Tangle - The FBI raids the home of former Trump adviser John Bolton.

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

On Friday, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents raided the Maryland home and Washington, D.C. office of John Bolton, former national security adviser during President Donald Trump’...s first term. According to a senior U.S. official, the search was connected to an investigation into Bolton’s possible use of a private email server to share classified documents with his wife and daughter while he was working in the White House. Bolton was not detained and has not been charged with any crimes. Tangle LIVE tickets are available!We’re excited to announce that our third installment of Tangle Live will be held on October 24, 2025, at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in Irvine, California. If you’re in the area (or want to make the trip), we’d love to have you join Isaac and the team for a night of spirited discussion, live Q&A, and opportunities to meet the team in person. You can read more about the event and purchase tickets here.Ad-free podcasts are here!To listen to this podcast ad-free, and to enjoy our subscriber only premium content, go to ReadTangle.com to sign up!You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠, our “Under the Radar” story ⁠here and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.Take the survey: What do you think of the Bolton raid? Let us know!Disagree? That's okay. My opinion is just one of many. Write in and let us know why, and we'll consider publishing your feedback.You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.This podcast was written by: Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Lindsey Knuth, Kendall White, Bailey Saul, and Audrey Moorehead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle podcast, a place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking about the John Bolton investigation. It is Monday, August 25th, and on Friday last week, the FBI raided the Maryland Home and offices of John Bolton, the former National Security Advisor during President Donald Trump's first term.
Starting point is 00:00:45 We're going to break down the story, share some views from the left and the right, and then, of course, my take. Before we jump into that, though, I do want to give you a quick heads up that we published a couple of pieces of members-only content over the weekend. One was a newsletter and the other was a podcast both covering the same topic, which was a response to questions and criticisms we got about our video with Representative Jake Ockincloss, the Democrat from Massachusetts. A quick reminder, we released a kind of mini documentary on 72 hours with a member of Congress, which was Ocking Clause, and we got a lot of questions about what happened behind the scenes, you know, whether we saw him spend any time fundraising, what happened in off-the-record situations. readers asking about how the whole thing was actually set up, or if we plan to do more videos like it, or if we just gave him a bunch of free bogus publicity, among other things, we responded
Starting point is 00:01:38 to all of that on Friday and Saturday with a newsletter member's only piece and a member's only podcast that is in this feed. If you want to go back and check it out, you can listen to a preview of it. Encourage you to go listen. I think it's really fun to get to expand on some of the work that we did and show you guys a little bit of how all this actually played out. With that, I'm going to set it over to John for today's main story, and I'll be back for my take. Thanks, Isaac, and welcome, everybody. Hope y'all had a wonderful weekend. It's another Monday, which means another opportunity to start the week off right. And I was thinking about it. I was wondering if any of you all have a Monday morning ritual or routine,
Starting point is 00:02:26 something that you do on Mondays to kind of jumpstart or motivate your week into being as optimal as possible. For me, I like to go over to my local coffee shop. It's called Lima Coffee Roasters and pick up like either a cold brew, like a nitro, something that perks me up, peps me up. And sometimes if I'm feeling spicy, I'll pick up like a pastry of some kind. But normally the point is I just want to do something for myself that makes me feel excited and energized. And that could be as simple as getting up and going to the gym or making coffee at home. I don't know. I was just kind of curious if any of y'all have any routines or things that you do, maybe even just writing in a journal or getting your thoughts out, talking with a friend,
Starting point is 00:03:06 whatever it is that some of you may do. I'd be really curious to hear about it. So please feel free to write into me, John J-O-N at readtangle.com. And as always, remember to spread some positivity this week because those seeds that we plant in others can actually grow and manifest to help all of us as a community. The other thing that I just wanted to say really quickly is thank you to those of you who wrote in about the music suggestion from last week, Stevie Wonder's fulfillingness first finale album based on the under the radar story that we mentioned. David from Huntsville, Alabama, told me that he wrote in and listened to the album and really enjoyed it, said that maybe I should work in some other music recommendations. I'd be happy to do so, so maybe I'll try and find a way to do that every now and again. All right, with all that said, here are your quick hits for today.
