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Freedom 250’s corporate sponsors may have violated the Lobbying Disclosure Act.Some of America’s biggest corporations shelled out millions of dollars to support Freedom 250, the Trump administration’s public-private partnership that oversaw spending for the country’s semiquincentennial celebration.It was no secret who was involved: The Freedom 250 website proudly displayed nearly two dozen of its sponsors, including Palantir, Boeing, ExxonMobil, United Health Group, and more.But most of those corporations—including the defense contractors Lockheed Martin, GE Aerospace, and Northrop Grumman—did not disclose the payments on lobbyist contribution reports that were due to Congress by last Friday, according to a NOTUS investigation.Just three Freedom 250 backers made note of their event contributions in their recent filings, as required by the federal Lobbying Disclosure Act: Chevron, United Airlines, and RTX, according to NOTUS.The law “is certainly not airtight, and certain entities have found ways to try to exploit this law,” Aaron Scherb, a longtime ethics and democracy advocate, told NOTUS.“Nonetheless, it requires full disclosure of political spending when companies are trying to curry favor with an administration and elected officials,” Scherb said. “So, companies contributing to Freedom 250 should absolutely be required to disclose their political spending.”Freedom 250 is a subsidiary of Task Force 250, an entity that Donald Trump signed into existence by executive order days into his second term. It largely replaced the “America250” nonprofit that was created by Congress a decade ago to oversee the semiquincentennial’s funding and development strategies. Unlike America250, Freedom 250 is technically a limited liability company housed within the National Park Service’s charity arm, the National Park Foundation.Trump himself is the chair of Freedom 250, while the rest of his Cabinet are listed as members.“When it comes to other nonprofits, the question is always whether it was created and controlled by Trump,” Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist at the left-leaning nonprofit watchdog Public Citizen, told NOTUS. “But there is little question about Freedom 250.”

President Trump continues to insist that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was vandalized, even after D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro admitted in court that it was not. Speaking to reporters outside of Air Force One in Los Angeles Tuesday night, Trump defended the contractor who handled the pool’s renovation, despite Pirro’s office dropping charges against all of the people accused of vandalizing the pool, including former Olympian David Hearn.  “I just think he’s totally wrong. They did a beautiful job. There were a couple of little things, but that was not a big deal. And everybody saw the vandalism, all you have to do is look at the tape, if you look at the tape. Plus, we have a witness, or two witnesses that saw the vandalism. So certainly where there was vandalism, there was actually, in my opinion, there was major vandalism, and I told [Pirro] I was not happy,” Trump said. He was noncommittal when asked if Pirro would be staying at her job. Trump: "Everybody saw the vandalism. All you have to do is look at the tape." (There is no tape. Trump is nuts.) pic.twitter.com/iAOI7gBG5Q— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 5, 2026Trump’s claim of there being video proof doesn’t appear to be true, as it was never mentioned in charging documents. It’s not clear which witness or witnesses he is referring to either, as the Department of Justice’s main witness actually undermined the vandalism case against Hearn. The contractor assigned to clean up the pool, the ironically named Greenwater Services, put hydrogen peroxide into the pool to kill algae, causing Trump’s personally chosen “American flag blue” paint to begin peeling. Trump’s comments come after he, Pirro, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who was in charge of the pool’s renovation, reportedly got into a screaming match in the White House over the vandalism cases. Despite Pirro taking in a box of evidence to prove the vandalism cases were weak, Trump still believes his own version of the story. Then again, Trump never liked admitting when he’s wrong. 

The amount of money put toward defeating Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate Primary was staggering:

GOP Representative Max Miller was accused of holding a gun to his ex-wife’s head, scalding her with boiling water, and breaking his two-year-old daughter’s collarbone. He also shared pictures of his daughter’s genitals. House Speaker Mike Johnson is still supporting him.“I haven’t spoken to Max about this in the last few days. Of course, I will,” Johnson told Politico’s Dasha Burns in an interview. “There’s all sorts of domestic events going on with 435 members of Congress all the time, it’s not my business to get engaged in it.”The House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into the abuse claims against Miller, as well as allegations of drug use. The claims were made by his ex-wife Emily Moreno, daughter of Republican Senator Bernie Moreno.“I think Max is taking them seriously. I think our colleagues are,” Johnson continued. “But, again, we have to allow this process to play out. It’s just begun.”House Speaker Mike Johnson broke days of silence on the domestic abuse allegations against Rep. Max Miller in an interview with The Conversation.He told our @DashaBurns the claims are "serious" but insisted the House Ethics Committee process should run its course. pic.twitter.com/utuScRopJV— POLITICO (@politico) August 5, 2026It does not look like Miller is taking it seriously. He posted a 20-minute video on Sunday denying all of his ex-wife’s allegations, arguing that her being civil to him after the period of alleged abuse delegitimized them. His own lawyer admitted to accidentally uploading nude pictures of his daughter via Dropbox. Miller claimed that they were part of a Child Protective Services investigation. That same Dropbox contained recordings of Miller saying throwing hot water on Emily was a “playful incident.”Miller has remained indignant, making multiple media appearances—all of which make his situation look worse. He claimed on CNN Tuesday night that Johnson and the rest of the party were “standing behind” him.“My constituents know who I am, and they also know who my ex-father-in-law is, and they also know who my ex-wife is.... People aren’t running from me,” Miller told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “Speaker Mike Johnson, everyone else—they’re standing behind me. No one has told me to get off the ballot.”But even that’s up for debate. While Johnson offered tepid support, Senator Moreno said Miller needed “serious psychological help,” and called on him to step down from Congress and abandon his current reelection campaign. And Trump, who was also initially supportive, called Miller personally to tell him that things weren’t “looking good.”Even still, Johnson chose to trust the ethics committee process rather than call on Miller to end his train-wreck of a political career.“It’s, in his own words, a nasty divorce proceeding, and it’s gotten ugly and it’s gotten public,” Johnson said. “But he’s saying the same things privately to members that he is publicly, that he denies all this.... There’s a process. The House Ethics Committee does that. We always withhold judgment on this, whether it’s Republicans or Democrats.”Miller has five days to drop out if Republicans have any hope of replacing him on the ballot.🤯 Rep. Max Miller's interview with Jake Tapper is an utter trainwreck 🤯Miller went on CNN to try to push back against credible accusations that he abused his ex-wife and child, but he only made things worse for himself. He threatened his ex-wife's father (Sen. Bernie Moreno)… pic.twitter.com/BGOIcKIdKx— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 4, 2026

Current Affairs is pleased to announce that public health expert Dr. Abdul El-Sayed has been nominated as the Democratic Party candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan. Our magazine has covered Dr. El-Sayed’s work many times over the years, and he is a former contributor to our pages and our YouTube channel. This victory has significant ramifications for American politics, as a remarkable demonstration of progressives’ political power. El-Sayed prevailed despite tens of millions of dollars being spent by AIPAC in order to stop him. If he wins in November, it will be a powerful rebuke to those who claim that left politics cannot win in “purple” states.

No congressional candidate in Democratic history ever had as much outside money dumped on them in one primary as Abdul El-Sayed. But El-Sayed has now survived the onslaught in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary. Barely. The Bernie Sanders-endorsed champion of Medicare for All defeated Rep. Haley Stevens by about a 1-point margin on Tuesday, according to […]