• The White House memo federalizing National Guard troops in response to protests in Los Angeles this weekend doesn’t specify a city or state for their deployment. It also authorizes their activation in areas where protests “are occurring or are likely to occur.” A legal scholar said that means the memo could apply anywhere and preemptively.

President Donald Trump’s activation of California National Guard troops could go beyond Los Angeles and the unrest that took place there over the weekend.

The memo he issued on Saturday that federalized the National Guard in the wake of protests against his immigration raids doesn’t specify a city or state for their deployment.

It also authorizes the activation of the National Guard in areas where protests “are occurring or are likely to occur.”

According to Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, that means it could apply nationwide and even before any protests actually take place.

“No president has ever federalized the National Guard for purposes of responding to potential future civil unrest anywhere in the country,” she wrote Sunday in a thread on X. “Preemptive deployment is literally the opposite of deployment as a last resort. It would be a shocking abuse of power and the law.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The memo invokes Title 10 of U.S. Code 12406 to task the Guard with temporarily protecting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and other government personnel performing federal functions.

That’s because the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 largely prevents federal troops from engaging in civil law enforcement domestically, leaving the Guard with force-protection duties and other logistical support for ICE.

During Sunday’s protests in downtown Los Angeles, the Guard protected the federal building while the L.A. Police Department and the California Highway Patrol pushed demonstrators back and made arrests.

Still, Trump ordered the deployment despite objections from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said he is suing the administration and claimed it illegally sent in the troops.

There is an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act that would allow troops to take a more active role in law enforcement, but the Insurrection Act has not been invoked yet.

Nevertheless, Trump’s memo said members of the “regular Armed Forces” can be deployed as well to support the “protection of Federal functions and property.”

The Defense Department said on Sunday that 500 Marines at Twentynine Palms are in a “prepared to deploy status” in case they are needed. 

When asked Sunday if he planned to send U.S. troops to Los Angeles, Trump replied, “We’re gonna have troops everywhere. We’re not going to let this happen to our country. We’re not going to let our country be torn apart like it was under Biden.”

The Brennan Center’s Goitein pointed out that Trump’s memo doesn’t cite a law that would authorize deployment of active-duty troops.

“The administration would likely claim an inherent constitutional right to protect federal personnel and property (in keeping with the memo’s language). But the Posse Comitatus requires ‘express’ authorization—not a claim of implied power,” she added.

“In short: Don’t let the absence of the words ‘Insurrection Act’ fool you. Trump has authorized the deployment of troops anywhere in the country where protests against ICE activity might occur. That is a huge red flag for democracy in the United States.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Stock futures ticked lower on Sunday night as the S&P 500’s recent rally has brought it within 2.4% of its all-time high reached in February, before President Donald Trump’s trade war ravaged markets. That comes ahead of a big week, which will see another round of U.S.-China trade talks and key inflation reports.

U.S. stock futures pointed down on Sunday night ahead of a big week that will be highlighted by more U.S.-China trade talks and fresh inflation data.

A strong jobs report on Friday added more fuel to a rally that has lifted the S&P 500 to within 2.4% of its all-time high reached in February, before President Donald Trump’s trade war sank markets.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 44 points, or 0.10%. S&P 500 futures slipped 0.15%, and Nasdaq futures eased 0.23%. Tesla stock may see more downside after Trump said his relationship with CEO Elon Musk is over.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped less than 1 basis point to 4.506%. The dollar fell 0.11% against the euro and 0.15% against the yen.

While Wall Street may not react to Trump sending National Guard troops to Los Angeles, his overall immigration crackdown represents a labor-supply shock to the economy that has implications for the dollar.

Gold dipped 0.28% to $3,337.20 per ounce. U.S. oil prices climbed 0.08% to $64.63 per barrel, and Brent crude gained 0.05% to $66.50.

On Monday, U.S. and Chinese officials will meet in London to begin another round of trade talks after agreeing last month in Geneva to pause their prohibitively high tariffs.

