Scorned senators force retreat on Blanche confirmation vote
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In today’s issue:
▪ Blanche confirmation vote postponed
▪ Paul threatens Fauci with contempt
▪ Trump announces Dulles renovations
▪ Michigan Senate poll released
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Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) are showing no signs of backing down on their demands concerning Todd Blanche’s nomination to become permanent attorney general, throwing his confirmation into serious doubt.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) canceled the panel’s scheduled meeting to vote today on Blanche’s nomination, after negotiations throughout the day failed to win over the pair of “YOLO caucus” senators.
An increasingly frustrated Cornyn told reporters that the Department of Justice (DOJ) “stonewalled” his request.
“They’ve simply refused to cooperate,” he said.
Cornyn and Tillis have been pushing Blanche and the DOJ for a formal written declaration that the settlement President Trump made with the IRS is not going forward. The deal included the creation of a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund for alleged victims of political prosecutions and an agreement for the IRS not to audit the president’s finances nor those of his businesses and his family members.
The DOJ told a federal court last month that the fund was effectively dead as it faced bipartisan backlash, and Blanche had said it would not be going forward. But the IRS audit agreement remains intact.
The GOP holds a 12-10 edge on the panel, giving Blanche a narrow path forward in what would presumably be a party-line vote at best, as Democrats are solidly opposed to the nomination. That gives significant power to Cornyn and Tillis, two key votes who have a few months left on the job after being forced out or primaried by Trump.
Cornyn was set to meet with Blanche on Wednesday to discuss the nomination, but the meeting was canceled. The senator said after its cancellation that he was “not prepared to vote yes” on the nomination.
He told reporters he didn’t understand the reason for the holdup.
“Beats me. Maybe they think I’m just going to give up or, you know, go along, but they’re mistaken,” he said.
Trump expressed confidence about the nomination during comments to reporters at the White House, saying Cornyn may be “upset with me because I didn’t endorse him,” referring to Trump-backed Ken Paxton’s victory over Cornyn in the Senate primary in May.
“I don’t know what it is, but I haven’t heard that there’s a problem. I’ve heard he’s going through quite nicely,” Trump said.
Tillis has largely left the dealmaking to Cornyn, The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch reports, but he said during Blanche’s confirmation hearing that he wants to “stick a fork” in the fund.
Tillis said ahead of Grassley’s decision that the Thursday vote could be a “failure” if it were held. He said he wouldn’t attend the meeting if no deal was reached.
“If there’s pressure on doing the markup, then I don’t want the chairman to have a failed markup. Then I would just not be there to make quorum, so he wouldn’t be confronted with that eventuality,” he said.
Even beyond the Judiciary Committee, more obstacles could lie ahead for Blanche.
Rounding out the YOLO caucus — a group of Republican lawmakers who have shown a new willingness to buck the president since he effectively ended their time in Congress — is Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who also lost to a Trump-backed primary opponent.
Cassidy told Semafor’s Burgess Everett on Wednesday that he is worried about “lawfare” from the DOJ, which has pursued charges against various high-profile adversaries of the president.
“I have to make sure that he is the attorney general who used to be the president’s personal attorney, not the personal attorney who is also the attorney general,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy could not hold up the nomination on his own. However, it’s unclear where other more moderate members, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), will come down on Blanche.
In the meantime, the administration has other methods to make payouts to defendants that Trump and his allies view as having been wronged by past administrations.
In the latest sign of the anti-weaponization fund’s goals going forward, a million-dollar payout was announced Tuesday for an anti-abortion activist convicted in 2024 of preventing access to an abortion clinic, The New York Times reported.
▪ ABC News: James Comey attorneys allege DOJ sought input from gangster on case.
▪ The Hill: Trump, DOJ appeal E. Jean Carroll verdict to Supreme Court.
Committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) speaks as Dr. Anthony Fauci appears before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee at the Capitol, July 29, 2026, in Washington. (Allison Robbert, Associated Press)
CONTEMPT: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he plans to hold a vote to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after the former chief White House medical adviser refused to answer questions during his congressional testimony Wednesday.
Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times during a feisty hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, alleging Paul called for him to testify hoping he would say something that could be used in a political prosecution.
“Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion,” Fauci said.
Paul railed against Fauci during the hearing, warning him of “repercussions” he would face for refusing to answer. One of Fauci’s attorneys was removed from the hearing room as they attempted to defend his client’s decision to invoke the Fifth.
Paul told reporters following the hearing that a contempt vote will be held next week. He argued Fauci may not have been permitted to invoke the Fifth Amendment given the preemptive pardon that he received from former President Biden last year.
“That’ll be a legal question, but the question on contempt will be voted on, and then there’s a question of whether or not the Department of Justice will take that up,” Paul said.
Democrats sought to weigh in at the hearing to defend Fauci, with Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the panel’s ranking member, accusing Paul of “relitigating the past.”
“One-sided investigations designed to validate predetermined conclusions do not serve the American people, who sent us to actually uncover the truth and solve problems,” Peters said.
