July 3, 2026

The New York Times is liveblogging the Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce wedding thing at Madison Square Garden. Marie: The front page of the paper of record seems to me to be an odd place for wedding celebration ephemera, but I have to admit it's better than watching Donald Trump go to Mount Rushmore & plead for his visage to be added alongside the real presidents'. ~~~

~~~ Here's a far better speech. Thanks to Patrick for the link: ~~~

     ~~~ Zohran Mamdani is not eligible to become president. Donald Trump, by contrast, is president* because he enjoys birthright citizenship.

Laura Wainman & Sarah Robinson of WUSA: "The Great American State Fair being held on the National Mall as part of the celebration of America's 250th birthday was temporarily shut down Friday afternoon due to extreme heat. The fair was expected to reopen by 5 p.m., according to fair organizers."

Denmark: Trumpists, Get Out! Jeffrey Gettleman & Maya Tekeli of the New York Times: “Every year for the past century, in the green hills of rural Denmark, thousands of Americans and Danes come together to celebrate the Fourth of July. The gathering is billed as the largest Fourth of July celebration outside the United States.... This year..., organizers are expecting the smallest crowd ever. Some locals say they are sitting it out. And the American government has been uninvited, something that has never happened before and in the past would have been unthinkable.... Just about every year, the American ambassador to Denmark makes an appearance. But this year..., [Donald] Trump’s threats to take over Greenland, a Danish territory, have soured the mood.... Lasse Olsen, a municipal council member who has agitated against the event for years, called Mr. Trump 'an imperialistic mad man.' He ... gave the event’s organizers an ultimatum: Cut American officials from the program or lose logistical support and public funds (typically around $50,000). The festival organizers agreed.... [They] also said that any Americans coming to the event this weekend in a private capacity were welcome.”

Louisiana. Rick Rojas of the New York Times: “The Louisiana Supreme Court on Friday paused the prosecution of the state’s Republican attorney general just hours after a grand jury in New Orleans indicted her over letters she had sent city officials threatening that they could be removed from office. Attorney General Liz Murrill made an emergency filing asking the court to intervene after the grand jury handed up a 16-count indictment on Thursday that charged her with malfeasance in office and intimidation and retaliation against a public official. The court, whose justices are elected and the majority of whom are Republican, issued a stay early Friday morning. In the order, the justices wrote that Ms. Murrill 'makes a compelling argument' regarding possible flaws in the grand jury process and in its interpretation of the laws she was accused of breaking. 'The indictment appears to turn the law on its head and flows from what appears to be extraordinary procedural defects and improprieties,' the order said.” MB: I'm guessing the real “compelling argument” was, “I'm a Republican.”

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“There's Nothing Illegal.” John Marcus of the Independent: “... Donald Trump insists he is unaware of the happenings at his family’s crypto businesses, despite these companies netting the president more than $1 billion last year, according to financial disclosures. 'I could know about it,' Trump told CNBC on Thursday. 'I didn’t. There’s nothing illegal. There’s nothing wrong with it.'... Shortly before taking office, the Trump family reportedly secretly sold a $500 million stake in one of its crypto businesses to an Abu Dhabi royal, one of whose firms later used a Trump crypto coin to make a separate $2 billion deal. The royal was also involved in negotiations with the Trump administration to secure access to high-powered AI chips for the UAE. In October, the president pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who has worked with the Trump family’s crypto operations. Trump was once a crypto skeptic, but he wooed the industry during the 2024 campaign, and crypto companies were among his most influential and generous donors. The president has delivered in office on priorities for the industry, including scaling back crypto prosecutions, weakening the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and calling for a national Bitcoin stockpile.” 

