Platner campaign quietly polls potential replacements as pressure mounts  —  Democratic Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner's team quietly fielded a poll Tuesday gauging the strength of people who could replace him on the ballot, as pressure mounts for him to drop out of the race.

He Lived Here for 35 Years.  Put Three Kids in College.  ICE Killed Him.  —  LORENZO SALGADO ARAUJO CAME TO THE UNITED STATES thirty-five years ago—a few years too late to benefit from the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, popularly known as the “Reagan amnesty.”  He worked in construction.

Security Precaution Led Trump to Use Old Air Force One in Leaving Turkey  —  The Secret Service is said to have asked that the president not use the Qatari-donated jet when he left Ankara.  The swap deepens questions about the retrofitting of the new plane.

Iran, Not Trump, Is in Control of This War  —  The cease-fire was always just a Trump fantasy.  —  If Donald Trump ever had any control over the war he started with Iran, he's lost it.  The Iranians are now setting the terms of this conflict, and routinely humiliating the American president.

Trump yelled at NATO leaders in public.  In private, it was a different story. … President Donald Trump spent his first hours at the NATO summit publicly bashing the alliance and reciting a list of grievances that had allies fearing the worst.  —  Then he went behind closed doors and changed his tune.

White House launches 25 Freedom Fuel gas stations in this region  —  The White House launched 25 Freedom Fuel gas stations, all selling fuel at $3.47 a gallon.  —  The White House announced the initiative on July 7 on X with a video of customers thanking President Donald Trump for lowering gas prices.

Trump denies disaster aid for 4 Democratic-led states  —  President Donald Trump denied disaster aid to four Democratic-led states in a move that is raising new questions about whether he's injecting political motivations into emergency management decisions.

Judge orders E. Jean Carroll be paid $5.8M after jury found Trump sexually abused and defamed her  —  E. Jean Carroll can be paid the $5.8 million that was set aside after a jury found three years ago that President Donald Trump sexually abused her in 1996 before he became president and defamed …

Dale Partridge Calls For The Return Of ‘European Christian Colonization Of African Nations’  —  For the last several weeks, far-right Christian nationalist pastor Dale Partridge has been preaching on the Curse of Ham, a controversial theological theory long used to justify slavery and racism.

Meet Fox's Latest Favorite Primetime Guest: John Fetterman  —  Trump's fav cable network can't get enough of the Dem it once called a ‘giant walking vegetable.’ Plus, ‘60 Minutes’ is still getting Bari'd, and a new TDS is taking over the MAGA world.  —  ∙ Paid  —  Good evening, and welcome to this week's ‘Ragebait.’

Eleven more Trump deportees arrive in Eswatini from the United States, lawyer says  —  Eleven more migrants deported by the Trump administration under a policy of sending them to third countries arrived in Eswatini from the United States on Wednesday, a U.S. lawyer following the case said.

A Response to Matt Yglesias About ‘Fight’ in Democratic Candidates  —  This morning on Bluesky Politico's Josh Gerstein flagged to me and others a piece by Matt Yglesias in which, he said, Matt “says progressive Dems [are] too obsessed with fighting Trump rather than winning in marginal states/districts …