Starting point is 00:03:50 First up, the Pentagon has reportedly been planning a military deployment to Chicago for weeks, with options including mobilizing thousands of National Guard members. On Friday, President Donald Trump suggested he would turn his focus to the city imminently. Number two, U.S. immigration officials said they planned to deport Kilmar-Abrego-Garcia to Uganda after he declined an offer to be sent to Costa Rica. Abregal Garcia was erroneously imprisoned in El Salvador in March, then returned to the U.S. in June following a court order. Number three, a New York appeals court threw out an approximately $500 million fine
Starting point is 00:04:24 in a civil judgment against President Donald Trump finding the penalty was excessive. The court left in place a lower court's finding that Trump had committed fraud. Number four, Canada removed many of its counter tariffs imposed on the United States in response to sweeping U.S. tariffs on Canadian imports. However, Canada's 25% duties on U.S. automobiles, steel, and aluminum will remain in place. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he hopes the move will help facilitate a trade deal between the countries. And number five, President Trump announced that the U.S. government would take a 10% stake in the computer technology company Intel via a conversion of $8.9 billion in previously awarded federal grants.
Starting point is 00:05:15 No, I don't know about it. I saw it on television. this morning. I'm not a fan of John Bolton. He's a real sort of a low life. When I hired him, he served a good purpose because, as you know, he was one of the people that forced push to do the ridiculous bombings in the Middle East, the Bolton. He wants to always kill people. And he's very bad at what he does. But he worked out great for me because every time he doesn't talk. He's like a very quiet person, except on television. He could say something. bad about Trump. He'll always do that.
Starting point is 00:05:49 But he really doesn't talk. He's quiet. And I'd walk into a room with him with a foreign country. The foreign country would give me everything because they said, oh, no, they're going to get blown up because John Bolton is there. He's a, not a smart guy, but he could be a very unpatriatic guy. I mean, we're going to find out. I know nothing about it.
Starting point is 00:06:07 I just saw it this morning. They did a raid. On Friday, FBI agents raided the Maryland Home and Washington, D.C. Office of John Bolton, former national security advice. during President Donald Trump's first term. According to a senior U.S. official, the search was connected to an investigation into Bolton's possible use of a private email server to share classified documents with his wife and daughter while he was working in the White House.
Starting point is 00:06:32 Bolton was not detained and has not been charged with any crimes. For context, Bolton served as President Trump's third national security advisor from 2018 to 2019. During his tenure, Bolton diverged from the president on several key national security issues. most notably by suggesting more aggressive postures toward Iran and North Korea. Bolton has a long-standing reputation as a strong proponent of hawkish foreign policies, including backing the Iraq War when he served as United States ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. President Trump announced he had fired Bolton in September 2019. Bolton said he resigned, after which Bolton wrote a memoir on his time in the White House that harshly criticized the president.
Starting point is 00:07:17 At the time, the Trump White House attempted to block publication of Bolton's memoir, citing a National Security Council official review that found the manuscript contained significant amounts of classified information. The Biden administration ended a Justice Department lawsuit and probe into the book in 2021. A federal magistrate judge in Maryland authorized the search of Bolton's home, while a different federal magistrate judge in Washington, D.C. signed off on the office search. Investigators must present evidence of probable cause of a violation of federal law to obtain such warrants. On Friday, Vice President J.D. Vance confirmed that the administration
Starting point is 00:07:53 was in the very early stages of an investigation into Bolton, adding that if the Justice Department ultimately brings a case, it will be because they determined that he has broken the law. Vance rejected the notion that Bolton was targeted because of his criticism of the president. Separately, President Trump suggested that he did not have advanced notice of the plan to raid Bolton's home in office, but spoke critically about his former advisor, telling reporters, I'm not a fan of John Bolton. I thought he was a sleaze bag, actually. He suffers major Trump derangement syndrome. The president added that he knows the feeling of having his home raided, referring to the 2022 raid on his Mar-a-Lago residence. Shortly after the raid began,
Starting point is 00:08:32 FBI director Cash Patel posted on X, no one is above the law, FBI agents on mission. And FBI deputy director Dan Bongino posted, public corruption will not be tolerated. The agency has not shared details on the outcome of the state. search, but several outlets reported that it was related to a criminal investigation that began during the Biden administration but was not pursued further. Some Democrats suggested that Bolton was targeted for political reasons. Representative Mike Quigley, the Democrat from Illinois, a member of the House Intelligence Committee said, the timing is very suspicious. And the fact that DOJ investigated him previously and found nothing to charge him with just tells you that I suspect
