| Leave it to Wall Street to one-up the most dramatic event of the week (the Summer I Turned Pretty season premiere, duh) with its reaction to reports that President Donald Trump was planning to fire Jerome Powell. In case you missed it, two individuals in a closed-door meeting with the president on Tuesday said Trump displayed a letter authorizing Powell's firing. Naturally, this sent markets into a tizzy. But hours later, Trump denied any plans to axe the Fed Chair. I, for one, am growing tired of this will-he-won't-he-fire-Powell game. And so is Ernie Tedeschi, who says "ending Powell's term as Fed chair early could have a profound impact on the economy and the cost of living for Americans." On Wednesday, Trump said he "was surprised" that Mr. "Too Late" was appointed in the first place. Need I remind you, it was Trump who appointed Powell to lead the Fed in 2017. In hindsight, Powell might be one of Trump's least controversial appointments. Take Alina Habba, the president's nominee for US attorney in New Jersey. In Barbara McQuade's eyes, Habba is "a partisan warrior unfit to serve as the state's top federal prosecutor." Mere days after being installed as the interim attorney, Habba broke one of the cardinal rules of federal prosecutors — don't appear biased — when she said "we could turn New Jersey red" on a podcast. She also cosplayed a cop on the job, turning a raid into a perp-walk photoshoot. A number of New Jersey Democrats who have opposed Trump's immigration policies — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Governor Philip D. Murphy, Representative LaMonica McIvor — have been caught in Habba's crosshairs. Barbara calls Habba's actions against the politicians "an aggressive use of prosecutorial discretion to score political points." Her resume is also under scrutiny, with a group of 42 professors from New Jersey law schools noting "her lack of any prosecutorial experience and a demonstrated lack of competence in civil cases." Yet Trump doesn't seem to care much for resumes these days, judging by Karishma Vaswani's latest dispatch on ambassadorial nominations in Singapore and Malaysia: "The White House has tapped a self-professed Hooters fan and an orthopedic surgeon for two key postings in Southeast Asia, a front line in the battle for influence between the US and China," she writes. Singapore envoy-nominee Anjani Sinha, whose bio can be boiled down to being "a friend of President Trump for over a decade," failed to answer a number of questions about trade surpluses, military exercises and tariff policy at his confirmation hearing. His potential counterpart in Malaysia, Nicholas Adams, is even more cause for concern: "The 40-year-old, originally from Australia, became a US citizen in 2021. In his native country, Adams courted some controversy: He was the youngest-ever deputy mayor when he served on a council in Sydney's inner western suburbs, where he made headlines for calling for the eradication of pigeons and proposing DNA testing dog poo. The right-wing influencer has a strong conservative following, many of whom adore him for his alpha-male persona." His history of Islamophobic remarks, on the other hand, is not going over well. With both nominations, Karishma says the Trump administration shows that "it's not expertise in a region that lands you the job — it's access to the man at the top." Here's hoping the next person helming the Federal Reserve bucks that trend. Here's some good news: Amidst what Patricia Lopez calls "the cruelest crackdown on immigration in modern history," Americans are fiercely rejecting Trump's message around mass deportations. "A new Gallup poll shows that 79% of those polled — a record high — say immigration is good for the country, with only 17% saying it is bad. And the number of Americans who want less immigration is dropping fast. Only 30% now support more restrictions, compared to 55% in 2024," she writes. Even Trump's supporters have changed their tune: "64% of Republicans say immigration is a net benefit to the country. Just a year ago that figure stood at 39%."  A lot has changed since last year. In 2024, not many ordinary people were confronting ICE, yet Erika D. Smith says that's common practice these days. "On a recent sunny morning in an immigrant neighborhood of Los Angeles, children gathered for summer camp. Then dozens of federal agents rolled in — on horseback, in armored vehicles and on foot, all wearing tactical vests and helmets fit for war," she writes. "LA resident Mikema Nahmir told reporters that he was out for a walk when he spotted two women yelling about la migra. He joined dozens of citizens and activists recording the scene with their cell phones and helping the children to safety. Soon, the agents left without arresting anyone." Stories like this are multiplying by the day, with activists taking turns patrolling streets, Home Depot parking lots and hotlines. In the event of an altercation with ICE, Erika says they have their smartphones at the ready. Such interventions can play a pivotal role in optics: "Unlike crackdowns from earlier eras, social media is playing a pivotal role in this one," Patricia writes. "Trump can't control the narrative here against an endless stream of TikTok videos and Instagram Reels that show the brutal reality of roundups and raids, family separations, arrests and lockups." As it turns out, watching a farm worker plummet to his death while being chased by ICE agents is not something that people are okay with. | 
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