News of the Week (July 5th, 2026)

Posted on July 5, 2026 by The Political Hat

 

News of the Week for July 5th, 2026


2026 Election

 

Mamdani-Backed Socialists Sweep New York House Primaries
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsement proved influential in three key congressional primary races on Tuesday, as his favored progressive candidates prevailed over opponents more closely aligned with the Democratic establishment.

New York’s Democratic Socialists Seize the Means of Election
Several days ago, news spread of a woman who was caught on camera during the New York Knicks victory parade: brazenly seizing a Knicks-themed trash can off the city street, upending its full contents onto the ground in full sight of pedestrians, and marching away with it as a souvenir. We discovered earlier today that she is named Angie Baez, and was — up until that moment at least — a JPMorganChase executive director of DEI with an activist resume a mile long, likely pulling down north of $300,000 per year given her level of seniority. In that one brief moment, my blood began to boil with something akin to the unfiltered class resentment of a staunch Zohran Mamdani supporter.

Clean Sweep: A Very Good Night for Mamdani in New York Primaries
“We have to reset the U.S. relationship with Israel.”

Postmaster general says USPS won’t deliver mail ballots if states don’t give Trump admin voter rolls
Postmaster General David Steiner told senators that, under a new proposed rule, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will not deliver mail ballots unless states hand over their voter lists to the Trump administration.

Supreme Court Lets States Accept Votes After Election Day
The Court’s decision on mail-in voting deadlines leaves more questions unanswered.

White House, RFK Jr. tried to push third-party candidates out of tight House races
“I can’t go into specifics because there’s legal prohibitions about that,” Kennedy said in an audio recording of his call to an Iowa Libertarian, urging him to make a deal to exit the race.

Voters are angry with Washington, and other takeaways from the Colorado primaries
A sitting House member and a sitting senator both lost key races in the state.

Left-Wing Insurgent Ousts 15-Term Congresswoman in Colorado
Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old democratic socialist, unseated Representative Diana DeGette in a Democratic primary to represent the Denver area.

The Democratic Socialists Continue Their Ascent in Colorado
Behold the rugged mountains of Colorado, a land once reliably Republican (in that “Western state” way) in a long-ago faraway era known as “my childhood.” Now? It is a state so predictably Democratic and run by its urban left-wing core in Denver that even the black bears distinctly smell of weed as they lazily paw through suburban garbage cans in the Centennial State.

Darializa Avila Chevalier’s Hostility to Interracial Romances and ‘Ugly Colonizer Women’ Earns Praise From Ex-KKK Grand Wizard David Duke
Duke, in a conversation with the Free Beacon, described the common ground he’s finding with Chevalier and her biggest supporter, Zohran Mamdani

 

Abortion

Court Cases & Legislation

 

How recent court ruling affects future of abortion access in Missouri
A Jackson County judge struck down several abortion-related laws, saying they conflicted with the right to abortion recently enshrined in Missouri’s constitution. Planned Parenthood Great Plains CEO Emily Wales breaks down how the ruling is affecting abortion access in Missouri.

Gun Rights

 

California’s Glock Ban Has Arrived — And It Reveals The Real Strategy Behind Its Gun Laws
One of America’s most popular handgun platforms is being pushed out of California’s marketplace, and the constitutional fight is just getting started.

Federal Court: ‘Suppressors are Arms’ Cueing Up Supreme Court to Decide Split
A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit last week ruled that suppressors are protected by the Second Amendment, exactly the opposite of a decision from the California-based Ninth Circuit.

The Black Codes Are a Cautionary Tale, Not a Useful Precedent
It has not been a great few months for Neal Katyal. As Charlie Cooke has detailed, Katyal and Hawaii got trounced, and properly so, in Wolford v. Lopez, which sought to masquerade a state law by which the government criminalizes having a gun on any private property as merely private conduct, because it allows the property owner to explicitly permit guns to be carried. Nobody in the 6–3 majority was fooled.

Second Amendment Roundup: Cert Granted on Semiautomatic Rifle Bans
The question is whether the Constitution guarantees the right to possess AR-15 platform and similar semiautomatic rifles.

