Hey everyone. Welcome back. Thanks for being here.
Our top story today: the food on your table is getting more dangerous, and the Trump administration is making it worse. Outbreaks are spreading, recalls are hitting the government’s highest risk level, and the agencies that are supposed to protect us have been gutted. So what did Trump do this week? He picked someone to run the FDA whose only real qualification is loyalty.
We’ll also get into some huge news in the fight against cancer, the Army killing its own cutting-edge drone unit, the New York Times revealing that Pete Hegseth’s wife is helping run the Pentagon, and Donald Trump admitting out loud that he roots against the American economy.
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Let’s get to it.
1. Your Food Is More Dangerous Under Trump
Since May, more than 11,000 Americans have been sickened by a nasty parasite from contaminated lettuce. The former head of food safety at the FDA called it a record-setting outbreak, the biggest she has ever seen. And this week brought another warning. The FDA just upgraded a recall of frozen blueberries in eight states to Class One, its highest risk level, over E. coli contamination. That’s the category the FDA reserves for products that could cause serious harm or even death.
Now, outbreaks happen under every administration. But under Trump, the FDA has lost about a fifth of its staff. The CDC used to have eleven scientists tracking food parasites, and now it has three. A federal early-warning system that tracked eight dangerous foodborne pathogens now tracks only two. And a rule that would let investigators trace contaminated food back to the farm was delayed until 2028.
So with all that going on, who did Trump pick this week to run the FDA? Dr. Heidi Overton, a White House aide and loyalist who has never managed a large organization in her life, but stood proudly beside the President while he signed last week’s executive order carving up the childhood vaccine schedule. As always, loyalty is the qualification.
But don’t worry, everyone. Senator Bill Cassidy has concerns. This week Cassidy put out a statement on Overton, criticizing her inexperience and calling her role in that vaccine order “almost disqualifying.” Sound familiar?
It is always “almost” with Bill Cassidy.
You don’t make a difference by saying you have concerns. You make a difference by growing a spine and standing up for what you know is right.
2. Cancer Vaccine Succeeds as RFK Jr. Cuts mRNA Research
Yesterday, Moderna and Merck announced that their personalized mRNA cancer vaccine succeeded in a late-stage trial. Patients who had melanoma surgically removed got the vaccine alongside an immunotherapy drug, and it kept the deadliest form of skin cancer from coming back. In an earlier trial, the same combination cut the risk of recurrence or death by 49 percent over five years. Doctors are calling it a game changer, opening the door for vaccines against other types of cancer too.
Here’s how it works. Scientists take the mutations from your specific tumor and build a custom vaccine that trains your immune system to hunt the cancer down. That is American science at its absolute best, built on decades of federally funded mRNA research.
But for some reason, that is exactly the type of research this administration is trying to cut. Last year, RFK Jr. canceled 22 mRNA research projects worth half a billion dollars, calling the technology ineffective. The New York Times has documented how Trump’s cuts are quietly shutting down the war on cancer across the country, with grants frozen and labs going dark.
And it’s not just Washington. Ken Paxton, Trump’s pick for Senate, voted against creating his own state’s cancer research institute back in 2007. That institute has since detected more than 58,000 cases of cancer and made Texas a world leader in the fight. That same year, Paxton also helped block the HPV vaccine requirement, the shot that prevents nearly all cervical cancer.
Here’s the bottom line. This breakthrough happened because America spent decades funding the science, through every administration, no matter who was in charge. That’s the deal that made us the envy of the world. RFK Jr. is breaking that deal over a grudge, and the cures your family might need someday are at risk because of it.
3. The Army Kills Its Own Drone Battalion
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Army is phasing out the drone assault battalion it stood up in Europe just this past January. That unit had one job: learn the lessons of Ukraine, where cheap drones have rewritten modern warfare, and figure out how America fights the next war.
The battalion was the signature project of the Army chief Hegseth pushed out in April. His replacement, a general closely aligned with Hegseth, is ordering a return to what he calls the basics. As someone who flew missions for the military, let me tell you, the enemy does not go back to basics. They adapt.
