Good morning. Trump officially has a trade war with Canada now, tariffs are climbing to 50% on roughly $20 billion in goods after last minute talks collapsed Friday night, and both sides are digging in. House Democrats are quietly mapping out a wave of investigations for a potential 2027 majority, and Trump himself admitted last night he expects to be impeached if they win. Also today: Kash Patel’s girlfriend just lost a defamation suit in one of several cases she’s filed over “foreign agent” claims, Trump spent Friday night ripping into Tucker Carlson, MTG, and Thomas Massie in a bizarre late night tirade, and a full rundown of everything else, from a record jump in vaccine exemptions among kindergarteners to an ICE agent’s arrest to a growing lettuce recall now linked to nearly 11,000 illnesses.
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:
Let’s get into it.
Trump impeachment:
House Democrats are quietly assembling a sprawling investigative agenda for if they retake the majority in November, with nearly a dozen early targets ranging from the Iran war and Trump’s family business dealings to the White House ballroom, his Jeffrey Epstein ties, and ICE’s immigration enforcement. The party is split on strategy: progressives like Judiciary’s Jamie Raskin call impeachment “a tool” and note most of the caucus has voted for it before, while leadership figures like Pete Aguilar insist impeachment “just doesn’t exist” as a topic in their meetings. Oversight ranking member Robert Garcia frames the focus as “Trump corruption and Trump family corruption,” citing crypto schemes, pardon sales, and defense contracts, while AOC wants a parallel track on “very real issues” like data centers straining water and power supplies and healthcare monopoly pricing.
The White House says it’s prepared to handle oversight regardless of who controls Congress, and DOJ has already issued a memo asserting executive privilege can shield some presidential communications with private advisers, which Democrats read as early stonewalling. Some members, like Josh Gottheimer, are wary of a third impeachment attempt after two failed Senate trials, joking that “the third movie is never good,” while Jeffries, the likely next speaker if Democrats win, would have to referee the divide between that caution and the appetite among roughly 140 Democrats who backed forcing an impeachment vote last December. Trump even said last night that he will be impeached if Democrats take over:
Democratic control would hand multiple committees (oversight, intelligence, judiciary, foreign affairs) subpoena power, and the administration is already preparing for it: White House lawyers have briefed Cabinet secretaries on likely subpoenas and how to respond, anticipating that agencies may stonewall or fight requests in court. Sen. Adam Schiff, who chaired Intelligence during Trump’s first impeachment, said Democrats are weighing a workaround if the administration blocks access, issuing subpoenas directly to Trump’s outside political allies or donor companies instead. Investigators are eyeing Trump Organization dealings abroad and in crypto, contracts awarded to Trump allies, and construction projects including the ballroom and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation, even as Trump’s aides deny any conflicts of interest and say his sons run the business independently.
The political stakes are tight: Democrats need only a handful of seats to flip the House, and Republicans privately worry about holding it, while the Senate is seen as a toss up by both parties. Trump was impeached twice before (2019 over Ukraine aid, 2021 over January 6) and acquitted both times in the Senate, and any member can still file impeachment articles unilaterally, as Al Green did last December before losing his primary. Beyond impeachment, House Democrats plan hearings on grocery and healthcare costs, and Rep. Robert Garcia said his Oversight Committee is spending the summer finalizing its full agenda ahead of a potential majority.
Trade war with Canada:
A trade war has officially erupted between the US and Canada after last-minute talks collapsed just before Trump’s midnight Friday deadline, triggering 50% US tariffs on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods, about 5% of everything Canada exports north to south. Prime Minister Mark Carney said Ottawa couldn’t reach a deal that would “meet our objectives,” announced he was suspending negotiations and recalling Canada’s negotiators, and vowed Canada “will match those tariffs dollar for dollar to protect our workers and businesses.” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer claimed Washington had offered “significant tariff reductions on steel, aluminum, autos, and lumber” plus a “historic economic and national security partnership,” but Carney said last-minute US changes to the terms “were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal.”
The breakdown caps a relationship that’s steadily deteriorated since Trump’s return to office, driven by disputes over Canadian provincial alcohol bans, auto and dairy quotas, and steel and aluminum duties, with Trump this week emphasizing the failed deal would have been “great for our farmers” by loosening Canada’s dairy import restrictions. The tariffs Trump is now imposing rely on a little-known, never-before-used 1930s law called Section 338, which unlike his other tariff authorities appears to carry no time limit, meaning these duties could stay in place indefinitely unless a future president removes them, and the move is expected to face legal challenges. The target list reaches far beyond the dairy, alcohol, and auto sectors at the heart of the dispute, spanning close to 500 items, from smartphones and video game consoles to clothing, jewelry, furniture, and even antiques, though Trump has so far spared major Canadian exports like energy, critical minerals, and fish.
Canadian officials and businesses are already bracing for fallout: Carney says his government will roll out “additional measures to support Canadian workers and businesses,” on top of nearly $25 billion in support provided over the past 18 months, while insisting Canada’s economic growth is “accelerating” and that Ottawa will “not allow any nation to determine our future.” On the ground, the trade war is already reshaping commerce, Montreal’s famed Schwartz’s Deli has stopped selling its Black Cherry Cola because of the US tariffs, and Canadian businesses more broadly say they fear closures without a deal in place. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she’s still “aiming to get the best agreement” for her province specifically, even as the broader standoff between Ottawa and Washington shows no sign of resolving.
