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THE BIG PICTURE
Trump's Iran "war" is now a comedy of contradictions — he threatened a ground invasion, launched a second day of airstrikes, and then announced a peace deal that neither Iran nor Israel has heard anything about, all within 24 hours.
Back home, JD Vance is getting thrown to the wolves over his Situation Room meetings on the Epstein Files. Democrats handed Trump a genuine legislative humiliation, while a federal judge acquitted Brad Lander and the "8647" resistance showed up on the National Mall on his birthday.
The walls are closing in from every direction — foreign policy, domestic corruption, and a base that's starting to ask out loud: what are we even doing here?
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS
1. Vance held secret Epstein meetings. Now Democrats want him under oath.
The White House is in full damage control after a major New York Times investigation revealed that JD Vance held a series of secret meetings in the Situation Room last year specifically to figure out how to shield Trump from Epstein fallout. House Oversight Democrats are now demanding Vance testify — and separately calling for his top advisers to answer questions about what was discussed and with whom.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal — not exactly a progressive outlet — eviscerated Trump's $10 billion defamation suit against the Epstein birthday book as "woefully" weak and legally sloppy. The administration's Epstein strategy appears to be: nominate the guy who buried the files to run intelligence, and hope nobody notices.
2. Iran: The War That Isn't, Isn't Over, Is On, Is Off
In the last 48 hours, Trump threatened to strike Iran "VERY HARD," launched a second day of airstrikes, watched Iran fire back at Gulf States, announced a "great settlement" that no one had agreed to, then canceled the strikes he had just launched.
Iran said the deal was nonsense. Israel said the same. A former Defense Department official told The New Republic that Trump "seems so stuck" — and Trump's own adviser was visibly cringing on camera.
Even Fox News ran a montage of all the times Trump promised a deal that never came.
Meanwhile, the State Department is reportedly investigating how to deport one of the most prominent American critics of the Iran war — which tells you everything about how this administration handles dissent.
This is not foreign policy. A complete and utter moron has the nuclear codes.
3. Democrats kill Trump's FISA spy powers in a rare, unified act of leverage
Democrats blocked the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — the sweeping warrantless surveillance law set to expire this weekend — in direct retaliation for Trump's installation of Bill Pulte, a MAGA influencer with no intelligence background, as acting Director of National Intelligence.
When Trump scrambled and nominated Jay Clayton — the U.S. Attorney who helped Pam Bondi bury the Epstein files — as a replacement, Democrats weren't buying it. Mike Johnson raged. The surveillance apparatus expires anyway. For once, Democratic leverage actually came with consequences attached.
4. Brad Lander acquitted — and his arrest just became a campaign asset
A federal magistrate judge acquitted Democratic congressional candidate and former NYC Comptroller Brad Lander on Thursday on a misdemeanor obstruction charge that stemmed from his arrest at an immigration protest at a federal building last September.
Lander, who is running for New York's 12th Congressional District, had been arrested while standing with immigrants and advocates opposing ICE enforcement — and the Trump DOJ tried to make the charge stick. It didn't.
The acquittal doesn't just clear his record; it validates the tactic and turns the arrest into a credential. In a primary field where voters are asking which Democrats actually showed up, Lander now has a federal judge's signature on his answer.
This is a direct rebuke of the DOJ's campaign to criminalize dissent — and it comes on the heels of reporting that DOJ prosecutors are increasingly functioning as Trump's personal legal team rather than officers of the court.
Also: someone mowed "8647" into the grass on the National Mall — visible in aerial photos — just before Trump's birthday celebration. Trump deployed the National Guard. The resistance is trolling with precision.
KEPT OUT OF YOUR FEED
What the algorithm buried:
We pulled the tape: Trump claimed he "never" promoted the idea of "no new wars" — so here’s a supercut of Trump saying it approximately a thousand times.
Trump saw a record number of specialists at his latest medical check-up. The number has not been disclosed. The fact that it's a record has.
Trump's 195-word social media meltdown demanding Congress "EXPEL THE BUM" was directed at Rep. Jamie Raskin, who has been a critic — which is apparently now grounds for removal.
Jon Stewart's prediction about life after MAGA: whoever you think inherits the movement, you're probably wrong.
The Pentagon was placed on lockdown Thursday after a hazmat team was called in — Pete Hegseth's building, so it was already a disaster zone conceptually.
Trump spent $14.2 million turning the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool "beautiful" — workers were already scraping algae off the bottom days after it opened.
Solar energy generated more US electricity than coal for the first time in May — 12.8% of the grid — while Trump was busy subsidizing coal.
Marjorie Taylor Greene blamed Trump's communications team for a "disastrous blunder," telling CNN's Kaitlan Collins his staff isn't "doing him any favors." MTG, noted media strategist.
Foreign workers on a US Consulate construction project in Milan say they were paid less than $2 an hour after being promised fair wages — on a $350 million American government contract.
CBS fired the 60 Minutes correspondent who was reporting on Francesca Albanese and Palestine. The network has not explained the timing.
The jilted exes of Don Jr. and his new wife apparently formed an alliance — a Wrigley's heir and a Trump ambassador walk into a revenge plot.
A blood cancer survivor on twice-monthly chemo may lose her Medicaid — because Dr. Oz's agency says "extreme exhaustion" might not count as sick enough.
Markwayne Mullin just called Zohran Mamdani a "radical socialist" — and NYPD officers aren't exactly rushing to agree with him.
Marco Rubio just signed a government deal that will personally enrich his boss
The White House UFC fight is costing $60 million and seven federal agencies — and a federal judge may still shut it down before the first punch.
The Trump phone that costs $499 is basically just a two-year-old Taiwanese phone in a gold costume — and NBC News has the X-ray to prove it.
The Daily Show has a theory about who actually wrote Melania's AI speech — and it tracks.
NOTICE POLLING
Yesteday we asked, If Trump dies while you’re asleep would you want to be woken up immediately to hear the news?
59% OF YOU SAID ABSOLUTELY — POP THE CHAMPAGNE.
41% OF YOU SAID NO — LET ME SLEEP:
“I would want to be woken up so I'm sure I'm not dreaming! I think if I could go back to sleep, I'd have a better peace of mind. I don't think JD would be any better but I don't think he would be as feared as demented Donnie. ”
- obitlinda1712
“I'd prefer to savor the news with my morning coffee - after a good nights sleep. ”
- capthonb3
“He has imposed on my life enough already.There’s all the time in the world to celebrate ”
- dickstangland
“Now, if his entire cabinet is dead too! I don’t want Vance assuming the role of President ”
- leilanisay
“What's gonna change in that moment? Nothing. Evil is in the heart of the few with the big bucks that are greedy and want more and more and give less and less, who pull the strings behind the stage known as the world.”
- fbgrimmett
“He'd be just as dead tomorrow and cleaning up his mess will take just as long.”
- callajr.jc
That’s it for today. We’ll see you tomorrow!
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