[guest post by Dana]

Trump: "We're gonna declassify almost everything … I told [Bill Pulte], 'You can declassify whatever you want.'" pic.twitter.com/D3Qcnxqqzm

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 1, 2026

Bill Pulte is a personal friend of Donald Trump’s, and is the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. He has no national security experience, yet succeeded Tulsi Gabbard as the acting director of National Intelligence. And now, according to Trump, he has free rein in deciding what can be declassified. The president’s casual regard for America’s national security cannot be overstated. His cavalier attitude and directive should be of major concern to everyone on left and right side of the political aisle, to those in Congress, and to those focused on our nation’s security. But I suspect it won’t raise much of a red flag. Unfortunately, we are now seemingly numb to the administrative ignorance that rules our politics.

Anyway, I think it’s safe to say that anything that might implicate Trump will not be declassified. Including the Epstein files.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Of course they are:

[T]he White House is discussing a possible announcement of presidential pardons as a centerpiece of the nation’s semiquincentennial celebrations over the Fourth of July weekend, according to 14 people familiar with the conversations. The idea has been described as “250 pardons for 250 years,” an initiative that would put one of the most politically fraught constitutional powers at the forefront of the country’s birthday festivities.

Apparently, internal polling shows that this plan could benefit Trump.

Advocates for the plan say that it would both underscore the president’s singular authority and reinforce an image he has long sought to cultivate: “Trump the merciful,” as a person close to the White House described it to us recently. Meanwhile, the prospect of a mass pardon has set off an international frenzy of lobbying and dealmaking, in which even slight proximity to the president can be monetized.

If Trump approves the plan, a list of 250 names has already been compiled for him.

Additionally, let’s not forget that there is money to be made from executing the plan. A lot of money:

“It is general knowledge in our practice that for $2 million, you can have a pardon,” one prominent white-collar defense attorney told me. “The clients come to us and tell us, I’ve been told I need to go hire this specific person, and [then] I will get a pardon.” Liz Oyer, who was the Justice Department’s Pardon Attorney under Biden and during the initial months of Trump’s second term, wrote to us that “Donald Trump has turned the pardon process into the Hunger Games.” Leavitt told us that the president “finds it detestable that anyone would even attempt to profit off pardons.”

We spoke with multiple people loosely affiliated with the Trump administration who had been approached in recent weeks by lawyers seeking pardons for clients as part of any Independence Day announcement. These people said they were told that they would make millions if they would use their connections to help facilitate the conversations necessary for a pardon—despite, in many cases, having no prior legal or lobbying experience. Most said that $1 million to $2 million was the going rate, though they were aware of clients offering many times that for more challenging cases. . .

P.S. Consider that convicted pedophile and sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell could be on the “250 for 250” list. Certainly her legal team has been involved in lobbying the administration for a pardon. . .

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

A quick look at a few Supreme Court decisions from Monday:

The Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump a significant win Monday by allowing him to remove the leaders of once-independent federal agencies at will, toppling a 1935 precedent in the process that could reorder the way the government functions.

At the same time, the court made it far harder for this or future presidents to remove members of the Federal Reserve — blocking the Trump administration. . .from ending the tenure of Fed Governor Lisa Cook over contested allegations of mortgage fraud.

. . .Trump sought to fire critics within the government despite federal laws that protected them by requiring a president to show cause — such as malfeasance — before booting them from office.

Meanwhile, the court dealt Trump a personal defeat, *letting stand the verdict against him for sexually abusing and defaming former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll. By declining to hear Trump’s appeal, the court paved the way for Carroll to collect $5 million in damages.

In a separate ruling, the justices also allowed states to collect and count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, a decision that comes as Trump lobbies Congress to limit mail voting and pass a voter ID law.

*This is so good:

Carroll’s lawyer, Robbie Kaplan, characterized what the decision means like this: “Today’s Supreme Court decision affirms once and for all the jury’s unanimous verdict that President Donald J. Trump sexually assaulted and defamed E. Jean Carroll. His multiple efforts to appeal that verdict have all failed and today’s ruling ends his quest to avoid accountability for his actions.” That’s what it’s all about: Accountability. And it’s finally arrived on Trump’s doorstep.

You can find more details on the Court’s decisions at SCOTUSblog.

UPDATE:

Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship on constitutional grounds:

Children born to parents who are in the U.S. unlawfully or temporarily are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S., Roberts writes. “Under the Constitution, they are citizens at birth.”