Starting point is 00:09:11 that they know that even if they don't have anything, they're embarrassing him and they're bringing great cost upon him. Today, we'll share reactions from the left and the right to the raid on Bolton's home and office, and then Isaac's take. We'll be right back after this quick break. strongly criticizes the raids, calling them clear political vengeance. Some worry that Trump will target other political adversaries in this way. Others say the administration is not hiding that retribution is its goal. The New York Times editorial board wrote, Trump gets his revenge on John Bolton. Who's
Starting point is 00:10:02 next? Less than 12 hours after President Trump's inauguration in January, he revoked the security detail protecting John Bolton, his former national security advisor turned critic, despite credible threats from Iran. Since then, Mr. Trump has repeatedly ridiculed Mr. Bolton on social media. On Friday morning, the intimidation ratcheted up several notches, the board said. It is too early to know what the FBI will claim to find in all of those boxes, but not too early to surmise that the search for incriminating documents was not the real goal of Friday's search. Even if it turns up documents that should not be there, the administration has damaged any presumption of good faith by flinging weightless accusations of criminality at those who
Starting point is 00:10:43 challenge it. Mr. Trump seems convinced that he is doing nothing to his rivals that was not done to him in earlier prosecutions and lawsuits. That is untrue. There is little comparison between the substantial evidence amassed in his cases, in particular that he tried to break the nation's election laws in 2020 and refused to return classified White House documents, and the frequent lack of evidence lobbed at his adversaries, the board wrote. We do not pretend to know how any of these cases will turn out, but it is clear that Mr. Trump and his appointees are perverting the justice system to serve their political interests and intimidate their critics. In the Atlantic, Shane Harris suggested, the Bolton raid feels like a warning.
Starting point is 00:11:23 The FBI's actions were hard not to read as payback for Bolton's years of criticism of the president, even as the facts that persuaded a judge to approve a search warrant remain unknown. That's the problem with a politicized legal system. Even if an investigation is legitimate, it's easy to assume that its motives are corrupt, Harris said. chilling effect is too mild, though revoking the security clearances of two senior intelligence officers, as Gabbard did, effectively ending their government careers, will indeed send a message. Terrorizing the workforce is a phrase I've heard a lot this week, and that may indeed be the point.
Starting point is 00:11:58 It's possible some new evidence of a potential crime has emerged, leading to today's FBI raid. But the administration's hostility toward Bolton is well known, and Trump has made no secret of the fact that seeing himself as the victim of political prosecutions during the Biden years, he is eager to turn the tables on perceived enemies, Harris wrote. There are still officials working in the government who took part in the 2016 efforts to counter Russia. Has the White House overlooked them? Are they next on the list to be purged? Everyone is left to wonder, but no one thinks that the president's retribution campaign is
Starting point is 00:12:29 anywhere near its end. In CNN, Aaron Blake said the Trump team keeps giving away the game on its retribution crusade. One of the problems with assessing President Trump's legal retribution campaign against his foes is the many things we don't know. We don't know, for example, what evidence the administration actually has against all these people, Blake wrote. The fact that it has now launched investigations into key figures involved in every major probe of Trump sure suggests that this is about retaliation, and its attempt to turn these investigations
Starting point is 00:12:59 into public spectacles really give away the game, as we've seen most recently on Friday morning as the FBI was searching the home of former Trump National Security Advisor turned critic John Bolton. Over and over again, the administration has not just probed to Trump's critics. It's made a show of it, often in ways that run afoul of legal ethics. Those ethics rules hold that prosecutors and investigators should not cede unwarranted suspicion of people. They should instead speak through legal filings and keep their public comments to a minimum. The idea is that the legal process is not to be used to impugn people whom the government doesn't have the goods on, Blake said. But the Trump administration has obliterated that
Starting point is 00:13:36 norm. That raises the prospect that these people are not necessarily being targeted for prosecution before a public shaming and to send a message to others. All right, that is it for what the left is saying, which brings us to what the right is saying. The right is mixed on the searches, but some decry a double standard in how the left reacted to investigations into Trump compared to Bolton. Others say the raids appear to be part of a political vendetta. Still, others say key questions remain unanswered about the basis for the raids. In PJ Media, Matt Margolis wrote, Accountability is not weaponization. When Trump was on the receiving end of this full-on government assault, the left called it justice. But now that accountability is being aimed at those who
Starting point is 00:14:28 abused their own positions, the media has rediscovered words such as dangerous, unprecedented, and of course, authoritarian, Margolis said. Bolton, of all people, once hailed by the left as a brave truth teller when he turned on Trump, is now portrayed as a martyr for democracy. The very same networks that applauded the FBI's storming Mar-a-Lago now treat the search of Bolton's home in office as an abuse of power. Why is it acceptable for Democrats with the full backing of the media to hurl the justice system at Trump, yet somehow it is outrageous that Trump goes after those who very clearly crossed
