Trump opened the day in the Rose Garden, turned to Todd Blanche and said he has "some very severe problems" he will not name, then said he was just having fun. The five that followed did not help him.
5️⃣ The press secretary never passed the bar
Katie Zacharia sat the California bar exam after Pepperdine in 2011 and did not pass it, the Journal reported Thursday, and a senior administration official confirmed it to NBC within four hours. Asked on the South Lawn where she passed the bar, she said, "When I moved to China." By Wednesday she had told the Times she misheard the question. Her first full briefing, promised for Thursday, did not happen.
4️⃣ Abbott's appointees lost 593,000 voters as Hinojosa pulled even
Greg Abbott is tied with Gina Hinojosa four days before early voting, one point behind in the University of Texas poll released Wednesday, and the two officials he put in charge of the voter rolls are in Bexar County court over 593,000 registrations their portal failed to send for a year. Ann Richards, 1990, was the last Democrat elected governor.
3️⃣ Two ships on the bottom near Hormuz, and the biggest bomb on the table
Two cargo ships sank near the Strait of Hormuz within a day of each other, the second and third lost since the Iran war began in February; one Indian crew member died. Iran's state broadcaster blamed a sea mine. CNN reports the Pentagon's plans now include the largest conventional bomb America has, if Trump orders combat resumed. In Montana on Wednesday night Trump said he should probably have left Iran's leaders in place, because he does not know who he is negotiating with.
2️⃣ Warren takes the Epstein case to the banks
Elizabeth Warren filed the Epstein Wall Street Records Act in both chambers on Thursday with 24 Democrats and one Republican, Thomas Massie. The Fed is the first regulator named, and the Fed financed JPMorgan's takeover of Bear Stearns in 2008; Bear owned 40 percent of Epstein's Bermuda lender. Open that file and the road runs to 2008.
1️⃣ Zelensky tells Trump he is done waiting
Volodymyr Zelensky told the Financial Times on Thursday that Ukraine is resuming strikes on Russian refineries after a three-day pause at Washington's request. "We're done," he said. Overnight the Ryazan refinery burned. Hours earlier Elon Musk wrote on X that limits on Ukraine's military Starlink are "decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS"; the White House declined to answer the Journal, and a senior official told Axios the administration had nothing to do with it. Zelensky's own line, on X: Russia's attacks are its "pointed response to the signals it is receiving from America."
Bonus
Asked why he will not call Putin a dictator, Trump said he has to make deals with people, so he does not go around calling them names. The leakers of his Iran strike timing, he told Arizona on Wednesday, "should be shot."
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