The MAGA movement is reveling in the creativity, severity and accelerating force of President Trump's historic immigration crackdown.

• Why it matters: Once-fringe tactics — an alligator-moated detention camp, deportations to war zones, denaturalization of immigrant citizens — are now being proudly embraced at the highest levels of the U.S. government, Axios' Tal Axelrod and Zachary Basu write.

💥 It's an extraordinary shift from Trump's first term, when nationwide backlash and the appearance of cruelty forced the administration to abandon its family separation policy for unauthorized immigrants.

• Six months into his second term — and with tens of billions of dollars in new funding soon flowing to ICE — Trump is only just beginning to scale up his mass deportation machine.

Driving the news: Trump on Tuesday toured a temporary ICE facility in the Florida Everglades dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," where thousands of migrants will be detained in a remote, marshland environment teeming with predators.

• MAGA influencers invited on the trip gleefully posted photos of the prison's cages and souvenir-style "merchandise," thrilling their followers and horrifying critics.
• Pro-Trump activist Laura Loomer drew outrage after tweeting that "alligators are guaranteed at least 65 million meals if we get started now" — widely interpreted as a reference to the Hispanic population of the United States.

👀 The big picture: Citing the millions of unauthorized immigrants who crossed the border under President Biden, Trump and his MAGA allies have framed the second-term crackdown as a long-overdue purge.

• The result is an increasingly draconian set of enforcement measures designed to deter, expel and make examples out of unauthorized immigrants.
• Some newer members of the MAGA coalition, such as podcaster Joe Rogan, have expressed deep discomfort with the targeting of non-criminal undocumented immigrants.

Zoom in: Trump's deportation efforts exploded into a full-blown spectacle in March, when the U.S. flew hundreds of alleged gang members to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador.

• The operation was captured in glitzy promotional footage, distributed on official White House social media, that showed shaved and shackled migrants being marched off planes and buses at gunpoint.

Zoom out: Trump's immigration toolkit has expanded since March, as his aides push for a dramatically higher pace of arrests and deportations.

• Trump federalized the National Guard in California and deployed troops in Los Angeles to protect federal ICE agents, giving the military a rare and highly contentious role in immigration raids.

⚖️ The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to deport undocumented immigrants to non-origin countries — including the war-torn nations of South Sudan and Libya.

• Hundreds of migrants are being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This week, Trump claimed that "conceptual work" is underway to reopen Alcatraz — the decrepit former island prison in San Francisco, now a tourist site.
• On Thursday, ICE announced it had arrested and was preparing to deport Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. — accusing him of cartel ties just days after he headlined an arena against influencer Jake Paul.

What to watch: Denaturalization of U.S. citizens — once a legal backwater — is gaining traction as Trump and his MAGA allies push the envelope on nativist rhetoric.

• The Justice Department has begun prioritizing stripping naturalized Americans of their citizenship when they're charged with crimes and "illegally procured or misrepresented facts in the naturalization process."
• But some MAGA influencers are pushing to weaponize denaturalization more broadly — not just as a legal remedy for fraud, but as a tool to punish ideological opponents.

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) has called for the Justice Department to investigate the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a U.S. citizen in 2018.

• Trump has echoed false claims about Mamdani being in the country "illegally," and threatened to arrest the democratic socialist if he impedes federal immigration operations in New York.

The bottom line: MAGA is leveraging a precedent-busting president to set a new standard for immigration enforcement — one that could define Republican policy for years to come.

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At least 24 people have died and many are still missing after severe flash floods tore through central Texas yesterday.

• Nearly a foot of rain fell just before dawn yesterday and sent floodwaters gushing out of the Guadalupe River, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha told reporters yesterday evening. The flood-prone region is dotted with summer camps that draw thousands of kids annually from across Texas, AP reports.

Authorities say 23 to 25 children are still missing from Camp Mystic, a private girls camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River, Axios' Astrid Galván reports.

• An unknown number of people from across the region are also missing, Kerr County said in an update last night.

More than 230 people were rescued or evacuated, most by helicopter, throughout the day yesterday, officials said.

• The massive search operation continued through the night and is still underway.

Elinor Lester, 13, who was attending Camp Mystic, told AP she and her cabin mates had to be helicoptered to safety.

• Lester was among the older girls housed on elevated ground known as Senior Hill. Cabins housing the younger campers, who can start attending at age 8, are situated along the riverbanks and were the first to flood, she said.

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For the first time since President Kennedy's assassination nearly 62 years ago, the CIA has tacitly admitted that an agent specializing in psychological warfare ran an operation that came into contact with Lee Harvey Oswald before the killing in Dallas, Axios' Marc Caputo reports.

• Why it matters: The disclosure Thursday — nestled in a batch of 40 documents and concerning agent George Joannides — indicates the CIA lied for decades about his role in the Kennedy case before and after the assassination, according to experts on JFK's slaying.

🎯 The linchpin document: A Jan. 17, 1963, CIA memo showing Joannides was directed to have an alias and fake driver's license bearing the name "Howard Gebler."

