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President Trump wants Vice President JD Vance to succeed him. Axios reports that the president is happy with how Vance has handled his position, from TV appearances to public remarks, and consistently talks up the former Ohio senator to his inner circle to the detriment of another prospective heir, Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “POTUS isn’t asking, ‘JD or Marco?’ anymore,” an unnamed source told the publication. “He’s no longer asking, ‘How’s JD doing?’ He’s now saying, ‘JD looks great, right?’”A senior Trump adviser told Axios that “JD is earning it, and Trump sees it,” adding that Rubio “wasn’t planning to run [for president in 2028] anyway, and he’d be even less likely to do so now.”A pivotal event for Trump’s positive opinion of Vance came after he worked with Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to reach a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, with Iran, which has brought momentary peace. Vance benefited from positive media attention over his role in the negotiations while at the same time beginning a media tour to promote his new book, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith.Vance’s 33 TV appearances impressed Trump, who has a fixation with the medium, and even though Trump hates many of the shows on which Vance appeared, particularly ABC’s The View, he was impressed with the video clips circulating from those appearances. Vance has raised $70 million for the Republican National Committee, and he’d rely on the organization if he ends up running for president. He’s still very unpopular with the American people, just like Trump, but is almost as popular among Republicans as the president, with a 62 percent favorability rating as opposed to Trump’s 65 percent. Early 2028 polls also have him leading the Republican field nationally and in pivotal states like New Hampshire.  Still, pro-Israel conservatives have soured on Vance in recent months after he criticized the country’s leaders for denouncing the MOU with Iran, and on Saturday, the head of the conservative, pro-business Club for Growth, David McIntosh, said on X that Vance didn’t understand the importance of free markets.Even if he overcomes all of that to get the 2028 Republican nomination for president, Vance faces an uphill battle to take Trump’s place in the White House. His book has been poorly received and reviewed, and Trump has saddled him and the Republican Party with record unpopularity with everyone who isn’t in the MAGA faithful. As 2028 approaches, it will be interesting to see if Vance tries to attach himself to Trump, or tries to create some distance, to better his own political prospects. 

President Donald Trump had a humiliating outburst during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the White House in February 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.  The two world leaders attempted to dial in to a video call led by then–Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada—but Trump became frustrated by a technical issue that prevented him from speaking. In response, he lobbed the tablet he was using over the Resolute Desk and onto the floor, an official told the Journal.This incident was part of an expansive Journal report detailing the crumbling relationship between the United States and Europe—and Trump’s outburst in front of Macron was only the beginning. The president has continued to escalate feuds with European leaders, give hall passes to their enemies, and make deranged demands to seize their territory. This also isn’t the first time one of Trump’s temper tantrums has turned violent. Cassidy Hutchinson, the former top assistant to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, previously testified to Trump’s lunatic behavior behind the scenes. In December 2020, Trump launched his lunch at the wall after Attorney General William Barr denied the president’s claims of widespread voter fraud, according to Hutchinson. On January 6, 2021, when Trump was told it wasn’t safe to go to the Capitol, the wild-eyed president tried to take the wheel of his car. When a Secret Service agent attempted to hold him back, the president tried to grab an agent just below the neck, Hutchinson testified to Congress. 

Drop Site Daily: July 6, 2026

Gwynne Shotwell said her gift for the children's investment accounts is focused on lower-income families in Texas.

