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- [00:05]
A
Good morning. President Trump's ambition to transform DC Moves another step closer. The Washington Post explains how the capital city is being remade amid praise and criticism.
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There are still projects in development where we don't know how they'll be paid for. The White House hasn't been transparent about where the money will come from.
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The White House wants its acting attorney general in the job permanently, but it might be a tough confirmation. And the bizarre tug of war between Texas and the Smithsonian over a small but mighty piece of the US space fleet. It's Friday, June 5th. I'm Yasmeen Khan in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News. Today, There are few projects that excite the President more than his ambitions for the country's capital. His sweeping plans include a 250 foot arch, a sculpture garden, and the contentious new White House ballroom. This week, during a press event, he brought out a poster to highlight the sheer scale of the $13 million remodeling of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
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C
It's about 2,500ft in length to the end and it's going to be beautiful. It was a great concept that never worked because they couldn't hold the water. Now they hold the water for a tiny fraction of the cost. They we did a fantastic job.
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On Thursday, that pool officially began filling up, having been painted from black to blue. The very same day, a Trump backed commission kept the president's hopes alive for the triumphal arch, voting to seek more details on the proposal rather than kill it.
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President Trump has looked at Washington, D.C. as a canvas that he can redesign.
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That's Dan Diamond, White House reporter at the Washington Post, who's been closely following Trump's various plans.
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This arch would be built in a traffic roundabout. It would change probably traffic patterns in the D.C. area, and most importantly, it would change the views. So if you are going to Arlington National Cemetery, if you are paying respects to someone's grave, historically, you might stand at Arlington National Cemetery and look out at Washington, D.C. if this arch gets built, you might be looking at the arch.
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So far, it's received 1700 public comments. Mostly critical among those opposed is Sean Burns, a veteran who told CNN why he was now suing the administration.
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I lost a number of close friends and three shipmates in and around Vietnam. And I'm just appalled at this massive vanity project going up on ground that is some of the most sacred ground to Americans.
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Other projects have been well received, though, as one CBS affiliate discovered when it spoke to people near the fixed up fountain in Malcolm X Park.
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I really am speechless. I had a vision. But this has completely transformed the block.
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It's beautiful to see it like this,
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and I pray to God that it stays this way.
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D.C. is a heavily Democratic place. The man there at the park was wearing an Obama cap. So you might not expect enthusiasm for changes so closely linked to Trump. But many of DC's public areas are not in great shape, so some people see the changes as a real visible improvement. And the local government can't easily fix these spaces because the National Park Service manages them. That's an agency the White House has turned to for funding. The New York Times reports that the administration is spending nearly $70 million on renovations to fountains and the reflecting pool, money that comes from national park visitor fees.
- [03:53]
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The money that has been tapped to make Those changes to D.C. would normally have gone to national parks around the country. So while President Trump has made this a priority, there are real questions about whether everything has been according to law and process that has historically governed the way that Washington has been renovated.
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Ordinarily, projects that could permanently change the landscape of the nation's capital would go through a lengthy process with scrutiny from independent groups. But the Trump administration has transformed that process. And who controls it?
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President Trump has fired holdovers on some federal panels that review construction projects in Washington, dc. He has put in allies and deputies. He put his young executive assistant on a fine arts panel. This is supposed to be a panel of experts in architecture, in design and sculpture. His young executive assistant, by our measure, doesn't have any of that skill, but she is his assistant, and he will be a reliable vote. And there are a number now of reliable votes for Trump on these panels that historically might have taken months or years to review projects. But because it's President Trump, they are speeding these projects through in an unprecedented way.
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Trump has had less success with DC's Kennedy Center. After filling its board with allies. In February, its new trustees voted to put Trump's name across the venue. But a federal judge blocked the plans. And yesterday the Washington Post revealed that the center had ordered its employees to strip Trump's name from signs, brochures, and the website. Speaking at the Kennedy Center's gala last year, Trump said he felt he had two jobsone in politics and one in construction. And Dimon told us Trump thought he was perfectly placed to bulldoze through the bureaucracy that slows development in dc.
