Good evening, everyone. I’m pressing forward on my reporting about service members, and I’ve shared with you several exclusive stories directly from aboard America’s aircraft carriers below. The Trump White House says my reporting “misrepresented” what’s happening on these ships. Judge it for yourself.
Meanwhile, I went back to Mitch McConnell’s house, since he hasn’t been seen publicly in 60 days now. I also sat in on a major court hearing in the Epstein/Katie Phang lawsuit, where the judge torched the DOJ. And finally, we learned the CIA has been conducting extrajudicial killings in Ecuador, all while Trump tries to put his name back on the Kennedy Center.
An insane news day, to say the least. See you tonight for our paid subscriber live in a couple hours.
The White House and those around it want me to stop reporting on the treatment of our service members. Just like they wanted me to stop reporting on Epstein and on McConnell. Here’s my message: I will not. No matter how much they attack my reporting, I will push forward with the facts, and I’m sending everything I have to Congress. Subscribe to support my work. I need your support now more than ever.
Here’s the news:
Service Members Expose the Truth:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rejected my reporting of worsening conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, including a sailor going overboard and declining crew mental health, calling the coverage “completely misrepresented.” That denial stands in direct contrast to the firsthand accounts I’ve received from multiple military spouses and family members describing exhaustion, food and supply shortages, and mental health struggles among the crew.
Since the story about the USS Abraham Lincoln first broke, I’ve heard from military spouses and family members almost every day, and their accounts keep painting the same picture: exhausted sailors, dismissive leadership, and a crew that feels like no one outside the ship is listening. Below are four of those accounts, shared directly with me.
A wife of a service member currently aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln wrote to me to say her husband, who has been following the coverage of conditions on the ship, told her they “desperately need more people to speak up about what is happening.” She said that when sailors ask their commanding officer for updates, they’ve been told not to worry about updates and to “just worry about today,” and that the crew is exhausted, getting no days off, and running on only a few hours of sleep. Her husband also raised serious concerns about leadership aboard the ship, telling her bluntly that “he doesn’t care about his people.” She said sailors with more than 20 years of service are calling this the worst deployment they’ve ever experienced, which she found extremely concerning given how much experience those service members have. She told me she’s sharing this because these sailors need someone to speak for them and feel unheard, and she wanted to be clear she’s doing this because the concerns need to be heard, not to put her husband or anyone else on the ship at greater risk.
A Navy wife wrote to me directly to say the food and supply shortages are not limited to the USS Abraham Lincoln. She told me she’s been specifically told the USS Boxer has faced similar shortages of food and basics like toothpaste and deodorant, and she’s also heard indirectly that other ships are experiencing the same. She said the Boxer has reportedly been out of caffeine and nicotine for some time as well, which she called trivial compared to food shortages but still concerning when combined with 12-plus-hour workdays at sea for months with no days off, something she and others see as “a potential accident waiting to happen.” She also told me USPS has suspended mail for service members in the region, making it impossible for families to send supplies through care packages. And a sailor’s own texts, shared with me separately, describe no workable toilets near their berth, no nearby water fountains, undercooked chicken and beans, irregular mail, and having to ask other sailors for deodorant and body wash because the ship’s store has run out and hasn’t been resupplied.
One mother wrote to me that her son, who has served in the Navy for 12 years, is aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and calls this “the worst deployment ever.” She told me he went to mental health last month, has lost significant weight from working around the clock, and is now also dealing with conflict with a bunkmate. She said her grandson, who is 9 years old, asks weekly whether his dad is going to die overseas, calling it “heartbreaking,” and she told me that while she believes the Navy itself is great, “our administration gets an F.” She said her family has hung yellow ribbons and wreaths in support and thanked me for covering the story. Her account lines up with the sailor’s own texts describing exhaustion, mental strain, and a ship that “can’t handle it anymore,” which tells me the toll I’ve been reporting on matches what families are living through directly.
