Political News

A cartoon by Mike Luckovich. Related | Probably nothing: Don Jr.-linked companies keep scoring federal contracts…

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The Trump administration plans on sending election monitors to 15 jurisdictions in six states—four of which are deep blue, with the remaining being swing states—for the remaining primary elections this summer.

Monitors will be placed in Arizona, Michigan, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Virginia. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division chief Harmeet Dhillon made the announcement in a video posted on social media Tuesday.

“The Department of Justice, like it has in Republican and Democrat administrations in the past, is sending election monitors to places where there have been problems with the integrity of elections,” Dhillon later said on the Joe Pags Show, a conservative radio show, before reading the list of states and the specific areas that would be watched.

“Boston, Maricopa, Fairfax County, Detroit, Ramsey, Prince William, Lansing, East Lansing,” Dhillon said. “Some of these jurisdictions are jurisdictions where I’ve got personal knowledge of there being problems in the past ... the more eyes on elections, in my opinion, the better.”

President Trump also proposed sending monitors to California last year and even took open requests and complaints at a tip line. California Governor Gavin Newsom moved against that decision this week by declaring ballot seizure to be a felony.

While Dhillon sold the move as business as usual, this move comes as the administration ramps up its baseless claims of widespread election fraud. Trump has been claiming election fraud for years (in cases where he loses), more recently pushing for a vote-by-mail ban and a voter ID requirement that even his own party can’t get behind.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear wants answers about what is going on with his state’s senior Republican senator, Mitch McConnell.

Beshear, a Democrat, wrote a letter to McConnell’s office Wednesday asking for an update on the former Senate majority leader’s health and well-being. McConnell has been in George Washington Hospital in Washington, D.C., for nearly a month amid unconfirmed reports that he is brain-dead.

“Over the last several weeks, Kentuckians have grown increasingly concerned about the health and well-being of Sen. McConnell. As Governor—and a fellow public official who understands the commitment we’ve made to the people we serve—I am requesting the Senator provide an update on his current health status,” Beshear said in a statement. “Allowing speculation to continue in the media is not fair to the Senator or to Kentuckians, and my hope is that this provides him the opportunity to share the information in a transparent manner, direct from the source. I wish him a safe and speedy recovery.”

McConnell’s office is dodging questions about his condition, and McConnell himself has not said anything publicly. Several Republicans claim to have spoken with the senator, without proof. An ambulance was called to McConnell’s Washington, D.C., home after he fell unconscious on June 14, and he has been in the hospital since then.

McConnell’s wife, former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, was visiting China at the time he was hospitalized but didn’t cut her trip short and remains in the country, saying in a statement that “the Senator’s health did not warrant an immediate return to the US.” While on her trip, she met with various Chinese leaders, including Vice President Han Zheng.

This has only increased confusion about McConnell’s condition, with conspiracy theorists even alleging some sort of nefarious involvement from China. Beshear’s statement and letter echo public concerns as to why McConnell’s condition is being kept secret and allowing rumors to fester.

Two days after a woman publicly accused him of rape, Graham Platner has yet to drop out as the Democratic nominee in Maine’s Senate race, in a reported effort to influence the selection of his successor. Politico reported on Tuesday that Platner wouldn’t drop out of the race unless he knew someone from “his progressive, anti-establishment wing of the party” would replace him.

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Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has sent letters to several states threatening to criminally prosecute election officials who fail to remove noncitizens from their voter rolls.

Secretaries of state were warned that the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division was authorized to prosecute criminal violations if election officials failed to properly maintain their Statewide Voter Registration Lists, or SVRLs, according to letters obtained by ProPublica.

“Any election officer, including the chief election officer of the state, who knowingly retains noncitizens on the state’s SVRL or facilitates noncitizens in receiving and casting ballots could be subject to criminal liability,” the letters stated.

The letters also warned that any “intentional act that is aimed at diluting the votes of citizens” could be considered conspiracy.

David Becker, a former prosecutor, told ProPublica that the administration’s threat was unprecedented. “It’s a rather transparent attempt at bullying and it’s kind of reflective of the panic that is being felt at the DOJ right now,” he said.

