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Good morning and happy Friday! Trump's Iran war is now six months old, has drained missile stockpiles, spiked gas prices, and driven sailors to jump off aircraft carriers — and his own Republican senators are calling out JD Vance for lying to their faces about it. Here’s what’s on tap today:
Mamdani’s popularity hits record high — and Fox News is actually HELPING him
Pete Hegseth is lying to sailors' families
The CIA wasn't sure Iran threatened Trump — he got in the cart anyway
Luigi Mangione may be about to plead guilty
And: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was finally honest about something
BUT FIRST: Notice News is 100% independent — no billionaire owner, no algorithm deciding what you see. That only works because readers fund it directly. Become a paid subscriber to keep it that way.
1. Mamdani’s popularity hits record high: Fox News is actually HELPING him
Conservative media has spent months trying to turn Zohran Mamdani into a cautionary tale. Fox News attacked him over 3,600 times since winning the primary, mentioning him more than CNN and MS Now combined.
It's backfiring.
His favorability among NYC voters just hit its highest mark yet — including with plenty of Democrats who weren't sold on him a year ago. Part of it may be simple: New Yorkers are watching him actually deliver on what he promised, from affordability fights to just running the basics of the city competently.
Meanwhile, the nonstop national attacks keep giving him free airtime and turning him into a symbol instead of a mayor. We break down why Fox News's outrage machine may be doing more to build Mamdani's brand than tear it down.
This is our first big swing back into YouTube — go watch, subscribe, and tell us what you think.
2. Pete Hegseth is lying to sailors' families and locking Democrats out of the room where the lies happen
Democratic lawmakers are calling Pete Hegseth a liar — specifically, Sen. Ruben Gallego and Rep. Seth Moulton, who went on record Thursday accusing the Defense Secretary of "completely misrepresenting" the terrible conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Sailors on extended deployment near Iran have reportedly attempted to jump overboard amid shortages of basic supplies, moldy showers, and stretches without hot water. Hegseth's response was to call those reports a misrepresentation.
Separately, Hegseth has made at least two trips to Capitol Hill to pitch Trump's record $1.5 trillion military budget increase — and has excluded Democrats from both closed-door sessions, a move that even Republican senators warned could jeopardize the bill's passage. The man who can't keep sailors in clean water wants $1.5 trillion and doesn't want anyone asking questions about it.
3. The CIA wasn't sure Iran actually threatened Trump — the tip came from Israel and was rated "low confidence"
The CIA was skeptical of the intelligence that sent Trump hiding in a catering truck at a NATO summit in Turkey last month.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the threat reports were "Israeli-derived, not U.S.-generated, and viewed as low confidence" by American intelligence officials. Trump had been scheduled to fly home on the Boeing 747 gifted to him by Qatar, switched to an older Air Force One, then secretly transferred to a military aircraft via catering truck.
The administration has used the episode to justify the Iran war's continuation. The intelligence community, it turns out, wasn't even sure the threat was real.
Trump got in the cart anyway.
4. Trump's Iran war is six months old, costs $70 billion, and JD Vance told senators the ammunition concerns are "misdirection"
The White House is asking Congress for $70 billion to cover a war Trump said would last "a few weeks."
It has now entered its sixth month.
JD Vance dismissed Republican senators concerns about the depletion of U.S. missile stockpiles as "misdirection" — a word choice that at least one senator in the room found less than reassuring.
The war has also triggered a major spike in the cost of living: Fox News host Bret Baier grilled Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Thursday about rising gasoline, fuel, and electricity costs. The Republican was confronted with some embarrassing examples to prove a point. Even Fox is done carrying this particular bag.
5. Luigi Mangione may be about to plead guilty — and take a plea deal
Luigi Mangione is reportedly close to accepting a federal plea deal on stalking charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — a move that could unravel the state murder trial scheduled to start September 8.
The plea isn't finalized, and one senior DOJ official denied a deal exists. But if Mangione takes it, his legal team will argue New York's double jeopardy protections bar the state from trying him again — a "colorable argument," according to former NYC prosecutor Seth Zuckerman, though he cautioned "five people could read it and get five different opinions."
The federal murder charge was already dismissed by Judge Margaret Garnett earlier this year, taking capital punishment off the table after AG Pam Bondi had pushed for the death penalty. Two stalking charges remain. A plea could push the state trial back indefinitely — or kill it entirely.
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You’ve saved $1.5 million. Now comes the real test.
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The issue is not just how much you have. It is whether your portfolio was built to pay you, not just grow.
That difference can determine whether your money lasts decades or starts breaking down early.
Sequence of returns, taxes on withdrawals, healthcare costs, and whether the 4% rule still applies all play a role.
Fiduciary advisors created a breakdown showing what drives sustainable income and why the same $1.5M can produce very different outcomes.
If you have $1M or more invested, do not guess.
KEPT OUT OF YOUR FEED
What the algorithm buried:
It looks like White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was finally honest about something
Scott Jennings, CNN's resident Republican apologist, was cornered on live television by Kaitlan Collins about whether he's taking Leavitt's job
Abdul El-Sayed just put out what may be the greatest political ad ever
Jon Ossoff lists all the ways Trump's Iran war is a 'complete fiasco'
Mamdani is making childcare free for 22,000 families starting next month
Trump wants to defy another court order — to put his name back on the Kennedy Center
Trump's Republican approval rating has dropped to around 80 — down from 95 at the start of his second term
Ted Cruz posted that COVID vaccines cause an "82% miscarriage rate" (he’s wrong, obviously
Lauren Boebert's 21-year-old son Tyler has accepted a plea deal in a child abuse case
Nancy Mace says “liberal white women are a national security threat” in a ranting essay
A federal grand jury has indicted a Utah man on hate crime charges after he went around asking people their religion before stabbing a Muslim man
NOTICE POLLING
Yesterday we asked, Do you think Karoline Leavitt should be charged with lying to the American public?
98% OF YOU SAID YES - THROW AWAY THE KEY:
“Yes, and an additional charge of covering up a crime (aiding and abetting). She is as culpable as any of the others in the administration and the republican side of the aisle in both houses-and we mustn't forget about the SCOTUS criminals-lets get them all.”
- twoasps
“Karoline Leavitt has been serving up lies to the press and the public for over a year-and-a-half; she's not really a press secretary, she is Trump's propagandist! If there is a way to charge her with lying to the public, it should be done NOW!”
- a15anaya
“She's a shameless prevaricator! EVERY time she spoke, BS spewed everywhere. If we knew the statistics, she'd probably rank right up there with the Tangerine Teletubby on the frequency her trap flapped crap! She intentionally lied to, and mislead the public as a POLICY. That's not acceptable and should be punishable.”
- michaelhogshooter
“FDT 8647 AND HIS ENTIRE CLOWN CABINET AND CRIME FAMILY”
- hudson186
That’s all for today — thank you so much for reading. We will see you tomorrow. And if you know someone who might enjoy this newsletter, please share it with them!
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