Good morning, everyone. Lots of news to cover this morning. I’m on my way to Mitch McConnell’s home to try to get more information about the senator from Kentucky’s current status. Meanwhile, horrible economic news came out this morning as the United States economy lost 23,000 jobs, the third-worst jobs month since the pandemic, and it comes as Republicans say Trump is officially detached and “retreated into denial” as his approval tanks, investigations prepare to launch, and he sees the writing on the wall for the midterm elections. It all comes as Senator Lisa Murkowski says she will vote no on Todd Blanche’s confirmation.
Lots to cover, and I just wanted to say thank you all for your support. I’m working on some exciting projects, including a live show that’s set to start nearly every night soon. We’re ramping up, not slowing down.
Here’s the news:
Trump detached:
Trump’s own advisers say the president has retreated into denial as his approval rating cratered to 32 percent in a Quinnipiac poll, the lowest of his political career and worse than his standing after January 6, with 68 percent of voters saying he isn’t focused enough on the issues affecting most households. An insider told Axios he’s leaned into “the hobbies that distract from his terrible polling numbers,” while Maggie Haberman said roughly 70 percent of his bandwidth now goes toward construction projects and monuments, calling it “a legacy thing.” His three main preoccupations, war, tariffs, and building monuments to himself, all poll poorly and show no sign of winning over the public.
Trump’s distraction has cost Republicans their longtime advantage on economic trust, with a new Reuters poll finding voters now evenly split on which party handles fiscal responsibility better, erasing a nine-year GOP lead. Party leaders are privately frustrated that roughly $400 million sits untouched in Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC, with insiders saying his refusal to spend on competitive races has sapped donor enthusiasm. Rather than shift strategy, Trump has focused on the SAVE America Act, a citizenship-documentation voting bill Republicans have repeatedly told him can’t pass, and he’s responded by blaming Senate Majority Leader John Thune and threatening to oust him.
Aides say Trump would rather show visitors renderings of his White House ballroom, his planned Triumphal Arch, the new Air Force One, Dulles Airport redesigns, or the South Lawn helipad than discuss policy. Senior congressional Republicans reportedly believe, based on their own numbers, that the party could lose the House and possibly the Senate, and have urged Trump to pivot to affordability messaging, though they privately doubt he’s capable of the change. Trump himself admitted in a Wednesday interview that Republicans likely face a midterm “bloodbath,” but shrugged off the implications, telling Punchbowl News, “They’re angry at Republicans. They’re not angry at me.”
Blanche:
Senator Lisa Murkowski announced Friday she’ll vote against Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general, joining Susan Collins in opposition and, with Mitch McConnell out indefinitely and Democrats expected to vote no, putting a third GOP defection within reach of blocking the confirmation outright. Murkowski said despite “numerous constructive meetings” with Blanche, she lacks confidence he’d check “the worst impulses” of the administration, and she criticized what she called the “politicization” and even “weaponization” of the Justice Department, citing its handling of the Epstein files and skepticism that the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, which she called a “slush fund,” is truly off the table.
Senator Bill Cassidy remains undecided, telling NBC News “no comment” on how he’ll vote. Blanche’s confirmation has already been rocky, with Sens. Cornyn and Tillis previously withholding support over the fund and audit-immunity concerns until Blanche provided written assurances and met privately with Epstein survivors, though survivor Dani Bensky called that meeting “not productive,” a characterization Blanche disputes. Democrats have separately criticized the DOJ for redacting survivors’ personal information while not doing the same for people who may have participated in the abuse, and have warned loopholes could still allow the weaponization fund to be revived.
Economy:
The U.S. economy unexpectedly shed 23,000 jobs in July, a sharp miss from expectations of +85,000 and the third-biggest monthly job loss since the pandemic hit in 2020. The unemployment rate actually fell to 4.1%, coming in below the 4.2% forecast. June’s already-weak jobs figure was also revised down by an additional 37,000 jobs, compounding the grim picture of a labor market losing momentum faster than economists anticipated.
