12:30 REPORT

Friday, July 31 | By Cate Martel

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Happy Friday! I’m in the mood to try some new summer recipes, maybe that involve corn, peaches, burrata or watermelon. What should I make?! You always have the best suggestions.

In today's issue:

Trump goes to Camp David with his Cabinet
What’s next for Todd Blanche’s nomination?
Trump’s unprecedented fundraising operation
Senators near deal to avert Sept. shutdown (!)
NASA captures photo of black hole ‘devouring’ a star

🏡 IN THE WHITE HOUSE

Friday, the 13th (Cabinet meeting):

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

President Trump has assembled his Cabinet at Camp David today for a meeting that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says will be “a lot of fun.”

I can only assume that means they’re making s’mores.

Anyway, it’s been a tough stretch for the Trump administration. The Iran war is at risk of expanding, and consumer prices are still stubbornly high just a few months before the midterm elections. Oh, and his approval rating is at its lowest point of this term. (Read Nate Silver’s new analysis on this.) Here are 4 questions to watch today:

How will the Trump team frame the Iran conflict?

Are there any updates on the yearslong Russia-Ukraine war? Trump met with the president of Ukraine earlier this week.

Will the Trump team gloss over inflation or address it head-on?

Will Trump acknowledge his rising tensions with Senate Republicans?

TOP MOMENTS SO FAR:

Trump had bad things to say about Iran: Trump says Iranian leadership is “very dishonorable.” “They’ve been very dishonorable to deal with, but that makes no difference. They’re doing very, very poorly,” Trump said.

He blamed the Minnesota cyber attack on Tim Walz: Officials are investigating whether Iran was involved in a cyber attack on Minnesota’s water systems, but Trump blamed it on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D).

💻 Watch it live

💬 Follow today’s live blog

📸 Trump departing the White House on Marine One

Tbh, Trump would excel in college alumni fundraising when he leaves office:

President Trump has prioritized fundraising millions of dollars for his pet projects, like constructing a new White House ballroom and building his presidential library.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the inner workings of the president’s “unprecedented fundraising operation.”

How it works: Trump speaks with his fundraiser, Meredith O’Rourke, almost daily. He directs her to make direct fundraising requests to people the president has recently met with. He even tells her how much to ask for. “The boss wants this money,” she sometimes says in calls to potential donors.

Oh, and Trump has reportedly nicknamed O’Rourke the “princess of darkness” because he says she’s a “killer” with donors.

Some examples of the high-dollar donations: “SoftBank donated $50 million toward Trump’s presidential library. Apple cut a check for around $25 million toward his White House ballroom project, while Microsoft gave around $10 million and Amazon chipped in around $5 million, according to people familiar with the contributions. Meta Platforms recently gave $10 million to a Trump-aligned political committee, people familiar said, on top of a multimillion donation to the ballroom and a prior $22 million payment to the planned presidential library.”

Read the full report: ‘“The Boss Wants This Money”: Inside Trump’s Unprecedented Fundraising Operation’

WHAT IS THE PLAN FOR TODD BLANCHE’S CONFIRMATION?:

Trump floated a plan on Thursday to yank Todd Blanche’s confirmation vote until the two GOP holdups, Sens. John Cornyn (Texas) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) leave office. But Trump is assuming Republicans keep control of the Senate in the midterms — and that outcome is very much up in the air.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) warned Trump this is a risky strategy. “This place could be very different,” Kennedy warned, if Democrats pick up Senate seats in November.

Related read, via Politico: ‘Faced with Blanche dilemma, Trump chooses revenge: The president’s willingness to sacrifice his attorney general’s confirmation shows how deep his contempt for his enemies goes.’

PSSST, THE COMMERCE DEPT. IS QUIETLY INVESTING IN 7 COMPANIES:

The Department of Commerce quietly announced it will spend $870 million for a minority stake in seven private companies for semiconductor manufacturing. Read more

🍂 ON CAPITOL HILL

Could it be? A September without the threat of a government shutdown?!

I’ll believe it when I see it. But Senate Republicans are actually close to cutting a deal with Democrats to avoid a shutdown at the end of September.

