Weekly News Roundup - 5/30/25

Law firms win more cases against government // Economic outlook remains uncertain // Musk out

This is the 22nd Weekly News Roundup of 2025. The archive for all weekly news roundups is here.

These weekly dispatches are designed for those who may not have time to do more than glance at the headlines, or those who want to stay informed without becoming obsessed by politics and news. These roundups are a targeted way to get a sense of the shape of the past week on the national level. Without such a map, we can be disoriented, not knowing where we have been over the past several days, or where we may be going.

But by spending concentrated, limited time thinking about the big picture, we can devote more of our time to where “agency and justice begin and end,” as Karen Swallow Prior put it: “on the ground, bodily, in community and real relationships, in flesh and blood.”

Quotes of the Week

At the end of the day, your integrity is all you have. Guard it carefully. - Jerome Powell

If you want #Peace, prepare institutions of peace. This doesn’t refer only to political institutions, whether national or international, but to the entire forum of institutions – educational, economic, and social – that are involved. - Pope Leo XIV

It is the immigrant hordes who keep this country alive, the waves of them arriving year after year. Who believes in America more than the people who run down the gangplank and kiss the ground? - E.L. Doctorow

He has doomed his agenda by trying to implement it himself, rather than following the process set out by the Constitution. - Gabe Fleisher

Whoever in our world ignores the wounds of misery, suffering and pain of all kinds, whoever closes their eyes to them and refuses to touch them, has no right to cry out, 'My Lord and my God.' - Tomas Halik (127)

Big Stories this Week

• President Trump's tariffs were dealt a significant setback, when a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that his levies on foreign goods exceeded his authority. The ruling was delayed by a federal appeals judge but signaled that much of Trump's tariff regime may go down in court, perhaps at the Supreme Court.

• Consumer confidence bounced back in May according to new data, following a pause of President Trump's trade war with China. The bond market, however, remains a big concern, and a bigger indicator of potential serious economic problems ahead. Bonds stabilized a little this week as Senate Republicans told Trump that he will have to reduce the amount that this year's budget adds to the deficit, and as Trump once again backed off tariff threats, this time against the European Union. But the mid- to long-term fiscal path ahead is incredibly complex and tricky. As Bloomberg reports:

The US 30-year yield is currently hovering at 4.97% after having soared last week to 5.15%—the highest since October 2023.A JPMorgan survey released on Wednesday added emphasis to growing fears in the $29 trillion Treasury market. The poll’s all-client category for outright short positions—which includes central banks, sovereign wealth funds, real money and speculative traders—has climbed to the most since around mid-February. Fueling that doubt is the US losing its last top credit score, passage in the House of a spending bill that would add trillions more to an almost $37 trillion national debt, and a steep selloff in Japan’s super-long bonds.

• Elon Musk leaves his post in the Trump administration, having failed to deliver the spending cuts he promised but having uprooted much of the federal government and bureaucracy.

Week in Review

Friday, May 23

• A federal judge permanently blocks Trump's executive order targeting an elite law firm, ruling that the president violated the Constitution by singling out a law firm for political retaliation. It is "the second time this month that a judge has struck down a Trump executive order against a prominent firm," the AP says.

• Trump signs an executive order to speed up the domestic production of nuclear power.

Saturday, May 24

• Russia launches its largest air assault on Ukraine since invading the country in 2022, killing at least 12 people in Kyiv.

Sunday, May 25

• Trump says that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is "needlessly killing a lot of people" and "has gone absolutely CRAZY!"

• Trump, who threatened Friday to impose a 50% tariff on goods from the European Union starting June 1, says he'll delay the penalty until July 9.

Monday, May 26

• Russia bombards Ukraine for a third straight day with large-scale drone and missile attacks, killing at least 30 civilians and injuring more than 160 others.

• Americans observe Memorial Day, to commemorate those who died while serving in the military.