Now let’s talk about what our military is doing to their own newspaper. Max Lederer, the publisher of Stars and Stripes for nineteen years, announced his retirement this week, writing that his philosophy of leadership and his understanding of the paper’s value and mission differ “in fundamental ways” from where the Pentagon is taking it. That follows the firing in April of the paper’s ombudsman, the one person Congress charged with protecting its editorial independence. Hegseth’s spokesman has said the paper needs to refocus away from “woke distractions.”
And what are those distractions, exactly? Stars and Stripes was one of the first outlets to report on the families of sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln confronting Navy leadership over the nine-month deployment. That’s not woke. That’s journalism about the people who actually serve. And CBS News reports Pentagon officials even discussed firing Lederer before he could retire on his own terms.
Stars and Stripes has reported for the troops, independent of the chain of command, since World War II. The people serving this country can handle real news. But of course, this administration has to have its feelings protected. Grown men running the most powerful military on earth, and they can’t handle a critical story in the troops’ own paper.
4. Jennifer Hegseth's Shadow Role at the Pentagon
Yesterday, the New York Times published a deep dive on Jennifer Hegseth, the Defense Secretary’s wife and former producer at Fox News. Until very recently, she held no government position. Her security clearance status is unclear. But according to the reporting, she has become her husband’s most influential adviser at the Pentagon. She preps his appearances. She sits in on his meetings with journalists. She even interviewed candidates for Pentagon jobs.
And it gets worse. She was also in the infamous Houthi strike Signal chat, sat in on a sensitive meeting with British officials about intelligence on Ukraine, and pushed to kick out Pentagon reporters she felt covered her husband unfairly. All without holding any position at all, until the White House finally named her chair of the President’s Military Spouse Commission this month. An important job, but not exactly one that puts you anywhere near the Situation Room.
By all accounts, Jennifer is very good at what she does. But just like her husband, what she does is produce television. In every video they post, the lighting is great and the makeup is flawless. But running the Pentagon is much more than just looking the part. And if an unqualified and unvetted adviser is helping call the shots, this country is less safe. Period.
5. Trump Roots Against Your Economy
Yesterday, Trump was asked about the bond market. Instead of his usual bragging, he said this:
You heard that right. The President of the United States, hoping for bad economic news. Remember, those numbers are not just numbers. They are layoffs, hiring freezes, the raise you never get.
And why is he so desperate for lower rates? Trump has been hounding the Fed for years, across two chairmen, through good data and bad. When this President wants something that badly, it usually means one thing: there’s something in it for him.
So last fall, Forbes ran the numbers. Turns out, Trump holds hundreds of millions in bonds that jump in value when rates fall. His real estate empire benefits too, as a single point drop pushes his property values up by over 100 million dollars. And his office towers carry variable-rate debt, so that same point drop cuts his interest bill by millions a year. Even his golf resorts and crypto tokens rise when rates come down.
Look, we often ask why Trump keeps doing things that hurt the economy. It’s certainly not good politics. It hurts you, it hurts me, and it hurts voters across the country. But maybe we’ve had it backwards. Maybe the man rooting for bad numbers isn’t failing at all. Weak numbers mean rate cuts, and rate cuts help the Trump portfolio. And for this President, that’s all that matters.
Some other stories that caught my eye:
According to court filings revealed yesterday, a National Park Service engineer warned the Trump administration in early June that the floor of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was peeling because of the renovation process and the materials used for the job. Despite that warning, President Trump accused multiple people of destroying the pool, and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office in Washington charged former Olympic canoeist David Hearn with destruction of property. Her office later dropped the case, citing Interior Department documents showing the damage was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings. Trump lashed out at Pirro anyway, called the dismissal a mistake, and insisted the pool had been vandalized. Hearn’s attorneys are now asking a court to permanently block the Justice Department from reviving what they call a politically motivated prosecution.
More than 150 wallets on online prediction market Polymarket may have traded on inside U.S. military information, according to research by the nonprofit Anti-Corruption Data Collective published today. The group identified 152 exceptionally successful wallets that bet on military and defense markets, making $8 million collectively with an average win rate of 97.2 percent. These traders typically opened an account, placed a large long-shot bet in a niche market where insiders would have an edge, then cashed out and disappeared. This comes after a U.S. soldier was charged in April with using classified information to bet on the January removal of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The researchers warn these bets attract copycats and could broadcast signals that foreign adversaries can read in real time.
