Mitch McConnell not medically cleared to resume Senate role as he rehabilitates from fall – live

Key events

Reactions to a Senate candidate’s description of a potential victory as putting an “ogre on a pike” have begun to reverberate across Michigan politics on Monday morning.

Abdul El-Sayed made the comment on a Zoom conference call with donors, as reported by Politico. The Democratic candidate had been discussing the message his progressive victory might send across the national political scene, given the amount of Aipac spending – at least $30m – that had been spent in support of his relatively moderate primary opponent, US Representative Haley Stevens.

Politico reported that a campaign spokesperson said El-Sayed was “speaking metaphorically” about support for a primary opponent against US Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, whose legislative support for Israel has made him a progressive target. Fetterman is bald, stands six-foot-eight and weighs about 270 pounds, and had been referred to as an “ogre” by Kari Lake, a rightwing figure of Arizona politics.

Early voting in the Michigan primary began on Saturday. El-Sayed and Stevens have a final Democratic Senate debate on Monday night.

McConnell still not medically cleared to resume Senate work

GOP senator Mitch McConnell’s office has released a health update saying he is still not ready to return to in-person work in the Capitol following his hospitalization on 14 June after a fall.

“I’m still working hard to get back to my full schedule of work in the Senate and in Kentucky, keeping up with intense physical therapy per my doctors’ orders,” McConnell, 84, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, that means I won’t be able to make it to Fancy Farm, Kentucky this Saturday.”

A note from the office of the attending physician added: “Senator McConnell continues his recovery from a fall at home in June. OAP physicians visit with the Senator every day, discussing all aspects of his rehabilitation care. Since his discharge from hospital care, he has maintained a strenuous course of physical therapy and rehabilitation, including multiple sessions a day designed to rebuild strength and reduce the risk of future falls. His bout with childhood polio continues to be a significant factor in his mobility. He is not yet medically cleared to leave the rehab facility and return to the office.”

On that subject, the US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, insisted to NBC News’ Meet the Press yesterday that the United States military has “everything that it needs” for military operations against Iran, dismissing reporting that US weapons stockpiles are depleted.

“I want to be crystal clear: The US military, and I’ve verified this every which way, has everything that it needs to conduct this campaign as effectively as it needs to be,” he said. “And I have to tell you, the people that are leaking this nonsense deserve to be in jail.”

NBC News reported on Friday that US military commanders were allowing some Iranian attacks through US defenses as part of an effort to preserve the Pentagon’s weapons supply, citing two senior US officials.

Trump says he's ready for ‘strong military action’ if Iran talks fail

Donald Trump said ⁠today that ⁠he had paused US strikes on Iran to give diplomacy another chance, but he ​was ‌ready ‌for “strong military ‌action” if diplomacy fails.

Washington was in “very deep ⁠talks with Iran”, the president told Axios, but, he added: “If they don’t work out, we will be go back to very strong military action.”

He said that he paused US attacks on Friday because the countries acting as mediators to bring an end to the conflict asked him to. “All of the people that deal with Iran asked me: ‘Don’t fire,’” he said.

Asked how long he was willing to give diplomacy, he said, “Not much time. Either it goes fast or not at all.”

Top military officials advised Trump to halt his bombing campaign, Axios reported on Sunday. Adm Bradley Cooper, the top US military commander in the region, had told Trump the US military campaign had reached the limits of its effectiveness.

The message was said to affect Trump’s decision to hold strikes on Iran for the first time in nearly two weeks. Cooper told Trump the US had nearly exhausted the list of targets that it had developed to attack in Iran, and without a return to major combat operations there was little point in continuing the bombing campaign, Axios reported.

Senior officials in the Trump administration are reported to have also told the president about dwindling munitions stockpiles that could hamper a sustained military campaign in the region.

The current negotiations are focused on a new deal that would reopen the strait of Hormuz and relaunch talks on a comprehensive nuclear deal, according to Axios.

The talks are being conducted mainly between Iran and Oman, but Qatar, Pakistan, Egypt and Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are also actively involved.