A separate military spouse, married to an Air Force reservist pilot deployed to the Middle East since March, reached out to flag what she believes could be a bigger story. She told me mental health professionals are reportedly being pulled from bases beyond just the Navy and Air Force, based on what she’s observing from a small base in Northern California. She said she’s only one person dealing with this but wanted to raise it in case it points to a wider pattern worth investigating. She also thanked me for continuing to cover the USS Lincoln story even as an Air Force spouse, telling me the strain of this deployment isn’t isolated to the Navy but is being felt across every branch. Her message, and the others I’ve received, all point to the same thing: families feel this human cost is being under-reported, and they want civilians to understand what military households are going through right now.
Department of Justice Torched:
A federal judge floated the possibility of holding Trump’s Department of Justice in contempt after government lawyers repeatedly delayed or rebuffed his orders in a lawsuit over redacted Epstein files, telling a Thursday hearing “it’s not a threat, it’s a promise” and that he takes his job to “administer justice” seriously. The case stems from journalist Katie Phang’s lawsuit accusing Attorney General Todd Blanche’s DOJ of violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act by withholding documents or failing to adequately justify redactions, a suit Judge Emmet Sullivan sided with in June. Sullivan held the hearing publicly rather than sealed, saying “the public has a right to know what the hell is going on in this case” and that victims “deserve to know,” and he’s now demanding the DOJ provide additional proof to justify continued withholding, which he plans to review privately with attorneys before deciding on further releases. Complicating Thursday’s proceedings, DOJ lawyer Andrew Block, added to the case less than 24 hours earlier, appeared largely unprepared to discuss the case or offer a compliance timeline. Among the contested materials are interview notes involving unsubstantiated assault claims against Trump that the DOJ calls duplicative of other records, though Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing and appearing in the files does not imply otherwise. I was at the hearing today. Here’s what I saw:
The DOJ maintains it has never “knowingly violated” the transparency law and argues in court filings that producing unredacted versions of many contested records “would contravene the settled application” of the law, while Phang’s attorneys have accused Blanche of bad-faith stalling, writing that his request to freeze case deadlines “lacks any legal basis” and “has no basis in reality.” Redactions also reportedly cover the names of Epstein’s associates and potential co-conspirators, as well as survivors’ identities in communications the DOJ says “can appear disturbing on their face,” though Sullivan’s order did not require releasing survivor names. The dispute unfolds just as Blanche, Trump’s former personal defense attorney, was sworn in as attorney general this week after a contentious confirmation fight centered partly on his handling of the Epstein files. The administration has released millions of pages of Epstein-related documents but faces continued accusations of shielding records tied to people in Epstein’s orbit, including Trump himself, and a broader network of powerful figures. The Independent notes the case centers on materials from investigations into Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on trafficking charges.
McConnell Update:
Two months after Sen. Mitch McConnell’s June 14 fall and hospitalization, which involved a 911 call referencing cardiac arrest before he clarified he’d had no heart attack or stroke, Democratic Senate candidate Charles Booker says frustration over the lack of transparency is dominating conversations across Kentucky, arguing that if McConnell is incapacitated he should step down and release video proof he can still serve. McConnell, 84, was discharged from a rehab facility to recover at home on August 6 and hopes to return when the Senate reconvenes September 14, but has released no new photos or video since July 27, and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has sent escalating letters demanding either proof of his capacity to serve or his resignation. Republican reaction has split, with allies like Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. John Barrasso describing him as “fully engaged” in phone calls, while others like Sen. Tommy Tuberville have publicly pushed for a visible update. I went to McConnell’s home today. Here’s what I found:
CNN’s Scott Jennings, Mitch McConnell’s former political director and longtime friend, said the Kentucky senator “seemed to be doing a lot better” after a phone call, noting McConnell left his rehab facility several days ago and is now recovering at home following a fall that hospitalized him in early June. Jennings said McConnell, who is intensely private “about males of that generation,” is hopeful of returning to Capitol Hill by September 14 when the Senate reconvenes, though he’s not seeking reelection and will leave office in January after Kentucky’s November election. McConnell, who has dealt with repeated falls and public freezing episodes in recent years, said in his most recent statement he’ll continue an “intensive regimen of physical therapy from home” while staying engaged with staff and colleagues on Senate business.