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B
I think President Trump wants Washington to be a jewel, and there are many people here who don't like President Trump who agree with that idea, but they don't agree with the way that he's doing it, which is driven by him, very little if no public comment and real questions about who's paying for it all.
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It was a tough week for Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who sat through a grueling Senate hearing Tuesday as he announced the cancellation of the administration's so called anti weaponization fund. But it hasn't put him off the job. And on Wednesday, Trump announced he was nominating his former personal lawyer to the post on a permanent basis. Blanche said he was honored and humbled by the news he will need Senate approval and was quick to emphasize his commitment to working with lawmakers.
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I will work with the senators. I have a good relationship with the Senate of both sides. I don't say no to phone calls. I'll meet with anybody that wants to meet with me. And I think the work that this department has been doing since President Trump took office, if you look at any stat across the board, it's much better.
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But despite the warm words, confirmation might not be so straightforward. Perhaps not surprisingly, Democrats are already signaling they're ready to do all they can to stop Blanche from being confirmed. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat who sits on the Judiciary Committee, told Ms. Now that he felt the choice of Blanche would actually make things difficult for Republicans.
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This Blanche nomination is so disgusting that it's really gonna put them over a barrel. And to some extent it's like wonderful for us. Great. Bring it.
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Blanche oversaw Trump's settlement with the IRS that brought about the now defunct compensation fund. NBC's Sahil Kapoor told the network that problem has not completely gone away.
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President Trump, when he gets asked about it, he does not seem ready to part ways with it or to do away with it. So that's certainly going to be one question. And it is worth noting that Todd Blanche did get confirmed by the Senate last year in March of 2025 with a unanimous Republican vote. But that was at the peak of President Trump's powers. Since then, there are a whole bunch of Republicans who are essentially free agents now and can do whatever they want without having to worry about a political blowback.
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Retiring Republican Senator Thom Tillis is one of those free agents who expressed concerns that the fund could come back.
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If this is still out there, can you imagine what the Democrats are going to do to that man during a confirmation hearing? But just to be clear, can you imagine how that could potentially influence a our members? We take this off the table. Todd's chances of becoming confirmed as the
- [08:16]
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AG go up and blanch might face more scrutiny over his capacity to be independent from the president. Under his predecessor, Pam Bondi, the DOJ was criticized for pursuing Trump's political opponents in cases that failed to deliver successful prosecutions. This came up in a heated exchange on the Hill with Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen.
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F
I'm the acting attorney general, okay? The fact that I used to be President Trump's lawyer is just a fact. But I'm the acting attorney general. So don't say the president's former personal lawyer will do something. The acting attorney general will do something.
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Mr. Attorney General, you are acting today like the president's personal attorney. And that's the whole problem. You've got his whole. You have a whole banner of his face hanging over the Department of Justice, and you and everybody else walks under it.
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And one more issue likely to come up is Jeffrey Epstein. Yesterday, it emerged that former AG Pam Bondi had told the House that Blanche was responsible for overseeing the tranche of documents related to his conviction. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said it was hard to say whether Blanche could secure the support he needs. As Thune put it, nothing's a safe or sure bet these days. Just a note, this next story talks about suicide. Persistent inflation and soaring interest rates are forcing Americans to make tough choices about their debts.
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People don't want to lose their homes, they don't want to foreclose on their mortgage or get evicted, and they don't want to lose their cars.
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Dan Frosch covers the economy for the Wall Street Journal.
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So their credit card is something that Americans will typically let slide when faced with decisions on where they're going to pay their debts.
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And Americans are carrying a lot of credit card debt, $1.25 trillion.
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We have seen a greater percentage of credit card balances that are at least 90 days delinquent than at any time since. Basically the period right after the financial crisis of 2008.
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Rising interest rates have made it difficult for people to pay off their credit cards. The average rate rose to 21% in February, up from 14.6% four years prior. And the risk of delinquency is at its highest point over the last year since the national foundation for Credit Counseling started tracking risk levels back in 2022. Paying off debt has been particularly hard for lower income households. A spokesperson for the foundation told frosh they're seeing more families, quote, shift to a pattern of survival.
