Harriet Blake reports the machinery of politics from the inside — who is up, who is briefing against whom, and what it means. Sharp, plugged-in, and fluent in the gap between the spin and the story.
The president told Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth to substantially reduce the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, citing cost and what he called a hostile signal to North Korea. He also revealed South Korea had refused his request to join US efforts to pressure Iran.
The State Department is targeting Iranian nationals with unusual specificity, revoking green cards held by relatives of senior regime figures killed in US strikes. Officials cited national security, fraud and immigration abuse as broader grounds for the surge.
The board framed the inscription as a renovation credit rather than a formal renaming — a legal workaround after a federal judge ruled the earlier attempt unconstitutional. The main building will also close for two years for a $250 million overhaul.
The CIA had assessed a credible Iranian threat against whichever plane was carrying the president. The journalists and staff left aboard the decoy aircraft were told nothing — and a former Secret Service agent says they were '100% in danger.'
US officials secretly moved the president to a smaller military jet in Ankara on 8 July 2026, leaving reporters and some White House staff on the decoy aircraft with no idea he had gone. The elaborate ruse involved three separate planes and a staged public boarding.
The bipartisan measure, championed by the late Senator Lindsey Graham, would let Trump target the five biggest importers of Russian oil and gas — currently China, India, Slovakia, Hungary and Azerbaijan. Its fate in the House remains uncertain.
General Dan Caine has told senior advisers that escalation options are limited and dangerous, and that airpower alone cannot achieve the president's goals. Trump is said to be weighing symbolic strikes that could let him claim victory and step back from the conflict.
A federal appeals court ruled 2-1 that Trump cannot build the vast 90,000-square-foot ballroom on the former East Wing site without congressional approval. The administration had planned to fund it entirely through private donations, bypassing legislators — and a Supreme Court fight now looks likely.
Beijing framed the moves as retaliation for recent American trade and technology restrictions. Analysts say the measures are calibrated to apply pressure without derailing the September summit.
The Republican-controlled committee passed the resolution eight votes to seven, and is now pushing to refer it directly to the Justice Department. Whether that route carries any legal force remains unsettled.
After 13 nights of US strikes and a Strait of Hormuz blockade, a three-day pause has produced the same split as the last ceasefire in March: Washington claiming momentum, Iran flatly denying any direct negotiations are underway.
Speaker Johnson's move forces Democrats to vote on government funding in July, but the bill still needs 60 Senate votes to pass.
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