Donald Trump cast a mail ballot for a Florida special election while demanding Congress pass a law to make mail voting illegal.
He never solves problems he can still use. Republican senators pitched him a plan Sunday night to end the five-week DHS shutdown by funding everything except ICE. Trump rejected it. No deal until Democrats pass the SAVE America Act, he said. His own party calls the voting restrictions bill unrealistic because they can’t pass it. But Trump needs the airport lines. They’re the only leverage he has to force through a bill that can’t pass on its own. That’s what he did running for president, when he killed a Republican-led border deal because he needed a border crisis.
The Iran war follows the same logic. He extended his bombing deadline five days and told reporters a deal was close, that there were “major points of agreement.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry said there is no dialogue between Tehran and Washington. They called his claims an effort to reduce energy prices and buy time. It worked. Oil prices dropped while stock markets rallied. The war is in its fourth week. A dozen American service members are dead, along with more than 1,500 Iranians. That’s the cost of keeping a problem alive because it’s useful to you.
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TODAY’S CURATED HEADLINES
WAR
1. Trump extends Iran strike deadline five days and claims a deal is close, but every senior Iranian official denies any negotiations are underway. Know this: Markets surge, oil dips below $100 | via The Associated Press
ENVIRONMENT
2. White House agrees to pay French energy giant TotalEnergies $1 billion to abandon its East Coast wind farm leases and reinvest in U.S. oil and gas production. Know this: Company pledges no future U.S. offshore wind | via CNBC
VOTING RIGHTS
3. Trump casts a mail ballot in a Florida special election while calling mail voting “cheating” and demanding Congress pass the SAVE America Act to restrict it. Know this: Democrats have flipped nine state seats since inauguration | via NBC News
CENSORSHIP
4. Pentagon closes its press corridor and banishes reporters to an outside annex after a federal judge ruled its media crackdown violates the First Amendment. Know this: All journalist access now requires escort | via NOTUS
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COURTS
5. Trump administration accepts a federal judge’s pick for New Jersey U.S. attorney after four of its own appointees were ruled unlawfully installed over eight months. Know this: Both NJ senators back career prosecutor | via The New Jersey Monitor
IMMIGRATION
6. Plainclothes ICE agents pin a Guatemalan mother to the ground at San Francisco’s airport as her young daughter watches, refusing bystanders’ demands to show badges. Know this: Bystanders unable to distinguish arrest from kidnapping | via KGO San Francisco
OVERSIGHT
7. Trump rejects a bipartisan deal to end the 38-day DHS shutdown, demanding Democrats first pass the SAVE America Act voting restrictions bill that lacks Senate votes. Know this: Thune publicly breaks with Trump strategy | via USA Today
CONGRESS
8. Senate confirms Markwayne Mullin as DHS secretary 54-45, with Mullin signaling agents will need judicial warrants to enter homes and businesses. Know this: Fetterman’s vote moved nomination from committee | via CBS News
GRIFT
9. Democrats detail Noem’s $220 million DHS ad campaign: $20,000 in horse rentals, a $60,000 signing bonus, and a no-bid contract routed through political allies. Know this: Subcontractor’s CEO married to former DHS spokesperson | via The Hill
FIGHTING BACK
10. Eight architecture and preservation groups with over one million members sue Trump and the Kennedy Center board to block renovations that lack congressional approval or public plans. Know this: Architectural plans never made public | via NPR
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