Axios

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced tonight that the Senate will vote on a procedural motion to take up Affordable Care Act repeal "early next week." Senate GOP leaders had been discussing holding the vote as early as tomorrow, but now the timing has been postponed.

What it means: Unless something changes between now and then, Senate Republicans won't get the 50 votes they need to begin debate on any health care bill, including McConnell's fallback plan of a repeal bill without an ACA replacement. But McConnell is determined to hold the vote even if it fails. GOP leaders will be increasing the pressure on the Republican holdouts to change their minds.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker tops out the most popular governors list with 71% approval, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is losing the contest with 69% disapproval, according to Morning Consult's Governor Approval Rankings.

Think about it this way:

• The ten least popular governors have disapproval ratings worse than Trump's disapproval rating, which stands at 46%, per WSJ/NBC. Based on the Trump disapproval rating the ABC/WaPo poll found, at 58%, only three governors have disapproval ratings worse than Trump.
• All of the most popular governors are Republicans...
• ...And seven of the ten least popular governors are also Republicans.

The Washington Post has identified the eighth person in the room for the Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer: Ike Kaveladze, a U.S. citizen who works as a vice president for the Crocus Group, the real estate firm owned by Russian Trump associate Aras Agalarov.

Why he was there: Kaveladze's lawyer told the Post he believed he would be acting as a translator during the meeting, but found that Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer, had brought her own. Kaveladze was also there as a representative for the Agalarov family.

One big revelation: Robert Mueller, the special counsel for the government's Russia probe, requested Kaveladze's identity from his attorney over the weekend — the first confirmation that Mueller is looking at the Trump Tower meeting.

Two Republican Senators, Shelley Moore Capito and Susan Collins, said they oppose Mitch McConnell's new plan to repeal Obamacare first and then replace at a later date. Capito voted for a full repeal in 2015, whereas Collins voted against that move.

Why it matters: The Republicans can only afford these two no votes. If anyone else steps up in opposition, the plan is shot.

Jerry Moran, one of the senators who stood in the way of the earlier repeal-and-replace plan, won't stand in the way of the current repeal-then-replace plan.

Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, told Russian-state media organization TASS that Russia would launch "retaliation measures" if the Trump administration does not return the Russian diplomatic compounds unconditionally, the Washington Examiner reports. This comes after Ryabkov left a meeting with U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon on Monday saying they "almost" had a deal worked out.

• The Obama administration seized the two compounds, one in Maryland and one in New York, last year in response to alleged election interference and it was suspected Russians were orchestrating espionage acts from the properties.
• Note: The Russian Foreign Ministry has cautioned it could retaliate "tit-for-tat" before, per CNN. This ramps up the pressure.
• What's next: Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan told Congress last week that if there were a deal, the State Department would "consult" with Congress "before any final implementation."

The Trump administration re-certified yesterday that Iran is in compliance with its nuclear deal, preventing Congress from having to decide whether to levy additional sanctions or scrap the deal in its entirety.

• But it was only after a day-long drama featuring the president's advisers trying to get him to change his mind, I can independently confirm, as reported last night by Peter Baker at the New York Times and this morning by Eli Lake at Bloomberg View.
• The vast majority of the principals — led by National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster — were in favor of the U.S. staying in the deal. But Trump hates the deal, and the decision goes against Trump's gut instincts.
• Why it matters: It's not just the media that Trump keeps in suspense — he frequently keeps his top advisers guessing on consequential decisions until the last minute. Yesterday's decision shows he's willing to go against his gut instincts, but not without giving his team serious heartburn. Trump re-certified again, but his top advisers are far from confident he'll do it again the next time.

Diverging interests ... A "new layer of drama and suspicion in a White House already rife with internal rivalries," per AP's Julie Pace and Julie Bykowicz:

• "[A] growing cast of lawyers is signing up to defend President Donald Trump and his associates. But the interests of those lawyers — and their clients — don't always align."
• "The result is a crowded group of high-priced attorneys bent on defending their own clients, even if it means elbowing those clients' colleagues.
• "Alan Futerfas, the attorney for the president's son, said Trump Jr. had been 'absolutely prepared' to make a 'fulsome statement' [about the Russia meeting] ... He did not respond to questions about why the initial statement, ... which was seen by the president, lacked some of those details."

Read more from Axios' Alayna Treene on Trumpworld's white collar lawyer hiring spree.

Republican senators Mike Lee and Jerry Moran announced Monday night that they would vote "no" on a motion to proceed with the revised GOP health care bill, meaning as it stands the bill does not have the votes to move forward.

The next move is unclear but some conservatives, including House Freedom Caucus chairman Mark Meadows, are already calling for a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, like the one Republicans passed under Barack Obama.

The previous "no" votes: Rand Paul and Susan Collins, with others on the fence. Mitch McConnell could only afford to lose two Republicans.

Lee's rationale: "In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesn't go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations."

From Moran's statement: The bill "fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address healthcare's rising costs."

In his forthcoming book Devil's Bargain, Bloomberg Businessweek's Joshua Green writes President Trump didn't have a victory speech prepared on election night, per the Daily Mail. Also on election night, Green writes, Trump became enraged when Chris Christie suggested that Barack Obama call his phone when he reached out to congratulate Trump — a move which contributed to their falling out. Christie's office says that's "complete fiction." Other nuggets:

Sean Spicer, who returned to the podium for the first time since June 26, kicked off today's off-camera briefing by touting the administration's "Made in America Week." Yet when asked if this week's White House theme means that the Trump Organization and Ivanka Trump brands will commit to making products in the U.S., Spicer said he felt it was "inappropriate" to comment on their businesses, and added that in certain cases, "the supply chains and scalability" are not always available in the U.S.

41% of Americans think that President Trump should be impeached and 53% disagree, according to the latest Monmouth University poll. Trump's job approval has held steady at 39% with 52% disapproving.

Perspective: During the start of Watergate, Nixon only had 24% of Americans in favor of impeachment, with 62% opposed, but his job approval ratings were similar to Trump's, 39% to 49%, Monmouth pointed out.

Why it matters: Political polarization in the age of Trump is extreme. The numbers suggest that only 11% of Americans disapprove of Trump's performance, but think he should remain in office. For the most part, people either think he's a good president, or think he should be impeached. This is uncharted territory for U.S. politics.

The Trump administration will give out an extra 15,000 temporary H-2B work visas before September 30, per AP. The visas will be used for seasonal, non-agriculture workers and be granted to businesses who argue they need foreign workers to succeed. The Trump Organization is among the businesses that uses H-2B visas, including for workers at Mar-a-Lago.

• A few months ago, Congress voted to let Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly offer more visas than the allotted 66,000 per year. Kelly celebrated the decision as a "demonstration of the administration's commitment to supporting American businesses."
• Kelly has faced backlash from Washington lawmakers for failing to act more rapidly on the decision. Last week, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) placed a hold on Lee Francis Cissna's nomination within DHS as a result of Kelly's inaction.
• Expect more criticism from Congress and the Senate, since the administration is only giving out 15,000 of the 70,000 additional visas approved by Congress.

In our 100 days report card back in April, Jim VandeHei and I noted that one of Trump's "misses" was: "Little personal growth in office" — a loose style and resistance to structure that leaves White House aides insecure, and created internal inefficiencies and blind spots.

As Trump approaches the six-month mark on Thursday (Day 182, with 1,280 till the next Inauguration Day), that factor is still hampering his presidency, one-eighth of the way into this term.

We asked several top Trump-watchers what has surprised them most about the first six months.