• Governor Knucklehead knew: On Wednesday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and State Attorney General Keith Ellison testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. It didn’t go well. As it turns out, the massive Somali fraud in Minnesota is not a recent development. Warnings about fraud in the system were issued as early as 2018, only to be ignored. Walz took office in 2019 and was alerted to the fraud no later than 2020. Despite his knowledge, action was not taken to stop the fraud until years later; in several cases, it was only in the last few months. Oversight Chairman James Comer said that Walz and Ellison “were aware of widespread fraud in social service programs, lied about their knowledge of the fraud, and retaliated against employees who dared to raise concerns.”

• Dispatches about Iran: On Wednesday, the Senate voted 47-53 to reject an effort raised by Democrats to limit President Donald Trump’s war powers when it comes to the ongoing joint offensive against Iran. This vote marks the second failed attempt this year by primarily Democrats to limit Trump’s war powers. Meanwhile, a U.S. Navy submarine, using a single specialized torpedo, sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Sri Lanka. CENTCOM noted that, thus far, the U.S. has “struck or sunk” more than 20 Iranian warships since Sunday. Yesterday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the U.S. military will intensify and expand its strikes against Iran. A coalition of U.S.-backed Kurdish militia groups in Iraq is preparing to launch an offensive into Iran to engage the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

• Is China the biggest loser in Operation Epic Fury? One of the key geopolitical tactics of the 20th and 21st centuries has been proxy wars, where one power can attack another without directly involving itself. Iran certainly used various terrorist groups, but it is now becoming clear that Iran itself was being used as a proxy by China. The Chinese multipolarity strategy relied on turning Iran into a stronghold in the Middle East. As it turns out, that stronghold was built on the sand. Now, China is in a position of energy insecurity after two key providers, Iran and Venezuela, have been taken off the table. At the same time, the infrastructure and allies they have cultivated in the Middle East and Africa are coming under attack from Iranian retaliation. China is struggling to reorient in a world where American hard power is being used to devastating effect.

• Munition tallies: Much of Operation Epic Fury is focused on eliminating the mullahs’ significant arsenal of missiles and drones. Not only has the U.S. expended munitions in targeting and taking out these missiles and launchers, but American defensive weaponry, such as the advanced Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors, is getting quite the workout in taking out hundreds of Iranian missiles and drones that have been launched against U.S. personnel and interests in the region. Concerns have been raised over dwindling U.S. stockpiles of these weapons. Tehran’s current military strategy boils down to exhausting U.S. munitions via mass missile launches. The state of U.S. strategic weaponry stockpile concerns has been repeatedly raised over recent years; however, regarding this current action, President Trump stated that the U.S. has a “virtually unlimited supply” of needed munitions.

• Daines announces retirement, phony “independent” runs in Montana: Two-term Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines announced that he will retire at the end of his current term. This development suddenly puts the Senate seat in play for Democrats. The 63-year-old Daines had been leading in the polls. He immediately endorsed the current U.S. attorney for Montana, Kurt Alme, whom both President Trump and Montana’s other senator, Tim Sheehy, are also endorsing. Meanwhile, University of Montana President Seth Bodnar has also announced his Senate bid as an “independent.” Not declaring a party affiliation is a ruse to paint Bodnar as not a Democrat despite getting the endorsement of the Treasure State’s former Democrat senator, Jon Tester. Bodnar is a dyed-in-the-wool leftist who allowed a “transgender”-identifying male to compete in women’s sports at the university.

• Gonzales admits affair: Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales has admitted to having an affair with his late staffer, Regina Santos-Aviles, just as primary challenger Brandon Herrera alleged. Text messages from 2024 now show that Gonzales, a married father of six, pressured Santos-Aviles, a married mother, to send him a “sexy pic,” and she responded, “This is going too far, boss.” A congressman having an affair with a staffer is sordid but perhaps unsurprising; what elevates this story is Santos-Aviles’s death in 2025. Ruled a suicide, Santos-Aviles died after being set on fire. Gonzales insists he had nothing to do with her tragic passing and said he was as shocked as anyone else. Until Wednesday, Gonzales was still denying the affair. Gonzales and Herrera will meet in a primary runoff, a rematch of the 2024 race, which Gonzales won by 400 votes.

• Autopen investigation closes: The Department of Justice has apparently given up on prosecuting the Democrat inner circle, nicknamed the “Politburo.” Sleepy Joe Biden was not in command of his mental faculties while he was ostensibly the leader of the free world. Any American who was paying attention could see that. There is, unfortunately, a wide gap between knowing something is true and being able to prove it in a court of law. The investigation into the use of the autopen to sign legislation without Biden’s knowledge has reached an inconclusive end. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform released a 90-page report alleging the use of presidential powers without authorization and referred Biden cabinet members for investigation. The DOJ was unable to make anything stick, failing to present the case to a grand jury, and now U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has wound down the inquiry.

• School choice expands in states that adopted it: School choice programs are growing across the country and expanding in states that have adopted them. This coming fall, 17 states will offer school choice options to families. The expansion of these increasingly popular programs has made roughly half of the nation’s pre-K through 12th-grade students eligible. Texas and Tennessee are the most recent states to jump on the school choice bandwagon, with Wyoming planning to come aboard later this year. School choice advocates credit President Trump for the significant expansion of the programs, but the biggest reason school choice is succeeding is parents. “What we’re seeing nationally isn’t a partisan wave,” observed Arthur Dupre, president of the scholarship distributor Arete Scholars. “It’s a parent-driven movement. Families want agency.”

• Fourth Circuit to hear critical LGBTQ case: In what is being described as a “landmark case,” Zinski v. Liberty University, a former employee of Liberty University is suing over charges of anti-transgender discrimination. Jonathan Zinski, a biological man, was hired by Liberty University, a Christian school. Following the probationary 90-day period for all new employees, Jonathan informed the school that he was changing his name to Ellenor and “transitioning.” The university fired him because he had signed a doctrinal statement of adherence to Christian tenets. Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver astutely surmised, “Jonathan Zinski clearly set up Liberty University because he was taking the female hormones, he falsely affirmed the doctrinal statement, and then when he was terminated, he got the help of the ACLU.”

Headlines

• NY theater showing Luigi musical right down the street from where UnitedHealth CEO was killed (Not the Bee)

• BLM leader fights female staffer during argument about money and embezzlement (Not the Bee)

• Cuba in darkness as communist leaders struggle to see the light (Hot Air)

• China military rapidly expands undersea warfare power (Washington Times)

The Executive News Summary is compiled daily by Jordan Candler, Thomas Gallatin, Sterling Henry, and Sophie Starkova. For the archive, click here.