Editorial Roundup: United States

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:

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Aug. 26

The Washington Post on the precedent of politicizing the Federal Reserve

It’s not hard to find mistakes in the Federal Reserve’s recent history, but Donald Trump’s latest attempt to erode the institution’s independence is dangerous. The president wants lower interest rates, but any benefits coming from that would probably be outweighed by supercharged inflation and the economic hangover that comes with it.

On Monday night, Trump announced that he would try to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, whose term otherwise expires in 2038. He cited an unproven allegation of mortgage fraud that one of his appointees dug up and broadcast on social media, but Cook denies wrongdoing, and her attorney says she will “take whatever actions are needed” to stay on the job.

That fight could reach the Supreme Court. The conservative majority has been friendly to the idea that the president can fire executive branch employees at will. Yet the Fed, the justices wrote in May, is “a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States.”

The president, like so many of his predecessors, wants lower interest rates, but Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell has pushed back against premature cuts. Advisers talked Trump out of firing Powell, whose term as chair ends next year. Trying to oust Cook is less dramatic but still hugely significant: Her replacement would be the key vote that flips the seven-member board of governors in a more inflationary direction. The new board of governors would also determine who runs the 12 regional Fed banks, whose leaders sit on the committee that sets rates.

The natural consequence of undermining the central bank’s credibility is that borrowing costs would soar — weakening the dollar and making interest payments on the national debt an even bigger part of the federal budget. Higher inflation could become a vicious cycle, with workers demanding higher wages merely to offset expected price increases.

The Fed has made some bad political decisions in recent decades, particularly during the 2008 financial crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. Powell’s lobbying for more fiscal stimulus in 2020 crossed a line, and the Fed’s regulatory agenda appears more political the further it strays from its core competencies. Interventions in short-term corporate debt blurred the line between monetary policy and credit allocation, which is inherently political when a government entity does it. Other decisions were regrettable but not political, such as when the Fed misjudged inflation as “transitory” during the Biden administration.

Future Fed chairs would be wise to learn from the miscalculations of this era. Legitimacy is fragile, and Trump won’t be the last politician to exploit missteps for political gain. Critically, though, none of this justifies Trump’s reckless behavior.

Markets have so far avoided a panic, but that doesn’t signal confidence. The dollar weakened as the Cook news broke, and short‑term bond yields dropped as investors priced in potential rate cuts. Gold prices also climbed as markets hedged against looming uncertainty. The relative calm might reflect confidence that courts will rule in favor of Fed independence.

If Trump gets his way, every future president — Democrat and Republican — will face the same temptations to politicize the Fed: push for rate cuts, juice the economy before elections, and let someone else deal with the consequences later. It’s a formula for long-term economic instability.

ONLINE: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/08/26/federal-reserve-trump-lisa-cook/

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Aug. 26

The New York Times says President Trump is perverting the justice system to intimidate critics

Less than 12 hours after President Trump’s inauguration in January, he revoked the security detail protecting John Bolton, his former national security adviser turned critic, despite credible threats from Iran. Since then, Mr. Trump has repeatedly ridiculed Mr. Bolton on social media, including by calling him one of the “ stupid people ” making it harder to end the Ukraine war. The president has also continued his yearslong accusations that Mr. Bolton leaked classified information, without offering any evidence.

None of Mr. Trump’s pressure tactics stopped Mr. Bolton from pointing out the president’s many foreign policy failures. On Thursday evening, Mr. Bolton was back on CNN, saying that President Vladimir Putin of Russia had managed to “roll” Mr. Trump at their recent Alaska summit, and criticizing the administration for being unable to explain the outcome of the summit or the future of peace talks.

On Friday morning, the intimidation ratcheted up several notches. At dawn, the F.B.I. conducted a raid of Mr. Bolton’s house in Bethesda, Md., and his office in Washington. Agents carried out boxes of papers and put them into vehicles with flashing blue lights in front of the amassed cameras. The Times reported that officials were investigating whether Mr. Bolton had improperly leaked national security information to the news media and other parties to damage the Trump administration. Mr. Bolton, notably, has not held government office in six years.