Economist Justin Wolfers called new jobs data “a big kick in the guts,” noting payrolls came in far weaker than expected as the U.S. lost 23,000 jobs in July, badly missing forecasts of +80,000. He also flagged steep downward revisions to prior months, with May cut to +63,000 from +129,000 and June cut to +20,000 from +53,000, prompting him to urge people to “revise down your views substantially.” Wolfers explained the scale of the miss: the expected +80,000 gain versus the actual -23,000 print, combined with -103,000 in downward revisions to the prior two months, means the economy created roughly 200,000 fewer jobs over the past three months than previously believed.
Fox Business on the July jobs report: “Minus 23,000! No rebound for the July jobs report ... a disappointing jobs reports”
Other news:
Wisconsin police used the surveillance network Flock to track Edward Abrams-Phillips’s frequent trips across state lines to Michigan, where marijuana is legal, and cited that travel pattern in a criminal complaint as probable cause to search his car for weed once he returned to Wisconsin. Court records show police tracked his vehicle hitting multiple Flock cameras over the course of a day, from Wisconsin into Michigan and back, before intercepting and pulling him over near Green Bay. Abrams-Phillips was originally wanted for bail jumping tied to domestic violence charges, but that charge was ultimately dismissed, leaving him convicted only of the marijuana possession charge that stemmed from the Flock-enabled search. The case highlights how license plate reading networks like Flock, marketed to police for public safety purposes, are being used to build pretexts for searches based on lawful interstate travel to states with different drug laws.
All eight Flock license plate reader cameras in Winona, Minnesota, were found stolen Saturday, with police discovering the poles cut down and dumped nearby, part of a nationwide backlash against the surveillance technology that has already led 23 jurisdictions to cancel or reject Flock contracts over privacy concerns. Each camera costs $3,000 to replace, and none had recorded any activity before going missing, with police still searching for them as of August 4. Critics like Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, a former WWE wrestler, have warned the cameras enable warrantless tracking of people’s movements even though they’re not supposed to be used for surveillance without a warrant. The pushback comes amid reported cases of police misuse, including a Missouri officer who admitted using Flock to track his ex-wife’s location during their divorce without facing criminal penalties since Missouri law doesn’t prohibit it, and a Mooresville, North Carolina, officer who was arrested after allegedly using the system 31 times to track her boyfriend’s ex-wife.
Trump signed two executive orders Thursday aimed at narrowing birthright citizenship and cracking down on "birth tourism," just over a month after the Supreme Court struck down his earlier attempt to end automatic citizenship outright. The first order targets children born to foreign diplomatic staff, "alien enemies" including foreign terrorist organizations, and women who enter the U.S. solely to give birth for citizenship purposes, while also addressing U.S. territories if Congress changes the law there. The second order directs the State and Homeland Security departments to issue new rules against birth tourism, with deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller arguing that misrepresenting tourism intent while planning to give birth constitutes visa fraud; notably, the administration's estimate of over 3.5 million such births annually vastly exceeds Census-based estimates of about 26,000 a year, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, once seen by staffers as a promising leader given his business and gubernatorial background, is now facing widespread internal criticism over a workplace described as secretive, dysfunctional, and hostile, with eight former officials and five industry lobbyists telling POLITICO the agency has lost thousands of staff and several top officials, including its Senate-confirmed legal counsel and former chief of staff. Staffers allege a culture obsessed with avoiding paper trails, including routine document shredding, disappearing Signal messages for scheduling, and Burgum's early push for an additional secure SCIF facility despite one already existing in the building, allegations Interior spokesperson Katie Martin denies, calling them "Fake News" driven by "Trump Derangement Syndrome." The dysfunction claims coincide with a public clash between Burgum and D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who abruptly moved to drop vandalism charges tied to the botched, over-budget Reflecting Pool renovation after concluding Interior officials misled prosecutors by withholding evidence that the damage stemmed from shoddy installation work rather than deliberate destruction.