On his meeting tomorrow with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump added:

I am going to talk to Bibi about the fact that if I weren’t president, Iran would have had nuclear weapons by now and Israel would have been destroyed.

Netanyahu and Zelenskyy to arrive in Washington for Graham funeral – with hopes of winning Trump’s ear

Benjamin Netanyahu and Volodymyr Zelenskyy are set to arrive in Washington simultaneously with the goal of winning the ear of Donald Trump at pivotal moments in wars affecting their respective countries.

Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, will attend Tuesday’s funeral of Lindsey Graham, the former Republican senator for South Carolina, who died suddenly on 11 July and was a close ally of both leaders.

Both men are scheduled to meet with Trump at a time when US policy towards the wars in Iran and Ukraine is in a state of flux.

The meeting between Trump and Netanyahu will be the first between the two leaders since February, when they were in lockstep preparing for strikes against Iran that began on 28 February.

Since then, tensions between the pair have risen as the war has drifted inconclusively, with Trump calling the Israeli premier “crazy” and declaring:

Without me, there would be no Israel.

Fueling the tensions between the pair is continuing uncertainty over Trump’s zigzagging approach to the regime in Tehran, which he once openly supported toppling – in line with the stance of Netanyahu, who has long plotted its overthrow.

Netanyahu is not believed to have been consulted on the US-Iran memorandum of understanding that was meant to institute a 60-day ceasefire in the conflict, which some analysts say took little account of Israel’s interests.

Netanyahu is also believed to be unhappy over a deal announced last week between the US and Saudi Arabia allowing for a civil Saudi nuclear program.

Zelenskyy’s presence is equally significant as it coincides with signs of a dramatic change of Trump administration posture in Ukraine’s war with Russia – with the White House appearing more supportive of Kyiv’s position than at any time since Trump’s return to office.

The rightwing social media influencer Laura Loomer gave the latest signal of a sea change in Washington’s position when she met Zelenskyy in the Ukrainian capital last week, before publicly recanting her previous support for Russia.

Zelenskyy posted on social media at the weekend that he had instructed Ukraine’s intelligence services to share information on Russia’s support for Iran in the conflict with the US. He wrote on X that Ukraine had recorded Russian satellite surveillance of US military facilities in the Gulf, and that of Washington’s allies in the region.

Further to that, Senate conservatives led by Utah Republican Mike Lee are calling on majority leader John Thune to cancel the August recess so that they can debate the Save America Act, Trump’s controversial restrictive voting bill that he has made his legislative priority, the Hill reports this morning.

Lee posted on X on Saturday:

.@LeaderJohnThune, I hereby object to any effort to put the Senate into recess in August—at least until such time as the Senate has passed the SAVE America Act—and hereby request a roll call vote. Do not assume you have my consent. You do not.

He added on Sunday: “The Senate doesn’t need a summer vacation as much as the country needs the SAVE America Act. Let’s cancel recess.”

Among those echoing Lee’s demands were Florida Republicans Rick Scott and Ashley Moody, and Jim Banks of Indiana.

The Senate has already spent weeks of floor time debating the bill, but it has been made clear on several occasions – much to Trump’s frustration – that it doesn’t have anywhere near the votes needed for it to pass.

Even an effort to attach it to a budget reconciliation package that passed the Senate in June failed after four Republicans voted down an amendment put forward by the late senator Lindsey Graham.

Trump calls on Senate Republicans to abandon the filibuster to pass restrictive voting bill

Trump has again called on Senate Republicans to abandon the filibuster to pursue his legislative agenda.

“John Thune should not allow the United States Senate to “leave town” until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER, where Republicans can then quickly pass everything they ever dreamed of, including a full and deep throated SAVE AMERICA ACT, the Budget, and the ever looming Debt Ceiling disaster, 1929!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “The Dumocrats will do it on day one, and can’t believe how lucky they got with this Senate leadership. Remember, stupidity always brings LOSING & DEATH!”

The Senate majority leader of South Dakota, has adamantly refused Trump’s demands to eliminate the 60-vote threshold for passage of non-budgetary legislation.

