Today in One Sentence. Trump personally called FIFA President Gianni Infantino to ask him to review Folarin Balogun’s red card and suspension, which FIFA then reversed; the FBI ordered 260 analysts to help investigate the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia; the U.S. labor market weakened in June, with employers adding 57,000 jobs; Trump disclosed that he made 327 stock purchases one day before he told the public it was a “GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” and then paused some of his tariffs; Trump rang the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq opening bells from the Oval Office to launch “Trump Accounts”; House Democrats said Trump-linked fundraisers may have steered America250 donors to Trump’s Freedom 250 instead; and the White House accused the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History of “extreme political activism.”.

1/ Trump personally called FIFA President Gianni Infantino to ask him to review Folarin Balogun’s red card and suspension. FIFA then reversed the U.S.’s leading scorer’s suspension and rejected Belgium’s challenge even though World Cup red cards carry an automatic one-game ban. “All I did was ask for a review,” Trump said, because “I didn’t think it was a foul,” while insisting: “I didn’t tell him what to do.” Trump, however, acknowledged that he “didn’t know what the hell a red card was,” but said once he learned Balogun would miss the Belgium match, “I said, ‘You gotta be kidding,’” calling the referee’s decision “horrible” and FIFA’s reversal “brilliant.” Trump described the play as “two great athletes that crashed into each other and got entangled,” suggested referee Raphael Claus was “a little bit suspect,” and said keeping Balogun out would have left “a big stain” on the tournament. Behind the scenes, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, White House World Cup task force director Andrew Giuliani, U.S. Soccer officials, and lawyers worked to challenge the ban, while a U.S. official said the government provided “additional evidence” to FIFA’s process. Infantino reportedly told Trump that FIFA’s independent judicial bodies would decide the case. FIFA cited Article 27 to reverse Balogun’s one-game ban and instead put him on a one-year probationary period while keeping the red card on his record. Belgium said FIFA provided no decision, explanation, or referee report before rejecting its challenge as inadmissible because Belgium was not a party to the proceedings. UEFA also accused FIFA of crossing “a red line” with an “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable” decision that undermined the certainty of the rules. Brazil’s soccer federation, meanwhile, rejected Trump’s insinuation about Claus, calling him “an exemplary professional” whose integrity should not be questioned. (The Hill / Wall Street Journal / New York Times / The Athletic / ESPN / Politico / CNN / NBC News / Axios / CBS News / The Guardian / CNBC / Reuters / Associated Press / Washington Post)

2/ The FBI ordered 260 analysts to help investigate the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia. An internal memo described the case as a “priority” for Director Kash Patel and called for “surge support” to review thousands of records by July 17. The investigation centers on the election Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed was “rigged,” even though Biden’s 11,779-vote win in Georgia was confirmed by a machine recount and a hand-count audit in every county. The FBI already seized more than 600 boxes of 2020 ballots and election materials from Fulton County in January, which a federal judge let the Justice Department keep. (CBS News / CNN / NBC News)

3/ The U.S. labor market weakened in June, with employers adding 57,000 jobs. Earlier gains were revised down by 74,000, the unemployment rate fell to 4.2%, and the participation rate fell to the lowest level since March 2021. Roughly 720,000 people left the labor force and household employment fell by 507,000. (Axios / Reuters / CBS News / The Hill / CNN)

4/ Trump disclosed that he made 327 stock purchases one day before he told the public it was a “GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” and then paused some of his tariffs, sending the S&P 500 up about 9.5%. The purchases came after markets had fallen more than 12% following Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement and included between $100,001 and $250,000 each in Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia. His annual disclosure also showed more than 21,000 securities trades in 2025, worth somewhere between $600 million and $1.86 billion, along with at least $2.2 billion in revenue from his businesses, including $1.4 billion from crypto-related ventures. (NBC News / CNBC / New York Times / Bloomberg)

5/ Trump rang the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq opening bells from the Oval Office to launch “Trump Accounts,” the new tax-advantaged investment program for children that gives a $1,000 federal contribution to U.S. citizen children born between 2025 and 2028. The accounts, created in last summer’s tax-and-spending bill, default into State Street’s S&P 500 ETF, while parents, friends, and employers can contribute up to $5,000 a year. Michael and Susan Dell pledged $6.25 billion to give $250 to 25 million children under 10 in low-income areas, while Gwynne Shotwell said she would gift SpaceX stock to more than two million children. Trump, standing beside the Dells, told Americans to “Go out and buy a Dell computer,” joked that “we’re going to get him that money back one way or another,” and said the accounts would grow “right along with our booming economy.” (Bloomberg / The Guardian / CNN / Associated Press / CNBC)

6/ House Democrats said Trump-linked fundraisers may have steered America250 donors to Trump’s Freedom 250 instead. According to a Democratic staff report from the House Natural Resources Committee, donors seeking to support the bipartisan commission created by Congress were allegedly given banking information for Freedom 250, a White House-backed group operating under the National Park Foundation. The report said the alleged diversion of funds, if true, could amount to wire fraud or charitable solicitation fraud. Democrats also accused Trump allies of sidelining America250 by starving it of expected federal funding and selling sponsorship perks tied to Freedom 250 events, including VIP access and a photo opportunity with Trump. (Associated Press / NPR / CNN)

  • EARLIER: Trump used the July Fourth celebration of America’s 250th anniversary to attack “communism” and push new voting restrictions. Trump honored veterans, military history, and NASA astronauts, but also told the crowd “we don’t want communists in our country,” called communism “a loser,” and said “with God’s help” America would remain unlike any other nation because “nobody can be like us.” He urged Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, claimed without evidence that limiting mail-in ballots would mean “you won’t have cheating on the elections anymore,” before declaring the anniversary “only the dawn of the golden age of America” and promising that “the best is yet to come.” (NBC News / Axios / CBS News / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / NPR)

7/ The White House accused the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History of “extreme political activism.” The Domestic Policy Council said the current Smithsonian leadership “cannot be trusted” to tell America’s story and claimed the museum had been captured by a “radical, activist ideology,” citing its treatment of the founders, slavery, gender, immigration, Christianity, and “whiteness.” The Smithsonian, a public-private trust, said it’s served the public for more than 180 years with “nonpartisan and independent scholarship.” Secretary Lonnie Bunch said America’s strength is “not running away from its history, but understanding how that history shaped us.” (New York Times / NBC News / Associated Press / CNN / Washington Post)

The 2026 midterms are in 120 days; the 2028 presidential election is in 855 days.