◼ Graham Platner suspended his senatorial campaign in Maine. Through one scandal and deceit after another, his defenders stuck by him: an SS Totenkopf tattoo, an ex-girlfriend who described him as physically abusive, a stream of appalling social media posts, blackout drinking, extramarital sexting, a profile on a dating site full of underage teens, and copious lies about these and many more subjects. Leading Democrats, including Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders, endorsed him; Sheldon Whitehouse sneered that Republicans were conspiring against him; Elizabeth Warren praised him as her kind of man, one who “believes in accountability.” Once another former girlfriend—this time one with impeccable left-wing credentials—accused Platner of a drunken sexual assault, with a week left for the party to replace him on the ballot to face Susan Collins, all these Democrats cut bait and pretended that they had seen none of it coming. Platner released a rambling video denying everything and blaming shadowy forces amassed against him. Auf wiedersehen.

◼ President Donald Trump declared that the cease-fire with Iran is “over” following new Iranian attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Speaking to the press at a NATO summit in Turkey, the president described the Iranian leadership as “scum” and “very dishonorable people”: Under the memorandum of understanding, Iran was obliged to ensure the “safe, toll-free passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days.” In response, the U.S. struck targets in Iran, reinstated sanctions on Iranian oil sales, and announced further strikes. After the MOU was signed in June, we noted that it was “lopsided in Iran’s favor.” What events since then have underlined is that the Iranians—reinforced by the cash that, under the terms of the MOU, is supposed to be heading Tehran’s way—would not only cheat but also use the agreement as a “base” to expand their sway in the region and undercut our ability to rein them in. The president should make clear that he is prepared to discuss a new deal, but only one that genuinely secures freedom of navigation in the strait. This demand should be nonnegotiable and backed by force of U.S. arms.

◼ Also at the NATO summit, Trump said he intends to consider removing sanctions that Congress imposed on Turkey. But to hear his administration officials tell it, the president has already made up his mind. Trump signed the authorizing legislation in 2017 and applied it to Ankara in 2020 after it agreed to purchase advanced Russian antiaircraft batteries. Those sanctions ejected Turkey from a program that rendered it eligible to purchase America’s most advanced fighter aircraft, the F-35. Ankara hasn’t abandoned the behaviors that resulted in its sanctioning in the first place. Nevertheless, Trump seems determined to sell F-35s to Turkey, and those sanctions are in his way. Turkey has provided material support to terrorist organizations like Hamas and maintained close ties with Russia and China. All this should be enough to persuade the Trump administration that providing Turkey with F-35s would needlessly jeopardize American security and the lives of its service personnel. After all, what good is the F-35 if it cannot continue to beat Russian air defenses and Chinese stealth radar, as it has in the skies over Iran and Venezuela? Whatever affinity Trump has for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan should not come before the observable fact that the latter is, at best, duplicitous and, at worst, hostile to American interests.

◼ There were two Trumps on display at the NATO summit. Festivus Trump was on the prowl for a while, airing grievances: Greenland (imprudent), shortfalls in defense spending (reasonable), lack of support over Iran (tricky), and Spanish freeloading (understandable). But on the closing day, a happier Trump made an appearance, talking about “love in the room” and giving credit to NATO allies that are boosting their defense spending. The president also declared that he would allow Ukraine to make its own Patriot missile systems. Even if such an agreement were formally concluded, it would be no quick fix to the immediate threat posed by Russian ballistic missiles, which are proving much harder to intercept than traditional missiles. Good, nevertheless, to see a friendly signal to Kyiv—and a recognition of Ukraine’s role on the West’s front line.

◼ The White House criticized the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH) for “problematizing” the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and abandoning history for political activism. In a 162-page report produced after a yearlong investigation, the White House Domestic Policy Council found that the Smithsonian’s leaders used the NMAH as their “prime tool” to reshape how American history is presented, in the service of a left-wing agenda. The report faults the NMAH for clumsily forcing issues such as race and gender into entirely unrelated exhibits while neglecting the American Founding. Ideally, cultural and historical institutions such as the Smithsonian wouldn’t need the White House to teach them how to appreciate our culture and history.

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◼ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman suggested that the U.S. government should take a 5 percent stake in his and other leading AI companies. Altman believes that such a transfer would give the American people a stake in the growth of AI. Leaving aside the fact that there’s a stock market for that, the idea would risk the creation of a magic circle of “government” AI companies, which would inevitably impair competition. It would also invite government meddling in a vital sector. Such handovers would be a bigger gift to Beijing than to the American people.

