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Truth Social announced last week that it was selling immediate access—or at least as close as possible—to President Donald Trump’s thoughts. For $100,000 a month, anyone will be able to receive almost instantaneous access to Trump’s Truth Social posts through the platform’s API, a very small but significant advantage over following them via the web. […]

Editor’s Note: Welcome to The TNR Blue Book. It’s our new daily newsletter that covers Congress and much more, but with a distinctly TNR twist: Our focus will be strictly on Democrats, liberal and progressive groups, and the fight to take back power and save democracy. Every morning, you’ll get a rundown of late-breaking news, what Democrats on Capitol Hill are thinking, quick hits on what you need to know nationally, the latest on what’s coming out of the think tanks and activist groups, short interviews with progressive newsmakers and authors, and more (including some humor and political trivia!). There’s nothing else out there like it. Sign up and get this newsletter for free. Inside WashingtonInstead of tariffs, maybe help Canada put out wildfires?Democratic lawmakers don’t merely think Trump’s newly announced 50 percent tariffs on Canada are a bad idea from an economic standpoint. They also want to see the U.S. actively helping Canadians fight the Ontario wildfires currently sending smoke into the U.S., and fear for the future of the two countries’ relationship.Trump has told reporters that the tariffs he announced Monday aren’t in response to the wildfires, but the timing is highly suspicious. The announcement came just days after Trump said, “Maybe they should pay us some damages or something, or we should do some tariffs.”To some, the arbitrary nature of Trump’s decision is the biggest affront. “There’s no question that Trump thinks he’s a king and he can use these tariffs to execute whatever he wants,” said Senator Ron Wyden, who on Wednesday unveiled a bill to reassert congressional authority over tariffs.Others are worried about the economic impact in their own states. “Canada is a friend, one of our closest allies,” said Michigan Senator Gary Peters. “In Michigan, where we have close trading relations with Canadians, they’re a vital part of our economy, and it’s an important friendship.”Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota is similarly concerned about her home state. “Minnesota has a good relationship with Canada. Clearly, the hostile and reckless approach of the Trump administration towards Canada makes those relationships hard to maintain.”But beyond the typical condemnation of tariffs, several politicians are also suggesting that with wildfires in particular, the U.S. might be better served by collaborating more closely with its northern neighbor. Some would even like to see direct aid. “I was on a call this morning with Secretary [of Agriculture Brooke] Rollins and leaders from the Forest Service talking about the fires in northern Minnesota, and I know that the Forest Service and Canadian officials are working closely and well together. So I think at the operating level, the relationships continue to be effective,” Smith told me.On Saturday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford criticized the “short memory” of American politicians who have blamed Canada for Ontario’s wildfire smoke drifting southward. “We had the water bombers and everyone going over to California [last year],” he said. “That’s what neighbors do.”Californian Senator Alex Padilla hasn’t forgotten that. “They’re there for us in our time of need,” he said, “and we should be there for them.”—Emma Janssen  Full-time workers increasingly need SNAP and Medicaid to make ends meetThe number of Americans who rely on SNAP and Medicaid despite working full-time for major companies has shot up, according to a report the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, released Wednesday. The number of Amazon workers who receive anti-poverty benefits nearly tripled between February 2020 and September 2025, the report found. Gig-based companies like Uber, Lyft, Grubhub, Instacart, and DoorDash also employ high numbers of Medicaid and SNAP recipients, the report found, a major change from 2020. Meanwhile, Walmart was the top employer of Medicaid recipients in both 2020 and 2025.The report confirms what anti-poverty advocates have been saying for years: It’s becoming harder to be a working American, and working full-time does not guarantee financial security. It also shows that some of the country’s most successful companies don’t pay their workers a living wage, according to Senator Bernie Sanders, who requested the GAO produce the report.“American taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize the starvation wages of large corporations like Walmart and Amazon,” said Sanders in a statement.Between 2020 and 2025, Walmart increased its profits from nearly $15 billion to nearly $22 billion. Meanwhile, the number of Walmart employees relying on Medicaid in the 11 states sampled in the GAO report increased by 55 percent.Life has probably gotten harder for these employees in the months since the data was collected. This report comes just over a year after President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, implementing massive cuts to SNAP and Medicaid. SNAP participation is already down more than 4.5 million people, according to USDA data. