Charlie Warzel: “Summer weekends in America are good for lots of things: baseball games, cookouts, farmers’ markets, sipping a bev next to a lake. Or, if you’re President Donald Trump: crashing out on social media in hopes of distracting the nation from nonstop coverage of his long friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.”

“Trump is an inveterate poster, known for his erratic style and late-night tirades. But over the weekend, as the world refused to move on from his administration’s bizarre handling of the Epstein files—which has led segments of his base to completely melt down—Trump went on a posting spree that was alarming, even by his own standards.”

Fast Company: “What happens when you spend decades seeding salacious stories about evil lurking in the halls of power, demanding evidence to prove basic truths, and questioning the veracity of that evidence once it’s presented?”

“Donald Trump is finding out.”

“Over the last week, the president has been trying to fight his way out of a web of his own creation, as some of his truest followers in MAGA world call for the full release of the government’s investigative files concerning convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The outcry from Trump acolytes comes after the Department of Justice published a two-page memo earlier this month, stating that Epstein’s supposed “client list,” which Attorney General Pam Bondi previously said was on her desk, didn’t actually exist.”

A new YouGov poll finds President Trump’s net approval with young people at -40, down from roughly even at the start of his term.

“President Trump, in terms of raw accomplishments, crushed his first six months in historic ways. Massive tax cuts. Record-low border crossings. Surging tariff revenue. Stunning air strikes in Iran. Modest inflation,” Axios reports.

“Yet poll after poll suggests most Americans aren’t impressed. In fact, they seem tired of all the winning.”

“Trump appears to be losing by winning. The more he does (including issues beyond his legislative wins), the more the general public, especially independents, shrug — or recoil.”

 “This paradox is unfolding in what could be the very best chapter of his presidency, before tariffs push prices higher or midterms pose risks to his GOP majorities. And it’s being aggravated by the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, which has exposed rare cracks in Trump’s decade-old MAGA movement.”

At a reception with members of Congress last night, President Trump claimed that the festering scandal regarding the Epstein files had actually made his poll numbers improve, Mediaite reports.

Said Trump: “I have the best numbers I’ve ever had. You know, it’s amazing, I watch people on television, ‘Well, what about Donald Trump’s polling numbers?’ Yeah, they’re the best numbers I’ve ever had.”

He added: “And with this made-up hoax that they’re talking about, my numbers have gone up four and five points. They want to do anything to get us off the subject of making America great again, and we’re not gonna put up with it.”

“The leadership of the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey was thrown into confusion on Tuesday as top Justice Department officials pushed back after federal judges in the state moved to appoint a new U.S. attorney,” the New York Times reports.

“The panel of federal judges rejected Alina Habba’s bid to stay in the job as the state’s U.S. attorney. Instead, they invoked a rarely used power to select a candidate of their own, Desiree Leigh Grace, an experienced prosecutor whom Ms. Habba had named as her first assistant soon after she took over as interim U.S. attorney in March.”

“But the attorney general, Pam Bondi, responded Tuesday evening with a social media post defending Ms. Habba and saying that the first assistant — Ms. Grace — ‘has just been removed.’”

Playbook: “It has the makings of the next big Trump legal fight over the judiciary, even though the place of courts in filling U.S. attorney roles until Senate confirmation has been upheld by Congress before.”