The Reconciliation Timeline Is Slipping as Trump Struggles to Flip Votes  —  The president told one group of House Republicans Wednesday that Congress shouldn't touch three things if they want to win elections: Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.  — Copy

Trump's Lawfare Against the Free Press  —  He suggests prosecuting CNN, while pressuring a settlement out of CBS.  —  Click for Sound  —  President Trump has taunted the media for years, and some of his jibes are deserved given the groupthink in most newsrooms.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia describes ‘severe beatings’ and ‘psychological torture’ in Salvadoran prison … The Salvadoran prison where Abrego was initially housed, known as the Anti-Terrorism Confinement Center or by its Spanish-language acronym CECOT, is reputed to be rife with gang violence and human rights abuses.

Justice Dept. Explores Using Criminal Charges Against Election Officials  —  Such a path could drastically raise the stakes for federal investigations of state or county officials, bringing the department and the threat of criminalization into the election system.

Illegal Border Crossings Plunge to Lowest Level in Decades  —  Border Patrol agents made just over 6,000 arrests in June, according to government figures, a sign that President Trump's hard-line immigration policies are working to keep people out.  —  The number of people crossing …

US contractors say their colleagues are firing live ammo as Palestinians seek food in Gaza  —  American contractors guarding aid distribution sites in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades as hungry Palestinians scramble for food, according to accounts and videos obtained by The Associated Press.

The megabill's war on the poor is built on a decades-old lie  —  Ronald Reagan's mythic “welfare queen” turned voters against social programs.  —  When President Ronald Reagan was trying to justify massive cuts on social programs, he would often invoke the so-called welfare queen.

Trump allies caught off guard by Pentagon's Ukraine weapons freeze … Even allies of President Donald Trump were frustrated by the move, and accused officials such as Colby — who led a review of U.S. munitions stockpiles that preceded the freeze — of pushing the move forward without notifying the rest of the administration or others.

The big problem with Trump's bill: Many voters don't know what's in it  —  The legislation is definitely big, but many worry that its size has obscured potentially popular agenda items.  —  Republicans say their massive domestic policy agenda is too big too fail.

Some oil patch execs say “drill baby drill” isn't happening  —  President Trump wants to “drill baby drill.” … But producers' caution about growing output could limit how much prices at the pump might fall by helping avoid a large market glut of oil.

For Democrats, Mamdani Is a Wake-Up Call—and a Bad Example  —  He shows how the party is falling short, but he has the wrong solutions.  —  Zohran Mamdani, the socialist who just won New York's Democratic mayoral primary, is a charismatic, smart and effective campaigner with whom I disagree.