Trump also called out Thune at an appearance in Marietta, Georgia, on Thursday. He said:

Everybody call John Thune at the Senate. He’s the leader of the Republican Party. And tell them to get this stuff approved,” Trump said to supporters at Wheeler high school. “So we’re fighting so that all voters must show voter ID. We’re fighting so that all voters must provide proof of citizenship, OK? And also the no mail-in ballots, very important … They got to really terminate the filibuster, get everything approved right away, because you’re going to have a stoppage. You’re going to have a stoppage in September.

Donald Trump to visit General Motors in Detroit to speak on economic agenda

President Donald Trump will visit General Motors at the Milford Proving Ground in suburban Detroit on Monday afternoon in defense of new, sweeping tariffs on Canada and his economic agenda ahead of primary contests next week.

Trump argues that tax cuts and tariffs protected 170,000 jobs in Michigan, crediting tariffs as the catalyst. “The President pledged to put Michigan workers back to work, and he’s doing it,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in a statement.

Michigan Democrats counter that the state’s residents have had to pay more than $2bn more for gasoline since Trump took office.

Trump announced a new round of tariffs on Canada on 20 July. The 50% tariff on imports ranging from wine to hockey sticks to cement begins in late August.

The Gordie Howe Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Canada also opens today. It is unclear if Trump will visit the bridge, which has become another lightning rod for conflict between the US and Canada. A ribbon-cutting ceremony in Windsor was a Canada-only event after rescinding invitations following the tariff announcement.

Trump supported the bridge project during his first term, but has attacked it since retaking office, claiming that the terms of the bridge agreement are being renegotiated. “We changed the terms of the Deal so that the United States of America now gets 50% of the Profit,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

What that actually means in practice is unclear. Canada paid for the bridge construction.

Democratic Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed likened the potential defeat of his opponents in the coming Michigan primary and November election to a stark exercise in progressive messaging, according to Politico’s Playbook.

“You’re gonna spend $60 million to beat me – OK, two can play at that game,” he said on a Zoom call with donors, Politico reported. “And then what happens is, ideally, you put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message, and all of a sudden starts to sound a lot different.”

El-Sayed, a Rhodes Scholar, physician and former public health official in Michigan, faces US Rep Haley Stevens in 4 August primary for the US Senate, a seat Democrats almost certainly must hold to take control of the chamber in 2027. Retiring two-term Democratic senator Gary Peters currently holds the swing-state seat.

The contest pits El-Sayed, a progressive who has called for abolishing ICE and is aggressively opposed to US policy on Israel, against a relative moderate who last week voted against a bill amendment to end American financial support for Israel. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has spent nearly $30m in the Michigan Democratic primary in support of Stevens.

El-Sayed described the contest in biblical terms.

“What they don’t really realize is that in spending so much money, they’re turning me into David, right?,” El-Sayed said. “So, like, if I’m the guy who came through and beat Goliath, now all of a sudden you just gave me the best platform in the entire US Senate, which I love because then guess where all eyes are going to be?”

Former US representative Mike Rogers is the presumptive Republican nominee.

President Donald Trump plans to tout his handling of the economy during a visit to suburban Detroit today, defending sweeping tariffs in a swing state where their effects have hurt many businesses as midterm election season heats up.

Trump is visiting a General Motors facility in Milford, home to tracks and proving grounds for new models and vehicles. Early voting is underway for Michigan’s 4 August primary, which features fierce nomination fights in both major political parties, AP reported.

Republican Mike Rogers is unopposed in the Senate primary, but the GOP gubernatorial contest pits Trump-backed John James against Perry Johnson, a businessman turned politician who has launched unsuccessful campaigns before, including for president in 2024.

Johnson is now trying to style himself in the president’s mold - despite missing out on his endorsement.

Ramon Antonio Vargas

Donald Trump’s Republican party has “nothing to run on” for the congressional midterm elections after the president broke promises to lower costs and avoid starting war overseas, Hakeem Jeffries has said.

The House minority leader, a New York congressman, made those comments on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, exactly 100 days from the 3 November midterms, when Jeffries and his fellow Democrats are aiming to take control of the US House and Senate from their Republican opponents.

