Today in one sentence: The number of confirmed U.S. coronavirus deaths is "a substantial undercount" of the true tally; Trump said he's "all for masks" and would have "no problem" wearing one in public but thinks coronavirus will "disappear" someday; Trump claimed that reports that Russia offered bounties to Taliban fighters to kill American and coalition forces a "HOAX!" designed to "damage me and the Republican Party"; Trump called New York City’s decision to paint "Black Lives Matter" on Fifth Avenue a "symbol of hate"; and Trump recently told people that he regrets following some of Jared Kushner's political advice.

  • 😷 Dept. of “We Have It Totally Under Control.”

  • Global: Total confirmed cases: ~10,578,000; deaths: ~513,000

  • U.S.: Total confirmed cases: ~2,659,000; deaths: ~128,000

  • Source: Johns Hopkins University

1/ The number of confirmed U.S. coronavirus deaths is “a substantial undercount” of the true tally, according to researchers at Yale University. Researchers found that the 781,000 total deaths in the U.S. from March 1 through May 30 were about 19% higher than what would normally be expected. And, the number of excess deaths from any cause were 28% higher than the official tally of U.S. COVID-19 deaths during those months. In 45 states, seven-day averages of new infections are higher than they were a week ago and more than 800,000 new cases were reported in the U.S. in June — led by Florida, Arizona, Texas and California. The World Health Organization, meanwhile, warned that some countries might have to reimplement lockdowns to curb the spread of the coronavirus. (CNBC / CNBC / Washington Post / New York Times)

  • The Federal Reserve raised concerns in June about a surge in coronavirus infections and how a second wave could disrupt the economic recovery, trigger a spike in unemployment, and prolong the recession. When this Fed meeting concluded on June 10, there were 20,456 new coronavirus cases in the United States. On Tuesday, the U.S. reported 44,474 new cases. (Washington Post)

  • U.S. companies added fewer jobs than expected in June. Businesses’ payrolls increased by 2.37 million in June, while economists predicted a 2.9 million rise. (Bloomberg)

  • The Treasury Department lent $700 million in coronavirus stimulus funds to a trucking company that warned in May it was in danger of going out of business. The Treasury – aka U.S. taxpayers – will take a 29.6% equity stake in the company, YRC Worldwide, whose stock had fell 27% this year and was worth $70 million. In 2018, the Justice Department sued YRC for allegedly overcharging the Pentagon millions of dollars for shipping. (CNN / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post)

2/ Trump said he’s “all for masks” and would have “no problem” wearing one in public but thinks coronavirus will “disappear” someday. He then added: “At some point.” While coronavirus cases surge to all-time highs and states reverse reopening plans, Trump told Fox Business that “we are going to be very good with the coronavirus” because “it’s going to sort of just disappear, I hope.” Trump also said he thought he “looked OK” the one time he was seen wearing a face mask and that he thought he resembled the “Lone Ranger.” (CNN / Daily Beast / Associated Press / Washington Post)

3/ The U.S. bought nearly the entire global stock of one of the drugs proven to work against COVID-19, leaving the rest of the world unable to purchase it for at least the next three months. Remdesivir, which has been shown to help people recover faster from COVID-19, is the first drug to be approved by the FDA to treat the disease. The Trump administration bought more than 500,000 doses of remdesivir, which is Gilead’s entire stock for July and 90% of the supply for August and September. (The Guardian)

4/ Trump called reports that Russia offered bounties to Taliban fighters who kill American and coalition forces a “HOAX!” designed to “damage me and the Republican Party.” In a subsequent tweet, Trump repeated his claim that he was never briefed by intelligence officials about the bounty program “because any info that they may have had did not rise to that level.” White House officials, however, were first informed in early 2019 of intelligence reports that Russia was offering bounties to kill U.S. and coalition military personnel. Officials also provided Trump with a written briefing of the finding in late February. Trump has also repeatedly dismissed the credibility of the intelligence and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has acknowledged the existence of the intelligence, but said there was “no consensus” and that it hadn’t been completely “verified.” In an additional tweet, Trump claimed that “this is all a made up Fake News Media Hoax started to slander me & the Republican Party.” (The Hill / NPR / Washington Post)

