Today in One Sentence. Trump said “I don’t care about the midterms” and wouldn’t let the upcoming election or Iranian state media reports rush him into a deal Ken Paxton won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Texas, turning Trump’s late endorsement into a 28-point rejection of Sen. John Cornyn, a four-term incumbent Alabama asked the Supreme Court to let it use a 2023 congressional map that would likely give Republicans six of the state’s seven House seats by eliminating a second Black-majority or near-majority district Biden sued the Justice Department to block the release of about 70 hours of private audio recordings and transcripts from 2016 and 2017 interviews with his ghostwriter Jill Biden said she was “frightened” that Joe Biden was “having a stroke” during his June 2024 debate against Trump Trump appointed former Attorney General Pam Bondi to the White House science and technology advisory council the Trump administration agreed to pay $13.1 million in a no-bid contract to a first-time federal contractor to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool 58% of Americans say Trump has made the economy worse 25% of Latino Trump voters said they would not vote for him again Democrats lead Republicans by almost 6 points on the House generic ballot and 12% of Americans said the worst thing about Republicans is their loyalty to Trump, while 10% said the worst thing about Democrats is that they’re weak and don’t stand up to Trump.

1/ Trump said “I don’t care about the midterms” and wouldn’t let the upcoming election or Iranian state media reports rush him into a deal. “They thought they were going to outwait me, you know? We’ll outwait him, he’s got the midterms,” Trump said, suggesting that Tehran believed the elections would force U.S. concessions. Trump, however, claimed Iran was “negotiating on fumes” and said talks were going “nicely,” but warned that the U.S. would “finish the job” if he was “not satisfied” with the terms. The White House, meanwhile, dismissed an Iranian state media report about a draft agreement as a “complete fabrication.” Trump also rejected any Iran-Oman control of the strait, saying “nobody’s going to control” the waterway while warning that Oman would have to “behave” or “we’ll have to blow them up.” Talks remain stuck over the Strait of Hormuz, sanctions, and Iran’s enriched uranium. (New York Times / CNN / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg / Reuters / Washington Post / CBS News / ABC News)

2/ Ken Paxton won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Texas, turning Trump’s late endorsement into a 28-point rejection of Sen. John Cornyn, a four-term incumbent. Paxton now faces Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in November, forcing Republicans to defend a seat they had treated as safe while trying to protect their Senate majority. Republican leaders had backed Cornyn and warned that Paxton’s legal and ethical history, weaker fundraising, and polarizing record could make Texas more expensive. Paxton, the state attorney general, was impeached and acquitted, settled a securities-fraud case without admitting wrongdoing, and has lagged Talarico in fundraising. No Democrat has won statewide in Texas since 1994. (Washington Post / Associated Press / Reuters / New York Times / NBC News / Wall Street Journal / Axios / Politico / Washington Post / Associated Press)

3/ Alabama asked the Supreme Court to let it use a 2023 congressional map that would likely give Republicans six of the state’s seven House seats by eliminating a second Black-majority or near-majority district. It’s the first major test of the court’s April Voting Rights Act ruling, which made vote-dilution claims harder by requiring proof of discriminatory intent. Alabama said that ruling “vindicates” its 2023 map, even though a unanimous three-judge panel blocked it, finding the plan was “tainted by intentional race-based discrimination” in violation of the 14th Amendment. The state accused the judges of acting as if the new Supreme Court ruling “changed nothing,” arguing it “did not intentionally discriminate by declining to intentionally discriminate.” (Politico / New York Times / Associated Press / Reuters / CBS News / CNN)

4/ Biden sued the Justice Department to block the release of about 70 hours of private audio recordings and transcripts from 2016 and 2017 interviews with his ghostwriter. The recordings were obtained during Robert Hur’s classified documents investigation, which ended without charges. The Justice Department plans to release redacted materials to the House Judiciary Committee and the Heritage Foundation on June 15 unless a judge intervenes. Biden’s lawyers said the release would violate his privacy and called the committee request pretextual. The Justice Department said the recordings should be public so Americans can judge his “mental acuity.” (Politico / CNN / New York Times / ABC News / Reuters / NBC News)

  • Jill Biden said she was “frightened” that Joe Biden was “having a stroke” during his June 2024 debate against Trump. She said she had “never, ever seen Joe like that,” but publicly praised his performance afterward and urged him to keep running. (CBS News / New York Times)

5/ Trump appointed former Attorney General Pam Bondi to the White House science and technology advisory council, adding her to a panel focused on AI policy. Bondi will help coordinate between the government and tech executives on the council, including Jensen Huang, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Ellison. JD Vance called Bondi “an enormously valuable asset,” while David Sacks said she would advise on legal and regulatory issues. Bondi will also serve in a new national infrastructure advisory role while recovering from thyroid cancer treatment. (Axios / The Hill)

6/ The Trump administration agreed to pay $13.1 million in a no-bid contract to a first-time federal contractor to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. A National Park Service analysis found that Atlantic Industrial Coatings’ bid carried an “inflated” 20% profit margin that staff called “excessive.” The Interior Department defended the price as the cost of rushing the work before July 4. Park Service documents, meanwhile, showed that the contractor initially failed two tests to seal the leaking slab gaps, the main problem it was hired to fix. (New York Times)

poll/ 58% of Americans say Trump has made the economy worse, and 41% say Trump is responsible for the cost-of-living problems people are facing today. (Strength in Numbers)

poll/ 25% of Latino Trump voters said they would not vote for him again, and 67% disapprove of his job performance. In 2024, Trump won 48% of Latino voters – a 12-point increase from 2020. Axios / CBS News)

poll/ Democrats lead Republicans by almost 6 points on the House generic ballot, and nearly 6% of Republicans say they plan to vote for a Democratic House candidate in November. (FiftyPlusOne)

poll/ 12% of Americans said the worst thing about Republicans is their loyalty to Trump. 10% said the worst thing about Democrats is that they’re weak and don’t stand up to Trump. (ABC News)

The 2026 midterms are in 160 days; the 2028 presidential election is in 895 days.