🗳️ Hey Chicago whaddya say

Hi Intriguer. Until about three weeks ago, I lived in Chicago, and let me tell you, what a city!

Great food (Chicago hot dogs can’t be beaten), great drink (try the ‘Burwood Tap’ for a great dive bar and ‘Bubbles’ at O’Hare if when your flight is delayed), and great architecture, all set on a giant freshwater ocean with beaches.

Of course, there are the oft-reported downsides: the weather, crime, and corruption. To that, I simply say: buy a proper coat; it’s not as bad as the national media says; and lean into it by ensuring your back pocket is always stuffed with tens—you’ll be shocked at what’s possible!

Jokes aside, I’m thrilled to head back to Chicago next week with Kristen to cover the Democratic National Convention. We’ll be taking the temperature of party strategists, chatting with the (few) foreign diplomats in attendance, and we’re already preparing probing questions just in case we run into a Democratic Party bigwig.

In this week’s podcast, we discussed what to expect from a policy perspective during the convention (we’re particularly interested to see if any protests happen around the United Centre), and reviewed Trump’s two-hour conversation with Elon Musk earlier this week for any clues about his foreign policy.

Who said August was a slow news month?!

- John Fowler & Kristen Talman in Washington D.C

We’ve included a detailed summary of our conversation below, but I urge folks to listen to the full conversation!

Dems gear up for the DNC as Trump and Harris lay out plans for the economy

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump want voters to know they’re the person able to fix the economy. Conventional political wisdom says most voters vote with their pocketbooks in mind, so this week both campaigns have focused on their visions for the US economy (spoiler alert: one thinks it’s going very well despite what many Americans say, and the other thinks it is the worst economy in the history of economies, despite what many economists say).

Harris delivered a speech with President Biden in Maryland earlier today to drive home their administration’s work on lowering costs for American families. She’ll speak about her economic policy for the first time tomorrow and is set to propose a federal ban on price gouging to reduce grocery and everyday costs.

Meanwhile, Trump outlined his view of the economy on Wednesday in Asheville, North Carolina. Trump promised to lower consumer prices and boost wages through permanent tax cuts, energy reforms, and rolling back environmental protections. Throughout the speech, he frequently shifted focus, launching attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris and even saying he was "not sure the economy is the most important topic."

Trump’s event was just his second rally in two weeks, a slower campaign pace than during previous election cycles. There’s been some speculation that the assassination attempt has left him with intense PTSD.

And with all that, voters are still considering foreign policy as they weigh their decision at the ballot box, according to a poll we commissioned with our partners at Harris Poll last week. Intrigue and Harris Poll asked likely voters the same question back in June. There’s been little change across the two polls, with 72% of voters across all age groups still factoring it in.

A summary of this week’s conversation:

1. Everyone’s getting hacked! Three top US news outlets—Politico, The Washington Post, and The New York Times—got some unexpected mail over the weekend: alleged Trump campaign files, courtesy of what looks like a classic "hack-and-leak" operation. The FBI is on the case, investigating whether hackers are messing with both the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns, though Trump's team rang the alarm bells first. Trump pointed the finger at Iran, but their involvement has not yet been confirmed, and Iran denied the allegations. Google reported Wednesday that ”Iranian-backed groups” have stepped up phishing campaigns, following a report from Microsoft last week that argued Tehran was trying to influence the US election. The US Foreign Malign Influence Center warned that Iran is likely to persist in its efforts to undermine Trump, which, obviously.

2. A few voters in a few places still hold the key. We’re going hoarse telling folks to ignore national polls and focus on the states that will decide the election like Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Michigan might be the most important of all, as both campaigns are fighting to convince just tens of thousands of voters, particularly Arab Americans. To that end, the Harris campaign hired Nasrina Bargzie to lead outreach efforts to Muslim and Arab voters. Trump has successfully attracted some immigrant communities and has asked his former cabinet official and Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, to help him continue his efforts. If nothing else, Grennell looks like a lock for a very senior foreign policy job in a Trump 2.0 administration.

