Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
Trump lost his voice and hid his bruised right hand during a meeting with the French president. JD Vance argued Trump should invoke the Insurrection Act after border patrol agents shot two protesters dead in Minneapolis. Federal agents are knocking on the doors of Gavin Newsom’s friends and combing his wife’s nonprofit finances. And an ICE detention center in Newark is rejecting a four-year-old’s leggings as too “provocative.”
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Trump Struggles to Speak and Hides Hand During Macron Meeting
Trump spent his birthday weekend inside an Octagon and came out of it talking like he’d been the one taking punches.
During a bilateral meeting with Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the G7 in Évian-les-Bains on June 15, Trump was raspy, visibly fatigued, and shielding his right hand from the cameras during the handshake.
Viewers who watched the meeting live flooded social media saying the footage was worse than any headline admitted.
Trump held his hand at an almost vertical angle, an unusual posture that observers said was meant to hide dark bruising across the back of it. The White House has previously explained the bruises as the result of frequent handshaking and aspirin use.
At the UFC Freedom 250 event, Trump appeared to drag the right side of his body during his walkout and clutched UFC president Dana White’s shoulder as the two walked toward the cage. The White House said the earlier dozing footage was simply him closing his eyes.
At 80, the only thing aging faster than him is that excuse.
JD Vance Wanted Troops in the Streets
The only thing standing between Minneapolis and active-duty troops was a staffer pointing out that the paperwork wouldn’t hold up.
Top White House officials debated invoking the Insurrection Act after federal immigration agents fatally shot two protesters, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, during January’s demonstrations in Minneapolis. Days after Pretti was killed, Vice President JD Vance reportedly walked into chief of staff Susie Wiles’s office to argue that Trump should send protesters a message.
When deputy chief of staff James Blair asked what invoking it would actually accomplish, the room reportedly went quiet.
Staff secretary Will Scharf had drafted a confidential memo in October 2025 warning that the Insurrection Act was a “break-the-glass” exception that did not fit the circumstances. When Stephen Miller argued the boundaries of the law had not been tested, Scharf replied, “That’s not true, Stephen. It’s very prescriptive.”
The Insurrection Act was last invoked in 1992, when George H.W. Bush sent troops into Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict. The Supreme Court in December blocked the administration from sending the military into Chicago, and Trump quietly withdrew troops after a series of court rulings.
So the restraint came not from conscience but from a warning about bad press and lawsuits.
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Federal Agents Are Investigating Gavin Newsom’s Wife
The fastest way to get the Justice Department interested in your family is apparently to be considered a 2028 contender.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said Monday in a video that federal agents have been questioning friends and associates of him and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, accusing Trump of using the DOJ to punish a political enemy. Former employees and people affiliated with his wife’s nonprofits are among those who have been contacted in the past week.
A person familiar with the matter confirmed multiple federal investigations are underway, including one looking at Siebel Newsom’s finances. They claimed the inquiries were started by federal officials in California, not Washington.
Newsom called it a fishing expedition through “years and years of random documents.” His aides believe agents have subpoenaed banking records, though they say they have seen no written evidence of that.
The latest inquiries began around the time Trump said he planned to nominate Todd Blanche, his former criminal defense lawyer, as attorney general. Newsom has called Blanche “the guy covering up the Epstein Files” and said he “gave Trump and his family a lifetime pass to commit tax crimes.”
ICE Calls a Four-Year-Old’s Leggings ‘Provocative’
The Department of Homeland Security has located a national security threat, and it is wearing a baby onesie.
At Delaney Hall, the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey, guards have rejected family visits over a dress code more than a dozen times in a single day. Gabriela Soto, whose husband was detained in January, says she has been turned away more than 10 times.
One time she was turned away because her four-year-old daughter was wearing leggings. Guards called the clothing “provocative.” On another visit, a guard nearly rejected her 11-month-old over a onesie.
ICE’s written dress code states it applies only to visitors aged 12 and older. The list of banned items includes Crocs, heels, sandals, leggings, dresses above the knee, and “gang colors,” which are never defined.
A 16-year-old was rejected over a knee-length smock dress that the facility’s own rules expressly permit. An elderly woman was turned away over closed-toe sandals. A pile of leftover Crocs sits by the gate.
Activists with #EyesOnIce say the rules are wielded to separate families and push detainees toward voluntary departure. They hand out free borrowed clothes outside the gate so rejected visitors can get in.
If “provocative” is the word a grown man reaches for when he sees a four-year-old, the dress code isn’t the thing that needs reviewing.
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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Jersey City Is Pulling Its Money From the Bank Financing ICE Detention. Mayor James Solomon, alongside Councilmembers Jake Ephros and Joel Brooks, announced that Jersey City will divest its funds from Citizens Bank over the bank’s financing of private prison giants CoreCivic and The GEO Group. While most major banks have cut ties with the two companies, Citizens Bank moved the other way, helping them access more than $2.5 billion in financing, including funds approved this year. The two firms operate more than half of the roughly 70,000 ICE detention beds in use nationwide and are targeting over 100,000 by next year.
New Mexico’s Universal Childcare Program Survives Its Court Challenge. A New Mexico judge dismissed a lawsuit on Thursday that sought to dismantle the state’s first-in-the-nation universal childcare program. Attorneys for former Republican gubernatorial candidate Duke Rodriguez had argued that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration improperly eliminated the income cap and co-pays before the Legislature weighed in. District Judge Elaine Lujan ruled the challenge moot, since lawmakers have since authorized and funded the expansion, and found the plaintiffs lacked standing. The program, financed largely by oil and gas revenue, now covers daycare for all working families regardless of income.
New York establishes Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway. Governor Hochul signed legislation officially adding the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway to New York’s state scenic byway system. The 176.76-mile route links 22 historic Tubman and Underground Railroad sites across Cayuga, Seneca, Ontario, Wayne, Monroe, Orleans, Niagara, and Erie counties, starting in Auburn and ending in Niagara Falls. The state DOT will now install official highway signage along the route, meaning New York has essentially turned one of history’s most secretive escape routes into something you can find with a normal road sign.
Japan’s World Cup Fans Cleaned the Stadium After Their 2-2 Draw. After Japan tied the Netherlands 2-2 in Group F at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Sunday, the Samurai Blue fans stayed behind to pick up trash from the stands. The same blue bags they had waved in a frenzy when Daichi Kamada scored an 88th-minute header were then used to collect their own garbage. The tradition first drew attention at the 1998 World Cup in France and has continued every four years since, including Qatar in 2022. They left the home of the Dallas Cowboys spotless, which is more than the stadium’s own crews usually manage.