Second Amendment Roundup: Supreme Court Decides Wolford
Aloha to Hawaii’s Vampire Rule on private property open to the public.

Guns, Property Rights, and the Second Amendment
The government cannot force private property owners to allow guns on their land. But the Supreme Court rightly ruled today that it also cannot impose a presumption of exclusion.

The Black Codes Are a Cautionary Tale, Not a Useful Precedent
It has not been a great few months for Neal Katyal. As Charlie Cooke has detailed, Katyal and Hawaii got trounced, and properly so, in Wolford v. Lopez, which sought to masquerade a state law by which the government criminalizes having a gun on any private property as merely private conduct, because it allows the property owner to explicitly permit guns to be carried. Nobody in the 6–3 majority was fooled.

Second Amendment Roundup: Supreme Court Decides Wolford
Aloha to Hawaii’s Vampire Rule on private property open to the public.

People with Past Mental Hospital Commitments May Regain Second Amendment Rights
From Thursday’s Seventh Circuit decision in U.S. v. Rose, written by Judge Frank Easterbook and joined by Judges Thomas Kirsch and Doris Pryor

 

Hide the Decline

Environment &“Green Energy”

 

The Model That Works
I’d like to take a moment to discuss some implications of my peer-reviewed paper about my implementation of a Constructal climate model. The paper is available here. I’ll steal some images from the paper for this discussion

Quebec town recognizes trees as living beings with rights
Terrasse-Vaudreuil 1st municipality in Canada to sign on to Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Tree

U.S. Nuclear Acceleration Effort Hits Big Milestone with Second Successful Criticality Test
Ward 250’s success confirms Trump nuclear push is delivering hardware, not just headlines.

Conservatives Urge Overturn of Trump’s Biofuel Blending Quotas
Nearly three dozen conservatives — including longtime allies of President Donald Trump — are pushing the House to overturn biofuel-blending quotas imposed by his administration, arguing they are stoking consumer costs before an election set to hinge on economic concerns.

EU court says private jet manufacturing can be labelled green investment
In 2023, the European Commission excluded aircraft used for private or commercial business aviation from this list, citing their higher CO2 emissions per passnger kilometre compared with other transport models.

 

Socialized Medicine

Government in Healthcare

 

Will the Public Health Establishment Try to Censor Policy Debates?
The Lancet’s editors have established a “commission” to recommend means by which the powers that be can stifle open debate — er, I mean, counter misinformation and disinformation — about public health and scientific policies.

Twelve-Year-Old Euthanized in the Netherlands: Not a First
The media is (properly) reporting that a Dutch doctor euthanized — i.e. killed — a sick twelve-year-old child (illness not reported). It is a “first” under a new Dutch law that allows euthanasia for children ages one to twelve.

The Anglican Church of Canada Publishes Pastoral Liturgies Blessing Euthanasia
The Anglican Church of Canada has authorized clergy to bless people being euthanized just before, during, and after being lethally jabbed (when permitted by the bishop).

War & Terror

 

Ukrainian Missiles Hit Voronezh Semiconductor Plant Behind Pantsir and Iskander-K Components
A series of explosions was reported on June 22, in the Russian city of Voronezh, with a local semiconductor manufacturing facility coming under attack.

The Violations of the MOU Have Already Begun
Elaborating on today’s grim assessment of the U.S.-Iran MOU (I might use a different three-letter acronym to describe the so-called deal): if you’re looking for a silver lining, it is that at some point, the Iranians will renege or fail to keep their word beyond what they’ve already done in a way that makes the deal a farce, and the U.S. will be able to abandon its stated commitments to a terrible deal.

Ukraine’s Drone War Trundles On
It didn’t take a recent trip to Ukraine (primarily Kyiv and Kharkiv) to convince me that the outcome of the Russo-Ukrainian war may well hinge on the drone war now being waged between the two combatants, but nothing I saw while I was there changed my mind on that topic. On the contrary. . . .

