1. 🇮🇷 The War That Keeps Starting
Iran · Blockade · Ground Troops · Strait of Hormuz
Trump reimposed the naval blockade of Iranian ports and announced a 20% fee on all cargo ships traversing the Strait of Hormuz — directly contradicting Secretary of State Marco Rubio who said last month that no country is allowed to charge tolls on an international waterway. Trump warned he would strike Iranian bridges and power plants “next week” unless Tehran returns to the negotiating table, and declined to rule out ground troops. The war he claimed was over in June restarted in July. Gas prices will follow. He hasn’t ruled out boots on the ground. The 60-day war powers clock is running again.
2. 🏛️ The Judge Said It Out Loud
IRS · Anti-Weaponization Fund · Todd Blanche · Corruption
A federal judge blasted Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, ruling it was filed for “improper purposes” and was an attempt to use the court “to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers.” The lawsuit ended in a settlement that granted Trump immunity from future tax audits and initially created a nearly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund to compensate Trump’s allies. An audit would have hit Trump with a $100 million tax bill if the IRS found wrongdoing. The judge penalized Todd Blanche and referred the case to multiple bar associations. He sued himself, gave himself a tax amnesty, and called the $1.8 billion for his allies a mistake only after the money was already gone.
3. 🔫 Another ICE Shooting. Maine This Time.
ICE · Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero · Collins · Accountability
Immigration agents fatally shot 26-year-old Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine. Maine Sen. Angus King’s office said Guerrero was “NOT the target” of an ICE immigration operation. ICE claimed he was shot to protect public safety. The Trump administration did not preserve the crime scene and has refused to cooperate with Maine State Police or local authorities. Senator Collins had been the deciding vote to pass additional funding for DHS and ICE. Two ICE shootings. Two wrong targets. Two states. No cooperation with investigators. The tenth and eleventh fatalities at the hands of federal immigration agents this year.
4. 📰 They’re Coming for the Press
Press Freedom · DOJ · Pentagon · Max Blumenthal
Pete Hegseth announced a new joint task force between the Pentagon and DOJ to “identify and prosecute” leaks to the press — days after the DOJ subpoenaed four New York Times journalists who reported on security concerns about Trump’s Qatar plane. U.S. border agents seized the electronic devices of journalist Max Blumenthal after he returned from a reporting trip to Iran. Secretary of State Rubio announced U.S. plans to “systematically disable” the International Criminal Court. The press, the ICC, and now journalist’s devices at the border. The infrastructure of accountability is being dismantled one institution at a time.
5. 🗳️ Thursday Night: The Big Lie Goes Primetime
2020 Election · Intelligence · Midterms · Kash Patel
On Thursday at 9 PM Eastern, Trump will reportedly reveal plans by foreign nations to interfere in the 2020 election, based on newly declassified intelligence. CIA Director Ratcliffe, acting DNI Bill Pulte, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Homeland Security Secretary Mullin will join the president. Numerous courts, ballot audits and his first-term Justice Department found no evidence of widespread fraud that could have affected the outcome. The elections he won in 2016 and 2024 — both under Democratic presidents — were fine. The only one he claims was stolen is the one that happened on his watch. Four months before the midterms. With Kash Patel standing behind him.
6. 🦅 Utah Just Lost Two National Monuments
Public Lands · Bears Ears · Grand Staircase · Environment
Trump signed an executive order drastically reducing the size of two national monuments in Utah — Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante — reopening hundreds of thousands of acres to mining, drilling, and development. Bears Ears was designated specifically to protect sacred Indigenous cultural sites. The order repeats what Trump did in his first term, which was subsequently reversed by Biden, which Trump is now reversing again. The land doesn’t change. The protection does. Every time a Republican wins the White House the monuments shrink. Every time a Democrat wins they grow back. The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, which fought for years to protect the land, is back in court.