• Until Thursday, the agency had denied that Joannides was known as "Howard," the case agent name for the CIA contact who worked with activists from an anti-communist group opposed to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro called the Cuban Student Directorate.
• For decades, the agency also falsely said it had nothing to do with the student group, which was instrumental in having Oswald's pro-Castro stances published soon after the shooting.

"The cover story for Joannides is officially dead," said Jefferson Morley, an author and expert on the assassination. "This is a big deal. The CIA is changing its tune on Lee Harvey Oswald."

• The information comes to light as part of President Trump's order that the government meet its obligations to disclose all documents under the JFK Records Act of 1992.

🔬 Zoom in: Joannides was the deputy chief of the CIA's Miami branch, overseeing "all aspects of political action and psychological warfare." That included covertly funding and directing the Cuban student group, commonly referred to as DRE for its Spanish-language initials.

• On Aug. 9, 1963, more than three months before the Nov. 22nd assassination, four DRE operatives got into a scuffle with Oswald in New Orleans when he was passing out pro-Castro "Fair Play for Cuba Committee" pamphlets.

Zoom out: The new documents don't shed any additional light on Kennedy's shooting or settle the controversy over whether Oswald acted alone. Nor is there any evidence showing why the CIA covered up Joannides' ties to DRE.

• All the records disclosed so far show how the CIA lied about financing or being involved with DRE.

Read on.

President Trump signed his signature tax and spending legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, into law yesterday, meeting a July 4 deadline that at times appeared out of reach.

• Why it matters: It's a huge achievement for Trump and congressional Republicans that will reshape federal fiscal policy for years to come. The megabill cuts funding for social safety measures, extends tax cuts and finances Trump's immigration agenda, Axios April Rubin and Ashley May write.

"This is the single most popular bill ever signed," he said. But the legislation has been unpopular in every poll asking about it from May to July 3, data journalist G. Elliott Morris notes.

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It's not food, it's not chewing tobacco and it's not gum — though it might look like it when you see it — but it is becoming America's new addictive obsession.

• Why it matters: Sales of Zyn nicotine pouches are soaring, prompting the tobacco company that makes them to scramble to boost U.S. production to meet demand. U.S. shipments of Zyn pouches surged 177% in the last two years, Axios' Nathan Bomey reports.

How it works: Zyn pouches are placed between the gum and lip, gradually releasing nicotine over time.

• The pouches are discreet and don't produce smoke or odors like cigarettes.

Threat level: The product is addictive because nicotine is addictive.

• But it doesn't cause cancer because it doesn't contain tobacco, whose harmful chemicals are carcinogenic. As a result, advocates say nicotine pouches can serve as a safer alternative to smoking.

Still, tobacco industry watchdogs say products that contain nicotine can serve as a gateway to smoking, especially for teens.

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President Trump said the U.S. will begin sending letters Monday to other countries setting a tariff rate on their imports.

• Why it matters: After months of threats, Trump is abruptly re-escalating the trade war, Axios managing editor for business Ben Berkowitz writes.

For businesses craving certainty, who've had a period of relative calm of late, the move could once again upset that balance.

• It also injects a new risk into financial markets that have largely moved on to a post-tariff world. European stocks, and U.S. stock futures, fell yesterday as Trump warned the letters were coming.

👀 Catch up quick: Trump told reporters late yesterday aboard Air Force One that about a dozen letters would go out Monday.

• He didn't say which nations would be targeted or what rates would be set.
• On Thursday, he said the rates in the letters would go into effect Aug. 1 — and warned some could be as high as 70%.

Reality check: The administration has used a similar tactic before — taking an aggressive posture on coming tariffs, but with a deadline just far enough out that trading partners could still bring last-minute offers.

• Reports in recent days suggest multiple trading partners, including South Korea and Thailand, are scrambling to do just that.

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The Palestinian militant group Hamas said yesterday it is ready to start negotiations on the implementation of a new Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, Axios' Barak Ravid reports.

• Hamas said its response to the deal "can be characterized as positive,"

Why it matters: President Trump has been pushing both Hamas, through Qatari and Egyptian mediators, and Israel to agree on a deal that includes a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and the release of 10 hostages and 18 deceased hostages.

• Trump wants a breakthrough Monday when he meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

🔎 Between the lines: Sources with knowledge of the talks said Hamas gave the Qatari mediators three reservations that it wants to discuss in indirect talks with Israel and the United States.

• Hamas demands that the UN will once again run the humanitarian aid delivery system in Gaza and that the Israel and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund will not be part of it.
• Hamas wants the IDF to withdraw to its boundaries from before the ceasefire collapsed last March.

Israel refused those demands.

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Fireworks light up the sky above the Brooklyn Bridge during Macy's 4th of July show in New York City. The 25-minute show included more than 80,000 shells.

Fireworks soar over the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument last night.

Fans watch fireworks over Coors Field after the Colorado Rockies hosted the Chicago White Sox in Denver yesterday. The Sox won 3–2.