China’s most advanced aircraft carrier sails through Taiwan Strait, Taipei says
China’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the Fujian, sailed through the Taiwan Strait on June 23, the Taiwanese Defence Ministry said, the first such mission in the sensitive waterway since April.

Russia targets academics in U.S. as ‘foreign agents’ in intimidation campaign
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime is intimidating Russian organizations and scientists on American soil, according to a prominent professor speaking out about the situation.

Same Old. Same Old.
Can we please stop playing the fool for Iran?

Iran Makes a Mockery of the MOU
Catching up on how that memorandum of understanding is holding up, a dozen days after President Trump signed it; sorting out the genuine from the unverifiable good news for the Ukrainians in their defense against the Russian invasion; and a couple of National Review Institute events you won’t want to miss.

Russian Lawmaker: We Still Have Enough Equipment to ‘Blow Up Half of Finland’
Earlier this month, the parliament of Finland, the newest member of NATO, voted to change its laws to allow nuclear weapons to be deployed on its soil; Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen declared via X, “the amendment to the Nuclear Energy Act was confirmed today at the presentation of the President of the Republic. The act will enter into force on 1.7.2026. [July 1]. A historic reform of security policy, with which we strengthen the security of Finland and NATO.”

Secret Service didn’t secure mobile devices, putting leaders at risk, report says
The Secret Service left itself vulnerable to hacking due to issues with both official and personal devices, a government watchdog found in a report ordered after the assassination attempt on President Trump in Butler, Pa.

U.S. Military’s Weapons Shortage Shows Few Signs of Easing Soon
President Trump and Pentagon officials tried to reassure manufacturers as they sought additional funding from Congress.

Hegseth, Rubio, and Caine Had an Auto-Deleting Signal Chat
New records reveal that officials kept using the app, even after the president suggested they stop.

Iran’s Tests of Trump Will Keep Coming, and They’re Going to Get Worse
It was Iran’s terrorist catspaws in Hezbollah who were the first to test Trump’s commitment to his supposedly war-ending memorandum of understanding with the Islamic Republic.

Iran: Realism or appeasement?
Melanie Phillips posted her interview with Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster of the British podcast TRIGGERnometry under the title “Realism or Appeasement?” TRIGGERnometry gave it the title “Has Trump surrendered to Iran?” The discussion takes up the possible folly of President Trump’s stalemated war on the Iranian regime. Neither title quite captures the gist of the conversation.

The U.S. Approach to Iran Talks Is as Clear as Mud
The Trump administration is not speaking with one voice when it comes to its efforts to secure a durable and advantageous peace with Iran through diplomatic engagement.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say they killed Kurdish militants in northwest Iran
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had killed five members of the banned Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) in the country’s northwest, state media reported on Thursday, amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Kurdish militant groups.

Russia planning attack on Poland to test Nato resolve, US warns
Critical infrastructure could be targeted by missiles and drones, with soldiers potentially crossing the border from Kaliningrad or Belarus

 

National

 

Supreme Court Expands Presidential Power Over Regulators, but Not the Fed
In twin rulings, the justices said President Trump could fire independent regulators for any reason but explicitly affirmed the Fed’s independence and said its leaders could not be fired at will.

Supreme Court Lets $5 Million Sex Abuse Verdict Against Trump Stand
President Trump had asked the justices to intervene after a jury found that he had sexually abused and defamed the writer E. Jean Carroll.

Supreme Court rules Trump cannot fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook for now
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that President Donald Trump does not have the authority to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from the central bank for now. The court did not rule whether Trump ultimately will have the power to fire Cook or any other member of the Fed. Instead, it rejected Trump’s bid to stay a lower federal court ruling that had prevented her from being terminated as her lawsuit challenging her dismissal proceeds. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for the majority, which included his fellow conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh, as well as the court’s three liberal members, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The four other conservative justices dissented.

Supreme Court Rejects Trump Bid to Overturn $5 Million E. Jean Carroll Sex-Abuse Verdict
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by President Trump of a jury verdict that awarded E. Jean Carroll $5 million in damages after finding the president had sexually abused and defamed her.

