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What Trump’s refusal to sign the housing bill means to homebuyers and renters Trump’s showdown with Republican Sen. Cassidy: Inside the blow-up on Capitol Hill Federal judge bars Trump from implementing proof of citizenship requirement to vote Trump is frustrated gasoline prices don’t mirror oil’s decline. Experts say it’s not that simple White House seeks $87.6B from Congress for Iran war costs, US farmers and Ebola response FACT FOCUS: Netanyahu’s claims about Iran’s nuclear program run counter to public evidence New York sweep by Israel critics shines light on a fraught issue for Democrats Ex-chief of staff to former NYC Mayor Eric Adams charged with taking bribes Pentagon restores mandatory flu shots for all recruits as boot camp outbreak sickens nearly 300 Trump-endorsed de la Espriella declared winner of Colombia’s presidential runoff election Court filing reveals President Trump spoke to Live Nation CEO before antitrust case was settled Michigan Senate candidate accuses Trump of keeping Canada-US bridge closed to help donor IRS did better than expected in tax season after slashing staff, except on the phone, watchdog says

Senate Republicans reject war powers resolution after Trump berates them Senate Republicans held the late-night vote Wednesday to try to appease the president, after he harangued them face to face earlier in the day for allowing a vote to block his war in Iran on Tuesday. Read more. What to know: In the meeting, President Donald Trump exchanged particularly harsh words with Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, one of four Republicans who had voted with Democrats on the measure. Cassidy later changed his position after he received a White House briefing on the war. Trump also called off a scheduled signing ceremony on a bipartisan housing bill that GOP lawmakers were touting as an election-year achievement. Trump said he wouldn’t sign the legislation until they send him the SAVE America Act, his bill to require proof of citizenship for all voters. North Carolina GOP Sen. Thom Tillis said he doesn’t know why Trump is holding the housing bill “hostage” for the voting bill that “will never pass in this Congress.”

