Hey everyone. Welcome back. Thanks for being here.
Our top story today: surprise, surprise, the war on Iran is back on. Yesterday, Iran attacked three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. In response, we pulled the deal that let Iran sell its oil and hit more than 80 targets inside Iran overnight. Iran fired back at our bases in the Gulf. And this morning, the President stood at a NATO summit and declared the ceasefire, in his words, “is over.” Oil prices are already spiking. Looks like we’re right back where we started, and nobody in this administration can tell you where it ends.
We’ll also cover a chaotic day at the NATO summit, two fresh court losses for the White House on elections, Trump holding anti-terrorism funding hostage, and Ken Paxton being accused of breaking his own voter fraud rules.
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Let’s get to it.
1. Trump Declares His Own Ceasefire is Dead
Overnight, the U.S. military carried out a series of strikes on Iran. CENTCOM says it hit air defenses, radar sites, and more than 60 small boats belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
This was because Iran went after commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz again. Three tankers were attacked on Tuesday, including one that was carrying Qatari natural gas. In response, the Treasury Department yanked the temporary waiver that was allowing Iran to sell its oil on the open market.
Then this morning, beside the NATO chief in Turkey, here’s what the President said about the status of his ceasefire, if you can even call it that at this point:
The moment Trump said this, oil prices jumped. Brent crude oil shot up almost 6 percent. That is something we all feel. A direct result of the President’s action in starting this war and being unable to finish it.
Look, it’s been hard to know when the news on Iran is actually different from the day before. The President says one thing, then does another. The ceasefire is on, then it’s off. It has been a chaotic ride. But this time does feel different. The President doesn’t want to talk about Iran anymore. He’s been over it for a while now. He tried to claim a fake victory and hoped things would miraculously shake out on their own. They didn’t. And now the military seems like the only tool he has left. He’s already promised to “hit them hard” again tonight.
The President is desperate, and we can all feel it. Just this morning, he threatened new strikes, floated a naval blockade, talked about seizing an Iranian island, and even suggested we might skip a peace deal altogether because, in his words, it’s easier. That’s not a plan. That’s a man throwing everything at the wall and hoping something makes this go away. This is blatantly ineffective leadership and it’s embarrassing on the world stage. A foreign policy blunder for the ages, and one that will define Trump’s legacy on foreign policy.
2. Allies Watch Trump Melt Down at NATO Summit
Last time I checked, a NATO summit is supposed to be a proud show of unity. Instead, the President turned it into a grievance tour, where he seemed to be in a terrible mood for all of it, scowling through the family photo and picking fights with allies one after another.
Starting off strong, he said again that Greenland should belong to the United States, not Denmark, a NATO ally. Take a look at what else he claimed to know about the island and its history:
Uh, no, Mr. President, we never “took” Greenland. It’s been part of the Kingdom of Denmark for centuries. Yes, during World War Two we took over defending the island, and yes, we still have a defense agreement with Denmark today. That deal gives us military access to Greenland right now. We have a Space Force base there as we speak. Does the President know any of that? It doesn’t seem like it.
Then, Trump started going after Spain. Spain is the one ally that would not commit to NATO’s new 5 percent defense spending target. It also refused to let us use its bases for the Iran War, just like Italy, whose Prime Minister was also attacked by Trump, by the way. So take a look at the moment the President of the United States turned to his Treasury Secretary and ordered him to cut off trade with an ally:
And then Trump’s words at the summit went from ridiculous to just straight up nonsense. Take a look at a couple of bizarre moments we put together that show this President has zero idea what he’s talking about:
Look, our allies are watching the same videos we are. What both see is an American president who is throwing a temper tantrum, stumbling over his words, and threatening to blow up the trade and alliances that keep all of us safe. I don’t know what the President thinks this type of behavior accomplishes, but it certainly is not a display of strength.
3. Even Trump's Own Judges Are Defending Our Elections From Him
First, Georgia. Yesterday, a federal judge quashed a Justice Department subpoena that tried to grab the names and personal contact information of every single person who worked the 2020 election in Fulton County. That’s the Atlanta area the President has falsely blamed for his loss.