Supreme Court Upholds Mail-In Ballots Postmarked By But Received After Election Day
Barrett joined by Roberts and the three liberals: “A Mississippi law permits the counting of absentee ballots postmarked by election day but received up to five days later. We must decide whether the federal election-day statutes preempt Mississippi’s law. They do not.”

Mistrial Declared for Accused Palisades Fire Arsonist Jonathan Rinderknecht
The jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. A retrial is slated for October.

The Miracle of Fort Moultrie
250 years ago today, resourceful men and the humble palmetto tree saved the South.

Supreme Court rejects Trump’s attempt to limit birthright citizenship
The Trump administration sought to upend the historical understanding of the 14th Amendment, which has long been interpreted to extend birthright citizenship broadly.

US supreme court rules states can exclude trans athletes from female sports
Justices voted to overturn judgments issued by lower courts in favor of trans students who sued after being barred from competing in West Virginia and Idaho

Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, rejecting Trump’s proposed limits
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship, rejecting President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.

Supreme Court Upholds Birthright Citizenship in Major Blow to Trump
The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down President Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship, finding that the order violates the 14th Amendment.

Supreme Court in Barbara Rejects Effort to Limit Birthright Citizenship
The Supreme Court this morning, in Trump v. Barbara, settled by a 5–4 vote the long debate: Children born in the United States are entitled to birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment even if their parents are illegal aliens or transients. The opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts commanded six votes, although Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the dissenters on the constitutional rule and joined the majority only on the theory that Congress had extended birthright citizenship further than the Constitution required. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch all wrote dissents. The Thomas dissent alone, which Gorsuch joined, runs 94 pages. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson also wrote a characteristically heated concurrence. I’ll be working through the opinions in the Corner. I’ll start here with a summary of how we got here.

Supreme Court Upholds Birthright Citizenship
Roberts Opinion, joined by Barrett and the liberal block, fully embraces birthright citizenship for all. Children born to women illegally or temporarily in the country “are citizens at birth.”

Does J.D. Vance Fear God?
Not really, the veep writes in his new memoir.

Birthright Citizenship: The Majority Opinion
Given the stakes and the extensive body of scholarship on the citizenship clause, the 26-page majority opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts in Trump v. Barbara is surprisingly brisk. On the question of the constitutional scope of birthright citizenship, only Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined Roberts and the Court’s three liberals.

Donald Trump brags he’d be the ‘greatest communist in history’ in front of stunned Evangelical crowd
Donald Trump triumphantly returned to the hotel where the latest assassination attempt on his life occurred to disavow the growth of communism in the US to a crowd of Christians.

How Peter Thiel’s ‘secret society’ was unmasked by security blunder
Leaked names connected to Dialog include billionaires, Trump officials and Hollywood starts, but many seemed schocked to discover what they might be part of

Short Circuit: An inexhaustive weekly compendium of rulings from the federal courts of appeal
Cocaine & waffles, voter rolls, and deeding the farm.

Young Republican Activists Are Turning Against Trump
Conservative groups at colleges across the country want a far more radical GOP.

Trump earned over $1 billion on cryptocurrency and coin ventures last year
In almost 1,000 pages of financial disclosure forms, the president’s earnings from crypto, settlements and resorts far outpaced his $600 million total income in 2024.

Trump and Crypto, Again . . .
In 2021, President Trump described cryptocurrency as a scam that could undermine the U.S. dollar. Yesterday, on the eve of the long holiday weekend observance of the Declaration of Independence’s 250th anniversary (i.e., when he had to figure attention to political news would be at its low ebb), the president released a mandatory annual financial disclosure acknowledging that he’d raked in a shocking $2.2 billion dollars last year while holding the nation’s highest public trust and the world’s most powerful office.

Explosive Diarrhea Parasite Spreads Across America Ahead of Independence Day
CDC urgently seeking source of parasitic Cyclospora outbreak that has spread to hundreds in Michigan and 20 other states.