These letters follow the Trump administration’s monthslong campaign to sue states for their voter registration data, in order to target undocumented immigrants. Federal judges across the country have roundly rejected the administration’s efforts. Last month, a federal judge blocked the Department of Homeland Security from continuing to “haphazardly” create a database of millions of Americans it knew was “inaccurate” in order to purge noncitizens off voter rolls. Another federal judge blocked Trump’s executive order attempting to change election rules.

The issue of noncitizen voting remains small to nonexistent. In 2016, noncitizen votes accounted for just 0.0001 percent of the votes cast, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. If Republicans are really looking for election fraud, they might want to check on their own party members—or maybe their party’s leader.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte was asked about his lack of “self respect” after he sat idly by and let U.S. President Donald Trump make angry, incendiary statements about taking over Greenland, restarting his war on Iran, and cutting off trade with Spain.

“Mark, you sit next to Donald Trump in moments where he talks about conquering Greenland, talked about lashing out at allies like Spain, starting trade wars—things that [don’t] seem like the old Mark Rutte would approve of,” a Danish reporter asked Rutte shortly after his meeting with Trump Wednesday. “Does this have any affect on your self-respect when you sit next to him like that and say nothing?”

“You know, what I always do is acknowledge when praise is due, and I think we should praise Donald Trump for the fact that NATO is so much stronger,” Rutte replied, dodging the question. “Of course, it has to do with the Russian threat, it has to do with the war in Ukraine, but it very much also has to do with President Trump … trying to equalize spending between the U.S. and Europe. And it makes Europe stronger. It makes Europe more relevant for the United States as a partner.”

WOW -- Danish reporter *goes there* with Mark Rutte

"You sit next to Donald Trump at moments when he talks about conquering Greenland, talks about lashing out at allies like Spain -- things it doesn't seem like the old Mark Rutte would approve of. Does this have any affect on… pic.twitter.com/9XYisCYtF3

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 8, 2026

Apparently, the short answer is no—showing such deference to Trump while he makes threats against Greenland, lobbies against Spain, and again declares war on Iran has no impact on Rutte’s self respect. But it certainly has an impact on the world’s perception of him, as he uses flattery and submission to appease Trump rather than boldly defending what was once the Western world’s most important post–Cold War institution.

Donald Trump’s latest attempt to weasel his way out of paying E. Jean Carroll involved a bold-faced lie to a federal judge.

In a legal filing submitted Tuesday, Trump’s attorneys asked Judge Lewis Kaplan not to release some of the funds he owes to the beleaguered columnist on the basis that the president’s petition for a new hearing was still pending before the Supreme Court. The only hiccup: The Supreme Court had rejected Trump’s petition filing.

By Wednesday, though, the SCOTUS docket had been updated to reflect that the nation’s highest court was anticipating a corrected petition from the president’s team.

Carroll has a long and grim history with the president. Trump was found liable by a jury in May 2023 for having sexually abused her in the mid-1990s, for which she was awarded $5 million in damages.

Trump lost his defamation case against her the following January, when Kaplan ruled that Trump had continued to defame the advice columnist by denying the rape on the basis that she wasn’t his “type,” and by accusing her of making up the sexual assault allegations against him for the benefit of her book. A jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in that case.

But Carroll hasn’t yet seen a dime from either of her legal victories. In May, a federal appeals court allowed Trump to continue staving off his payments until the Supreme Court decided whether to pick up the case. The high court did so last week, rejecting Trump’s challenge and allowing the verdict to stand.

Late last month, Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan asked a judge to implement an expedited payment schedule for the sum that Trump owes Carroll (Kaplan is not related to the New York–based judge of the same name). She referred to a June 2023 filing in which both parties agreed that Carroll could collect if the Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

Kaplan added that, by this point, the $5 million sum had accrued an additional $779,783 in interest, raising Trump’s debt in the initial case to nearly $5.8 million.

“This is the end of the line,” Kaplan wrote in a June 30 filing. “It is time for him to pay Carroll.”

This story has been updated.

President Trump made two glaring mix-ups Wednesday while speaking to the press at a NATO summit in Turkey.

“We had 111 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan. They were shot at the aircraft carrier,” Trump said, inventing a new government and confusing Japan with Iran.

Trump: "We had 11 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan" pic.twitter.com/FUOFLVZiKh

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 8, 2026

A few minutes later, sitting alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and pointing to him directly, Trump asked reporters, “You have a question for President Putin, please?” The assembled press chuckled, and some tried to correct Trump, who then tried to spin his mistake by claiming that’s what he meant.