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank, estimates that up to 15 million people could lose their Medicaid coverage by 2034. Californian Senator Alex Padilla hasn’t forgotten that. “They’re there for us in our time of need,” he said, “and we should be there for them.”—Emma Janssen  Outside WashingtonCanada “politely” withdraws party invites in response to Trump tariffsAmericans have been “politely, but effectively, disinvited” from the opening ceremony on Friday for the new and long-awaited Gordie Howe International Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, three sources tell the Detroit Free Press. The reason, Todd Spangler reports, is Trump’s threat to slap 50 percent tariffs on Canada. Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer has publicly worried about the threat’s effect on the state’s economy, and the Trump administration already delayed the bridge’s opening last month by demanding that Canada give the United States half the bridge’s profits for the first 15 years—in addition to a debt-repayment arrangement that remains a little unclear. (The text of the deal was only released on Tuesday.)Tariffs are also a wild card in Maine’s Senate race, where Democrats have been frantically shoring up support for Troy Jackson to replace the scandal-a-day Graham Platner as Democratic nominee against Republican incumbent Susan Collins. Republican candidates in the state quickly distanced themselves from Trump on tariffs, with Collins disavowing her own party head to Politico on behalf of Maine’s lobsters and blueberries. (They’re “harvested in Maine, processed in Canada, and then come back,” said Collins.) Meanwhile, U.S. businesses obviously aren’t thrilled with the new chaos, and the American dairy and distilled spirits lobbies, representing industries Trump is allegedly protecting with these tariffs, have already voiced their displeasure.Elsewhere:The Massachusetts state Senate is considering a proposal to increase affordable housing by upzoning vast swaths of the state, ending single-family zoning in favor of allowing “duplexes by right.”At CalMatters, Jeanne Kuang examines Gavin Newsom’s intricate balancing act as he attempts to position himself as a populist candidate for 2028—an act that has included opposing a state billionaire tax while voicing support for a federal one. Progressives are skeptical, Kuang notes.—Heather Souvaine Horn  The Ideas FactoryThe Century Foundation’s Angela Hanks, Aissa Canchola Bañez, and Eduard Nilaj find that “rising energy debt is climbing into the middle class,” in part because “energy bills have increased three times faster than the rate of inflation while Trump has been president.”The Natural Resources Defense Council slams the Trump administration for “making climate science denial its official policy” and then threatening Canada with tariffs over Ontario wildfire smoke. “Some 180 million Americans were threatened last week by dangerous heat” in addition to the perilously poor air quality, senior attorney David Doniger writes in a memo, and widespread drought has contributed to “Colorado wheat farmers … reporting their worst year in six decades; in Nebraska, it’s the worst in more than a century.”Resources for the Future’s Brandon Holmes, Molly Robertson, Kevin Rennert, Keith J. Benes, Natalie Baillargeon, Juniper Katz, Robi Nilson, and Ben Hoen publish a new working paper analyzing solar and wind development, finding that “Texas’s renewable energy development often proceeds quickly when compared with projects on federal land and many state-level permitting processes.”Earlier this week, the Urban Institute’s William J. Congdon, Elisabeth Jacobs, Amanda Briggs, Ryan Kelsey, Shayne Spaulding, Oluwasekemi Odumosu, and Julia Payne released an article outlining “Policy Priorities for an Inclusive AI Economy.” A few of their proposals: “use AI to match workers with jobs and employers with talent,” “update” labor regulations to address the risks of AI, “incorporate worker voice in AI design and implementation,” “improve policies and programs for displaced workers,” and “ensure gains in productivity and prosperity are widely shared.” So, basically a complete redesign of how the AI transition is currently going.—Heather Souvaine Horn  In Closing$37.5 billion for Trump’s war on Iran? Something doesn’t add up ... Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee this week, saying the Pentagon has spent $37.5 billion bombing Iran so far, and needs another $67 billion, stat. Those numbers are a bit suspicious. Watch TNR’s Edie Olmsted get into the math.Political Trivia Question of the DayWho was the first Socialist Party member elected to the House of Representatives, and when, and where was he from? (Sign up for The Blue Book to find the answer in tomorrow’s newsletter.)

The move comes as the Trump administration has escalated its efforts to attack left-wing movements at home and abroad.