The opinion is here.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Let me tell you what just got reported, because you will not believe it until you see it laid out.

The Trump administration cut a billion-dollar tungsten deal with Kazakhstan. Tungsten is the metal we need for missile warheads, fighter jets, and computer chips. Trump himself got…

— Mike Levin (@MikeLevin) June 28, 2026

From the report:

When Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met with Kazakhstan’s president at the St. Regis Hotel last September in New York, President Trump jumped in by phone as the men sealed a deal on a top priority for Washington.

During the call, Mr. Trump and his team won an agreement from the Kazakh leader to give a little-known American company access to one of the world’s largest untapped reserves of tungsten, a metal that the United States desperately needs for the production of missile warheads, fighter jets, computer chips and other critical goods.

Ahead of the deal, the Trump administration approved preliminary applications for as much as $1.6 billion in federal financing for the American company, now called Kaz Resources, which plans to break ground on the project in rural Kazakhstan.

It was not only Mr. Trump and Mr. Lutnick who saw an opportunity.

Their sons were soon doing business with partners in a deal that their fathers were negotiating, continuing a pattern of self-enrichment in the second Trump administration that has few precedents in American history.

I’m sure it’s only a happy coincidence that the sons of the president and his commerce secretary were part of the deal involving their fathers, right?

Anyway, here’s more of the report on this perfectly acceptable deal:

Within weeks of the St. Regis negotiations, investors with a firm called Dominari Securities, which is housed at Trump Tower in New York and partly owned by the president’s two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, joined with other partners to take a 20 percent stake in a corporate entity related to the Kazakhstan project.

Around the same time, Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment company controlled by Mr. Lutnick’s family and overseen by his sons Brandon and Kyle Lutnick, helped one of the lead investors working with Dominari on the Kazakh deal raise $210 million in new capital for a related entity. Such rounds of fund-raising typically net Cantor millions of dollars in fees.

Six days after the investment involving the Trump and Lutnick sons, the deal was signed. There was no public notice at the time.

This is not the first mining deal made tied to either the Lutnick family and/or Trump family. In fact, the NYT did the heavy lifting and identified 14 such deals:

One or both families have financial ties to at least 14 companies that are actively working with the federal government on critical mining deals, including the Kazakhstan project. . .

From Mike Levin’s explainer posted above the report, he reminds us:

The total federal funding flowing toward those (14) companies tops $8.9 billion.

This is your tax money.

It is supposed to secure our supply chains and protect our troops, not pad the portfolios of the President’s children and the Commerce Secretary’s children.

P.S. Crying “But Hunter Biden!” means nothing. Or any kind of “but,” for that matter.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

Supreme Court rules for Trump:

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority delivered President Donald Trump a pair of significant affirmations of his immigration policy Thursday, paving the way for the administration to effectively remove more than 1 million people from the US and keep many others from entering in the first place.

The decisions, both of which were written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito over scathing dissents from the court’s three liberals, will have a sweeping impact on asylum claims at the US border and on a program known as Temporary Protected Status, a form of humanitarian relief that allows beneficiaries to live and work in the country legally.

. . .

The court sided with Trump on Temporary Protected Status by essentially ruling that courts have no business deciding the issue in the first place. . .

In another 6-3 opinion authored by Alito, the court blessed the controversial asylum policy known as “metering.”

It enables federal agents stationed at the border to turn back asylum seekers before they ever step foot on US soil, frustrating their ability to be formally inspected by officials — the first step in a winding process that could eventually result in them being granted asylum.

Second news item

President Zelensky is holding the cards:

Russian air defenses intercepted 660 Ukrainian drones in a major nighttime attack on 12 Russian regions as well as the Russia-held Crimean peninsula, the Black Sea and the Azov Sea, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday.

It appeared to be one of the biggest drone attacks on Russia and the illegally annexed Crimea since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago. The previous biggest Ukrainian attack over the past year was 556 drones on May 17.

In an effort to turn the tables on Russia’s grinding war of attrition, Ukrainian long-range drones have for months been battering targets, including oil production and energy facilities, behind the front line and deep inside Russia. The campaign has choked Russian fuel supplies and military deliveries, stalling Russia’s efforts on the battlefield, Western officials and analysts say, and heaped pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Note :

The major attack came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that he had ordered “a 40-day influence operation,” believed to mean an escalation of attacks, aimed at “compelling (Russia) to end the war” after U.S. peace efforts over the past year yielded no breakthrough.

