decontaminated after exposure to unknown substance (AP)

SpaceX Takes To The Launchpad

• Elon Musk’s SpaceX unveiled its initial public offering (IPO) plans yesterday. The company is preparing to offer its shares on Wall Street in a move that will easily be the largest IPO in Wall Street history – most likely, the transaction will also make Elon Musk the first trillionaire ever.

• Currently, SpaceX values itself at $1.25 trillion. Musk holds a majority stake in the company, worth over $600 billion according to that valuation. According to its filings, SpaceX inked a net loss of $4.9 billion in 2025 despite racking up $18.67 billion in revenue – in the first quarter of this year, the company had a $4.27 billion net loss on $4.69 billion in revenue. 

• You might think of SpaceX as a rocket and satellite company, but it’s now also involved in AI and social media. Earlier this year, the company acquired xAI, Musk’s AI lab, which itself recently merged with X (fka Twitter). We don’t yet know how many shares the company plans to offer – or how much they’ll cost – but those details will be made public in the near future.

Additional Reads

• OpenAI to confidentially file for IPO as soon as Friday (CNBC) 

• The 13 biggest announcements at Google I/O 2026 (Verge) 

• This animal kills 100,000 people a year. Why can’t we stop it? (Vox)

• Why the Amish Are Falling in Love With AI (NYMag)

• For some exercisers, a healthy habit spins out of control (Psyche)

• The South Koreans Cheering for a Visiting North Korean Soccer Team (NYT, $)

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