June 25, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. Two huge earthquakes shook Venezuela last night, crumpling buildings, killing at least 32 people and injuring 700 others. The full extent of the damage was not clear, but one of the quakes was the strongest to hit Venezuela in more than a century. Frantic rescue efforts are underway now. There’s more below. Before we get to it, though, I’d like to turn to my Morning colleague Evan Gorelick to tell you about the remodeling of Washington, D.C. President Trump during a tour of the White House ballroom construction project in May. Doug Mills/The New York Times Makeover money By Evan Gorelick Many of you have written in to ask about President Trump’s construction projects in Washington. Linda from Virginia wanted to know how the administration has been paying for them. Sheila from Connecticut wondered whether taxpayers were footing the bill. Details about these grand public undertakings have dribbled out rather un-grandly. The government’s finance wizards have revised and re-revised, and in some cases re-re-revised, their cost estimates. It’s all about as clear as the algae-clouded water in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The New York Times With no public accounting of the entire construction spree, a team of Times reporters — Luke Broadwater, Marco Hernandez, Junho Lee and Elena Shao — set out to produce one. They found that the Trump administration had mobilized at least $1.2 billion on no fewer than 18 major projects across the nation’s capital. Here’s everything we know, and everything we don’t, about their budgetary provenance. At the White House Jared Soares for The New York Times East Wing ballroom: $400 million from private donors, or maybe taxpayers. Since Trump razed the East Wing in October to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, the costs have piled up. Initially, the government said the project would run $200 million; now, its price tag has doubled. Trump first said that money would come from donors, and the White House even released a list of them. But officials refused to disclose how much each donor had actually contributed, and Republicans on Capitol Hill have offered up taxpayer money instead. Bunker and security center: $400 million from taxpayers. The president asked Senate Republicans to approve payment for security enhancements, including a “massive” military bunker beneath his planned ballroom. That money was later cut out of a spending bill, but the Trump administration has since transferred more than $350 million from the Secret Service budget to pay for some of the upgrades. The finances get even hazier for other ventures on Pennsylvania Avenue. Trump has renovated the Lincoln Bedroom, the Palm Room, the Oval Office and more, but he has not disclosed those costs. Around Washington Jared Soares for The New York Times Kennedy Center: $250 million from taxpayers. Trump secured funding from Congress to renovate the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, then slapped his own name on its facade before a judge ordered that it be removed. The president proposed shutting down the center for two years to complete his renovations, but the judge blocked that plan, too. Garden of American Heroes: At least $40 million from taxpayers and unclear sources. Trump wants to build reflecting pools, plazas, dining facilities and an amphitheater — alongside 250 life-size statues of notable Americans — at West Potomac Park. Congress has approved $40 million for the project, but the statues alone could cost that much, according to the administration’s estimates. It’s not clear where funding for the rest of the project would come from. Trump is also spending millions to remodel the Reflecting Pool (travails of which The Times has documented), the Lincoln Memorial and fountains around the city. Face value The aggregate cost of these projects is relatively small compared with, say, the country’s $31 trillion in debt or the $5 trillion we’ve already spent this fiscal year-to-date. Yet it commands an outsize share of our attention. This money is being used to remake some of the most photographed real estate in the country — owned, in a sense, by the American public. So seeing it change is a little like waking up to a surprise nose job; it’ll give you a jolt, for good or ill. The urge to remake the capital in one’s own image is ancient. Augustus, the first Roman emperor, is said to have boasted that he “found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.” To fund his works, he often drew from his own fortune and from the private pocketbooks of the city’s elites, so as not to drain the public treasury. Trump’s coffers are murkier. The White House declined to answer many of our reporters’ questions about funding for his projects, but suggested that taxpayer money would likely be used for most of them. Read more about the economics of his Washington makeover. (We’ve made this link free for Morning readers. There are other free links in today’s newsletter, too.) VENEZUELA EARTHQUAKES In Caracas, Venezuela. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times Two major earthquakes struck Venezuela last night, killing at least 32 people and injuring at least 700. But those numbers do not include the hardest-hit region, La Guaira, where dozens of buildings have collapsed. And at least two smaller earthquakes have been recorded since the large ones. Residents described scenes of terror and confusion as buildings shook and the power went out. “I’ve never felt something so strong,” said one woman from San Felipe, near the earthquake’s epicenter. She told The Times it lasted for more than a minute and that the back part of her house fell in. President Delcy Rodríguez declared a state of emergency. You can follow updates here. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Trump abruptly canceled plans to sign a bipartisan housing bill and instead demanded that Republicans pass his voting-restrictions bill. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth forced Gen. Christopher Donahue, the top U.S. Army commander in Europe, to retire. The general had been seen as one of the Army’s rising stars. Bill Pulte, the acting director of national intelligence, has begun cutting staff days into his new role. But this initial round may be smaller than some expected. A federal judge ordered the Justice Department to stop seeking medical records of transgender young people who received medical care at New York City hospitals. Around the World The New York Times The civil war in Myanmar has raged for five years. Hannah Beech traveled to the center of the armed resistance movement and met rebel fighters who were outgunned and undermanned. Watch her video above. As many as 212 people may have died in Spain during the current heat wave. Proximity to the rapidly melting Arctic is one reason Europe is warming faster than the rest of the world. North Korea deployed its first naval destroyer, the country’s largest warship ever. Other Big Stories Gregory Shamus/Getty Images After weeks of speculation over Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding plans, clues suggest that it might be at Madison Square Garden over the July 4 weekend. Camp Mystic, where 28 people died in catastrophic floods last year in Texas, filed for bankruptcy. OPINIONS Thomas Prior for The New York Times For 250 years, America has been a restless improvisation — a nation reshaped by immigration, war and economic and cultural upheavals. Times Opinion writers each picked a piece of this complicated history that represents the best of what this country can be, including: Nicholas Kristof on our public lands. Tressie McMillan Cottom on our libraries. Ross Douthat on our sports. M. Gessen on our righteous anger. John McWhorter on our musical theater. Read all of those, and more, here. Subscribers always win. Here’s why. You can now save 75% on your first year of a New York Times Games subscription. Discover all of our word and logic games (and play past puzzles), earn badges for your achievements, plus more. Time is running out though, so subscribe today. MORNING READS Oksana Parafeniuk for The New York Times Rebuilding: Ukrainians who have lost limbs as a result of the war with Russia are finding meaning and community by challenging their bodies. Insider out: Dianna Russini was a star reporter for The Athletic who had worked her way into the hypermasculine world of N.F.L. sources and scoop artists. Then she became the story. (This link is free). Prime Day, continued: Amazon’s sales are still on. Wirecutter has guides to deals on travel gear, kitchen equipment, summer fashion and more. Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about the cheeseburgers at the Obama Presidential Center. TODAY’S NUMBER 20 million — That’s approximately how many honeybees were released on a rural Texas road when a truck flipped over. About a dozen local beekeepers came together to save about 400 colonies of the bees. WORLD CUP Mexico came out of the group stage with a perfect record after a 3-0 win over the Czech Republic. South Africa made it to the knockout stage for the first time with a surprise 1-0 win over South Korea. The U.S. coach, Mauricio Pochettino, says he is playing it (mostly) safe for tonight’s game against Turkey. Chris Richards, Antonee Robinson, Tyler Adams and Folarin Balogun, all on yellow cards, will not play. You can follow your team’s path to the finals here. RECIPE OF THE DAY Linda Xiao for The New York Times Pantry cooking at its most colorful: harissa chickpeas with turmeric rice. Just toast your rice with butter, turmeric and garlic, and then simmer it in broth until it’s done. While it burbles, roast your chickpeas in olive oil spiked with a harissa spice blend — homemade or store-bought. Get some spinach in there at the end to wilt, and brighten everything up with a squeeze of lemon. VISIONS OF AMERICA Illustration by Tim McDonagh For America’s 250th birthday, The New York Times Magazine asked seven leading historians to profile a founding-era American whose story has rarely been told. Kathleen DuVal, a Pulitzer Prize-winning professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, highlighted the life of Mercy Otis Warren, a patriot housewife in Massachusetts who in 1772 wrote an anti-tyrannical play that was published anonymously in a local newspaper. It was a hit, captivating readers “by elevating their personal grievances with British rule by using classical tropes and symbolic language,” and it inspired other plays and writings as the new nation began to build itself. Alexander Hamilton would later write to Warren, “In the career of dramatic composition at least, female genius in the United States has outstripped the Male.” Read more about Warren, and six other founding Americans, here. It’s a free link. More on culture The fifth and final season of “The Bear” arrives in full on Hulu tonight. Here’s what to know before service. Monica Datta’s “Nebraska” is a continent-spanning novel about a mother who kills her youngest child, as told by a highly idiosyncratic psychoanalyst. Our reviewer calls it “electrifying” — and scary. Late night hosts had thoughts about the Great American State Fair. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Pablo Delcan Listen to “The Last 12 Weeks,” a five-part podcast series from Serial Productions, The Marshall Project and The Times. It follows a capital defense team in Texas racing to stop the execution of David Wood, known as the “Desert Killer.” Use your smartwatch to track the health metrics that matter to your doctor. (This link is free). Reduce shoulder pain. We’ve got seven exercises to improve your strength and mobility. Protect your skin. Here are the four best sunscreens tested by the UV-phobic beach rats at Wirecutter. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was encampment. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

