In a relatively quiet summer week, with Congress out of session, Trump pushed forward on his personal agenda, while the issues impacting most Americans got left by the wayside.
There was nary a focus on the issues impacting Americans like affordability, healthcare, and rising rates. Instead, Trump and his regime pushed full steam ahead on his D.C. pet projects, and pursuing his petty grievances and political adversaries. Trump continued to lose the support of the American people, with his approval hitting new lows, while 7 in 10 Americans said his business dealings were influencing his decisions as president. In a sign of his waning influence within his own party, Trump-endorsed candidates lost three primaries this week, bringing the total this season to 10, the highest number since 2022.
Trump’s Iran war came to a standstill, with no end in sight, and seemingly no strategy going forward. Reports of poor living conditions and sailors’ mental health issues aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and other ships made headlines, while Trump and his Pentagon denied and deflected. Meanwhile, Trump saved much of his ire for longtime U.S. allies, like South Korea and Canada, with his continued erratic and nonsensical foreign policy.
On Wednesday, a media outlet and non-profit sued Trump over his plan to offer advance views of his Truth Social posts for $100,000 a month, calling it an “extraordinary, corrupt, and unconstitutional” scheme, that would allow Trump “to profit from selling government information.”
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network quietly ended beneficial ownership reporting requirements for businesses formed in the U.S., meant to combat money laundering and other crimes, and said it would delete information already collected.
NYT reported that Trump’s DOJ had dropped charges against corporations and issued pardons for wealthy white collar criminals, and was instead focused on prosecuting small businesses for minor fraud cases like accepting SNAP cards to exchange for cash.
For decades, federal prosecutors had set a floor of half a million dollars for pursuing fraud cases, but the Trump regime pursued some cases for less than $10,000. Experts expressed concern with the unevenness of enforcement, and the focus of the DOJ’s already shrinking ranks.
WSJ reported that the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial received preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to become a bank. With final approval, WLF would be able to issue, redeem, and safeguard its USD1 stablecoin.
AP reported that WLF was collaborating with WorldClaw, a Hong Kong company that offered AI models from Chinese companies flagged by the U.S. government for national security concerns, including having ties to the Chinese military and technology theft.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll also found that 69% of Americans believed that Trump’s businesses influenced his decisions as president, including 48% of Republicans. The poll also found 63% said it was not appropriate for Trump and his family to earn money on cryptocurrency.
Top Democrats called on Trump in a letter to list the money managers in charge of his investment decisions, citing people’s right to know he was “not using his office to increase the value of his stock portfolios.” The move suggested Democrats were gearing up for post midterms.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury reported a record U.S. budget deficit of $432 billion for July, due to higher government spending. The deficit for the first 10 months of fiscal year 2026 totaled $1.8 trillion, already exceeding the 2025 deficit.
On Thursday, the U.S. government faced the highest borrowing cost for issuing 30-year bonds in 25 years, amid the risk from inflation, the rising U.S. national debt, and geopolitical risks.
On Wednesday, GasBuddy reported that gas prices had reached the “highest ever” national average price per gallonfor this time of year.
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