“President Donald Trump threatened to ‘decimate and destroy’ Iran if Tehran acts on threats to assassinate him, as the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned an alleged Iranian financier,” CNBC reports. Said Trump: “1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian […]

“The Trump administration issued subpoenas on Friday to several journalists for The New York Times, after the news outlet reported this week on security concerns involving President Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One,” the New York Times reports. “The subpoenas — which seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in […]

“The $2.2 billion windfall President Trump reaped since his second term has raised questions over potential conflicts of interest and whether he has profited from public office, but Mr. Trump has dismissed any notion of impropriety,” the New York Times reports. “Some of Mr. Trump’s most lucrative ventures seemed to intersect directly with his administration’s […]

Wall Street Journal: “The 76-year-old justice has emerged in the Trump era as the member of the court who is most likely to give voice to the populism and cultural grievances associated with the new right. And though people in his inner circle chafe at the notion that he is aligned with President Trump’s movement, […]

“President Trump was sitting in the Oval Office earlier this year with Secretary of State Marco Rubio when an idea came to him,” the New York Times reports. “Maybe he should dispatch Mr. Rubio permanently to Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, where U.S. commandos had carried out the proudest foreign policy achievement of Mr. Trump’s second […]

“President Trump allowed a bipartisan housing bill to become law without his signature on Saturday, hours after he said he would refuse to sign it because Republicans had failed to pass an unrelated voting restriction bill that does not have enough support to clear the Senate,” the New York Times reports. Axios: Trump rebukes Senate […]

Wall Street Journal: “Around 40% of voters in the 2024 election said the economy was their top issue, far outstripping any other matter. And those voters favored Donald Trump by 60% to 38%. Many say they were moved by his pledges to tame inflation, rebuild U.S. infrastructure, cut red tape and trim government waste.” “About […]

“Democrats are growing increasingly bullish they can seize control of the Senate, even as crucial races in Maine and Michigan remain unpredictable,” the Washington Post reports. ”Some even see Maine Democratic nominee Graham Platner’s exit from the race this week as boon to the party’s chances in a must-win contest.”

“As President Donald Trump considers an increasingly limited, and familiar, scope of options for the war with Iran, he’s receiving an influx of advice about how to proceed from members of his national security team, foreign leaders, Republicans in Congress and allies outside his administration,” NBC News reports. NOTUS: Trump and Iran “might get worse […]

“The Trump administration believes that a nuclear deal with Iran is growing increasingly unlikely, senior U.S. officials told reporters Friday, in a rare acknowledgment that one of the president’s core foreign-policy goals of capping Tehran’s nuclear program might not be achievable through peace talks,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The officials said Iran should release […]

“Ken Martin took over the Democratic National Committee promising to rebuild the party from the grassroots up—pulling power out of Washington and into all 50 states,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “More than a year later, Martin’s DNC is struggling. The committee has had difficulty filling its coffers as Republicans amass a 2-to-1 cash advantage. […]

“The Homeland Security Department told employers on Friday that they must let go in coming weeks the hundreds of thousands of foreign workers who have been allowed to live in the United States through a humanitarian program the Trump administration has sought to dismantle,” the New York Times reports. “The work permits of Haitians with […]

“A township meeting held in New Jersey on July 7 has gone viral for its eccentric public comments, including a song performed by a man dressed as marijuana paraphernalia,” USA Today reports. “Introducing himself as ‘Bong Holeo,’ the costumed man spent several minutes freestyling a song about … being a bong. The man did not […]

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Graham Platner sent a letter officially dropping out of the U.S. Senate race in Maine.

“In a video promoted directly by the White House, a series of drivers pulls up to a red-, white- and blue-colored gas station and thanks President Donald Trump by name for the low prices advertised by a mysterious new business: Freedom Fuel,” NOTUS reports. “Despite the video’s suggestion that Trump had something to do with […]

“The U.S. government is moving ahead with plans to create its own fleet of government-owned aircraft to bolster deportations,” Bloomberg reports. “The Department of Homeland Security is beginning a search for a company to operate planes that would help carry out deportation flights, respond to emergencies and transport senior officials. The department asked aviation companies […]

The Atlantic: “What is the role of a general in a democracy? Many of today’s military leaders have a very particular answer: Focus on tactics, carry out orders, and otherwise shut up.” “This is not what America’s top officers have always done. The country’s most senior generals and admirals are expected to provide unvarnished military […]

“House GOP leaders are planning to put legislation on the floor next week that would make daylight saving time permanent in hopes of softening a revolt led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna,” Politico reports.

“Senate Republicans are anxious to avoid giving Democrats another opening to force a government shutdown weeks before the midterm elections,” Axios reports. “The appropriations process is a slog, Sen. Mitch McConnell’s absence adds a complication, and election season raises the stakes. Add to that the Senate is haunted by three shutdowns in the past year.” […]

“Trump administration officials are discussing a plan for permanent fencing on the block of Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House and around Lafayette Square, in an effort to bolster security and reduce the recurring costs of erecting and dismantling temporary barriers for special events,” CBS News reports.

“The Trump administration will support a draft bill that would impose heavy financial penalties on purchasers of Russian oil, adding to economic pressure on Moscow, all in an effort to bring Russia’s four-year war on Ukraine to a close,” CBS News reports.

“The end of U.S. work authorizations for hundreds of thousands of Haitians is threatening to leave short-staffed nursing homes, hospitals and home-care agencies with even fewer caregivers,” Bloomberg reports. “Employment permits for more than 350,000 people covered by Temporary Protected Status could begin expiring Friday after last month’s Supreme Court ruling allowed the Trump administration […]

“I basically think people who are 80 and above really should not be running the world or running the country.” — Mitt Romney, in an interview with the Deseret News.

Matthew Yglesias: “The truth is we know the names of the Democrats who do well with working-class voters. They’re Jared Golden and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in the rural north. They’re Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez in South Texas. They’re Josh Shapiro and Gretchen Whitmer and Elissa Slotkin in the Rust Belt. They’re Ruben Gallego and […]

President Trump said this morning he would “not sign” the bipartisan housing bill in order to protest inaction on his SAVE America Act, Punchbowl News reports. “The good news: Sources in the White House and Capitol Hill expect Trump to leave it at that. Barring any presidential action, the hugely popular housing deregulation bill becomes […]

Lori Sturdevant writes that the Graham Platner debacle recalls Minnesota’s chaotic 1990 governor’s race, when scandal forced Republican nominee Jon Grunseth out just nine days before Election Day and runner-up Arne Carlson stepped in and won. A great story.

Alex Wagner: “Platner, accused by multiple women of violent and aggressive behavior so extreme that one of his exes characterized it as rape, never mentioned any of them, never addressed their myriad allegations, but instead bundled their accounts into a fantastical deep state plot on the part of the political establishment to keep Platner from […]

The Financial Times estimates that the total cost of President Trump’s vanity projects is likely to exceed $1 billion.  Charlie Sykes breaks it down: East Wing ballroom, $400 million Ballroom bunker/security center, $400 million Kennedy Center, $250,000,000 City fountains, $58 million National Garden of American Heroes, $40 million Lafayette Park, $17 million Reflecting Pool, $16 […]

Ed Kilgore: “The lesson of the very limited history of Senate replacement candidates is that they aren’t especially handicapped if they are running in the right place at the right time. Despite Susan Collins’s strength, Maine hasn’t gone Republican in a presidential race since 1988, and the Platner substitute will have more than three months […]