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 …

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

‘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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

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 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 …

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 …

Poland asks U.S. to hand over ex-minister over alleged fund misuse  —  Poland asked the United States on Monday to extradite fugitive former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who faces 26 charges mainly related to the alleged misuse of money from a crime victims' fund for political purposes, prosecutors said.