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A federal judge in California blocked President Donald Trump‘s executive order aimed at ending collective bargaining for federal workers across various federal agencies.
Judge James Donato of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, an Obama appointee, issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday blocking Trump’s order stripping collective bargaining rights from 21 agencies, which the president said he could do under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, citing national security concerns.
Donato sided with the American Federation of Government Employees, the AFL-CIO, and other unions who said the order was unlawful retaliation and violated their First Amendment speech rights.
“Plaintiffs have demonstrated a serious question under the First Amendment that warrants preserving the status quo pending further litigation. The court need not take up plaintiffs’ other claims as a potential ground for an injunction,” Donato said.
Donato pointed to a fact sheet released by the White House, which said Trump would “not tolerate mass obstruction that jeopardizes his ability to manage agencies with vital national security missions,” as part of his concerns about First Amendment violations.
The judge said the fact sheet “expressed a clear point of view that is hostile to federal labor unions and their First Amendment activities.”
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In his fight to elevate life for the Forgotten Americans, President Donald Trump has already shattered another record in his second term in support of blue-collar Americans. During Trump’s first five months of his second term, real wages for hourly workers saw their largest increase under any administration in nearly 60 years.
Blue-collar U.S. workers saw real wages grow 1.7% thus far during the second Trump administration—a stark contrast from the negative wage growth seen during the first five months of the Biden administration. “The only other time it has been this high … was during President Trump’s first term,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in an interview with the New York Post.
Bessent attributed the rise in working-class wages first to Trump’s policy focus on reviving manufacturing.
“Since Richard Nixon in 1969, Trump has been the only president to record positive growth for blue-collar workers in his first five months. He also achieved 1.3% in his first term,” noted the Post’s Miranda Devine. “The recovery from a 1.7% decline recorded in Biden’s first five months, as inflation outpaced earnings, suggests a shift in economic conditions for this financially stressed segment of the workforce.”
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In another welcome sign of the Trump Administration’s focused prioritization of American interests in foreign policy, the State Department’s Senior Bureau Official for African Affairs recently rolled out a clear-eyed approach to U.S. engagement in Africa. As part of a long-overdue restructuring of the State Department, the Trump Administration articulated a directive to U.S. diplomats that puts enhanced trade and commercial diplomacy at the forefront of advancing U.S. interests, with the American private sector squarely in the lead as the engine of mutual prosperity and expansive growth. As highlighted throughout a hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently, threats from Chinese activities across Africa, especially commercial activities, directly undermine U.S. interests across the continent.
Subcommittee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) laid out the challenge directly, calling China “the most significant long-term strategic threat to the United States” and highlighting that throughout Africa, “China is exercising its military, economic, and political power and advancing its authoritarian agenda, all while undermining the sovereignty of African nations and the strategic interests of the United States.” To help confront this harmful influence directly, the Trump Administration’s updated strategy prioritizes the need to reduce barriers to entry for U.S. companies and level the playing field for American businesses. Fair, clear, and equal rules of doing business, coupled with strengthened institutions and the rule of law to uphold those standards, are the opportunity the private sector seeks as it evaluates prospective markets. Coupled with broader Trump Administration reforms at trade promotion and enhanced prioritization ensuring American competitiveness in Africa, this strategic focus on “trade, not aid” is what both our African partners and the American people want.
The success of this strategy goes beyond the ongoing reorganization and strategic restructuring of the state. As Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-ID) noted during another recent hearing focused on issues in East Africa, “There are countries where meaningful engagement is possible—but only with sober judgment and clear-eyed realism. We must stop building U.S. policy in Africa around individual leaders and instead focus on strengthening institutions, expanding private sector ties, and empowering the region’s young and dynamic populations.” That clear focus requires careful analysis of the various ways China’s coercive activities have been successful in the past to help inform what is needed to expand commercial relationships in Africa.
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The dispute centred on an exception granted to California on national vehicle emission standards, allowing it to set stricter rules than federal standards.
The United States Supreme Court has sided with fuel producers that had opposed California’s standards for vehicle emissions and electric cars under a federal air pollution law, agreeing that their legal challenge to the mandates should not have been dismissed.
