Faced with Blanche dilemma, Trump chooses revenge  —  President Donald Trump has a choice: allow changes to a controversial court settlement and secure the confirmation of his former personal lawyer as attorney general, or thumb his nose at a pair of his few remaining Republican critics in Congress.

How the Pro-Trump Media Ecosystem Is Splintering Ahead of the Midterms  —  Once united in support of President Trump, right-wing influencers are embroiled in feuds and losing viewers, creating a problem for Republicans in the midterm elections.  —  Benny Johnson, a right-wing podcaster …

‘The Boss Wants This Money’: Inside Trump's Unprecedented Fundraising Operation  —  Meredith O'Rourke, nicknamed ‘princess of darkness,’ carries out president's desire to wring hundreds of millions from companies for his projects  —  WASHINGTON—Almost every night in the White House …

The Bond Market Doesn't Like Bullshit  —  The Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve meets every six weeks to set interest rates — specifically the federal funds rate, the overnight rate at which banks lend each other money.  The Fed funds rate has little direct economic significance …

New York sues Kalshi, says prediction market is running ‘illegal gambling operation’ … New York state sued prediction market platform Kalshi on Friday, alleging that the company is running an “illegal gambling operation.”  —  In a case filed in a Manhattan state court …

Spain says huge surge across border into enclave has reversed, half of migrants go back  —  Spain said on Friday that it had reversed a huge rush of migrants into a Spanish enclave in North Africa, with thousands of people who had crossed the border by land and sea already heading back voluntarily.

Trump's claims of 250,000 non-U.S. citizens on voter rolls leave some states baffled  —  Two weeks after Trump officials said they had found more than 250,000 non-U.S. citizens on voter rolls in just four states, election officials are still struggling to understand where the numbers came from …

How Trump Has Changed, With Maggie Haberman  —  This is an edited transcript of “The Ezra Klein Show.”  You can listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts.  —  Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent at The New York Times, a Pulitzer Prize winner and an author …

The Tate Brothers' Should Be The Trumps' Second Epstein Scandal  —  The truth is much worse than most people realize, and they knew a lot of it.  —  I've had Heidi Blake's lengthy New Yorker exposé about Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan open in a browser tab for over a month.

Trump will be ‘very disappointed’ if Israel obstructs his Gaza plan, US official warns  —  Comments come after Netanyahu's office says Israel can't accept disarmament proposal approved by Hamas, which official says triggered 14-day sprint to set implementation timeline

G.O.P. Kills Bid to Expand I.V.F. Access in the Military  —  In a notable shift, Republican senators voted unanimously against a proposal to expand the military's coverage of fertility treatments.  —  Republicans in Congress have quietly blocked a proposal to expand military health coverage …

Investigating three real-world incidents in our cybersecurity evaluations  —  In a review of our cybersecurity evaluation transcripts, we found three incidents in which a Claude model reached the internet from within or while interacting with a third-party evaluation environment …

Kennedy Center Halts Free Public Tours After Five Decades of Service  —  The decision to suspend tours indefinitely came after a volunteer tour guide was featured in a Times article detailing President Trump's dramatic revamp of the Kennedy Center.  —  The John F. Kennedy Center …

Josh Shapiro shoots his shot  —  With help from Eli Okun, Ali Bianco and Irie Sentner  —  Happy Friday morning.  The late Andrew Breitbart said politics is downstream from culture.  Today, we explore how one potential 2028er is working upstream, driven by his love of sports.  Get in touch.

A discarded SpaceX rocket is on a high-speed collision course with the moon  —  A drifting SpaceX rocket is on a collision course with the moon after launching a pair of lunar landers more than a year ago.  The rocket's upper stage will unintentionally slam into the moon on Wednesday …

Virginia Governor Restores Voting Rights for Thousands With Past Felony Convictions  —  Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger on Friday announced she is restoring the voting rights of about 66,000 people with past felony convictions, reversing the course set by her predecessor, Glenn Youngkin.

Capitol agenda: The Senate's fly-out agenda takes shape  —  Senate Republicans are prepping a jam-packed — if somewhat optimistic — agenda for their final week before summer recess.  Majority Leader John Thune wants to move stopgap funding through Dec. 11, bipartisan Russia sanctions legislation …

Cheap gas won't save Trump, now at a new all-time approval low  —  This post is free to read, but if you want to support my independent data-driven political journalism and get premium posts like these sent to your inbox 2x a week, become a paying subscriber to Strength In Numbers today.

Panetta: US locked into ‘unwinnable war’ with Iran  —  Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Thursday that the U.S. is “locked into an unwinnable war” with Iran, arguing the conflict risks becoming another prolonged military engagement with no clear end.

Chevron and Exxon earnings soar as Trump threatens price interventions  —  Rise in profits comes amid increasing political scrutiny ahead of US midterm elections  —  ExxonMobil and Chevron reported second-quarter earnings worth a combined $26.5bn, as they cashed in on surging crude and petrol prices caused by Donald Trump's Iran war.

'It's beyond embarrassing': Ken Martin and the DNC have a 2028 problem, donors warn  —  Major Democratic donors are getting really anxious about 2028.  —  The Democratic National Committee has a massive cash deficit heading into November, and Chair Ken Martin is facing a growing onslaught …

Mandela Barnes ends Democratic campaign for Wisconsin governor  —  Mary Spicuzza Molly BeckMilwaukee Journal Sentinel  —  Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes has ended his campaign for governor.  —  The decision by Barnes came amid reporting by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel into allegations …

Divided Democrats face a moment of truth in Michigan  —  Democratic socialists look like they're about to rack up a stunning new victory: Their candidate in Michigan's Senate Democratic primary has the momentum heading into Tuesday's primary. … The Michigan primary brings the ideological clash to its biggest stage yet.

Critics Say Historic Sites Are Endangered by Trump-Aligned Panel's Plan  —  Proponents say the changes to the federal preservation rules are necessary, but critics argue they are alarming and would help expedite the president's redesign of Washington.  —  For decades, from the highway boom …

Pulte lingers as intel chief while senators say it's time for ‘the temp’ to move on  —  Bill Pulte may be out of a job, but he hasn't walked out the door.  —  The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Jay Clayton to be the new director of national intelligence (DNI), replacing Pulte in a role President Trump …

House Democrats Seek Answers on Faster Access to Trump's Posts  —  House Democrats are opening an inquiry into a plan by President Donald Trump's media company to offer faster access to posts on its social media platform to Wall Street firms in exchange for a fee.

The DSA has had unprecedented success.  It also has serious internal divisions.  —  Elections vs. revolution, pragmatism vs. purity, pro-AOC vs. anti — a journalist who knows DSA well walks us through them. … It's been quite a year for the Democratic Socialists of America.

Democrats Mobilize Over Fears Trump Will Deploy Troops to Polls  —  President Donald Trump hasn't ruled out deploying troops or federal agents to polling places in November.  Democrats are preparing for how to respond in case that happens.  —  Democratic lawmakers, wary of various potential disruptions …