Fauci may face another legal challenge, as Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) said after the hearing that he is launching an investigation into him.
▪ The Hill: Five takeaways on Fauci’s hostile Senate hearing.
▪ The Hill: Paul, Trump forge unlikely alliance.
FIRE AND FURY: Trump issued an emphatic response to Iran’s surprise attack on U.S. forces in Jordan, pledging to “beat the f—ing s— out of them.”
“They’re going to get a beating,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday.
The U.S. followed through Wednesday evening with “heavy” airstrikes against Iran lasting about two hours. The strikes hit dozens of targets inside Iran, including military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites and maritime capabilities, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said.
Centcom said all the missiles fired as part of Iran’s attack were shot down Tuesday evening. But it broke a string of a few days of peace between the U.S. and Iran after Trump announced a pause to strikes against Iran last weekend.
The war is quickly spreading across the region, with strikes on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq oil processing facility and tankers at a port in Egypt.
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia carried out joint strikes against Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq in response to the former strikes, while Trump said the U.S. would “be straightening out” the latter, without directly assigning blame.
“In the meantime, we’re going to be hitting them very hard because it’s our turn to hit them. They know it’s coming,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office
▪ The Hill: Iran’s surprise attack blows up fighting pause.
▪ The Hill: Ukraine, Iran wars converge as Trump seeks breakthrough.
▪ The Guardian: Iraq strikes push conflict into ‘uncharted territory.’
DULLES MAKEOVER: Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a $22.5 billion renovation of Washington Dulles International Airport on Wednesday, the president’s latest major improvement project in the Washington, D.C., area.
The makeover is expected to include an underground system that will connect terminals, eliminating the airport’s need for the widely despised “people movers.” It will not be federally funded and will be covered by airlines, Duffy said.
Trump has criticized Dulles in the past, calling it a “terrible airport” that was “incorrectly designed.”
In the new plans, an underground U-shaped aerotrain will carry passengers to their terminal, and additional moving sidewalks will be placed in the terminals. It will also include 5 million square feet of new space and replace the current C and D concourses.
Trump has complained about how far the parking was from the terminals, which will also no longer be an issue since 32,000 parking spots will be added.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby was also at Trump and Duffy’s announcement, as the airport will now be home to the “largest United Polaris lounge in the world.”
▪ The Hill: Federal panel votes to change historic preservation rules.
▪ The Wall Street Journal: A fight over dirt spans two of Trump’s projects.
HOME STRETCH: Progressive Abdul El-Sayed leads moderate Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) by 15 points in the latest poll of the Michigan Democratic Senate primary with just a few days left before voters head to the polls.
An Emerson College Polling/WLNS/WOODTV survey released Thursday showed El-Sayed, a former Wayne County health director, well ahead of Stevens, 54 percent to 39 percent. Six percent were undecided, while 2 percent said they supported state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who dropped out of the race earlier this summer.
The poll adds to a mixed picture of the race with the primary campaign winding down.
A Michigan Education survey released Wednesday showed Stevens neck and neck with the presumptive Republican nominee, former Rep. Mike Rogers, while El-Sayed trailed in a hypothetical match-up by double digits.
Electability has been a major issue in the race, as Stevens has argued El-Sayed’s nomination would risk handing the race to the GOP. El-Sayed has rejected that argument and said his candidacy would energize the Democratic base.
In neighboring Wisconsin, a similar battle is taking place in the governor’s race, as democratic socialist Francesca Hong holds a comfortable lead in polling for the Democratic nomination, worrying some establishment figures.
▪ The Hill: Americans split on understanding of democratic socialism.
▪ The Hill: Former President Obama endorses Josh Turek for Senate in Iowa.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks before Vice President JD Vance at the Wisconsin Air National Guard facility at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, July 8, 2026, in Milwaukee. (Mark Schiefelbein, Associated Press pool)
PREMIUM PAIN: The president has been touting efforts to lower drug prices in recent months as Republicans try to make an affordability pitch to voters ahead of the midterms, but his administration’s latest move on Medicare may undermine that message.
The Trump administration on Tuesday announced that it will end the Medicare Part D subsidies program that was started during the Biden era. Medicare Part D is optional prescription drug coverage by private companies to help Medicare recipients pay for brand-name and generic medications.
“We are stabilizing the market so this bailout is no longer needed. Premiums will go up by less than $10 for most Medicare recipients, with many even seeing LOWER premiums,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz wrote in a post on the social platform X.
However, Julliette Cubanski, vice president and director of the program on Medicare policy at KFF, said Part D enrollees “could see a larger premium increase for drug coverage in next year than they’ve see in recent years” because of the change.
About 25 million Americans have standalone Part D drug plans and will now have to switch to a different subsidy plan once the program expires at the end of 2026, according to Reuters.
That could create political headaches for the GOP as polls consistently show affordability concerns at the top of the list of voters’ priorities.
The Trump administration centered its efforts to lower prescription prices around the February launch of TrumpRx.gov — a platform meant to give Americans lower prices on higher cost prescription drugs.
