Hey everybody. I’m back. Thanks to Terry for covering yesterday, and thanks for being here.
Our top story today: Last night, a federal judge blocked Trump’s press ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, and ordered the White House to give their press passes back. The judge just so happens to be a Trump appointee, and he’s ruled against Trump on this exact thing before. And Trump clearly knew it was going to happen again, because leading up to the ruling he was online trashing the judge and calling him disloyal. Now, this is the Trump White House, so of course reporters from all three outlets were still turned away at the gates this morning. We’ll get into that.
We’ll also get into Trump inviting Putin to the G20, which he’s hosting at his own golf club, the MAGA influencers who’ve moved on from Trump, a shipment of stealth fighter parts that went missing and turned up in China, and why the Senate map just got a lot scarier for Republicans.
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Let’s get to it.
1. Trump's Own Judge Blocks His Press Ban
Last night, just after midnight, Judge Timothy Kelly ruled on Trump’s ban against CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, and he sided with the press. He ordered the White House to immediately restore their access for the next 14 days while the case proceeds.
He wrote that the ban was most likely unconstitutional, and that the press passes were pulled without any due process at all. No notice, no chance to respond. Nearly 50 news organizations had signed a brief backing the outlets.
The White House tried to argue this was about national security. Kelly didn’t buy it. He pointed out that’s not what Trump said when he announced the ban. Trump said it was about fake news. And some of the stories the White House flagged as dangerous were routine, months old, and written by reporters who didn’t even have White House passes.
Kelly was appointed by Trump, in his first term. Before the hearing, Trump posted that he expected the “totally disloyal” judge to rule against him. And this isn’t Kelly’s first time doing this. Back in 2018, he’s the judge who ordered the White House to give CNN’s Jim Acosta his press pass back. Eight years later, he’s looking at the same thing from the same unhinged President, and he has to tell him, once again, you can’t do this.
So that should be the end of it, right? Well, this is the Trump White House. Here’s what happened at six o’clock this morning:
And the same thing happened for CNN and Politico. The outlets went right back to the judge and asked for an emergency hearing, and he gave the White House until lunchtime to respond. Right as we were putting the show together, the White House let the reporters back in, just before that deadline.
Look, the Secret Service at the White House is no joke. They are on top of things over there. This wasn’t some technical glitch. We’ve seen this from this White House time and time again. They lose in court, and they just ignore it and see how far they can push before someone stops them.
And it’s notable that this is happening the same day Xi Jinping arrives for a state visit. The Chinese president is walking into a White House where American reporters were being physically blocked from covering it. He’ll feel right at home.
2. Trump Invites Putin to G20 at His Golf Club
Marco Rubio confirmed the rumor at the UN: Trump has invited his best buddy to the G20 summit in December. Naturally, it will be held at Trump’s own golf club. Here’s Rubio on the decision:
People that we might disagree with? Really Marco? Let’s be clear. This is a man who is under U.S. sanctions. This is a man with an arrest warrant from the ICC for kidnapping Ukrainian children. This is a man who is prosecuting a brutal war against Ukrainian cities that I’ve seen with my own eyes. This is a war criminal.
Rubio shouldn’t need to be told. As a senator, he was a hawk who understood that Putin needed to be shunned. Europeans still understand that. That’s why Putin doesn’t show up at these events. He’s not welcome, and he shouldn’t be.
So what happens if Vladimir makes an appearance? Well, we can guess based on what happened a few weeks ago. At a smaller G20 summit in Asheville, the Russian finance minister made a rare appearance. European allies couldn’t stand to be in the same room. They wouldn’t even let him in the group photograph.
Imagine how they’ll feel being face-to-face with the man who has single-handedly plunged their continent into chaos. If Putin is the guest of honor, a lot of the allies we actually need to be talking to will probably just skip the meeting altogether. I don’t blame them. It’s like if we showed up to the G7 and they rolled out the red carpet for the Ayatollah.
Look, I’m sympathetic to some of the arguments here. Putin needs to be in the conversation if we want to end the war in Ukraine. But there’s a time and a place. You meet on neutral ground and get the job done.
This doesn’t have anything to do with peace or dialogue. Trump just wants to wine and dine with a guy who relates to his struggles. Putin knows what it’s like to be despised abroad and increasingly unpopular at home.
3. MAGA Influencers Are Done Talking About Trump
We’ve been talking a lot recently about the politicians running from Trump. The candidates dodging him and the senators voting against him. But there’s one group we haven’t gotten to: the influencers. The podcasters. These are the alternative media powerhouses that helped Trump win in 2024. Many of them promised their audiences that only Trump could save America from the radical left.
It’s been a while. So how do they feel about Trump now? Well, the Wall Street Journal ran an analysis on 70,000 hours of their content. Take a look:
Mentions of Trump’s name are down nearly 70 percent from their peak before the 2024 election. Much of the downturn has come since the Iran war, which seems to be a sticking point for many of these influencers: Tucker Carlson, for example, broke with the White House after failing to convince Trump to back off.
