Six months ago, President Trump announced "Liberation Day," a sweeping regime of historic global tariffs that panicked financial markets and led to doom-filled predictions of imminent recession.
The big picture: Now the economy is growing at nearly a 4% rate, unemployment remains historically low, inflation's still under 3% and tariffs are projected to generate more than $400 billion a year in revenue.
Canada issued a travel advisory warning citizens with an "X" gender marker on their passports that some countries, including the U.S., may deny them entry.
Why it matters: Canadians and travelers from other countries with "X" passports risk being turned away at U.S. borders as President Trump escalates the fight to include only two sexes on federal documents.
Divisions between MAGA and the White House are taking a backseat as an intense focus on "leftist violence," Charlie Kirk's assassination and other culture wars fuels a hunger to wield raw power against liberals.
Why it matters: MAGA is marching in lockstep with President Trump, even when his policies clash with their demands. Under this new playbook, policy fissures can be overlooked in favor of a unified offensive against the left.
President Trump signed on Monday an executive order to provide Qatar a U.S. security guarantee with conditions similar to NATO's Article 5, according to the text of the order published by the White House.
Why it matters: This is an unprecedented security agreement between the U.S. and an Arab country. It says the U.S. will treat any "armed attack" on the country "as a threat to the peace and security of the United States" and respond accordingly.
Aventra exited stealth Wednesdaywith $3 million in hand and plans to make dumb munitions smarter and longer-reaching. In other words: deadlier.
Why it matters: There's an international competition afoot. Not a day goes by where the military stockpiles, industrial heft and battlefield ingenuity of the U.S., Ukraine, Russia and China aren't compared.
The seeds of the plan President Trump presented on Monday to end the war in Gaza were planted three weeks earlier, when Israel bombed Qatar in a failed attempt to assassinate Hamas leaders.
The big picture: The Israeli strike united Arab leaders in outrage at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and intensified calls within Israeli society for a deal to free the remaining hostages and end the war.
More than 800 top military brass sat quietly Tuesday as President Trump declared a new "war from within" — an American battlefield he claimed to be more dangerous than any foreign war zone.
Why it matters: In one historic speech at the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Northern Virginia, Trump eviscerated decades of civil-military restraint and proclaimed the armed forces as his weapon of choice against domestic "enemies."