The full impact of the subsidy cuts will be clearer when the final 2027 Medicare Advantage and Part D plan details are released in mid-to-late September, less than two months before the midterms.
▪ Nexstar: More than 18,000 cyclosporiasis cases now suspected i
The app Telegram, center, a popular messenger app in Russia restricted by authorities, is shown on a smartphone in Moscow, Russia, July 29, 2026. (Associated Press)
MESSAGING WAR: The founder and CEO of the messaging application Telegram, Pavel Durov, was placed on an international wanted list by Russian authorities on Wednesday for allegedly aiding terrorism.
According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), Telegram failed to remove “numerous channels, chats and bots” used by “Ukrainian intelligence agencies and extremist organizations.”
The FSB said the agencies and organizations allegedly used Telegram to coordinate cyber fraud and terrorist attacks resulting in “numerous human casualties.”
Employees of the special services of Ukraine were accused of using a dating chatbot called “Daivinchik” to recruit Russian citizens into committing “armed attacks and arsons.”
Forty-six people ages 12 to 22 have been arrested across the country since July 2025 for using the chatbot and committing attacks, the FSB said.
Telegram hasn’t been the only social media platform targeted by Russia this year, with the country banning WhatsApp in February. Officials encouraged WhatsApp users to leave the app and use a state-sponsored messaging app called Max.
Durov responded to the charges in a statement via Telegram, stating that “Russia is restricting access to Telegram in an attempt to force its citizens to switch to a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship.”
Telegram also posted a photo of Durov raising the middle finger on the app’s X account on Wednesday morning.
If convicted, Durov could face up to life in prison in Russia, where he was born and started his career, according to The Associated Press. He is currently a dual citizen of France and the United Arab Emirates.
The Telegram founder was previously taken into custody in Paris in August 2024 on an arrest warrant for allegedly using the platform for money laundering and drug trafficking.
▪ The Hill: Trump makes new demands for Russia, Iran sanctions bill.
▪ The Hill: Volodymyr Zelensky says he asked Trump for Patriot missiles.
Former President Biden arrives to greet South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Aug. 18, 2023, at Camp David, the presidential retreat, near Thurmont, Md. (Andrew Harnik, Associated Press)
And finally … It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for the weekly news quiz!
Trump is set to hold a Cabinet meeting at the presidential retreat Camp David on Friday following a postponement in May over bad weather. So this week’s quiz will cover the site where a lot of history has taken place.
Be sure to email your responses to jgans@thehill.com — please add “Quiz” to your subject line.
The site is named for the grandson of which former president?
1. Woodrow Wilson
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt
3. Dwight Eisenhower
4. John F. Kennedy
Who was the first foreign leader to visit Camp David?
1. Winston Churchill
2. Charles de Gaulle
3. Joseph Stalin
4. Konrad Adenauer
Which two countries made a historic and lasting peace agreement at the site?
1. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia
2. Ireland and the U.K.
3. Israel and Jordan
4. Israel and Egypt
Roughly how many acres is Camp David?
1. 50 acres
2. 75 acres
3. 100 acres
4. 125 acres
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Read the full story at The Hill ↗
In today's issue: ▪ Blanche confirmation vote postponed ▪ Paul threatens Fauci with contempt ▪ Trump announces Dulles renovations ▪ Michigan Senate poll released Sens. John Cornyn…
This lens runs the verified story through Cinnamon's AI — wired in the next step.
Skip to content
In today’s issue:
▪ Blanche confirmation vote postponed
▪ Paul threatens Fauci with contempt
▪ Trump announces Dulles renovations
▪ Michigan Senate poll released
Close
The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox. Sign up for the Morning Report newsletter
Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) are showing no signs of backing down on their demands concerning Todd Blanche’s nomination to become permanent attorney general, throwing his confirmation into serious doubt.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) canceled the panel’s scheduled meeting to vote today on Blanche’s nomination, after negotiations throughout the day failed to win over the pair of “YOLO caucus” senators.
An increasingly frustrated Cornyn told reporters that the Department of Justice (DOJ) “stonewalled” his request.
“They’ve simply refused to cooperate,” he said.
Cornyn and Tillis have been pushing Blanche and the DOJ for a formal written declaration that the settlement President Trump made with the IRS is not going forward. The deal included the creation of a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund for alleged victims of political prosecutions and an agreement for the IRS not to audit the president’s finances nor those of his businesses and his family members.
The DOJ told a federal court last month that the fund was effectively dead as it faced bipartisan backlash, and Blanche had said it would not be going forward. But the IRS audit agreement remains intact.
The GOP holds a 12-10 edge on the panel, giving Blanche a narrow path forward in what would presumably be a party-line vote at best, as Democrats are solidly opposed to the nomination. That gives significant power to Cornyn and Tillis, two key votes who have a few months left on the job after being forced out or primaried by Trump.
Cornyn was set to meet with Blanche on Wednesday to discuss the nomination, but the meeting was canceled. The senator said after its cancellation that he was “not prepared to vote yes” on the nomination.
