The big news of the day was white smoke over the Vatican, in only the second day of the conclave called in the wake of the death of Pope Francis. The new pope, now styled Leo XIV, is a 69-year-old Chicagoan who majored in mathematics before joining the Augustine order, and who spent most of his pastoral career in Peru. He becomes the first American-born pope.
Today is the 80th anniversary of what we used to call V-E Day, until earlier this month when Trump announced it would be renamed “Victory in World War II Day,” in parallel to “Victory in World War I Day” which is his new name for November 11th. The good news from the Vatican stepped on what the White House had hoped would be the day’s big news story, the announcement from the Oval Office of the framework of a trade deal between the U.S. and the U.K. It feels like pretty weak sauce to many observers, more like a public relations stunt than something truly substantive, although it did cause Aston Martin stock to go up 14% after British cars were granted an exemption from the recently-imposed 25% tariff on foreign autos.
Yesterday Senator Tillis (R-NC), a member of the Judiciary Committee, had said he would not support Trump’s nomination of Ed Martin to be the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Martin, who has been serving in that role in an acting capacity, has been controversial due to his previous advocacy of Jan 6th defendants and his lack of any prosecutorial experience. Today Trump pulled Martin’s nomination, and while I was writing this post he announced that he will instead nominate Jeannine Pirro, a Fox News host with experience in New York State as both a judge and prosecutor, and the unsuccessful Republican candidate for New York AG in 2008 against future governor Andrew Cuomo.
Finally, there is reporting today that Trump is pushing for a new top marginal federal tax rate of 39.6% for incomes over $2.5 million for single filers and $5 million for joint filers. Of course, 39.6% had been the top marginal tax rate from 1993-2000, and again from 2013-2017. However in 2017 the 39.6% rate applied to incomes over $470,700 for joint filers; that top rate was reduced to 37%, under the TCJA provisions that are due to expire post-2025. Still, the idea of a Republican president being willing to propose an increase in the top marginal tax rate is yet another sign of how odd our politics have become.