Hey everyone. Welcome back. Thanks for being here.
Yesterday, Todd Blanche went before the Senate to become Attorney General, and he passed a test. The wrong one. For five hours, senators gave him chance after chance to show one inch of daylight between himself and Donald Trump. He showed none. And then, in one unguarded moment, he told us why.
We’ll also get into Trump’s pick to run the entire intelligence community refusing to say who won the 2020 election, the Vice President admitting the White House botched the Epstein files, the Defense Secretary filming a testosterone hype video, and the Pentagon drawing up plans to invade Cuba while we are already stuck in a war with Iran.
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Let’s get to it.
1. Blanche Tells the Senate Who He Really Works For
Blanche has been running the DOJ since Pam Bondi was fired back in April. Before that, he was Donald Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer. Yesterday he sat in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and asked them to make the acting title permanent. And for five hours, he dodged.
Asked whether the Justice Department should be independent, he dodged. Said it sits under the executive branch, even though the DOJ’s own website lists independence and impartiality among its core values.
Asked about the blanket pardons for the January 6th rioters, he dodged again, pointing to the constitution. He said: “The Constitution gives the president the full power to pardon anybody for any reason he wants.”
Asked whether the president can order investigations of his enemies, he dodged. Wouldn’t rule it out. Which is almost funny, because we don’t need him to answer that one. His department is already doing it. He wasn’t dodging a hypothetical. He was dodging the last twelve months.
Five hours of that. And then a senator asked him a throwaway question. Are you and the President friends? And for a few seconds, the prep wore off and he just answered.
He fixed the tense. But it was too late. He’d already told everyone in that room who he really works for. And once you know that, you don’t have to wonder why he dodged everything else. Every one of those non-answers protects the same man.
That is what you get when you hire the President’s lawyer to run the Justice Department. Not an Attorney General. Just Trump’s attorney, with a much bigger office.
2. Trump's Spy Chief Pick Won't Say Who Won in 2020
Jay Clayton is Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence. It is a job that oversees eighteen intelligence agencies and comes with access to the most sensitive secrets this country has. The entire job rests on one thing: when you walk into the Oval Office, you tell the President the truth, whether he likes it or not.
Yesterday, senators tested exactly that. They didn’t ask him anything hard. They asked who won the 2020 election. Take a look:
Pressed on it, he reached for the lawyer’s dodge. Biden was “certified.” And notice the pattern, because every Trump nominee does this now. They’ll say Biden was certified. But that’s as far as they go. They will not say he won. Because daddy is watching.
And here’s what makes it worse with Clayton. He was supposed to be the reasonable pick to replace the crazy guy, Bill Pulte. Clayton is the former SEC chairman. Serious lawyer. Some Democrats walked in yesterday ready to vote for him. Mark Warner, who’s known him for years, walked out saying he was bitterly disappointed.
And as Senator Mark Kelly pointed out, Trump wasn’t even in the room. If he won’t state a plain fact when the President is across town, what will he say alone in the Situation Room with intelligence Trump doesn’t like?
We may find out fast. Tonight, the President goes on primetime television to relitigate the 2020 election one more time. And Jay Clayton, a man who cannot say who won it, is about to be handed every intelligence agency we have.
That’s not a coincidence. Trump doesn’t want an intelligence director who tells him the truth about elections. He wants one who won’t. And yesterday, in front of the whole Senate, Clayton proved he’s qualified.
3. Vance Admits the White House Botched the Epstein Files
JD Vance sat down with Joe Rogan, and when the subject turned to the Epstein files, he actually admitted they made a mistake.
He blamed Bondi’s claim that a client list was sitting on her desk. He blamed the binders handed out to influencers. So in Vance’s mind, the problem with the Epstein release was the marketing.
But they did a lot more than botch the communications plan. They botched the entire thing. The files came out slowly, heavily redacted, and only after Congress forced them out by law. When they did come out, the release exposed the email addresses and even photos of Epstein’s victims. Yesterday, at his confirmation hearing, Trump’s intelligence nominee admitted that one happened on his watch.