📷 1 pic to go Photo via Secretary Doug Burgum/X Ten days from America's 250th birthday, President Trump visited the National Mall last night to open the Great American State Fair, which'll run through July 10 and is anchored by a 110-foot Ferris wheel. Keep reading. 📣 Trump announced the Patriot Games, an August competition for high school students (ages 14-17), featuring "high-intensity challenges designed to test strength, speed, agility, teamwork, resilience and leadership." A male and a female champion will each receive a $125,000 scholarship. How to apply.

🤖 AI agent use accelerates Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios Frontier AI labs have spent years promising that effective AI agents will act as our minions in the workplace and at home. That might soon be a reality, Axios' Megan Morrone writes. Use of Codex — OpenAI's agentic coding and work platform — is accelerating, according to a new report from OpenAI, Columbia, Duke and the University of Pennsylvania. Among active users of ChatGPT and Codex at organizations outside OpenAI, just above 0% used Codex in August 2025. That share is now around 17%. Non-developers are the fastest-growing user group, even though writing software is still the core use case for Codex. More data.

🧐 Why Americans hate the "good" economy Data: Bureau of Labor Statistics. Chart: Neil Irwin/Axios The big-picture indicators of the U.S. economy — GDP, unemployment and so on — are doing fine while public opinion on economic conditions is at rock bottom, Axios Macro's Neil Irwin writes. The gap isn't just the result of elevated prices across the board: It's higher and more volatile prices for the specific items that dominate Americans' day-to-day living expenses. That's the early conclusion of top Democratic economic policy minds who have embarked on an effort to quantify — and develop policy responses to — the economic forces squeezing American households. The "Kitchen Table Project," led by Biden White House economic adviser Lael Brainard and former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief Rohit Chopra, could inform the policy agenda if Democrats win control of Congress in November or the White House in 2028. 🔬 Zoom in: Brainard tells Axios that "people are extremely worried about unexpected expenses. … It's the things that are volatile and feel out of control that stress them the most." More than half of respondents to their survey cited beef costs as the biggest driver of grocery price stress. Keep reading.

🏛️ Trump visit goes off rails President Trump abruptly scrapped the signing of a blockbuster bipartisan housing bill yesterday before walking into a closed-door lunch with Senate Republicans and getting into a shouting match over Iran, Axios' Stef W. Kight writes. Why it matters: Trump's demand that the Senate gut its own rules to pass a pre-midterm voter ID crackdown has opened one of the deepest GOP ruptures of his second term. Just before the Senate GOP lunch, Trump canceled an event to sign and tout the bipartisan housing package — a bill the White House praised just yesterday as "one of the most significant pieces of housing affordability legislation in American history." He said he won't sign until senators pass the SAVE America Act, which requires voter ID and proof of citizenship to vote — holding hostage a bill that passed with astonishing bipartisan margins. 👀 Inside the room: The lunch erupted into a clash between Trump and outgoing Sen. Bill Cassidy — one of four Republicans who voted Tuesday for a war powers resolution to rein in Trump's military campaign in Iran. Trump kicked things off by calling out all four senators who backed the resolution. Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump after Jan. 6, told Trump, "You have not told the American people what's going on" with the Iran war. "It was supposed to last four weeks. It's lasted four months," the senator told reporters afterward. Via X From there, the meeting went off the rails. The president twisted the knife, bringing up Cassidy's recent primary loss to a Trump-backed challenger, which effectively ended Cassidy's political career. "If someone tries to bully me … I ain't going to put up with it," Cassidy told reporters. Hours later, Cassidy struck a warmer tone, thanking Vice President Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff for an Iran briefing after receiving a "quick invitation to the White House to address many of my concerns." 🗳️ Late last night, Senate Republicans tried to appease Trump: They reversed themselves on Tuesday's vote rebuking him on the Iran war, giving him a symbolic win. Get the latest. Go deeper: Inside the Trump-Senate meltdown ...

America's great political implosion Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images American politics, reordered and reimagined by a decade of President Trump's rise, fall and resurrection, is imploding in substantial ways, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column. MAGA is splintering between Trump enthusiasts and true "America First" believers. Socialism is rising in popularity and clout. Democratic leaders are flailing. Israel is bleeding support in both parties. Pro-Palestinian politicians are winning elections. AI is dividing both sides of the aisle, with pro-worker coalitions forming among Republicans and Democrats. And Trump's unpopularity seems set and locked around 60%. Why it matters: Everything is up for grabs — and wildly uncertain. House and Senate control are coin tosses in November's midterms, the 2028 presidential races are wide open, and both parties are equally despised by the electorate. 🔎 Zoom in: The populist forces Trump awakened are devouring the establishment, inflamed by a cross-partisan blend of endless war, soaring prices and elite impunity, as Axios' Zachary Basu narrates. On the right, a historic schism over the meaning of "America First" has left Trump's broad 2024 coalition in tatters. Tucker Carlson and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — voices once synonymous with MAGA — both renounced the GOP this week, casting Trump's war with Iran as a betrayal of his own movement. The rupture is spreading through the outsider media universe that helped return Trump to power, with populist podcasters such as Theo Von, Tim Dillon and Candace Owens turning fiercely critical of the administration. On the left, establishment Democrats fear a socialist "Tea Party" has arrived — toppling incumbents, humiliating party leaders and turning safe blue seats into laboratories for a more confrontational politics. Three democratic socialists backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, suddenly a progressive kingmaker, appear headed for Congress after a shakeup in Tuesday's primaries. A Gallup poll last year found Democrats favor socialism over capitalism by 66% to 42% — the widest gap on record — with the divide sharpest among voters under 30, the engine of Mamdani's coalition. 🔭 Zoom out: A generational collapse in support for Israel is remaking both parties — while surging antisemitism clouds the increasingly toxic debate. The numbers are brutal: Pew Research found 60% of Americans now view Israel unfavorably, including 80% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans under 50. For Democrats, Israel's actions in Gaza bundle together everything young left-wing voters hate about the old party: war, money in politics, gerontocracy and deference to a foreign policy consensus they see as morally bankrupt. For Republicans, the fight over Israel is a fight over the future — pitting an aging, pro-Israel establishment against a base that views foreign intervention as the original sin "America First" was meant to cure. Between the lines: AI is emerging as the next great populist accelerant, fusing fears over lost jobs, soaring power bills and the unchecked power of billionaires. The backlash is scrambling party lines: Progressive labor activists, MAGA antitrust hawks and young voters increasingly see AI as a machine for enriching tech titans while making ordinary work more disposable. Harvard's youth poll found 59% of Americans 18 to 29 see AI as a threat to their job prospects, including 66% of young Democrats and 59% of young Republicans. 👀 What to watch: Trump is deeply unpopular. But the tectonic shifts transforming the two parties — and the country — make 2026 and 2028 impossible to forecast. Control of the House is a toss-up: GOP redistricting established a narrow moat around Republicans' majority, but Democrats lead the generic ballot by 6 percentage points. The Senate map is as favorable as it gets for Republicans, but top election prognosticator Larry Sabato this month moved three races toward Democrats. A 50-50 split is a distinct possibility. The 2028 field, meanwhile, is wide open. The New York Times presidential primary tracker has four potential candidates — Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — clustered within 8 points of each other. Vice President Vance leads Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the GOP side. But Vance serves at the pleasure of a president who likes to keep people guessing.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY June 25 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn Native American forces led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull defeat the U.S. Army troops of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, also called Custer's Last Stand. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 1950s 1950 Korean War begins 1990s 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia kills 19 U.S. airmen Arts & Entertainment 1988 Teenager Debbie Gibson earns a #1 hit with “Foolish Beat” 2009 “King of Pop” Michael Jackson dies at age 50 Black History 1941 FDR signs order banning discrimination in the defense industry Civil War 1864 Union begins tunneling toward Rebels at Petersburg Crime 1910 Congress passes Mann Act, aimed at curbing sex trafficking Inventions & Science 1956 Last Packard—the classic American luxury car—produced LGBTQ+ History 1978 First rainbow Pride flag premieres at San Francisco parade U.S. Presidents 1953 Jacqueline Bouvier and Senator John F. Kennedy announce engagement Vietnam War 1965 Viet Cong blow up a floating restaurant Women’s History 1993 Kim Campbell becomes Canada’s first female prime minister World War I 1915 Germans release statement on use of poison gas at Ypres World War II 1942 Eisenhower takes command

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Dems fear their own Freedom Caucus Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios House Democrats are preparing for a caucus in 2027 that is expected to be significantly more outspoken and left-wing than the one they have now. Why it matters: It wasn't all that easy to integrate the four-member "Squad" into the Democratic fold. Now, party leadership anticipates it will have to contend with a much larger cohort of rabble-rousers. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) predicted "it will be difficult" to rein in these newly elected democratic socialists: "I think people that follow that [ideology] will cause problems." "If they're actually serious legislators, then they're going to have to be able to work with people," a House Democrat told us. "If not, then they'll just be the Freedom Caucus of the left." Driving the news: The number of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) members in Congress is set to more than double following yesterday's New York primaries. State Assembly member Claire Valdez won the seat of retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), and activist Darializa Avila Chevalier unseated Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.). They join Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb, a DSA member who won the primary to succeed Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pa.) last month, along with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). Zoom out: Factoring in left-wing candidates broadly aligned with the DSA, the numbers get even more daunting for the party establishment. The primary wins of now-Rep. Analilia Mejia and Adam Hamawy in New Jersey, the Rev. Frederick Haynes III in Texas, Randy Villegas in California and Matthew Dunlap in Maine were all major victories for the left. Several other progressives are seen as well-positioned to potentially unseat incumbent House Democrats: Mai Vang and Angela Gonzales-Torres in California, Melat Kiros in Colorado, Elijah Manley in Florida, former Rep. Cori Bush in Missouri, and Donavan McKinney in Michigan. What we're hearing: These candidates are already communicating and coordinating with each other in various text chains, with several telling us they plan to continue to work together as a bloc in Congress. "We have to deliver something, and whether it's being a part of the Congressional Progressive [Caucus] or maybe doing our own thing, I don't know," McKinney said. "We have to just push and people have to see us fighting." Said Vang: "As a new cohort of progressive elected, we have leverage ... so [House Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries needs to be aligned with that. And when I get to the halls of Congress, I do look forward to organizing with my colleagues." Jeffries "knows how to pull people together," said Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), who is a member of Democratic leadership, noting that Ocasio-Cortez "has been a part of our caucus for a long time." — Andrew Solender

🤬 Summer from hell President Trump is making life hell for Senate Republicans, and they're returning the favor. "I make no apologies for standing up to the president," Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) told reporters after he got into a shouting match with Trump today at a Senate GOP lunch. "I made it clear that I wasn't going to be bullied." 🤬 Why it matters: One of the deepest GOP ruptures of Trump's second term has opened over his push for a pre-midterm elections crackdown via the SAVE Act. To his fury, Trump is finding that senators he's written off, alienated or even helped defeat in primaries are choosing Senate traditions over his political demands. In the middle is Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who's been blunt with the reality that Trump doesn't have the votes to get what he wants. "I'm certainly not giving my consent to that," Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters today about ending the filibuster. ‼️ Zoom in: Trump's lunch today with Senate Republicans only seemed to move White House-Senate relations from bad to worse. It became a shouting match with Cassidy over the administration's lack of information-sharing with the Senate on Iran. Trump rubbed Cassidy's primary defeat last month in his face during the closed-door meeting, sources told us. 🛑 Just before the lunch, Trump canceled an event to sign and tout a bipartisan housing package — a bill the White House praised yesterday as "one of the most significant pieces of housing affordability legislation in American history." Trump said he would not sign the bill until the SAVE Act, requiring voter ID and proof of citizenship to vote, is passed. Last week, Trump delayed the Senate confirmation process for Jay Clayton, ensuring Bill Pulte would serve as acting director of national intelligence, at least temporarily. The president has continued his long campaign against the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to pass most legislation in the Senate, and the blue slips process, which allows senators to block judicial nominations in their state. 👎 The other side: The bloc of GOP senators willing to defy Trump has grown. Cassidy and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) have been far more willing to speak their mind since losing recent primaries to Trump-backed candidates. They join Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who are leaving the Senate and have less reason to fear Trump's political blowback. That's on top of the usual suspects like Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Murkowski, who have long been willing to vote against their party. The bottom line: It's a midterm year. Republicans want to talk about affordability and hammer democratic socialists. Instead, they're sitting through presidential rants about the filibuster and legislation with no clear path through the Senate. — Stef Kight Go deeper

Back-to-back powerful earthquakes hit Venezuela, causing widespread damage CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Powerful back-to-back earthquakes struck Venezuela on Wednesday evening, causing widespread damage, collapsing buildings and sending panicked residents into the streets. https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-earthquake-caracas-7179acaee70a9c543f953852f15d4814? Venezuela reeling after powerful twin earthquakes Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodríguez says the powerful back-to-back earthquakes on Wednesday evening killed at least 164 people and injured close to 1,000. Read more. What to know: The 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes are among the strongest to strike Venezuela in more than a century. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X early Thursday that the United States is “immediately deploying search and rescue teams, medical resources, and humanitarian assistance to Venezuela.” RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Venezuelan earthquakes, in photos WATCH: Devastation in Caracas Powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake strikes off northern Japan WATCH: Rural area in Northern California jolted by its biggest quake since 1940