No. 1 Insider Trader, Ctd. Just a Coincidence! Michael Luciano of Mediaite: “On April 8, six days after ... Donald Trump sent markets spiraling downward by announcing sweeping unilateral tariffs on dozens of countries, Trump made 327 stock purchases. The next day on Truth Social, he urged people to buy stocks, shortly before declaring the tariffs paused.... At 9:37 a.m. ET on April 9, 2025, Trump posted, THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT' Later that day at 1:18 p.m. ET, he said, 'I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately.'... The Dow Jones Industrial Average [had] opened [that day] at 37,388 and closed at 40,608, a jump of nearly nine percent on the back of Trump’s revelation. The day before, Trump scooped up shares of several companies across 327 purchases, including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia. He purchased between $100,001 and $250,000 in shares of each of those companies. Apple and Nvidia had especially strong days on April 9, surging 15% and 19%, respectively.”

Will Lennon, et al., of ABC News: "Across ... Donald Trump's first year back in the White House, his investment advisers made more than 21,000 securities trades, amassing sizable holdings in companies that are directly involved in deals tied to his administration, according to a review of his annual financial report. According to the report, Trump's investment accounts grew to at least $858 million and included stakes in approximately 1,600 companies. The staggering number of trades across eight separate accounts marks a significant departure from previous presidents, who have either divested their holdings or traded exclusively in diversified mutual funds. By contrast, Joe Biden made a total of 13 stock trades during his entire tenure as president."

Andrea Fuller of the New York Times: “As ... [Donald] Trump took in a staggering haul from his cryptocurrency and real estate empire last year, earnings for the vice president and first lady also sharply increased, federal disclosures show.... All told, Mr. Vance earned between $1.4 million and $7.4 million in 2025, including his investment income. That was up from a range of roughly $213,000 to $1.3 million the prior year, though the form does not reflect his salary as a U.S. senator. The bulk of Mr. Vance’s income came from royalties and advances associated with his autobiography, 'Hillbilly Elegy,' published in 2016....”

There's nothing wrong with making money from your autobiography. Melanie's income, on the other hand ... “The income of the first lady, Melania Trump, surpassed that of the vice president, with her business earnings totaling between roughly $17.3 and $18.2 million last year. She took in less than $1 million in 2024, federal disclosures show. The bulk of her revenue came from a $10.7 million licensing agreement related to the 'Melania' movie, which was acquired and promoted by Amazon. The company’s founder, Jeff Bezos, has multiple business interests that could be affected by administration policies.... The first lady also earned $6 million from sales of her memecoin and roughly $500,000 from the publication of her autobiography, 'Melania.'”

GrabAGun, Another Trump Family Grift. Perry Stein of the Washington Post: “GrabAGun sells and ships ammunition, and some gun accessories, directly to consumers in some states using its website.... Donald Trump Jr. ... is on GrabAGun’s board and is a consultant to the company.... [He has] a 1.1 percent ownership stake in the company.... Trump Jr. became formally involved in GrabAGun in December 2024, shortly after his father was elected to his second term....[GrabAGun] must rely on middlemen to actually transfer the firearm to the customer. That’s because federal regulations prohibit sending handguns to individuals through the mail, and they require that firearms background checks and transfers be conducted in person. The administration has proposed regulatory changes that, for the first time, would let firearms sales take place entirely online, with handguns mailed directly to buyers’ doorsteps. Such changes could enormously benefit GrabAGun and the president’s son, creating a potential conflict of interest that has attracted the attention of ethics watchdogs.” ~~~

