• Inflation report: Inflation rose 0.2% in July, a lower-than-anticipated rate, with annual inflation hitting 2.7%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists had predicted a 0.3% increase, anticipating an eventual impact from Donald Trump’s tariffs. Shelter costs rose 0.2%, food prices remained static, and energy costs dropped 1.1%. Medical and transportation prices both rose 0.8%, while new vehicle prices were unchanged. Joe Biden’s former White House economist, Jared Bernstein, observed, “The tariffs are in the numbers, but they’re certainly not jumping out of the hair on fire at this point.” The question of whether and when the Federal Reserve may act to cut interest rates remains open-ended, with some seeing the potential for a rate cut coming in September. Additionally, Trump’s tariffs have generated $25 billion in revenue in July. It was $7 billion a year ago. If the current tariffs remain in place over the course of his presidential term, that will generated $1.3 trillion in revenue.

• Dem whistleblower claims Adam Schiff directed leak of classified info: A Democrat intelligence officer who worked for Democrat lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee for over a decade told the FBI in 2017 that then-Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) directed the leaking of classified information to smear Donald Trump. The staffer reportedly expressed concern at the time that leaking the classified info was “unethical,” “illegal,” and “treasonous.” However, the staffer was told not to worry about it, as Schiff believed the staffer would be protected by the Constitution’s speech and debate clause. FBI Director Kash Patel linked to the report on social media and stated, “We found it. We declassified it. Now Congress can see how classified info was leaked to shape political narratives — and decide if our institutions were weaponized against the American people.”

• Maxwell transcripts to remain sealed: Judge Paul Engelmayer of New York rejected the Justice Department’s request to unseal the grand jury transcripts relating to Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal investigation. Engelmayer made a compelling case that the request wouldn’t reveal any meaningful information not already public and that the request itself was more of a PR stunt than anything. Many Trump supporters are eager to have every piece of the story relating to Jeffrey Epstein, so this administration has plenty of incentive to be transparent, even when there may be good reason for secrecy. Engelmayer’s most salient point is that “proceedings before a grand jury shall generally remain secret” is a legal policy that preexisted the United States itself. A separate request to unseal transcripts from the 2005-07 grand jury testimony that led to Epstein’s indictment is still being weighed.

• Trump turns to Heritage for BLS pick: On Monday, Donald Trump nominated E.J. Antoni, who has served as the chief economist at The Heritage Foundation, to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Trump tapped Antoni to head the agency following his firing of former head Erika McEntarfer over major revisions on the jobs data report last month that he said were for “political purposes.” In announcing his pick, Trump contended that Antoni “will ensure that the numbers released are honest and accurate.” Antoni has not liked the way the BLS has conducted its collection, processing, and dissemination of data, arguing that “only consistent delivery of accurate data in a timely manner will rebuild the trust that has been lost over the last several years.”

• Illegal alien population down 1.6M under Trump: According to the Current Population Survey, a monthly report produced by the Census Bureau, the total number of foreign-born people living in the U.S. has dropped by 2.2 million since January, with 1.6 million of those being illegal aliens. That means the current rate of illegal aliens exiting the country is higher than the entry rate during the Biden administration. The population of illegal aliens has dropped roughly 270,000 per month, which is nearly double the monthly increase rate under Joe Biden. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said of foreign leaders in Central and South America, “Over and over again, I’m hearing that hundreds of thousands of their citizens are coming home, voluntarily.” Due to this outflow of illegal aliens, the total U.S. population could see an overall decline for the first time since the 1930s.

• WaPo falsely blames school choice for AZ public schools’ closings: The Washington Post has it out for school choice. In an article last week, the publication linked public school closings in Arizona to the state’s new Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program. Unfortunately for the Post, that’s not the real story. Roosevelt Elementary School District in Phoenix has closed several schools due to declining enrollment. The district in question has just 10% of students reaching math proficiency and only 17% with reading proficiency, 2024 state testing showed. Even worse for the Post’s narrative, of the 8,500 students fleeing the district, only 102 have used ESAs to move to a private school; the rest moved to other public schools.

• Judge strikes down Arkansas’s Ten Commandments in public schools law: Anti-Christian sentiment disguised as First Amendment rights is alive and well in the judiciary. Judges across the nation have been striking down state requirements to post the Ten Commandments in public schools. As one of the oldest legal codes in existence and the basis for much of American jurisprudence, the Ten Commandments have undeniable historic value. Judge Timothy Brooks, an Obama appointee, only sees “a coordinated strategy … to inject Christian religious doctrine into public-school classrooms.” Louisiana’s attempt to post the Ten Commandments alongside other historic legal documents like the Mayflower Compact was similarly struck down last year by another Obama appointee, a ruling later upheld by the Fifth Circuit. Louisiana AG Liz Murrill says her state will keep battling, escalating the case to the Supreme Court if necessary.

• Christian persecution rising: Christians remain persecuted in most of the world, including four of the five most populous nations. India, China, Indonesia, and Pakistan all routinely interfere with the practice of the Christian religion, both in worship and evangelism. In China, Christians lose points in their social credit score, and nine evangelists were imprisoned this year for distributing Bibles. Given the CCP’s practice of disappearing people it doesn’t like, it’s hard to know how many Chinese Christians have been killed for their faith. In India, more than 300 attacks on Christians by radical Hindus have been reported recently. Indonesia requires the signatures of 60 Christians and 90 non-Christians before a new church can be opened. In July, hundreds of violent Muslim hardliners descended on one of those few churches. Boko Haram in Nigeria has killed more than 50,000 Christians and burned 18,000 churches since 2009.

Headlines

• Seventh Cincinnati assault suspect arrested over violent beatdown (Fox News)

• Trump admin considers reclassifying cannabis as a less dangerous drug (Breitbart)

• Media outlets criticized for false river-raising story on Vance (Jonathan Turley)

• Harris wouldn’t let Vance kids tour the veep’s house before inauguration (Daily Wire)

• Christian churches facing vandalism and violence in “growing trend” (Fox News)

• Famed intellectual William F. Buckley Jr. will be honored on a stamp (USPS)

• Humor: Trump vows to drastically reduce the number of criminals in Washington by sending Congress home (Babylon Bee)

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