The Daily Brief
Today
Good morning. The war on Iran is bleeding the empire. U.S. bases are under relentless attack and the conflict is on the brink of a "breakdown", "ultimately unsustainable," one U.S. official told The Intercept. The Pentagon already puts the bill at well over $33.4 billion, most of it on munitions. The cost registers in the markets too: the 10-year Treasury yield has breached levels last seen in 2007, oil climbing, energy-driven inflation rattling bond investors — as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent faces Congress on rising energy prices and government debt.
At home, the administration bends the machinery of justice to its ends. The DOJ will ask an appeals court to revive criminal cases against James Comey and Letitia James, after a ruling found the lead prosecutor unlawfully appointed and dismissed both indictments. It tracks a broader assault on civic life — Trump ordering troops into U.S. cities — the same apparatus grinding down Mahmoud Khalil as he fights for a normal life.
The organized left pushes back where it can. In California, backers in "Billionaire Tax Now" shirts are pressing the California Billionaire Tax Act to make the rich pay. And Republicans are rattled in Kansas, where JD Vance is campaigning as Sen. Roger Marshall faces a tougher-than-expected challenge from Democrat Adam Hamilton.
The rot reaches culture too. The Kennedy Center is reportedly facing bankruptcy within weeks — a crisis its Trump-aligned board members claim could vanish if the institution simply puts his name back on the building.
Zoom out: The day adds up to an administration bleeding money and legitimacy into a war abroad it reportedly cannot sustain, while turning prosecutions and troops on its own people at home.