Leavitt says that Trump is fixed on 2020 elections because media has ‘refused to acknowledge’ concerns about ‘sanctity’ of elections
Fielding questions about the substance of the president’s televised address tonight – specifically reports that Trump plans to unveil new claims of interference in the 2020 election, despite the lack of evidence of widespread fraud – Leavitt argued that the president remains focused on the results because “the media has refused to acknowledge that tens of millions of Americans share his concerns about the sanctity of our elections.”
She added that Trump’s forthcoming “findings will shock you,” urging viewers to tune in. “Everything he is saying will be backed by facts and by evidence that will be provided this evening,” she said.
Key events
Trump approval rating stuck at 37% according to new poll, the same level as his 2021 departure
Donald Trump’s approval rating is sitting at 37%, according to a new Washington Post-Ipsos poll. The level is almost identical to his April approval rating, and when he left the White House in 2021 – after losing the presidential election to Joe Biden.
While 81% Republicans surveyed in the poll say they approve of Trump’s performance, only 52% of those who lean-Republican have the same assessment.
As a peace deal with Iran appears increasingly elusive, with renewed back-to-back strikes this week, only 29% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the war.
Here’s a recap of the day so far
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In her first press briefing since returning from maternity leave, Karoline Leavitt said that Donald Trump’s findings about alleged interference in the 2020 election “will shock you,” during his televised address to the nation this evening. “Everything he is saying will be backed by facts and by evidence that will be provided this evening,” the press secretary added. Leavitt also defended the president’s fixation on the election he lost, despite relentless unsubstaniated claims of fraud, because the “the media has refused to acknowledge that tens of millions of Americans share his concerns about the sanctity of our elections.”
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Leavitt also confimed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would continue vehicle stops, despite a back and forth between Donald Trump and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on the practice. Federal officers across the US had been told to temporarily stop pulling drivers over after ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on 7 July, and Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine on Monday. She added that Trump and Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, “are on the same page that vehicle stops are a necessary tool that ICE agents need in order to continuing continue their deportation campaign”.
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The press secretary also confirmed that Trump will attend the Fifa World Cup final in New Jersey on Sunday. “This is a fitting conclusion to a tournament that showcased America’s ability to host the world on the grandest stage,” Leavitt said.
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Earlier, former pardon attorney Liz Oyer blasted Todd Blanche’s testimony during his confirmation hearing to be the next attorney general this week. Oyer said she was fired from the justice department after she refused to recommend restoring the firearm rights to actor and Trump-ally Mel Gibson, who was previously convicted of domestic violence. On Wednesday, Blanche said Oyer’s recommendation did not lead to her termination. “His claim that it had nothing to do with the concerns I raised is contradicted by documents and evidence,” she added. Oyer then urged senators to not “degrade our justice system further” by promoting Blanche.
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Also today, the president’s longtime teleprompter operator is believed to have made tens of thousands of dollars by placing bets on a number of Trump’s speeches on the prediction market, Kalshi, according to a report from ABC News. At the briefing room podium today, Leavitt said the president is aware of the investigation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC). “[Trump] believes it’s deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace,” Leavitt said, noting the operator has been put on unpaid administrative leave and there will be a different person running the teleprompter for tonight’s address.
Despite consecutive days of US strikes on Iran, Leavitt insisted negotiations are not stalled, saying conversations between Tehran and Washington “continue”.
“They want to make a deal with us because they are suffering devastating blows at the hands of the United States military,” she said, echoing the president’s frequent claim that Iran wants to “settle so badly”.
Leavitt defended the strikes as retaliation for Iran violating its memorandum of understanding with the US and for launching attacks on commercial vessels in the strait of Hormuz.
“President Trump is not going to sit by and allow these active acts of terrorism to take place in the strait without ensuring Iran pays consequences for that – and that’s what we are witnessing right now,” she said.
White House confirms that ICE vehicle stops will continue
In response to a question about three men who have been killed by ICE in the past week, Leavitt confimed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would continue vehicle stops, despite a back and forth between Donald Trump and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on the practice.
