“Vice President Vance hosted a Wednesday evening fundraiser in Southampton, N.Y. for young Republican donors that raised more than $5 million,” Axios reports. “Why it matters: The event drew several up-and-coming donors in their 20s and 30s — providing a glimpse into the finance network Vance is assembling ahead of a possible run for president […]

“President Donald Trump’s director of legislative affairs is expected to depart the White House in the coming weeks,” CNN reports. “James Braid has served as the president’s top liaison between the West Wing and Capitol Hill throughout Trump’s second term. His plans to leave the role less than three months before the midterm elections could […]

“President Donald Trump’s latest step away from military escalation in Iran comes as the U.S. side sees talks between Iran and Oman — which had appeared to be a rare fruitful negotiation path — as having stalled in recent days,” Semafor reports.

“As the Iran war grinds past the six-month mark, House Democrats are betting that candidates with military credentials will help them win back the majority — adding three veterans, including a former Navy admiral fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, to their list of top recruits Thursday,” MS NOW reports. “The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee […]

“President Trump’s half-built White House ballroom is a 90,000-square-foot embodiment of a recurring legal conundrum: What happens when a boundary-pushing president moves faster than courts can keep up?” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The Supreme Court will soon decide whether to allow Trump to continue building the $400 million project. But he and his administration’s […]

“A new populist fever is coursing through the midterms, forcing campaigns to retreat and recalibrate as they confront a groundswell of hostility toward AI data centers,” Axios reports. “Grassroots pressure is breaking the bipartisan consensus that enabled America’s AI buildout. Candidates in both parties are now racing to distance themselves from projects their own leaders […]

“For years, the U.S. and South Korea militaries have participated in one of the largest military exercises in the world, with thousands of troops from both countries preparing for possible North Korea aggression,” the New York Times reports. “On President Trump’s orders, the Pentagon curtailed this year’s exercises and scaled back some live-fire components of […]

“President Donald Trump’s shifting statements on Iran have made it difficult for even allies to know the real plan for the war — let alone defend it to the American people,” NOTUS reports. “Two House members told NOTUS that they weren’t given talking points on the current status of the war by the White House […]

Karen Tumulty: “For more than a decade, the Democratic Party has defined itself by its opposition to Donald Trump and everything for which he stands.” ”Midterm elections almost always are referendums on the president and the party in power. But this year’s election season is providing mounting evidence that although Democratic animosity toward Trump is […]

“After four female press secretaries during his two terms, President Donald Trump has told close advisers he would prefer a man to fill Karoline Leavitt’s position,” NOTUS reports. “The pick would be meant to stave off comparisons with the outgoing press secretary, according to two sources familiar with the conversations. Leavitt plans to depart the […]

“President Donald Trump announced plans to inflict what he called ‘an ECONOMIC D-DAY’ against Iran, underscoring his rising frustration with the country’s refusal to capitulate despite weeks of military strikes and a U.S. blockade that’s crimped its oil exports,” Bloomberg reports. “Trump didn’t specify what measures he would take but his threat to target Iran’s […]

“President Donald Trump’s closest aide, Natalie Harp, declined multiple times over more than a year to seek a routine security clearance normally obtained by West Wing staffers to work at the White House,” MS NOW reports. “Both people said Harp’s reasoning for declining to complete the process was unknown.”

“Elon Musk is expected to spend big to boost Republicans in the midterms this November, according to Trump officials briefed on the matter,” Wired reports. “The precise amount could change, but the officials expect Musk to spend around $100 million to $200 million with a focus on voter turnout in key races, including Texas, where […]

“The Army took a major step to prepare for wars of the future in January when it established a new battalion in Europe to master the art of fighting with drones and ground robots,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The idea was to learn the lessons of the conflict in Ukraine that has been raging […]

“Four Senate Democrats asked Kevin Warsh in a letter Wednesday to publicly disclose his conversations with President Trump, after The Wall Street Journal reported this month that the two have spoken repeatedly since he became Federal Reserve chairman, and Warsh’s appointment calendars showed no such calls,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The number of U.S. service members wounded since the start of the Iran war has passed 750, according to the Defense Department’s war casualty database,” CNN reports.

NBC News: “A record national debt. A rapidly ballooning deficit. Interest payments on track to surpass Medicare as the government’s greatest expense. None of it seems to matter much in Washington, where President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress have enacted an agenda that adds trillions of dollars to the national debt, with upcoming legislative […]

“As populist pushback builds against the AI industry and data centers that power it, Republicans who have cheered the AI boom are scrambling to find a new identity as middle-ground pragmatists,” Semafor reports. “Instead of a moratorium on building new facilities, a growing number of GOP candidates have called for ‘guardrails’ to protect skeptical communities […]

“This spring, President Trump easily dispensed with Republicans who had crossed him in a display of raw power that seemed to underscore his iron grip on the party’s base. One by one, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Senator John Cornyn of Texas all fell to challengers backed by Mr. […]

President Trump bragged, “I’m very good at flagpoles!” during an “impromptu tour of his various White House construction projects,” Mediaite reports.

“Many Federal Reserve officials believed that the central bank would have to raise interest rates if inflation did not ease, according to the minutes released on Wednesday from the Fed’s July 28-29 policy meeting,” Axios reports. Bloomberg: Fed minutes show many officials said rate hikes may be needed.

“The Trump administration is poised to reduce tariffs on automobiles imported from Canada to 15% from 25% as part of a broader deal that would see the U.S. neighbor drop retaliatory trade measures,” Bloomberg reports.

“A U.S. National Park Service engineer warned the Trump administration about the floor of the Lincoln Reflecting Pool peeling in early June due to the renovation process and the materials used for the job, court filings revealed Wednesday,” NBC News reports. “Despite that warning, President Donald Trump accused multiple people of ‘destroying’ the pool once […]

“The U.S. military has quietly established a shipping corridor in and out of the Strait of Hormuz to transport millions of barrels of oil each day — a notable success even as the broader war remains at a stalemate,” Axios reports. “Under the operation, which has been underway for the last several weeks, 15 to […]

“President Donald Trump is set to record an interview on Thursday with Michael Cohen, his former personal lawyer and fixer who later became a persistent public critic and the star witness in the hush money trial that led to Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts,” MS NOW reports. “The interview marks an extraordinary thaw in […]

“With all precincts reported but still some ballots left to count, Democrats appear to have flipped a conservative state House district north of Pittsburgh,” Axios reports. “Democrat Brandon Dukes led by 88 votes against Republican Scott Timko on Tuesday night with over 99% of the votes counted.”

“Fox News is struggling to grapple with attractive Democrats that are continuing to push socialism,” The Wrap reports. “Ainsley Earhardt ran down a list of Democrats who have been looking good on social media. She tried to warn her viewers that just because these politicians were looking hot in their thirst traps it shouldn’t distract […]

“Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder who finished a distant second to Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth in the Aug. 11 Republican primary for governor, announced Wednesday that he will personally pay for a hand recount and audit of every paper ballot cast in that race,” CBS News reports.

Ed Kilgore: “Throughout her brief career as a senator and as a candidate to remain one, Darline Graham has gone to some lengths to distance herself from the legacy of her late brother while snuggling up to Donald Trump as closely as possible. That reflects a political shrewdness that Lindsey Graham himself might have ruefully […]

The Downballot: “Across 110 special elections since January of 2025, Democrats have, on average, overperformed Harris by 12.5 points and Joe Biden by 8.4 points. Together, these figures suggest a calculated political environment in which Democrats would be favored by 12 points—slightly better, even, than what the same data was telling us in 2018.”