No Limit Soldier View in browser In an interview with The New York Times early this year, Donald Trump was asked, “Do you see any checks on your power on the world stage? Is there anything that could stop you if you wanted to?” “Yeah, there is one thing,” he said. “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me, and that’s very good.” The answer was not very reassuring, especially to anyone familiar with Trump’s ethical or cognitive track record. Last week, the reporter Marc Caputo, of Axios, brought the idea up again: “What have you learned about not just the exercise of power but the limits on your power as a result of the conflict?” “There are no limits,” Trump replied. “I haven’t learned that lesson yet. I know there are, but, you know, there are no limits. We defeated them totally militarily.” To say this after his humiliating defeat in the war with Iran suggests delusion, but it also suggests something about Trump’s view of the presidency as a monarchical office. During his first term in the White House, he pushed back repeatedly against the rule of law. In his second term, he has also raged against restraints from other branches of government, his own aides, and even reality. His administration has clashed with and sometimes defied the courts, grabbed powers from Congress, and attempted to establish vassal states in other sovereign countries—or take away parts of them entirely. This view of the presidency as unlimited doesn’t just go beyond what any other American president has contemplated since 1789, but reaches more than a century earlier, to before Britain’s Glorious Revolution of 1688, which supplanted the old concept of a monarchy guided by divine right and established government by mutual agreement of the people and king. (I have previously drawn parallels between Trumpism and the Jacobite movement, the attempts by supporters of the Stuart family to return them to the throne after William and Mary deposed them in 1688.) Trump’s rhetoric is also striking because usually leaders become more chastened the longer they stay in office. A typical president comes into office with big plans and an idea of how to execute on them, and he usually enjoys a honeymoon period when Congress and the public are supportive, or at least acquiescent. Then, over time, he starts to find the ways in which his power is circumscribed. After Bill Clinton’s 1993 health-care bill failed, his legislative agenda shrank, in part because Republicans took control of Congress and never surrendered it during Clinton’s tenure. George W. Bush’s peak of power came when he launched a war in Iraq in 2003, but that turned out to be a debacle from which his presidency never recovered. Barack Obama joined an international effort to oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, but by 2014, his foreign-policy mantra was the distinctly humble “Don’t do stupid shit.” Trump has gone through this process in reverse. He came into office in his first term without clear plans or methods of achieving his campaign promises and lashed out in frustration when he failed. Congress in particular bedeviled him, and the House took the extraordinary step of impeaching him twice, though neither attempt ended in conviction. In his second term, however, Trump has been far less fettered. He came in with a blueprint, courtesy of Project 2025, and he has blown through traditional restraints on his power, often by simply acting without seeking or waiting for permission. Congress is now stocked with more MAGA loyalists, and so is the administration—which means aides are more eager and willing to do what Trump wants. The president, like the Mean Girl he can sometimes be, now announces The limit does not exist! But limitations are important, and not just as a matter of Rousseauian philosophies of government. I have argued that checks and balances are a method of protecting not only the people but also each branch of government from its own excesses and errors. Reality also has a way of enforcing limitations: As I wrote earlier this week, the Reflecting Pool is inarguably green, no matter what Trump might say. And because Trump has claimed unilateral power to act, he struggles to find a way to blame anyone else for the mess on the Mall. In his heart of hearts, Trump may recognize that limits will eventually have their revenge. “I haven’t learned that lesson yet,” the president told Caputo. Sooner or later, he will. Related: America’s big mistake in Iran Trumpists are America’s Jacobites (from 2021)

📸 Pic to go: Ronaldo record Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates a goal against Uzbekistan yesterday. Photo: Rico Brouwer/Soccrates/Getty Images Portuguese soccer titan Cristiano Ronaldo made history yesterday, becoming the first men's player to score in six different World Cups. The World Cup only comes around every four years, making that number a testament to the 41-year-old's decades of dominance. More from Axios Houston's Shafaq Patel. 🇦🇷 Fellow longtime star Lionel Messi, 39, is off to a hot start for Argentina, nabbing the record for most World Cup goals overall. His five goals through the tournament's first two games have him standing at 18 — so far. 🏛️ Parting shot Photo: Jon Elswick/AP A turtle took a dip in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in D.C. yesterday.

🍔 Wendy's is the hot new meme stock, Bloomberg reports. The burger chain's shares shot up over 40% this morning after a viral Reddit post. The now-deleted post implored fans to "save Wendy's before it's too late." Gift link.

🌡️ Tens of millions of Europeans are under extreme heat warnings as record-setting temperatures bake the continent. Mark Sidaway, deputy chief forecaster for the U.K. Met Office, says health impacts are likely "to extend beyond those who are normally more vulnerable to the heat." Go deeper. 🌡️ Europe roasts in record heat wave Data: European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Map: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals Much of western Europe is baking under a "heat dome" this week, with temperatures soaring above 100°F in some places. France recorded its hottest-ever day for the second day in a row. Go deeper.

🌶️ OpenAI fires up "Jalapeño" chip Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios OpenAI has begun testing "Jalapeño," the first in a family of homegrown computer chips, Axios' Ina Fried reports. It plans to start using the chips to handle customers' AI queries later this year. Broadcom helped with the development. 🤖 OpenAI joins other leading AI companies in designing its own silicon as it races to secure more computing capacity, lower its costs and reduce its dependence on chipmaker Nvidia. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan delivers a chip wafer to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo: OpenAI 🔋 OpenAI says its chips offer better efficiency and performance per watt of electricity compared to off-the-shelf options. Richard Ho, who leads the company's chip effort, tells Axios: "This gives OpenAI full stack control." Go deeper.

