Trump calls on National Guard to patrol D.C.

President Trump fired the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Erika McEntarfer, after the organization released its July jobs report. Trump claimed that several reports under  McEntarfer had been manufactured to hurt him and his economic agenda. But will the firestorm around the jobs report hurt the credibility of the next commissioner? A pair of House members have called out their respective parties in the last week. Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene and Democrat Sarah McBride shared their critiques on how the parties were spurning voters. Will anyone else in Congress listen? It may be hard to believe, but journalists mess up too. KCRW responds to a listener's comment calling out a critical mistake as we continue to discuss ways to restore journalistic credibility.

Leaders in France, Canada, and the U.K. have stated they would recognize and call for Palestinian statehood at the next General Assembly of the United Nations. The calls from world leaders come on the heels of troubling images of starvation and famine in Gaza. President Trump has long been an ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but Trump also pushed back against Netanyahu’s claims that there was no starvation in the region. It’s a rare pressure campaign on the Israeli government to improve conditions for Palestinians as the conflict between Israel and Hamas wages on. But will it result in meaningful change? Are other factors playing into Trump’s callout? Republican legislators in Texas will discuss redrawing the state’s congressional map during a special summer session. The plan, first floated by the Trump administration, could create five new seats in the House of Representatives if approved. Democratic officials in and out of the Lone Star State are trying to figure out how to fight back. Do they have any choice? And who does the move benefit? The newest frontline of the culture war? The movie Superman and blue jeans. KCRW discusses the latest “woke” controversies.

President Donald Trump continued to air his grievances with the mainstream media this week. First, he filed a $20 billion defamation suit against The Wall Street Journal. The suit claims that a “bawdy” birthday letter to Jeffry Epstein that the paper attributed to Trump is a fake. The president took to Truth Social to demean the paper and its owner Rupert Murdoch. Amid his social media rant, he celebrated previous victories over ABC News and CBS. Should we be concerned about the stability of press freedoms under the second Trump administration? Masked ICE agents have become a frequent sight around the United States since Trump’s return to office. Democratic leaders across the country are pushing legislation that would ban federal law enforcement from hiding their identities. Is it a distraction from deeper questions about the standing of immigrants in America? Plus, KCRW discusses who the president is really speaking for when he calls for the return of some controversial sports team names.

Something you should know, from the team at Left, Right and Center.

Prior to his re-election in 2024, Donald Trump committed to releasing files related to several controversial investigations, including the Jeffrey Epstein case. Epstein was an alleged sex trafficker who died while in prison in 2019. Epstein’s connections to prominent figures and the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death created fodder for conspiracy theorists on the right. Last week, Trump’s DOJ and FBI announced they would not release the files and would no longer be investigating the case. That announcement has led to massive blowback from the president’s MAGA base.  The president is facing similar disdain from the MAGA universe over recent decisions regarding the war in Ukraine. After a massive attack of Russian drone strikes on Kyiv, Trump declared Russian President Vladimir Putin had 50 days to agree to a ceasefire. He also promised to ramp up U.S. military support for Ukraine through a NATO agreement. What finally flipped the switch on Trump’s reverent tone for the Russian leader? Is there any ideological strategy we can glean from this move? Tourism to the United States is down. Is there any connection to the policies of Donald Trump? Should the tourism industry be a concern of the “America First” crowd?