“William Paul, the son of Sen. Rand Paul, drunkenly hurled antisemitic insults at Republican Rep. Mike Lawler at a Capitol Hill bar and restaurant on Tuesday evening,” NOTUS reports.
Senators Cool on House GOP’s Reconciliation Plan
“Senate Republicans aren’t sold on their House counterparts’ dreams of passing yet another party-line bill this summer,” Politico reports.
“GOP senators are still trying to push through a narrowly targeted immigration enforcement bill — their second attempt at using the budget reconciliation process this Congress following last summer’s tax-cuts-focused megabill.”
“With that legislation still in flux, they aren’t showing much enthusiasm for the House GOP’s goal of passing a third reconciliation bill by late July — and several aren’t convinced a third bill happens at all.”
Trump Pushes IRS to Identify Undocumented Immigrants
“The Trump administration is leaning on the Internal Revenue Service to upend how undocumented immigrants can file their taxes, as officials discuss changes that could force people to tell the agency about their immigration status or disengage from the tax system entirely,” the New York Times reports.
Chinese Firms Plot Secret Arms Sales to Iran
New York Times: “The United States has gathered intelligence that Chinese companies and Iranian officials have discussed the arms transfers. It is not clear how many, if any, arms have been shipped or to what degree Chinese officials have approved the sales.”
“The new disclosure is likely to intensify pressure on President Trump to raise the issue while he is in Beijing this week. But whether Mr. Trump will remains a question.”
Florida Defends New Congressional Map
“Florida is pushing back against assertions that the state’s new congressional map was drawn to help Republicans, arguing in a new legal filing that other states such as Virginia and Illinois have engaged in much more blatant partisan gerrymandering,” Politico reports.
Eric Trump Hops Along on the Plane to China
New York Times: “When President Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, his delegation included a trio of top cabinet officials, more than a dozen corporate executives — and his middle son, Eric Trump.”
“While he is not a member of his father’s administration — nor the head of a corporate behemoth with business in China — Eric Trump does lead the Trump family business. And the company, known as the Trump Organization, has flirted with Chinese business deals over the years, raising the question of whether his presence could blur the lines between government business and private enterprise.”
Trump’s Counterterrorism Strategy Is a Dangerous Joke
Tom Nichols: “Last week, the Trump administration released the official 2026 United States Counterterrorism Strategy. The document is a mess, replete with typos, hyperbolic assertions, and an obsession with former President Joe Biden.”
“The bigger problem, however, is that it’s not an actual strategy. It’s more a long set of notes for a campaign speech, a repackaging of President Trump’s various preoccupations and prejudices that frames everything the administration doesn’t like as ‘terrorism’ and any actions it has already taken as ‘counterterrorism.’”
Strong No More
Dan Pfeiffer: “Nothing sums up Trump’s political problems like a recent TIPP poll: only 38% of voters — and 30% of independents — describe his leadership as strong. A plurality, 45%, now call it weak. Among independents, it’s 48%.”
“The candidate whose brand was strength is now seen as weak.”
The Apotheosis of Willful Ignorance
Paul Krugman: “The so-called experts ridiculed Donald Trump’s claims during the 2024 campaign that he would bring grocery prices down on Day One and cut energy prices in half.”
“The so-called experts said that Trump’s tariffs would raise consumer prices while failing to bring back manufacturing jobs.”
“The so-called experts said that Trump appointee Pete Hegseth’s emphasis on ‘warrior ethos’ rather than competence and his purge of officers he doesn’t consider sufficiently loyal to Trump would degrade the U.S. military and be disastrous in a war.”
“The so-called experts warned that Trump’s attack on Iran would lead us into a quagmire and cause a global energy crisis.”
“The so-called experts said that Trump’s contempt for international agreements and his threats to friendly nations would undermine the world’s trust in America, and that we would find ourselves without allies when we needed their help.”
“The so-called experts were completely right.”
RFK Jr. Spokesman Resigns in Protest
New York Times: “The chief spokesman for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. resigned on Wednesday in protest over the administration’s push to allow major tobacco companies to begin selling flavored vapes that appeal to children.”
“His departure came one day after the head of the Food and Drug Administration quit for the same reason.”
The True Cost of War
“The Iran war is ripping across the US economy at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars in lost output, as soaring fuel prices, rising borrowing costs and supply chain snags erode Americans’ prosperity,” the Financial Times reports.
“While early estimates by the Trump administration have put the direct price tag to US taxpayers at $29 billion, economists foresee a far larger toll once the full military bill and higher financing costs are considered.”
White House Explores 250 Pardons on July 4th
“White House officials are weighing a plan for President Trump to issue 250 pardons as a way to mark the celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday this summer,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The plan is still in preliminary discussions, but, if carried out, would expand Trump’s already wide use of the pardon power.”
Senate Defeats 7th Attempt to Limit Trump’s War Powers
“The Senate rejected another attempt by Democrats to limit President Trump’s ability to use military force against Iran on Wednesday, but one new Republican senator voted in favor of advancing the measure,” CBS News reports.
“A motion to discharge the resolution from committee failed by a vote of 49 to 50. GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted with most Democrats in favor of moving forward, while Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the sole Democrat to oppose.”
New York Times: “Ms. Murkowski was the latest Republican to flip in recent weeks; Ms. Collins, who had opposed similar resolutions since the war began in late February, switched her vote earlier this month and joined Democrats and Mr. Paul in support.”
Report Details ‘Systematic’ Sexual Violence by Hamas
“Hamas militants and their allies raped, assaulted and sexually tortured their victims during and after the October 7, 2023 terror attack on southern Israel ‘to maximize pain and suffering,’ a landmark new report has concluded,” CNN reports.
“The report presents the most comprehensive body of evidence yet of sexual and gender-based violence against women, men and children, which it describes as ‘systematic, widespread, and integral to’ the assault.”
China Views Trump’s America as an Empire in Decline
New York Times: “China increasingly casts itself not as a fading civilization trying to catch up to the West but as a superpower poised to surpass it. Chinese nationalists and state-linked commentators say they have Mr. Trump to thank. America under his rule, they say, validates Mr. Xi’s worldview centered on ‘the rise of the East and decline of the West.’”
“For decades, many Chinese viewed the United States with a mix of admiration, envy and resentment. America represented wealth, technological sophistication and institutional confidence. Even critics of Washington who reviled the American system often assumed that it worked.”
“Mr. Trump’s ascent and his volatile second term shattered that image.”
Exchange of the Day
Interior Secretary Doug Bergum was questioned at a House hearing by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA):
BURGUM: When the sun goes down, solar produces zero electricity.
HUFFMAN: I want to enter into the record this amazing new technology that apparently the secretary is unaware of — it’s a battery.
Inflation Is Wiping Out Wage Gains
Wall Street Journal: “For the first time in three years, inflation is outstripping growth in Americans’ paychecks.”
Trump Still Intends to Endorse in Texas Runoff
President Trump said he’ll “make a decision… maybe relatively soon,” on who he wants to endorse in the Republican runoff primary for Texas’s U.S. Senate seat, KXAN reports.