He told reporters he didn’t understand the reason for the holdup.
“Beats me. Maybe they think I’m just going to give up or, you know, go along, but they’re mistaken,” he said.
Trump expressed confidence about the nomination during comments to reporters at the White House, saying Cornyn may be “upset with me because I didn’t endorse him,” referring to Trump-backed Ken Paxton’s victory over Cornyn in the Senate primary in May.
“I don’t know what it is, but I haven’t heard that there’s a problem. I’ve heard he’s going through quite nicely,” Trump said.
Tillis has largely left the dealmaking to Cornyn, The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch reports, but he said during Blanche’s confirmation hearing that he wants to “stick a fork” in the fund.
Tillis said ahead of Grassley’s decision that the Thursday vote could be a “failure” if it were held. He said he wouldn’t attend the meeting if no deal was reached.
“If there’s pressure on doing the markup, then I don’t want the chairman to have a failed markup. Then I would just not be there to make quorum, so he wouldn’t be confronted with that eventuality,” he said.
Even beyond the Judiciary Committee, more obstacles could lie ahead for Blanche.
Rounding out the YOLO caucus — a group of Republican lawmakers who have shown a new willingness to buck the president since he effectively ended their time in Congress — is Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who also lost to a Trump-backed primary opponent.
Cassidy told Semafor’s Burgess Everett on Wednesday that he is worried about “lawfare” from the DOJ, which has pursued charges against various high-profile adversaries of the president.
“I have to make sure that he is the attorney general who used to be the president’s personal attorney, not the personal attorney who is also the attorney general,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy could not hold up the nomination on his own. However, it’s unclear where other more moderate members, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), will come down on Blanche.
In the meantime, the administration has other methods to make payouts to defendants that Trump and his allies view as having been wronged by past administrations.
In the latest sign of the anti-weaponization fund’s goals going forward, a million-dollar payout was announced Tuesday for an anti-abortion activist convicted in 2024 of preventing access to an abortion clinic, The New York Times reported.
▪ ABC News: James Comey attorneys allege DOJ sought input from gangster on case.
▪ The Hill: Trump, DOJ appeal E. Jean Carroll verdict to Supreme Court.
Committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) speaks as Dr. Anthony Fauci appears before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee at the Capitol, July 29, 2026, in Washington. (Allison Robbert, Associated Press)
CONTEMPT: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he plans to hold a vote to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after the former chief White House medical adviser refused to answer questions during his congressional testimony Wednesday.
Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times during a feisty hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, alleging Paul called for him to testify hoping he would say something that could be used in a political prosecution.
“Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion,” Fauci said.
Paul railed against Fauci during the hearing, warning him of “repercussions” he would face for refusing to answer. One of Fauci’s attorneys was removed from the hearing room as they attempted to defend his client’s decision to invoke the Fifth.
Paul told reporters following the hearing that a contempt vote will be held next week. He argued Fauci may not have been permitted to invoke the Fifth Amendment given the preemptive pardon that he received from former President Biden last year.
“That’ll be a legal question, but the question on contempt will be voted on, and then there’s a question of whether or not the Department of Justice will take that up,” Paul said.
Democrats sought to weigh in at the hearing to defend Fauci, with Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the panel’s ranking member, accusing Paul of “relitigating the past.”
“One-sided investigations designed to validate predetermined conclusions do not serve the American people, who sent us to actually uncover the truth and solve problems,” Peters said.
Fauci may face another legal challenge, as Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) said after the hearing that he is launching an investigation into him.
▪ The Hill: Five takeaways on Fauci’s hostile Senate hearing.
▪ The Hill: Paul, Trump forge unlikely alliance.
FIRE AND FURY: Trump issued an emphatic response to Iran’s surprise attack on U.S. forces in Jordan, pledging to “beat the f—ing s— out of them.”
“They’re going to get a beating,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday.
The U.S. followed through Wednesday evening with “heavy” airstrikes against Iran lasting about two hours. The strikes hit dozens of targets inside Iran, including military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites and maritime capabilities, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said.
Centcom said all the missiles fired as part of Iran’s attack were shot down Tuesday evening. But it broke a string of a few days of peace between the U.S. and Iran after Trump announced a pause to strikes against Iran last weekend.
The war is quickly spreading across the region, with strikes on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq oil processing facility and tankers at a port in Egypt.
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia carried out joint strikes against Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq in response to the former strikes, while Trump said the U.S. would “be straightening out” the latter, without directly assigning blame.
“In the meantime, we’re going to be hitting them very hard because it’s our turn to hit them. They know it’s coming,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office
▪ The Hill: Iran’s surprise attack blows up fighting pause.
▪ The Hill: Ukraine, Iran wars converge as Trump seeks breakthrough.
▪ The Guardian: Iraq strikes push conflict into ‘uncharted territory.’
DULLES MAKEOVER: Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a $22.5 billion renovation of Washington Dulles International Airport on Wednesday, the president’s latest major improvement project in the Washington, D.C., area.
