Friday's report on the jobs market was positive — the U.S. added 223,000 jobs in May (up from 164,000 jobs added in April) and the unemployment rate dropped to 3.8%.
Yes, but: We knew good news was coming before the report came out because of a tweet from President Trump — and that may have impacted the market. Axios' Steve LeVine points out the tweet (seen below) sent an indicator of good news coming down the pipeline, leading to a surge of market activity before the official report was released.
The lawyer for Stephanie Clifford (Stormy Daniels) reached out to well-established Democratic operatives for help in the porn star's legal battle against President Trump, the New York Times reports, although it does not appear that any money was given.
Why it matters: Daniels' allegation that Trump had a sexual affair with her years ago, and that his lawyer Michael Cohen paid her to stay silent about it, has become a major political issue. Her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, has a background working in Democratic politics. While Avenatti has claimed that he "will not allow this to be politicized," asking for help from political groups seems to indicate otherwise.
Bloomberg broke a story last night about the emerging structure of long-discussed Trump administration efforts to aid economically struggling coal-fired and nuclear power plants.
Why it matters: Per their story, the plan would "represent an unprecedented intervention into U.S. energy markets."
President Trump tweeted Friday morning that Samantha Bee should be fired for the "horrible language used on her low ratings show."
This comes after Bee and her network TBS apologized for calling Ivanka Trump a "feckless c*nt" on Wednesday, a clip that went viral and led to advertisers exiting her show.
By any historical measure, it’s highly unusual for President Trump to repeatedly pressure his attorney general to intervene in an investigation of the White House, as Axios scooped late yesterday.
Why it matters: By any historical measure, it’s highly unusual to have a special prosecutor probing whether a president obstructed justice during his first days in office, like the Robert Mueller investigation is doing. By any historical measure, it’s highly unusual for a president this early in his term to pardon a controversial political donor (conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza) — and to signal he might pardon other celebrity criminals, like Trump did yesterday with Martha Stewart and more.
President Trump pressured Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reclaim control of the Russia investigation on at least four separate occasions, three times in person and once over the phone, according to sources familiar with the conversations.
Why it matters: The fact that there were multiple conversations shows that Trump's pressure on Sessions to stop recusing himself was heavier than previously known. The sustained pressure made several officials uncomfortable, because they viewed it as improper and worry that it could be politically and legally problematic.
Immigrants helped found more than half of the U.S.'s 87 startup companies valued at more than a billion dollars in 2016, according to a study by the National Foundation for American Policy, with the 11 biggest of those companies employing more than 17,000 people.
Why it matters: The Trump administration recently proposed to cancel an Obama-era visa aimed at helping foreign entrepreneurs start new businesses in the U.S. The president and other advocates for cutting immigration levels argue that immigrants are taking jobs from U.S. workers, but in many instances, immigrants not only contribute to the U.S. economy, but create more jobs for Americans.
President Trump has pardoned Dinesh D'Souza, a convicted felon who has been a prominent conservative pundit and activist since the 1980s.
The big picture: D'Souza, who pled guilty in 2014 to violating campaign finance laws, served in the Reagan administration and worked at both the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution. He became prominent after publishing Illiberal Education in 1991, has written 16 books critiquing the liberal world-view, and gradually transitioned into film projects.
Independent voters now surpassed registered Republicans in California, making the GOP fall to third-party status as Democrats seek to flip seats to take control of the House this November, according to new data reported by Politico.
Reality check: Registration doesn’t guarantee significant voter turnout. But the surge of independents could help Democrats since the group is more likely to vote Democratic than Republican. However, Politico notes that "Republicans still stand to play an outsized role in next week’s primary despite the registration erosion. GOP voters typically vote at higher rates in nonpresidential year primary elections than Democrats."