Meanwhile, even Trump, for the moment, is singing a different tune:

Q: Mr. President, you like winners. You think Zelenskyy is winning right now?

Trump: Well, no matter how you look at it, he's doing pretty well. He's holding his own. Look, you have to say he's courageous. He's got great equipment, but he's got great men. He's got fighters.

🤷‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/8K1Tn1kIEo

— Kate from Kharkiv (@BohuslavskaKate) June 24, 2026

Third news item

Texas pushing the envelope:

The Texas education board will vote Friday on a required reading list for more than 5 million public school students that includes Bible passages, widening conservative efforts to push Christian teachings in U.S. classrooms.

The proposal in Texas — which would mandate literary works such as Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” alongside parables from the New Testament — has been closely followed by education observers who say it appears to be the first of its kind in the nation.

If approved by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by Republicans, the reading list would take effect in 2030.

Texas, which educates roughly 1 in 10 of the nation’s public school students, has been at the forefront of a charge by conservatives to incorporate more religion into classrooms. The state already allows public schools to hire chaplains to counsel students, mandates the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms and has approved an optional Bible-infused curriculum.

Fourth news item

:

Massie: "I think it's ironic that we control the House, Senate, Supreme Court, and the White House, and we're yelling 'election fraud'? I mean, we won all the damn elections." pic.twitter.com/dynY1dbEjs

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 26, 2026

Fifth news item

Heh. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer group of human right abusers:

Iran’s head coach Amir Ghalenoei says he will not address “things that do not exist” as his team prepares to play Egypt in the Pride Match in Seattle.

Local organisers have designated the game as a Pride Match because it falls on the Friday before Pride Weekend, which celebrates diversity and the LGBTQ+ community.

Drag performances and Pride watch parties are planned across the city while rainbow flags – a symbol of LGBTQ+ pride, diversity, and social inclusion – will fly inside the stadium.
Despite complaints from Iran and Egypt, countries where homosexuality is illegal, the event will still take place.

Both teams say they are purely focused on football, with both coaches avoiding questions about gay pride at their news conferences before the match, which kicks off at 04:00 BST on Saturday.
“We are here to play football, not for other things,” Ghalenoei said. “As for things that are forbidden in our religion and do not exist, we do not want to talk about them. We only talk about the match, football and the beauty of the game.”

Have a great weekend.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

The stage was set for what should have been a bipartisan celebration as the housing bill was going to be signed. Instead, the president surprised everyone by canceling the event:

Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT

The housing bill included an institutional investment ban, as approximately 2% of available housing has been snapped up by Wall Street investors rather than families. Trump has been focused on pushing this specific part of the bill.

However, compared to the housing bill, Trump views the SAVE ACT of vital importance, while the housing package is of “minor importance”.

The SAVE ACT includes the following requirements:

A Valid ID Before Registering to Vote in a Federal Election
Proof of Citizenship
No Mail-in Ballots (Except for Illness, Disability, Military or Travel)

The SAVE America ACT will direct states to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls.

Anyway:

🚨BREAKING NEWS: Speaker MIKE JOHNSON said he will meet with President DONALD TRUMP tomorrow in a bid to figure out, well, everything.

Housing, SAVE, etc.

Floor is frozen bc of the save America act. June 24, 2026

We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

From Axios:

House Democrats were left stunned on Tuesday night after two of their colleagues — including the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus — lost primaries to left-wing challengers.

Why it matters: The New York primary results are poised to double the bloc of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in Congress, something that is not sitting well with some moderates.

The winning candidates had been endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdami.

Moderate Democrats were left stunned at the results:

“People who do not support the DSA wring their hands at cocktail parties, while the DSA is organizing,” Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), the co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, told Axios.

Another centrist House Democrat, speaking on the condition of anonymity to offer candid analysis, called the results an “earthquake” and a “huge defeat” for Democratic leadership.

“It was a tough night,” said Rep. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.), a close ally of leadership and the chair of the Queens County Democratic Party, told Axios.

Where does this leave the moderate, old-school Dems? Worried:

The centrist House Democrat who spoke anonymously predicted the sudden influx of democratic socialists will be a “migraine” for leadership come 2027.

“Calling it a headache is an understatement,” the lawmaker said.

“Holy sh*t,” said a second senior House Democrat. “Buckle up.”

Note: Sen. Bernie Sanders on last night’s socialist wins:

Together, we are creating a grassroots progressive movement that will defeat the Oligarchs.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

I know, I know. What’s new.

