Happy Sunday and happy (possible) last day of life to Mitch McConnell!
Tomorrow is the deadline to call a special election for McConnell’s replacement, and he is still MIA — but that might actually be a good thing for Democrats.
We’ll get into why, plus:
Trump's reflecting pool lies just got exposed by his own Justice Department
Capital One says it closed 300+ Trump bank accounts over money-laundering concerns
Trump threatens two GOP senators over Todd Blanche — and dangles his $1.8 billion slush fund to do it
Progressive lumberjack Troy Jackson has 100 days to flip Maine's Senate seat — and Elon Musk is now getting involved
MTG and Tucker Carlson launch a MAGA splinter movement — from a hunting lodge in Maine
Trump is now selling early access to his own social media posts — for up to $100,000 a month
Oh, and we’re fully ignoring Trump’s latest BS on Iran since it will probably fall apart by the time we hit send.
Editor's Note: Welcome to everyone who joined us this week — glad to have you. Sundays are normally reserved for our paid members, but with so many new faces around, we're opening today's edition to everyone. If you enjoy the deeper dive, upgrade to paid and you'll get this every week!
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
1. Trump's reflecting pool lies just got exposed by his own Justice Department
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool saga ended the only way a Trump story can: with him publicly contradicting his own Justice Department.
After months of blaming unnamed "thugs" and "radical vandals" for the green-slime disaster at the $16 million renovation, prosecutors filed to drop charges against the lone suspect — Olympic canoeist David Hearn, 67 — and admitted the damage was caused by a botched contractor installation.
Trump's response was to go on Truth Social and announce he "disagrees 100%" with U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro — his own appointee — who made the admission.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum then posted that he "won't back down" on finding the vandals, which is a bold position to take when charges have been dropped against the one “vandal” and the real vandals have been officially identified as the contractors.
Even CNN's Scott Jennings — not exactly a reliable critic — said the administration "looks like a monkey having intimate relations with a football"… okay. Why do they still have that guy on?
2. Capital One says it closed 300+ Trump bank accounts over money-laundering concerns
Capital One quietly closed more than 300 bank accounts tied to the Trump Organization. Trump's company sued last year, claiming the bank did it for political reasons — punishing them over January 6 and "woke" corporate politics.
Now Capital One is fighting back with a striking defense: it says the accounts were actually closed after its anti-money-laundering team flagged concerning transaction patterns.
It's the first time a bank has formally tied money-laundering concerns to Trump's family business.
The bank isn't accusing Trump of any crime — just saying the closures followed a legitimate internal red-flag process, not political payback.
This is part of a bigger fight playing out across Wall Street. Trump has made "debanking" — the idea that banks cut off conservatives for political reasons — a signature grievance of his second term, signing an executive order against it and suing JPMorgan Chase on similar claims.
Sometimes the bank isn't out to get you. Sometimes you’re just breaking the law.
3. Trump threatens two GOP senators over Todd Blanche — and dangles a $1.8 billion slush fund to do it
The attorney general confirmation fight just got uglier.
Republican Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis are refusing to vote for Todd Blanche unless they get written assurance the Justice Department won't establish Trump's proposed $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund — a slush fund that Blanche himself said at a hearing two months ago was dead.
Trump's response was a 254-word Truth Social tirade threatening both senators and vowing to revive the fund anyway.
The fund, if established, would direct federal money to people Trump deems victims of political prosecution — which is to say, people Trump likes. The president is now openly using a billion-dollar government program as a hostage in a confirmation fight with members of his own party.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote on Blanche's nomination for Tuesday.
4. Progressive lumberjack Troy Jackson has 100 days to flip Maine's Senate seat
Maine Democrats have a new Senate nominee — and a brutal clock. Troy Jackson, a progressive lumberjack and former state lawmaker, won nearly all delegates at a hastily organized special convention after Graham Platner imploded under allegations of rape and abusive behavior in past relationships, which he denies.
Jackson now has fewer than 100 days to take on Susan Collins, who's survived every challenger in three decades in the Senate and won her last race by nine points.
Maine is one of four seats Democrats need to retake the Senate majority. The key voters: 2020 Biden-Collins ticket-splitters who've grown disillusioned with Collins since Trump's return.
“The movement represented in this room did not just begin two weeks ago,” Jackson said. “I’ve always known that your trust has to be earned.”
Right now he is leading in the only poll we could find — but Elon Musk just pledged to go all in to help her.
5. MTG and Tucker Carlson launch a MAGA splinter movement — from a hunting lodge in Maine
Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson announced they are formally done with Donald Trump.
Greene posted from what the Daily Beast describes as Carlson's "hunting lodge-like Maine home," alongside a photo of what appears to be the founding meeting of a new political movement, writing that Trump "betrayed us all" over his broken promise on foreign wars.
The group is framing itself as "America First for all Americans, right, left, and center.” Sure.
What it actually means: the Iran war has fractured MAGA badly enough that its most recognizable faces are now organizing against the president, with fewer than 100 days until midterms.
“There’s going to be a third party,” Tucker Carlson said, “and I’m going to do everything I can to bring that about.”
He apologized to his followers for backing Trump.
Whether Greene and Carlson can build anything real is an open question. Whether this bleeds Trump's base heading into November is not.
6. Trump is now selling early access to his own posts — for up to $100,000 a month
Truth Social's parent company, Trump Media and Technology Group, officially launched a subscription service giving paying customers faster, real-time access to Trump's posts — at prices reportedly reaching $100,000 per month.
The pitch is essentially: pay us and you'll know what the president is about to do before everyone else does.
Legal experts and watchdogs have called it straightforward corruption — a sitting president monetizing advance knowledge of his own statements to wealthy subscribers.
This is the same president who spent years claiming the stock market was being manipulated against him. He has now built the manipulation into a subscription tier.
KEPT OUT OF YOUR FEED
What the algorithm buried:
Andy Beshear may know what he’s doing regarding Mitch McConnell — here’s how Democrats can benefit from ‘Missing Mitch’
AOC says her own bill targeting sexual abusers and AI-generated deepfakes is being killed by Republicans because they don't like her
Savannah Guthrie is making a final desperate plea after it was revealed that her mother died shortly after being kidnapped
California raises its minimum wage to the highest in the nation — and Newsom makes sure Trump knows it
Trump's approval hits the lowest point of his presidency — and, surprise, he's lying about it
New polling shows Democrat James Talarico surging in Texas
A Fox News anchor actually complimented a Democratic Socialist candidate: Trump voters ‘like what you have to say’ — and here’s the full interview
America’s retirement nightmare has arrived
Andrew Tate's attorney issued a warning to Trump that there will be a "mysterious reckoning" if the president doesn't help the brothers fight their 59 rape and sex trafficking charges
Two climate activists dressed as detectives walked into Mitch McConnell's Senate office demanding to know where the senator is — and filmed the whole thing
Susan Collins responded to the McConnell health questions by asking everyone to extend him "some grace" — which is a thing you say about someone when you cannot say they are fine
ONE MORE THING
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We’ll see you tomorrow!
That’s it for this week — we’ll see you tomorrow!