“My REAL Polling Numbers, not those made up by the Fake News Media, are the best they have ever been, and why wouldn’t they be with the biggest tax cuts and employment numbers EVER, the biggest outside Investment in America in World history, a totally secure Border, a giant Victory in Venezuela, the Denuclearization of […]

Dan Pfeiffer: “It’s been a long time since a statewide Democratic primary brought out so much intensity and where the stakes felt so high. There is, of course, the question of whether Michiganders will pick the best candidate, something people have been debating on social media for months, and both sides could not be more […]

“President Trump declared on Monday he’s giving Iran one ‘last chance before decapitation’ – betting on lucky No. 13 for his final ultimatum,” the New York Post reports. “Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump claimed negotiations are underway to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as soon as Tuesday after he called off a large-scale ‘World […]

Former Rep. Jim Renacci (R-OH) said that he may mount a comeback run for Congress if Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) drops his bid for reelection, Axios reports.

“The battle to become the country’s next progressive leader in the mold of Bernie Sanders is heating up ahead of Democrats’ direction-defining Michigan Senate primary,” Politico reports. ”Nowhere is the jockeying and strategy unfolding behind the scenes more pronounced than between Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ro Khanna of California, who have […]

“Stephanie Grisham, who served as President Donald Trump’s White House communications director in his first term, filed a restraining order against embattled Rep. Max Miller (R-OH),” Mediaite reports.

“One of this year’s biggest primary elections is underway in Michigan, where two Democratic Senate candidates with deep policy disagreements are facing off in a major test of the party’s direction,” the New York Times reports. “The bitter, expensive race pits Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official, against Representative Haley Stevens, a […]

Punchbowl News: “New Hampshire Democrats, furious at a DNC push to bump the state to third in the early nominating calendar, are pledging to hold their first-in-the-nation presidential primary anyway.” ”In conversations last week, Granite State Democrats running in 2026 struck a uniformly defiant tone. Each insisted the state must abide by New Hampshire law, […]

“When President Donald Trump strode into the Rose Garden in April 2025 brandishing a poster board of tariff hikes, the world leaped as if a fire alarm had gone off. Markets shed trillions of dollars, envoys rushed to Washington, more than 75 governments scrambled to negotiate, some scrapping carefully prepped countermeasures in a rush to […]

“The war in Iran, along with a cycle of threats and walk-backs, has upended President Trump’s domestic agenda at a dire political moment,” the New York Times reports. “Americans are facing rising gas prices; Republicans in Congress are being forced to fund and defend an unpopular war that they never voted to approve; and with […]

“For decades, Ronald S. Lauder, the billionaire cosmetics heir and philanthropist, has been something like a one-man bank for Republicans in New York,” the New York Times reports. “He personally funded a campaign to impose term limits in New York City, helped pay for a lawsuit to overturn the state’s gerrymandered congressional map and, just […]

“President Trump has discussed ousting Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, after Pirro’s office contradicted the president’s contention that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was damaged by vandals,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Three consecutive polls have now shown Democrat James Talarico narrowly ahead of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in that state’s crucial race for the U.S. Senate. The latest, released Tuesday morning, has Talarico up 47%-45%,” Axios reports. “That’s within the survey’s margin of error, and the Republican establishment isn’t panicking — not yet, anyway.” ”But […]

Axios: “Trump has transformed his second term into the most lucrative venture of his entire career, raking in more than $2.2 billion in 2025 from his family crypto empire, legal settlements and various licensing deals.” ”Truth API is the logical endpoint of that profiteering: the presidency’s unrivaled power to move markets, packaged and sold as […]

“Ohio, the red state that helped fuel President Trump’s political comeback — and launched his presumed heir, JD Vance, onto the national stage — has become one of the GOP’s biggest headaches for the midterms,” Axios reports. “Why it matters: Republicans are struggling up and down the ballot in the Rust Belt state, which transformed […]

“The White House is not commenting on whether it plans to publicly release the framework for voluntary reviews of advanced AI models that it plans to brief companies on later today,” Semafor reports. ”AI firms including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta have yet to see details of the framework ahead of today’s meeting.” CNBC: White […]

“Iran believes it holds the upper hand in its conflict with the U.S. after the Trump administration repeatedly held off following through on its most severe threats, said Mona Yacoubian, Middle East program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies,” Bloomberg reports. Said Yacoubian: “Every time he does it, however, Iran takes away […]

“Senate Republicans are hopeful they will be able to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general by the end of the week. But he’s not in the clear yet, as several undecided GOP senators continue to mull it over,” Politico reports.

“Amid the Trump administration infighting over a decision to move to dismiss a felony criminal charge against a former Olympian who was accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, prosecutors in Washington dropped charges against three other defendants who were similarly accused of damaging the pool,” CBS News reports.

“President Trump phoned Rep. Max Miller Monday and expressed doubts about the Ohio Republican’s candidacy amid reports he assaulted his ex-wife and their child,” Axios reports. “On the call, the president told Miller that ‘things aren’t looking good’ and repeatedly said his reelection would be tough.”

“Iran and Oman are closing in on an agreement to reopen shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian and American officials, but if the accord goes into effect it could come at a high price — ratifying Tehran’s control over what, before the war, was an open, international waterway,” the New York […]

Wall Street Journal: “In recent months, ICE has deployed a round-the-clock digital dragnet to scour the public internet—from Facebook to Instagram to X—for speech that could endanger the agency’s mission. The government has paid millions to private contractors to surface everything from potential threats to agents to activities that could disrupt ICE’s operations.” “The program […]

“The deal that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche struck with two holdout Republican senators to formally kill the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion ‘anti-weaponization’ fund has a major loophole that could allow it to come back to life,” NBC News reports.

“The Senate’s stopgap funding bill to avert a shutdown Oct. 1 has cleared the first procedural hurdle, putting it on track for passage before lawmakers leave for the August recess,” Politico reports. “Senators voted 89-4 to advance the measure, which would fund federal agencies through Dec. 11 at current levels, with some exceptions.” New York […]

“House Democrats are privately mulling whether to force a vote to expel Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) from Congress over domestic abuse allegations, which he denies,” Axios reports. “While it is rare for a House member to be forcibly ousted, the mere threat of expulsion has been enough to precipitate multiple resignations this year.” CNN: Trump […]

“The U.S. Treasury Department was sued by a nonprofit group claiming the government is improperly withholding legal settlements that the Trump administration could use to cover payouts to pardoned Jan. 6 defendants and other supporters of the president,” Bloomberg reports.

“California and 22 other Democratic-led states urged the Supreme Court on Monday to block President Trump’s plan to take control of voting by mail through the U.S. Postal Service,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “They said it is too late in the election year to impose a new set of regulations for mail ballots.” “Doing […]

“Americans picked Democrats ​over Republicans as better stewards of the economy for the first time in nearly a decade in a Reuters/Ipsos ‌poll, which also found their approval of President Donald Trump’s performance falling to 35%.” “The finding, in a poll conducted Wednesday through Monday, showed how Trump’s handling of the economy, including rising energy […]

A popular suggestion in the recent member survey was to offer a way for readers to weigh in on the biggest political stories of the day beyond just commenting. So I’m testing Whip Count, a new feature that lets members cast a quick vote on timely questions and instantly see what fellow Political Wire readers […]

“A coalition of 25 Democratic-led states sued the Trump administration Monday, arguing President Donald Trump exceeded his authority by imposing sweeping tariffs on goods from 60 U.S. trading partners,” CNBC reports.