Hey everyone. Welcome back and happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend.
Before anything else, I want to take a moment to recognize the three American service members we lost over the weekend. I’ll talk a little more about it later on in the show but I’m deeply saddened to hear about their deaths. It serves as a reminder of how wars take a toll on American families even though they seem like they’re happening across the world.
Our top story today: the Republican party doesn’t appear to be thrilled about the President’s renewed focus on the 2020 election. His primetime address last Thursday was supposed to rally Republicans. Instead, it got a collective sigh. The midterms are quickly approaching. The party has a long list of issues it would rather focus on. And this speech just reminded them how badly they want to change the subject.
We’ll also get into the latest from the war with Iran, the FBI deciding it will no longer investigate ICE shootings, Trump trying to make the World Cup about himself, and the White House threatening to tariff Canada over wildfire smoke.
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Let’s get to it.
1. The Speech Republicans Are Pretending Never Happened
Thursday night, the President went on primetime television and did his groveling about 2020. He promised really big news. But what we got was the same recycled claims. Nobody was impressed. The materials he declassified didn’t help his case, maybe even hurt it. The next morning, even Fox News acted like the speech never happened. Fox and Friends, a show that exists mostly to flatter this President, went three hours without bringing it up.
And Fox is just following the party’s lead here, because Republicans are frustrated. The timing could not be worse. Fifteen weeks from the midterms, voters are focused on gas prices, housing, and a war that keeps escalating. But instead of talking about any of that, the President gave the country a primetime address on an election from six years ago. It was a missed opportunity to talk about the issues people are actually going to vote on.
But it goes past bad messaging. He’s told Congress that nothing moves until the SAVE Act passes, and we’ve already seen him block legislation just to make the point. So look at what’s now sitting in that pile. Government funding, which runs out September 30th. Even the defense bill is stuck over this fight, a bill that has passed every year for 64 straight years. And the House only has about 28 voting days left to deal with any of it.
So here’s the question Republicans are asking themselves in private. How much is this obsession going to cost them in November? They’re defending razor-thin majorities. Their agenda is frozen. And the guy at the top can’t stop picking at an election he’s still salty about losing.
But the President doesn’t care what any of them think. The Washington Post reported that his own aides tried to talk him out of this speech. They wanted to hand the material to the press secretary and skip the primetime address entirely. He overruled them. He wanted his moment.
And instead of reading the room like Fox News did, the administration seems to be doubling down on its “election integrity” priority. Here’s Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin the day after the speech:
What Mullin is describing is not election integrity. It’s a federal takeover of something the Constitution explicitly hands to the states and to Congress. Republicans used to call themselves the party of states’ rights and limited government, and here’s a Republican administration telling states to surrender their election systems or watch their officials get prosecuted. If a Democratic president said those exact words, every Republican in Washington would be on television calling it tyranny. And they’d be right. But it’s tyranny now, too.
2. Iran Kills Three US Soldiers, the Pentagon Hid Earlier Attacks
On Friday, Iranian ballistic missiles hit an air base in Jordan where American forces are stationed. At least two U.S. service members were killed. And on Saturday, a third service member was killed in Iraq while disposing of a downed Iranian drone.
Since this war began in February, at least 17 American service members have been killed, and more than 400 have been wounded.
The Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, marked their deaths with a post. He wrote, quote, “Godspeed, heroes. Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.” The President ordered CENTCOM to launch another wave of retaliatory strikes, and told a reporter the two had died, quote, “in service to our country.”
We learned this morning it wasn’t the first time Iran hit our troops in Jordan. In the week before Friday’s deadly strike, Iran launched three other attacks on U.S. forces there. Those attacks wounded dozens of American service members and damaged several helicopters. And the Pentagon told the public nothing.
And it fits a pattern. Last month, a wounded sergeant told CBS the Army was calling his injuries minor while he was in emergency surgery for shrapnel wounds. I understand keeping secrets that keep our people alive. That’s real. But dozens of wounded Americans isn’t a military secret, it’s a political problem, and this Pentagon treated it like one.
So here’s where things stand. They’re hiding the toll of this war from the American people, and meanwhile the war is only ramping up. The White House isn’t even pretending otherwise. They’re promising heavier strikes this week. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like we are any closer to the end of this war than we were when it started back in February.
3. The FBI Will Stop Investigating ICE Shootings
The New York Times reported this weekend that federal agents across the country were told the FBI will no longer investigate any confrontations that involve immigration agents.
