Today’s notice: Trump zeroes in on a new city. Independent, do you know what that mean? The great House Freedom Caucus exodus. And: Drama at the DNC’s summer meeting.
THE LATEST
Democrats under pressure. Dueling resolutions will come up for a vote at the DNC’s summer meeting this week wading into one of the most politically fraught issues in the Democratic Party: Israel’s war in Gaza.
The proposal: Florida’s 26-year-old DNC member Allison Minnerly’s resolution calls for an arms embargo and suspension of military aid to Israel — a clear escalation from the DNC’s previous positions.
The counter: DNC Chair Ken Martin offered a pared-back resolution calling for a ceasefire in the conflict, more in line with what the party has put out before.
The pressure: Israel advocacy group Democratic Majority for Israel (the group that has spent big to try and oust progressive House Democrats) “condemned” Minnerly’s resolution. Minnerly herself has conceded that it will be a hard vote to win tomorrow, with the establishment backing Martin.
The divide: “There has to be a conversation about how we make sure that our DNC establishment is closer to the position of our voters,” Minnerly told NOTUS’ Alex Roarty.
There have been shifts in how Democrats navigate Israel. Remember: More than half of Senate Democrats voted in favor of an arms embargo to Israel this summer.
How will this go for the party? One test is playing out in Maine, where Senate candidate Graham Platner’s bid to unseat Susan Collins started with a knock against his own party for not “doing jack shit” to fight “fascism.” On his list of where Dems have fallen short: Gaza.
Open tabs: 5 Takeaways From Ghislaine Maxwell’s DOJ Interview (NYT); Kremlin casts doubt on Trump’s push for peace (NBC News); Trump White House takes a $10B stake in Intel (Politico); Pentagon Quietly Blocks Ukraine’s Long-Range Missile Strikes on Russia (WSJ)
From the White House
Militarized America: The administration has for weeks been planning a deployment of potentially thousands of National Guard troops to Chicago, according to The Washington Post over the weekend. Officials have also reportedly discussed sending in active-duty soldiers.
Local angle: “Donald Trump is attempting to manufacture a crisis, politicize Americans who serve in uniform, and continue abusing his power to distract from the pain he’s causing families,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker wrote on X.
Trump’s threats go beyond crime: Trump penned a post yesterday suggesting that Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and the city of Baltimore may be next. The “P.S.”? “I gave Wes Moore a lot of money to fix his demolished bridge. I will now have to rethink that decision???” Trump wrote in an apparent reference to the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed last year after being struck by a cargo ship.
From the campaign trail
I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T: A wave of independent candidates are running for office across the country in 2026, inspired by Dan Osborn, the union worker-turned-independent in Nebraska who ran a surprisingly strong race against an incumbent senator.
Brian Bengs is mounting a bid for Senate in South Dakota, Todd Achilles is challenging Sen. Jim Risch in Idaho, and in Mississippi, Ty Pinkins is running an independent bid against Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.
All four candidates are on a group chat, occasionally swapping campaign advice and offering personal encouragement over text messages, NOTUS’ Alex Roarty reports.
From the Hill
Free to leave: “Congress really is, in its own weird way, irredeemable,” former House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Biggs told NOTUS’ Riley Rogerson as he reflects on his decision to ditch D.C. and mount a run for governor in Arizona.
He’s not alone: Reps. Ralph Norman and Byron Donalds are also running for governor in South Carolina and Florida, respectively. Rep. Chip Roy announced this week that he is running for Texas attorney general. Rep. Barry Moore is running for Alabama Senate. And Reps. Tom Tiffany and Andy Ogles have also floated state-wide runs.
Democrats are giddy at the thought of a diminished HFC. But reports of the group’s death are greatly exaggerated, insiders say.
“The House Freedom Caucus is an institution that’s built to last,” Andrew Roth, president of the State Freedom Caucus Network, told Riley.
NEW ON NOTUS
Stock dump alert: Rep. Ritchie Torres directed his financial adviser to dump dozens of stocks after the New York Democrat was months late disclosing more than 70 purchases — in violation of the STOCK Act.
In a statement to NOTUS’ Dave Levinthal, Torres spokesman Benjamin Stanislawski said Torres “had no knowledge of, discretion over, or involvement in the individual stock trades executed by the third-party manager.”
Where are people going? That’s the big question raised by Trump’s crackdown on D.C. homelessness.
The short answer: It’s not clear. A White House official told NOTUS’ Torrence Banks that officials have removed 48 encampments since the federal takeover began — though local officials dispute that number.
What is clear: Cops aren’t making the mass arrests Trump suggested were possible. “We have not received any reports of actual individuals at encampments or homeless individuals being arrested simply because they refuse to go to shelter,” D.C. council member Christina Henderson said. “I know that’s what the president has said, that’s what he’s going to do … but that hasn’t actually been the practice we’ve seen on the ground thus far.”
Armed guards: Expect to see some of the National Guard troops deployed to D.C. carrying their service weapons, a Defense Department official told NOTUS. A spokesperson for Joint Task Force-District of Columbia added that “National Guard members that are armed must meet rifle qualification standards” — but did not disclose how many of the soldiers patrolling D.C. had met those requirements.
NOT US
- In Trump’s Second Term, Far-Right Agenda Enters the Mainstream, by Alan Feuer for The New York Times
- What We Learned in Six Hours of ICE Training, by Michelle Hackman for The Wall Street Journal
- European postal services suspend shipment of packages to US over tariffs, by Demetris Nellas and Mae Anderson for the Associated Press
- How Laura Loomer became the Joseph McCarthy of the Trump era, by Michael Scherer for The Atlantic
Week Ahead
One more week of congressional recess. Though, the House and Senate have pro forma sessions Tuesday August 26.
The DNC meets this week. The summer session started yesterday and lasts through Wednesday. As we noted above, the big Israel votes are Tuesday.
Also Wednesday, India is set to get hit with up to a 50% tariff for buying more Russian oil. Trade negotiations are ongoing.
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