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But what is striking is that people who are middle income earners or even higher income earners are struggling to pay down their debt.
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Melissa Megison, a medical assistant From South Portland Maine is one of those mentioned in Frosh's story. She earned $65,000 and her then husband made about $70,000 working at a shipyard. They used their credit cards only for gas, groceries and emergency care for their four dogs.
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Melissa ended up getting divorced from her husband and her financial stability was suddenly shattered. She was the sole income earner in her house. She ended up using credit cards not just for mandatory expenses as she had before, but for discretionary ones to help her cope with the pain of her divorce. And very quickly, her credit card balances rose.
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As the stress of mounting debt rose, she attempted to take her own life. She's since enrolled in a debt counseling program and is now doing much better. Others Frosh spoke to also talked about the emotional toll that comes with being in debt and the fear of feeling like one expensive emergency could derail their lives.
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It can make you feel unworthy. It can make you feel financially irresponsible. And debt relief organizations will oftentimes refer folks to suicide hotlines because their debts have become so overwhelming.
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He says it's an issue that he expects to motivate people at the polls this fall.
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There is a widespread discontent with the economy right now and consumer pessimism around the economy. And the Trump administration has done their best to sort of play down those concerns, paint a rosier picture of the economy than frankly, most Americans are feeling right now. And people who are running for office, either at the local or federal level, are right to be concerned about how voters may take out their frustrations at the voting booth come November.
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And finally, a few other stories we're following. The House voted yesterday to provide aid to Ukraine and impose new sanctions on Russia, the latest example of GOP lawmakers defying their leadership. Eighteen Republicans joined with Democrats to pass the bill, which had been languishing for more than a year. Republican support for Ukraine has grown cooler in Congress since Trump's second term began and the bill would still need to pass the Senate. Closer to Kyiv, Volodymyr Zelensky has called for face to face talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In an open letter, the Ukrainian leader said it would be, quote, wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe becomes the focus of US Attention again. The Kremlin confirmed it had received the letter. A flesh eating parasite dangerous to cattle was discovered in Texas this week, its first known appearance in the US for decades. A new World screwworm was confirmed to have infected a three week old calf in La Priore, a community near the Texas Mexico border. NBC News notes the risk to humans is rare and does not pose a food safety risk. But a wider outbreak in the beef industry could affect food supplies at a time when prices are already high. It's the first confirmed screwworm case in Texas since 1966. State officials warned this could happen as an outbreak worked its way through northern Mexico over the last few months. The state's agriculture commissioner blamed slow action by the FDA for failing to address the cases before they reached the US and to an unprecedented custody battle between the Smithsonian and Texas over a crown jewel of the US Space fleet. For over a decade now, the Discovery space shuttle, an 86 ton behemoth with 39 missions under its belt, has been parked in Virginia under the stewardship of the National Air and Space Museum. Many Texans have long believed NASA made the wrong call years ago when it gave the Discovery to the Smithsonian, including two senators, Republicans Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, who are now trying to strong arm the museum into handing over the Discovery. The museum is saying no way. They typically only forfeit items in their collection if they or the courts determine something was stolen or unethically acquired. And then there's the question of how to even move such a massive spacecraft. It's extremely delicate and heavy, which would require a complex and coordinated transportation plan involving rivers, roads and barges. So there's really no way this could end up a split custody situation. It's all or nothing. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around for the latest episode of Apple News and Conversation. This week, guest host David Green talks to Aaron Parsley, a senior editor at Texas Monthly. Parsley was just awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his firsthand account of the devastating Central Texas floods last summer that tore his family apart. Now he's out with a new new piece about his family's loss and recovery.
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When you experience the forces of the universe and you feel that powerless and that insignificant, it sort of creates these questions. I felt like I needed to reevaluate. I felt like I needed to do a bit of seeking again.
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If you're listening in the Podcasts app, you can follow Apple News and Conversation to find that episode. Enjoy the weekend and we'll be back with the news on Monday.
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It.