“The donors lean Republican, and cash could prove critical for the GOP to maintain control of Congress in November. Republican-leaning donors gave $1.05 billion, compared with $410 million from Democratic-leaning givers and $230 million from bipartisan and special-interest groups for the midterm elections.”

Mediaite: Trump shrugs off major beef backlash: “That’s what people want.”

“Now, the reckoning may be at hand.”

“This week’s bond market sell-off brought government borrowing costs to their highest level in almost two decades and prompted an extraordinary Treasury Department intervention.”

“After decades of free spending, Washington may soon be compelled to make some long-deferred, and politically unpalatable, choices that will leave few Americans unscathed.”

“The transactions totaled between $78.1 million and $263.1 million in the filing published by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, which shows a range for each transaction rather than exact numbers.”

Said Carney: “You’re at war when you’re attacked, and we got attacked.”

“The new rules deviate slightly from Trump’s original plan. The Supreme Court is still weighing a lawsuit challenging the order from a California-led group of states, so without a favorable decision, the new Postal Service rules won’t be in place for the midterm elections in November.”

“Harp posted more than 150 tweets that day, urging Republicans to ‘FIGHT FOR TRUMP’ as he began his speech near the White House. She echoed the president’s talking points that the election was stolen, and amplified rhetoric of his allies, who also sought to undermine the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s election win. Harp’s X account appears suspended. It’s unclear when her account was taken down, and whether she or the platform removed her posts.”

Said Carney: “We’ve recognized from the start that America has changed. We recognize that sometimes, its signature is written in pencil.”

He added: “We cannot accept what they offered and we will not give what they asked. We were not prepared to compromise Canada’s sovereignty or undermine our key industries.”

Bloomberg: Trade breakdown deepens U.S. Canada rift.

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE): “I’m extremely disappointed by this decision from the White House. We all want lower grocery prices, but as I’ve said for months, we cannot do it at the expense of American producers. Flooding the market with foreign beef hurts our livestock industry.”

“Israel’s housing ministry opened bidding this week for companies to build more than 1,200 housing units in the West Bank’s E1 zone, part of occupied Palestinian territory where Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. Constructing Israeli homes in the region would block a key route between the north and south sections of the territory and separate it from East Jerusalem, where more than 300,000 Palestinians live and where diplomats have long envisioned a capital for a Palestinian state alongside Israel.”

“But like other U.S. efforts to force Iran into capitulation, there’s one main problem: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has claimed control of the vital Strait of Hormuz and sent volleys of attack drones across the Persian Gulf, may be impervious to such pressure — and has plenty of ways to retaliate.”

“The extraordinary tension underscores how far AIPAC’s political standing has fallen amid voters’ anger over the war in Gaza. Even Rogers — a staunchly pro-Israel Republican — fears the group’s public support could be a liability in the Nov. 3 election.”

Financial Times: Bessent takes on bond vigilantes in $32 trillion Treasury market.

Axios: Was the Treasury’s market intervention worth it?

The Atlantic: Another Pulte purge, this time at Fannie Mae.

“The line got a knowing laugh from a handful of observers in the room, and it electrified a subset of political obsessives on social media, who took to their favorite platforms and group chats with some version of ‘Oh, he went there!’ or ‘I can’t believe he did that!’ But although Ossoff’s aside resonated with the junkies, the majority of Americans likely had no idea who this Natalie woman was, and might never have given it another thought.”

“But then the West Wing lost its mind. And Trump did too. Their pushback was so overwhelming, so obviously coordinated, so ugly and personal that it became a story. The White House inadvertently created news, as well as a permission structure for even the most cautious, fact-based media organizations to take on the topic. Which is why the name Natalie Harp is now everywhere.”

Said Trump: “They didn’t respect us two years ago. They laughed at us. NATO laughed at us. Everybody laughed at us. They don’t laugh anymore. There’s no more laughing.”

“He’s right. It’s worse than laughing—they’re ignoring the president of the United States altogether. Trump styles himself as an heir to Theodore Roosevelt, but where Roosevelt said that America should speak softly and carry a big stick, Trump speaks loudly and carries a small one. Roosevelt’s bully pulpit has been reduced to a bullshit pulpit.”

The latest episode of Trial Balloon is live.

Florida’s primaries were another experiment in finding out what voters want from their political parties.

Preston Harp lives in Masaya, a city in western Nicaragua, and is “an ardent supporter of the Sandinistas, a Marxist-influenced revolutionary movement that has dominated Nicaraguan politics for decades under President Daniel Ortega.”

“Outside the White House bubble, warning lights are flashing. Gas prices keep climbing. The national debt just passed $40 trillion. And investors are pushing long-term interest rates to levels not seen in nearly two decades, reflecting concerns about inflation, borrowing and the economy.”

“Taken together, these developments raise questions about how removed the president may be from the economic concerns of many Americans.”

“The administration is under mounting pressure to deliver relief as affordability becomes a bigger political liability ahead of the midterms.”

“The push is cutting against — and sometimes rolling back — pillars of Trump’s economic agenda, including tariffs and favoring domestic producers. And the moves may offer limited relief, reflecting how difficult it is for presidents to broadly bring down prices.”

CNN: Trump defends pause on beef tariffs amid criticism from U.S. cattle producers.