~~~ But Wait! It doesn't stop there: “GrabAGun offers a 'Shoot Now Pay Later' financing option through a company called Credova Financial. Credova is a subsidiary of Public Square Holdings, where the president’s son is a board member and investor. In August, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau dropped an investigation of Credova, which had been accused of wrongly charging fees to customers. It said the inquiry, which started during the Biden administration, was politically biased against companies affiliated with firearms. When GrabAGun went public, it merged with Colombier Acquisition Corp. II, a firm designed to combine with other companies and take them public. Colombier is led by Omeed Malik, a major Republican donor who chairs 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm that includes Trump Jr. as a partner.” A derivative Raw Story report is here.

What Are the Trump Toadies Doing Today? ~~~

1. FBI Analysts Drop Everything to Pursue Phantom 2020 Election Conspiracy Theories. Nick Corasaniti, et al., of the New York Times: “The Federal Bureau of Investigation is assigning an army of 260 investigative analysts to a 'priority' investigation related to the 2020 election in Fulton County, Ga., a reflection of President Trump’s ongoing push to prove his baseless claims that the 2020 election there was rigged. The effort is outlined in an internal memo obtained by The New York Times and confirmed by a person familiar with the investigation. The memo says that the surge is part of a “priority” effort by Kash Patel, the director of the F.B.I. The analysts will work to complete 'approximately 708 records checks,' according to the memo. The type of records being checked is unknown. The deployment of such a large number of F.B.I. personnel to the most populous county in Georgia comes amid the Justice Department’s ongoing criminal investigation into the 2020 election in the state.

“In January, the F.B.I. raided an election warehouse in Fulton, seizing more than 600 boxes of election materials — including original ballots from the 2020 election. But an unsealed affidavit that was used to obtain the search warrant for that raid relied heavily on debunked claims about ballot anomalies in 2020. Those claims have been revived inside the White House by Kurt Olsen, an election denier who works in the Trump administration and who set off the current investigation, according to the affidavit.” MS NOW's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

2. Her Boss Is a Serial Criminal, But U.S. Attorney Boxwine Indicts an Olympics Star. Campbell Robertson & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “A former Olympic canoeist who had been arrested in June on charges that he had vandalized the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has been indicted, according to court documents. He is charged with 'destruction of property $1,000 or more,' a felony.... [Donald] Trump blamed vandals for the problems following a quick and costly makeover of the pool, and the canoeist, David Carter Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Md., was among the first to be charged. The U.S. Park Police had arrested Mr. Hearn near the pool on June 19, and accused him of destroying government property. Past administrations have wrestled with leaks and algae in the pool, but experts said the recent problems could have been caused by the pool’s hasty makeover.... On Thursday, Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, said in a news briefing that prosecutors had 'tremendous evidence' underpinning the indictment, and she condemned what she called 'unchecked vandalism and civil disorder.'... Mr. Hearn has acknowledged immersing his hand and touching the peeling sealant during a pause in a bike ride, but he has said that is all he did.” (Also linked yesterday.)

David Fahrenthold & Andrea Fuller of the New York Times: “A company with deep ties to ... [Donald] Trump is organizing some of the biggest events in Washington this weekend, including the Great American State Fair and the record-breaking fireworks display planned for Saturday. Those events will be funded, in part, by $68 million in taxpayer money. But because the Trump administration has routed those funds through an opaque nonprofit, it is unclear how much the company close to the president will receive. Event Strategies, Inc., a Virginia-based company, is run by former Trump campaign aides and veterans of what is informally called the political advance industry, meaning they set up speeches and rallies for candidates. The firm helped organize Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign kickoff in 2015, and handled logistics for the rally on Jan. 6, 2021, where he urged supporters to march on the Capitol....