Starting point is 00:15:01 legal and ethical lines, Margolis wrote. Trump's critics want to play both sides. Justice is sacred when Trump is the target, but it's a threat to democracy when Democrats are. They can't have it both ways. If no one is above the law, then no one is above the law. If Democrats who waged war on Trump are finally being forced to answer for what they did, that's not the collapse of democracy. That's what accountability looks like. The Wall Street Journal editorial board said Trump's vendetta campaign targets John Bolton. President Trump promised voters during his campaign for a second term
Starting point is 00:15:34 that he had bigger things on his mind than retribution against opponents, but it is increasingly clear that vengeance is a large part, maybe the largest part, of how he will define success in his second term, the board wrote. It's hard to see the raid as anything other than vindictive. Mr. Bolton fell out of Mr. Trump's favor in the first term and then wrote a book about his experience in the White House while Mr. Trump was still president. Mr. Trump tried and failed to block the publication. The president claimed Mr. Bolton had exposed classified information, though the book had gone through an extensive pre-publication
Starting point is 00:16:06 scrub at the White House for classified material. Whether Mr. Trump ordered the FBI probe or not, doesn't matter. Mr. Patel knows what the president thinks about Mr. Bolton and the president's minions in Trump, too, don't serve as the check on his worst impulses the way grown-ups did in his first term. The presidential id is now unchained, the board said. The real offender here is a president who seems to think he can use the powers of his office to run vendettas. We said this was one of the risks of a second Trump term, and it's turning out to be worse than we imagined. In the Washington examiner, Tom Rogan explored the questions that need answering over the John Bolton FBI raid. The raid would have been authorized by a federal judge's signature on a search warrant, but now we need more
Starting point is 00:16:49 information on why the investigation was dropped by the Biden administration. Was it a political favor to Bolton over his criticism of Trump? Or was it because Justice Department attorneys in the National Security Division believe there was insufficient evidence to bring charges? If it is the latter possibility, then we must ask what changed between then and now, Rogan wrote. The fear, or should be fear, is that Trump is weaponizing the DOJ against his political enemies. Numerous former officials from the former Trump administration, whom Trump perceives as too critical of him, had their government security details withdrawn shortly after Trump re-entered office. That included Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former Joint Chiefs of Staff
Starting point is 00:17:29 Chairman Mark Millie, Rogan said, if there is a new cause or information suggesting that Bolton did indeed mishandle classified information and was given undue political cover from the Biden administration, this FBI activity would appear legitimate. But it is absurd for senior Trump law enforcement and DOJ officials to insist that they are always applying the rule of law without any partisan considerations. All right, let's head over to Isaac for his take. All right, that is it for the left and the righter saying,
Starting point is 00:18:06 which brings us to my take. So in the last few years, I began subscribing to a kind of prosecute them all mentality. I was moved by arguments of writers like Jonathan Katz, who made the case that it's a good thing if the powerful believe they would face accountability. That applies to President Donald Trump, who was prosecuted for mishandling classified documents and trying to overthrow an election, among other cases. It's true of Bill Clinton, who has been credibly accused of rape. It's true of Hillary Clinton, who mishandled classified documents. It's true of Barack Obama and George W. Bush, who many people want to see prosecuted for war crimes.
Starting point is 00:18:44 No one is above the law, all the way up to the president, despite how disruptive holding them accountable can be. Of course, it is easy to hold this principle in a vacuum. It's harder to hold it in the real world, where even legitimate prosecutions can compel political reaction, especially when accusations end without convictions. I have a hard time shedding any tears for John Bolton, a certified warmonger, who has regularly ensured that U.S. diplomatic efforts fail in favor of exercising military strength. He's a prototypical swamp creature who has done untold amounts of damage from an untouchable perch in Washington, D.C. During his 17-month stint as National Security Advisor in Trump's first
Starting point is 00:19:24 term, Bolton helped tank diplomacy that could have led to disarming North Korea. He publicly called for regime change in Venezuela, and he nearly sent us into an all-out war with Iran, just the few years after his New York Times op-ed to stop Iran's bomb, bomb Iran. These aren't crimes, of course. An infatuation with war is not the same as being guilty of mish handling classified information. Bolton's hawkish advocacy is only evidence of how someone can be consistently and dangerously wrong and fail forward in our nation's capital, which is all just to say, I may not want Bolton anywhere near the White House, but I'd still like to see some evidence that he deserved to have his home, raided by the FBI.
