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09.08.25

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Questions? Comments? what.matters@cnn.com

by Zachary B. Wolf

'Chipocalypse Now.' Trump trolled Chicago with "Apocalypse Now" themed social media post as city braces for immigration crackdown. "I love the smell of deportations in the morning … Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR." Later clarified the US is not going to war with Chicago. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called Trump's post "not normal." 

'Patriot 2.0.' Trump administration launches immigration enforcement effort in Massachusetts. Blames Boston Mayor Michelle Wu for sanctuary policies. Administration officials discussed operation for weeks, sources said. 

'Problem areas.' Other so-called sanctuary cities on alert. "You can expect action in most sanctuary cities across the country," border czar said.  

Supreme Court backs 'roving' ICE patrols in California. At issue were several incidents where masked, heavily armed agents pulled people who identify as Latino for interrogation on immigration status. Included US citizens. "We should not have to live in a country where the government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job,”" Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in dissent. Court offered no explanation for ruling.  

ICE hold rooms violate its own policy. Immigrants spend days in "miserable" conditions despite longstanding policy limiting hold room times to no more than 12 hours. Some detainees are kept in the hold rooms for days  CNN investigates.  

Deep dive. Nearly 500 workers, many Korean, were taken in a raid at Hyundai’s battery plant. In a quiet Georgia town, the silence is deafening.

Is this the president's signature? House Oversight Committee Democrats posted an image of the the infamous Epstein 'birthday book' note signed with Trump's name. White House says "it's not his signature."

Going 'nuclear' to confirm nomineess. Republicans expected to change Senate rules to allow them to quickly confirm backlog of nominees, source says. Democrats have been slow-walking in protest.  

$83 million E. Jean Carroll verdict upheld. Panel of federal judges says award against Trump for defaming Carroll was "reasonable." Rejected Trump's effort to assert he had presidential immunity.

Cabinet fight. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened to punch another top economic official, Bill Pulte, at a private dinner, two sources told CNN. Said either Pulte "gets the f**k out of here, or I do."

French government collapses again. Lawmakers oust prime minister in no confidence vote. Will be forced to step down after just nine months in office. President Macron faces challenge in picking a replacement.  

— From CNN's Kate Carroll

CNN's Stephen Collinson notes that when Trump does something incendiary like seeming to threaten war on a city, it could be seen as a distraction from the growing perception that the economy is sputtering or the country is turning against his immigration policy.

He writes:

The White House response to mounting challenges is to double down on more disruption and executive power grabs. It’s the only way Trump knows. Its new front against drugs cartels in the Caribbean underscores the point. US forces last week blew up a speedboat off Venezuela allegedly holding drug traffickers. Officials reacted to questions about the potential illegal use of force and destruction of due process with machismo. “We have the absolute and complete authority to conduct that,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, without bothering to explain why.

The administration’s claims the boat was run by the Tren de Aragua gang could be true. But presidents lack constitutional authority to wage war without informing Congress or the public. Vice President JD Vance upped the populist defiance by saying he didn’t “give a sh*t” on X after a Trump critic described the killings as a war crime. Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul responded that it was “despicable and thoughtless sentiment … to glorify killing someone without a trial.”

Pundits often warn that events such as those off Venezuela are “distractions” from other Trump vulnerabilities. But there comes a point when the distractions threaten the Constitution as much as the original escapades. And when is a distraction simply distracting from another distraction?

CNN's Edward-Isaac Dovere takes a closer look at the apparent White House attempt to shake up the New York City mayor's race by enticing Mayor Eric Adams to exit. He finds the effort could be having the opposite of its intended effect, which is to help elect former Gov. Andrew Cuomo as New York's mayor.

Here's how Dovere put it:

Add this to the list of Donald Trump’s accomplishments: Helping elect a socialist mayor of New York City.

That’s the assessment from many politicians and operatives in the president’s hometown after a chaotic week of White House intervention, between Trump talking repeatedly about the candidates and his aides discussing an ambassadorship or other jobs with Mayor Eric Adams to get him to leave the race. Trump allies want to consolidate support for Andrew Cuomo against Zohran Mamdani, the state assemblyman and democratic socialist whom Trump has labeled a “communist.”

Adams is still in the race. Cuomo’s opponents are tying the former governor closer to Trump in a city where Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans. And Mamdani and his aides are savoring what they see as another bit of good luck.

“The specialty of Donald Trump and his puppets is lots of noise and very few results, but what we’ve seen over the past few weeks is just how fixated the president is on doing everything in his power to stop our campaign from getting to City Hall,” Mamdani told CNN after his energetic town hall at Brooklyn College with (Sen. Bernie) Sanders on Saturday night. “And he’s doing that because he knows that while we share the same diagnosis of a cost-of-living crisis in this city and across this country, unlike him and his movement, we will actually do something about it.”

Cuomo was on CNN Monday, and the former Democratic governor now running for New York mayor told Wolf Blitzer that Trump would essentially take over the city if Mamdani is elected. Mamdani, in Cuomo's telling, is actually Trump's dream mayor. Watch:

Mamdani, on the other hand, has said that New Yorkers must prepare for the "inevitability" of a National Guard deployment in the city and work together. Cuomo's history, Mamdani said, would make it impossible for him to work with the current governor and attorney general. Watch:

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