Since that de-escalation in the trade war, both sides have accused the other reneging on their deal. For the U.S., a key sticking point has been the availability of rare earths, which are dominated by China and are critical for the auto, tech, and defense sectors.

Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, sounded upbeat on Sunday that the London talks could result in a resolution.

“I’m very comfortable that this deal is about to be closed,” he told CBS News.

Meanwhile, new inflation data are due as the Federal Reserve remains in wait-and-see mode to assess how much Trump’s tariffs are moving the needle on prices.

The better-than-expected jobs report on Friday eased fears of a recession, taking pressure off the Fed to cut rates to support the economy. That means that any rate cuts may have to come as a result of cooler inflation.

The Labor Department will release its monthly consumer price index on Wednesday and its producer price index on Thursday.

Also on Wednesday, the Treasury Department will issue its monthly update on the budget, offering clues on how much debt the federal government is issuing amid concern about bond supply and demand.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Protests over ICE raids in the Los Angeles area this weekend highlight the crackdown on undocumented workers at businesses and the overall impact of immigration, legal or otherwise, on the economy. The collapse in immigration represents a bigger negative supply shock than President Donald Trump’s tariffs do, Deutsche Bank said.

President Donald Trump’s mobilization of California National Guard troops to protect immigration officers from protesters highlights his crackdown on undocumented workers and the economic impact of a sudden drop in labor supply.

Protests in Los Angeles began on Friday, when armed federal agents clad in camouflage uniforms, tactical vests, and helmets arrived in armored vehicles to carry out a raid on a clothing wholesaler. It was the latest in a series of similar high-profile operations at businesses around the country.

Also on Friday, the Labor Department issued its monthly jobs report, which showed the U.S. workforce shrank in May as the number of foreign-born workers saw the biggest back-to-back declines since 2020. That comes after a surge in immigration during the Biden administration helped boost economic activity.

According to a Deutsche Bank analysis of data from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, the number of encounters at the Southwest border has plunged to 12,000 people per month since Trump’s inauguration from an average of 200,000 during the more-than-two-year period between January 2022 and June 2024.

“While everyone is focused on the impact of tariffs, the real story for the U.S. economy is the collapse in immigration: down more than 90% compared to the run rate of previous years, equivalent to a slowing in labour force growth of more than 2 million people,” George Saravelos, head of FX research at Deutsche Bank, wrote in a note on Friday. “This represents a far more sustained negative supply shock for the economy than tariffs.”

While Trump has pointed to weaker payroll growth as reasons for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, his immigration crackdown gives the central bank, which is already wary of the inflationary effect of his tariffs, another reason to wait and see.

That’s because a workforce that is growing more slowly doesn’t need as much hiring to absorb the additional labor supply. In fact, even as average payroll gains have cooled to 124,000 a month this year from 250,000 in 2024, the jobless rate has hovered around 4.2% since last summer.

Wall Street sees a lower break-even rate for job growth, or the amount of hiring needed to keep the unemployment rate steady. By the end of this year, that pace should fall to 90,000 per month from 170,000 now and 210,000 last year, according to Morgan Stanley, which cited deportations and slower immigration.

Deutsche Bank warned the collapse of immigration will have broader implications in financial markets, including for the dollar, which has already been battered by Trump’s aggressive tariff campaign.

“Last year we were writing that the U.S. was benefiting from a goldilocks mix of high employment growth and low wages precisely because of high immigration numbers,” Saravelos said. “If recent immigration trends continue, it must follow that over the course of the year the reverse will happen. As the 2022 energy shock showed, a negative supply shock is not good news for a currency.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• The California National Guard troops that President Donald Trump deployed to the Los Angeles area in response to protests can only provide protection and logistical support to immigration agents there, according to Georgetown University law professor Stephen Vladeck. But that changes if the Insurrection Act is invoked.

