Trump just posted the worst approval numbers of either of his terms. But don’t worry, his walking emotional support blanket is there whispering in his ear and helping him post AI slop fantasies about walking around the White House with George Washington (very normal stuff).
Meanwhile, the bills are coming due everywhere else: at the border, in the school-supply aisle, and on the national credit card.
Trump’s approval craters to a new low: A new Reuters/Ipsos poll puts Trump’s approval at 33%, the worst rating of his second term and a tie for the lowest of his political career. The Iran war is dragging him down — 80% of Americans, including most Republicans, expect the conflict to drag on, and only 20% think it was worth it. For the first time in a decade, Democrats lead Republicans on who’s better for the economy, which could be a big help for the party in the midterms.
Back-to-school sticker shock: Families are on track to spend roughly $4,000 per student this year, with supply costs up nearly 8% and school lunch prices up 11%. Things suck all over. Manufacturers like Newell Brands (maker of Sharpie and Elmer’s glue) and Logitech are blaming Trump’s tariffs for the price hikes. Nearly half of parents say they’ll have to go into debt just to cover the basics, but have they seen plans for Trump’s gilded ballroom? Try to focus on what’s important, folks.
Many children left behind: After her mother was arrested over allegedly forgotten Walmart items and both parents were deported, 19-year-old Dulce Zepeda spent nearly a year raising her 13-year-old sister alone in Fort Worth. She worked at McDonald’s, drove her sister to school, and sold her mom’s jewelry just to pay the bills. Nearly 8,900 parents of U.S. citizen kids have been detained by ICE this term, leaving an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 children in similar limbo.
Florida Republicans dump Cory Mills: GOP primary voters ousted Rep. Cory Mills after accusations that he threatened to release nude photos of an ex-girlfriend, who won a protective order against him. Gov. Ron DeSantis stayed out of the race, two fellow Florida Republicans endorsed his opponent, and Trump quietly dropped him from his endorsement list. Mills is the fourth congressman this year to lose his seat over misconduct allegations involving women (three of whom are Republicans). Is it possible the party may be developing standards (Trump not included?) Don’t hold your breath, but it’s still a positive development.
The debt clock won’t stop ticking: Remember when we used to care about the national debt? There was an entire presidential campaign about this very issue in 1992. Independent Ross Perot ran infomercials about it and everything. Now we’ve twice elected Trump because he’s a businessman who was supposed to be good for the economy and fiscal policy. How’s that working out? Well, the national debt is closing in on $40 trillion, months ahead of schedule, with debt-to-GDP now at 122%. The Treasury is paying about $3.18 billion a day just in interest, up 14% from last year, and the CBO now expects this year’s deficit to hit $2.1 trillion. So it’s going great.
Trump uses the Census Bureau to fight 2020 ghosts: Trump is touting a seven-page, unauthored Census Bureau analysis claiming more than 24,000 noncitizens voted in 2020 — a number he predicts will “explode.” The work reportedly involved people tied to a Trump-aligned think tank rather than career staff, and election researchers call the methodology “laughable,” noting the figure represents just 0.02% of the votes analyzed. But that won’t stop Trump from exploiting these figures to try to rewrite the history of his 2020 loss. And more disturbingly, we can bet his administration will use this as part of their ongoing crackdown on voting for the upcoming midterm elections.
Trump wants a Kim Jong Un reunion: Earlier this week, Trump called for join military exercises with North Korea, a huge betrayal to our longtime ally, South Korea. Now he says he expects to meet Kim Jong Un again sometime this year, praising their rapport and noting North Korea now has “57 — very powerful — nuclear weapons.” (That’s because their three prior summits produced no disarmament deal — great work).
McConnell’s nine weeks of paid leave: Sen. Mitch McConnell has drawn his full $193,000 salary through more than nine weeks of medical leave since taking a fall in June (and occasionally posting hostage photos). Meanwhile, new parents in the U.S. have no federal guarantee for paid leave, unlike virtually every other Western country.
Blanche won’t promise to keep politics out of the DOJ: Attorney General Todd Blanche said the quiet part out loud on Meet the Press. He wouldn’t pledge that the Justice Department will operate independently of the White House — breaking with the department’s longstanding policy. He also said Trump’s opinions could factor into prosecutions, insisting the president “would never ask me to do something unethical.” Republicans like John Cornyn and Thom Tillis should feel so proud for enabling this.
The unvetted aide who controls Trump’s inbox: Natalie Harp, Trump’s executive assistant and self-described devotee, has become a household name overnight, thanks to an expertly-delivered barb from Sen. Jon Ossoff. Now we’ve learned that Harp spent a full year in the White House without a security clearance while sitting in on Situation Room meetings, Oval Office huddles, and private Air Force One conversations. World leaders try to worm their way onto Trump’s schedule by calling Harp, who also answers to no one but Trump himself. What could go wrong?
The anti-trans activist who abandoned her son: Renton Sinclair is going public about his mother, Tania Joy Gibson, a former Miss Illinois turned anti-trans influencer who refers to her son by his dead name and frames his transition as demonic. He’s talking now because her platform — and the rhetoric it amplifies — has only grown, alongside legislation targeting vulnerable trans kids.
A 9-year-old conquers the Tahoe Rim Trail: Matilda Nibouar, who goes by “Tilly,” just finished the full 170-mile loop around Lake Tahoe. The trail that goes through both California and Nevada and climbs from lake level to above 10,000 feet typically takes adult thru-hikers more than a week to complete. She did it in 13 days and helped raise over $1700 for the Tahoe Rim Trail Association. Fun fact: this wasn’t her first time on the trail. Her parents carried her on the hike when she was just 1 year old.
White House reporters just can’t quit Trump: Despite a chaotic 2026 White House Correspondents’ Dinner — rescheduled after a security scare, with Trump using the mic to insult CNN’s Kaitlan Collins — the WHCA has already locked in his invite for 2027. Association president (and Fox News correspondent) Jacqui Heinrich, brushed off the blowback: “This dinner precedes President Trump. It will continue after President Trump. And we will invite the president no matter who the president is every year.” Critics note the RSVP came days after the administration reportedly left the press pool as sitting ducks on Air Force One during an active Iranian threat — hardly the moment for the White House press corps to be smoothing things over.
The White House hates sign language: In The Progressive, Mike Ervin digs into the Trump administration’s appeal of a court order requiring ASL interpreters at White House briefings, which you would think would be a weird thing to fight over. But it’s part of the Justice Department’s disturbing broader argument that disabled people shouldn’t be able to sue federal agencies at all.
What the MAGA right sees in a child: In Liberal Currents, Alan Elrod argues the modern right treats children less as people than as property. I think we got a clear view of this during the pandemic when schools became a battleground over masking and health orders (which often didn't even involve parents in the district). We’ve also seen this with curriculum fights over CRT, LGBTQ+ issues and DEI, adoption politics, and, most disturbingly, demographic “race war” rhetoric from powerful figures like Elon Musk and Stephen Miller.
Climate change supercharged Europe’s wildfires: Europe is burning. Sachi Kitajima Mulkey covers a new World Weather Attribution study in Grist, finding human-caused climate change made this summer’s fire conditions at least twice as likely in France and at least 20 times as likely in central Spain. And abandoned farmland and flammable pine plantations are making things worse.
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