Air Force Academy officials canceled an upcoming lecture by University of Utah professor Paisley Rekdal after discovering her online history of disparaging President Trump, the Denver Gazette reports.
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Exchange of the Day
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent got into a heated confrontation with Federal Housing Finance Agency chief Bill Pulte:
BESSENT: It’s either me or him. You tell me who’s getting the fuck out of here. Or, we could go outside.
PULTE: To do what? To talk?
BESSENT: No, I’m going to fucking beat your ass.
There’s a Deep Gender Divide Among Gen Z
NBC News Poll: “Among Gen Z overall, 64% disapprove of Trump’s job performance versus 36% who approve. But young men are more evenly split (53% disapprove, 47% approve) than young women (74% disapprove, 26% approve). The 21-point difference in Trump’s approval rating is unchanged from April.”
“That split continues when it comes to Trump’s handling of issues. On two issues — inflation and the cost of living, and trade and tariffs — young men approve of the president by about 20 points more than young women do. The biggest Gen Z gender split on the issues is on immigration, where 45% of young men approve of the way Trump is handling deportation and immigration, compared to just 21% of young women.”
How Democrats Pressured Lloyd Doggett to Step Aside
“When Republicans unveiled a new congressional map shrinking the number of Democratic districts in Texas, Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett was quick to announce he would run in the sole Austin-based district,” the Texas Tribune reports.
“Doggett, a formidable incumbent with three decades in Congress, was planting a flag with the hope that his Austin counterpart Rep. Greg Casar would stay in his current district despite its new boundaries favoring Republicans. But Doggett’s move unexpectedly set off a powerful coalition that worked publicly and privately to support the younger congressman.”
Bolsonaro Supporters Flood the Streets
“Thousands of Brazilians took to the streets on the nation’s Independence Day on Sunday in dueling political protests, opening a tense week that is expected to conclude with the conviction of former President Jair Bolsonaro,” the New York Times reports.
Milei Sticks to Plan After Landslide Defeat
“Argentina’s President Javier Milei vowed no changes to his free-market economic program after a resounding defeat on Sunday to the center-left Peronist opposition in the province of Buenos Aires,” Bloomberg reports.
“The Peronist opposition came in first in the provincial election, winning about 47% of the ballots compared with 34% for Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party, with 91% of votes counted.”
Trump Loses Appeal of $83.3 Million Defamation Verdict
“A federal appeals court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn a jury verdict ordering him to pay $83.3 million for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll,” CNBC reports.
New York Times: “The court also rejected Mr. Trump’s argument that the Supreme Court’s decision last year affording presidential immunity for official acts barred a finding of liability in Ms. Carroll’s lawsuit.”
Putin Bets Ukraine’s Army Will Break Before His Economy
“The war in Ukraine has become a contest between two hourglasses: one measuring how long Ukraine’s thinly stretched army can keep up the fight, and the other how long Russia’s economy can sustain the invasion without hurting the stability of Vladimir Putin’s regime,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The problem for President Trump’s push for peace is that Putin is betting Ukraine’s hourglass will run out first, allowing him to impose a victor’s terms and win a place in Russian history alongside conquering czars.”
“That is why the Russian president has for months sidestepped Trump’s proposals to freeze the fighting with a territorial compromise that the U.S. thought would be attractive for Moscow. Instead, the Kremlin is sticking to its maximalist demands, which would effectively make Ukraine its vassal and change the balance of power in Europe.”
Most Americans Still Favor Capitalism
Gallup: “Americans are more positive toward capitalism than socialism, but the 54% viewing capitalism favorably is down from 60% in 2021 and near that level in most prior years.”
Norway Heads to the Polls
“Norway goes to the polls on Monday after an unusually close-fought and polarized election dominated by the cost of living, wealth taxes, oil fund investment in Israel and relations with Donald Trump,” The Guardian reports.
“There has been a surge in support for the populist rightwing Progress party led by Sylvi Listhaug, in what has been described by some as ‘the Maga-fication’ of Norwegian politics.”
GOP Grapples with Internal Divide Over Obamacare Credits
“Republicans detest the idea of spending billions of dollars to shore up the Affordable Care Act. They are also realizing that the alternative could be a political disaster,” Semafor reports.
“With health insurance premiums projected to skyrocket at the end of the year thanks to the expiration of tax credits Democrats enacted during the pandemic, Republicans are likely to focus on paring back those federal subsidies. But allowing them to go away entirely at the end of this year heading into the midterms?”
Russia’s Largest Drone Attack Yet Hits Ukraine
“Russia struck Ukraine with the largest aerial bombardment of the 3½-year war, hitting a government building in the heart of the capital for the first time,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Russia fired 13 missiles and launched more than 800 attack drones, according to Ukraine’s air force, a record for the number of drones it has directed at Ukraine in a single night. Air defenses intercepted four of the missiles and nearly 500 drones.”
Japan’s Prime Minister to Resign
“Japan’s prime minister said he would resign, leaving his successor an inbox bulging with challenges including a relationship with the U.S. strained by tariffs and voter anger over sliding living standards,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The downfall of Shigeru Ishiba, who led Japan for less than a year before his party turned on him over a run of election defeats, is the latest installment in a global drama that has seen mainstream parties hemorrhage support to populist upstarts as voters seek new answers to problems including inflation, immigration and lackluster economic growth.”
Trump Asks Justices to Allow Him to Freeze Foreign Aid
“The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to allow it to freeze billions of dollars in foreign aid, potentially setting up the biggest test yet of the president’s bid to assert sweeping authority over federal spending,” the Washington Post reports.
“The emergency filing in the rapidly moving case comes after a federal appeals court upheld a preliminary injunction requiring Trump officials to spend the money for food, medicine and development assistance before it begins to expire at the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30.”
Democrats Don’t All Have to Sound Alike
Jill Lawrence: “‘Authenticity’ is an overused word in politics, and ‘diversity’ is under assault, but they are both underappreciated assets in the Democratic party.”
“Four Democrats in the news right now prove the worth of these concepts in the nonconceptual, hardball realm of aiming to win elections. They are as different from each other as the states and cities they call home.”
America’s Perón
Scott Linciome: “When the populist strongman Juan Perón ran Argentina’s economy from his presidential palace in the mid-20th century—personally deciding which companies received favors, which industries got nationalized or protected, and which businessmen profited from state largesse—economists warned that the experiment would end badly. They were right. Over decades of rule by Perón and his successors, a country that had once been among the world’s wealthiest nations devolved into a global laughingstock, with uncontrollable inflation, routine fiscal crises, rampant corruption, and crippling poverty. Peronism became a cautionary tale of how not to manage an economy.”
“President Donald Trump seems to have misunderstood the lesson. His second term has begun to follow the Peronist playbook of import substitution, emergency declarations, personal dealmaking, fiscal and monetary recklessness, and unprecedented government control over private enterprise. And, as with Argentina’s Peronism, much of U.S. economic policy making runs directly through the president himself.”
Trump-Linked Venture Fund Tops $1 Billion in Assets
“In the months following Donald Trump’s return to the White House, a little-known venture fund with ties to the Trump family quietly crossed a milestone: $1 billion in assets,” Reuters reports.
“The firm, 1789 Capital, was once a niche experiment that aimed to align equity investing with conservative political values.”
“This year, it has grown into a financial powerhouse following two strokes of fortune: Trump’s election in November and the addition of his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., as a 1789 partner that same month.”