President Donald Trump’s decision to federalize California National Guard troops and deploy them to the Los Angeles area puts them in more of a support role, according to a legal expert.

On Saturday, Trump exercised his authority to place state National Guard troops under federal command in response to protests over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids—and over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom and local officials who said it’s unnecessary.

On Sunday morning, members of the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, the largest combat unit in the California Army National Guard, began arriving in Los Angeles. 

But the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 largely prevents federal troops from engaging in civil law enforcement, Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University, wrote in his newsletter.

“All that these troops will be able to do is provide a form of force protection and other logistical support for ICE personnel,” he explained. “Whether that, in turn, leads to further escalation is the bigger issue (and, indeed, may be the very purpose of their deployment).”

There is an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act that would allow troops to take a more active role in law enforcement. The Insurrection Act, which has not been invoked yet, enables them “to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections, and repel Invasions.”

In theory, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, the Insurrection Act should be used only in a crisis that civilian authorities can’t handle, but “the law’s requirements are poorly explained and leave virtually everything up to the discretion of the president.”

At face value, Trump’s order to deploy California National Guard troops to Los Angeles is meant to protect Department of Homeland Security personnel from attacks, Vladeck explained.

While that represents a significant and unnecessary escalation, he added, it’s not by itself a mass deployment of troops into a U.S. city.

“That said, there are still at least three reasons to be deeply concerned about President Trump’s (hasty) actions on Saturday night,” Vladeck warned.

First, the presence of federal troops raises the risk of escalating violence. Second, there’s the possibility that the deployment of National Guard troops, even in a limited manner now, sets up more aggressive responses to similar protests later, perhaps even the Insurrection Act. Third, domestic use of the military can have “corrosive effects” on the troops, the relationship between federal and local and state authorities, as well as the relationship between the military and civil society.

“For now, the key takeaways are that there really isn’t much that these federalized National Guard troops will be able to do—and that this might be the very reason why this is the step the President is taking tonight, rather than something even more aggressive,” Vladeck said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Despite a housing market that continues to price out many young Americans, members of Gen Z are digging deep to find ways to afford their dreams of homeownership. According to a Bank of America Institute survey, more Gen Zers are taking on extra jobs or teaming up with siblings to buy homes.

Young Americans are not letting an unaffordable housing market prevent them from purchasing their own homes.

According to a recent Bank of America Institute survey, more Gen Zers are getting help from outside the Bank of Mom and Dad, which has long been a mainstay in the finances of young adults.

“Despite financial hurdles, the dream of homeownership remains a powerful motivator for Gen Z and Millennials, who are making sacrifices in the present to prioritize the long-term financial security a home can provide,” BofA’s annual Homebuyer Insights Report said.

It found that 30% of Gen Z homeowners paid for their down payment by taking on an extra job, up from 28% in 2024 and 24% in 2023.

The survey also revealed a sharp increase in another financial resource: 22% of Gen Z homeowners bought their home with siblings, surging from 12% in 2024 and just 4% in 2023.

That tracks similar data about co-ownership. According to a 2024 survey by JW Surety Bonds, nearly 15% of all Americans have co-purchased a home with a person other than their romantic partner.

But Americans seem to prefer staying within the family. A Redfin study last year found that more than a third of millennials and Gen Zers who are planning to buy a home expect their parents or family to help with their down payment. 

According to BofA’s recent report, 21% of prospective Gen Z buyers said they plan to rely on family loans for a down payment, compared to 15% of survey respondents overall.

“Even with the challenges they face, younger generations still understand the long-term value owning a home offers them and many are doing what it takes to get there,” Matt Vernon, BofA’s head of consumer lending, said in the report, which came out May 28. “They are finding creative ways to afford down payments and working hard to improve their financial futures.”

That’s as the homeownership rate for Americans younger than 35 dipped to just 36.3% in the fourth quarter of 2024, the lowest since early 2019, though it edged up to 36.% in the first quarter of 2025, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Meanwhile, the BofA study found that among survey respondents overall, the housing market—which has largely remained frozen by high mortgage rates and home prices—is a puzzle.