From the report:

In the coming weeks, the United States plans to provide a welcome gift to white South Africans entering the United States as refugees.

They will get an Android tablet, an American flag and copies of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. They will also receive a packet of literature that provides a sanitized, Trump-approved view of American and South African history, one that criticizes racial equity and civil rights laws and promotes claims of discrimination against white people.

The welcome bags include a report commissioned by Mr. Trump during his first term that downplays the role of slavery in the country’s founding, and a children’s book accusing South Africa’s government of “favoring the Black population.”

(Clearly the Trump administration, or I should say Trump, wishes there had been no civil rights movement in the United States. Unbelievable that he continues to say the quiet part out loud and no one bats an eye.)

Along with the above-mentioned items, as well as items from Prager U , there is also a personal letter from the Department of Health and Human Services, which states:

“The Trump administration understands America’s immigration system must put the U.S. citizen first, and only welcome in those who will assimilate into the American way of life and preserve our borders, language, culture, traditions and ideals,” Mr. Adams wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Times. “To welcome you to America and help you accustomate to our heritage, we have provided various educational resources to support your day-to-day life and expand your knowledge of American history and values.”

(Ironic, given that America’s aboriginal people faced a genocide by refugees who fled religious or political persecution by the British crown.)

Anyway, in January 2026, Trump placed a travel ban on 60 countries and a pause on refugees:

Countries with full restrictions and entry limitations: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burma (Myanmar), Burundi, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, and Yemen, as well as people with travel documents issued by the Palestinian Authority.

Countries with partial restrictions and entry limitations: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

(I guess it’s not as if any of these citizens are facing threats to their lives as are the white people from South Africa, eh?)

Bottom line: If you’re black or brown, too bad, so sad.

The South African government clarified the status of whites leaving their homeland:

[T]he government says they shouldn’t be classified as refugees fleeing persecution.

“The assertion that white Afrikaners, in particular, endure systemic persecution is entirely without foundation,” South African foreign ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said in a statement to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

—Dana

Guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

A win for Trump:

President Donald Trump’s administration can replace the slavery exhibits it removed in January from George Washington’s Philadelphia residence, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit unanimously agreed to toss out an injunction issued by a Philadelphia district court judge in February that ordered the National Park Service to restore interpretive panels telling the history of the nine individuals who were enslaved by Washington at the President’s House Site.

The city does not have a right to dictate the content of the panels, the court found.

The judges further found that the federal government’s proposed replacement panels, which historians say whitewash Washington’s role in slavery, “are full of historical context.”

Second news item

Business as usual :

Donald Trump’s administration has quietly redirected $352m in federal funds designated for the Secret Service toward the president’s controversial White House ballroom project, despite repeated promises by Trump that the construction would be financed by private donations

The funds were drawn from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Trump’s signature tax legislation passed last summer on Republican-only votes. The law stipulates the money may only be spent on Secret Service personnel, training facilities, technology and related costs, not construction.

About $340.8m of the funding was placed into an account labeled “Procurement, Construction, and Improvements” on 12 June, according to the office of management and budget (OMB) database. Another account labeled “Operations and Support” was also approved the same day, adding another $10.75m to the budget.

The move came after Congress explicitly refused to provide $1bn in funds for the “East Wing Modernization Project”, the Trump administration’s official name for a 90,000-sq-ft ballroom being built on the site of the White House’s demolished East Wing

Third news item

“She was begging for it”. . . Sure she was:

Italy’s foreign minister has cancelled a planned visit to the United States over comments President Donald Trump made about Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni earlier this week.

Trump told Italy’s La7 broadcaster that Meloni — ideologically one of Trump’s closest allies in Europe — had him “begged” for a photograph during the closely-watched G7 summit of world leaders between Monday and Wednesday.
“She wanted a picture with me so badly,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her.”

. . .

Meloni swiftly responded on social media, saying she was “stunned” and that Trump’s account was made up. “Neither I nor Italy ever beg,” she said.

Fourth news item

No joy for Trump in latest polling:

A third of Americans approve of the way President Donald Trump is handling the economy, a new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll finds, amounting to his lowest-ever approval rating on an issue long considered to be one of his strengths with voters.

Sixty percent of Americans overall disapprove of Trump’s economic approach. The 33% who approve mark the lowest since Marist began asking the question in 2019.

