Axios

The Coast Guard chief said Tuesday "I will not turn my back" on transgender personnel during remarks at a forum hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Politico reports. "We have made an investment in you and you have made an investment in the Coast Guard, and I will not break faith."

Why it matters: That's another strong statement coming from a leader of the armed forces bucking Trump's tweet-announcements that transgender individuals will no longer be allowed to serve in the military in any capacity.

Pentagon spokesperson Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said Monday they haven't received any guidance from the president beyond the tweets and that the order of things will remain as is until that happens.

In the earlier weeks of Trump's presidency, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and then-Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly agreed to make sure at least one of them was in the U.S. at all times to keep track of all of the orders emanating from the White House, per "a person familiar with the discussions," the AP reports.

A Pentagon spokesperson told Axios they "do not verify the claims of 'anonymous sources.'" A DHS spokesperson said he hasn't been able to find out if this is true or not.

The Senate confirmed Christopher Wray as the FBI Director Tuesday evening. He'll be following in the footsteps of fired FBI Director James Comey, and taking the place of current acting Director Andrew McCabe.

Read up on his resume, here. He's a former DOJ official "known for his low-key demeanor," as The Washington Post writes. He told lawmakers under oath he would not pledge loyalty to the president and he would resign if Trump ever pressured him to drop an investigation. The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed him on to the Senate floor.

Update: The final tally came in at 92-5.

During the weekly Senate GOP leadership press conference, Mitch McConnell brushed off President Trump's Twitter suggestion over the weekend to kill the legislative filibuster, saying, "There are not the votes in the Senate as I've said repeatedly to the president and all of you to change the rules of the Senate. It would require 50 or 51 Republicans to agree to that. The votes are simply not there."

• An admission: "It's pretty obvious that our problem on health care was not the Democrats. We didn't have 50 Republicans."
• Tax reform: McConnell said that Republicans would take tax reform up when they come back after Labor Day with the goal of completing it this year — and it'll be done under reconciliation due to Democratic opposition.
• Jeff Flake's criticism: "I haven't had a chance to read Jeff Flake's book, but I'm gonna do that."

A bill drastically reforming federal medical malpractice law — capping damages for plaintiffs and lowering fees for attorneys — passed the House last month with no hearings in a form nearly identical to a version drafted by the Physicians Insurers Association of America, a lobbyist group for doctors and their insurers, leading the group to publicly boast about its achievement, per the Washington Post.

Bills don't often move through a whole chamber of Congress without any edits, especially on such a complicated topic. Moreover, this bill didn't have any public hearings — a practice that some on the left argue is beneficial for lobbyists and special interest groups.

Why it matters: Lobbyists — and their influence — are a fact of life in Washington, impacting nearly every piece of legislation. However, the House's move to push through a far-reaching malpractice bill without any public input is unusual. The bill has languished in the Senate thus far and if it ever got a vote, it would be unlikely to get the 60 votes needed to pass.

Sarah Sanders confirmed Tuesday that President Trump weighed in on Donald Trump Jr.'s statement about his meeting with a Russian attorney. That contradicts Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow, who twice said Trump played no role in the statement.

"There's no inaccuracy in the statement... he certainly didn't dictate, but...he weighed in, offered suggestions, like any father would do," said Sanders.

America's top drug enforcement officer, acting chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration Chuck Rosenberg, shot down President Trump's remarks about police use of force in a worldwide memo to DEA agents Saturday, stating that they should disregard any suggestion that roughing up suspects is okay, per the WSJ.

• Rosenberg's memo says that Trump "condoned police misconduct" by telling a crowd of law enforcement officials Friday that they shouldn't be "too nice" when arresting "thugs," and that the president's comments required a response.
• The memo continues: "I write to offer a strong reaffirmation of the operating principles to which we, as law enforcement professionals, adhere... I write because we have an obligation to speak out when something is wrong. That's what law enforcement officers do. That's what you do. We fix stuff. At least, we try."

White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner answered congressional interns' questions about Middle East peace and Russia in an off-the-record session Monday — but his candid comments have leaked.

WIRED obtained a recording of the talk and published the audio on their site, and Foreign Policy reports it obtained a copy of written notes on the talk. The substance of Kushner's talk:

• He wants to not get stuck in the past on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "We don't want a history lesson."
• On allegations of Trump campaign collusion with Russia: "[W]e couldn't even collude with our local offices."
• He downplayed his failure to report more than a hundred contacts with foreign officials and foreign trips.

The AP's Vivian Salama and Jill Colvin report on a standoff between new Chief of Staff John Kelly and President Trump when Kelly was running the Department of Homeland Security.

Kelly reportedly demanded to speak with the president in private after Trump complained about how the U.S. was letting in travelers from foreign countries that he sees as high-risk. Kelly first tried to reason with Trump in the open setting, the report claims. When Trump refused to listen, Kelly demanded that the other advisors leave the room so he could "speak with the president frankly." Loud voices were then reportedly heard emanating from the Oval Office as Kelly made his point clear.

Editor's Note: This story originally said the meeting took place on Kelly's first day as Chief of Staff. It happened when he was still at DHS.

Wall Street Journal op-ed by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, "Free Trade is a Two-Way Street: China, the EU and other trading partners put up formidable barriers to imports from America":

"Defending U.S. workers and businesses against this onslaught should not be mislabeled as protectionism. Insisting on fair trade is the best way to ensure the long-term strength of the international trading system.""The Trump administration believes in free and fair trade and will use every available tool to counter the protectionism of those who pledge allegiance to free trade while violating its core principles."Quick analysis by Axios' Jonathan Swan: "This is a noteworthy piece, I think. Seems timed to pre-spin some controversial Ross-Steve Bannon-Peter Navarro trade actions. The last couple of paragraphs [above] tell me they're anticipating aggressive pushback from the World Trade Organization. Looks like we're in retaliatory tariff land!"

Sen. Jeff Flake, a conservative Republican from Arizona, goes after Trump in a book out today from Random House, "Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle," per this writeup from the Arizona Republic:

• "In a section under the rubric 'What Would Goldwater Do?' Flake catalogs a litany of Trumpian sins against conservative thought and action, from protectionism, to ducking entitlement reform, to praising dictators."
• "Flake describes the 2016 presidential campaign as a 'sugar high of populism, nativism, and demagoguery.'"
• "Conservatives ... practiced a politics that was 'a race to the bottom to see who can be meaner and madder and crazier.'"

N.Y. Times review by Jennifer Senior: "Flake has gone 'Bulworth' on us."

Before the tweet left President Trump's fingers, alt-right digital media personality Mike Cernovich had already reported to his 323,000 followers that Reince Priebus was being replaced as chief of staff: