Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

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AP Exclusive: Trump’s immigration crackdown has detained dozens of military spouses and parents More than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty service members have been detained since Trump took office for a second term. At least six have been deported and one self-deported, an AP investigation found in the first accounting of such detentions, which the government does not track. Read more.

Why this matters: Parents and spouses of people in the military have generally been shielded from deportation under bipartisan consensus for decades. Experts warn that the reversal could undermine military preparedness even as the U.S. is at war in Iran. It’s left military members without emotional support and caretakers for their children, delayed deployments and forced some to take leave.   “DHS and ICE value the contributions of all those who have served in the U.S. military,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. “U.S. military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ WATCH: Service members speak about how their lives have been upended Empty pews and fear of ICE on Maryland’s Eastern Shore after TPS ends for Haitians Salvadoran man complained of access to medication before death at NJ immigration jail, family says A $150M contract for migrant kids’ lawyers goes to a Trump-linked Texas firm, raising concerns

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Judge criticizes the Justice Department as he dismisses Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy case U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta decried efforts to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol as he reluctantly dismissed the seditious conspiracy case against members of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group. Read more.

Why this matters: The Department of Justice in April acted to vacate the convictions of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and others who had their sentences commuted but did not receive pardons.   Mehta, who oversaw the Oath Keepers’ trials, criticized the department’s move, writing in his ruling that the government “asks to absolve these Defendants of crimes against the United States itself.” But Mehta wrote that he had no choice but to grant the administration’s request. Mehta’s order closes the book on the Jan. 6 cases that were wiped out with President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardons and commutations last year.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ No evidence? No problem. Trump pushes ahead on false claims that Reflecting Pool was vandalized Senate panel to vote on holding Fauci in contempt for refusing to answer questions State of New Mexico sues Justice Department and Todd Blanche, saying they blocked its Epstein probe North Carolina congressman Edwards quits reelection bid after committee finds inappropriate conduct GOP Rep. Max Miller resists pressure to drop reelection bid as party anxiety grows over abuse claims Fauci’s decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment tees up a legal debate and a contempt vote Crews remove the granite seal on the White House helipad, signaling potential project delays

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Trump’s Reflecting Pool Target Faces Explosive New Test

The criminal contempt referral against Dr Anthony Fauci now lands on the desk of the embattled MAGA prosecutor.

After infuriating Donald Trump by throwing out the Reflecting Pool vandalism case, MAGA prosecutor Jeanine Pirro now faces another politically explosive test: whether to prosecute Dr. Anthony Fauci for criminal contempt.

Senate Republicans voted Thursday to hold the former COVID adviser in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about the origins of the pandemic, marking the GOP’s latest attempt to jail the 85-year-old.

The matter will now be referred to the Justice Department, where Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, must decide whether to prosecute.

The move sets up another challenge for the embattled former Fox host, who Trump came close to firing this week after she refused to back his claims that vandals ruined the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

“I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro. Really disappointed with Jeanine Pirro,” Trump fumed to reporters before the pair reportedly “had it out” in the Oval Office on Monday.

“She folded like an umbrella.”

Thursday’s vote came after Fauci appeared before the Senate Homeland Security Committee after being subpoenaed by Republicans, who have spent years targeting and vilifying him.

He invoked his Fifth Amendment rights—but not before he went scorched earth on GOP members and accused committee chairman Rand Paul of being obsessed and unhinged.

“Given Senator Paul’s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, the only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars,’” Fauci said.

“Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion.”

The showdown on Capitol Hill came after Paul released over 1,100 pages of Fauci’s personal diary entries ahead of the grilling, detailing his daily life between December 2019 and December 2022 when he retired from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

But among other things, the secret diary exposed the hypocrisy of some MAGA Republicans.

For instance, it revealed how Fauci calmed Stephen Miller’s wife Katie when she tested positive for COVID while only 10 weeks pregnant with her first child, and gave her husband advice on what to do for both their safety. Both have publicly called for him to be jailed.

Democrats on Thursday had unsuccessfully tried to delay the contempt vote, with a series of procedural motions.

Michigan Senator Gary Stevens argued that the full Senate, not just the committee, should determine whether a witness should be in contempt.

New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan sought a delay so the committee could hear testimony from outside legal experts on the constitutional and procedural questions surrounding the case.

And Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal also urged the vote to be postponed so the committee could hear from Fauci’s lawyer, who was ejected from the hearing when Fauci appeared last week.

He said parts of the hearing were “worse than the darkest days of the McCarthy era.”

“There is virtually no chance that a court would actually approve any contempt because he had a well-founded fear of self-incrimination, which entitled him to invoke the Fifth Amendment and to hear from his counsel,” Blumenthal said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-reflecting-pool-target-faces-explosive-new-test/?

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Americans Overwhelmingly Call BS on Trump as Chaos Fear Spikes

A new poll shows the public rejecting the president’s insistence that a deal is close.

Americans aren’t convinced the war with Iran is anywhere close to over, despite President Donald Trump’s claims that his administration is locked in talks to bring a close to hostilities.

In fact, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, they expect things to get worse before they get better, and those who think the Middle East will spiral into chaos outnumber those who think the war will bring more stability by a ratio of three to one.

The six-day poll concluded Monday, the same day Trump again backed away from threatened “massive attacks” on Iran, underscoring the uncertainty surrounding a five-month conflict he initially predicted would deliver a swift victory.

On July 23, Trump told Axios he was “considering a massive attack” that would be “bigger than ever before,” adding he was “close to making a decision.”

But by July 27, following reports that senior leadership had advised him to hold off, Trump told reporters he was pursuing negotiations instead. “They want to meet, and we’re meeting,” Trump said, traveling on Air Force One. “We’ll see what happens.” Iran denied that direct talks with the United States were taking place.

Talks or not, the American public isn’t buying the reassurances. Fifty percent of poll respondents said they expect U.S. military action in Iran to destabilize the Middle East over the next year, roughly three times the 17 percent who said the war would bring more stability. Another 16 percent said stability would stay about the same, while 17 percent said they were unsure.

Respondents were similarly pessimistic about gas prices, which have climbed as Iran chokes off traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical corridor for global oil supplies.

Fifty-eight percent said they expect gas prices to get worse, compared with just 15 percent who expect improvement.

Even Republicans, who overwhelmingly back Trump personally, are split on how his war is playing out. While 80 percent of Republicans approve of Trump’s overall performance and 66 percent back his handling of Iran, 41 percent believe Middle East stability will actually improve over the next year because of the war.

The conflict, which Trump launched alongside Israel in late February, has cost U.S. taxpayers at least $37.5 billion, killed 18 U.S. service members and killed thousands of Iranians. Just 35 percent of Americans approve of the war overall.

Asked which party has a better approach to handling war and terrorism, registered voters picked Democrats over Republicans, 37 percent to 36 percent, the first time Democrats have led on the question since Reuters/Ipsos began asking it in December 2024, when Republicans led 39 percent to 28 percent. The same polling has shown voters now see Democrats as better equipped to manage the economy for the first time in roughly a decade.

“This war was unpopular the day it started, and it’s gotten more unpopular since,” said Justin Logan, director of defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank.

Logan said Trump faces a difficult tradeoff, having set ambitious goals for the conflict—destroying Iran’s missile capabilities and preventing it from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon— while also trying to limit U.S. casualties and the political fallout that could come with them.

“That incoherence, or rudderlessness, in the conduct of the war is causing more problems for the president,” Logan said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/americans-overwhelmingly-call-bs-on-trump-as-chaos-fear-spikes/?

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President Trump publicly defended Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying that reporting suggesting any friction between the two was "treasonous." Go deeper.

Trump’s Iran Oil Giveaway

As war with Iran drove oil prices higher, Trump gave politically connected oil companies — not taxpayers — the chance to cash in on publicly owned oil.

https://www.levernews.com/trumps-iran-oil-giveaway/?

Trump administration moves forward with Head Start overhaul, proposing to eliminate regulations

President Donald Trump's administration said Thursday it plans to overhaul Head Start, tossing out many of the regulations that are the hallmark of the early education program for the nation's neediest children. Read More.

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Trump’s Iran Oil Giveaway

As war with Iran drove oil prices higher, Trump gave politically connected oil companies — not taxpayers — the chance to cash in on publicly owned oil.

https://www.levernews.com/trumps-iran-oil-giveaway/?

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Trump's quicksand

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Read the polls, watch economic indicators and talk to President Trump's inner circle in private, and the verdict on his second term seems clear: Even some longtime insiders fear he's trapped by a war he shouldn't have waged, tariffs he shouldn't have levied, monuments he shouldn't be obsessed with, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column. Why it matters: These three topics chew up much of Trump's time and attention. All three are widely unpopular in polls. And it's almost impossible to see the public suddenly warming to war, tariffs or more statues. By the numbers: Trump's approval cratered to an all-time low of 32% in a Quinnipiac poll last week. Even more damning: 68% of voters said he isn't focused enough on the problems most Americans face. Trump has squandered the GOP's most durable political advantage: A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week (and a Pew poll last month) found voters split on which party is better for the economy — after Republicans had led on the issue for nine years, back to Trump's first term. Republicans still back Trump on immigration, a new AP-NORC poll shows. 👀 Behind the scenes: New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman estimates 70% of the president's mindshare goes to renovations and monuments. "It's a legacy thing," she told her colleague Ezra Klein. A Trump insider told us: "He concentrates on the hobbies that distract from his terrible polling numbers, about which he is in denial. The other issue is how the war, tariffs and monuments are demoralizing the base." And we keep hearing complaints from top Republicans about Trump's reluctance to unleash the $400 million cache built by his super PAC, MAGA Inc. The unwillingness to spend big, now, in game-changing races has "demoralized donors," the insider said. There's a saying in politics that campaigns are won and lost in the summer. For Republicans, this was the Trump-induced summer of discontent. The big picture: Our reporting shows Trump has no desire to back off any of these topics, especially renovations and monuments, or shift to a new policy agenda before or after the November elections. Ahead of the midterms, he has poured political capital into another self-destructive fixation: the SAVE America Act, which would impose national proof-of-citizenship and voter-ID requirements. Republicans have told Trump, repeatedly, that the bill has no path through the Senate. They lack the 60 votes needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster — and the 51 Republican votes needed to abolish it. Trump has refused to accept that reality, instead whipping the MAGA base into a frenzy against Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other Republicans who won't comply. 👀 What to watch: Top congressional Republicans tell us Trump's unpopularity points toward the likely loss of the House, and perhaps the Senate. Some gently, indirectly, plead with him to shift to affordability or the economy. But an 80-year-old man who made the greatest comeback in American political history appears too proud, stubborn and undisciplined to change, Republicans privately admit. So rather than face the issues, Trump often pivots to showing visitors renderings of the new White House ballroom or a model of the planned Triumphal Arch. He showcases his new Air Force One, touts his plans for Dulles, and obsesses about the helipad being built on the South Lawn. The bottom line: "Sixth-year summers are historically terrible for presidents," the insider said. Marc Caputo and Zachary Basu contributed reporting ...

