Assassination fears: In public and private, the president keeps musing about Iranian assassination threats. The risk has prompted the president to be surrounded by missile launchers on his golf course — and led him to hide in an airline catering truck to switch planes when leaving Turkey last month, write David Rohde, Marc Santia, Emily Hung and Jake Traylor. Trump’s protective detail and intelligence agencies are weighing a record number of threats to his life, and Trump has been the focus of more threats than any modern American president, up 40% from last year, according to a senior Secret Service official. Read more.
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Primary pushback: For weeks, establishment Democrats have been pushing back against the narrative of the Democratic Socialists of America in an attempt to distance themselves from slogans such as “defund the police” and “abolish ICE.” The pushback worked — narrowly — in the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary this past week, as Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley defeated DSA member Francesca Hong, argues Republican strategist Susan Del Percio. The progressive left makes an easy target for Republicans, who are already painting its leaders as communists and socialists in the midterm elections, she argues. Democrats will only face further problems, especially in swing states, in the future. Read more.
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Just asking: Sen. Jon Ossoff keeps going viral for one of the easiest tasks of a member of Congress: asking questions. During confirmation hearings and other oversight, the Georgia Democrat often gets attention for his ability to ask tough questions and follow-ups, such as when he pressed the nominee to be director of national intelligence, Jay Clayton, repeatedly on who won the 2020 election, writes Kevin Frey. At other times, Ossoff has pressed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the Iran war, former national intelligence head Tulsi Gabbard about the FBI’s search of a Georgia elections office and former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy about mail delays. The questions have burnished Ossoff’s reputation amid his re-election campaign and have even led some Democrats to wonder if he might run for president in 2028. Read more.
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Lincoln problems: The Trump administration responded to reports of poor conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in its extended stay in the Persian Gulf with a familiar tactic: gaslighting and deflection. But that will only exacerbate the very real problems sailors face, argues retired Lt. Col. Rachel E. VanLandingham. Significant logistical failures have been reported aboard the USS Lincoln and other warships since Trump launched the Iran war in February, a sign of the administration’s poor planning and preparation for the conflict. It’s not just the troops suffering either, VanLandingham writes. This will have ripple effects on their families, their ability to carry out the mission and their long-term mental health. Read more.
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Playing games: In the latest facet of the culture war, two former NBA players recently declared themselves eligible for the WNBA draft. Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White are capitalizing on recent anti-trans comments made by Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham, mocking and demeaning the transgender community to score imaginary points, argues sports journalist Mike Wise. For the record, no openly transgender athlete has ever competed in the WNBA or any other U.S. women’s professional sports league, and the number of trans athletes nationwide is infinitesimal, Wise writes, so the question isn’t even worth debating. Read more.
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An executive order signed Monday would narrow the vaccines routinely recommended for children, moving some from universally recommended to “shared clinical decision-making,” and direct the government to promote separate shots for the measles-mumps-rubella, or MMR, and other vaccines. Parents should understand that the childhood vaccine schedule recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics is evidence-based and has not changed, write pediatricians Dr. Martha Edwards and Dr. Deborah Greenhouse. The president’s order is not based on any new science, they write. But his order would make it more likely that some children might simply not complete the recommended vaccinations, needlessly putting them, their friends and neighbors at risk. Read the column here.
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