Fifth news item

On midlife and dementia:

The idea that dementia prevention may hinge on what people do in their mid-30s to their 60s is rapidly reshaping the field.

Scientists increasingly believe the disease is driven not only by changes in the aging brain, but also by years of metabolic stress, inflammation and vascular damage accumulating across the body. Many researchers now think the biological process that leads to dementia begins 15 to 20 years before the first memory problems emerge. By the time symptoms become noticeable, the disease likely will already be well established.

Neuroscientists now see midlife as a critical window when the brain becomes especially vulnerable to aging — but also more responsive to intervention.

The implications are profound: The ordinary habits of middle age may matter far more than scientists once realized, and cognitive decline may not be inevitable.

Read the whole thing.

Sixth news item

Marco Rubio’s not-very-good-week:

Vice President JD Vance has been on a whirlwind media tour all week, from co-hosting Fox News’ The Five (which is remarkable in and of itself), to tussling with the co-hosts of The View, to hitting the podcast circuit with the likes of Megyn Kelly. While Vance is out there pitching his new book, he’s also made himself the face of President Donald Trump’s Iran peace deal, which he said was signed electronically over the weekend.

As Vance emerges as the spokesman for the deal, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has raised eyebrows across the political world with his near-total absence. Rubio, who has taken on multiple roles in the administration, was central to the Iran negotiations up until the last week or so, in which Vance, Jared Kushner, and Steve Witkoff stepped in to rush to finalize an end to hostilities.

Axios reported on Monday that as Trump announced the “great settlement,” Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe were all skeptical, based on the latest intelligence, that Iran would be willing to make any actual concessions to end the war.

. . .

Rubio is certain to still get involved with pitching the deal, but it’s remarkable that Trump allowed him to remain silent as long as he did, given that Trump is keenly attuned to the media, which is already asking, “Where’s Marco?” Rubio was eventually seen glumly standing behind Trump during his G7 presser on Wednesday. Whatever Rubio may eventually say on the topic, his two-day silence has already achieved his goal: to let Vance become the face of the deal and keep his own fingerprints off of it.

Further examples of Rubio’s not-very-good-week:

We are all Marco Rubio. pic.twitter.com/AkCjExLRSj

— Vivid.🇮🇱 (@VividProwess) June 18, 2026

BREAKING: Donald Trump sends Secretary of State Marco Rubio out to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to prove that the water is "perfectly safe and beautiful and clean. Unlike what the fake news and Dumocrats are saying." pic.twitter.com/CLbPeAibh5

— PaulleyTicks (@PaulleyTicks) June 16, 2026

Have a great weekend.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Trump signed the Iran MOU today (at Versailles, amusingly).

What does it all mean? With comments like this, who knows:

Outrageous. Trump says Iran should be allowed to keep its ballistic missiles:

“If other countries have them, it’s a little bit unfair for them not to have some.” pic.twitter.com/zp5Vwxd3Na

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) June 17, 2026

And especially because Trump is already pushing back the mentioned 60-day timeline to iron out the details:

President Trump told reporters on Wednesday that the 60-day timeline to negotiate with Iran once the memorandum of understanding is formally signed is not a hard deadline to reach a final agreement with Tehran.

“No, I don’t. [It] could take longer,” Trump said in Paris when asked if 60 days marked a final deadline.

“I don’t view it as hard,” he continued. “Just as long as they’re behaving, I really don’t care that much.

Trump’s comments come after senior administration officials shared the full text of the memorandum with reporters. According to the document, the U.S. and Iran committed “to negotiating and achieving the final deal in a maximum 60 days extended with mutual consent.”

The president appeared to downplay the preliminary agreement earlier on Wednesday, saying it was not final.

“No, it’s not final. It’s a memorandum of understanding, and if I don’t like it, we’ll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs on their head,” he said.

Don’t be fooled:

Anyone who thinks there will be a final agreement in 60 days (or before the elections) is not too bright.

We’ll see a comprehensive health care or entitlement reform proposal first.

The fact that negotiations are still ongoing will be an issue in the 2028 presidential election.

— Patterico (@Patterico) June 18, 2026

Don’t be fooled because we all know:

In war and in peace, Trump’s loyalty is to Trump.

And don’t be fooled especially when there is a $300 billion fund involved.

PS: If only today’s Trump had listened to yesterday’s Trump:

What a rotten deal we made with Iran. We get nothing (except laughter at our stupidity). They get everything, including delay and big cash!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2013

—Dana