Kash Patel’s Girlfriend Suffers Setback:
FBI Director Kash Patel’s girlfriend, 27-year-old country singer Alexis Wilkins, has lost a defamation lawsuit against former Republican Senate candidate Sam Parker, whom she’d accused of falsely implying in a viral X thread (1.6 million-plus views) that she was a foreign agent sent to manipulate and compromise Patel. A federal judge in the US District Court for the District of Utah ruled the case didn’t belong in that jurisdiction, and the decision drew little attention since neither party commented publicly, with Court Watch first reporting the ruling Friday. Wilkins was seeking $5 million in damages, and the case is one of several similar suits she’s filed against conservative figures making comparable “foreign agent” claims, including ex-FBI agent Kyle Seraphin and influencer Elijah Schaffer.
Wilkins has also sued MS NOW, seeking at least $75,000 in damages in the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, over a report alleging she’d repeatedly asked her FBI security detail to drive her friends home after nights out in Nashville. MS NOW journalists Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian, both named in the suit, say they relied on confidential sources for that claim. MS NOW’s legal team has moved to dismiss or transfer the case, citing lack of personal jurisdiction in Tennessee, a defense that mirrors the one that just sank her Utah case against Parker.
Wilkins’ attorneys argue the MS NOW report is false on its face, claiming she had no security detail at the time described and that she doesn’t drink alcohol. Taken together, the pattern across her lawsuits, against Parker, Seraphin, Schaffer, and MS NOW, shows Wilkins aggressively litigating claims about her relationship with Patel and her conduct, even as the jurisdictional dismissal in Utah suggests her broader legal strategy may face similar procedural hurdles going forward. Patel and Wilkins have been in a relationship since 2023, and neither has publicly commented on this week’s ruling.
Other news:
Trump spent Friday night on a furious late-night tirade against Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Thomas Massie after Carlson met with the two, branding them “LOSERS ALL,” calling Carlson “totally irrelevant” and “Low I.Q.” while demanding he take a cognitive test, dismissing Greene as “highly neurotic” and claiming she turned on him only because he stopped taking her calls, blasting Massie as a “failed politician” and “real JERK,” and signing off with the bizarre closer: “PRAISE BE TO ALLAH!”
New CDC data shows kindergarten MMR vaccination rates dipped slightly to 92.4% while non-medical exemptions jumped 17% in a single year, from 3.6% to 4.2% nationwide, the largest such increase ever recorded, with at least 280,000 kindergarteners missing the MMR shot. Vaccine expert Dr. Paul Offit and other public health officials say the decline reflects confusion sown by the administration, pointing to Trump’s August 10 executive order (signed alongside RFK Jr.) calling for splitting the MMR vaccine into three separate doses and Trump’s own false claims that combined vaccines could be “quite lethal” and that some shots look “like the size of a soda bottle.” Local officials like Cleveland’s Dr. David Margolius say federal confusion is undermining real local progress, even as they push exemption-hit pockets like Idaho and Ohio toward better numbers amid the worst measles year since 1991. The piece also traces Kennedy’s own history as an anti-vaccine activist, including his past paid role at Children’s Health Defense, undisclosed referral fees from vaccine-injury law firms, his firing of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, and false claims like MMR containing “aborted fetal debris.” Offit summarized Kennedy’s approach bluntly: “he is waging a war against vaccines” as “a zealot” who tells parents on hiking trails not to vaccinate their kids.
Tina Peters, the convicted Colorado election clerk whose prison sentence was commuted by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis in May, traveled to Washington this week for meetings with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and DOJ civil rights chief Harmeet Dhillon, pitching a plan to invoke emergency powers and assert unprecedented federal control over elections before the midterms. It’s her latest stop on a national tour spreading the same false voting-machine conspiracy theories that got her convicted, following a private White House lunch with Trump in June where she was also greeted by JD Vance and Marco Rubio. Colorado AG and gubernatorial candidate Phil Weiser, whose office helped prosecute her, called the Washington reception “perverse,” saying “she is a criminal who compromised elections and election equipment, who is entirely unremorseful,” while Polis defended his commutation but said he’s “disappointed but not surprised” she’s still spreading “baseless and inaccurate claims.” Peters is also reportedly weighing a consulting job in Shasta County, California’s elections office, offered by controversial county clerk Clint Curtis, and touted an already-debunked Census Bureau claim of 24,000 noncitizen votes in 2020 during her meeting with Lutnick.
