President Donald Trump plans to tout his handling of the economy during a visit to suburban Detroit today.
On the drive to Trump’s rally at the General Motors proving ground, two men stood along the side of the road covering signs for the Trump-endorsed Republican gubernatorial candidate, Rep. John James, with signs for his primary opponent, businessman Perry Johnson.
Trump’s event comes just a week before Michigan Republicans head to the polls to choose their nominee for governor, testing the power of that endorsement in one of the state’s most high profile races. Michigan backed Trump in both 2016 and 2024 but has continued to elect Democrats statewide.
At the sprawling venue, NBC News spoke with Ron Soyk, 58, of Lincoln Park, who said he planned to back Johnson over James. Soyk criticized James as a fixture of the party establishment.
Soyk said of Johnson, “He’s like Trump, he’s a businessman. I’ve had enough of career politicians.”
Trump is expected to take part in a drag race and vehicle demonstration before his remarks this afternoon, and will appear alongside James and others, including former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, who is running for Senate after a narrow loss last cycle.
Trump pressed Senate Majority Leader John Thune to prevent senators from leaving Washington, D.C., until they pass the president’s elections overhaul bill or do away with the filibuster.
“John Thune should not allow the United States Senate to ‘leave town’ until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER, where Republicans can then quickly pass everything they ever dreamed of,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post this morning.
Thune, R-S.D., has said there are not enough votes in the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require ID at the polls and proof of citizenship to register to vote.
The Senate’s monthlong recess is currently scheduled to start in early August.
On getting rid of the filibuster, Trump wrote that Democrats “will do it on day one” if they get a majority in Congress.
“Remember, stupidity always brings LOSING & DEATH!” Trump wrote in the post.
Senate Democrats have sought to weaken the filibuster rule in recent years, but were unsuccessful in the effort.
Today marks Trump’s third visit to Michigan during this term and his second this year.
The president is traveling to Milford, in Oakland County, where he will tour and make remarks at the General Motors’ proving ground.
Milford is in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District — a swing district where a crowded field of Democrats are competing to challenge incumbent Republican Tom Barrett, whom Trump has endorsed, but who has broken with the president over the war in Iran.
Trump’s visit comes just a week before the state’s Aug. 4 primaries — with a number of hotly contested races expected to influence the balance of power in Washington.
Progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed and moderate Rep. Haley Stevens are competing in the Senate Democratic primary to challenge Trump-endorsed Republican Rep. Mike Rogers this fall.
The GOP candidate for governor will also be decided in next week’s primary. Trump recently endorsed GOP Rep. John James in that contest.
The president’s visit also comes on the day that the Gordie Howe International Bridge — connecting Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit — officially opens to vehicle traffic. As Trump has been threatening — and imposing — new tariffs on Canada, Canadian officials disinvited U.S. officials from the ribbon cutting of the bridge last week.
Trump’s border czar said yesterday that the vetting of an immigration officer involved in the deadly shooting of a Colombian native in Maine is under internal review after relatives revealed to The Associated Press that he had a history of serious mental health struggles and violent behavior.
Tom Homan said if the allegations against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer are true, “I don’t think he should ever have cleared vetting.”
Read the full story here.
Abdul El-Sayed, the former public health official locked in a tense battle for Michigan’s Democratic Senate nomination, told donors on a recent call that a victory for him could reverberate into 2028.
El-Sayed, who faces Rep. Haley Stevens in next week’s primary, specifically fixated on Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who will be up for a second term that year.
Fetterman won his seat in 2022 with strong ties to populist and progressive voters, but he has taken a more moderate tack since being elected and often stokes speculations that he will switch parties or become an independent.
“So, you know, a big pickup for us could be that John Fetterman seat, right?” El-Sayed told donors, according to audio obtained by NBC News. “They’re going to f around and give me carte blanche to go take them out. Like, that’s the best thing about the way they’re doing this … if I win, you’re just like, ‘Well, y’all came at me, so now I get to come at you.’”
El-Sayed added that “primarying people like John Fetterman” is something he is “looking forward to” doing.
“And people are like, ‘Ah, we don’t primary the Senate.’ I’m like, ‘Watch me do it,” El-Sayed said. “You know what I mean? Like, tell me, tell me why I should stop. You know what I mean? You’re going to spend $60 million to beat me. Okay, two can play at that game. And then what happens is, ideally, you put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message, and all of a sudden it starts to sound a lot different.”
Politico first reported on the call. A Fetterman spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The “ogre” remark prompted a swift reaction from Stevens’ campaign in a race where the congresswoman’s speaking style and appearance have been critiqued online to the point where El-Sayed has asked his supporters to not partake in the meanspirited sniping.
“Abdul continues with personal insults and making this race about his personal political ambitions and the other 49 states,” said Arik Wolk, a Stevens campaign spokesperson. “Haley is focused on getting things done for Michigan, and only Michigan.”
El-Sayed has used the word “ogre” to describe Fetterman in the past, including in a social media video posted May 12.
Asked about El-Sayed’s comments on the donor call, a spokesperson for his campaign said: “Abdul was clearly speaking metaphorically about the fact that he fully intends to support a primary against John Fetterman, who despite being elected to support the values Abdul fights for has sold out his voters and votes with Trump more than any other Democrat.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office released a health update today saying he’s still not ready to return to in-person work in the Capitol after his June 14 hospitalization.