Kennedy Center:
The Trump-appointed Kennedy Center board voted a second time to close the performing arts institution for renovations, according to sources briefed on the decision, and also voted to add an inscription below the venue’s sign reading “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.” As part of the plan, the board agreed to keep a smaller portion of the complex, the REACH, open to host smaller-scale shows even while the main building undergoes work. One source said the inscription isn’t meant to formally “rename” the center, while another described it as a “permanent reminder” of Trump’s role in reshaping the institution.
The vote follows months of legal turmoil after Trump pushed to close the center for a two-year renovation he said was needed because it was “in bad condition,” and after the board voted in December to rename it the Trump Kennedy Center. In May, U.S. District Judge Casey Cooper blocked the planned two-year closure and ruled the board had violated the law by adding Trump’s name to the venue, writing that the center’s founding law “makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy” and cannot bear another formal name “based on the Board’s unilateral say-so.” Trump’s name was removed from the building’s facade in June following that order, and the institution’s name remains covered by tarps.
Beyond the legal fight, the Kennedy Center has struggled with slumping ticket sales, artist withdrawals, political controversy, and a diminished staff, all of which sources familiar with the matter say have made restarting full programming difficult. The renovation drama is playing out alongside other Trump-related controversies at the center, including a judge’s ruling just a day earlier ordering the Kennedy Center to pay $250,000 to a performer who canceled a show over the addition of Trump’s name. CNN has reached out to the Kennedy Center for comment on Thursday’s vote.
CIA Bombings:
The Washington Post has learned that mysterious strikes on Ecuadorian fishing boats near the Galápagos Islands this year were carried out as part of a covert CIA program, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who described it as a “covert action” operation approved by the president but not publicly acknowledged by the U.S. government. No agency has claimed responsibility for the incidents, which include the January disappearance of the fishing vessel Fiorella and its eight crew members, and survivors from two other attacked boats, the Don Maca and the Negra Francisca Duarte II, described small drones dropping munitions or crashing into their vessels before armed men hooded and cuffed them and flew them to El Salvador, only to release them back to Ecuador later without explanation.
Flight-tracking data shows a surveillance-equipped Cessna Citation Longitude jet, callsign FENIX 701, repeatedly flying from El Salvador’s Ilopango airport toward the fishing boats’ locations on the days of and before each strike, then going dark over the Pacific in patterns consistent with covert operations. The plane operated under a U.S. registration number with no matching FAA registration on file, tied to a shell company listing only a UPS mailbox in Virginia as its address, and Ilopango itself was previously a hub for CIA-backed operations supporting Nicaraguan contras in the 1980s. The CIA and Pentagon both declined to confirm involvement, and no evidence has publicly emerged that any of the crew members were involved in drug trafficking, with survivors telling the Post they were simply fishing.
The CIA program is entirely separate from the Pentagon’s publicly acknowledged campaign against suspected drug-trafficking boats, which has killed 221 people since September using drones, gunships, and precision munitions, and which the administration has refused to fully detail despite bipartisan congressional pressure, including withholding video of a strike that killed shipwrecked survivors of an earlier attack. Former U.S. officials told the Post they were puzzled why the administration would run a secret parallel operation at all, with one asking, “What would be the purpose of the secrecy?”
The revelation comes amid a broader expansion of CIA counternarcotics authority under Trump, who signed an order permitting lethal covert action against transnational criminal organizations, an authority the agency has already used to help track and enable the January capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Survivors described spotting drones and a circling aircraft in the days before their boats were hit, and in the Don Maca’s case, a cook was making ceviche when he waved at a drone that then dropped an explosive, followed by a second drone strike that disabled the boat’s engine and left one crew member bleeding from the eyes. El Salvador’s government, a close Trump ally under President Nayib Bukele, has not responded to requests for comment, though its navy has publicly described its role in some incidents only as “humanitarian” rescues of shipwreck survivors.