Starting point is 00:20:05 Many of Trump supporters are now justifying the raid against Bolton without suggesting any criminality on his part, but instead adopting a, the swamp came for Trump, now Trump's coming for them, mentality. This reaction to the Bolton raid is omnipresent in pro-Trump circles, and a fear of tit-for-tat reprisals was a valid concern when the DOJ began prosecuting Trump under Biden. It's also a valid counter-argument to the prosecute-them-all approach. Whether or not you believe if Trump deserved to face various criminal charges, the genie was out of the bottle, and the repercussions of crossing the Rubicon were easy to anticipate, but impossible to fully
Starting point is 00:20:41 understand. To me, this was not a reason to drop the Trump cases, but a reason to ensure any charges brought against him would be airtight, because opening the door to the appearance of political persecution would do untold long-term damage to our institutions and faith in our legal system. Quite unfortunately, the charges were often far from airtight. At the same time, even an airtight investigation could have taken us across the Rubicon. When the FBI raided Trump's home over his handling of classified documents, we immediately saw substantial evidence of criminal wrongdoing. The evidence in the indictment was damning,
Starting point is 00:21:16 showing that Trump was likely guilty of mishandling classified documents and trying to obstruct an investigation that would have landed most people in jail. Trump's missteps appeared more egregious than anything Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, who were both investigated, were accused of, making the DOJ's pursuit against him accordingly more serious. We can have a robust debate about whether a former president should go to jail or face serious criminal charges for such crimes, and the can of worms that kind of pursuit opens,
Starting point is 00:21:43 but we can't pretend Trump was obviously innocent. Fortunately for Trump, his classified documents case landed before an unusually friendly judge in Florida whom he appointed. The investigation into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election was also rife with publicly available evidence of his wrongdoing, though determining the criminality of those actions would have been much thornier and more difficult for me to weigh in on
Starting point is 00:22:05 from the sidelines without a trial. Now, is the investigation into Bolton simply retribution for his public break with Trump or is it also airtight? We don't know. We have no evidence yet to assess. The DOJ hasn't even announced specific allegations beyond reports alluding to mishandling
Starting point is 00:22:21 of classified information. Trump is harboring an obvious political grudge against Bolton, one that started with revoking his security clearances and Secret Service detail immediately after taking office, even though credible threats against Bolton's life have been publicly reported. I've written a lot about the ways Trump 2.0 is similar to Trump 1.0, but the biggest difference between Trump's second term and his first term is how much this one seems motivated by revenge. Here's one of the concerns I voiced following Trump's re-election
Starting point is 00:22:51 in 2024, quote, he's vindictive, aging, and unbound by any need to get reelected. He's easily consumed by grievance in his campaign is staffed with charlatans. And if he's surrounded by yes, men, affirming his worst instincts, we could be in for some very scary times, end quote. Part of Trump's appeal in 2016 was his campaign for the forgotten men and women of America. Whether you believed him or not, he grew enormously popular because he was focusing on the grievance of a class of people now so regularly ignored. In 2024, Trump's campaign was all about his personal enemies and what they did to him. And Bolton is one of the people. people Trump loathed. It's impossible not to immediately think this raid is an example of Trump
Starting point is 00:23:33 getting his revenge, rather than any genuine legal concern about how classified information was handled. If it's both true that Trump is seeking revenge and that the DOJ has evidence Bolton broke the law, I'd rather see him prosecuted than not. If it's only true that Trump is seeking revenge, then we have our latest evidence of Trump pursuing an authoritarian-style presidency. Yet for all the talk of this being creeping authoritarianism or a personal vendetta, a federal judge in Maryland signed off on the search warrant at Bolton's home, and a separate federal magistrate judge authorized the search of his downtown office. Now, depending on your level of skepticism toward the government and our legal system,
Starting point is 00:24:11 this could mean a lot or a little. To me, it suggests there is probably a decent amount of evidence that we haven't seen yet showing Bolton did something wrong. The search is obviously extremely sensitive and politically charged and that the Trump administration could get two separate judges to authorize raids against this backdrop is, to me, pretty reassuring. It's not as if Bolton is squeaky clean on these matters either. His memoir raised some serious red flags,
Starting point is 00:24:36 and a federal judge who reviewed the evidence in 2020 believed that he disclosed classified information in his manuscript while violating a nondisclosure agreement. So, just as we shouldn't presume that Bolton is guilty of a crime until seeing the evidence, we shouldn't presume Trump is guilty of a political hit job until seeing the evidence. without an indictment and the evidence supporting it
Starting point is 00:24:56 were left with little more than presumptions. Seeing Bolton's home get raided certainly got my attention, but I'm going to reserve as much judgment as I can until I have more information, and so should everyone else. We'll be right back after this quick break. All right.