“I’m still working hard to get back to my full schedule of work in the Senate and in Kentucky, keeping up with intense physical therapy per my doctors’ orders,” McConnell, R-Ky., said in the statement. “Unfortunately, that means I won’t be able to make it to Fancy Farm, Kentucky this Saturday.”
Read the full story here.
Sen. Mitch McConnell and his wife, Elaine Chao, as he continues care at a rehab facility yesterday. Courtesy Mitch McConnell
A Secret Service agent in Florida and two others were arrested in connection with a brutal, dayslong college hazing ritual that nearly ended in a victim’s death, officials said yesterday.
Marquez Christopher Pinder, 29, was placed on administrative leave and the Secret Service is “fully cooperating with the investigation,” according to a statement by Special Agent in Charge Michael Townsend, who runs the agency’s Miami field office.
Read the full story here.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled today that the Justice Department can release transcripts and audio of Biden’s conversations with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer to the House Judiciary Committee.
Biden dropped the lawsuit he had filed against the Trump administration in an effort to block the release of the information to the committee. Last week, a federal appeals court rejected Biden’s request to prevent the release.
NBC News has reached out to the House Judiciary Committee and the Justice Department for comment.
Zwonitzer interviewed Biden for his memoir “Promise Me, Dad” before he served as president. Former special counsel Robert Hur had previously obtained the recordings during the investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents.
Democratic Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman said Friday that Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., sought his endorsement for her U.S. Senate campaign while he was in intensive care following the June 2025 attempt on his life.
Hoffman said in a statement to NBC News yesterday that a “dear and trusted friend” approached him for an endorsement twice — once while he was in the intensive care unit and the second time while he was recovering at home — and that the friend “confirmed that the endorsement requests came from Congresswoman Craig.”
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New Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson told voters over the weekend that longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins has “served Donald Trump” and needs to be removed from office this November.
Collins begs to differ.
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Over the weekend, the United States and Iran halted nearly two straight weeks of daily attacks in the latest push to strike a lasting peace deal. Trump’s U.N. ambassador, Mike Waltz, says the pause is designed to encourage diplomacy. NBC’s Richard Engel reports for “TODAY.”
Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” yesterday that the U.S. has “everything that it needs” for military operations against Iran, dismissing reporting that U.S. weapons stockpiles are depleted.
“I want to be crystal clear: The U.S. military, and I’ve verified this every which way, has everything that it needs to conduct this campaign as effectively as it needs to be,” he said. “And I have to tell you, the people that are leaking this nonsense deserve to be in jail.”
He was responding to questions about an NBC News report that U.S. military commanders are allowing some Iranian attacks through U.S. defenses as part of an effort to preserve the Pentagon’s weapons supply, according to two senior U.S. officials.
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Former state Senate President Troy Jackson officially became Democrats’ Senate nominee in Maine, starting a 101-day sprint to Election Day in a nationally watched, must-win race for his party.
Hundreds of Democrats gathered in Bangor over the weekend for a state convention to pick their Senate nominee after the primary winner, Graham Platner, ended his campaign earlier this month after a sexual assault allegation, which he denied.
Troy Jackson in Bangor on Saturday. Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images
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The four American troops killed during renewed fighting between the U.S. and Iran in recent weeks are no longer listed as part of the Iran war death toll in the Defense Department’s official casualty count but have been placed in a new, separate category.
It is raising questions about properly counting the impact to U.S. service members as the Trump administration has escalated strikes on Iran in a bid to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while providing little indication of how it intends to wind down a conflict that is unpopular with many Americans.
Read the full story here.
Trump plans to tout his handling of the economy during a visit to suburban Detroit today, defending sweeping tariffs in a swing state where their effects have hurt many businesses as midterm election season heats up.
Trump is visiting a General Motors facility in Milford, home to tracks and proving grounds for new models and vehicles. Early voting is underway for Michigan’s Aug. 4 primary, which features fierce nomination fights in both major political parties.
Republican Mike Rogers is unopposed in the Senate primary, but the GOP gubernatorial contest pits Trump-backed Rep. John James against Perry Johnson, a businessman turned politician who has launched unsuccessful campaigns before, including for president in 2024.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Senate primary between Rep. Haley Stevens and progressive Abdul El-Sayed has drawn national attention for the right to face Rogers, who was narrowly defeated by Democrat Sen. Elissa Slotkin in 2024.
Michigan was one of the 2024 battlegrounds Trump flipped after it backed Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. But the state has also seen parts of its economy affected by the president’s tariffs, including on imported cars and auto parts.
A new round of steep import levies is taking effect on dozens of U.S. trading partners. But Trump has singled out Canada with tariffs as high as 50% on a wide array of its products, including cars.
The president is visiting Oakland County, which encompasses much of Detroit’s northern suburbs. Once a Republican stronghold, it has increasingly leaned Democratic, backing Biden against Trump in 2020 and then-Vice President Kamala Harris against Trump four years later.
The White House says Trump will talk up having generated manufacturing jobs and foreign investment in the U.S. while making the case that his policies and leadership have boosted the auto industry.
Michigan’s economy relies heavily on Canada, however, meaning the new tariffs — coupled with inflation still running high and gas prices rising again as the already unpopular war in Iran escalates — have created additional economic concerns statewide.
Oil prices tumbled today as the United States and Iran paused their escalating strikes to make “space” for diplomacy.
The two sides halted fire over the weekend, following 13 consecutive nights of attacks that shattered their deal to end the war and threatened new pain for the global economy.
Read the full story here.
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