President Trump announced massive new conditions to his nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia on Thursday morning, just hours after it was signed.In a Truth Social post, Trump demanded that Saudi Arabia normalize relations with Israel via the Abraham Accords before getting any U.S. nuclear technology. He also claimed “there will be no enrichment of material,” though the deal certainly opens the door to uranium enrichment in the country.“The Civil Nuclear Deal (There will be no enrichment of material!) being made between the United States Department of Energy and Saudi Arabia, which pertains only to non-military use such as the ones that Iran and UAE (and others) already have, will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords,” Trump wrote. “The United States is not opposed to Civil (Non-Enriched) Nuclear Facilities.” Negotiating terms would make sense if the deal wasn’t already signed, or if the Saudi kingdom had at least hinted at accepting the demands Trump outlined (it hasn’t).Trump’s post created a stark messaging contradiction for the White House, which is still struggling to explain the terms of the deal.  White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked to explain the president’s about-face during her Thursday press conference. “What steps is the U.S. taking to get Saudi Arabia to sign the Abraham Accords?” a reporter asked.Leavitt did not answer the question. “This is a condition that the president has spoken about many times.… He wants to see these countries sign the Abraham Accord, it was one of the most historic accomplishments of his first term, and it continues to be a long-term goal of his to expand those accords to ultimately come to a place where the Middle East can be a peaceful and stable region,” Leavitt replied, providing no examples of mechanisms being used to make that happen. “Yes, this deal with Saudi Arabia … is contingent on this condition as far as the president is concerned. So we’ll continue to talk with our Saudi counterparts to get the deal finalized.” “Why was that condition not mentioned yesterday when the energy secretary announced it?” another reporter followed up.“Well, look, the president is always the final dealmaker, as you know, and this is something that he has mentioned on numerous occasions,” Leavitt replied.“So the deal is dead if Saudi Arabia doesn’t join? And have you any indication that Saudi Arabia is even considering this?” Leavitt once again failed to engage with the actual questions being raised. “The president has spoken directly with the Saudis about this in numerous conversations in the past, and the administration will continue to engage in these conversations.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump wants Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords before a proposed U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear energy deal moves forward, confirming the agreement is contingent on that condition.Saudi Arabia has not yet responded… pic.twitter.com/QRWk0H2b5C— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 23, 2026It’s clear that no one in the Trump administration can explain just how they plan to get the Saudis to agree to a different deal than the one they signed just a few hours ago. “On Trump seemingly adding new conditions to the US Saudi nuclear deal, including Saudi Israel normalization, a Saudi source says: ‘It was signed. So nothing to renegotiate,’” journalist Laura Rozen wrote. “‘Tweets don’t overturn signed agreements.’” 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune tore into Karoline Leavitt Thursday, rebuking the press secretary hours after she announced that the White House was losing patience with his inability to pass Donald Trump’s wildly unpopular SAVE America Act.“Well maybe she or somebody else ought to get on the phone and get the votes, right?” Thune told reporters. “It’s 50 around here. And, so, instead of pointing the finger at Republicans, they might think about going after the people who are stopping it on the floor, which is the Democrats.” “And if there are Republicans that they think are gettable, get on the phone. Let’s get them to ‘yes,’” he added.At a press conference earlier in the day, Leavitt revealed that the president’s “patience is running out.” “He wants to see as much of the SAVE America Act passed by the August recess,” Leavitt said. “He knows that’s what the American people want to see passed.”The Senate goes into recess on August 7. The House, which began its month-long recess Thursday, voted 216–214 to adopt a budget blueprint Wednesday night that included portions of Trump’s voter restriction bill.The president has predicated his support for any legislative effort on the SAVE Act’s passage. Since the beginning of the year, Trump has insisted it should be Congress’s top priority. He has refused to sign any bill and even derailed Cabinet confirmations until Capitol Hill bends to his will. So far, that stalemate has gummed up efforts to fund the Department of Homeland Security, stalled attempts to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, and upended a planned photo op of Trump signing a landmark bipartisan housing bill.The original iteration of the SAVE America Act sparked nationwide backlash for proposing numerous amendments to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, perhaps chief among them a requirement that voters bring either a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. Critics argued that the mandate would unduly restrict millions of Americans from voting, pointing out that half of the country’s population lacks a passport, and furthermore that the legislation as written would make it difficult for anyone who changed their name—including married women—to register.The bill would also require voters to present photo identification when casting a ballot, and impose a total ban on mail-in voting. Trump has described the latter procedure as “crooked” and “corrupt,” despite the fact that he himself has cast several mail-in ballots.