The press secretary said that DHS has issued “verbal guidance has been given to all field offices across the country”.
She added that Trump and Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, “are on the same page that vehicle stops are a necessary tool that ICE agents need in order to continuing continue their deportation campaign”.
Federal officers across the US had been told to temporarily stop pulling drivers over after ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on 7 July, and Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine on Monday. Both men were unarmed, neither was the intended target of the operation that killed him, and in both cases the agents involved wore no body camera to record what had happened.
Leavitt noted that “over half of all ICE field offices” now have body cameras, and the remainder of the field offices are expected within 60 days. However, she blamed the slower rollout on Democratic lawmakers after a DHS shutdown earlier this year over ICE tactics following the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis in January.
In response to a report from ABC News that the president’s longtime teleprompter operator is believed to have made tens of thousands of dollars by placing bets on a number of Trump’s speeches on the prediction market, Kalshi, the press secretary said the president is aware of the investigation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC).
“[Trump] believes it’s deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace,” Leavitt said, noting the operator has been put on unpaid administrative leave and there will be a different person running the teleprompter for tonight’s address.
Leavitt insisted there are “very strict ethical guidelines” at the White House that “explicitly state not to do this”.
“The White House Counsel’s office makes that clear to all of us who sign up to work in government on behalf of the president,” she said. “This individual unfortunately violated the plan, and therefore he’s paying the consequences for it.”
Leavitt says that Trump is fixed on 2020 elections because media has ‘refused to acknowledge’ concerns about ‘sanctity’ of elections
Fielding questions about the substance of the president’s televised address tonight – specifically reports that Trump plans to unveil new claims of interference in the 2020 election, despite the lack of evidence of widespread fraud – Leavitt argued that the president remains focused on the results because “the media has refused to acknowledge that tens of millions of Americans share his concerns about the sanctity of our elections.”
She added that Trump’s forthcoming “findings will shock you,” urging viewers to tune in. “Everything he is saying will be backed by facts and by evidence that will be provided this evening,” she said.
In her opening remarks, Leavitt touted the administration’s arrests of undocumented immigrants convicted of crimes, but notably made no reference to the deaths of the three immigrants killed at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the last week.
Leavitt returns to podium, confirms Trump’s attendance at World Cup final
Karoline Leavitt begun her first press conference since returning from maternity leave, and confirmed that Donald Trump will attend the Fifa World Cup final in New Jersey on Sunday.
“This is a fitting conclusion to a tournament that showcased America’s ability to host the world on the grandest stage,” the press secretary said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is due to hold her first press briefing since returning from maternity leave shortly. As ever, we’ll bring you all the key lines here.
Trump administration revives rule that could deny green cards to immigrants who use public benefits
The Trump administration is reviving a rule that could deny green cards to immigrants who use public benefits that could include food stamps, Medicaid, and even housing assistance.
The policy, known as “public charge”, appeared today in the Federal Register and will be formally published on 20 July, the Associated Press reports.
The so-called “public charge” test is an immigration screening tool used to determine whether applicants for permanent residence are likely to rely on government support.
The policy was first implemented in February 2020 as one of Donald Trump’s moves to limit legal immigration during his first administration, but it was limited under Joe Biden in 2022.
The move will directly place hundreds of thousands of green card holders under broader scrutiny each year, according to CBS News, which was first to report the move.
As CBS News notes, it could also trigger a broader ripple effect if immigrant families avoid healthcare, food, or housing assistance – even when they or their US-citizen children legally qualify – out of fear that tapping into those benefits could ultimately hurt their immigration cases.
The federal government “is reaffirming the requirement of self-reliance, protecting public resources and ending policies that encouraged dependency on the backs of hard-working American taxpayers,” US Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a post on X.
Under President Trump, USCIS is restoring the basic principle that immigrants must be able to support themselves.
Under the policy, applicants for green cards have to show they wouldn’t be burdens to the country or “public charges”.
