In today’s edition … Trump goes to his first World Cup match … We ask you about the tournament now that it’s over … but first …
Read more Republicans don’t want to go there again on Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims
The United States is now preparing for “a wider war” with Iran, an official told several of our colleagues, following the death of at least three and possibly four U.S. service members over the past few days.
These were the first U.S. deaths in the conflict since the U.S. and Iran reached a ceasefire deal last month that has since fallen apart. The two sides had begun initial talks on a wider peace but that prospect seems even further away, with the U.S. and Iran exchanging hostilities every day over the past week and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth saying the service members’ deaths “only stiffens our resolve.”
Supreme Court justices don’t often appear before Congress after they’ve gone through the confirmation process. (And as contentious as those confirmation hearings get sometimes, who can blame them?)
But last week, Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett testified before both House and Senate subcommittees — the first time in seven years that sitting justices have given public congressional testimony. The important subject for this rare visit? Security.
Kagan, nominated to the court by President Barack Obama, and Barrett, chosen by President Donald Trump, teamed up to be the face of the Supreme Court’s request for $921 million in security funding for the coming fiscal year. That’s $29 million more than allotted last year, $15 million of which would go to making members of the Supreme Court Police available as personal protection details for justices and their families.
That both a liberal and a conservative justice would visit Congress to pitch this request reflects both bipartisan concern about political violence — Kagan says threats against justices increased 25 percent in 2025 and are expected to climb 38 percent this year — and the bipartisan nature of those threats.
Last year, Nicholas Roske pleaded guilty to attempting to assassinate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, a Trump nominee. In an online message, Roske talked about his anger at “the thought of Roe v. Wade and gay marriage both being repealed.”
U.S. District Judge Esther Salas’s son was murdered and her husband seriously wounded by a man whom Salas said was found to have “a manila folder with a workup on Justice Sonia Sotomayor.” The shooter, Roy Den Hollander, was an avid Trump supporter and self-described “anti-feminist.”
For most of its history, the Supreme Court has had the least visibility of the branches of government and, as a result, has required the least security. G. Edward White, a law professor at the University of Virginia and editor of the Journal of Supreme Court History, recalls the security as minimal at the Supreme Court during his 1971 clerkship with then-Chief Justice Earl Warren.
“There was no visible security,” White told the Early Brief. “The public entering the court wasn’t screened and nobody who was actually participating in an oral argument was screened.”
But threats against Supreme Court justices have increased significantly in the last decade — along with their security details — with SCOTUSBlog editor and former Trump DOJ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur noting that “the security needs of the court actually far more track the overall polarization of voters than it does anything about the court.”
And with the Supreme Court frequently being called upon to wade into America’s increasingly polarized waters, the court has become a regular political bogeyman for both Democrats and Republicans — and especially for Trump, who has repeatedly attacked both the court as a whole and individual justices, including his own nominees.
Isgur worries all of this will affect jurists’ willingness to serve on the Supreme Court.
“These justices don’t change what cases they’re taking or which way they’re voting, because the threats are coming from both sides … the effect of the threats is actually to deter future people from taking these jobs,” said Isgur, who personally knows one judge who was on the shortlist for a vacancy who told Isgur he worried about the impact taking a Supreme Court justiceship would have on his young family.
Because the threats to the Supreme Court appear to be largely borne out of a broader cultural polarization, justices aren’t alone in facing heightened threats.
Trump has been the target of multiple assassination attempts just in the last two years. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) was the target of a far-right kidnapping plot in 2020. Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed in their home last year by a shooter who was targeting state Democratic lawmakers. Even non-famous election workers and volunteers are facing unprecedented threats and bullying. America has entered a new era of divisive political rhetoric and political violence, a reality with which everyone at every level of U.S. politics is now having to contend.
A report released earlier this year by the Public Service Alliance, a nonpartisan group focused on government worker safety, found federal campaigns and committees spent more than five times as much on security in the 2023-2024 campaign cycle as in the 2015-2016 cycle.
Read more Argentina’s goalkeeper had a game for the ages. Then Spain scored.
Based on spending trends and without a steep drop in political violence, security will be a major expenditure in the 2028 cycle as well — especially since many of the politicians considered likely candidates are already dealing with threats and attempts on their lives.
So what was Trump’s role in the World Cup?
Before the 2026 World Cup in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, the popular assumption was that the attention-hungry president would be everywhere. This newsletter even leaned into that assumption.
And yet, that was somewhat wrong.
The first match Trump attended at this World Cup was the tournament’s final. While his administration policies certainly hung over the event and he did wade into the controversy surrounding Folarin Balogun’s red card, the president’s direct involvement was far less than expected.
The president did indicate before the match that he was rooting for Argentina, noting that while he didn’t want to pick sides Argentine President Javier Milei is “a friend” and that it is “hard to bet against [Lionel] Messi.”
Trump was joined at the match by several of his children: Tiffany, Eric and his wife Lara, and Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner. Trump was briefly booed when his image appeared on the screen at the end of the national anthem, and then booed again when he presented the trophy to the winning Spanish team.
(Actor Javier Bardem was a suite away from the Trump kids and was much better received by the crowd than Trump — dancing and waving to fans, he was maybe the most invested fan in this match.)
So why are we watching this?
This will not be the last time Trump hosts a major sporting event in this term, with the Summer Olympics coming to Los Angeles in 2028. The events are certainly different — the Olympics, for example, kick off with elaborate Opening Ceremonies that have traditionally included world leaders.
But how Trump handled this World Cup may be instructive in how he handles events like the Olympics later in his term.
Minnesota Star Tribune: Fifteen Minnesotans are facing federal charges for allegedly conspiring to impede or injure federal officers during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown in Minnesota. More than $350,000 has been raised to support their legal fees, with many observers expressing skepticism of the indictments.
The News & Observer (North Carolina): Gov. Josh Stein (D) has been traveling the state to highlight the recovery from Hurricane Helene, which devastated Western North Carolina in 2024. The state government recently approved another $700 million in recovery funds, and Stein is pushing for the federal government to approve another $10 billion.
San Francisco Chronicle: Canada’s wildfires have made headlines lately, with smoke blanketing much of the United States in the last week. But it’s wildfire season in the U.S. too, and Oregon is experiencing one of the biggest outbreaks in the western U.S. right now.
We asked you to react to Trump’s speech on election security on Friday — particularly whether it is a motivating issue for you in 2026.
The vast majority of you said the economy is a far more important issue.
“What concerns me more is the miserable state of the economy and, even more, the corruption of our elected officials,” wrote Elizabeth Munzert.
“There are always a multitude of issues to watch. The economy, Trump’s corruption, and foreign policy are my primary concerns right now. My top concern is NOT election security,” wrote Robert Miller.
“I am most concerned about costs of food, healthcare, ‘war’ with Iran, ICE and Epstein files,” added Catherine Mangarelli.
These views are backed up by national polling, which has found issues like the economy, crime and immigration are far more motivating to people than questions about the 2020 election.
“It’s the economy stupid,” wrote Floura Hatch.
The World Cup is now over. This newsletter is unquestionably sad and is already counting down the days to the start of the 2030 competition — 1,418 days and counting. This was the first time the United States had hosted since 1994. Was it a success? What did you think of the World Cup? And will you miss it? Let us and your fellow Early Brief readers know at [email protected].
Read more Trump loomed over the World Cup, up until the awkward trophy ceremony
Thanks for reading. You can follow Dan on X at @merica.
