In the closing weeks of the 2024 presidential election, Trump offered a dire warning to undecided voters: Casting a ballot for Kamala Harris would lead to World War III, "guaranteed," since she's "too grossly incompetent to do the job." Now, as Israel and Iran test Trump's ceasefire efforts and his "big, beautiful bill" continues to be chipped away at in Congress, could the president's past invocation of incompetence end up coming back to bite him? 

Rafi Schwartz
The Week Digital

President Donald Trump's congratulations to Israel and Iran for their "stamina, courage and intelligence" in ending "what should be called The 12-Day War may have been premature, as both Middle East nations continued to bombard one another well past the American ceasefire deadline. Still, the post-ceasefire salvos, for which both Israel and Iran had offered "competing versions of the events," were limited, suggesting both countries "want the nascent truce to hold," said The New York Times. 

Trump has been "critical of both sides," said CNN. But in the wake of skirmishes that threatened his declared ceasefire, Trump "reserved his harshest condemnation" for Israel. Israeli officials, meanwhile, have projected cautious optimism over their efforts to stymie Iran's nuclear ambitions. "We have concluded a significant chapter," said IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir. But the "campaign against Iran is not over." Should the ceasefire ultimately hold, it would represent a "big political win" for Trump in the wake of his "risky gamble" to send American warplanes to bomb Iranian sites, said Al Jazeera.

Longtime Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), a crucial GOP vote for the White House's upcoming megabill, has never been shy about breaking with her party. But ahead of the 2026 midterms, Murkowski is hinting at a potential party switch that could dramatically reshape the balance of power in Washington. "There's some openness to exploring something different than the status quo," Murkowski said on the "GD Politics" podcast yesterday when asked if she would consider caucusing with Democrats as an Independent. But as "challenged as I think we may be on the Republican side, I don't see the Democrats being much better."

Murkowski's comments are "provocative" but not altogether "surprising" given her history with the Trump administration, said MSNBC. Anyone expecting an "imminent" announcement should "probably temper their expectations." Murkowski has hesitated to "speak up among Republican colleagues" about some of the party's more extreme policies "out of fear of retaliation," said Fox News. Her "biggest drawback" to leaving the GOP would be losing "decades of seniority" on her Senate committees, said The Hill.

New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani's come-from-behind victory in the New York City mayoral primary race has made a man once "nearly unknown" outside his home city into the "new national face of progressive challengers" targeting both the Trump White House and the "Democratic establishment," said CNN. Mamdani's victory has "reverberated across the country" and offered a "potential road map for Democrats searching for a path back to power," said The New York Times. Voters opted for a "new voice focused on affordability" rather than a "party elder who leaned into his prior experience" in the form of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), said Politico. 

Mamdani's win is a sign of a "very generational shift" in the Democratic Party, said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Poll, to The Washington Post. His unabashed progressivism "seems to infuriate" establishment Democrats. Despite being "at odds with the motives of ultra-rich donors," his message is a "successful one," said Sara Pequeño at USA Today. 

• How Zohran Mamdani's NYC mayoral run will change the Democratic Party
• The ambiguous legal state of ectopic pregnancy care
• How developed was Iran's nuclear program and what's left now?
• Army commissions tech execs as officer recruits
• Why are lobbyists trying to kill Trump's 'revenge tax'?

• Is Trump sidelining Congress' war powers?
• How far does religious freedom go in prison? The Supreme Court will decide.
• Controversial GOP plan to sell millions of federal acres hits major roadblock
• Are masked ICE agents America's new 'secret police'?