Tuesday, May 27

• A third federal judge slaps down another Trump executive order targeting an elite law firm. “The cornerstone of the American system of justice is an independent judiciary and an independent bar willing to tackle unpopular cases, however daunting. The Founding Fathers knew this!” U.S. District Judge Richard Leon writes in his opinion.

• The State Department temporarily suspends the scheduling of new visa interviews for foreign students, and increases its scrutiny of social media posts by applicants.

• Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy says the CDC will stop recommending that healthy children and pregnant women be recommended to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Wednesday, May 28

• A three-judge panel at the New York-based U.S. Court of International Trade blocks much of Trump's tariff regime, saying the president had exceeded his authority in issuing the penalties on imported goods.

• Elon Musk leaves the Trump administration entirely, after weeks of saying he was reducing his role. Musk's Department of Government Efficiency said it would cut $2 Trillion in spending, but ended up reducing its goal to just 7% of that amount.

• Four people die in Gaza when hundreds of Palestinians storm a United Nations food warehouse, desperate for food because of Israel's blockade.

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the Trump administration will "aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields."

• A Swiss village is buried by a landslide after a glacier crashes down the mountain above it.

Thursday, May 29

• A federal appeals court delays the court order issued on Wednesday halting Trump's tariffs, keeping them in place for the moment. The issue may need to be decided by the Supreme Court.

• A heralded report on making America healthier from Kennedy's HHS department is found to have cited studies that do not exist.

• The White House says that Israel has accepted a proposal for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza.

Friday, May 30

• Hamas says it is reviewing a U.S. plan for a ceasefire.

• Trump accuses China of violating the agreement struck to pause a trade war between the two countries. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says, ""I would engage with China. I just got back from China last week. They're not scared, folks ... This notion they're going to come bow to America, I wouldn't count on that."

Interesting Reads

• Remembering by Mindy Belz for Globe Trot

• The Billion-Dollar Business Behind Trump’s Immigration Crackdown, by Elizabeth Findell, Jack Gillum, Jemal R. Brinson and Juanje Gómez for The Wall Street Journal

• I Was Obama’s Budget Director. It’s Time to Worry About the National Debt, by Peter Orszag for The New York Times

• Japan’s Debt, Now Twice the Size of Its Economy, Forces Hard Choices by River Akira Davis and Hisako Ueno for The New York Times

• White-collar bloodbath, by Mike Allen for Axios

• As Ukrainian POWs die in Russian prisons, autopsies point to a system of brutality, by Hanna Arhirova, Vasilisa Stepanenko And Illia Novikov for The Associated Press

• How Donald Trump Has Remade America’s Political Landscape, by Shane Goldmacher for The New York Times

• Cornyn Calls Primary Fight Against Ken Paxton a ‘Test of Character’, by J. David Goodman for The New York Times

• Murdered Staffer Had Deep Ties to Messianic Community in Israel, by Jill Nelson for Christianity Today

• Sports Stadiums Are Monuments to the Poverty of Our Ambitions, by Binyamin Appelbaum for The New York Times

• Trump should build millions of cheap drones, not Golden Dome, by Max Boot for The Washington Post

• Senate Russia hawks sick of waiting on sanctions, by Burgess Everett and Morgan Chalfant for Semafor

• Tim Cook’s Bad Year Keeps Getting Worse, by Rolfe Winkler for The Wall Street Journal

• Bridge Builder: How Robert Prevost became Leo XIV, by Austin Ivereigh for Commonweal

• Risking Their Lives to ‘Self-Deport’, by Annie Correal for The New York Times

• ‘Stop the Steal’ in U.S. History Class: A tendentious look at Trump’s 2020 claims in Oklahoma high schools, by The Wall Street Journal editorial board

• On the Campaign Trail, Elon Musk Juggled Drugs and Family Drama, by Kirsten Grind and Megan Twohey for The New York Times

• I’m Normally a Mild Guy. Here’s What’s Pushed Me Over the Edge, by David Brooks for The New York Times

• The Rise of the Japanese Toilet, by River Akira Davis and Kiuko Notoya for The New York Times