Federal judge bars Trump from implementing proof of citizenship requirement to vote A federal judge on Wednesday permanently barred President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing most of his first executive order on elections, part of which sought to require people to show documentary proof of citizenship when they register to vote. https://apnews.com/article/trump-elections-judge-358912bcb6c7223b3d2d36465156fde9? 🗳️ A federal judge barred the Trump administration from implementing most of Trump's first executive order on elections, which sought to require proof of citizenship for voter registration. Go deeper. Trump drops housing bomb Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios The chairs were already in place when President Trump abruptly canceled today's planned signing of a landmark affordable housing bill, Axios' Josephine Walker, Stef W. Kight and Kate Santaliz report. Lawmakers were geared up for a rare moment of bipartisan congressional success when Trump dropped a bomb on Truth Social. 🤳 Trump posted: "Today's Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency." He previously threatened not to sign any other legislation until lawmakers passed his voting bill. 🎙️ Trump's post came just as House GOP leaders were touting the housing bill at their weekly press conference. Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) said: "Let's show the American people how you bring together and do something on a bicameral basis. And we did that, and we did that in conjunction with President Trump and his priorities." The Capitol's Statuary Hall this morning, set up and ready for Trump to sign the housing bill. Photo: Stef Kight/Axios 🏡 The bill, which passed both chambers with overwhelming bipartisan support this week, aims to relax local regulations and encourage homebuilding. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who played a key role in pushing the bill through the Senate, slammed Trump for halting it: "He could be over here trying to claim a victory lap. And instead, he's saying no, no he doesn't want anything to do with it." ✍️ House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters that Trump still plans to sign the bill in the next 10 days. Johnson said: "We're delaying this, as you know, he has a window of time before he has to sign a bill, and he's going to use a little bit more of that window of time, and we're going to go through this together." Under the Constitution, the housing bill becomes law even without Trump's signature 10 days after he receives it — if he doesn't veto it. Trump has not yet received the bill or threatened to veto it. Republican leaders in Congress can hold it indefinitely, if they want. Get the latest.

Soldiers Accuse Pentagon Pete of War Disaster Cover-Up Service members and their families claim injuries sustained during a horrific attack on a U.S. base have been downplayed. Soldiers wounded during the Iran war have accused military officials of trying to downplay the true extent of their injuries. Those on active duty during President Donald Trump’s deeply unpopular conflict told CBS News they believe there has been an effort to hide how badly they were hurt through official military designations. In March, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth assured reporters that “an overwhelming majority, almost 90 percent” of the 400 injured American service members had suffered “minor injuries,” and that many have since returned to duty. Chief Warrant Officer Rodney Bearman, who was blasted by shrapnel after an Iranian drone struck his command center in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, on March 1, is one of those who was listed as “not seriously injured” by the Army. However, medical records reviewed by CBS News revealed that he suffered a concussion, damage to his lungs, and hearing and vision loss as a result of the drone strike, which killed six U.S. service members and injured 20 others. “That assessment is unacceptable,” his wife, Amy Bearman, told CBS News. “I could just hear him breathing, and then he finally said, ‘I’m going to be OK.’ I waited a few moments and then asked if he had returned to duty,” she said. “It seemed like forever before he answered me, and then he said, ‘I can’t go back.’” Sgt. 1st Class Cory Hicks, 37, was also injured in the Kuwait attack, suffering severe shrapnel wounds and requiring multiple operations as part of his recovery. He said his wife was only told by the Army that his injuries were “minor.” “They said your husband was injured, he has a minor jaw injury, and he’s going to be returned to duty,” Hicks told CBS News. He added that he “absolutely” believes the Army and the Pentagon have attempted to downplay the seriousness of the deadly Kuwait drone attack. After initially being treated in Kuwait, Hicks was airlifted to a hospital in Germany before continuing his treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland. Hicks said he has spent several weeks at Walter Reed in a soldier recovery unit with a “pretty severe” traumatic brain injury and could remain there for at least another six months. Trump failed to visit any of the 14 injured troops being treated at Walter Reed when he attended the medical center for his physical examination last month. In a statement to CBS News, the Army denied the claims of a cover-up and said the families were confusing the definitions of “not seriously injured” and “combat casualty.” The Army said a soldier is classified as “seriously injured” or “very seriously injured” only when there is a significant risk of death from their wounds within 72 hours. “The care and well-being of our Soldiers is of the highest priority,” an Army spokesperson added. “Any assertion that the Army seeks to downplay a soldier’s injuries is simply not true.” The Daily Beast has contacted the Army for further comment. The Pentagon referred a request for comment to the Army. https://www.thedailybeast.com/soldiers-accuse-pentagon-pete-of-war-disaster-cover-up/?