Short Circuit: An inexhaustive weekly compendium of rulings from the federal courts of appeal
Soccer hooligans, sticky fingers at the FBI, and juries for the HHS.

 

Economy & Taxes

 

Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Fed, dies at age 100
Alan Greenspan presided over the Federal Reserve for 19 years under four presidents, from Presidents Reagan to George W. Bush. His comment in 1996 about investors’ “irrational exuberance” initially shocked the markets, but the bubble didn’t burst until 2001. “With a couple of choice words he can momentarily send the stock market to heaven or hell,” a Washington Post column said in 1997.

This absurd Social Security plan would take down progressives with it
Bernie Sanders wants a massive tax hike for the wrong priorities.

The UN’s plan to levy taxes on global trade is a sinister power grab
If these precedents on emissions charges and compulsory offsets stand, the appetite of unelected institutions for fiscal power will grow

New federal rule exposes rift between unions and their members
Unions have long sought to blur the distinctions between their interests as organizations and those of the workers they represent. Progressive politicians engage in the same rhetorical sleight-of-hand, touting their working-class bona fides by advocating for policies designed to boost the interests and clout of the unions that back their campaigns.

The Trouble With the Trump Accounts
A free $1,000 is nice, but parents’ funding is double-taxed.

The Bipartisan Plan to Kill the Economy
Senators Bernie Moreno of Ohio and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have teamed up to destroy the American economy. Under their plan, the cap on the payroll tax would end. Right now, all earnings up to $184,500 are taxed for purposes of Social Security and Medicaid.

A Counterfactual Social Security History
Workers would be much richer if Congress had passed George W. Bush;s private accounts in 2005.

What If George W. Bush’s Social Security Reforms Had Passed?
Twenty years ago, in winter and spring 2005, President George W. Bush embarked on a nationwide tour to promote his plans for Social Security reform, which included slowing the growth of benefits for middle- and high-earning individuals and establishing voluntary personal accounts in which workers could invest part of their payroll taxes. Bush’s changes to traditional Social Security benefits, termed “progressive price indexing,” would have addressed about two-thirds of the program’s long-term funding gap. By summer 2005, however, his efforts had fallen short; his plan never received a vote in Congress. But what if Congress had enacted Bush’s plan for Social Security? I model total Social Security benefits for individuals retiring in 2025, incorporating Bush’s progressive benefit changes and personal account balances based on investment market returns. Workers with very low, low, and middle earnings would have received total Social Security benefits 3–8 percent above those scheduled in current law, while high-earning employees and those earning the maximum taxable wage and above would have received benefits 2–4 percent below scheduled levels.

A Counterfactual Social Security History
Workers would be much richer if Congress had passed George W. Bush’s private accounts in 2005.

A Question for Constitutional Critics of Fed Independence
Our editorial today asks, “If the Fed is not executive, what is it?” Principally, it is a system composed of twelve chartered corporations, the Federal Reserve Banks. Such corporations were understood as a basic facet of law during and well before the American founding.

Trump’s tariffs aren’t saving jobs at Whirlpool’s Iowa refrigerator plant
If any company stood to gain from President Donald Trump’s trade war, it was Whirlpool (WHR.N), opens new tab and the workers assembling its iconic appliances in Iowa.

Why You Should Read More Thomas Sowell
Especially Basic Economics and Knowledge and Decisions

The Government Gives Away Its Beef-Price Fiction
The president wants beef prices to fall to relieve consumers, except when he wants them to rise to aid cattle ranchers. He is learning through interventionism that every price paid is someone else’s income. Therefore, the administration is seeking a scapegoat.

OpenAI proposes handing Trump administration 5% stake
Sam Altman’s start-up in early talks for a public ownership deal as political pressure rises

Nearly a Million Investors Lost a Total of $3.8 Billion on Trump Crypto Coin
A report from a cryptocurrency analytics firm details how those who bought the Trump memecoin have fared, with most retail investors having lost money while sophisticated traders did better.

 

International

 

Trump-Backed Outsider Appears to Win Colombian Presidential Race
A victory for Abelardo De La Espriella, a lawyer with no previous political experience, would be another win for the right in Latin America.