“Do you have a question for President Putin, not Zelenskiy, Putin?” Trump said, again pointing to the Ukrainian leader on his right. “What would you like to ask him, because I’m going to ask him that question.”

Trump repeatedly refers to Zelenskyy as "President Putin" pic.twitter.com/zbTzfMc5EI

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 8, 2026

These kinds of mistakes are becoming all too common with Trump. By now, it’s obvious to anyone who regularly watches the president that he’s experiencing some kind of cognitive decline. Zelenskiy brushed it off because he’s seen it before and can’t afford to even mildly antagonize Trump, as he needs the president’s support for U.S. military aid. For the rest of us, though, it raises the question of whether Trump has the mental acuity to be president, and how long the octogenarian can keep going on like this.

In Michigan’s Democratic race for U.S. Senate, state Senator Mallory McMorrow was caught in the middle of—and ultimately squeezed out by—centrist Haley Stevens and progressive populist Abdul El-Sayed. Now, with McMorrow having suspended her campaign on Sunday, Stevens and El-Sayed are both vying for her supporters ahead of the August 4 primary—a head-to-head contest that reflects the growing division between the party establishment and the left. “The battle for the Democratic Party that we see nationally has come to Michigan,” said David Dulio, a professor of political science at Oakland University.

So far, McMorrow has not endorsed either candidate for the seat. One Michigan political organizer shared a text conversation with The New Republic in which McMorrow confirmed she had no plans to endorse. Kelly Neumann, the former financial co-chair of McMorrow’s campaign, has the same impression. “I think she wants the people to make their own decision,” she said about McMorrow’s plans. “I think everybody knows in their heart where, where she would vote,” Neumann added. McMorrow didn’t respond to an inquiry.

“Whoever wins this primary on August 4th will have my full support,” McMorrow wrote in a statement on X announcing her withdrawal from the race.

El-Sayed, a former state public health official and TNR contributor in 2021–22, is running on a platform that includes Medicare for All and getting corporate PAC money out of politics. He’s picked up a number of progressive endorsements, including the likes of Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the United Auto Workers.

Stevens is backed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, and the EMILY’s List PAC, which endorses pro-choice women running for office. She’s focused on her legislative experience, having been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 2018.

In a debate between the two on Tuesday night, they pushed each other on the role of money in politics. El-Sayed asked Stevens about the money her campaign has received from AIPAC, while Stevens pushed El-Sayed to release his tax returns. The two also sparred over energy costs. Both bemoaned that Michiganders have experienced power outages and high utility bills, but El-Sayed pointed out that Stevens has received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Detroit Edison, the major utility company in southeastern Michigan; its PAC contributed $35,000 to Stevens’s campaigns for House, as well as $10,000 to a PAC associated with her.

In their closing statements, they made their priorities clear. El-Sayed hammered on his economic populist message. “We need to take on oligopolies and billionaires,” he said. “We need to guarantee health care through Medicare for All.” He invited people to join his campaign, saying, “It’s the many versus the money.” Stevens made the pitch that she’s the right candidate to take down Republican Senator Mike Rogers in the general election: “I am fed up and fired up. Let’s go beat Mike Rogers, send him back to Florida a second time, and make sure that Michigan shines at the lawmaking table.”

El-Sayed is hoping for a windfall of McMorrow supporters, writing on Sunday: “I welcome her supporters to our movement to stand up against money in politics, to put money back in pockets, and pass Medicare for All.”

In a statement, Stevens praised McMorrow but didn’t explicitly ask McMorrow’s supporters to join her campaign. “Anyone who raises their hand to serve the people of Michigan and puts forward thoughtful ideas for how they would lead earns my respect,” she wrote. Caitlin Legacki, a spokesperson for her campaign, told me, “Now that it’s a two-person race, we have a chance to really go out and consolidate Haley’s voters, which includes Mallory’s remaining supporters who we’re all working really hard to try and woo.”

Some Michiganders say that, anecdotally, McMorrow’s decision to drop out of the race has been a boon for El-Sayed. “We’re getting a lot of new Mallory people coming to the group,” said Wanda Hammoud, the board chair for One Fair Wage Action, about a pro-El-Sayed Facebook group she started. The group has over 21,000 members, and Hammoud said it jumped by 2,000 in just one day this week.

