July 25, 2026
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Michael's Daily Notes
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There was only one funny moment at last night's White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. And not funny ha-ha — the jokes mostly fell flat and the mood felt stilted all night. Funny as in odd. Peculiar. Out of the ordinary. Here's how it happened –
The Wall Street Journal won the Katharine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability for exposing the long relationship between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein — the reporting that surfaced Trump's bawdy note for Epstein's 50th birthday and, as Wolf Blitzer put it in presenting the award, helped force the release of the Epstein files. It's the same reporting that prompted the President's $20 billion defamation suit.
So when the award was announced, I braced for a presidential scowl, or worse. Instead, Trump smiled. He laughed. He shrugged and threw up his hands. Then he rose and shook the hands of the very reporters he's been suing.
Odd? Sure. But also something we rarely see publicly from him. Call it what it was: humor. Self-deprecation. A man able, for one unscripted beat, to laugh at himself in a room full of people just celebrated for making his life harder.
I don't say that to excuse his lawsuit, or to relitigate a word of the reporting. I note it only to encourage more of the same. For a few unscripted seconds we saw civility — almost warmth — between sworn combatants.
Shame we don't see more of it.
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DAILY POLL
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Should Democrats hold their first 2028 primary in a general-election battleground state?
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TOP STORY
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LeBron James announced he is signing a reported two-year, $8 million deal with the Philadelphia 76ers, joining Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Jaylen Brown in what he called his 'last decision' after nearly retiring following his 23rd season with the Lakers.
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TODAY'S YOUTUBE
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SPONSORED BY PARX CASINO
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IN OTHER NEWS
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President Trump sat in the audience at Friday's White House Correspondents' Dinner as the Wall Street Journal received the Katherine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability for its reporting on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein — the same coverage over which he has filed a $20 billion lawsuit against the paper.
Satellite imagery shows Iran has rapidly repaired missile bases, transportation links, and industrial infrastructure damaged by U.S. and Israeli strikes, raising concerns that the air campaign has had only a limited long-term impact on Tehran's military capabilities.
Paramount has agreed to delay its planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery until at least an antitrust trial or June 2027, as legal challenges from state attorneys general and the Writers Guild continue to stall the blockbuster media merger.
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A MESSAGE FROM INCOGNI
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NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani drew online backlash after boasting on X that owners of second homes worth more than $5 million would soon receive notices for New York's new pied-à-terre tax, telling wealthy residents it's time to pay their "fair share."
As Vice President JD Vance weighs a 2028 run, his allies say a coordinated online campaign from pro-Israel conservatives and establishment Republicans is trying to poison the well, though his favorability among GOP voters has held steady alongside President Trump's.
The U.S. and U.K. are planning a high-level London conference next week to assemble an international coalition to protect commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a key piece of any American exit strategy from the war with Iran.
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MORE NEWS
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday during a visit that also includes Senator Lindsey Graham's funeral, as the US-Israeli war with Iran escalates and the Gaza conflict grinds on.
Michigan Senator Gary Peters, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, is demanding answers from DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin about ICE's $2 million sole-source purchase of 'Graphite', a commercial spyware tool capable of covertly seizing phones and harvesting messages, photos and location data.
The CDC says the cyclosporiasis outbreak tied to a parasitic stomach infection has now been linked to nine states and more than 4,100 lab-confirmed cases nationwide since May 1, with Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce identified as one source amid a dispute over a false-positive lab sample.
For the Left
Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has temporarily halted the Trump administration’s effort to deny visas to individuals it claims worked to perpetuate censorship against Americans, stating that doing so may be a violation of the First Amendment through its policy.
For the Right
The Trump administration admitted in court that nearly 300 federal green grants were cancelled based solely on political affiliation of the recipient states during the 2024 presidential election, prompting multiple state departments to criticize the move as an abuse of power.
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