It is too early to know what the F.B.I. will claim to find in all of those boxes, but not too early to surmise that the search for incriminating documents was not the real goal of Friday’s raid. Even if the search turns up documents that should not be there, the administration has damaged any presumption of good faith by flinging weightless accusations of criminality at those who challenge it. That approach was evident in the snide social media posts that accompanied the raid. “NO ONE is above the law,” wrote Kash Patel, the bureau’s director. “@FBI agents on mission.” Mr. Patel’s deputy Dan Bongino jumped to an accusation of guilt with his response: “Public corruption will not be tolerated.” And Attorney General Pam Bondi declared: “America’s safety isn’t negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always.”

The raid is a new chapter in Mr. Trump’s campaign of retribution against his critics. The White House and its loyalists within the Justice Department and the F.B.I. are sending a clear message: Keep quiet, or we will use the extraordinary power of federal law enforcement to threaten your job or your liberty and put you under a lasting cloud of suspicion. And they are using the fearsome punitive authority of the government to conduct this campaign.

Mr. Trump has accused former President Barack Obama of “treason,” claiming his predecessor was behind the effort to reveal how Russia helped Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign. “ He’s guilty,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Obama in July, acting as both judge and jury. Almost immediately the Justice Department created a task force to investigate the allegation. Jack Smith, the former special counsel who brought two federal indictments against Mr. Trump, is now under a federal investigation after Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, accused him of violating the Hatch Act.

The White House is also using accusations of mortgage fraud against three people for whom Mr. Trump holds special grievances. The F.B.I. has begun a criminal investigation into whether Letitia James, the attorney general of New York and a Democrat, lied on mortgage documents. Ms. James, who denied the charge, won a fraud judgment against Mr. Trump in a state court last year. (This week, a New York appellate court tossed out the half-billion-dollar fine against Mr. Trump as excessive, but upheld the judgment.) The Justice Department has even issued a subpoena to Ms. James for records related to her lawsuit against Mr. Trump, an extraordinary intrusion into a state legal matter that directly affects Ms. Bondi’s boss.

The second target is Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and an outspoken adversary of Mr. Trump, whom the president has accused of similar deception on a mortgage application; a federal investigation is underway. The third is Lisa Cook, a member of the board of the Federal Reserve appointed by President Joe Biden, whom Mr. Trump threatened to fire on Friday, claiming the grounds of mortgage deception. The allegations initially came from Bill Pulte, Mr. Trump’s appointee as the Federal Housing Finance Agency director, who has not explained how Ms. Cook’s federal mortgage application came to his attention. The move fits with Mr. Trump’s intention to take control of the central bank, despite its independence from the executive.

It is possible none of these investigations will result in a criminal charge. Still, they can do great harm to their targets. The cost of mounting a defense can be ruinous, and in some cases the reputational damage can be impossible to fix. Whatever the outcome, they instill fear in anyone who might consider challenging the president, and they erode trust in the justice system.

Mr. Trump seems convinced that he is doing nothing to his rivals that was not done to him in earlier prosecutions and lawsuits. That is untrue. There is little comparison between the substantial evidence amassed in his cases, in particular that he tried to break the nation’s election laws in 2020 and refused to return classified White House documents, and the frequent lack of evidence lobbed at his adversaries.

We do not pretend to know how any of these cases will turn out. But it is clear that Mr. Trump and his appointees are perverting the justice system to serve their political interests and intimidate their critics. Given this pattern, Mr. Bolton and the rest of Mr. Trump’s targets deserve every benefit of the doubt. Despite the justice system’s many imperfections, Americans long had reason to trust that federal officials would not target people for investigations without evidence. Under the Trump administration, that assumption is disappearing. The president has given all Americans reason to believe that justice is now applied selectively and unfairly.