“I’ve been pretty much an establishment Democrat, quite honestly,” said Neumann. Despite that, she said, “right off the bat, I knew immediately when I received the news that [McMorrow] was going to suspend her campaign that I was going to go to Abdul El-Sayed. I just knew that’s where I had to go. I’m looking for change.”

El-Sayed has led in most polls since April. Most recently, a late-June Quantus Insights poll surveyed 433 likely voters and found 41 percent supporting El-Sayed, 36 percent supporting Stevens, 8 percent supporting McMorrow, and 16 percent undecided.

“If endorsements from this point pretty much break equally, the tie goes to Abdul, because he was already leading in the polls,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “He just needs to keep the dynamics the way they were.”

Since McMorrow dropped out, El-Sayed has received endorsements from Representative Analilia Mejia, Michigan state Senator Stephanie Chang, and Representative Maxwell Frost. On the day McMorrow left the race, Stevens received an endorsement from Attorney General Dana Nessel. Green expects more endorsements to come this week. He specifically has his eyes on Senator Elizabeth Warren, who endorsed McMorrow, and Jewish politicians like Andy Levin, who Green says could help draw Jewish voters to El-Sayed. Stevens, backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has called herself a “proud pro-Israel Democrat.” Meanwhile, El-Sayed is critical of Israel’s government and outspoken about the genocide in Gaza.

If Warren endorses El-Sayed, Green said, “that would be a very high-profile, newsworthy signifier that McMorrow world is going Abdul’s direction.”

U.S. passports featuring President Donald Trump’s miserable mug are available now, but only if you want to race to the passport office in Washington, D.C Yes, for those who have been waiting with barely controlled anticipation since April, when the news first dropped that you could have the privilege of Trump’s face glowering at you every time you traveled abroad, their time has come.

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Text under cartoon: Follow me on Bluesky or Mastodon…

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If Republicans are really looking for election fraud, they might want to check on their own party members.

In Massachusetts, the State Ballot Law Commission ruled last week to disqualify Republican candidates for lieutenant governor and attorney general from the state’s primary election after they submitted allegedly forged signatures to get their names on the ballot.

Adam Roof, executive director of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, had filed objections to the veracity of the signatures collected by the campaigns of Anne Manning Martin, who is running for lieutenant governor, and Michael Walsh, who is running for attorney general.

Candidates needed to gather 10,000 signatures to appear on the primary ballot. The commission invalidated 1,279 of Martin’s 10,692 signatures and 1,021 of Walsh’s 10,677 signatures.

In Martin’s case, signature gatherer Joe Bronske allegedly used a list of registered Republican voters to forge hundreds of signatures. The allegedly forged signatures were first noticed by another Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, who had also hired Bronske and found he’d collected signatures from deceased voters. When deposed by an attorney for Shawn Oliver, one of Martin’s opponents, Bronske repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment, suggesting he had “something to hide,” according to the ruling.

In Walsh’s case, a handwriting expert determined that many of the signatures from certain towns were “more likely than not written by the same person,” according to the commission’s ruling.

Thousands of miles away in Florida, five people, including three elected officials, have been charged in connection with a scheme to allegedly create and distribute a fake voter guide.

Ahead of the 2024 general election, residents in St. Johns County received flyers that listed the Republican Party’s “official 2024 membership-approved endorsements”—but included a very different list of candidates from the one the party actually supported.

St. Johns County Commissioners Sarah Arnold and Christian Whitehurst, St. Augustine Beach city commissioner and former Mayor Dylan Rumrell, and Jamie Lynn Johnson each face two misdemeanor counts for conspiracy and producing a false voter guide.

Brianna Jordan, Whitehurst’s campaign manager, was also charged with tampering with physical evidence. She allegedly tried to destroy the voter guides after the scheme was discovered.

It shouldn’t be all that surprising that the recent instances of alleged voter fraud are coming from the Republican Party, the same party that idolizes a county clerk found guilty of tampering with voting machines, celebrates a rule-skirting billionaire, and bows at the altar of an election denier and alleged fraudster.

The Great American State Fair seemed to attract dozens of attendees ahead of America’s 250-year Fourth of July celebration. Now, it’s attracting no one.