  • Taliban commanders confirmed that Russia offered financial and material support in exchange for attacking U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Three sources confirmed the practice takes place and that Russian intelligence officials are known to pay. Iran and Pakistan reportedly also fund these activities. The spokesman for former Taliban leader Mullah Omar also said “The Taliban have been paid by Russian intelligence for attacks on U.S. forces—and on ISIS forces—in Afghanistan from 2014 up to the present.” (Business Insider / Daily Beast)

5/ Senate Republicans forced the removal of a provision from the updated National Defense Authorization Act that would have required presidential campaigns to report offers of foreign election help. The Senate is debating the defense authorization legislation on the floor this week. (CNN)

6/ Trump called New York City’s decision to paint “Black Lives Matter” on Fifth Avenue a “symbol of hate” that would “denigrate” the “luxury” street outside Trump Tower and “further antagonize” police. Trump’s tweets were directed at Mayor Bill de Blasio, who order the “Black Lives Matter” tribute be painted in large yellow letters. De Blasio responded to Trump’s tweets, calling them “the definition of racism.” (NPR / Politico / Axios / Washington Post)

  • The United Nations Human Rights Council debated launching a special investigation of racism in America after the killing of George Floyd. The 47-member council ultimate decided against a U.S.-focused probe and instead requested a report on anti-Black racism worldwide. That the Trump administration quit the council two years ago. (Politico)

7/ Trump threatened to veto a must-pass defense spending bill if it includes an amendment requiring the Pentagon to rename military bases named after prominent Confederate figures. The amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act would change the name of 10 U.S. military bases and require the removal of Confederate likenesses, symbols, and paraphernalia from defense facilities across the country within three years. While most Republican senators said they had no problem with Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s amendment, Trump tweeted that he would veto it “if the Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren (of all people!) Amendment, which will lead to the renaming (plus other bad things!) […] is in the Bill!” (Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / Politico)

8/ A federal judge overturned the Trump administration’s 2019 policy that prohibited immigrants from claiming asylum in the U.S. if they didn’t attempt to first apply for asylum in a country they passed through on the way to the U.S. border. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled that the so-called “third-country asylum rule” violated the Immigration and Nationality Act, that the administration “unlawfully promulgated” the rule, failed to show it was in the public interest and didn’t abide by the Administrative Procedure Act when adopting the policy. The INA allows anyone who has made it to U.S. soil to apply for asylum, with some exceptions, and the APA requires that Americans be given enough time and opportunity to weigh in on certain rule changes. It’s the second time a lower court has concluded the rule is unlawful. Judge Kelly was appointed to the federal bench by Trump in 2017. (NBC News / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / New York Times / CNN)

9/ Trump’s reworking of the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect today. Trump has touted the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement as “the best and most important trade deal ever made by the USA.” The deal, however, is not expected to significantly increase trade within the region. (Politico / New York Times)

10/ Jared Kushner had the Trump reelection campaign’s chief operating officer “reassigned” in an effort to designate blame for the Tulsa rally. Michael Glassner will be replaced with Jeff DeWit, who held the same position in Trump’s 2016 campaign. DeWit will also oversee campaign rally operations. A campaign spokesman said that the change was “not a reaction” to what happened in Tulsa. (Axios / Wall Street Journal / Politico)

  • Trump’s re-election campaign has spent more than $325,000 in Facebook ads promoting the social media pages of his campaign manager, Brad Parscale. The Trump campaign said that it was testing the use of Parscale’s page to run ads from different accounts. (New York Times)

11/ Trump recently told people that he regrets following some of Jared Kushner’s political advice and will instead stick closer to his own instincts moving forward. (Axios)

poll/ 39% of voters approve of the job Trump is doing as president. 59% disapprove. (Politico)