“The Great American State Fair drew sparse crowds after it opened on June 25 [on the National Mall.]...”  (Also linked yesterday.)MB: Everything is going very smoothly. Almost all of the performers scheduled for opening night backed out when they learned the fair would be politically-charged; numerous states chose not to participate, and most state exhibits appeared to be thrown together at the last minute. The ferris wheel, which seems to be the main attraction, lost power and didn't run on its debut night; the food is awful and ridiculously expensive; and a mock-up of the Arc de Trump started falling apart in the rain. Thursday, we learned that Trump & his cronies may have engaged in public "corruption, wire fraud and pay-to-play schemes." We also learned that "the stage for Freedom 250's July Fourth celebration fell apart during rehearsals Thursday, with a large component of the structure's ceiling falling roughly two stories down and landing behind a group of dancers and musicians. Miraculously, no one appeared injured." (Thanks to RAS for the lead.) Maybe the MAGA crowd enjoys seeing death-defying acts, but generally these acts are planned stunts, not potentially-deadly structural failures visited upon unsuspecting performers. ~~~

~~~ Michael Luciano of Mediaite embeds a segment from Chris Hayes' show last night, in which Hayes spoke with Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Ca.), who led the Democratic committee report on how Trump hijacked the semiquincentennial celebration (stories and the report linked here yesterday) by devious and likely illegal means. Luciano also publishes a transcript of a portion of the interview. I do know what a bummer this, is and I sympathize if you're sick of reading about how Trump stole your holiday weekend and made you pay for it, but knowledge is power. Or something. 

Zach Montague of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Thursday confronted a Justice Department lawyer about ... [Donald] Trump’s plans to build a championship-level golf course on a peninsula in Washington, after she ordered the department to come before her with more specific details about possible construction. Judge Ana C. Reyes of the Federal District Court in Washington grew impatient during a hearing in which Michael Robertson, the government lawyer, struggled to provide a timeline or vision for what appeared to be accelerating efforts by the president to start work on transforming the East Potomac Golf Links. It was the latest in a long series of standoffs and mistrustful interactions between federal judges and the Trump administration over the president’s second-term efforts to remake parts of the capital.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Dan Diamond & Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration should pick an 'alternative site' for ... Donald Trump’s planned 250-foot-tall triumphal arch, a Washington, D.C., official told the administration last month, warning that Trump’s plan to build the structure by Arlington National Cemetery would be 'divisive.' David Maloney, the city’s historic preservation officer, said the plan to build in Memorial Circle — a traffic roundabout across the river from the Lincoln Memorial — would 'severely damage an exceptional cultural landscape and one of the most important symbolic places in the nation.' Maloney instead suggested a different spot that he said would be a better fit for the towering arch: an empty traffic oval located on South Capitol Street between Nationals Park and Audi Field.... Rodney Mims Cook Jr., a Trump appointee who chairs the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, had previously identified that site as a prospective location to build a triumphal arch.... Maloney told the Park Service on Thursday afternoon that his suggestion to build the arch on South Capitol Street 'was not an endorsement of locating an arch at this location.'...” ~~~

~~~ Marie BTW: Here's a photo of Milan's Arco della Pace, an early 19th-century construction located at the site of a gate in the city's Roman walls. Look closely and you'll see people standing under or near the massive arch. The Arco della Pace is about 82 feet tall. Trump plans to build an arch 250 feet tall (three times the height of Milan's arch). It's ridiculous. It's embarrassing.  

Matt Viser of the Atlantic: “Donald Trump has often prided himself on being a builder of grand things.... But so far, he has done more demolition and renovation than construction [in Washington, D.C]. The capital city is an absolute mess. The White House is an active construction site, with cement trucks going through the same gates typically used by the president’s armored limousine. There’s a gaping hole where half of the building once stood, a project held up by lawsuits. The South Lawn and the Ellipse, a 52-acre park between the White House and the Washington Monument, are completely torn up. The once-green grass where a temporary arena held a bloody UFC fight last month has turned brown. It looks like a demolition derby took place.” And so forth. Thank you to akaWendy for this gift link. As she writes, “Everything he touches dies.”

Coming Soon -- Trumpy Social Security Cards. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: “To commemorate America’s 250th birthday, the Social Security Administration will issue limited-edition Social Security cards to babies born from Thursday to the end of the year. The cards look similar to the standard blue wallet-sized Social Security cards the agency has issued for decades, but they are stamped with the 'Freedom 250' logo. Freedom 250 is the public-private initiative the Trump administration launched last year to organize events — often aligned with the administration — for the nation’s semiquincentennial. It is different from America250, a nonprofit established by Congress in 2016 to organize such celebrations. The Social Security Administration said Thursday the agency was not paying any licensing fees for the Freedom 250 logo and that there were no arrangements to share cardholders’ data with Freedom 250.” 