Meghan McCain, the daughter of late Arizona Senator John McCain, hosted the “Race 2 Win” quiz show at the sprawling semiquincentennial celebration Tuesday. But a picture of the game stage, as shared by McCain herself, illustrated that nobody had shown up to her event. Instead, McCain’s voice rang out to an empty field, speckled by just a few lonely chairs.

“So cool to host @2waytvapp new game show ‘Race 2 Win’ at The Great American State Fair today!” she wrote on X.

But even McCain couldn’t be bothered to show up to the event. The pundit’s image was broadcast onto large screens on the enormous stage while she remained in an assumedly climate-controlled room, speaking with participants over Zoom.

The event technicians overseeing the show couldn’t be bothered by its technicalities, either. Instead, they streamed McCain’s show as-is on the two vertical monitors that bordered the stage, mangling the image while cutting off the text of a trivia question about the building materials used to construct the Capitol dome due to the altered aspect ratio.

Practically every component of Donald Trump’s wildly expensive plan to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary has turned out to be a dud. The $15 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool failed to rid the iconic monument of algae; a multi-week lineup of music acts had to be cancelled after practically every artist pulled themselves from the program; and a fleet of buses carrying a contemporary retelling of American history have failed to make a splash in their journey across the country.

The Great American State Fair was supposed to be the centerpiece of the Trump administration’s America 250 celebration, yet even it is more of a potemkin village than a sincere homage.

The booths, which offered space for each state to represent its heritage and culture (pet a replica of a bison at the North Dakota pavilion, or walk away with a bag of chips from Maine), were ideologically pitted against the seismic presence of the federal government and Trump’s authoritarian expansion (banners featuring his grim face flank the event, while a small-scale replica of his proposed “Triumphal Arc” sits center stage).

The fair also suffered from power outages and dangerous technical failures that included large stage equipment falling behind dancers during rehearsal. But the extreme heat that consumed Washington over the weekend seemed to be the final blow to the expansive celebration: even the thin crowds that did appear to watch the world record-shattering fireworks display were forced to leave the area for several hours due to an unprecedented weather advisory.

President Trump went on a sprawling, rambling rant Wednesday at the NATO summit in Turkey, in which he called Iranian leadership “scum” and announced that the ceasefire was over, called for an end to all trade with Spain, threatened to colonize Greenland, and continued to attack NATO for not doing exactly what he tells it—all while NATO Secretary Mark Rutte heaped praise on him.

Here were the worst moments:

While you were sleeping, Trump had a complete meltdown at the NATO summit in Turkey, ranting and raving that "Spain is a wasted cause" led by "bad people," claiming "Greenland is a big problem for us" and the US should've kept it after World War 2, and adding that Iran is led by… pic.twitter.com/65RNL7Hphf

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 8, 2026On Iran

“We attacked, very powerfully last night, the very dangerous people from Iran. They’re sick. There’s something wrong with them. We said, ‘Go and do your funeral stuff,’ and instead of that, they start shooting rockets at ships,” Trump said. “So we hit them very hard last night, very hard. I would say 20 to one … I told them every time you hit, we hit.… They’re a bunch of scum. You want to know that? They’re scum. So we don’t like them, I don’t like them, and they’re evil people.”

Trump also called Iranian officer Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. strike in Trump’s first term, the “father of the roadside bomb.”

“He was an evil genius, but a bad guy, and he was the father of the roadside bomb. The roadside bomb is a bomb that goes on when you’re driving your little vehicle around, and it goes on, and you have no legs, no arms, and no face,” Trump said.

He was later asked about the status of the ceasefire, given both Iran and the U.S. had resumed aggression.

“It’s a very interesting question. To me? I think it’s over,” he replied. “They’re scum. You know what scum is? They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people, and they’re vicious, violent people. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.”

On Spain

The president attacked Spain for being “a terrible partner in NATO,” going as far as to demand the U.S. cease all future trade with the nation.

“Spain is a wasted cause. We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore. By the way,” he said. “Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. They don’t participate, they don’t pay. I don’t want anything to do with Spain. Cut off all trade with Spain, including visits.… Watch them, watch them come running back. Oh, they’ll come running back.

“We’ll see how hostile they remain when they call [me] up, and they, ‘Please, please, we want to trade with you, sir,’” Trump continued, using a high-pitched begging voice to mock Spain. “‘We want to trade with you, sir.’ They make so much money with us, and we’re going to see that they make a lot less. I want no business with them.”

