“A Tennessee man pardoned by President Trump for taking part in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sentenced to life in prison for hatching a separate plot to assassinate the law enforcement officers who investigated his role in the riot,” the New York Times reports.
Xi Has Spent Decades Preparing for a Cold War
“In the U.S.-China conflict, President Trump is waging an economic assault. But Chinese leader Xi Jinping is fighting a Cold War,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Xi is entering trade negotiations with a grand strategy he has prepared for years—one that, according to policy advisers in Beijing, is inspired by his understanding of what the Soviet Union got wrong during the first Cold War.”
“Well aware of the U.S.’s continued economic and military superiority, the advisers say, Xi is seeking to avoid direct confrontation, while holding China’s ground in a protracted, all-encompassing competition.”
Now Republicans Have to Sell Trump’s Megabill to Voters
“Republicans had a hard time persuading some of their own lawmakers to support the party’s big tax-cutting and domestic-policy bill. They might have an even harder time selling it to the public,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Polls show that the bill is unpopular. Opposition outweighed support by more than 20 percentage points in recent Fox News and Quinnipiac University polls. Some Republican lawmakers facing tough races next year represent the most Medicaid-reliant districts. They will have to defend the big cuts in the bill to Medicaid, the health-insurance program for low-income and disabled people, as well as to rural hospitals and to nutrition assistance, once known as food stamps. Those cuts help fund tax cuts in the bill that President Trump called for during the 2024 campaign.”
Sam Altman Says He’s ‘Politically Homeless’
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he finds himself “politically homeless” as the Democratic party is no longer aligned with encouraging a “culture of innovation and entrepreneurship,” CNBC reports.
Said Altman: “I’d rather hear from candidates about how they are going to make everyone have the stuff billionaires have instead of how they are going to eliminate billionaires.”
He added: “We should encourage people to make tons of money and then also find ways to widely distribute wealth and share the compounding magic of capitalism. One doesn’t work without the other; you cannot raise the floor and not also raise the ceiling for very long.”
Trump to Sign Sweeping Domestic Policy Bill
President Trump will sign the Republicans’ sweeping domestic policy bill into law in a ceremony on Friday afternoon at 5 p.m. ET, the New York Times reports.
Axios: “The MAGA mega bill is more than just an indisputable victory for the president and the party he has remade in his image.”
“It’s also a stinging defeat for Democrats — but has given them fodder for the 2026 midterms.”
Trump’s Pardons Cost At Least $1.5 Billion
President Trump’s pardons and commutations have cost more than $100 million in fines owed to the federal government and another $1.5 billion in restitution to victims, Forbes reports.
Elon Musk Floats Third Party Strategy
Elon Musk floated a strategy for his hypothetical third political party:
“One way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts. Given the razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people.”
Majority Don’t Know Why We Declared Independence
A new Morning Consult poll finds 53% of Americans don’t know why the American colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence to separate from Britain on July 4, 1776.
One Big Unpopular Bill
G. Elliot Morris: “On average across pollsters and methods, 31% of Americans support the One Big Beautiful Bill, while 54% oppose it. That net rating of -23 is, to put it mildly, absolutely abysmal. That’s true in both absolute terms (having a majority against you with just a third in support is terrible!) and comparative terms.”
“According to data compiled by Georgetown’s Warshaw, the OBBBA is the second most unpopular piece of key legislation since 1990, and likely the most unpopular budget (I have to say ‘likely’ because we don’t have polls of every budget proposal) ever.”
“According to the polls, the only bill more unpopular than this year’s GOP budget bill is the 2017 Republican health care bill, which would have killed the funding mechanism for the Affordable Care Act, cut $800 billion from (basically eliminating) Medicaid, and slashed taxes on high earners.”
U.S. Expands Militarized Zones at the Border
Associated Press: “It’s part of a major shift that has thrust the military into border enforcement with Mexico like never before. The move places long stretches of the border under the supervision of nearby military bases, empowering U.S. troops to detain people who enter the country illegally and sidestep a law prohibiting military involvement in civilian law enforcement.”
“The militarization is being challenged in court, and has been criticized by civil rights advocates, humanitarian aid groups and outdoor enthusiasts who object to being blocked from public lands while troops have free rein.”
Democrats Are Weaponizing Trump’s Megabill
Politico: “Ad-makers have quickly prepped attack ads to air as soon as the holiday weekend is over, including in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. House Democrats are plotting to turn the August recess into the opening salvo of the midterms, including through town halls and organizing programs.”
“And Democrats see an opportunity to expand the battleground, going on offense into red areas across the country.”
Republicans Out of Touch with Their Base
Politico: “The Republican base now includes more working-class and low-income people, many of whom receive their health insurance through Medicaid.”
“But the traditional sentiment of many Republican lawmakers toward the social safety-net program — that it provides handouts on taxpayers’ dime — has largely remained the same.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“They called their own bluff. How many times have they done this? I mean, I’ve been in Congress for two years and five seconds, and they pulled the same stunt 19 times. … The influence of the Freedom Caucus is over.”
— Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), quoted by Politico.
Trump Wants to Help Ukraine with Air Defense
“President Trump told Ukrainian President Zelensky in a call on Friday that the U.S. wants to help Ukraine with air defense, due to escalating Russian attacks,” Axios reports.
The Senate Will Always Jam the House
Punchbowl News: “After the House just barely passed the initial version of reconciliation in May, Johnson pleaded with Thune publicly and privately to resist changing the bill too much, pointing to his razor-thin vote margin.”
“Sure, Thune ultimately acquiesced to the House’s SALT demands. But the South Dakota Republican made major adjustments to the structure of the Medicaid cuts, extracting an extra $200 billion. Thune happily noted to us this week that the Senate’s version was more conservative than the House’s, in his view.”
“Some of Thune’s own senators were upset about the Medicaid overhaul. When Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) warned Thune that this approach wouldn’t fly with the House, Thune responded confidently: The House will pass what we send them.”
“Thune was right. While it was a gamble, Thune made the calculation that with Trump pressuring them, House Republicans would pass the measure as is. They did.”
How Republicans Re-Engineered the Tax Code
New York Times: “The product of years of Republican effort, the American tax code now blends traditional supply-side economics with President Trump’s populist 2024 campaign promises.”
White House to Start Notifying Countries About Tariffs
“President Trump said early Friday morning that he is set to resume a set of tariffs that he initially imposed in April on dozens of countries, before pausing them for 90 days to negotiate individual deals,” the New York Times reports.
“Most of those deals have yet to materialize, and businesses in the United States have been left guessing what levies they would be expected to pay on virtually every imported product.”
“Some of them could be even steeper than originally announced, Mr. Trump said in brief remarks to reporters at Andrews Air Force Base upon returning from a rally in Iowa on Thursday.”
CNBC: Trump’s tariff deadline is looming for Europe.
How Trump Got His Bill Across the Finish Line
Wall Street Journal: “Trump’s vague promises and cajoling paid off when the House passed the legislation on Thursday afternoon, underscoring his iron grip on the Republican Party. Just two House Republicans and three GOP senators voted against the bill.”
“It was the latest instance in which threats of Republican dissent melted away in the face of Trump’s popularity inside the party.”
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