The makeover is expected to include an underground system that will connect terminals, eliminating the airport’s need for the widely despised “people movers.” It will not be federally funded and will be covered by airlines, Duffy said.
Trump has criticized Dulles in the past, calling it a “terrible airport” that was “incorrectly designed.”
In the new plans, an underground U-shaped aerotrain will carry passengers to their terminal, and additional moving sidewalks will be placed in the terminals. It will also include 5 million square feet of new space and replace the current C and D concourses.
Trump has complained about how far the parking was from the terminals, which will also no longer be an issue since 32,000 parking spots will be added.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby was also at Trump and Duffy’s announcement, as the airport will now be home to the “largest United Polaris lounge in the world.”
▪ The Hill: Federal panel votes to change historic preservation rules.
▪ The Wall Street Journal: A fight over dirt spans two of Trump’s projects.
HOME STRETCH: Progressive Abdul El-Sayed leads moderate Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) by 15 points in the latest poll of the Michigan Democratic Senate primary with just a few days left before voters head to the polls.
An Emerson College Polling/WLNS/WOODTV survey released Thursday showed El-Sayed, a former Wayne County health director, well ahead of Stevens, 54 percent to 39 percent. Six percent were undecided, while 2 percent said they supported state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who dropped out of the race earlier this summer.
The poll adds to a mixed picture of the race with the primary campaign winding down.
A Michigan Education survey released Wednesday showed Stevens neck and neck with the presumptive Republican nominee, former Rep. Mike Rogers, while El-Sayed trailed in a hypothetical match-up by double digits.
Electability has been a major issue in the race, as Stevens has argued El-Sayed’s nomination would risk handing the race to the GOP. El-Sayed has rejected that argument and said his candidacy would energize the Democratic base.
In neighboring Wisconsin, a similar battle is taking place in the governor’s race, as democratic socialist Francesca Hong holds a comfortable lead in polling for the Democratic nomination, worrying some establishment figures.
▪ The Hill: Americans split on understanding of democratic socialism.
▪ The Hill: Former President Obama endorses Josh Turek for Senate in Iowa.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks before Vice President JD Vance at the Wisconsin Air National Guard facility at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, July 8, 2026, in Milwaukee. (Mark Schiefelbein, Associated Press pool)
PREMIUM PAIN: The president has been touting efforts to lower drug prices in recent months as Republicans try to make an affordability pitch to voters ahead of the midterms, but his administration’s latest move on Medicare may undermine that message.
The Trump administration on Tuesday announced that it will end the Medicare Part D subsidies program that was started during the Biden era. Medicare Part D is optional prescription drug coverage by private companies to help Medicare recipients pay for brand-name and generic medications.
“We are stabilizing the market so this bailout is no longer needed. Premiums will go up by less than $10 for most Medicare recipients, with many even seeing LOWER premiums,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz wrote in a post on the social platform X.
However, Julliette Cubanski, vice president and director of the program on Medicare policy at KFF, said Part D enrollees “could see a larger premium increase for drug coverage in next year than they’ve see in recent years” because of the change.
About 25 million Americans have standalone Part D drug plans and will now have to switch to a different subsidy plan once the program expires at the end of 2026, according to Reuters.
That could create political headaches for the GOP as polls consistently show affordability concerns at the top of the list of voters’ priorities.
The Trump administration centered its efforts to lower prescription prices around the February launch of TrumpRx.gov — a platform meant to give Americans lower prices on higher cost prescription drugs.
The full impact of the subsidy cuts will be clearer when the final 2027 Medicare Advantage and Part D plan details are released in mid-to-late September, less than two months before the midterms.
▪ Nexstar: More than 18,000 cyclosporiasis cases now suspected i
The app Telegram, center, a popular messenger app in Russia restricted by authorities, is shown on a smartphone in Moscow, Russia, July 29, 2026. (Associated Press)
MESSAGING WAR: The founder and CEO of the messaging application Telegram, Pavel Durov, was placed on an international wanted list by Russian authorities on Wednesday for allegedly aiding terrorism.
According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), Telegram failed to remove “numerous channels, chats and bots” used by “Ukrainian intelligence agencies and extremist organizations.”
The FSB said the agencies and organizations allegedly used Telegram to coordinate cyber fraud and terrorist attacks resulting in “numerous human casualties.”
Employees of the special services of Ukraine were accused of using a dating chatbot called “Daivinchik” to recruit Russian citizens into committing “armed attacks and arsons.”
Forty-six people ages 12 to 22 have been arrested across the country since July 2025 for using the chatbot and committing attacks, the FSB said.
Telegram hasn’t been the only social media platform targeted by Russia this year, with the country banning WhatsApp in February. Officials encouraged WhatsApp users to leave the app and use a state-sponsored messaging app called Max.
Durov responded to the charges in a statement via Telegram, stating that “Russia is restricting access to Telegram in an attempt to force its citizens to switch to a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship.”