President Trump openly admitted to World Cup corruption while explaining how he got FIFA to rescind Team USA star Folarin Balogun’s red card suspension—the first time the soccer organization has done so since 1962. Balogun was initially supposed to be suspended from playing in Monday’s Round of 16 match against Belgium after receiving a red card for a tackle against Bosnia and Herzegovina defender Tarik Muharemović last week. FIFA stated that teams are unable to appeal red cards, which keep a player out of the following game. Nevertheless, Balogun will be playing on Monday after Trump’s call with FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Belgium has challenged the decision at the time of this writing, but no update has been made. “Can you describe your phone call with Gianni Infantino about the red card?” a reporter asked Trump at the White House on Monday morning. “You’re asking me about the whole soccer thing? Yeah, I did, I spoke to Gianni, who’s highly respected, who’s produced the most successful World Cup in history by, they say, four times.… So I saw the play. And I’m a person that loves sports, was a good athlete. And I understand sports really well. Really well. And that wasn’t a foul. That wasn’t even an infraction,” Trump replied. “That was two guys running full speed that happened to crash into each other. You can’t take your foot and properly place it on somebody else’s foot—these were two great athletes that got tangled up. And this referee, who is a little bit suspect, if you check his past … he made a call that nobody could believe, even people on the other side.” Reporter: Can you describe your phone call with Gianni Infantino about the red card? Belgium is appealing the decision.Trump: You’re asking me about the whole soccer thing. So, yeah, I did. I spoke to Gianni. That wasn’t a foul. That wasn’t even an infraction. That was two… pic.twitter.com/zpC1e5L818— Acyn (@Acyn) July 6, 2026“He didn’t do anything wrong. He’s our best player, or one of our best players … and [the referee] gave him a red card. Then I started hearing that means he can’t play in the next game.… When they take your best player … and they say you can’t play? That’s very unfair,” Trump continued. “So yes, I asked for a review by FIFA.… I’m the one that got them to [rescind the suspension]. It was not Biden. Biden was asleep.” “All I did, all I did, I asked for a review because I didn’t think it was a foul. And, you know, again, I’m good at this stuff. I didn’t think it was a foul.” Trump was later asked about the Belgian response, and if he would speak to the country’s prime minister before the game. “The people in Belgium—if they win the game, they can be very proud. If they win the game with a player missing, it would have been a different feeling. You can’t do that, and I’m very glad. All I did was ask for a review. I didn’t say, “You have to do this,” he said. “This man is a smart, tough man, Gianni Infantino. He’s a smart, tough man, and his stock has gone through the roof.… I fear we have to have all the best players on the field.”Trump: The people in Belgium—if they win the game, they can be very proud. If they would have won the game with the player missing, it would have been a different feeling. You can’t do that, and I’m very glad.All I did was ask for a review. I didn’t say, “You have to do this.”… pic.twitter.com/CxJIVVsY0x— Acyn (@Acyn) July 6, 2026The decision has been met with protest from fans, the Royal Belgian Football Association, or RBFA, and even UEFA, the governing body of European soccer. “When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake and the credibility of a competition is undermined,” UEFA said in a statement. “Equally, such a decision creates a precedent in the ongoing tournament, where similar situations will now require an equal treatment, to the detriment of the competition.… “We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision.”Balogun’s tackle was certainly a foul. And even if you don’t agree that it should have been a red card, it is undeniable that the president of a country pressuring the FIFA president to go against a rule it hasn’t broken in 64 years is a baseline example of political corruption in sports. Infantino and Trump already have a questionable relationship, as the former’s gifting of the  “FIFA Peace Prize” to Trump raised conflict-of-interest questions that have now only grown louder. This play is being reviewed for a potential red card against the US pic.twitter.com/EdyPpgpycA— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) July 2, 2026“Decisions on sporting rules and sporting matters belong to sporting bodies, not politicians. Influencing sporting decisions would undermine the autonomy of sport,” European Commissioner for Fairness Glenn Micallef wrote on X. “Our focus should instead be on the real governance challenges facing sport, including the weaponisation of sport for political purposes.” 

“Even if the outbreak is contained, the DRC alone could lose more than USD 1 billion and 55,000 jobs," said UNDP Resident Representative Damien Mamma, warning that a million more in the country could be pushed into poverty. Pavan Kulkarni , July 6, 2026

Kalpana Jain, senior religion and ethics editor for The Conversation, explores a sense of belonging via the Faith Angle gathering.