The justices in a 7-2 ruling on Friday overturned a lower court’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit by a Valero Energy subsidiary and fuel industry groups. The lower court had concluded that the plaintiffs lacked the required legal standing to challenge a 2022 US Environmental Protection Agency decision to let California set its own regulations.
“The government generally may not target a business or industry through stringent and allegedly unlawful regulation, and then evade the resulting lawsuits by claiming that the targets of its regulation should be locked out of court as unaffected bystanders,” conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the majority.
Liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the decision.
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“Prices would rise — sharply — they said, reigniting an inflation crisis that tens of millions of Americans had elected [President Donald Trump] to solve,” CNN’s David Goldman wrote on Friday. “But that massive, tariff-induced inflation spike hasn’t materialized. Not even close.”
Indeed, it hasn’t. But who exactly is Goldman referring to when he says, “they said”? Well, Goldman might want to check his own newsroom.
On May 16, CNN’s Allison Morrow wrote, “There’s no denying it now: Tariffs are raising prices.”
“Donald Trump’s pitch to Americans on the campaign trail last year included a simple (and simplistic) promise: lower prices on Day One. Even if he didn’t mean it literally, it’s now Day 115, and the results of his only significant economic policy show that the opposite is happening,” Morrow wrote.
Three days prior, CNN’s Nathaniel Meyersohn wrote, “Tariffs have already made mattresses, strollers and power tools more expensive.”
Some other doomsday predictions from CNN include Auzinea Bacon’s May 24 article titled “These companies will raise prices because of Trump’s tariffs,” accusing Trump of giving “many Americans whiplash” as companies announced “daunting” price hikes. “Anything from groceries and clothing to toys and cars could cost Americans more,” Bacon wrote.
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Disney World is experiencing a massive decline in attendance in June, with visitor numbers and overall crowd sizes way down in what is typically one of the busiest months of the year.
According to Disney Dining, the current June numbers are noticeably low when compared with historical trends. Social media feedback painted a picture of low energy across the parks, starkly contrasting the vibrant atmosphere typically associated with Disney World during this season. Some users even remarked on the eeriness of encountering low crowds, urging discussions about what might be causing this downturn,” the Disney-focused blog reported.
Economic concerns have been viewed as a potential contributing factor, as rising prices for Disney vacations has been listed as a concern for families considering a trip. While overall inflation trends have cooled, costs of dining, lodging and experiences have increased dramatically across Disney theme parks.
“Disney executives have acknowledged the concern but have been slow to adapt their pricing strategies in light of these economic difficulties,” Disney Dining reported. “The sentiment among consumers suggests an ongoing reluctance to spend on extravagant trips like Disney World, marking a troubling shift for the beloved theme park.”
Earlier this year, reports surfaced that Disney executives were discussing whether their continuous price hikes are alienating middle class families who would have otherwise planned a visit. The price of attending a Disney park has skyrocketed in recent years, with the typical price of a four-day stay inside the park rising by $1000 between 2019 and 2024, according to an analysis conducted by The Wall Street Journal.
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LGBTQ advocates have long allied themselves with diversity, equity and inclusion groups. Yet DEI’s legal troubles are causing some corporate sponsors to end their support for Pride activities.
Soon, Pride advocates may have legal problems of their own. That’s bad for Pride organizers, but it’s good for parents because rulings could spell out protections for parents and children from explicit sexual material in schools.
An April survey of corporate executives found that 39% of respondents “plan to reduce Pride-related engagement in 2025,” with 61% of these business leaders citing “pressure” from the White House as the primary reason for dropping support.
Some Pride organizations are reeling: Businesses such as Mastercard, Pepsi, Comcast and more did not contribute to Pride events—in fact, San Francisco’s Pride organizations saw fundraising fall by $200,000. New York City’s Pride fundraising dropped by 20%, while Salt Lake City’s Pride fundraising is down by nearly half a million dollars.
Companies were more interested in supporting Pride events and their DEI partners when federal officials allowed DEI offices in corporations and on university campuses to skirt civil rights laws.
According to Forbes, corporate fundraising for DEI “peaked” between 2016 and 2022, which happened to cover much of President Joe Biden’s administration. That administration did not call companies, universities and other organizations to account for DEI activities that may have violated the Civil Rights Act, such as racial favoritism in hiring.