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🇨🇺 Inside Rubio's Cuba pressure campaign

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is waging an unprecedented economic war on Cuba — and wants to make sure the island's communist leaders know it's going to get worse, Axios' Marc Caputo writes. "What we're trying to teach them is, there are no escape valves," Rubio told Axios. Why it matters: Cuba's economy is in a state of slow-motion collapse because of crushing U.S. sanctions and communist mismanagement of the island, which prides itself as the hemisphere's chief foe of the superpower 90 miles to its north. President Trump hasn't ruled out military action. 🖼️ The big picture: Because of the pressure campaign, Cuba is now a de facto renegade colony of the U.S., upon which it now relies for most of its food, fuel, medicine and currency — all of which are scarce on the island. Rubio told Axios that Cuba is playing for time by faking reforms while seeking ways to evade sanctions. "Every time they create a new mechanism in which they try to get out of the noose, we just close it off," Rubio said. "They certainly can't wait us out. Certainly this isn't going to go away for the next 2½ years." Behind the scenes: Foreign companies are fleeing Cuba amid the threat of sanctions. U.S. companies — especially fuel distributors — are moving in as enterprises such as Cuba's state-run oil company crumble under the pressure. It's creating a nascent capitalist black market. Rubio has been in talks to change governance of the island with Raulito Castro, the grandson of ailing Cuban revolutionary Raúl Castro. But it's unclear whether he could lead a transition government or have much staying power. The U.S. is trying to cultivate other Cuban officials and figure out how to create a coalition for reform. But "it's hard to deduce entirely because that system is so paranoid," a U.S. official said. Worthy of your time. ps:Just another pathetic person in trumps administration!  He used to be a respectable Senator, but not anymore!!!!!

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Birthright citizenship

President Donald Trump signed two new executive orders Thursday aimed at further restricting birthright citizenship and "birth tourism." In June, the Supreme Court rejected Trump's earlier push to narrow birthright citizenship, affirming that children born on US soil are citizens even if their parents are in the country illegally or temporarily. But the new orders take a more limited approach: One would deny birthright citizenship to children born to "alien enemies," members of foreign terrorist organizations and some people acting on behalf of foreign governments. The other targets people traveling to the US to give birth, though existing law already prohibits obtaining a visa primarily to secure US citizenship for a child. ps:Pathetic!!!!!

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Trump again tries to restrict birthright citizenship after Supreme Court ruling President Donald Trump said he was signing two executive actions on immigration, including one limiting the number of people eligible for U.S. citizenship after being born in the United States. The second order focused on stopping people from coming to the U.S. to give birth. Read more.

Why this matters: In June, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s previous efforts to declare that children born to people in the U.S. illegally or temporarily aren’t American citizens, and upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship. It was not immediately clear how successful the president’s most recent attempt to restrict birthright citizenship would be. Trump said he thought his latest actions would be constitutional. The American Civil Liberties Union predicted that Trump’s second attempt would also be rejected.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ ICE will release body camera video only when seen in the agency’s ‘best interests,’ policy says A deal with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz may require a compromise from Trump Union representing IRS workers asks judge to block Trump tax audit immunity deal DOGE overstated savings on federal ‘receipts’ website, auditors find ‘I’m very good at grass.’ Why Trump goes into the weeds on one of his favorite topics

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Trump boasts about the economy, but there’s more to the story President Donald Trump has been extolling his economic accomplishments on social media and at events. Some of the claims are clearly true, some exaggerated, some unclear. Read our team’s full analysis.

Why this matters: Voters are frustrated with the economy and the high cost of living. Only 32% of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s handling of the economy in an AP-NORC poll conducted in late July. The same poll found that 69% of Americans characterized the economy as “poor.” Many said the cost of everyday essentials like groceries and gas was a “major” source of stress in their lives.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ WATCH: Trump says ‘we may have to’ send oil prices ‘up again’  US likely added nearly 100,000 jobs in July, but market is still tough for young and unemployed In a post-pandemic world, job candidates feel caught between suits and hoodies

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US job market stalled in July as employers cut 23,000 jobs, delivering political setback to Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. job market stalled unexpectedly last month, delivering a political blow to President Donald Trump three months ahead of midterm elections and complicating decision-making for the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve.

https://apnews.com/article/economy-jobs-trump-unemployment-rate-jobseekers-9c2d147c14bc428458be5a1e83e54957?