Telegram also posted a photo of Durov raising the middle finger on the app’s X account on Wednesday morning.
If convicted, Durov could face up to life in prison in Russia, where he was born and started his career, according to The Associated Press. He is currently a dual citizen of France and the United Arab Emirates.
The Telegram founder was previously taken into custody in Paris in August 2024 on an arrest warrant for allegedly using the platform for money laundering and drug trafficking.
▪ The Hill: Trump makes new demands for Russia, Iran sanctions bill.
▪ The Hill: Volodymyr Zelensky says he asked Trump for Patriot missiles.
Former President Biden arrives to greet South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Aug. 18, 2023, at Camp David, the presidential retreat, near Thurmont, Md. (Andrew Harnik, Associated Press)
And finally … It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for the weekly news quiz!
Trump is set to hold a Cabinet meeting at the presidential retreat Camp David on Friday following a postponement in May over bad weather. So this week’s quiz will cover the site where a lot of history has taken place.
Be sure to email your responses to jgans@thehill.com — please add “Quiz” to your subject line.
The site is named for the grandson of which former president?
1. Woodrow Wilson
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt
3. Dwight Eisenhower
4. John F. Kennedy
Who was the first foreign leader to visit Camp David?
1. Winston Churchill
2. Charles de Gaulle
3. Joseph Stalin
4. Konrad Adenauer
Which two countries made a historic and lasting peace agreement at the site?
1. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia
2. Ireland and the U.K.
3. Israel and Jordan
4. Israel and Egypt
Roughly how many acres is Camp David?
1. 50 acres
2. 75 acres
3. 100 acres
4. 125 acres
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Read the full story at The Hill ↗
Skip to content
In today’s issue:
▪ Blanche confirmation vote postponed
▪ Paul threatens Fauci with contempt
▪ Trump announces Dulles renovations
▪ Michigan Senate poll released
Close
The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox. Sign up for the Morning Report newsletter
Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) are showing no signs of backing down on their demands concerning Todd Blanche’s nomination to become permanent attorney general, throwing his confirmation into serious doubt.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) canceled the panel’s scheduled meeting to vote today on Blanche’s nomination, after negotiations throughout the day failed to win over the pair of “YOLO caucus” senators.
An increasingly frustrated Cornyn told reporters that the Department of Justice (DOJ) “stonewalled” his request.
“They’ve simply refused to cooperate,” he said.
Cornyn and Tillis have been pushing Blanche and the DOJ for a formal written declaration that the settlement President Trump made with the IRS is not going forward. The deal included the creation of a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund for alleged victims of political prosecutions and an agreement for the IRS not to audit the president’s finances nor those of his businesses and his family members.
The DOJ told a federal court last month that the fund was effectively dead as it faced bipartisan backlash, and Blanche had said it would not be going forward. But the IRS audit agreement remains intact.
The GOP holds a 12-10 edge on the panel, giving Blanche a narrow path forward in what would presumably be a party-line vote at best, as Democrats are solidly opposed to the nomination. That gives significant power to Cornyn and Tillis, two key votes who have a few months left on the job after being forced out or primaried by Trump.
Cornyn was set to meet with Blanche on Wednesday to discuss the nomination, but the meeting was canceled. The senator said after its cancellation that he was “not prepared to vote yes” on the nomination.
He told reporters he didn’t understand the reason for the holdup.
“Beats me. Maybe they think I’m just going to give up or, you know, go along, but they’re mistaken,” he said.
Trump expressed confidence about the nomination during comments to reporters at the White House, saying Cornyn may be “upset with me because I didn’t endorse him,” referring to Trump-backed Ken Paxton’s victory over Cornyn in the Senate primary in May.
“I don’t know what it is, but I haven’t heard that there’s a problem. I’ve heard he’s going through quite nicely,” Trump said.
Tillis has largely left the dealmaking to Cornyn, The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch reports, but he said during Blanche’s confirmation hearing that he wants to “stick a fork” in the fund.
Tillis said ahead of Grassley’s decision that the Thursday vote could be a “failure” if it were held. He said he wouldn’t attend the meeting if no deal was reached.
“If there’s pressure on doing the markup, then I don’t want the chairman to have a failed markup. Then I would just not be there to make quorum, so he wouldn’t be confronted with that eventuality,” he said.
Even beyond the Judiciary Committee, more obstacles could lie ahead for Blanche.
Rounding out the YOLO caucus — a group of Republican lawmakers who have shown a new willingness to buck the president since he effectively ended their time in Congress — is Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who also lost to a Trump-backed primary opponent.
Cassidy told Semafor’s Burgess Everett on Wednesday that he is worried about “lawfare” from the DOJ, which has pursued charges against various high-profile adversaries of the president.
“I have to make sure that he is the attorney general who used to be the president’s personal attorney, not the personal attorney who is also the attorney general,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy could not hold up the nomination on his own. However, it’s unclear where other more moderate members, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), will come down on Blanche.
In the meantime, the administration has other methods to make payouts to defendants that Trump and his allies view as having been wronged by past administrations.