The Republican Senate nominee in Georgia, Mike Collins, who has been plagued by a string of controversies in his time in public office, has close ties with a white nationalist influencer – his son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II – CNN reports.
A trucking executive and one-time “Freedom caucus” conservative endorsed by Donald Trump, Collins has been the GOP representative for Georgia’s 10th congressional district since 2023. In that time, the anti-abortion hardliner has drawn scrutiny over his associations with far-right and extremist figures, incendiary social media activity and accusations of antisemitism, which he has denied. He has also denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election and defended January 6 rioters, who he has said deserved pardons.
Collins won the Republican nomination in June, but enters the race as an underdog in a state that Trump won in 2024, against rising Democratic star Jon Ossoff in November’s midterm elections.
Scheer, who is married to Collins’s daughter Summer, is a pro-white nationalist and social media influencer with a history of sharing antisemitic material and sentiment and Nazi imagery on the internet. Among them are posts from the neofascist, white supremacist hate group Patriot Front, which descended on Washington DC this Fourth of July wearing white masks and brandishing the Confederate flag.
According to CNN, Scheer is registered to vote at a Collins-owned property in Georgia, has been featured in Collins’s campaign photos, and was at Collins’s victory party after he won the Republican primary in June.
On social media, Scheer has over 1.5 million followers across platforms TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Telegram, where he posts about fitness, Christianity and masculinity. He has promoted white nationalist ideology, shared antisemitic conspiracy theories and Nazi propaganda, called for Muslims to be deported and shared an antisemitic infographic, which he said his wife made.
On a podcast last November, Scheer warned that white people were being driven toward extinction and said restoring an America populated by people of white European descent would require “clearing our land of other people”. He later pushed for keeping Somalis, Mexicans and Nigerians in their home countries so he could “enjoy my slice of this world with my people”. Scheer also blamed “Israel and Zionist Jews” for policies he said were intended to “undermine the white, Christian nature of America”. He also said: “I do believe that the more homogenous a culture is, the more it thrives.”
He recently asked his followers to vote on a poll whether he should make a video on “why Gen-Z doesn’t hate Hitler”. He later deleted it but CNN saved it. He has also invoked the antisemitic “Jewish Bolsheviks” conspiracy theory, which falsely portrayed communism and the Bolshevik revolution as a Jewish plot. It was embraced by the Nazis, who scapegoated Jews as to blame for Germany’s socio-economic collapse after the first world war.
Within a YouTube comment section from a video posted in November 2025, Scheer liked a comment in German quoting a 1930s marching song co-opted by the Nazis called “Erika”. In English it translates to, “On the heath, there blooms a little flower.”
In an Instagram post from June 2025, Scheer posted a meme of a family cradling a baby with an eagle in the background, with a text overlay reading: “I want to make babies Not die for Israel.” The caption reads: “If you haven’t noticed, we all have a common enemy.” The image used comes from a 1930s Nazi propaganda and recruitment poster, which features a quote that translates to: “The Nazi Party protects the people’s community.”
We have reached out to Collins’s campaign for comment. In a statement to CNN, it did not address questions regarding Scheer and his social media activity. A spokesperson for Collins said: “Rep. Collins’ lifelong support for Israel is unquestionable and backed by his consistent record in Congress of standing up for Israel and her people.”
The Guardian has reached out to Scheer for comment.
Candidates vying to replace Platner in Maine Senate race take part in televised debate
Before Donald Trump delivers a televised address to the nation at 9pm ET tonight, Mainers will be able to watch eight candidates vying to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee in the US Senate race.
This comes after Platner ended his scandal-plagued campaign last week, after a former partner accused him of sexual assault.
Now, the Maine Democratic party has been scrambling to find an alternative. Several people have filed paperwork to be considered at a 25 July convention of 601 delegates who will select the new nominee.
First, the candidates will need to collect 500 signatures to get on the convention ballot by Monday, and at least 50 of those will need to be from eight different counties.
