Today in one sentence: The Supreme Court allowed Trump to proceed with firing tens of thousands of federal workers across 21 agencies as part of his plan to restructure or dismantle government offices; Trump said his new tariffs will take effect August 1 and “no extensions will be granted,” reversing comments hours earlier that the deadline was “firm, but not 100% firm”; Trump resumed weapons shipments to Ukraine after a weeklong pause he claimed he hadn’t authorized and then accused Putin of stalling peace efforts and escalating the war; an impostor used AI to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s voice to contact at least five officials; the IRS said churches can endorse political candidates from the pulpit without losing tax-exempt status; and House Democrats demanded the release of all the Epstein-related files that mention Trump, accusing Attorney General Pam Bondi of protecting Trump.

1/ The Supreme Court allowed Trump to proceed with firing tens of thousands of federal workers across 21 agencies as part of his plan to restructure or dismantle government offices. The unsigned order lifted a lower-court injunction that had paused the job cuts, saying only that Trump’s executive order is “likely lawful.” The justices didn’t rule on the legality of any specific plans, however. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the only dissenter, warned that “this Court sees fit to step in now and release the President’s wrecking ball,” calling the ruling “hubristic and senseless.” (Reuters / Washington Post / New York Times / ABC News / CNBC / Axios / CNN / NBC News / Politico / Wall Street Journal)

2/ Trump said his new tariffs will take effect August 1 and “no extensions will be granted,” reversing comments hours earlier that the deadline was “firm, but not 100% firm.” It was the third change in 24 hours. Trump told reporters the tariffs are “final” and said affected countries “will have to pay their assigned reciprocal tariff rate.” Trump also announced a 50% tariff on copper imports and threatened up to 200% tariffs on drug imports unless companies move production to the U.S. “We’re going to give people about a year,” he said, “and after that they’re going to be tariffed at a very, very high rate.” (Axios / Politico / NBC News / USA Today / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal / CNBC / NBC News / Associated Press / CNN)

  • ‘Tariff Man’ Is Back for More ‘Liberation’ – “Easy to see how Mr. Trump’s tariffs will hurt American businesses and consumers.” (Wall Street Journal)

3/ Trump resumed weapons shipments to Ukraine after a weeklong pause he claimed he hadn’t authorized and then accused Putin of stalling peace efforts and escalating the war. “We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin,” Trump said, calling him “very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.” Trump said Ukraine was “getting hit very, very hard” and confirmed the U.S. would send “defensive weapons, primarily.” He also said he was “looking very strongly” at a bipartisan sanctions bill against Russia, but stressed it was “totally at my option.” Senate leaders signaled the bill could move soon after months of delay awaiting Trump’s approval. (Politico / Washington Post / New York Times / CNBC / Wall Street Journal)

4/ An impostor used AI to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s voice to contact at least five officials, including three foreign ministers, a U.S. governor, and a member of Congress. The impostor used the encrypted messaging app Signal and with the display name “[email protected]”. The department confirmed it’s investigating the incident and urged diplomats to report any similar attempts. A senior official said the goal was likely to “gain access to information or accounts.” The FBI previously warned of an ongoing AI-based impersonation campaign targeting senior U.S. officials to “elicit information or funds.” (Washington Post / New York Times / Associated Press / Axios)

5/ The IRS said churches can endorse political candidates from the pulpit without losing tax-exempt status. In a joint court filing with two Texas churches and the National Religious Broadcasters, the agency said such endorsements are like a “family discussion” and don’t violate the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 law banning campaign activity by tax-exempt groups. The IRS had rarely enforced the law, but had never formally exempted churches. (New York Times / NPR / Politico / NBC News)

6/ House Democrats demanded the release of all the Epstein-related files that mention Trump, accusing Attorney General Pam Bondi of protecting Trump. “Stop protecting your boss,” they wrote, calling for unredacted records tied to Epstein and a second special counsel report. Their letter followed a DOJ memo confirming there was no Epstein “client list” and that he died by suicide, which contradicted claims by Bondi and others in the administration. Meanwhile, Trump dismissed questions about Epstein during a Cabinet meeting as “a desecration,” adding, “Are people still talking about this guy? This creep?” (The Guardian / CNN / Axios / The Hill / NBC News / ABC News)

The midterm elections are in 483 days.

Last year today: Day 1266: "We have one job."
Six years ago today: Day 900: Pathways.