Tucker is a unique case. Most of these influencers still haven’t come out against the administration outright. More commonly, they’ve shifted focus to culture war topics or attacks on specific Democratic candidates like James Talarico.
But their apparent loss of interest in Trump tells you a lot about MAGA. Remember that most of these guys are in it for the views and the money, so they talk about what the base wants to hear. Based on this data, Trump just doesn’t get them fired up anymore.
They may not switch sides. And some of them will still turn out just to stick it to the libs. But others will stay home, because Trump has disappointed them at every turn and has no positive vision to offer.
Trump is MAGA. If the name isn’t selling, it means the movement is on life support. And that’s good news for the country.
4. China May Have Our Stealth Fighter Parts
Politico reports that a contractor for Lockheed Martin was moving a shipment of F-35 parts from Australia this summer, headed to the U.S. for repair. But it never got there. Somewhere along the way, the parts were rerouted to Hong Kong. That includes the cockpit canopy and a weapons-bay door.
The Australians claim that the parts were unserviceable anyhow, so nothing sensitive was lost. But the F-35 is the crown jewel of American air power. Both its canopy and its weapons-bay door have a stealth coating that is only meant to be accessible to U.S. allies. Now it might be in the hands of our greatest adversary.
So why were the parts diverted? Nobody has any answers. The Pentagon says it’s investigating the incident. Congress, who had been briefed in June, has opened its own inquiry. And the Chinese Foreign Ministry says it’s not aware of the incident. Of course not.
Now, I don’t know exactly what happened here. Obviously, it could just be incompetence. Somebody slapped the wrong label on a crate. But it could also be another example of the Iran war stretching our military thin. Stuff this sensitive usually moves on military cargo planes. Right now, a lot of those planes are tied up in the Middle East. And according to Bloomberg, these parts went by UPS.
Either way, this is a major national security problem. China may now have its hands on pieces of a jet the United States has spent around two trillion dollars on, and we still don’t know how it happened.
5. Senate Map Swings Toward Democrats
The Cook Political Report moved three Senate races toward Democrats yesterday.
Georgia is now listed as “Likely Democrat,” which comes as no surprise. Democrat Jon Ossoff now commands a firm lead against a scandal-plagued opponent, who has also tied himself to Trump’s agenda.
Kansas hasn’t elected a Democratic Senator since 1930. But it has shifted from “Likely Republican” to “Lean Republican,” even after JD Vance campaigned for the struggling GOP candidate this past month.
And lastly Cook has moved South Carolina from “Solid” to “Likely Republican.” The GOP has a candidate on the ballot with the last name Graham, but there’s a chance that still might not be enough.
Those shifts build on Senate momentum for the Democratic Party in August, when both Texas and Iowa moved from “Lean Republican” to “Toss-up.” And they compound Republicans’ problems elsewhere. The more Senate seats the GOP has to defend, the thinner its money gets spread, and the sooner it has to decide which candidates to cut loose.
That is already taking place in North Carolina. Democrat Roy Cooper holds a double digit lead over his opponent, Michael Whatley, who is now facing cuts to funding from the GOP. Congresswoman Nancy Mace is even writing off the seat, posting: Republicans will “for SURE” lose the Senate race.
So where does that leave us? There are six Republican-held seats rated toss-up or better for Democrats. They need to net four, and Cook says the range is now anywhere from one to five. That’s a true toss-up for control of the Senate, about six weeks out, in a map Republicans thought was a lock not too long ago.
Republicans are playing defense in places they never expected to. Let’s keep it that way. Make sure you vote in November.
Some other stories that caught my eye:
TechNet, the trade group representing the country’s biggest tech companies, filed a public comment urging the Trump administration to withdraw its proposed $103,265 fee on new H-1B visa applications. While the tech industry has largely backed Trump, the two sides stand at odds over the steep visa fee, which deter U.S. employers from temporarily hiring foreign workers. TechNet argues the fee “undermines the president’s championing of American global competitiveness,” and could set the U.S. back in the AI race with China. The administration argues tighter visa rules will force companies to hire American workers. And they have had to defend that position before. When Trump signed an executive order imposing the fee on H-1B visas last year, the Chamber of Commerce sued and a federal judge later struck it down. DHS is now pursuing it through formal rulemaking. That could hold up better in court, but skeptics expect new legal challenges to arise.
The CDC opened an order for updated COVID-19 vaccines through its Vaccines for Children program, ending a delay of nearly a month. The program serves nearly half of American kids, including children on Medicaid and those without adequate insurance. For weeks, pediatricians could order the FDA-approved shots for privately insured patients but not for children in the federal program. HHS spokeswoman Emily Hilliard said the CDC “has not yet finalized procurement decisions,” framing the holdup as responsible stewardship of taxpayer money. A federal health official blamed the delay partly to a slow review of CDC clinical guidance. That guidance falls back on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine policy recommendations last year. A federal judge has blocked most changes, but two survived: there is no recommendation for pregnant women, and healthy kids now must first consult with a doctor. The youngest children face the most risk. Nearly half of kids hospitalized with COVID between late 2022 and spring 2024 were between 6 and 23 months old.