In the latest sign of the anti-weaponization fund’s goals going forward, a million-dollar payout was announced Tuesday for an anti-abortion activist convicted in 2024 of preventing access to an abortion clinic, The New York Times reported.
▪ ABC News: James Comey attorneys allege DOJ sought input from gangster on case.
▪ The Hill: Trump, DOJ appeal E. Jean Carroll verdict to Supreme Court.
Committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) speaks as Dr. Anthony Fauci appears before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee at the Capitol, July 29, 2026, in Washington. (Allison Robbert, Associated Press)
CONTEMPT: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he plans to hold a vote to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after the former chief White House medical adviser refused to answer questions during his congressional testimony Wednesday.
Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times during a feisty hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, alleging Paul called for him to testify hoping he would say something that could be used in a political prosecution.
“Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion,” Fauci said.
Paul railed against Fauci during the hearing, warning him of “repercussions” he would face for refusing to answer. One of Fauci’s attorneys was removed from the hearing room as they attempted to defend his client’s decision to invoke the Fifth.
Paul told reporters following the hearing that a contempt vote will be held next week. He argued Fauci may not have been permitted to invoke the Fifth Amendment given the preemptive pardon that he received from former President Biden last year.
“That’ll be a legal question, but the question on contempt will be voted on, and then there’s a question of whether or not the Department of Justice will take that up,” Paul said.
Democrats sought to weigh in at the hearing to defend Fauci, with Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the panel’s ranking member, accusing Paul of “relitigating the past.”
“One-sided investigations designed to validate predetermined conclusions do not serve the American people, who sent us to actually uncover the truth and solve problems,” Peters said.
Fauci may face another legal challenge, as Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) said after the hearing that he is launching an investigation into him.
▪ The Hill: Five takeaways on Fauci’s hostile Senate hearing.
▪ The Hill: Paul, Trump forge unlikely alliance.
FIRE AND FURY: Trump issued an emphatic response to Iran’s surprise attack on U.S. forces in Jordan, pledging to “beat the f—ing s— out of them.”
“They’re going to get a beating,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday.
The U.S. followed through Wednesday evening with “heavy” airstrikes against Iran lasting about two hours. The strikes hit dozens of targets inside Iran, including military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites and maritime capabilities, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said.
Centcom said all the missiles fired as part of Iran’s attack were shot down Tuesday evening. But it broke a string of a few days of peace between the U.S. and Iran after Trump announced a pause to strikes against Iran last weekend.
The war is quickly spreading across the region, with strikes on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq oil processing facility and tankers at a port in Egypt.
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia carried out joint strikes against Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq in response to the former strikes, while Trump said the U.S. would “be straightening out” the latter, without directly assigning blame.
“In the meantime, we’re going to be hitting them very hard because it’s our turn to hit them. They know it’s coming,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office
▪ The Hill: Iran’s surprise attack blows up fighting pause.
▪ The Hill: Ukraine, Iran wars converge as Trump seeks breakthrough.
▪ The Guardian: Iraq strikes push conflict into ‘uncharted territory.’
DULLES MAKEOVER: Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a $22.5 billion renovation of Washington Dulles International Airport on Wednesday, the president’s latest major improvement project in the Washington, D.C., area.
The makeover is expected to include an underground system that will connect terminals, eliminating the airport’s need for the widely despised “people movers.” It will not be federally funded and will be covered by airlines, Duffy said.
Trump has criticized Dulles in the past, calling it a “terrible airport” that was “incorrectly designed.”
In the new plans, an underground U-shaped aerotrain will carry passengers to their terminal, and additional moving sidewalks will be placed in the terminals. It will also include 5 million square feet of new space and replace the current C and D concourses.
Trump has complained about how far the parking was from the terminals, which will also no longer be an issue since 32,000 parking spots will be added.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby was also at Trump and Duffy’s announcement, as the airport will now be home to the “largest United Polaris lounge in the world.”
▪ The Hill: Federal panel votes to change historic preservation rules.
▪ The Wall Street Journal: A fight over dirt spans two of Trump’s projects.
HOME STRETCH: Progressive Abdul El-Sayed leads moderate Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) by 15 points in the latest poll of the Michigan Democratic Senate primary with just a few days left before voters head to the polls.
An Emerson College Polling/WLNS/WOODTV survey released Thursday showed El-Sayed, a former Wayne County health director, well ahead of Stevens, 54 percent to 39 percent. Six percent were undecided, while 2 percent said they supported state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who dropped out of the race earlier this summer.
The poll adds to a mixed picture of the race with the primary campaign winding down.
A Michigan Education survey released Wednesday showed Stevens neck and neck with the presumptive Republican nominee, former Rep. Mike Rogers, while El-Sayed trailed in a hypothetical match-up by double digits.
Electability has been a major issue in the race, as Stevens has argued El-Sayed’s nomination would risk handing the race to the GOP. El-Sayed has rejected that argument and said his candidacy would energize the Democratic base.