Other news:
The Trump administration’s dissolution of USAID has gutted maternal and neonatal care worldwide, with the AP documenting deaths of women and children from Nepal to Myanmar to Nigeria despite the U.S. government’s insistence that no one has died from the funding cuts; a Lancet study projects the cuts could lead to more than 14 million deaths, including 4.5 million children under five, by 2030. In Nepal’s Rautahat district, a canceled $35 million USAID-funded program that had trained health workers and equipped birthing centers is now linked to a resurgence in maternal and newborn deaths, with one village going from zero neonatal deaths in 2024 to five since the program ended in December. The piece centers on Kabita Mukhiya, a 20-year-old mother of three who died from eclampsia and severe anemia after her fourth pregnancy went unmonitored once local nutrition and outreach programs lost their funding; she lost the baby and then her own life within days, leaving her three young children in the care of elderly relatives. Health workers and officials say routine prenatal visits, blood tests, and home checks that once caught warning signs early have vanished along with the funding, and even the data needed to track the toll has collapsed since the workers who counted such deaths lost their jobs.
President Trump has signed a national security memorandum directing the Navy to abandon the electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) on future Ford-class carriers and revert to traditional steam catapults, according to U.S. officials cited by the Wall Street Journal. The order specifically requires the fourth Ford-class carrier, the Doris Miller, and all subsequent ships to be redesigned around steam catapults, while the first three carriers, the Gerald R. Ford, John F. Kennedy, and Enterprise, will keep EMALS. The decision reverses years of resistance from the Navy and defense industry, largely because retrofitting the design would require substantial rework and could cost billions of dollars. Trump has long criticized EMALS as overly complex and less reliable than steam catapults, a complaint he’s voiced publicly for years. The move locks in a major technological reversal for the future of U.S. aircraft carrier design.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sidestepped a major ruling Thursday on Trump’s use of the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Tren de Aragua gang members, dismissing the case as moot after the administration removed all three plaintiffs from the U.S. using other legal authorities, per NBC News. The case had bounced through the courts after the Supreme Court blocked the government last year from immediately removing the men without a chance to challenge it, a three-judge panel then ruled against Trump in September, and the full 17-judge court, the most conservative in the country, agreed to rehear it in January at the administration’s request. Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote that the deportations were “unobjectionable” since the Supreme Court had said the government could remove the plaintiffs under other laws, and the court declined to let plaintiffs’ lawyers substitute in new plaintiffs to keep the case alive. The dismissal leaves the core legal question over Trump’s use of the wartime law unresolved and likely pushes back any definitive Supreme Court ruling, even as the ruling underscores how the broader effort to invoke the Alien Enemies Act has largely fizzled.
A federal judge dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit alleging Harvard failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment, with U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns ruling the government hadn’t plausibly shown an ongoing civil rights violation on campus, per Reuters. Stearns found the allegations centered mostly on incidents during the 2023-2024 school year tied to protests over Israel’s war in Gaza, with only a handful of later incidents cited from March 2025 that he called “too isolated and episodic” to sustain the claim. The lawsuit, filed in March, was part of the administration’s broader clash with Harvard, which it has said it’s suing to “recover billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies awarded to a discriminatory institution,” and comes alongside separate ongoing fights over more than $2 billion in frozen research grants and an earlier blocked effort to bar Harvard from enrolling international students. Harvard denied the underlying claims, calling the suit “yet another pretextual and retaliatory action by the administration for refusing to turn over control of Harvard to the federal government,” while maintaining in court filings that it “condemns antisemitism and is committed to ensuring that Jewish and Israeli students... can learn and participate fully in campus life free from harassment.”
Luigi Mangione is expected to plead guilty Friday to federal charges tied to the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, according to sources familiar with the matter, just weeks before he was set to stand trial in a separate state murder case, per NBC News. It’s unclear whether he’ll plead guilty to one or both stalking-related federal charges, and sources caution the deal isn’t final until Mangione himself enters it, something he could still back out of even during the hearing; if convicted, he faces a possible life sentence. The Justice Department had initially sought the death penalty in the federal case before a judge blocked that in January, and if Mangione pleads guilty federally, his lawyers are expected to seek dismissal of the state charges on double jeopardy grounds, though prosecutors could argue the federal stalking law and state murder law address different harms. In the state case, Mangione has pleaded not guilty to eight felony counts, including second-degree murder, with jury selection set to begin next month. Mangione, accused of shooting Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel in December 2024 before a multistate manhunt led to his arrest at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, has since become a polarizing figure amid broader public anger over the U.S. healthcare system.
See you soon.
— Aaron
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