ONLINE: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/opinion/trump-john-bolton-raid.html

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Aug. 25

The Wall Street Journal says Trump's maneuvers are are weakening a constitutional check

President Trump is testing restraints on his power to hire and fire, which is worth doing in many cases but raises hard questions in others. Consider his maneuvers to retain Alina Habba as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor, despite the Senate’s refusal to hold a vote on confirming her. Last week a federal judge said Ms. Habba has acted “without lawful authority” since July 1.

“Her actions since that point may be declared void,” Judge Matthew Brann ruled. The decision draws from the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which restricts how the President can temporarily fill an office that requires Senate confirmation. “This framework is designed to carefully balance the separation of powers,” Judge Brann said. He stayed his ruling pending appeal, but another judge has delayed sentencing of a defendant in Ms. Habba’s district, and there could be more to come.

Mr. Trump in March first named Ms. Habba, his former personal lawyer, as interim U.S. Attorney, a short-term appointment that may last 120 days to fill a vacancy. Mr. Trump also formally nominated Ms. Habba for full confirmation, but New Jersey’s Senators opposed her, and the Judiciary Committee never acted.

When this kind of interim appointment expires, the law says the district court may choose someone to fill the vacancy. Rather than extend Ms. Habba, who has made herself controversial, the judges issued an order to elevate the office’s first assistant prosecutor, Desiree Grace, to be the U.S. Attorney.

The Trump Administration responded with bureaucratic jiu jitsu. The White House terminated Ms. Grace. Ms. Habba resigned as interim U.S. Attorney, and her nomination to the Senate was withdrawn. The Justice Department instead named Ms. Habba as a “special attorney,” while designating her as the New Jersey office’s new first assistant.

Voilà, under the vacancy law, according to the Administration, Ms. Habba is back in charge as acting U.S. Attorney. Mr. Trump has used similar methods to retain prosecutors John Sarcone (New York), Bill Essayli (California), Sigal Chattah (Nevada) and Ryan Ellison (New Mexico), despite no Senate confirmation.

In Judge Brann’s view, “a ‘first assistant’ who may take office in an ‘acting capacity’ must be the first assistant at the time the vacancy occurs.” Otherwise, the President could name anybody at any time. Judge Brann says “repeat appointments” of interim U.S. Attorneys aren’t allowed either. But the vacancy statutes are complicated, and maybe the Trump Administration will win its argument on appeal that such workarounds satisfy the letter of the law.

The worry is that such machinations might become routine to evade Senate confirmation. If the White House can repeatedly name an interim U.S. Attorney, or wait until shortly before that term expires to effect a transformation into acting U.S. Attorney, then the new partisan game will be to see how long an incoming President can operate the government while dodging Senate confirmation.

Why didn’t the Senate move on Ms. Habba’s nomination? The Judiciary Committee traditionally defers to Senators’ views, expressed with a “blue slip,” regarding appointees for federal judge or prosecutor in their home states. New Jersey’s two Democratic Senators object to Ms. Habba, who is prosecuting Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver over a scuffle at an immigration detention site. “We could turn New Jersey red,” Ms. Habba said in March, adding that she hoped to use her office to “help that cause.”

The blue-slip tradition serves Republicans when they’re out of power, and it tends to encourage Presidents to pick qualified and scrupulous lawyers for these posts. That doesn’t mean it can’t be abused, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, who leads the Judiciary Committee, stopped letting Senators block appellate judges in 2017. Mr. Trump has every right to fume about the custom and force Senators to defend it.

Blue slips are “an old and outdated ‘custom,’” Mr. Trump said online Sunday. “Chuck Grassley should allow strong Republican candidates to ascend to these very vital and powerful roles, and tell the Democrats, as they often tell us, to go to HELL!” Yet that’s up to the Senate, and the Founders gave the chamber its advise-and-consent power for a reason.

By trying to circumvent it, including his maneuvers for Ms. Habba and his demands for recess appointments, Mr. Trump is setting a precedent that could come back to bite Republicans.

