2018 Day 530: The Trump administration will rescind Obama-era guidelines that encourage college admissions to consider race as a factor in order to diversify their student bodies; Leaked copies of Michael Cohen's shredded documents were reconstructed by the FBI and appear to confirm Cohen's $62,500 payment to a former Playboy model; Scott Pruitt and his aides kept "secret" calendars to hide controversial meetings with industry representatives; and ICE agents are forcing parents to choose between leaving the country with their children — or leaving the country without them. Jul 3, 2018
2019 Day 895: A report from found the squalid conditions at migrant detention camps were more widespread than initially revealed; a federal judge blocked Attorney General William Barr's order to indefinitely detain immigrants seeking asylum; Trump claimed that he is "absolutely moving forward" with including the citizenship question on the 2020 census; and 41% approve the job Trump is doing as president. Jul 3, 2019
2023 Day 895: A civil rights group demanded that the federal government end Harvard’s special admissions treatment for children of alumni, saying the policy discriminates against applicants of color in favor of less qualified white candidates; the Supreme Court blocked Biden's student loan forgiveness plan; the Supreme Court ruled in favor of an evangelical Christian web designer who refused to work on same-sex weddings despite a state law that bars discrimination against gay people; Harris warned that "there is a national movement afoot to attack hard won and hard fought freedoms"; and 52% of Americans approve of the Supreme Court's decision restricting the use of race as a factor in college admissions. Jul 3, 2023
2024 Day 1261: Biden privately acknowledged that he’s keeping an "open mind" about the future of his presidential campaign, telling a key ally in the aftermath of the debate that he may not be able to stay in the race if he can’t prove he’s up to the job; organizers in Arizona and Nebraska have gathered more signatures than required to place measures on November's ballot to add abortion rights to their state constitutions; 48% of voters nationally support Biden for president, while 50% prefer Trump; and 74% of voters said Biden is too old for the job. Jul 3, 2024
2025 Day 1626: House Republicans passed Trump’s $4.5 trillion tax-and-spending bill by a 218-214 vote after overcoming weeks of internal disputes and late-night negotiations to flip holdouts; the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill will increase the national debt by $3.4 trillion and lead to 11.8 million fewer Americans with health insurance coverage by 2034, while 3 million more would lose SNAP benefits; House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries delayed the vote with a record-breaking 8-hour, 44-minute floor speech, calling Trump’s signature legislation “an immoral document” that would “end Medicaid as we know it”; the U.S. economy beat expectations and added 147,000 jobs in June, while the unemployment rate fell to 4.1%; Trump made “no progress at all” with Putin about ending the war in Ukraine; and the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to deport eight foreign nationals to South Sudan. Jul 3, 2025