Washington, DC

1. Trump’s FIFA play
2. NATO’s Türkiye summit
3. Hormuz questions
4. Trump Accounts push
5. House GOP reset
6. Progressives’ MI momentum
7. Communism campaign
8. View from The View

PDB: Burgum defends white nationalist group’s right to march

US vs. Belgium at 8 pm ET … China tests long-range ballistic missile … Russia strikes Kyiv again

Trump’s FIFA intervention draws scrutiny

President Donald Trump is injecting political controversy into the FIFA World Cup, as the US prepares to face Belgium this evening. FIFA made the highly unusual decision to reverse an automatic one-game suspension given to US striker Folarin Balogun, after Trump personally called FIFA President Gianni Infantino last week and asked him to review Wednesday’s call. The situation caused a diplomatic row of sorts, with Belgium’s soccer federation protesting the move. It’s also causing more scrutiny of Trump’s relationship with Infantino, who has spent years trying to woo the US president (even lobbying for him to receive the Nobel Peace Prize). To be sure, last week’s call against Balogun had been widely criticized, but Trump’s involvement in saving the star player — who is a US citizen by birthright — may “put an asterisk on any future games they might win,” The Wall Street Journal notes.

Trump heads to NATO summit

Trump departs for Türkiye tonight to attend this year’s NATO summit, where fractures between the US and Europe over Ukraine, Iran, and other issues will be on display. Top of mind for Trump will be military spending, as his administration pressures Europe to shoulder the burden for its own defense against a revanchist Russia. “A year ago was all about promises,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told The Wall Street Journal, referring to last year’s 5% defense spending target. This year’s summit is “about delivery.” European leaders will have questions about possible US troop drawdowns amid a Pentagon force posture review. The Ukraine war will also be a topic of discussion, as will the Strait of Hormuz. Trump is slated to meet individually with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tomorrow, and with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, according to the White House.

— Morgan Chalfant and Eleanor Mueller

Bumps in Hormuz traffic recovery

Trump’s Iran deal helped temporarily ease tensions with Europe over the conflict, but ongoing questions about governance of the Strait of Hormuz threaten to flare them up again. Traffic through the strait is recovering, but the road has been bumpy: Over the weekend, several vessels U-turned when approaching from the Omani side, Bloomberg reported. US-Iran talks, paused for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral, still haven’t resolved disagreements over Hormuz or Iran’s nuclear program. Uncertainty around those talks means that oil flows will struggle to return to levels before the conflict. “Vessel owners are still very cautious,” one analyst told The New York Times. OPEC+ agreed to hike oil output for the fifth month in a row on Sunday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is angling for a meeting with Trump as soon as this week, Axios reported, as he faces an increasingly hostile White House.

WH marks Trump Accounts launch

The Trump administration will cheer new savings accounts for children by ringing the NYSE and Nasdaq opening bells from the White House today, as officials hope to turn the bipartisan idea into a campaign boost. More than 6 million kids had already signed up for Trump Accounts, enacted last year as part of the GOP’s tax bill, before they launched on July 4. Some 1.4 million of those were born during Trump’s term, making them eligible for $1,000 in seed money. Senior Treasury Department officials told reporters that they would also accept stock contributions, in addition to philanthropic donations and employer matches, after Semafor first reported SpaceX’s Elon Musk was in talks to do just that. Trump told CNBC he expected Musk to follow through. Officials, still working on guidance that will allow third parties to host the accounts, are also eyeing ways to increase enrollment, including partnering with brands, erecting billboards, and collaborating with medical facilities.

— Eleanor Mueller

Time unlikely to cure House GOP fracture

The extended House recess probably won’t resolve the GOP’s impasse over the Trump-backed voter ID bill. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., and a band of conservative hardliners effectively blocked the House from taking up any legislation last week in protest of the lack of progress on the SAVE Act, among other issues. “We’ll come back, gather everybody together,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Fox News. But they still face an uncertain path forward. Luna and others want the bill attached to must-pass legislation; Johnson is pushing to put it into a third party-line reconciliation bill that many Republicans don’t believe will come to pass. He did acknowledge that the more expansive version of the legislation pushed by Trump — which would clamp down on mail-in ballots and include provisions affecting transgender people — is dead. Trump “understands that one is a bigger reach,” Johnson said.

— Nicholas Wu

Progressives see momentum in Michigan

The Democratic Party’s progressive wing is claiming new momentum in Michigan. State Sen. Mallory McMorrow dropped her Senate bid on Sunday, narrowing the Democratic primary for an open seat to Abdul El-Sayed and Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich. Today, Rep. Analilia Mejia, D-N.J., is endorsing El-Sayed, hoping to add him to a string of Sen. Bernie Sanders-endorsed primary winners since her own race in February. “What wins elections is building excitement and alignment, and bringing out your supporters, which I think Abdul can do,” Mejia said. A poll conducted for a pro-El-Sayed super PAC, shared with Semafor, shows the former Detroit public health official up 54-34 over Stevens, narrowly winning most of McMorrow’s supporters. (It was conducted before McMorrow quit.) In a poll for Data for Progress, Sanders-endorsed activist William Lawrence has an advantage in the primary for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District.

— David Weigel

Trump uses 250th to bash communism

Trump’s speeches celebrating America’s 250th anniversary previewed a campaign message he’s likely to hit as the midterms approach. Trump slammed communism as a “cancer” during his remarks on the National Mall on Saturday, revisiting a theme he also focused on during a speech at Mount Rushmore on Friday. “Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America,” Trump, who brought several veterans onstage during his remarks, told a packed crowd after a two-hour lightning delay. “We’re not going to let it happen.” The comments, which stood out after primary wins by democratic socialists in states like New York and Colorado, showcase how Trump will attempt to brand his party’s opponents as polls point to voters’ growing distrust of his handling of the economy and Iran conflict.

— Eleanor Mueller

‘The View’ pares back political guests

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr’s agency has already changed the shape of one of the country’s top daytime talk shows — before even making any formal demands. The View, which has become a must-visit campaign stop for politicians over the last few decades, hasn’t hosted a candidate in a competitive race since February, when the FCC began investigating the show’s compliance with the agency’s “equal time” rule, an analysis from Semafor’s Max Tani shows. The View also recently rebuffed a pitch by a representative for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to let fellow democratic socialists Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez accompany the mayor on the show, with one person citing the ongoing FCC investigation. Parent network ABC declined to comment, but has previously said The View isn’t subject to the FCC rule, which requires broadcast programs to give equal time to opposing candidates.

Blindspot: Medicaid and Vance

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, curated with help from our partners at Ground News.

What the Left isn’t reading: The Trump administration cut funding for New York’s Medicaid fraud unit.

What the Right isn’t reading: The Atlantic republished an op-ed written by Vice President JD Vance a decade ago that included critiques of President Trump. 

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman thinks it is good you can’t get famous on Reddit. On this week’s episode of Mixed Signals, he joins Ben and Max to explain why that may actually be a feature, not a bug, as the platform marks its 21st birthday and embraces its role as the internet’s “anti-social media” hub. They also discuss how Reddit approaches partnerships, why the company is suing Anthropic, and why Huffman believes it’s a good thing users can’t get rich from posting.

Listen to the latest episode of Mixed Signals now.