Trump’s ‘Maximalist’ Plan for the Presidency, and a Major Loophole Closes for U.S. Shoppers

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0:32Victor Mather:From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, August 29th. Here's what we're covering.

0:44Victor Mather:Twice this week, the Trump administration has announced it's firing high-ranking government officials. And twice this week, those officials have said, I will not go. First, it was Lisa Cook, a governor at the Federal Reserve, who the administration has accused of mortgage fraud. Her firing came as President Trump has been trying to gain control of the Fed board.

1:05Hamed Aleaziz:What I will say is that he has the cause that he needs to fire this individual, and so we'll continue to fight this battle.

1:11Victor Mather:Then it was Susan Menares, the CDC director, who was dismissed after clashing with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy.

1:20Hamed Aleaziz:This woman has never received a vote in her life, and the president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission.

1:25Victor Mather:The White House has defended its firings, even as Cook has pushed back by suing Trump, calling her dismissal, quote, unprecedented and illegal.

1:36Peter Eavis:President Trump has asserted widespread and maximalist powers over the federal government, believing that really no part of it should be independent from him or beyond his reach.

1:49Victor Mather:Luke Broadwater is a reporter in the Times-Washington Bureau. He says critics of the administration's recent moves are warning that it's politicizing financial and public health roles that have traditionally been insulated from that. But to the White House and to conservative legal analysts, Trump has the right to put exactly who he wants in charge.

2:09Peter Eavis:conservatives for many years have believed the federal government had swung too far to the left and that the bureaucrats were making decisions that were out of step with what the majority of the American people wanted. And that President Trump's mandate is to essentially get in their clean house and put more right-leaning people in those positions. So we have a president who is asserting powers no recent president would have done. But he does believe he has a backing and he has the mandate from the voters to do just that.

2:50Victor Mather:Now, three other quick updates on the Trump administration. The president has moved to strip more federal workers of their union protections, signing an executive order that affects employees at about a half dozen agencies from NASA to the National Weather Service. It follows an order earlier this year where he instructed a whole list of other agencies to end their collective bargaining agreements with unions. At the VA, for example, more than 400 ,000 workers lost their union protections. Trump has said the move is about national security. Unions say it's retaliation for the flurry of lawsuits they've filed to try and block mass firings and other efforts to dismantle wide swaths of the federal government.

3:32Victor Mather:Also, the Times has obtained internal government documents showing that the White House is actively making plans for an immigration crackdown in Chicago and has put in a request with the Defense Department to use a naval base outside the city as a staging area. The preliminary plans suggest it could involve 200 Homeland Security officials and could start as soon as next month. It comes as Trump has also floated sending National Guard troops into Chicago, which he's described as a crime-ridden mess.

4:03Peter Eavis:It's illegal, unconstitutional. Frankly, it's un-American to send troops into American cities when there's no emergency, there's no insurrection.

4:11Victor Mather:The governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, has condemned Trump's threats. And yesterday, he and 18 other Democratic governors signed an open letter calling the potential troop deployments a, quote, alarming abuse of power. And as of midnight, a trade loophole that had allowed billions of small packages to easily enter the U.S. has now been completely closed. Called the de minimis exemption, the rule had let packages worth less than$800 be shipped into the country without facing tariffs or requiring customs paperwork. The administration has said that the tighter controls will help stop fentanyl from being smuggled into the U.S.

4:50Victor Mather:and will raise revenue for the government. But the changing requirements have disrupted shipping worldwide. Many foreign post offices have recently suspended shipments to the U.S. altogether while they wait for clarity. Notably, the administration had already closed the exemption for products from China earlier this year, so we've had a preview of how this might go. The government says it's been able to collect an extra roughly$500 million so far on those Chinese shipments. Meanwhile, companies like Sheehan and Timu have seen purchases drop significantly, and the Americans who are still buying are paying more.

5:32Victor Mather:In Texas.

5:35Peter Eavis:84 eyes, 46 nays, House Bill 7 passed to engrossment.

5:38Victor Mather:Republican lawmakers have pushed forward with an expansive new effort to limit a key way that women get abortions, mail-order pills. The state has a near-total ban on the procedure, but many Texans seeking abortions have relied on out-of-state providers to prescribe and ship them the medication. If the new measure is signed into law, as expected, it would allow nearly anyone to sue doctors, distributors, or manufacturers who send or even intend to send abortion medication to Texans. Successful lawsuits would come with a cash award. Supporters of the effort say they hope it will kick off a flood of lawsuits against everyone from medical providers to shipping companies like FedEx and UPS.

