Trump says Kim Jong-un has responded to his overtures when asked about scaling back US drills with South Korea - live  —  Trump also claims he's ‘actually making it much safer’ for South Korea by scaling back joint military drills just days after North Korea test-fired ballistic missiles

More than Trump's ‘human binkie’  —  Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government, your guide to Donald Trump's unprecedented overhaul of the federal government — the key decisions, the critical characters and the power dynamics that are upending Washington and beyond.

White House Takes the Bait as Ossoff Targets Trump Aide Natalie Harp  —  The Trump administration is lashing out after Senator John Ossoff referenced Trump's mysteriously close relationship with his much younger assistant Natalie Harp.  —  Ossoff questioned the president's relationship with Harp, 34, at an Atlanta rally on Sunday.

‘Show How 3M Is 0% at Fault:’ Expert Witness Used ChatGPT to Write Report Defending Company in Deadly Explosion Lawsuit  —  ChatGPT prompts show how an expert witness report was created in a $61 million lawsuit over an explosion that killed three people.  —  An expert witness testifying …

Supreme Court asked to review Texas law requiring the Ten Commandments in public schools  —  Civil rights advocates on Monday said they asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Texas law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments, teeing up a case that could set a new national standard …

Trump approval falls to 33%, lowest of his presidency, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds  —  President Donald Trump's approval rating fell to the lowest level of his presidency with an overwhelming majority of Americans concerned the U.S. war with Iran will last a long time, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Monday.

We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books.  It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility … Amazon is buying massive quantities of books, scanning them for AI training data, and destroying them in the process.  —  A 404 Media investigation was able to reveal Amazon's book buying operation …

SCOOP: Trump's Iran War Has Burned Through Well Over 90% of Key Long-Range Missiles  —  Sources tell Zeteo the percentage of critical long-range missiles that the Trump administration has depleted in its failing war is in ‘at least the high nineties.’  —  However terribly you think the Iran war …

WATCH: WNBA Security Accused of Forcing Mom, Daughter to Cover XX-XY Shirts amid Transgender Debate  —  A mother and daughter said they were forced to cover up their XX-XY Athletics t-shirts on Sunday during a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) game at Atlanta's Gateway Center Arena …

Trump DOJ readies 1,000 election monitors for midterms  —  The Trump administration plans to deploy approximately 1,000 Department of Justice election monitors across the country in November, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said Monday.  —  In an interview on Bloomberg's Balance of Power …

Dems plan Oman war powers push after Trump threatens bombing … - “At this point we may just need to file war powers resolutions for the 192 other countries,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told Axios.  — The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

With Fear and Favor  —  Institutions don't have courage.  They have incentives.  —  Institutions don't have courage.  They have incentive structures.  When incentives line up just right, it is not uncommon for an institution to make a collective decision that almost no one inside it would have made alone.

FBI had evidence Swalwell got illegal donations from suspected Chinese spy, bombshell memos show  —  The newly declassified investigation files also show that the FBI had initially tried to recruit the infamous Fang Fang as a source that could share information on Chinese influence operations …

30-year Treasury yield tops 5.31%, the highest in 19 years  —  Treasury yields were higher on Monday as oil prices rose, with worries growing among investors about persistent inflation and government borrowing.  —  The 30-year Treasury yield, which is typically sensitive to geopolitical events …

Trump contradicts Vance, says nukes, not oil prices, No. 1 priority in Iran  —  Vance laid out a different order of priorities than Trump's stated mission.  —  President Donald Trump speaks at the David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y.

White House Reporters Find New Way to Bow to Trump  —  'IT'S HAPPENING'  —  The president already has an invitation to the 2027 White House Correspondents' Dinner.  —  Even after President Donald Trump secretly put White House reporters in grave danger, the White House Correspondents' Association …

Trump administration pauses contentious border construction in Texas' Big Bend National Park  —  The Trump administration says it is temporarily pausing construction of a controversial border construction project in the Big Bend National Park while the head of the agency tasked with building …

It Is Past Time for You to Quit Elon Musk's X … If you are still posting on X, you should stop today.  Quitting the site yesterday would have been better, but doing it today is better than doing it tomorrow.  —  The moral and political case for quitting X is so obvious that it scarcely bears repeating …

Trump Administration Moves to Restore Felons' Gun Rights  —  The Justice Department expects 330,000 people to apply to reclaim ability to own firearms under a new regulation  —  WASHINGTON—Attorney General Todd Blanche is launching a new process that allows individuals who lost their gun rights …

Trump Consults AI George Washington on Ballroom Design  —  Since Donald Trump flattened the East Wing last October, his justification for building a White House ballroom has evolved considerably.  Originally, the president suggested he needed a place to throw killer parties.

What's So Special about a Special Grand Jury?  —  A primer on how special grand juries work, what federal law actually permits them to do, and why this one might backfire.  —  annabower.bsky.social  —  Meet The Authors  —  The Justice Department has empaneled a special grand jury in Washington …

House Ethics investigating Rep. Jimmy Gomez over sexual misconduct allegations  —  The House Ethics Committee announced Monday that it is investigating Congressman Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) over allegations of sexual misconduct. … - The committee provided no further details about the allegations.