Kaitlan Collins Humiliates Trump With Brutal Reflecting Pool Receipt The president’s own comments are coming back to bite him. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins has exposed a devastating flaw in President Donald Trump’s claims on his Reflecting Pool fiasco. The star host called BS on Trump’s claim that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool turned green with algae because “vandals” cut up its new, expensive, “American flag blue” lining. Collins began by playing a clip of the president saying on Tuesday that somebody “went in with a knife and cut it.” “They cut it up good,” Trump said. “And then they cut it 200, 350-foot slips in the form of lots of little slips, a real horrible stuff.” Collins pointed out that Trump has provided no pictures or video to back up his claim. She then reminded the president that he said in May that it would be impossible to cut the lining—chips of which are visible inside the pool—with a knife. “This will last for at least 50 years,” Trump said on May 4. “You’ll never have a leak. It’s very strong. You couldn’t, if you had a knife—I don’t want to give anybody ideas—if you had a knife, you can’t even cut it. So strong, so powerful, it’s like powerful rubber. It is beautiful. Sealed.” Now, the 80-year-old Trump is desperately trying to spin his Reflecting Pool mess as the result of Democrats trying to sabotage him. Collins noted in her segment that Trump is posting about the Reflecting Pool as much as he is about Iran this week. The pool, an iconic part of the National Mall, is now surrounded by National Guard troops, apparently patrolling for vandals. The failed Reflecting Pool renovation cost an eye-popping $16 million in taxpayer money—awarded through no-bid contracts to companies with ties to Trump, including a longtime donor—and now requires additional repairs that will be completed after the Fourth of July holiday. Trump claimed in a Truth Social post on Tuesday that six people have been arrested and seven have been cited “for the damage they did to our Country’s now beautiful Reflecting Pool.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also told Fox News on Monday that six arrests have been made. “The vandalism is very real,” she claimed, referring to the nameless perpetrators as “deranged individuals” who are “longtime donors” to Democrats. It did not take long for the president’s American flag blue pool to turn Kermit-green. Workers have since been photographed dumping chemicals into the pool in hopes of killing the algal bloom. The project now has a waterfowl body count, with a dead duckling spotted floating in the putrid green water on Sunday. Two other dead ducks, one adult and one juvenile, were also found on Sunday at a pond on the Constitution Gardens on the National Mall—about 250 feet from the Reflecting Pool. https://www.thedailybeast.com/kaitlan-collins-humiliates-trump-with-brutal-reflecting-pool-receipt/? ps:It's so pathetic how easy it's been to expose his lies

Trump Humiliates Congress’ MAGA Toadies With Wild Tantrum The president announced he was canceling a bill signing after it was passed with overwhelming support. President Donald Trump threw a huge wrench into Republicans’ celebration of the passage of a key piece of legislation on Wednesday by abruptly canceling the bill signing. “Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency,” Trump wrote. The move blindsided Republicans, who have been desperate for legislative victories to tout on the campaign trail as they inch closer to the midterms in November. The president was set to sign the bill with Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson at noon on Capitol Hill. Thune offered a muted reaction when informed of the president’s abrupt cancellation. “I just heard that,” he said, according to Punchbowl News. “I guess I would say, at this point, I don’t have any observations about that.” Republicans, who were in the middle of a news conference touting the housing bill and Trump’s support of it when he made his bombshell Truth Social post, were left stunned by the move. A senior aide to a Republican senator told Punchbowl that it is as if Trump is trying to lose his Senate and House majorities in November. “We saw glimpses of this during Trump’s first administration, but never in my lifetime have I seen a president so deliberately attempt to lose majorities for his own party,” the aide said. Trump has no leverage over Congress when it comes to the housing bill if it is presented to him, but Republican leaders would have to act. Then it would automatically become law after 10 days even if the president does not act on it. If he vetoes it, the legislation has a veto proof majority, but Republicans would have to have the courage to override him. For months, Trump has pressed Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would overhaul elections in all 50 states and add new proof-of-citizenship and voter-ID requirements. However, Republicans have been hesitant to advance the legislation, which GOP leadership says lacks even a majority of votes, never mind the necessary 60 votes it needs in the Senate. The housing bill that Trump is holding up was passed by the House and Senate this week with bipartisan support—something Trump seemed bothered by in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, in which he noted that his longtime Democratic foe, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, co-sponsored the legislation. It aims to lower housing costs by making it easier to build more homes and by restricting large investors from buying up single-family residences. The signing ceremony for the housing bill was planned as part of a lunch that Trump was set to have with Republican lawmakers. A spokesperson for Republican Sen. Rick Scott, who invited Trump to the lunch, told NBC News that Trump will still travel to the Capitol on Wednesday and attend their weekly lunch. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-humiliates-congress-maga-toadies-with-wild-tantrum/?

Did Trump's motorcade drive through newly painted reflecting pool? Claim: U.S. President Donald Trump's motorcade drove through the newly painted and sealed Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Rating: True Context Trump's motorcade passed through the empty pool on May 7, 2026, after it was painted and sealed and before it was refilled with water as part of a renovation project. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-motorcade-reflecting-pool/? Iran soccer team's message thanked LA for hospitality after World Cup match Claim: After their 2026 World Cup games at Los Angeles Stadium, the members of Iran's men's soccer team left a note in the locker room calling for peace and thanking the city for its hospitality. Rating: True In late June 2026, after Iran's men's soccer team played a World Cup match against Belgium at Los Angeles Stadium in Inglewood, California, an image spread (archived) online purportedly showing a message the team left in the locker room. The photograph showed a handwritten letter on a large sheet of paper calling for peace and thanking the city of Los Angeles for its hospitality. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/iran-thanked-la-world-cup/?

Whistleblowing, a midnight transit drop-off, and why a corporate church hierarchy can't hide from a father who happens to be an expert in institutional accountability. The post Midnight in Toledo: How the Ohio Conference Apparently Abandoned Two 18-year-old Camp Counselors on Father’s Day appeared first on ReligiousLiberty.TV. View the full article