3. Trump returns to X in conversation with Elon Musk. The former president hit his talking points during their chat on Monday night, saying that the Ukraine-Russia War and Hamas’ October 7th attack would never have happened on his watch. He also called out the EU for taking advantage of US trade policies, though not as aggressively as China. We wonder whether Trump’s gripe with Europe on trade and his coziness with Silicon Valley techies are related. Might Trump link his continued US support for NATO and European security to an agreement from Brussels to ease up on its aggressive regulation of US tech companies? It’s the kind of quid pro quo negotiation the former president thrives on, and would be a major win for some of his most influential backers.

4. Secretary Musk. While Musk has denied scoping out the possibility for a cabinet role in a Trump 2.0 administration earlier this year, he was a little more forthcoming during his chat with Trump, saying “I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission…And I'd be happy to help out on such a commission." Short of offering him a job on the spot, Trump said “Well, you, you're the greatest cutter. I mean, I look at what you do." We’re skeptical this will happen, but if Musk did become a government official, it wouldn’t be his day job - think of any potential role more like a spokesperson and influential advocate than a ‘pens-in-the-shirt-pocket’ bureaucrat.

5. Who’s going to the DNC? When embassies got the invite to attend the Democrat’s August orgy-of-party-politics convention, it was a low priority: Biden was on the ticket, August is a sacred vacation month, and contacts in the administration had already been established over the past three years. Interestingly, we’ve heard that foreign missions in the US that now want to attend are having trouble securing last-minute tickets. As we’ve reported before, any diplomat worth their salt already has a good idea who on the Harris team calls the shots on foreign policy, but it’s an interesting tidbit nonetheless.

Listen to the full conversation in your browser by using the audio player above, or by subscribing to our podcast feed below!

Where in the world is…

• President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made their first joint appearance since Biden dropped out of the race, delivering remarks in Maryland focused on the economy earlier today.

• Secretary of State Antony Blinken is attending meetings and briefings at the Department of State.

• Republican nominee Donald Trump is holding a news conference in New Jersey and is asking for his court sentencing, which is currently scheduled for September 18th, to be delayed until after the election.

• Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance agreed on Thursday to a 1 October vice presidential debate on CBS. Minnesota Governor and Harris’s running mate Tim Walz accepted on Wednesday.

Papers of the world

The Trump-Musk bromance

Trump returned to X, formerly Twitter, in a live space with the platform’s chief executive, Elon Musk, on Monday evening. While listeners had to wait over 45 minutes for the discussion to start (due to tech issues), papers around the world were still listening.

This is how they reported the over two-hour conversation -

🇷🇺 Musk pins blame for Trump’s assassination attempt on Secret Service - TASS, Moscow, Russia

• Intrigue’s take: It’s important to note that Trump has been reticent to sign on to this line of thinking. Unsurprisingly for a Russian paper, there was no mention of his claim that Moscow would have never invaded Ukraine if he were in office.

🇯🇵 Trump's China comments to Musk hint at pragmatic approach: analysts - Nikkei, Tokyo, Japan

• Intrigue’s take: “Remain calm,” Japan’s English language paper seemed to be saying about some of Trump’s comments about America’s projection of power, noting that “[the] Former president signaled different calculations over use of force from Biden.”

🇫🇷 How Elon Musk uses X to support the far right and its financial interests - Le Monde, Paris, France

• Intrigue’s take:  Le Monde’s New York correspondent wrote a searing report about the 53-year-old tech mogul and how he has used his ownership of X to enable and prop up actors with malevolent motives.

🇶🇦 Trump returns to X with two-hour Elon Musk chat hit by technical glitch - Al Jazeera, Doha, Qatar

• Intrigue’s take: Rocking a no-byline piece, the Al Jazeera headline was a delicate way of covering the story without saying much of anything.

TWEET OF THE DAY

Obama wants you to know he’s also having a BRAT summer. Listen, whatever your political persuasion, Obama (or his comms adviser) has banging taste in music. Charli XCX made the former president’s summer playlist, as did South African artist Tyla and icons like Bob Marley.

But not all artists are thrilled to make the former president’s list, despite what we assume is a big bump in streaming numbers. Last year, boygenius’s Lucy Dacus retweeted Obama’s list with the comment, “war criminal :(.” Ouch.

What we’re reading

• Does Anyone in America Miss Joe Biden as Much as Donald Trump?

• How JD Vance's upbringing shaped his sharp-edged rhetoric about families

• Netanyahu’s office denies call with Trump about the Gaza hostage-ceasefire deal

• Walz defends his military record in first solo campaign speech in labor event

Poll