Starmer resigns as prime minister – Streeting backs Burnham
Sir Keir Starmer has announced he will resign as prime minister in a statement outside 10 Downing Street – setting out a timetable for his departure and a Labour leadership contest. Follow the latest.

Britain’s Ever Deeper Descent into Censorship
Britain’s retreat from free speech has been going on for decades. But the pace of its state-backed muzzling of opinion has picked up in recent years. The radicalized centrists who constitute the U.K.’s establishment are panicking that online opinion is disrupting their narrative. This could be tricky, because that storyline — from the beneficial effects of mass immigration to the necessity of net-zero — is daily becoming more detached from anything that can be passed off as reality. Appallingly. Britain’s Tories, whether out of (past?) center-left sympathies or — and this still seems to apply under their latest leader — nanny-statism, have gone along with this. Sometimes, Britain’s Conservatives are the left’s fellow travelers; on others, merely useful idiots.

Starmer to Step Down
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is to step down in September. When an authoritarian loses authority within his own party, it is time to go, and so Starmer is going. To resign as prime minister at a time when his or her party commands a large parliamentary majority (if little respect in the country) is particularly humiliating.

Ebola detected in France after doctor tests positive following aid mission
A French doctor who was working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has tested positive for Ebola after returning home.

How Europe Became the World Champion of Heat Deaths
The Left once promised abundance for all. Now it rations comfort as penance

Socialism kills
We are always told that it’s the greedy capitalists who cut corners and skimp on safety. But when greedy socialists do it, who is there to notice?

EU Commission HQ forced to shut down air-conditioning amid heatwave
As Brussels bakes, the Berlaymont building’s AC stops working.

In sweltering French hospital, air-conditioned waiting room offers some relief
In a private ?hospital just south of Paris, the most popular place these days is the waiting room. It has books, ?table football and a TV showing the soccer World Cup – but what staff and patients really appreciate is the air conditioning.

Scientists Built Cancer Kill Switch That Turns On With Flash of Light, Study Shows
Scientists built light-activated molecules that destroy a stress hormone receptor tied to cancer cell dormancy, with the “on” and “off” states set by different wavelengths of light. In lab tests on human lung cancer cells, the active form of the lead compound reversed dormancy-linked gene activity, while the inactive form acted as a neutral control with no measurable effect on those genes. The approach could one day let doctors target cancer cells more precisely while sparing healthy tissue, though major technical hurdles stand in the way of any use in patients.

 

Opinion

 

Trouble in the Democratic Socialists’ Paradise
The menace posed by the rise of a hate group to political prominence should not be underappreciated. But the threat it represents can be overstated if projections of its inevitable ascendancy rest on the straight-line fallacy. There will be plenty of potentially debilitating bumps along the road.

Trump’s Face Takes Over Washington
How President Trump’s face is now plastered all over federal buildings in Washington, D.C.; a strange omission in the backgrounds of Iran deal negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff; the U.S. starts to put money in the pockets of the mullahs; the White House tells you to trust Al Jazeera; and an unnerving report about how advanced Iranian military drones have become

Crying Wolf
Last weekend, details about the Iran deal started leaking out in the Iranian press. The White House and, particularly, the Vice President, said those were lies and propaganda.

Trump wanted to break the system. The system is breaking him instead.
The courts, Congress and the Constitution are doing what a weak opposition could not.

The SAVE America Act Won’t Pass
The professional class of conservative activists in Washington, D.C.; the network of think tanks, advocacy groups, media outlets, consultants, and fundraisers whose members make a paid career of conservative politics. Often used pejoratively to suggest that movement conservatism has become a self-sustaining industry more invested in its own institutional survival than in advancing the causes it claims to champion.

The American Revolution Isn’t Over
Washington’s troops won the ground war, but today’s left and right are waging war on the ideals of the Revolution.

The ‘papers, please; era of the internet will decimate your privacy
Americans, be warned: Age verification is identity verification.

