• August jobs report disappoints: The August jobs report is in, and the numbers are not great. Just 22,000 jobs were added last month, coming in well below the anticipated 75,000. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the headline unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3%. While July’s jobs numbers were revised upward by 6,000 for a total of 79,000, revisions also showed a net loss of 13,000 jobs in June. This marks the first jobs report since Donald Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer a month ago. Trump says “the real numbers” won’t come in until “a year from now.” The good news is that average hourly wages increased by 0.3% over the month, resulting in an annual gain of 3.7%, which is slightly below the forecasted 3.8%.

• DC AG sues / Guard deployment extended: The District of Columbia attorney general is suing the federal government, arguing that the deployment of National Guard units to the streets of DC violates the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. A similar case was successfully brought over the deployment of Guardsmen to Los Angeles in June, which is expected to be appealed. Guard units are not allowed to participate in law enforcement, argued the plaintiffs, even though Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed ahead of their deployment that Guardsmen would not be authorized to make arrests. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has expressed her thanks for the assistance her city has received in reducing crime. Pending this lawsuit, the DC National Guard has had its deployment to the District extended through November 30. Time will tell if the courts will side with criminals or with law enforcement.

• Chicago Dems blame red states for rampant crime: If you’re a Democrat in the state of Illinois or the city of Chicago, it’s very simple: Crime in the Windy City is because of all those red-staters shipping in their guns. As former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot gaslighted this week, if you really want to stop crime in Chicago, you have to go after gun manufacturers in Indiana. For Democrats, the fact that gun-friendly red states don’t have anything like the crime rate of Chicago is irrelevant; it’s guns that cause the crime, not bad policies or people. Unfortunately for Democrats, the data is in, and crime trends in Chicago tell a different story. Violent crime has risen 18% since 2013, while the number of arrests sank by 33%. Soft-on-crime and defund-police policies cause crime, not guns.

• The Department of War: President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order today renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will propose legislative actions to make the name change permanent. The War Department was created in 1789 and lasted until 1947, when several departments were consolidated into what became the Department of Defense. Trump commented that the older name “just sounded better,” while Hegseth desires to reinforce the “warrior ethos” within the Armed Forces. The original name change was intended to present a less belligerent face to America’s adversaries and allies. The return to the original name can best be summed up with the old proverb: “If you desire peace, prepare for war.” Or, as Hegseth put it, America’s enemies “don’t want to [mess] with us.”

• Lisa Cook criminally probed by DOJ: The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook over allegations that she engaged in mortgage fraud. Cook, who is fighting Donald Trump’s efforts to fire her, claims that this action is purely politically driven. Cook’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, called the investigation a “concocted” pretext to justify Trump’s firing for cause in order to “forward his agenda to undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve.” While Trump has been critical of Fed Chair Jerome Powell for refusing to cut interest rates, he has not taken action to remove him.

• Alligator Alcatraz gets the go-ahead: Yesterday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a federal district judge’s temporary restraining order last month blocking Florida and the Trump administration from using the quickly constructed Alligator Alcatraz facility to detain illegal aliens. The 11th Circuit ruled that the environmental groups and an American Indian tribe that brought the lawsuit “failed to state a viable claim” that Florida and DHS were in violation of federal law. “Given that the federal government has an undisputed and wide-reaching interest in combatting illegal immigration, and that illegal immigration is a matter of national security and public safety, we think the injunction issued below goes against the public interest,” the court wrote. Gov. Ron DeSantis praised the decision, noting that Alligator Alcatraz is “open for business.”

• American Eagle shares spike since Sydney Sweeney flap: It turns out that modeling a pretty girl in jeans is actually good for selling jeans. Since woke outrage erupted against American Eagle following its jeans ad campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney earlier this summer, the clothing retailer’s stock value has jumped 6% year-to-date. CEO Jay Schottenstein observed, “We saw a record-breaking new customer acquisition and brand awareness cutting across age, demographics, and genders.” American Eagle anticipates a sales increase in the third and fourth quarters. GlobalData managing director Neil Saunders called the woke flap over Sweeney a “tempest in a teacup,” noting that it had no negative impact on sales and further pointing out, “Making more noise is exactly what American Eagle needs to do to cut through and regain ground among consumers for whom it has slipped off the radar.”

• Tim Kaine says Founders’ views mimic those of Iranian terrorists: Virginia Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine thinks rights come from the government. In a shocking moment in a committee hearing, Kaine said, “The notion that rights don’t come from laws and don’t come from the government, but come from the Creator — that’s what the Iranian government believes.” He added that disbelief in government-granted rights “is extremely troubling.” Kaine’s ignorance was on full display, as any middle schooler would’ve been able to explain that the Declaration of Independence says, “All men are … endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” If Hillary Clinton’s former running mate is that ignorant of the American founding documents, then perhaps Matt Walsh is correct in that he “is obviously not fit to serve.”

• House opens investigation into climate “educational” program: The Climate Judiciary Project (CJP) was initiated in 2018 by the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) with the claim of providing “federal, state, and local judges the basic science they need to adjudicate the climate litigation over which they preside.” Judging by CJP’s curriculum, the program appears to be more about influencing how judges rule to further a climate alarmist agenda through the courts. The House Judiciary Committee has opened an investigation into ELI. In a letter, the committee observed, “Public reports have documented concerns around apparent efforts … to influence judges who potentially may be presiding over lawsuits related to alleged climate change. These efforts appear to have the underlying goal of predisposing federal and state judges in favor of plaintiffs alleging injuries from the manufacturing, marketing, or sale of fossil-fuel products.”

• Federal workers are increasingly heeding Trump’s order to show up for work: Only 15%-20% of federal workers showed up to the office under Joe Biden despite efforts to return to in-person work after the end of the COVID lockdowns. On his first day in office, President Trump signed an executive order requiring all departments to “take all necessary steps” to end remote work accommodations. Now, 46% of all federal employees are working on-site, with former hybrid workers accounting for the most significant change. Nationally, office work seems unlikely to return to its pre-lockdown days, with 28% of workers exclusively working remotely and 51% working in a hybrid model, sometimes at home and sometimes in the office. Only 21% of workers are exclusively on-site.

Headlines

• Trump pushes Europe to stop buying Russian oil (NY Post)

• China may have stolen your data — and even Trump’s, multiyear probe finds (Daily Signal)

• 22 Chinese nationals charged in international drug-trafficking scheme (Daily Wire)

• Google to pay $425 million after years of improper spying on smartphone activity (Fox Business)

• Northwestern University president steps down amid battle with Trump admin (Free Beacon)

• Northwestern’s contract with Qatar forbids school from criticizing regime (Free Beacon)

• Humor: 9 most surprising things you can get arrested for in the UK (Babylon Bee)

For the Executive Summary archive, click here.