On Greenland

Trump again took time to attack Greenland, one of his most constant targets for potential takeover in his second term.

“I’m not happy with NATO because of what they did with Greenland, and I’m not happy with NATO because of the fact that they didn’t want to help us with the number one state sponsor of terror; that’s Iran. They were unwilling to help us,” he said. “Greenland is very important for the United States, but it’s not important for Denmark. In fact, when Denmark was overrun by the Nazis in less than one day—Hitler beat them out in one day, took over—they asked us to take care of Greenland.

“In fact, we took Greenland, and then stupidly we gave it back. We shouldn’t have given it back to them, because we’re the ones that need it. We need it for protection of the world, not just the United States. And it’s very important. It doesn’t help Denmark, but it helps us, and it’s very important for us.”

This was a textbook crashout from a president who has done more damage to U.S. alliances than perhaps any other president this century. Focusing on his petty gripe with NATO payments, restarting the war with Iran, and rekindling rumors of annexing Greenland, all while sitting next to the NATO secretary general, is just a routine Wednesday for Trump.

For what it’s worth, Rutte did absolutely nothing to push back on any of Trump’s drivel, only chiming in to applaud him for keeping Israel, Europe, and “the region” (the Middle East) “safe” by downgrading Iran’s ballistic missile capabilites—even as that success is highly questionable.

A Trump administration official tried to take foreign policy into his own hands and caused turmoil within the State Department.

Axios reports that in two instances, Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau gave wrong information about U.S. policy to foreign countries over exiled Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado and her plans to return to the country.

Immediately following Venezuela’s June 24 earthquakes that killed over 3,500 people, Machado sought to return to the country to help with relief efforts, despite the fact that she doesn’t have a valid Venezuelan passport. Administration officials thought this was a bad idea, calling it “gross political opportunism” that could in fact hurt relief and recovery efforts.

Machado tried again by reaching out to Landau, suggesting that she could go back to Venezuela via Curaçao, a Caribbean island controlled by the Netherlands. Landau advocated Machado’s plan with the Netherlands’ ambassador to the U.S., Birgitta Tazelaar, without approval from Rubio. The Dutch signed off on the plan, giving Machado the necessary permission since she had no passport.

“This is U.S. policy, and it’s supported by Secretary Rubio,” Landau reportedly told Tazelaar. Machado planned to stay in U.S. Consul General Ramón Negrón’s residence in Curaçao.

On June 25, the next day, Tazelaar was confused because it seemed that the U.S. didn’t want Machado to go to Curaçao. She called the U.S. assistant secretary for the Western Hemisphere, Mike Kozak, who told her that the administration wasn’t helping Machado return to Venezuela. The Dutch then removed their permission while Machado was in the air, and her plane had to return to the U.S.

A shocked Machado quickly called Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who explained actual U.S. policy to her. Landau told Rubio that he had been misunderstood and didn’t explicitly say he supported Machado’s plans. But that wasn’t Landau’s only slip-up, according to Axios. He then reportedly told Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha in a text message exchange that the U.S. was making arrangements for Machado to return to Venezuela.

“I understand that your country will make arrangements so that this person can enter Venezuela,” Martínez-Acha texted at 9:21 p.m. June 26 to Landau, who replied, “Perfect description of our position.”

On June 28, Machado was in Panama and tried to fly to Venezuela on Copa Airlines from there, only to be rejected when U.S. and Venezuelan officials communicated their disapproval.

A source inside the State Department told Axios that “There’s a widespread belief that Landau went rogue, and the evidence supports that belief.” Another source said “Marco isn’t happy” with Landau.

Machado has gone out of her way to curry favor with President Trump, gifting him her Nobel Peace Prize after Trump arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January. But Trump hasn’t included her in his plans for the country, and even when she thought she was getting help, it was from a rogue official. Now, Landau is in trouble and Machado has nothing.

A MAGA Republican was met with loud boos at a town hall meeting as he attempted to defend President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

Speaking at a town hall Tuesday, Nebraska Representative Mike Flood flailed when asked what he would do to provide insurance benefits for people with disabilities.

“Well, under the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ we protected—” Flood started to answer, only to be drowned out by boos from the audience.

“We protected a system that if it had gone unchecked it would not have been long-term available for the people that are the most vulnerable,” Flood continued.