What we know about the proposal: “The proposal would fund the government through Dec. 4, and some Democrats believe that if it passes, there would be a tacit agreement from Senate GOP colleagues to postpone Trump’s demanded budget reconciliation package until after the election.”

The big question: Can they finalize an agreement and land the plane before the Senate leaves for its 5-week recess at the end of next week?

Read what senators told Alexander Bolton about this potential deal: ‘Senate GOP close to cutting deal to avoid shutdown’

REMEMBER HOW OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES EXPIRED?:

Well, hospitals are starting to feel it. Millions of Americans dropped their Affordable Care Act plans when the price skyrocketed. And now, according to The Wall Street Journal, hospitals are seeing a rising number of uninsured patients. Read more: ‘The Rising Number of Uninsured Patients Starts to Hit Hospitals’

AND SOME STATES MAY HAVE TO END FOOD STAMP BENEFITS:

The Atlantic’s Will Gottsegen reports that an upcoming deadline and rising costs are putting a massive strain on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program. So much so that it may force some states to end SNAP benefits next year. Read more: ‘The Coming Food-Stamp Crisis’

TIDBIT:

A TMZ reporter approached Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) on Capitol Hill to ask a question about Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) health. Ricketts then used Capitol Police to shield him from the reporter’s question. 🎥 Watch the video

Well, Ricketts apologized to TMZ DC’s Charlie Cotton and says he “reacted poorly.” He also thanked Cotton for “taking my phone call so I could apologize.”

🏃‍➡️➡️ OTHER NEWS:

A massive migrant surge into Spanish territory:

As many as 60,000 migrants have entered a Spanish territory in North Africa since Thursday, according to Spanish officials, making a huge crisis for Spain’s government.

What happened?: “Migrants began crossing into Ceuta, … a six-mile-long peninsula on Morocco’s coast that Spain has governed for centuries, in large numbers on Thursday. They climbed over border fences or swam, sometimes for hours, to its shores.”

Nearly three dozen people are dead.

Keep in mind: “In recent years, as Morocco became a key staging ground for migrants seeking to reach Europe, Spain has depended on Moroccan border guards to stem the flow of arrivals.” Read more from The New York Times

^ TRUMP AND STEPHEN MILLER ARE USING THIS AS WARNING:

“President Trump and White House Deputy Chief for Policy Stephen Miller are warning that Spain’s Ceuta migrant crisis could be a reality for Americans if Democrats win in future elections,” The Hill’s Mallory Wilson reports.

➤ QUICK HITS:

— Election analysis Larry Sabato says Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) has a real shot at flipping the Texas Senate seat to Democratic control because state Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) “is so awful.” Read Sabato’s reasoning

— Hamas says it has reached a disarmament agreement, addressing one of the biggest sticking points for a broad peace deal in Gaza.

➤ MORE READS:

The New York Times: The MAGA Media Machine Is Fracturing

The Washington Post: Airports, nursing homes and schools brace for disruption without Haitian workers

Vox: The glorious burden of stockpiling little glass jars: Will I ever use this pickle container again? Probably not. Should I recycle it? Absolutely not, that jar is my son.

^ This headline made me laugh.

🗓️ COMING UP

The House and Senate are out. President Trump is at Camp David. (All times EDT)

1:30 p.m. Former Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the National Urban League in Nashville. 💻 Livestream

This afternoon: Trump travels from Camp David to Bedminster, N.J.

🐝 INTERNET BUZZ

🥑 Celebrate: Today is National Avocado Day!

🌠 I feel like collectively, we should be making a bigger deal of this: Astronomers were able to capture a photo of a black hole “devouring” a star. “The ‘monster’ black hole weighs about a million times as much as the sun and is located about 750 million light-years away from Earth, NASA noted.” 👀 No big deal… 📸 See the photo

❓Oooh, this is a fun game: A TikTok star is playing a game where she asks Capitol Hill staffers questions that have nothing to do with politics to see if she can guess people’s political affiliation. Like, what is your favorite potato chip flavor? Read more

👋 AND FINALLY…

To get your weekend off to a great start, check out these two cats who are clearly getting on each other’s nerves.

This is such sibling energy.

Stay Engaged

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