The Daily Brief
Today
Good morning. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the ruling class marks the day it built its own power. Four former presidents planned to gather at the World Trade Center memorial while Trump visited the Pentagon, but the honest reckoning came from elsewhere: presidents of both parties turned the War on Terror into a decades-long expansion of White House power, the machinery Trump now wields. The Intercept puts it plainly — over 25 years, bin Laden's wish for the destruction of America has come true. It began the morning Andy Card leaned over and told George W. Bush, "America is under attack."
At the Republican midterm convention that opened in Dallas on September 9, Trump made clear he does not much care about affordability. His answer to voters is a promise of $5,000 checks if he wins — a shallow gimmick, dangled even as his own trade war with Canada leaves Michigan voters bracing for higher prices.
The House majority spent its energy elsewhere, passing a resolution 220-192 that condemns and denounces socialism in all its forms, including the Democratic Socialists of America. What that Congress will not name is the cost of work itself: a longtime UPS worker less than two weeks from retirement was struck and killed by one of the company's vehicles on the job in St Louis. Whether steelworkers reward the majority's priorities remains an open question of the midterms.
Abroad, the ancient Lebanese city of Tyre has been left scarred by war. In Britain, Green leader Zack Polanski moved to seek an open parliamentary seat, setting up a showdown with Prime Minister Andy Burnham. And South African police say six Nigerians accused of romance scams will be extradited to the US on wire fraud and money-laundering charges.
Zoom out: Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, the expanded presidential power built by the War on Terror now belongs to Trump, who keeps telling voters he cares little about what they can afford.