Biden rallies in Wisconsin to ease campaign doubts before key ABC interview: Live updates

Project 2025’s 900-page manifesto for nearly every detail of a second Trump presidency was drawn up by more than a dozen former Trump administration officials and advisers, who have planned to “integrate” the document into the campaign’s platform in the coming months.

But on Friday, as his Democratic rivals use Project 2025 as shorthand for his agenda, Trump claimed that he the proposal is news to him.

Trump’s allies are now suggesting that, if elected, Trump should restart underground nuclear weapons testing, a practice that the US gave up more than 30 years ago, and if resumed would likely fuel a global arms race in a volatile political moment.

Nuclear weapons testing and weapon stockpiling are also key parts of the defense recommendations in Project 2025, the 900-page Heritage Foundation-backed manifesto for Trump’s second term, and authored by Trump’s former defense secretary.

Days after Justice Thomas went rogue and lashed out at special counsel Jack Smith in the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling, Trump’s attorneys directed the federal judge overseeing his Mar-a-Lago case to his words.

In a court filing on Friday, Trump’s attorneys claim that Thomas’s argument “adds force” to Trump’s claim that Smith’s appointment and funding is unconstitutional, by highlighting “grave separation-of-powers concerns” in the special counsel’s role.

Last month, Judge Aileen Cannon heard arguments from attorneys over whether the case should be dismissed based on their claims that Smith is unlawfully presiding over the case against the former president.

None of the Supreme Court justices have ruled on that, though Thomas seems open to it. He wasn’t joined by any other justices in his concurring opinion in the immunity case.

Two days after Biden met with a group of Democratic governors from across the country, Maura Healey of Massachusetts appears to be the first to suggest that the president should heed the advice of voters concerned about his chances against Trump.

“President Biden saved our democracy in 2020 and has done an outstanding job over the last four years. I am deeply grateful for his leadership. And I know he agrees this is the most important election of our lifetimes,” she said in a statement on Friday.

“Over the coming days, I urge him to listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he res our best hope to defeat Donald Trump,” she added. “Whatever President Biden decides, I am committed to doing everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump.”

President Biden will soon deliver remarks at a campaign rally in Wisconsin, hours before his interview on ABC is set to air during a make-or-break peroid of his re-election bid.

President Joe Biden spoke with Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday to “congratulate him on his appointment” after Thursday’s elections, according to a White House readout of their call.

The leaders “reaffirmed the special relationship between our nations and the importance of working together in support of freedom and democracy around the world,” includnig support for Ukraine, affirmation of the Belfast/Good Friday agreement, and working with Northern Ireland leaders “to create and sustain economic growth and opportunities.”

Starmer will meet with Biden at the Washington Summit next week to celebrate NATO’s 75th anniversary, according to the White House.

“Congratulations to Prime Minister Keir Starmer on becoming Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,” the president wrote on social media. “I look forward to our shared work in support of freedom and democracy around the world, and to further strengthening the special relationship between our two countries.”

Voters are coconut-pilled, Kamala maxxing, “existing in context” and “unburdened by what has been.”

A flood of only-slightly-ironic KHive revival memes are welcoming a President Harris should Biden drop out of the race.

Trump is now trying to distance himself from Project 2025, the blueprint for his administration drawn up by his own former officials and backed by the Republican-aligned Heritage Foundation.

The plan is a 900-page manifesto for every detail of a second Trump White House. Last week, the Heritage Foundation’s president hailed a Supreme Court decision granting Trump some immunity from criminal prosecution as part of a “second” American revolution that he says may or may not be “bloodless.”

Today, Trump says “I know nothing about Project 2025.”

“I have no idea who is behind it,” he wrote on Truth Social. “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s own PAC is running ads promoting Project 2025.

“I have the answer to the Crooked Joe Biden Incompetence Puzzle — Let’s do another Debate, but this time, no holds barred,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social during the Fourth of July holiday.

Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman, Calvin Coolidge, Rutherford B Hayes, James Buchanan and James K Polk…

Gustaf Kilander breaks down what happened when other American presidents chose to bow out early.