ICE will begin equipping officers with body cameras nationwide by the end of September, but its policy gives the agency broad discretion to withhold footage of shootings and other serious incidents whenever officials decide release isn’t in the agency’s “best interests.” A review committee can recommend releasing video within 72 hours of an incident, but the ICE director can indefinitely block or delay release if he finds “specific and compelling circumstances,” with no elaboration on what qualifies. The rollout follows congressional pressure after two fatal shootings last month, in Houston and Maine, that weren’t captured on body cameras because officers hadn’t yet been equipped, despite Congress allocating $20 million for the cameras back in April.
The U.S. is battling several simultaneous salmonella outbreaks tied to contaminated eggs, recalled jalapeño peppers, and contact with backyard poultry and pet chameleons, sickening hundreds across dozens of states with at least one death reported. The egg outbreak has caused 98 cases and 26 hospitalizations in 17 states, linked to eggs from Midwest Poultry Services sold under brands like Simple Truth, Kroger, and Cal-Maine, while the jalapeño outbreak has sickened 345 people in 27 states, with most cases traced to Mexican-style restaurants like Chipotle and Qdoba between June and July.
Separately, backyard poultry contact has caused 814 illnesses across 44 states, including one death and 201 hospitalizations, with a quarter of cases in children under 5, while a smaller, now-closed outbreak tied to pet veiled chameleons sickened five children under 3 earlier this year. Salmonella symptoms, including cramps, fever, and sometimes bloody diarrhea, typically appear within six hours to six days of exposure and last four to seven days, and while most people recover without treatment, antibiotics are generally avoided since they can prolong how long a person remains contagious. Experts recommend basic food safety steps like cleaning, separating raw and ready-to-eat foods, cooking meat and eggs thoroughly, and chilling perishables quickly, along with keeping children under 5 away from chameleons and avoiding kissing or snuggling pet poultry and reptiles.
Rep. Andy Ogles has lost his Republican primary in Tennessee, NBC News projects, falling to Charlie Hatcher, the state’s former agricultural commissioner, despite Trump’s backing of Ogles. Hatcher won by rallying support from prominent establishment Republicans and is now a heavy favorite in the general election in the deep-red district. His loss adds to what’s been an unusually high number of incumbents losing renomination this primary season.
Investigators recovered the remains of 57 people, many in various states of decomposition, from South Chicago Chapel funeral home on the city’s Southeast Side Thursday, after state and city officials tipped off the Cook County medical examiner’s office to “decedents improperly stored” at the site. Police say a state regulator had already revoked the funeral home’s license Wednesday over a complaint that bodies weren’t being kept at or below the required 40 degrees, and during the inspection they found the remains scattered unrefrigerated throughout the building; the funeral director, Clark Morgan, initially refused to let officers back in without a warrant, then locked the doors and left, prompting fire personnel to force entry. State records show Morgan’s own funeral director license was revoked in 2024, and the business’s registered director, his wife Johanna Morgan, had her license temporarily suspended this week after regulators cited “deplorable conditions including rodent infestation” and maggot-infested bodies. Neighbors said they’d noticed a persistent, dead-animal-like odor in the area for about two months despite the funeral home appearing active, staging a funeral as recently as last week.
A car crash occurred live on-air during a traffic report, prompting the reporter to blurt out “oh sh*t” in real time.
Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the U.S., dropped to a record-low water level of 1,040.5 feet on Thursday, surpassing the previous low set in July 2022 and marking its lowest point since the reservoir was created nine decades ago. Combined with Lake Powell, the two reservoirs haven’t been this depleted since 1957, before Lake Powell even fully filled, as experts describe them as the region’s “savings account” being drawn down after 25 years of persistent drought and river overallocation. Contributing factors include minimal snowpack last winter and one of the lowest runoff years on record, part of a more than 20-year downward trend that has exposed “bathtub rings” along the shoreline and even revealed a body in a barrel back in 2022. The decline comes as the seven states relying on the Colorado River remain locked in unresolved negotiations over water cuts, with a new 10-year federal operating framework potentially requiring lower basin states to collectively cut up to 3 million acre-feet annually, and two-year guidelines expected soon to specify roughly 20% cuts for those states through 2028. Experts warn even these measures may not be enough, with one calling the record low “not a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention.”
See you soon.
— Aaron