“We protected Medicaid in a bipartisan, commonsense way,” he added, as the audience’s jeers continued.

WATCH: Mike Flood gets drowned with boos for his Big Beautiful Bill vote and falsely claims "we protected Medicaid." #NE01 pic.twitter.com/NnhVCOhUyb

— American Bridge 21st Century (@American_Bridge) July 7, 2026

In reality, Trump’s behemoth budget bill will cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid funding over the next 10 years, causing hospitals to shutter and benefits to disappear, hurting all Americans—especially people with disabilities and the elderly.

This isn’t the first time Flood has downplayed his decision to support Trump’s move to gut Medicaid. Last year, he admitted that many rural hospitals would need to prepare to adopt “an emergency room model”—meaning they would be stripped of essential services and benefits.

Cuts to Medicaid will force rural hospitals, which already operate on razor-thin margins, to absorb skyrocketing rates of uncompensated care. The continued strain will force them to cut services and personnel, and eventually possibly close. More than 45 percent of rural hospitals in the United States operate with negative margins, and as a result of Flood’s vote, more than 300 rural hospitals are at risk of closing.

President Donald Trump didn’t know what “groceries” were until just a few years ago. Which makes sense, given that he’s almost certainly never set foot inside a grocery store. He even called the word “groceries” “such an old term.” Now he’s discovered another amazing concept: discounted sale prices. And because he’s Donald Trump, he assumes they’re about him. “Great news!

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The Iran deal is dead, according to the U.S. president.

Donald Trump bitterly referred to Iran’s leadership as “scum” during a NATO summit presser in Ankara, Turkey, on Wednesday, telling reporters that he believes peace negotiations—and the regional ceasefire—are “over.”

“I don’t want to deal with them anymore. They’re scum. Do you know what scum is?” Trump said. “They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people, and they’re vicious, violent people, and if they had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. I’ll speak to our negotiators, they’ll want to negotiate, they’re good people. Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, but they’ll have to come back to me. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them.

“They’re liars. We make a deal—if I make a deal with him, we have a deal, and it goes out and he talks,” Trump said, briefly gesturing to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “We make a deal, everyone’s agreed, no nuclear weapons. We make a deal. They go outside, talk to the press, they say we never even talked about it.

“There’s something wrong with them, they’re cuckoo,” he added.

Q: Is the ceasefire over? Is the MOU dead?

TRUMP: I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them anymore. They're scum. Do you know what scum is? They're led by sick people. They're vicious, violent people. They're liars. They're cuckoo pic.twitter.com/fGlomtlSrz

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 8, 2026

The White House and Tehran preemptively signed a drafted memorandum of understanding, or MOU, in June, initiating a 60-day negotiation process. The mutual willingness to draw up a peace plan spurred hopes that the violence and economic barricades could soon come to an end, but the two nations began exchanging strikes again this week.

U.S. Central Command confirmed on Tuesday that the military had “completed” a new round of strikes on Iran, hitting “over 80 targets with precision munitions” over a four-hour period. The strikes were “in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM said in a statement. Washington has also reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil sales.

In retaliation, Tehran said it had launched strikes on 85 U.S. military targets in Bahrain and Kuwait, reported Al Jazeera. Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the “aggressive attacks and gross violation” of the MOU.

The office added that Iran’s armed forces “will not hesitate in defending Iran’s territorial integrity, national sovereignty, and national security against U.S. military aggression in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter, and will target the source and origin of the aggression.”

Oil prices surged as a result, with the price of Brent crude—the international oil benchmark—rising more than 3 percent on Wednesday.

Trump, meanwhile, is planning to extend the violence.

“We’ll probably hit them hard again tonight,” he told reporters.

Ballot measures seeking to restrict transgender student-athletes’ participation in school sports will appear before voters in Arizona, Colorado and Washington state. By Brooke Migdon for The 19th Legislatures in left-leaning states have consistently rejected bills that would bar transgender student-athletes from participating in sports in line with their gender identity.

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This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

In brief remarks to reporters Monday at the White House, President Donald Trump noted that he was shocked to learn how much energy developing artificial intelligence requires and said his administration is now approving plans for energy facilities to power data centers in “a matter of weeks.” 

After first describing his investment accounts for children, Trump responded to a question on cryptocurrency and said Big Tech leaders racing to develop artificial intelligence have told him they need access to double the country’s existing energy capacity in order to advance technologies and outpace foreign competitors. 