ONLINE: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-alina-habba-senate-confirmation-desiree-grace-matthew-brann-569f6e26?mod=editorials_article_pos4

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Aug. 26

The Guardian says Israel and its allies have a few questions to answer

Tragedy has piled on tragedy in Gaza. Yet Israel’s attack on Nasser hospital – the only functioning public hospital left in the south – still stood out. One strike was followed within minutes by another, hitting those who had raced to help the wounded. Monday’s attack was multiple egregious acts in one: hitting a hospital, injured civilians, rescue workers and journalists.

With events caught on video, Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “tragic mishap” instead of blaming Hamas for the deaths or smearing the dead. (The military, which has a record of misleading claims following incidents, later alleged a camera had been “positioned by Hamas” at the site.) Can anyone believe that this was all an error, when such “double tap” strikes are becoming routine, and when those killed this time are so typical of those killed throughout this war?

“Israel values the work of journalists, medical staff, and all civilians,” the Israeli prime minister continued. Why, then, have more journalists died in Gaza in the last two years than globally in the previous three? Why has Israel killed hundreds of medical workers, spurring calls for a new crime of healthocide? Why are so many doctors detained? Why, judging from the Israeli military’s own data, do civilians account for an astonishing 83% of the dead?

Palestinians are dying, too, in the human-made famine caused by Israel’s obstruction of aid. A quarter of a million are already starving, on the judgment of a UN-backed body known for the caution of its analyses. How many more must die?

How can Palestinians have a future without their land? How can they defend their society when those at its heart, embodying its knowledge and culture, including doctors and journalists, are eliminated? How can they look to tomorrow when their children cannot go to school and their universities are destroyed?

Does Mr Netanyahu believe that he can continue to neglect the fate of those kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October when the protest movement led by the families of hostages is gathering pace? Can the military simply ignore the growing resentment of reservists especially? Is Israel willing to sacrifice what remains of its global standing to one man’s political self-preservation and the desire of his far-right partners to ethnically cleanse Gaza?

Does Donald Trump, who has unique power to halt this war, believe he can one day win a Nobel peace prize when he lauds the man subject to an international criminal court warrant as “a war hero” and refuses to intervene to stop the slaughter? Does he think a peace deal in the Middle East can be built on the bones of more than 62,000 Palestinians in Gaza? Is the US aware that its personnel too could be liable for assisting war crimes through their cooperation?

What excuses are left for Israel’s other allies? Are they willing to stand up for the institutions and principles of international law, which have helped to protect their own nations, or will they watch them be further eroded by Israel’s actions in Gaza and US animosity? As former ambassadors and senior diplomats lay out clear proposals for urgent action, do these governments realise that they too are losing credibility, not only internationally but domestically?

The questions go on, but the immediate answers to this catastrophe are simple: a lasting ceasefire, the return of hostages, and the urgent delivery of huge amounts of aid to Gaza.

ONLINE: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/26/the-guardian-view-on-gaza-the-questions-that-israel-and-its-allies-must-answer

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Aug. 21

The Boston Globe says kids in Gaza need medical treatment and the US should help

There are children in Gaza who are grievously injured or seriously ill. The medical system there is in tatters after almost two years of war, but the United States has the medical capacity to help some of those kids. We should do it.

However the State Department announced on Saturday that all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped “while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days.”

The announcement came after far-right activist Laura Loomer raised concerns about danger posed by “pro-Hamas” Gazans being brought into the United States.

However, it should be noted that for Palestinians seeking to leave Gaza for treatment, the vetting process starts with a Gazan doctor making a referral, which must be approved by Gaza’s Ministry of Health. The ministry submits names to the World Health Organization, which shares them with host countries. Once a country accepts a patient, Israel vets them and any companions for security risks before deciding whether to allow them to leave Gaza.

