“The White House is scrutinizing layoff plans by federal agencies in an effort to limit further court challenges after the Supreme Court cleared the way for a sweeping downsizing of the government workforce,” Reuters reports.

“The White House Counsel’s Office and the Office of Personnel Management are coordinating with federal agencies to ensure their plans comply with the law… That includes meeting requirements set by Congress, such as rules for how layoffs must occur and the minimum number of staff an agency must retain.”

“Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday fired at least nine more Justice Department employees who worked for Special Counsel Jack Smith to investigate President Donald Trump’s retention of classified records and efforts to overturn the 2020 election,” Reuters reports.

CBS News “punctures Thomas Crooks’ secrecy to reveal the broadest portrait yet of the lonesome young student who tried to kill President Trump.”

“Two days after catastrophic floods roared through Central Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not answer nearly two-thirds of calls to its disaster assistance line,” the New York Times reports.

“The lack of responsiveness happened because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers.”

“The agency laid off the contractors on July 5 after their contracts expired and were not extended, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who has instituted a new requirement that she personally approve expenses over $100,000, did not renew the contracts until Thursday, five days after the contracts expired.”

President Trump was asked by a local Texas reporter about the government response to the deadly floods:

REPORTER: Several families we’ve heard from are obviously upset because they say that those warnings, those alerts, didn’t go out in time, and they also say that people could have been saved. What do you say to those families?

TRUMP: Well, I think everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances. This was, I guess as Kristi said, a one in 500, once-in-1,000-year event. And I just have admiration for the job that everybody did. There’s this admiration. Only a bad person would ask a question like that, to be honest with you. I don’t know who you are, but only a very evil person would ask a question like that.

Time: “As the ultimate symbol of Trump’s survival, the image encapsulates the central themes of his return to power: victimhood, strength, defiance.”

“But for the President and his allies, it also serves as a lodestar for his revolutionary and combative second-term agenda. A year later, the Butler shooting remains the defining moment for Trump and the Make America Great Again movement he leads. Pictures and illustrations of the scene on July 13, 2024, have since been sold on Christmas ornaments, car magnets, and t-shirts. They have graced the covers of books and magazines. And they have become a staple of the MAGA mythology.”

Said Steve Bannon: “The MAGA movement sees this very simply and powerfully: the hand of Divine Providence interceded on the plains of Butler. Trump was spared to do great things.”

“MAGA activist Laura Loomer has set her sights on ousting Attorney General Pam Bondi, as the White House fends off fury from the president’s base over its handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal case and death,” Politico reports.

“Loomer called on FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino to ask for Bondi’s public resignation Friday morning, writing on social media that Patel and Bongino had clashed with Bondi over the investigation.”