Undead on Arrival

Today’s notice: “Day of the Living Dead” legislation in the Senate. What people really think of renaming Palm Beach International after Trump. Progressive leaders in New York attempt to primary their cake and eat it, too. The senator “kicking the tires” on a 2028 bid. And: Giving plasma because you need the money.

THE LATEST

Senators’ fears come true: Earlier this week we told you about senators worrying that the zombie SAVE America Act was lurking around, impossible to pass but kept alive by Donald Trump. What havoc might it wreak? Yesterday, they got a hint when the zombie burst through the perimeter and stumbled around hunting for delicious brains, NOTUS’ Al Weaver and Avani Kalra report.

The original plan had two goals: A quick hearing by the Senate Intelligence Committee would have put director of national intelligence nominee Jay Clayton on a glide path to confirmation and prevented Bill Pulte from stepping into the acting role, which spooked national security traditionalists on both sides of the aisle. Moving forward with Clayton’s nomination would have broken the unified Democratic opposition to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act extension.

None of that happened because Trump said Clayton could not be confirmed unless Congress passed the SAVE America Act, which does not have the votes.

Trump shattered whatever chance he had at leveraging bipartisan fears over FISA to get his DNI nominee through quickly. It is unclear what comes next. “I’m not sure I know the answer to that just yet, but we’ll take it a day at a time,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said.

But wait, there are two zombies on the loose. That other gurgling, lurching sound you hear is the return of the debate over taxpayer funding for the White House ballroom, which Trump also reanimated. NOTUS’ Igor Bobic and Anna Kramer report that the Office of Management and Budget has quietly apportioned $352 million from the “one big, beautiful bill” for “White House security measures.”

No one knows what that means exactly, but OMB brought up the ballroom unprompted when NOTUS asked about the money. Senators who thought this other uncomfortable issue — taxpayer funds for the ballroom — was dead, buried and eulogized were not happy to see it stumbling around again.

“That’s a big problem,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) said.

Open tabs: Knicks Will Be First NBA Team to Visit Trump White House (NOTUS); Trump plan would fence park near White House long used by tourists, protesters (WaPo); RFK Jr. Orders American Exposed to Hantavirus to Stay Quarantined Against Medical Advice (WSJ); Teamsters, DOJ move to end federal monitorship after 37 years (Axios)

From Florida

What fliers won’t be seeing at the renamed Palm Beach International Airport is this 8-foot-tall, 5,000-pound granite statue of Trump currently located in North Dakota and owned by Florida business consultant Jim Schiffler, NOTUS’ Dave Levinthal writes. Schiffler offered the statue to airport authorities — one of the few kind offers sent by the general public to PBI officials that Dave obtained via FOIA ahead of the facility’s July 1 renaming to the President Donald J. Trump International Airport. The airport commission politely declined the statue, Schiffler told Dave.

Most of the public responses sent through PBI’s website were not as enamored with the name change as Schiffler was. “Trump Airport…FUCK YOU. Should be Palm Bitch,” one commenter wrote, summarizing the majority of takes Dave found.

Courtesy of Jim Schiffler

From the Hill

Good news for The Trump Organization: The Senate Armed Services Committee closed its doors last week and voted along party lines, 14-13, to squash a Democratic-led amendment that would have banned the Pentagon from investing in companies tied to Trump, his Cabinet or their respective families, NOTUS’ Joe Gould reports. “We keep all the cheap shots out, and we think the president and most of the other members would have considered that a cheap shot,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) said.

From the campaign trail

New York’s progressive stars divide and conquer? New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is front and center in an effort to primary several of the city’s Democratic U.S. House members from the left. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who gained notoriety winning just that kind of primary, is not publicly getting involved in those races. Instead, she’s backing a slate of progressive state legislative candidates. Mamdani is not spending a lot of time on those.

Call it the maturing of the DSA. NOTUS’ Elena Schneider and Daniella Diaz write that observers in New York see a pretty canny strategy behind the divided focus: the mayor risks alienating state Democrats he needs to run the city by getting too involved in state primaries, while AOC risks creating enemies within her congressional delegation ahead of a possible run for higher office.

NOTUS METRO

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Local news: Why Was D.C. Slow to Report Results on Election Night? By Martin Austermuhle and Michael Brice-Saddler

Sports desk: D.C. Lost Out on the World Cup. These Local Bars Are Winning. By Zara Norman

ON NOTUS PODCAST

From your favorite podcast app: Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) is “kicking the tires” on a presidential bid and calling for a reexamination of his party’s stance on Israel. “Any credible Democratic presidential candidate has to be willing to hold the government of Israel accountable when it is violating human rights and violating international law and violating U.S. interests,” Van Hollen told NOTUS’ Igor Bobic on the most recent episode of On NOTUS.

NEW ON NOTUS

Give until it hurts: There are numerous signs that more Americans are donating plasma (and pocketing the money) as affordability struggles continue to ratchet up, NOTUS’ Emily Kennard reports. American rules around donation are much, much looser than in other countries — donating up to 104 times per year (!) is currently allowed, despite the potential health risks.

But more congressional oversight of the plasma-donation industry is not popular on the Hill, Emily found. “Until I see the detriment, why would I make more regulations?” Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Georgia), a physician, said.

Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-Oregon), who is also a physician, agreed: “I think that we should not be in the business of telling medicine what they should or shouldn’t do.”

More: Trump Settles $100 Million Lawsuit Against His Niece, by Jenna Monnin

The U.S. Military’s AI Policy Is Up for Debate, by Samuel Larreal

Trump Is Threatening State Unemployment Funds. Some States Didn’t Get the Memo. By Natalie Alms

NOT US

• Planet UFC, by Nic Johnson for The New York Review of Books
• Searching for the Victims—and Answers—After the July 4 Flood That Devastated Texas, by Karen Valby for Vanity Fair
• American Ephemera: A primer on a free people’s government, by William T. Vollmann for Harper’s

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American Gothic (2026)

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The newsletter was produced by Kelly Poe, Brett Bachman, Thomas Burr and Andrew Burton. Photo courtesy of Jim Schiffler.