6:21Victor Mather:Opponents of the measures say they're worried about exactly the same thing and that it could make it even harder for people to access abortions. Texas's legislation could go on to spark a clash with other states which have laws shielding abortion providers from liability. And that might ultimately wind up in front of the Supreme Court.

6:44Victor Mather:And finally, in 1991, a time capsule was buried on the grounds of a hospital in London. It was a big to-do. Princess Diana was there. And a bunch of items that had been specially chosen to capture that moment in history went into a lead-lined box to be preserved for the far, far, faraway future. That was the plan, anyway, until this summer when they had to dig it up for a construction project, a mere 34 years later. It had some real early 90s gems in there, a solar-powered calculator, a pocket television, and...

7:23Victor Mather:A CD of Kylie Minogue's Rhythm of Love. The project's very short lifespan underscores how time capsules are frequently kind of a bust. For one thing, people sometimes forget about them or they vanish altogether. There was one placed at the same London hospital in 1872, and they do not know where it went. Or worse, they're often just not that interesting. The Long Beach Post covered a time capsule in Southern California that was unearthed recently after 50 years, and the reporter declared it to be filled with, a lot of things I have in my garage. He's not alone. A history professor who's an expert on this kind of project told the Times that the most common reaction to time capsule openings is disappointment.

8:12Victor Mather:Those are the headlines. But stick around, we've got the Friday news quiz for you after the credits. This show is made by Will Jarvis, Jessica Metzger, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Larissa Anderson, John Chase, Lillian Cunningham, Jake Lucas, Zoe Murphy, Katie O 'Brien, and Paula Schumann.

8:35Victor Mather:Now, time for the quiz. Every week, we ask you a few questions about stories The Times has covered. Can you answer them all? First up.

8:45Luke Broadwater:Between us, I think we're going to change the name. You want to know the truth? I think we're going to have some information on that maybe soon.

8:51Victor Mather:This week at the White House, President Trump said he's considering renaming the Department of Defense. He said it should go back to the name that it dropped in the 1940s.

9:01Luke Broadwater:We had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of Defense. We changed it to Department of Defense. So that's a little...

9:08Victor Mather:Your question? What does he want to change it back to?

9:14The answer?

9:16Luke Broadwater:I think I like Department of War better, but we'll make that decision.

9:21Victor Mather:Trump says he wants to change the Department of Defense to the Department of War. It actually had that name when it was first established by George Washington in 1789. It was only renamed after World War II. Explaining his thinking, Trump said, quote, I don't want to be defense only. We want defense, but we want offense, too. OK, next question. This one's also about a rebranding of sorts, just for a very different kind of American institution. Recently, a classic brand tried to do a new minimalist revamp of its logo, and it did not go over well. They tossed away their authenticity. Now their new logo is basically just so tacky.

10:05Victor Mather:The change sparked a wave of backlash from the right. And this week, even President Trump called it a mistake, at which point the brand announced, never mind. So your question, what chain was it?

10:22The answer?

10:24J. David Goodman:Yo, we did it. We bullied Cracker Barrel enough to change their new logo back to the old one.

10:28Victor Mather:Cracker Barrel, the restaurant chain known for its kitschy gift shops and country fried steak. Its ultra minimalist new logo had dropped both the barrel and the image of an old man in overalls leaning up against it. Right wing critics said it was proof that the chain was abandoning its roots. There have been years of simmering conservative frustration with Cracker Barrel, in part because it's adopted more inclusive policies and embraced pride celebrations. So now the barrel and the old man are back. If you're wondering whether he has a name, apparently he's just called Old Timer.

11:09Victor Mather:And last question. This year marks the 60th anniversary of a beloved movie musical that has been inspiring Americans for decades to make a pilgrimage to Europe to see where it was filmed. My colleague Jim Tankersley has been reporting on the anniversary and the obsession. It helps that his own four-year-old daughter is a huge fan.

11:31J. David Goodman:I like the kids and the music and the dancing.

11:38Victor Mather:We had Nora describe the movie. Can you guess what it is?

11:41J. David Goodman:It's about a dad that's called a captain. captain, and there's a woman that learns to sing with the children.

11:59The answer?

12:00Chris Cameron:The hills are alive with the sound of music. The sound of music. With songs they have sung for a thousand years.