In neighboring Wisconsin, a similar battle is taking place in the governor’s race, as democratic socialist Francesca Hong holds a comfortable lead in polling for the Democratic nomination, worrying some establishment figures.
▪ The Hill: Americans split on understanding of democratic socialism.
▪ The Hill: Former President Obama endorses Josh Turek for Senate in Iowa.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks before Vice President JD Vance at the Wisconsin Air National Guard facility at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, July 8, 2026, in Milwaukee. (Mark Schiefelbein, Associated Press pool)
PREMIUM PAIN: The president has been touting efforts to lower drug prices in recent months as Republicans try to make an affordability pitch to voters ahead of the midterms, but his administration’s latest move on Medicare may undermine that message.
The Trump administration on Tuesday announced that it will end the Medicare Part D subsidies program that was started during the Biden era. Medicare Part D is optional prescription drug coverage by private companies to help Medicare recipients pay for brand-name and generic medications.
“We are stabilizing the market so this bailout is no longer needed. Premiums will go up by less than $10 for most Medicare recipients, with many even seeing LOWER premiums,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz wrote in a post on the social platform X.
However, Julliette Cubanski, vice president and director of the program on Medicare policy at KFF, said Part D enrollees “could see a larger premium increase for drug coverage in next year than they’ve see in recent years” because of the change.
About 25 million Americans have standalone Part D drug plans and will now have to switch to a different subsidy plan once the program expires at the end of 2026, according to Reuters.
That could create political headaches for the GOP as polls consistently show affordability concerns at the top of the list of voters’ priorities.
The Trump administration centered its efforts to lower prescription prices around the February launch of TrumpRx.gov — a platform meant to give Americans lower prices on higher cost prescription drugs.
The full impact of the subsidy cuts will be clearer when the final 2027 Medicare Advantage and Part D plan details are released in mid-to-late September, less than two months before the midterms.
▪ Nexstar: More than 18,000 cyclosporiasis cases now suspected i
The app Telegram, center, a popular messenger app in Russia restricted by authorities, is shown on a smartphone in Moscow, Russia, July 29, 2026. (Associated Press)
MESSAGING WAR: The founder and CEO of the messaging application Telegram, Pavel Durov, was placed on an international wanted list by Russian authorities on Wednesday for allegedly aiding terrorism.
According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), Telegram failed to remove “numerous channels, chats and bots” used by “Ukrainian intelligence agencies and extremist organizations.”
The FSB said the agencies and organizations allegedly used Telegram to coordinate cyber fraud and terrorist attacks resulting in “numerous human casualties.”
Employees of the special services of Ukraine were accused of using a dating chatbot called “Daivinchik” to recruit Russian citizens into committing “armed attacks and arsons.”
Forty-six people ages 12 to 22 have been arrested across the country since July 2025 for using the chatbot and committing attacks, the FSB said.
Telegram hasn’t been the only social media platform targeted by Russia this year, with the country banning WhatsApp in February. Officials encouraged WhatsApp users to leave the app and use a state-sponsored messaging app called Max.
Durov responded to the charges in a statement via Telegram, stating that “Russia is restricting access to Telegram in an attempt to force its citizens to switch to a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship.”
Telegram also posted a photo of Durov raising the middle finger on the app’s X account on Wednesday morning.
If convicted, Durov could face up to life in prison in Russia, where he was born and started his career, according to The Associated Press. He is currently a dual citizen of France and the United Arab Emirates.
The Telegram founder was previously taken into custody in Paris in August 2024 on an arrest warrant for allegedly using the platform for money laundering and drug trafficking.
▪ The Hill: Trump makes new demands for Russia, Iran sanctions bill.
▪ The Hill: Volodymyr Zelensky says he asked Trump for Patriot missiles.
Former President Biden arrives to greet South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Aug. 18, 2023, at Camp David, the presidential retreat, near Thurmont, Md. (Andrew Harnik, Associated Press)
And finally … It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for the weekly news quiz!
Trump is set to hold a Cabinet meeting at the presidential retreat Camp David on Friday following a postponement in May over bad weather. So this week’s quiz will cover the site where a lot of history has taken place.
Be sure to email your responses to jgans@thehill.com — please add “Quiz” to your subject line.
The site is named for the grandson of which former president?
1. Woodrow Wilson
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt
3. Dwight Eisenhower
4. John F. Kennedy
Who was the first foreign leader to visit Camp David?
1. Winston Churchill
2. Charles de Gaulle
3. Joseph Stalin
4. Konrad Adenauer
Which two countries made a historic and lasting peace agreement at the site?
1. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia
2. Ireland and the U.K.
3. Israel and Jordan
4. Israel and Egypt
Roughly how many acres is Camp David?
1. 50 acres
2. 75 acres
3. 100 acres
4. 125 acres
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- In today's issue: ▪ Blanche confirmation vote postponed ▪ Paul threatens Fauci with contempt ▪ Trump announces Dulles renovations ▪ Michigan Senate poll released Sens.