Kathryn Wilkens of Mediaite: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly helped block Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from announcing a reduction of U.S. troops in Europe last month, according to a Thursday exclusive from The Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported that Hegseth had planned to tell NATO’s top military leaders during a June meeting in Brussels that the Pentagon was preparing another round of force reductions in Europe, in addition to the previously canceled armored brigade rotation to Poland and the withdrawal of an infantry brigade from Romania. But after the proposal was shared with Rubio and other senior administration officials, it was rejected, according to people familiar with the matter. Instead of unveiling new troop cuts, Hegseth told NATO officials the Pentagon would conduct a review of the U.S. military’s force posture in Europe, a process that could take up to six months.”

Maxine Joselow of the New York Times: “A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that the Trump administration could continue removing signs and exhibits about slavery, climate change and other fraught topics at national parks across the country, at least for now. The decision reversed a lower court’s ruling that blocked the National Park Service from carrying out ... [Donald] Trump’s directive to remove all 'negative' displays. It was a temporary victory for Mr. Trump, who has sought to purge national parks, Smithsonian museums and other federal sites of what he has called 'woke' ideology. In practice, it means that the Park Service can continue deleting materials while the appeals court considers the legality of the president’s directive, an executive order titled 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.'”

Say, how is the Department of Energy helping Americans get through the massive heat wave? ~~~ 

~~~ Kathianne Boniello of Mediaite: “The U.S. Department of Energy apparently deleted its longstanding guidance that homeowners keep their air conditioning set to 78 degrees, after critics slammed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) for giving the exact same advice during the current heat wave. DC local Fox affiliate news anchor Jim Lokay noted the deletion on Blue Sky Thursday afternoon and included screenshots. The department then appeared to delete multiple web pages on air conditioning, heating and cooling, and home cooling, Mediaite found Thursday.” ~~~