Sixty percent of current homeowners and prospective buyers said they can’t tell whether it’s a good time to buy a home or not, versus 57% last year and 48% in 2023.

Still, a larger share of prospective buyers think the market is better now than a year ago and are holding off on buying as they expect mortgage rates and home prices to fall later.

“They may be waiting for the right moment, but they’re not standing still,” Vernon said. “They’re building credit, saving for down payments, and paying attention to the market so they can buy when the time is right for them.”

In fact, a key tipping point in the housing market is coming into view as momentum shifts more firmly in favor of buyers over sellers.

Home-sale prices in 11 of the 50 biggest U.S. metro areas are already falling, according to data from Redfin, ahead of a broader decline later this year.

Redfin sees the median U.S. sale price going flat in the third quarter on an annual basis, then falling 1% year over year by the fourth quarter.

That follows a similar forecast from Zillow in April, when it predicted home values will fall 1.9% this year after previously anticipating a 0.6% increase. 

“The combination of rising available listings and elevated mortgage rates is signaling potential price drops by year’s end,” Zillow researchers wrote. “With increased supply, buyers are gaining more options and time to decide, while sellers are cutting prices at record levels to attract bids.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Amid the debate over AI’s impact on the workforce, Palantir CEO Alex Karp said the technology can have an overall additive effect, “if we work very, very hard at it.” But he cautioned that if the industry doesn’t make that happen, the result could be “deep societal upheavals” that many elites are ignoring. There are already signs that AI is shrinking entry-level opportunities.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI revolution warned that the technology could also create massive fissures in society—unless the industry works hard to prevent them.

Alex Karp, CEO of data-mining software company Palantir, was asked on CNBC on Thursday about AI’s implications for employment.

“Those of us in tech cannot have a tin ear to what this is going to mean for the average person,” he replied.

That comes as AI increasingly gets incorporated into the daily tasks of workers, boosting their productivity and efficiency. At the same time, there are also signs that AI is shrinking opportunities for young workers in entry-level jobs that traditionally have been stepping stones for launching careers.

Meanwhile, Palantir has been at the forefront of using AI at the enterprise level. The company is known for putting its AI-powered platforms to work in the defense and intelligence sectors, but it has also been expanding in the commercial space. Most recently, it partnered with TeleTracking, a provider of operations platforms for hospitals and health systems.

On Thursday, Karp said the kind of AI that Palantir is doing can be “net accretive to the workforce in America,” but only if “we work very, very hard at it.”

He pointed out that just because it can happen, doesn’t mean it will happen. The industry has to make it so.

“We have to will it to be, because otherwise we’re going to have deep societal upheavals that I think many in our elite are just really ignoring,” Karp said.

The warning is especially notable coming from a leader in the AI field. But Karp has also urged the tech sector to take on bigger problems.

In a recent Atlantic essay adapted from their book The Technological Republic, Karp and Nicholas Zamiska, Palantir’s head of corporate affairs and legal counsel to the office of the CEO, blasted Silicon Valley for focusing on “trivial yet solvable inconveniences” and abandoning a long history of working with the government to tackle more pressing national issues.

Others in the AI field have also offered dire predictions about AI and the workforce lately. Last month, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said AI could wipe out roughly 50% of all entry-level white-collar jobs.

In an interview with Axios, he said that displacement could cause unemployment to spike to between 10% and 20%. The latest jobs report on Friday put the rate at 4.2%.

“Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen,” Amodei said. “It sounds crazy, and people just don’t believe it … We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming.”

And OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said this past week that AI agents are like interns, predicting that in the next year they can “help us discover new knowledge, or can figure out solutions to business problems that are very nontrivial.”

Meanwhile, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference last month that while workers may not lose their jobs to AI, they will lose them to “someone who uses AI.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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