This weekend’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix IndyCar race around the National Mall has drawn sponsorship from corporations with major business before the federal government, including Boeing ($2.8 million in lobbying last quarter alone), SpaceX, Delta ($300,000 lobbying Transportation and Congress), Shell, and Amazon, fitting a broader Trump-era pattern of corporate money flowing into opaque nonprofits around events like the inauguration, the White House ballroom, and June’s UFC matches on the South Lawn. Sen. Chris Van Hollen criticized Trump for “extracting IndyCar contributions from the same corporations he regulates” instead of lowering costs for Americans, while CREW’s Donald Sherman said the arrangement risks “significant conflict-of-interest concerns” by letting companies “grab the attention and favor of the administration” through donations or ad buys. The White House dismissed the criticism as “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” and organizers say no taxpayer money is funding the race itself, though a local official said D.C. will likely still tap congressional funds for police and other costs. IndyCar chair Bud Denker, who also heads Penske and the race’s nonprofit, spent $35 million transforming the Mall area and has openly touted sponsor placements (”Boeing is at turn six... Starlink is at turn two”), while ethics watchdogs at the Brennan Center flagged VIP packages that could let wealthy attendees buy access to federal officials at the event, calling it something that “contributes to the sense of cynicism that the public increasingly has.”
The FDA says recalled Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce from a Mexican facility may have reached nine more states and territories than previously known (California, Delaware, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, plus D.C. and Puerto Rico), expanding America’s largest-ever cyclosporiasis outbreak, which now totals 10,930 illnesses across 17 states tied specifically to this lettuce. Nationally, CDC data shows over 27,000 cyclospora cases across more than 40 states, with Michigan hardest hit at 14,277 cases, 335 hospitalizations, and two deaths, some linked to Taco Bell locations that have since pulled the lettuce. Separate, still-unexplained outbreaks are also growing, with the largest jumping from 172 to 201 cases in just the last few days, and HHS says it’s working with state and local officials to trace exposure sources. Cyclospora spreads only through human waste contaminating water or produce, and symptoms like explosive diarrhea and severe dehydration typically don’t appear until two weeks after exposure, which is part of why outbreaks like this one are so hard to trace before tainted products disappear from shelves.
At least 16 people were killed and more than 130 wounded, including 22 children, when Russian drones struck a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskiy’s hometown, on Friday, with a second drone hitting the site roughly half an hour after the first in what Zelenskiy called a deliberate “double tap” targeting emergency responders; nine people, including two children, remained missing as of Saturday, a separate Mykolaiv strike the same day killed four (three of them children), and the attack came a day after a Russian ballistic missile strike killed 17 in Kyiv, part of an escalating air war as the fighting nears the four and a half year mark.
ICE agent Thomas Bailey, 58, was jailed Friday in St. Tammany parish, Louisiana, charged with unauthorized entry after allegedly breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment near Covington without permission while she wasn’t home. Bailey works out of ICE’s Oakdale, Louisiana office, roughly three hours away, and could face up to six years in prison and a $1,000 fine if convicted. ICE said it couldn’t comment on the specific case but stressed it “takes all allegations of employee misconduct seriously” and that “the vast majority” of its employees act with “professionalism and honor.” The arrest adds to mounting scrutiny of ICE’s hiring practices amid rapid expansion under Trump’s deportation push, following AP reporting that at least two dozen ICE employees and contractors have faced criminal charges since 2020, and border chief Tom Homan’s admission that an ICE officer involved in a fatal Maine shooting likely “should have ever cleared vetting.” A recent PBS/NPR/Marist poll found 65% of Americans believe ICE has gone too far in its immigration crackdown. Body camera footage shows ICE agents using racial slurs during immigration operations:
California AG Rob Bonta’s office and Paramount Skydance are set to meet Monday for settlement talks aimed at resolving the multistate antitrust lawsuit challenging Paramount’s $111 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, ahead of a March trial. The push comes after Gov. Gavin Newsom, gubernatorial frontrunner Xavier Becerra, and LA Mayor Karen Bass all signaled they’d prefer the case settle rather than go to trial, with Newsom saying “there are many meetings going on” and that he’s “appreciative” of Bonta’s stated preference to resolve disputes “in the boardroom instead of the courtroom.” Bonta, who sued alongside 11 other state AGs in July over concerns spanning theatrical film distribution and basic-cable licensing, insisted any settlement talks would be “unproductive absent robust structural remedies,” warning the merger as proposed “will mean higher costs, less competition, lower wages, job cuts, and fewer movies and TV shows.” Newsom also said he takes seriously Paramount’s threat to leave California over the litigation, a threat Bonta has separately called a form of “blackmail,” and momentum for a settlement has been building from other stakeholders too, including the country’s three largest theater chains, two Hollywood unions, and roughly a third of state legislators representing LA County.
Karoline Leavitt confirmed Friday that after leaving her post as White House press secretary at the end of August, she’ll join MAGA Inc., the Trump-aligned super PAC sitting on over $350 million ahead of the midterms — a role she held before joining Trump’s 2024 campaign. She hasn’t specified her title but said “you guys will still see me all the time,” and Friday’s flight to Myrtle Beach for a Lindsey Graham rally was her last official trip as press secretary. Trump has called her a future “top adviser” and said he’s received an unprecedented number of applications for her replacement, with CNN’s Scott Jennings and Katie Miller (wife of Stephen Miller) reportedly among the top contenders. Leavitt says she’ll still join Trump on the midterm campaign trail, including September’s GOP convention in Dallas.
See you soon.
— Aaron
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