Starting point is 00:25:23 That is it for my take, which brings us to your questions answered. This one's from JP in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. J.P. said, what are the facts regarding the U.S. sending the military to the coast of Venezuela? Also, how much of the $10 billion reward for Maduro is funded by the USA? Okay, here are the basic facts you ask for. So the U.S. State Department announced on August 7th that it is offering up $50 million for information leading to the arrest and or conviction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro for violating U.S. narcotics laws,
Starting point is 00:25:54 an increase from its previous $25 million bounty. The federal government would pay all the reward money offered by the State Department. Simultaneously, an unnamed department of defense official told the Associated Press that the Navy will deploy three destroyers to the waters off the coast of Venezuela over the course of the next several months. Attorney General Pam Bondi has called Maduro a narco-terrorist,
Starting point is 00:26:15 adding that the drug enforcement agency has seized 30 tons of cocaine linked to Maduro and his associates were nearly seven, tons linked to Maduro himself. President Trump has cited the need to stop the flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs into the United States through Latin American cartels. Venezuelan foreign minister Yvon Gil called the announcement pathetic and Maduro called on Venezuelans to enlist in a militia to respond to the military threat. Maduro was re-elected in 2024 following hyperinflation and mass migration out of the country during his first term. Then, Secretary of State Anthony
Starting point is 00:26:48 Blinken said he had serious concerns about the fairness of the election, and the U.S. has still not recognized Maduro as the winner. As inflation continues to surge, Maduro's government has begun detaining economists who report on the worsening figures. All right, that is it for your questions answered. I'm going to send it back to John for the rest of the pod, and I'll see you guys tomorrow. Have a good one. Peace. Thanks, Isaac. Here's your under-the-radar story for today, folks. On Saturday, Postal Services in Europe announced that they will be suspending some shipments to the United States after an exemption on tariff duties for low-value packages entering the U.S. ended. This de minimis exemption had allowed packages worth less than
Starting point is 00:27:31 $800 to enter the U.S. without facing tariffs. Ahead of the exemption's expiration, shipping providers expressed confusion over how the newly imposed duties will be collected. Postal services in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Italy said they will stop shipping most merchandise to the U.S. immediately, while France and Austria plan to do the same on Monday. The Associated Press has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description. All right. Next up is our numbers section. John Bolton served as National Security Advisor in the first Trump administration for approximately 17 months. Not including interim advisors, there were four national security advisors in the first Trump administration. Not including
Starting point is 00:28:16 interim advisors, there have been 29 national security advisors since the first was appointed in 1953. John Bolton's 2020 memoir on his time in the first Trump administration is 608 pages in length. According to Simon & Schuster, the approximate combined sales of Bolton's book in its first week was 780,000. The approximate time on Friday, August 22nd, that FBI agents began their search of Bolton's home was 7 a.m. Eastern. And the time on Friday, August 22, that Bolton's ex-account published a post-criticizing President Trump's handling of the war in Ukraine was 7.32 a.m. Eastern. And last but not least, our Have a Nice Day Story. According to results from Gallup,
Starting point is 00:29:02 more people across the world are living better lives and expressing optimism than ever before. Since 2007, Gallup's Life Evaluation Index has tracked how many people say they are thriving or suffering. For the 2024 survey, 33% of respondents said they were thriving, a record high, while only 7% said they were suffering, a record low. The rise coincides with increases in other related metrics, like the United Nations Human Development Index, which measures national life expectancy, years of schooling, and living standards, and is also at an all-time high. Gallup has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description. All right, everybody, that is it for today.
Starting point is 00:29:43 episode. As always, if you'd like to support our work, please go to reetangle.com where you can send them for a newsletter membership, podcast membership, or a bundled membership that gets you a discount on both. We'll be right back here tomorrow. For Isaac and the rest of the crew, this is John Law signing off. Have a great day, y'all, y'all. Our executive editor and founder is me. Isaac Saul, and our executive producer is John Wall. Today's episode was edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Our editorial staff is led by managing editor Ari Weitzman with senior editor Will Kayback and associate editors Hunter Casperson, Audrey Moorhead, Bailey Saw, Lindsay Canuth, and Kendall White.
Starting point is 00:30:22 Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. To learn more about Tangle and to sign up for a membership, please visit our website at reetangle.com.

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