~~~ Evan Halper of the Washington Post: “As punishing heat sends the U.S. power grid to the brink and Americans reel from rising electricity costs, the Trump administration is moving to weaken efficiency standards for home appliances proven to cut power demand and lower utility bills. The Energy Department on Thursday said the proposal would 'Permanently End Green New Scam Appliance Mandates.' It takes aim at energy conservation standards for a host of appliances, including air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines. For decades, Congress has required those standards to be continually updated, creating pressure on manufacturers to make each generation of new appliances more efficient.... If ultimately approved by the Energy Department following a period of public comment, the plan would inhibit future administrations from pursuing more efficient appliances and could result in Americans using gigawatts more energy than they would under the current program guidelines.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: There's no public-policy reason for this. Maybe some appliance manufacturers save a little money by not having to re-engineer their machines to meet new standards. But no one -- not even A MAGAmoron -- is pleading, "Please raise my power bill by making my washing machine more inefficient." And how about this? ~~~

~~~ Rachel Dobkin of the Independent: “Federal regulators are looking at easing restrictions on radiation exposure at the nation’s nuclear power plants. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an independent agency aimed at ensuring the safe use of radioactive materials, proposed Wednesday eliminating a standard to keep radiation exposure 'as low as is reasonably achievable,' also called ALARA.... The changes could save the nuclear industry about $9.53 million a year, according to documents from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission obtained by The Hill. Edwin Lyman, a physicist ​and nuclear safety advocate..., told Reuters, 'In eliminating its use of ​the ALARA principle, the agency's sweeping new proposed rule would allow nuclear facility workers and ​the general public ⁠to be exposed to higher levels of cancer-causing radiation just to save the nuclear industry money.'... [In May 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive] order [that] specifically called for reconsidering the commission’s reliance on the linear no-threshold model, describing it as 'flawed.'”

Ann Marimow of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for a former Fox News reporter to be required to reveal a confidential source or pay $800 a day in court fines, in a case with broader implications for the work of journalists. Catherine Herridge, the reporter, had refused to reveal her sources for articles she wrote about a scientist who was investigated by the F.B.I. She asked the justices to intervene after she was ordered by a federal judge to pay daily sanctions until she disclosed the information. The justices denied Ms. Herridge’s request in a three-sentence order that did not include reasoning or a vote count, as is often the case when the court issues emergency orders. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh noted his disagreement and said he would have granted the journalist’s request. Ms. Herridge’s case, which has alarmed First Amendment advocates, involves articles she and her colleagues wrote in 2017, when she worked at Fox News.” Politico's report is here.

Julian Barnes & Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times: “U.S. officials believed that Israel might have been plotting to kill Iran’s top negotiators while Washington was engaged with Tehran in delicate talks this spring to reach an interim peace deal, according to current and former American officials. Killing senior Iranian leaders had been part of Israel’s strategy from the start of the war. But American concerns about the targeting of two particular Iranian officials — Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Parliament — spiked during delicate cease-fire negotiations that began in April.... The United States ... went so far as to ask other countries in the region to warn Iran about the possibility Israel could target the two officials. U.S. officials acknowledged that during the intense phase of the war, Mr. Araghchi and Mr. Ghalibaf, as senior government officials, could have been legitimate targets for Israel, which was intent on toppling Iran’s hard-line government. But after the negotiations started in earnest in April, American officials believed that any attempt to kill the Iranian leaders would end the talks and reignite the fighting.” Update: the link has been changed to one that appears to be a gift link.

But Will He Call It the KKK? Tim Balk of the New York Times: “Tucker Carlson, the influential conservative media commentator, said in an interview that he planned to help start a new political party after leaving the Republican Party, but that he had no interest in running for office. Mr. Carlson, a former close ally of ... [Donald] Trump who has broken with the Republican Party over the war with Iran, told the Columbia Journalism Review that he was 'going to help build a third party.'... In the Columbia Journalism Review interview, he described some of the policies that might animate his new party, saying he supports 'ending all immigration.' A longtime nativist and immigration hard-liner prone to conspiratorial views, Mr. Carlson said immigration drives unemployment. (Many economists say it does not.)”

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Louisiana. Safiyah Riddle & John Hanna of the AP: “Louisiana’s attorney general was indicted Thursday over accusations she threatened the jobs of New Orleans leaders who fought a Republican-led overhaul of local courts in the heavily Democratic city. The 16-count indictment against Republican Liz Murrill, handed up by a New Orleans grand jury, charges Louisiana’s first female attorney general with intimidation and malfeasance. At the center of the case are deepening rifts between state leaders in Louisiana, which is heavily Republican, and Democrats who control the state’s most prominent city. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry promised a swift pardon, saying Murrill would not have her reputation tarnished by an 'Orleans Kangaroo court.' Mayor Helena Moreno, a Democrat, was among those who had accused the state’s top law enforcement official in May of making threats against public officials.”

New York. Marie: I can't even watch:

     ~~~ Miles Cohen & Hurubie Meko of the New York Times: “Two people who illegally ascended the needle of the Empire State Building on Wednesday trespassed onto the Manhattan landmark overnight and broke into several restricted areas before making their climb, according to a criminal complaint made public on Thursday in criminal court. The couple, Angela Nikolau, 33, and Ivan Beerkus, 32, unfurled a banner with a message about love and got engaged as news helicopters whirled around them. Then they were arrested by the police. They were arraigned on Thursday in criminal court on multiple charges, including burglary and reckless endangerment. According to prosecutors, Mr. Beerkus, who is identified in court documents as Ivan Kuznetsov, told the police he wanted to 'do something special for his engagement.'... The couple, who are from Russia, were the subjects of a 2024 documentary, 'Skywalkers: A Love Story,' about their romance and quest for thrills and fame. They have climbed commercial buildings worldwide, often posting about it to their large social media following.”

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Iran. Nasser Karimi & Jon Gambrell of the AP: “Iran prepared Friday for the dayslong funeral of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with banners across Tehran urging the public to rise up in support of the Islamic Republic after the devastating war that killed the 86-year-old cleric. The country’s theocracy plans to see millions flood the streets of the capital beginning Saturday in scenes reminiscent to the burial of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.”