Asked to discuss the elections, Jeffries alluded to how Trump and other Republicans quickly seized on a 21 July announcement from Mike Sherrill, the Democratic New Jersey governor, that 6,600 noncitizens in the state had registered to vote because of a software error.

Fewer than 400 of them voted before the identification and correction of the error. But the president and his allies nonetheless used the disclosure to boost false claims that there are scores of noncitizens on voter rolls who could compromise the integrity of the midterms, during which Republicans are predicted to lose seats.

Jeffries on Sunday argued that was because it is a more comfortable strategy to adopt rather than confront how the US and Israeli militaries began warring with Iran in February after Trump won a second presidency in 2024 having promised “not to start … endless wars in the Middle East”.

The costs of the war have included the deaths of 18 US troop members as of Sunday, along with injuries to hundreds more. Gas and grocery prices have also soared amid the conflict, leaving 95% of Americans believing that the US is suffering an affordability crisis, according to exclusive polling conducted for the Guardian.

Senate to begin voting on Trump spy nominee Clayton

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

The Senate is due to begin voting as early as Monday on the nomination of Manhattan US attorney Jay Clayton, Donald Trump’s pick to be the ⁠top US spy, and he ⁠is expected to ​be approved within days despite a tense confirmation hearing.

If approved to be the director of national intelligence, Clayton would fill a role vacated in June when Tulsi Gabbard stepped down after ⁠a tenure marked by clashes with congressional Democrats, who accused her of advancing Trump’s political agenda and promoting debunked election claims.

The Senate is due to hold a procedural vote Monday evening on whether to advance ⁠Clayton’s nomination for the job overseeing the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies, Reuters reported.

The position of DNI was created after the 11 September 2001 attacks to ​coordinate the country’s sprawling intelligence apparatus.

Many senators are ‌eager for Clayton to take up ‌the post because they are unhappy with the interim director of national intelligence, Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte, a Trump loyalist ‌without national security experience who has been cutting staff at the agency.

Jay Clayton testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing in Washington. Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

If Clayton wins a majority in the 100-member Senate on the procedural vote, a final confirmation vote is expected later in the week.

Trump’s Republicans, who have a 53-47 majority in the chamber and rarely break from the White House, are expected to provide Clayton with enough votes for confirmation.

In other developments:

• The Pentagon updated its official war casualty database over the weekend, adding more than 140 wounded service members. The Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) also introduced a new casualty category labeled “Overseas Operations” for personnel killed and wounded “starting July 7”. According to the updated database, the official toll for the earlier phase of the US-Iran war, known as Operation Epic Fury, now stands at 14 service members killed and more than 400 wounded in action.

• Donald Trump’s Republican party has “nothing to run on” for the congressional midterm elections after the president broke promises to lower costs and avoid starting war overseas, Hakeem Jeffries has said. The House minority leader, a New York congressman, made those comments on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, exactly 100 days from the 3 November midterms, when Jeffries and his fellow Democrats are aiming to take control of the US House and Senate from their Republican opponents.

• Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, is “fomenting hate” by calling the Israeli prime minister a war criminal who should be arrested over Israel’s war in Gaza if he visits the city for the United Nations general assembly.

• Tom Homan, the Trump administration “border czar”, on Sunday said he did not believe the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer at the center of a recent fatal shooting in Maine “should have ever cleared vetting”. Speaking to CNN’s State of the Union, Homan was asked by host Dana Bash about the officer’s eligibility to serve following reports that two of his ex-wives had accused him of abuse.

• Pop star Katy Perry has condemned the Trump White House after it used her hit song Firework in a TikTok video showing US military strikes on Iranian targets, saying she never approved the use of her music. The White House video, which featured Firework playing over footage of a missile striking an Iranian naval ship, has amassed more than 6 million views. The post was captioned: “Iran has been warned.”

• New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill recently signed a new law prohibiting businesses from using shoppers’ personal information to charge different prices for identical products, making her state the third in the US to ban the practice. The Fair Price Protection Act passed by New Jersey’s legislature seeks to protect consumers from surveillance pricing, in which retailers can use data including online activity, location and purchasing history to arbitrarily change prices for individual shoppers.