Once treatment is complete, evacuees must leave the United States. (Medical humanitarian visas last for six months and can be renewed for up to five years if treatment is continuing.) “This is a medical treatment program, not a refugee resettlement program,” HEAL Palestine, a nonprofit that organizes Palestinian medical evacuations to the United States, said in a statement. If returning to Gaza is not viable, the organization says patients go to Egypt.

It’s a simple idea and one that represents the best of American values. It’s a statement of soft power, the idea that building good will internationally will pay dividends on the international stage.

The need for medical treatment for Gazans is dire. Even before the war, the World Health Organization said 50 to 100 patients a day were leaving Gaza for treatment at more advanced hospitals in Israel and the West Bank. After Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Israel stopped allowing Gazans to enter. The subsequent war crippled Gaza’s health care system. The Hamas-run Health Ministry estimates that 14,800 patients need medical evacuation.

Moumen Al-Natour, a Palestinian living in Gaza City who has organized against Hamas and is president of Palestinian Youth for Development, said he has known individuals who died for lack of medical care. Last week, his sister broke her hand and needed surgery, but she was unable to find a hospital to perform the surgery because, Al-Natour alleged, the local hospitals are being used by Hamas for security rather than health care purposes. Al-Natour, who spoke to the editorial board in Arabic through a translator via WhatsApp, said there are field hospitals offering services, generally run by European nations, but they cannot meet the demand.

Al-Natour has called for hospitals to be established in “safe zones” where civilians can live outside of Hamas control, but he said Gazans also need humanitarian visas from the United States to help those who cannot be treated locally. “When the Ukraine crisis started, we saw all the Western world opened the doors to Ukrainians to come,” he said. “After Oct. 7, everyone closed the door on us. … You can’t lock people in this desolate place in the ruins of war and not allow them to leave.”

The number of Gazan children brought to the United States for medical care is small, although exact numbers are unknown.

A World Health Organization dashboard says 28 medical patients, with 26 companions, have been evacuated from Gaza to the United States since July 2024. Groups that work with Palestinian evacuees told the editorial board that number is an undercount, since most patients taken to the United States were first evacuated elsewhere, but the total number of patients is likely less than 250, and possibly significantly lower. Between October 2023 and Aug. 6, 2025, according to the World Health Organization, there have been 7,522 medical patients evacuated from Gaza, of whom 69 percent were children. Egypt took 3,995 patients, the United Arab Emirates took 1,387, with Qatar and Turkey taking several hundred each. (WHO only listed the top five destinations, which didn’t include the United States.) The bulk were trauma patients and patients with cancer, although some had ophthalmological disorders, congenital anomalies, and cardiovascular disease.

No US tax dollars are used to pay for Gazans’ medical treatment. Typically, US hospitals will provide free care, and nonprofits like HEAL Palestine or The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund pay for any additional expenses.

Recently, the Globe reported on three Palestinian girls who landed in Boston on their way to receive US medical care, including one teen with severe burns and shrapnel wounds set to be treated in Boston. WBUR reported that HEAL Palestine has brought four Gazan children to Boston hospitals since the war started.

“It’s not about moving them out of Gaza, it’s about saving their lives,” said Dorit Nitzan, director of the School of Public Health at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and a former World Health Organization official. While some advocates criticize Israel for rejecting too many applications, Nitzan told the editorial board the main bottleneck today is not Israeli approval but finding countries and hospitals to take patients.

It is not unprecedented for organizations to bring sick or injured children from war zones to the United States. In 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, a foundation affiliated with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee brought Ukrainian children with cancer to that hospital. People profiled a Massachusetts General Hospital doctor who flew war-wounded children from Ukraine to the United States.

The United States has every right to screen evacuees from Gaza or anywhere else and ensure they don’t pose a security threat. But if there are civilian children stuck in a war zone in need of lifesaving treatment, the United States and other Western nations have a moral obligation to help treat them.

ONLINE: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/08/21/opinion/gaza-injured-kids-hospitals-trump-loomer/