Capitol agenda: Thune tries to focus as Trump fumes  —  John Thune has a long to-do list, a shrinking runway for getting it done and a president in the peanut gallery.  The Senate is back Monday with only two more weeks — more realistically, eight legislative days — in town until the chamber leaves Washington through mid-September.

A Tale of Two Speeches  —  The press's responsible handling of Trump's incoherent speech about US election integrity contrasted starkly with Friday's farcical WHCA dinner.  —  Ever since Donald Trump thudded onto the national political stage, the press has had a difficult time handling the frequency …

67 boat strikes.  221 dead.  The cocaine hasn't slowed, officials report.  —  The president says Operation Southern Spear has virtually ended drug trafficking by sea.  Pentagon and DEA analysts have concluded otherwise.  —  Summary  —  The Trump administration's deadly military strikes …

Poll: Even Trump voters aren't very impressed by the GOP's tax overhaul  —  Congressional Republicans have a political problem with their signature legislative achievement of the second Trump era: People don't know about it.  —  A new POLITICO Poll finds that nearly half of Americans …

The Real Reason Elon Musk Keeps Insisting DOGE Cuts Killed “Zero” Kids  —  “Zero died because of DOGE.  Zero.  Point.  Zero.”  —  That remarkable claim is from Elon Musk's interview last week with The Economist, in which he reiterated one of his favorite new claims …

Taxpayers spend about $2 billion annually on Medicaid for Amazon and Walmart employees  —  American taxpayers are spending billions every year providing Medicaid benefits to hundreds of thousands of employees of Amazon and Walmart, a new analysis by Popular Information reveals.

Congress Budgeted Billions for Big Transit Projects.  Trump Isn't Spending It.  —  For decades, the federal government has funneled big-ticket grants to local communities to help them take on ambitious construction projects to expand public transit.  The grants, sometimes in the billions of dollars …

Source of false Buttigieg allegation appeared ‘mentally unstable,’ records show  —  The Michigan attorney general's office is investigating how the accusation that prompted the ex-Cabinet secretary's separation from his 4-year-old twins was handled.  —  Summary

Acting Director of National Intelligence announces 4th wave of layoffs  —  William Pulte described the ODNI cuts as ‘a 4th round of thoughtful, measured layoffs’  —  Acting Director of National Intelligence William Pulte announced Sunday that his office has completed a fourth batch of layoffs.

Netanyahu is finally getting his White House meeting.  He may not like what comes with it.  —  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected at the White House this week at a moment of significant tension between the longtime allies — after months of waiting for an invitation to come.

The 2026 House Map is No More Favorable to Republicans than the 2018 Map was  —  KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE  — Republicans made the House map better for themselves compared to the 2024 map by winning this cycle's expansive redistricting fight.  — However, comparing this year's map …

‘Put one ogre on a pike’  —  With help from Eli Okun, Ali Bianco and Irie Sentner  —  Good Monday morning.  After spending some days in Maine, the political press corps will travel to Michigan down the homestretch before the big Aug. 4 primary.  Try a Vernors, and get in touch.  —  In today's Playbook ...

Iran war casualty count eclipses 600 as Pentagon quietly changes accounting  —  Federal agencies US military The Middle East Congressional news  —  The Pentagon updated its war casualty database Saturday, recording more than 140 additionally wounded and restoring the four soldiers killed due …

Trump Gutted the Kennedy Center.  A Tour Guide Wants You to See It Anyway.  —  In a dogged demonstration of love for a Washington institution, Sandy Weiswasser is among a few dozen volunteers still showing dwindling visitors a hollowed-out building.  —  Sandy Weiswasser has been guiding tours …

Trump Pauses Iran Strikes as Officials Weigh Dwindling Air Defense Stocks  —  The U.S. held off on a major military campaign that could have lasted two weeks, officials said  —  President Trump has put off a major escalation of his military campaign against Iran amid efforts to revive diplomacy …

GOP senators warn confidence in Hegseth eroding as Iran war drags on  —  Republican senators say that confidence is waning in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's leadership of the U.S. armed forces as the war with Iran drags on without an end in sight.  —  They are also warning that the success …

Protected No More  —  Good morning.  Hundreds of thousands of people will lose their protected immigration status today.  —  In 1990, during George H.W. Bush's presidency, Congress established a humanitarian immigration program called Temporary Protected Status.

Democrats hit the anti-incumbency trap  —  Democrats are learning a hard lesson Republicans know all too well: The party out of power doesn't just ride the anti-incumbency wave — it can also get swept up in it. … - Just ask Senate Republicans how that went for them in 2010, 2012 and 2022.

Potential Presidential 2028 Democrats Split Over Russia Sanctions  —  A bipartisan bill aiming to penalize Moscow's war in Ukraine has exposed a fissure among potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders, some of whom worry the measure would turbocharge President Donald Trump's power to impose tariffs and harm the economy.

Fifa's Gianni Infantino lashes out at World Cup critics ‘consumed by hate’  —  Detractors missed out on ‘joy’ of ‘best show in the world’, says president of football's governing body  —  Fifa president Gianni Infantino has accused his critics of being “consumed by hate” during the World Cup …

As Bombs Fall in Iran, Trump Bombs in Washington … There's a familiar explanation for the rise of Donald Trump that dispenses with ideology or sociology in favor of something more relatable in human terms: Let's face it, the guy can be very funny.  —  Or so some people believe.

Why are Democrats so quiet about the Tate brothers?  —  The party's silence shows how broadly male supremacist thinking has seeped into the conventional wisdom of political strategists  —  It's not exactly strange that elements of the Magaverse have embraced Andrew Tate.

Jeffries Kicks Off Midterm Sprint With Economic Pitch  —  Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Democrat and minority leader, focused relentlessly on affordability in a swing district.  —  Representative Hakeem Jeffries stood inside a union hall in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley on Sunday …

Why Trump's new tariff blitz is very different this time around … As the U.S. military conflict with Iran enters its sixth month, President Donald Trump has returned to a more familiar battleground: global trade.  —  Trump on Friday launched a fresh tariff blitz targeting 60 trading partners …