Morning Brief: NATO Commits To Defense Spike, NYC Picks A Socialist & ‘Experts’ Push Transing Kids

Trump pressures NATO to increase military spending after mediating the Iran-Israel truce. New Yorkers head to the polls — will they elect a socialist mayor? And, the United States’ largest medical group doubles down on transgender treatments despite the data.

It’s Wednesday, June 25, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.

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War & Peace

Topline: President Donald Trump headed to Europe on Tuesday for high-stakes NATO meetings after he brokered the tenuous ceasefire between Iran and Israel.

Leaders from all 32 members of the NATO alliance and some partner states are attending a two-day summit in the Netherlands to discuss defense policy and the broader strategy. President Trump’s main goal is to push NATO members to increase their defense budgets. Trump has long lamented that America is being taken advantage of by allies who benefit from our military without paying their fair share. At the moment, NATO members are expected to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense — Trump wants to raise that to 5%. According to Reuters, “All NATO members have backed a statement enshrining the target, although Spain declared it does not need to meet the goal and can meet its commitments by spending much less.”

This is also the first large gathering of world leaders since the president’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities on Saturday, and the subsequent ceasefire announced on Monday. On Tuesday morning, hours after the deal went into effect, Iran reportedly launched a series of missiles at Israel, prompting the Israelis to respond with strikes on a radar facility outside of Tehran. For a moment, it looked like the war was back on, but then Trump intervened. With Israeli planes reportedly en route to Iran, the president called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly with what the White House called an “exceptionally firm and direct” warning to abide by the ceasefire.

Trump also made a public appeal on social media, writing, “ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!”

Shortly afterward, Netanyahu said he would refrain from further strikes.

While further escalation was avoided, Trump made it clear that he was unhappy with both Israel and Iran.

“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing,” Trump told reporters bluntly. “[Iran is] not going to have enrichment and they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. They’re going to get on to being a great trading nation.”

At the summit, Trump also quipped about ongoing tensions with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched an invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has been accused of slow-walking the peace negotiations with the United States. “Vladimir called me up – he said ‘do you need help with Iran?’ And I told him ‘I don’t need help with Iran, I need help with you.”

Cuomo Concedes NYC Primary To Socialist

Topline: New Yorkers went to the polls on Tuesday to decide the Democratic candidate for mayor.

The New York City Mayoral Democratic Primary took place on Tuesday, and the former frontrunner has already conceded. With 92% of the vote in, Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani had a 7-point lead over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, although neither candidate secured a majority, and the official results won’t be tallied until next week. This kind of wait isn’t unusual — it took two weeks for this primary to be decided in 2021, in a large part because New York City uses ranked-choice voting.

In a ranked choice election, instead of picking one candidate, voters rank candidates in order of preference – if no candidate receives a majority in the first round, then the candidate who received the fewest votes is eliminated and their supporters’ ballots are added to the tally of the candidate who was ranked as their next most preferred choice – the process continuing until one of the candidates has majority support.

There were 11 candidates on the ballot, but in the end, it came down to three: Andrew Cuomo, the former governor who resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct; New York City comptroller Brad Lander, who received the New York Times’ endorsement; and the apparent rising star of the race, Zohran Mamdani, an state assemblyman from Queens and vocal member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Lander and Mamdani made waves a few weeks ago when they endorsed each other, urging their supporters to put both of them in their top two and not to rank Cuomo.

“We both love New York City, and that’s why it’s so important to not send scandal-ridden, corrupt, Andrew Cuomo to City Hall,” Lander and Mamdani said in a joint statement. “New Yorkers deserve so much better than a disgraced creep. … Brad and I are officially telling our supporters: rank me number one, rank him number two. Let’s send Andrew Cuomo back to the suburbs.”

Cuomo led the pack in almost every first-round poll, but the most recent Emerson College survey suggested that Mamdani was only a few points behind and would actually beat Cuomo by 4 points in the final count. Despite conceding the Democratic primary, Cuomo is still free to run as a third-party candidate against Mamdani in the general election.

Trans Medicine — The Establishment Vs The Evidence

Topline: The nation’s largest medical association is standing by its controversial guidance to promote transgender medical procedures for minors – despite mounting evidence against it and a landmark Supreme Court ruling.

The American Medical Association (AMA) released a statement signaling against the recent ruling in United States v. Skrmetti, which permits states to ban puberty blockers and other so-called gender-affirming procedures on minors – those procedures have been shown to be damaging and often irreversible. The new president of the AMA, Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, condemned the decision and said that “all patients deserve access to high-quality, evidence-based medical care.” He added that decisions about medical treatment “must be made through a shared decision-making process between the patient and their physician.”

The AMA has a significant influence in shaping policy and common medical practices – it has long supported trans procedures for minors. In 2023, it passed a resolution to commit to working with legislators to oppose policies that curb access to these treatments or prioritize parental rights. The resolution also promised collaboration with other organizations to “educate the Federation of State Medical Boards about the importance of gender-affirming care.” The AMA also enthusiastically supported Dr. Rachel Levine’s nomination as Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Services during the Biden era. Notably, Levine – a man who identifies as a woman – is a proponent of many types of trans procedures for minors.

Other major players in the American medical establishment, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Endocrine Society, the American Psychiatric Association, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American College of Physicians are standing behind their position to support trans procedures for minors.

However, individual medical professionals speak out about this – and now organizations are forming that call for evidence-based medicine. One group called Do No Harm has 16,000 members, and one of its stated goals is to “curtail the unscientific and individually harmful practice of so-called ‘gender affirming care.’” Another group, called the “Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine,” researches and questions trans procedures for minors. It promotes non-invasive approaches for gender confusion, like psychotherapy.

Since Trump took office, a number of hospitals have announced that they are curtailing or entirely stopping trans procedures for minors. During his second week in office, Trump signed an order saying that the United States would not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support gender transitions for children. Under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., HHS rescinded trans guidance from the Biden administration that promoted these procedures. An April memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi said the DOJ would look at prosecuting doctors for mutilating children under the guise of “trans care.”