Trump also said that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin had told him tech companies weren’t taking advantage of the administration’s promise to get fast approvals for private power plants supporting AI development. 

“An industry of the future should not be chained to dirty fuels of the past.” 

Trump said he then called Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and SpaceX’s Elon Musk to ask why they hadn’t submitted plans for power plants alongside their data center developments. 

“They thought we were kidding,” Trump said Monday. “They can’t believe it, that they’re approved in a period of a matter of weeks.” 

The White House did not immediately respond to questions about how the administration is approving power plant plans in a matter of weeks. 

While the administration has sought to waive environmental protections, expedite permits, and loosen construction rules for gas plants and data centers, there are a slew of state and local requirements both power plants and data centers must satisfy that even in the fastest permitting environments take months. 

Although Trump said it was his idea to allow tech companies to build their own “behind-the-meter” generating units on site to power data, it’s a mainstream practice to ensure they always have access to power. Dedicated power plants for data centers have only grown in popularity as companies race to get the facilities online. 

The president said tech companies can use whichever type of energy they want to use—he specifically mentioned only nuclear, oil and gas—except wind. “We don’t allow wind,” Trump said. “Wind is terrible, it just doesn’t work.” 

Trump has sought to end wind energy, the resource that generates a tenth of the electricity generated in the US, according to the US Energy Information Administration. 

The race to develop AI, which requires data centers to handle the energy-intensive computing, has resulted in plans for 74 new or expanded methane gas plants across the US, according to a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project, a national nonprofit founded more than 20 years ago by a former director of the EPA’s civil enforcement office.  

These proposed gas-fired plants, which would be dedicated to serving data centers, are expected to generate 143 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power the state of California nearly three times over, according to the report. 

Of those 74 gas plants, 32 are in Texas, 10 are in Ohio, and seven are in Pennsylvania. 

The power plants would also release nearly 662 million tons per year of greenhouse gas pollution, according to the report, which equals the emissions of Australia. This wave of power plants for data centers could also release air pollutants that contribute to smog and lung damage.

Data centers have become very unpopular, prompting some politicians to try and distance themselves from the industry.

Jen Duggan, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, said in a statement that “an industry of the future should not be chained to dirty fuels of the past.” 

“While data centers may be needed to accommodate shifts in technology, the public has a right to transparency and accountability, clean air, and common sense controls to protect water supplies, especially in areas already struggling with water shortages,” Duggan said. Data centers can use copious amounts of water to keep servers cool.

As the data center industry seeks rural parts of the US to roll out the supercomputer warehouses, and the fossil fuel power plants and generators accompanying them, the facilities have quickly become highly unpopular in communities across America. 

Some lawmakers have long been vocal with their concerns about data center construction. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation in March proposing a moratorium on all new data center construction until AI safeguards, including worker and environmental protections, are in place.

Other politicians, who have responded to protests from their constituents with the midterm elections approaching, are seeking to distance themselves from the industry. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, called for blocking new data center developments in rural parts of the state during a campaign stop in East Texas last week. It’s a step further than his recent calls for data centers to pay for their own infrastructure costs, reuse their water, add new power generation to the state’s independent electric grid and other measures aimed at limiting the impact on residential communities. 

The New York State Legislature passed a one-year moratorium in June on data center permits. If Gov. Kathy Hochul signs the bill, New York would become the first state to restrict data centers in such a way. But Hochul, a Democrat who is up for re-election this year, has said that she believes it should be left up to municipalities.

Monterey Park, California, and Ashville, Ohio, are among the US communities that have passed temporary bans or pauses on new data centers.

The Trump administration announced last month that it would not set nationwide environmental requirements or recommendations for the data center industry. 

While there are technologies and practices that reduce air pollution and water usage, states and communities know what works best for them, EPA chief Zeldin said at a Politico energy summit in June.

By not enforcing federal regulations, said Clara Vondrich, senior policy counsel with Public Citizen’s Climate Program, the EPA gave Big Tech the green light to build polluting power plants and water-intensive facilities without any environmental protection enforcement. 

“Big Tech executives have lobbied hard to ingratiate themselves into the Trump administration’s orbit,” Vondrich stated. “Zeldin made clear that their investment was money well spent.”