Tonight, those making their case in the televised debate include Jordan Wood, a former congressional staffer who unsuccessfully ran in the Democratic primary for Maine’s second congressional district. Also on stage will be three candidates who lost out on the Democratic gubernatorial nomination: Troy Jackson, a logger and former state lawmaker; Nirav Shah, the former Maine CDC director; and Shenna Bellows, the current secretary of state.
Dan Kleban, founder of the Maine Beer Company, who initially ran in the Senate race against Platner but withdrew well before the primary, will also take part in the debate.
Kleban’s campaign, however, issued a statement criticizing News Center Maine’s rules for taking part, and splitting up the event into two sections. The local station has said that in order to debate in the 7pm-8pm hour, candidates need to have secured at least 20% of the vote in last month’s primaries.
“We believe the criteria for splitting up the candidates is deeply flawed and punishes someone like Dan who is not a career politician,” Kleban’s campaign wrote. “It punishes Dan for not losing a completely unrelated race last month.”
One quick note, Bensky and many of the survivors who are in the Senate hearing room today are wearing butterfly brooches in honor of Virginia Giuffre, one of the most vocal and public Epstein accusers who took her own life last year.
Bensky acknowledged Giuffre’s “monumental” contribution to the overall Epstein investigation into the late sex-offender’s crimes and accomplices. “I think it would be unfair to not name her because her deposition holds the key to quite a few things,” Bensky added.
Bensky also said that neither she nor her team have received communication from justice department following Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing yesterday, after he said that a staffer would reach out to survivors of Epstein’s abuse.
“The DoJ has never followed up in 30 years with any of us. There is a lot in the files right now that you should be investigating and looking into,” Bensky added. “This case was never handled correctly from the beginning.”
As I noted earlier, Dani Bensky – a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse –is speaking before the Senate judiciary committee about Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general.
Blensky criticized the acting attorney general for meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell despite not sitting down with survivors.
“According to public reporting, Mr Blanche spent approximately nine hours meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell. He did not even spend nine minutes meeting with a survivor,” Blensky said.
She also recounted her experiences when the justice department accidentally revealed identifying details of several Epstein survivors in when they released files related to his crimes.
“Crime victims deserve better from the nation’s highest level of law enforcement officials,” Bensky added.
Former pardon attorney slams Blanche nomination for AG: ‘Do not degrade our justice system further’
Speaking in front of senators on the judiciary committee today, Liz Oyer blasted Todd Blanche’s Wednesday testimony.
“I declined to rubber stamp a political favor for a friend of the president, and it cost me my job,” the former US pardon attorney told lawmakers about her firing after she refused to recommend restoring the firearm rights to actor and Trump-ally Mel Gibson, who was previously convicted of domestic violence.
Trump’s nominee to lead the justice department said that Oyer’s reccommendation last year did not lead to her termination. “The decisions that she had made as pardon attorney in the weeks and months leading up to the end of President Biden’s term were completely inconsistent with President Trump’s authority,” Blanche insisted.
Today, Oyer said that the acting attorney general’s comments were “provably false”.
“His claim that it had nothing to do with the concerns I raised is contradicted by documents and evidence,” she added.
Oyer urged senators to not “degrade our justice system further” by promoting Blanche.
“To the American public, it looks like Mr Blanche is running the DoJ as Donald Trump’s personal law firm,” she said. “He is using law enforcement powers to pursue petty grudges harbored by the president. These pointless vendettas are wasting our scarce resources and destroying DoJ’s credibility.”
The second day of Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing to be the next attorney general has begun.
Today, we’ll hear from several expert witnesses about Blanche’s ability to serve as the nation’s top prosecutor. Dani Bensky, a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse, is among those speaking, along with Liz Oyer – the former US pardon attorney who says she was fired after Donald Trump returned to office last year because she refused to recommend restoring firearm rights to Mel Gibson, the actor and prominent presidential ally who received probation for a 2011 domestic‑violence conviction.