◼ New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani lapsed into a familiar progressive tendency on the Fourth of July, offering a display of contempt that he insisted was the highest form of patriotism. In a speech that sought to distill the essence of the immigrant experience in America, he credited non–Native Americans for somehow seeing opportunity in a land defined by bigotry and hardship. That history is not ancient, Mamdani continued. Today’s America is typified by the abuses of “the powerful,” who have “always” seen America as “an arena of supremacy.” They “will tell you” that America “belongs only to those with the right accent or the right shade of skin.” America today is a land with “monopolies that dominate every industry and oligarchs who buy elections,” where “children go to sleep hungry,” where “negligence has become a business model,” and where we “sell our elections to the highest bidder.” Happy Fourth, everyone! Mamdani even congratulated himself for appealing to our better angels. “Division is the oldest trick in politics, and the cheapest.” Perhaps he should look in the mirror.

◼ The New York City Council approved a new budget that allocates almost $7 million in spending for “trans equity” programs but nothing for the 580 additional police officers whom Mamdani promised to hire. (In a letter opposing the expanded police force, 70 progressive organizations had criticized the mayor, citing his previous commitment to limit the police presence in the city.) The budget allocates $1 million to Destiny Tomorrow, an LGBT group based in the Bronx, to create the “first-ever transitional housing program for transgender New Yorkers,” $705,000 to Gay Men’s Health Crisis, and $600,000 to the Caribbean Equality Project, among others. The council described the $7 million total allocation as necessary “to help empower the transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) community.” If that community wants protection from theft and murder, more police officers would be a better investment.

◼ Rhode Island is joining the current progressive mania of penalizing success by raising its highest tax rate on income above $1 million to 9 percent. Rather than attract the wealthy, the state is joining its neighbor’s suicide pact by matching what Massachusetts charges. Rhode Island may squeeze out some extra revenue to finance handouts and redistribution, as Massachusetts has. Yet the cost will be borne in lost business and fleeing income. As red states compete to let taxpayers keep and invest more of their money, Democratic-led jurisdictions race to see who can tax productive activity the hardest. Americans are voting with their feet for the model they prefer. Massachusetts bled more than 30,000 residents last year. Rhode Island lost only 1,600 people over the past five years—but it is now on track to bump those numbers up.

◼ The U.K. Labour Party recently introduced the “Conversions Practices Bill.” If passed in its current form, the bill would establish a new crime: “A person commits an offence if the person carries out an abusive conversion practice on an individual which causes—(a) serious harm to the individual’s physical or mental health, or (b) serious alarm or distress to the individual which has a substantial adverse effect on their usual day-to-day activities.” A “conversion practice” is broadly defined as “abusive” conduct that aims to change an individual’s sexual orientation or “transgender identity.” Could a mother who tells her gender-dysphoric underage son to wait a few years before pursuing “gender transition” therefore be liable for prosecution? The bill’s language assumes that there is such a thing as a transgender person, which is a matter of self-identification, so anyone who does not affirm this could be accused of attempting some type of “conversion.” Perhaps the most challenging question for the bill’s drafters is how the law would apply to those who assist detransitioners. The Labour Party continues to confuse faddish lunacy for policymaking.

◼ Nigel Farage, the long-term leader of Britain’s populist right, has, to say the least, been careless. Accepting £5 million from a cryptocurrency billionaire (albeit before he was elected to Parliament) was not a good look. Nor is the fact that a convicted criminal who once served time in the U.S. for wire fraud has been providing Farage’s party, Reform UK, with financial support. Some of the response to Farage’s behavior, in the media and elsewhere, has the whiff of a hit job. But even if it is finally decided that he has broken no rules, Farage’s failure to file (possibly) necessary financial disclosures was foolish. Prior to the scandal, Farage was a member of Parliament for Clacton. Now, he has triggered a special election in his constituency, a gamble that may end in disaster. The Tories are watching smugly, but the left is happier still.

◼ During a World Cup match between the U.S. and Bosnia–Herzegovina, U.S. striker Folarin Balogun stepped on a rival player’s ankle. Referee Raphael Claus gave Balogun a red card, ejecting him from the game and automatically barring him from the next one. A fairly routine soccer controversy became a political one when Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino. A few days later, FIFA deployed a little-known provision that supposedly allows its Disciplinary Committee to exercise discretion when reviewing sanctions. Perhaps FIFA might have reached the same decision without Trump’s intervention, but the call generated the easy accusation that Trump was “working the refs.” Ultimately, the episode was inconsequential. Team USA was eliminated from the World Cup after losing to Belgium, 1–4. Anyway, it’s only soccer.