And I want to remind you how we got here, because they seem to think we’ve all forgotten. Releasing the Epstein files was a campaign promise. Trump said he’d have no problem doing it. He spent years telling voters the truth was being hidden from them, and that he was the one who would finally expose it all.
But as soon as he had the ability to do so, he changed his tune. It became a nuisance to the White House. They were sick of people asking about it. Why do people keep asking about Epstein? Because you ran on it!
4. Hegseth Orders Testosterone Tests for the Troops
Yesterday, Pete Hegseth announced the military will start screening troops for low testosterone, in a slick video shot from what appears to be his Pentagon makeup corner:
And understand where this comes from. This was not the Army Surgeon General’s idea. This is podcast medicine. RFK is out there calling low testosterone an existential crisis. Half the manosphere sells T-boosters between episodes. And now the Secretary of Defense is making content for that audience. With your military as the set.
This week we learned about more senior Navy promotions he’s blocked, including the first woman ever to command a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. For the first time in over a decade, no active-duty woman is expected to make admiral this year. Some of the most accomplished people in the fleet, passed over, because they do not fit the picture he wants.
And it’s not just personnel. It’s discipline itself. Yesterday morning, one of the Navy’s Blue Angels made a very low pass over a Florida beach:
Look, I’m a pilot. I love a good flyover. But that one was not safe. Of course Hegseth disagrees, announcing that “the flyovers will continue” and retweeting an image of the stunt captioned “Carry On Patriots.”
Here’s the thing about Hegseth. He came from TV, and it shows in everything he does. The hype videos. The photo ops. The branding. But he’s not producing a morning show anymore. He’s running the Pentagon. And the military doesn’t need a producer chasing ratings. It needs a leader.
5. The Pentagon Is Drawing Up Plans to Invade Cuba
New reporting revealed yesterday that senior officials have been reviewing military options against Cuba, including an air assault involving thousands of troops. The officials claimed these were just contingency briefings and no decision has been made, but the timing is questionable.
For months the administration has financially squeezed the Cuban military and its business empire, hoping to force a diplomatic transition to a government willing to make economic reforms. But it has not worked as they planned, and the regime remains in power. In a statement last week, Rubio warned them to accept changes “before it is too late.”
Look, I’m no fan of the Cuban regime either. But this is all happening in the middle of Trump’s war with Iran, which resumed after his “peace” deal collapsed almost immediately. We have already shifted aircraft and intelligence assets to the Middle East. Even the officials doing the Cuba planning admit a second front is not realistic right now. Especially as our Vice President describes the first front like this:
“Really messy” is how Vance describes the war we are already in, and he’s exactly right. But that is not the pitch you want to hear right before we enter a second one.
Some other stories that caught my eye:
Secret Service agents assigned to Vice President JD Vance are fed up with the family’s last-minute travel demands, according to a report yesterday from MS NOW. What set them off was a plan last Thursday to fly Vance’s young son to a golf lesson aboard Marine Two, the Marine Corps helicopter, a trip scrapped only because thunderstorms rolled over Washington. Vance’s office said the family is “grateful” to the agents who protect them, and a Secret Service deputy director said long hours and constant flexibility come with the job. Operating that helicopter costs taxpayers between $16,000 and $24,600 an hour, and agents said they knew of no precedent for using one to get a child to golf practice. The frustration runs deep enough that agents have printed mock coins reading “Bobcat OTR Survivors Club,” a jab using the vice president’s code name.
The Treasury Department announced yesterday that the U.S. Mint has begun striking a new $1 coin bearing President Trump’s face, part of the administration’s push to mark America’s 250th birthday. The coin carries Trump’s portrait next to “In God We Trust” and the dates 1776-2026, and it is set to enter circulation this fall. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it honors “the enduring legacy of liberty and a lasting symbol of patriotism,” and the administration argues a 2020 law authorizing special Semiquincentennial coins makes it legal, even though federal law generally bars living presidents from U.S. currency. The last time a living president landed on a coin struck by the U.S. Mint was a century ago, when Calvin Coolidge was tucked behind George Washington on a 1926 half-dollar until most were melted down for lack of demand.