The judge called the scope of the request “staggering.” And guess what? The judge who shut it down was appointed by Trump himself. He wrote that the statute of limitations on anything from 2020 expired long ago, so no charges could even come from it, and that handing over those names would scare people away from ever working an election again.
He also wrote that whether you support the President or not, whether you think 2020 was fair or stolen, everyone should be worried about the government using a grand jury to grab your private information with no legitimate purpose.
The second loss came in the fight over mail voting. A judge refused to pause an order that blocked the President’s attempt to use the Postal Service as a weapon, where the mail would only deliver your ballot if your state first handed its voter lists over to Washington. That block stands in 23 states and D.C. And a separate judge already ruled the Constitution gives the President no powers over elections at all.
Look, the courts keep saying the same thing, over and over. The President does not run our elections. States do. And he’s losing this argument in front of his own appointees. The system is holding, but he isn’t stopping. The President of the United States is like a toddler that can’t take no for an answer. It’s ridiculous and unfortunately, this definitely isn’t the end of it.
4. Trump’s Election Obsession Just Got Dangerous for Every American
This time he chose FEMA’s terrorism-prevention program, which grants more than a billion dollars a year for cybersecurity, emergency planning, and protection for crowded public spaces. That money is supposed to keep Americans safe. It is what we rely on to stop threats before they reach us.
But under new rules reported yesterday, FEMA will hold back some funding from states that don’t comply with the President’s election demands. In order to receive their full grant, states will have to submit plans to rip out certain voting machines and hand over entire voter rolls to a federal database meant to purge noncitizen voters.
But remember, the administration’s own intelligence office went looking for proof of fraud with these machines but instead found that not a single vote changed. But of course, that report was buried by the White House. And just two weeks ago, a federal judge struck down that same citizenship database, which already wrongly flagged actual American citizens as potential noncitizens.
So once again, the Trump administration is putting American lives at risk so they can continue their war against your vote. And even while they keep losing the battles, they won’t give up the fight. Because they know what’s coming for them in November.
5. Texas's Top Voter Fraud Hunter Is Accused of Voter Fraud
Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for Senate in Texas, has long spread wild conspiracies about his political opponents committing voter fraud:
This has been his signature issue for years. As Texas attorney general, Paxton built a special election fraud unit and made cracking down on so-called illegal voting central to his brand. And back in February, he set up a tip line for people to report suspected voter fraud. In a list of violations to look out for, Paxton warned Texans that it is illegal to misrepresent your residence on election records, and that you must register to vote using the address where you actually live.
His warning could not have been clearer. At least, to everyone in Texas but himself. A new investigation found that Paxton appears to have voted six times over the past two years under an address where he does not live. His wife said in a divorce filing that he moved out of their home two years ago. Reporters have since linked him to a different house, in a different county, that he is not registered in.
So Paxton may have broken the exact laws he warned everyone else about. Does that surprise anyone? The people who shout the loudest about voter fraud seem to turn out to be the ones cutting the corners themselves. The fraud they keep hunting for barely exists. But the hypocrisy is very real.
Some other stories that caught my eye:
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a man in Houston yesterday during an attempted arrest. ICE identified him as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, an undocumented Mexican immigrant stopped around 6:50 a.m. in the city’s East End as part of what the agency called a targeted enforcement operation. The Department of Homeland Security says Araujo rammed an ICE vehicle, ignored commands, and tried to run over an officer who fired in self-defense. But the account tracks almost word for word with earlier cases in Minneapolis that video and witnesses later contradicted. Houston officials and civil rights groups are already asking that all footage be preserved before anyone accepts the government’s version.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Republican Whip John Barrasso both said this week that they spoke by phone with Mitch McConnell, who has been hospitalized since June 14 for a reason his office still won’t disclose. The statements came a day after far-right influencer Laura Loomer spread rumors that McConnell was “brain dead”. Thune’s office called their conversation lengthy and substantive, and Barrasso said McConnell was fully engaged and eager to get back to work. Conservative commentator Scott Jennings added that he talked with the senator for about 20 minutes about Iran, Ukraine, and Senate history. McConnell is 84 and retiring in January, and three weeks in, the public has only heard from people speaking on his behalf.