Vance’s New Promised Land
As the Republican base sours on the Iran war and Netanyahu;s adventurism in the Middle East, the vice president has changed his rhetoric on Israel—positioning himself as the voice of a new MAGA foreign policy. “He sees the writing on the wall,” said one Trump administration official. “He’s trying to save his political future.”

Bernie Moreno;s Left Turn
Senator Bernie Moreno has given voters more whiplash this week than a car crash on the Ohio Turnpike. In the same week that the Buckeye State Republican warned of a “socialist uprising sweeping the Democrat Party” in New York, he teamed up with leftist Senator Elizabeth Warren to propose one of the largest tax increases in American history.

Supremes’ memo to lower courts: presidential power trumps leftist lawfare
This Supreme Court term, now in its final few days, has been focused above all on executive power.

Behind the Curtain: The cost of blind loyalty
Elected Republicans trained Trump to expect obedience, even as his demands grew impossible to satisfy.

eak Postliberalism
For the “postliberals,” this is about as good as it gets

Three Theaters. One Retreat.
There is a coherent worldview behind the Vice President’s foreign policy, and that is exactly the problem. J.D. Vance does not stumble into the outcomes he produces. He believes in them. He sees a tripartite world with America secured in its own hemisphere, Russia dominant across Europe, and China supreme in Asia. He appears willing to trade away seventy years of American primacy to build it. The retreat is the design.

Peak Postliberalism
For the “postliberals,” this is about as good as it gets

Three Theaters. One Retreat.
There is a coherent worldview behind the Vice President’s foreign policy, and that is exactly the problem. J.D. Vance does not stumble into the outcomes he produces. He believes in them. He sees a tripartite world with America secured in its own hemisphere, Russia dominant across Europe, and China supreme in Asia. He appears willing to trade away seventy years of American primacy to build it. The retreat is the design.

Excellent Ruling in Transgender Sports Cases
The Supreme Court today issued a consolidated ruling in the two cases—West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox—that present the question whether state laws that preserve girls’ and women’s sports teams for girls and women violate federal law. The plaintiff in each case is a biological male who identifies as female. B.P.J. challenged West Virginia law on the basis of both Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause. Hecox challenged Idaho law on Equal Protection grounds.

Apocalypse Not
Agree or disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision on birthright citizenship today, it leaves the government with many ways to address the practical problems that policy creates.

No Politician Is Coming to Save You
This will be the last Morning Jolt until Monday, July 6. I hope you have a spectacular Independence Day. Today, before we head into the holiday weekend, some thoughts on how you, as an independent individual, are a plenty powerful force when it comes to building a better life for yourself.

JD Vance Is Wrong About Nixon and Reagan
The vice president’s theory that the Nixon coalition was stronger and more durable doesn’t survive contact with reality.

Will Jefferson and Smith Reach the Tricentennial Intact?
This weekend marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of the Declaration of Independence — America’s birthday. And this year also marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. Both share much in common.

America Was Always Diverse
You can’t tell the story of the United States without recognizing the valor of its minorities.

The American Creed, for All Americans
America’s ideals are the heritage of all Americans, whether we’re recent arrivals or of centuries-old lineage.

From 150 to 250, this truth abides
President Calvin Coolidge celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1926, with a speech providing a magisterial review of the history and thought underlying the Declaration. His speech on the occasion deserves to be read and studied in its entirety.

The Pursuit of Happiness
The famous second sentence of the Declaration of Independence enumerates three “unalienable Rights.” The first is life, naturally. The second is liberty. Those concepts are rather standard. But the third–the pursuit of happiness–is not. It is an expression of Jefferson’s genius, I think, and it contains the seeds of what has made America unique. You will find it no other national charter, in no international human rights document. It is solely American

From 150 to 250, this truth abides
President Calvin Coolidge celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1926, with a speech providing a magisterial review of the history and thought underlying the Declaration. His speech on the occasion deserves to be read and studied in its entirety.

The Supreme Court’s Fourth Amendment Expectations Are Unreasonable
This is not how the protection of concretely described privacy interests is supposed to work.

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