What normally happens is when an ICE agent shoots and kills someone, the FBI has been the one to come in and check the agent’s story, whether they were really assaulted before they opened fire. And sometimes what the FBI finds can be used to prosecute the agent. Take that away, and who investigates ICE now? ICE. Their own internal unit, which has no authority to investigate civil rights violations at all.
Look, the whole reason the FBI investigates these shootings is that you cannot let an agency be the sole judge of its own conduct. There needs to be proper oversight on this. Letting ICE police ICE isn’t oversight. It just means they think nobody is watching what they’re actually doing behind the scenes.
4. Trump Photobombed the World Champions
Yesterday, Spain beat Argentina to cap off an exciting World Cup that filled stadiums across this country for weeks. President Trump, met with loud boos from the crowd, was there to hand over the trophy. As the Spanish players lifted that trophy for their team photo, a moment most of them had waited their entire careers for, take a look at what happened:
This is a man who cannot let anyone celebrate without making himself a part of it. It was not his trophy, not his team, not even his country. He snuck his way in anyway.
Less than two weeks ago, this same President ordered his Treasury Secretary to cut off all trade with Spain for refusing to join his war in Iran, calling them “hopeless, bad people.” Maybe that’s why Spain edited him out of the official photos they posted. But after their big win, Trump had a much different tone:
Not too long ago, Spain was a country he wanted nothing to do with. But this weekend they were world champions, so he decided to force his way into their moment. No principle, no strategy, just standing next to whoever happens to be winning that day.
5. Trump Threatens Tariffs Over Wildfire Smoke
Canada is having one of the worst fire seasons in its history. Close to 850 fires are burning from British Columbia to Quebec. Entire communities have been wiped off the map. Homes, belongings, and vital infrastructure, gone. And the haze has reached nearly 100 million Americans, hanging over cities like Chicago, Detroit, New York, and Washington.
Back when Los Angeles was burning last year, Canada did not hesitate to step up. Quebec water bombers flew over the Palisades within days. Ottawa offered 250 firefighters. Alberta prepared night vision helicopters. Even as Trump openly talked about absorbing Canada as the 51st state, our neighbors were here.
Now they are the ones in trouble, needing help from a longtime ally. Take a look at how our President responded:
He wrote on Truth Social that America is being “unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air,” calling it “Willful Negligence” by Canada. Some of that smoke, by the way, is coming off our own fires in northern Minnesota. But of course, the answer was tariffs. Always tariffs.
This is what being our ally gets you now. You can send us every plane you have, but Trump will still find a way to make you pay. He keeps asking why our friends won’t stand with us anymore, but the answer is clear. And everyone sees it but him.
Some other stories that caught my eye:
A federal judge in Boston ruled Friday that the Trump administration cannot use an obscure grant termination clause to cancel billions of dollars in federal funding. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani granted summary judgment to 23 states and denied the government’s motion to dismiss, finding that the administration’s reading of the clause was not supported by the text, ran against the regulatory scheme, and would violate the Constitution’s Spending Clause. Justice Department lawyers had called the case an extraordinarily unusual lawsuit and argued the states were making blanket objections to thousands of grant cancellations without asking to restore a single one. The clause at issue lets agencies end a grant that no longer serves program goals or agency priorities. It was written in 2020, revised in 2024, and until this administration it had never been used as a mass cancellation tool. The states said the Office of Management and Budget turned it into a nationwide slash-and-burn campaign, hitting grants on issues ranging from crime prevention, food security, and scientific research.
Andrew and Tristan Tate, the influencer brothers who made a fortune selling young men on wealth and male dominance, were arrested in Miami on Saturday by the U.S. Marshals Service on a sealed warrant. British prosecutors announced they are seeking the brothers’ extradition on rape and sex trafficking charges covering conduct alleged between 2010 and 2017. Their attorney called the British charges slander meant to derail defamation suits the brothers filed in the United States, but the Tates were charged with similar trafficking allegations in Romania in 2022 before that case collapsed over procedural problems. Andrew Tate has spent years telling audiences how close he is to the Trump family, and the brothers were in Washington days before the arrest. Trump special envoy Paolo Zampolli hosted them at his home and took them to a DC club popular with members of Trump’s cabinet. They were also on Capitol Hill meeting lawmakers, including Texas Republican Wesley Hunt.
