The Lamplighter 🕯️

The $400,000 is the decoy. The $3,200,000,000 is the business.

AP: pbs.org/newshour/polit…

Masked, armed settlers held a U.S. congressman's group on a West Bank road for over an hour. It took the U.S. Embassy to get them out. Rep. Khanna says the soldiers who arrived sided with the settlers. Everyone else on that road has no embassy to call.

Source: AP via PBS — "What to know about the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by ICE" — pbs.org/newshour/polit…

ICE killed the wrong man in Houston. DHS's own account: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo just "resembled" their target. The self-defense claim can't be checked — officers had no body cameras. He's the 8th death in this crackdown. Zero officers have been charged in any of them, per AP. #AccountabilityNow

The claim: immigrants make us poorer. All 50 states disagree. The 10 poorest states average 5% foreign-born, a third of the national average. Not one high-immigration state ranks among them. Hold it to the light and it falls apart.

The emoluments clause is supposed to prevent the President from receiving foreign bribes. That hasn’t stopped Trump’s family from receiving about $13 billion in “investments” from foreign governments, especially in the Middle East. My @Morning_Joe Chart

DOJ letters threaten election officials with criminal prosecution: votebeat.org/national/2026/…

Eleven federal courts have tossed the DOJ's voter-roll lawsuits. It hasn't won one, per Votebeat. This week's move: criminal-prosecution threat letters to election officials in all 50 states and D.C., five days to answer. Utah's Republican Lt. Gov. calls it "truly bizarre." When you can't win in court, threaten the referees. #AccountabilityNow

Source: NBC News — "ICE arrests increase significantly, marking a turn in immigration strategy" — nbcnews.com/news/us-news/i…

On America's 250th birthday, worth noting how it's being celebrated: ICE detained 10,000 people in five days after the White House set a quota of 2,000 arrests a day, per NBC News. No announcements this time — just the quota. The pattern continues. #AccountabilityNow

Source: Washington Post — "Former Olympian faces felony charge over alleged Reflecting Pool vandalism" — washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/…

The DOJ just won a felony indictment against a 67-year-old Olympic canoeist for allegedly ripping a piece of sealant in the Reflecting Pool. Up to 10 years, per the Washington Post. Assaulting police officers on January 6: pardoned, day one. Sealant: felony. #AccountabilityNow

The empty fair has a paper trail. In today's House report: donors trying to give to America250 — the nonpartisan commission Congress created — were handed wire instructions that routed their money to Trump's Freedom 250 instead. Potential wire fraud, per the report. Of the $100 million Congress intended for the official commission, it's seen $25 million.

I’m out here at the State Fair, and well, it is as empty as everyone says. It’s also very hot! Now is a great time to mention that my new book, I Disagree, is coming out soon, and it talks all about how to find common ground with folks who you may not agree with/who think it’s okay Donald Trump turned our 250th into her personal party. Pre-order it now: penguinrandomhouse.com/books/803493/i…

@SecretaryWright China added 543 GW to its grid last year — 434 of it wind and solar, because nothing builds faster. The U.S. added 53. The Secretary of Energy is "thrilled" to quit a race we're losing 10 to 1. Beijing didn't have to lobby anyone.

I'm thrilled to report that after 35 years, on July 4th, we will end the subsidies for new wind and solar projects, thanks President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cut.

The federal seed is $1,000 — the program's own website projects that grows to about $6,000 by age 18. The "hundreds of thousands" scenario in the White House's own report assumes the family deposits the $5,000 maximum every single year. He's taking credit for other people's compounding.

.@POTUS on the power of @TrumpAccounts: A child has no money, and when that baby becomes a man or a woman, that baby could have hundreds of thousands of dollars — because we're seeding it, and philanthropists like Michael Dell are donating billions of dollars.

Moscow says last night's attack on Kyiv hit "key military plants." The actual hit list: 20 residential buildings, an ambulance station, six floors of an apartment block, more than 20 dead — the biggest bombardment of the capital in the entire war. 74 missiles and 496 drones. Hold it to the light and it falls apart. cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-r…

Russia's war just passed 2 million casualties. CSIS: the worst losses of any major power in any war since WWII — nearly 8 Russian casualties for every Ukrainian one this year, and Russia now loses more men a month (30,000+) than it recruits (27,000). Putin can stop this any day. He won't. Link: stripes.com/theaters/europ…