Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
Trump told reporters that the “Islamic Republic of Japan” fired 111 missiles at a U.S. vessel. A new analysis puts the true cost of Trump’s Iran war at $103 billion, more than triple what his own budget director told Congress. Graham Platner has suspended his Maine Senate campaign in light of new sexual assault allegations. And an ICE officer shot and killed a Houston father of three with no criminal record who was driving his construction crew to a job site.
Corporate media is running cover. The FCC chair is making sure they know what happens if they don’t. And independent outlets are being bought out one by one. AlterNet America is the people-powered response to the MAGA billionaire takeover of American media. We are reader-funded, editorially independent, and not for sale. We exist because of you. If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, please upgrade today.
Now, let’s go.
Trump Claims Japan Bombed U.S. Ships
The “Islamic Republic of Japan” is not a country. It is, at best, a very confusing anime.
Standing beside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the NATO summit, Trump treated the assembled press to a war story. He described the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln as “one of the most beautiful in the world.”
Trump claimed that “a few months ago” the “Islamic Republic of Japan” fired 111 missiles at the ship over the course of an hour, all intercepted. He added that he had told the same story the day before. Nobody on stage corrected him.
Do we even need to tell you what’s wrong with that? Japan, which is not an Islamic country, has been a U.S. military ally for nearly 75 years, signed a treaty with Washington in 1952, and currently hosts around 60,000 American troops.
The missiles Trump seems to be reaching for came from Iran. Back in February, the U.S. shot down a drone that approached the Lincoln in the Arabian Sea. In March, Iran claimed it struck the carrier with a ballistic missile, which Central Command flatly denied.
As for whatever he thinks Japan is, we must’ve missed that episode of Dragon Ball.
The Iran War Has a Twelve-Figure Price Tag
The war with Iran costs more than you think. It also costs more than the administration told Congress.
An analysis by Popular Information’s Stephen Semler, who co-founded the Security Policy Reform Institute, tallied the real cost of the four-month war with Iran. His figure lands at roughly $103 billion.
The number the administration gave Congress was $30 billion. That gap is not a rounding error. Days before OMB Director Russell Vought told the House Appropriations Committee the war had cost $30 billion, he had personally signed a formal request “on behalf of the president” for $88 billion in supplemental funding, including a $72 billion bump for the war effort.
The itemized damage is grim. Semler counted $28.5 billion in mobilization and combat costs, $46.7 billion on missiles and interceptors and bombs, $20.3 billion in destroyed military assets, $2.9 billion on Israel’s munitions, and $4.8 billion for nonmilitary agencies dragged into the fight.
Trump has now said the ceasefire is over and more strikes are coming. Which means the bill keeps climbing, and this administration has proposed no way to pay for any of it. The president can’t even name the country he’s fighting.
Seventy-three billion dollars is a lot to misplace. A journalist found it. We published it. If you think someone should keep checking the receipts, become a paid subscriber today.
Graham Platner Ends His Maine Senate Bid
It takes a special kind of campaign to make Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and the entire Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee agree on anything, and Graham Platner has managed it.
The oyster farmer and Marine veteran suspended his Maine Senate campaign Wednesday evening in an 11-minute video, in which he accused the Democratic establishment and corporate media of acting as “judge, jury and executioner.” He insisted the allegations against him were “not remotely true” and declared, “This is all false.”
The allegations are specific. On Monday, Jenny Racicot, 41, told Politico that in late 2021 an intoxicated Platner entered her home uninvited and forced himself on her despite repeated objections. On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported an ex-girlfriend alleged Platner removed condoms without her consent during sex on at least six occasions.
None of this was new territory for the campaign. Platner navigated old racist, sexist, and homophobic Reddit posts surfacing, and admitted to covering a tattoo that closely resembled a Totenkopf, a widely recognized Nazi symbol.
Platner’s populist, anti-oligarchy campaign had real momentum. He forced Governor Janet Mills out of the primary, raised millions early, and packed town halls. Sanders, Warren, Martin Heinrich, and Ruben Gallego all endorsed him. All of them rescinded after the latest allegations.
Maine Democrats have until July 27 to pick a replacement, with Troy Jackson and Dan Kleban already declared and a nominating convention planned. Whoever wins faces five-term Republican Susan Collins in November.
ICE Killed a Houston Father With No Record
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo spent 35 years building homes so his three sons could go to college. On Tuesday morning, an ICE officer shot and killed him.
He had no criminal convictions during his decades in the U.S. He was driving his crew to a homebuilding site in Magnolia Park, a Houston neighborhood that has been a hub for the Mexican American community for a century. He died at the hospital.
The Department of Homeland Security says he ignored commands and tried to ram an officer, who fired in self-defense. DHS has not released video, images, or any evidence of the damage it describes. In several past shootings, immigration officials’ initial accounts were later contradicted by footage.
A bystander video shows a bleeding, handcuffed man groaning on the ground, his leg shaking, while federal officers stand over three other handcuffed men. One of them was Salgado Araujo’s uncle. The family says no one has heard from those men since.
His son Ronaldo says his father was close to securing legal status. He had done the biometric scan and fingerprints earlier this year. He had studied what to do if ICE pulled him over.
This is at least the eighth death from an encounter with federal immigration officials since the crackdown began. No ICE officer has been charged.
The Part the Billionaires Hate
The Pentagon just reclassified a press office to keep reporters out. The FCC chair has made it clear what happens to broadcasters who step out of line. And across the industry, independent outlets are being bought, folded, or quietly persuaded to look the other way.
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Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you tonight.
POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
MAGA Representative Gets Booed at His Own Town Hall. Nebraska Representative Mike Flood tried to defend Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” at a Tuesday town hall and got drowned out by boos. Asked what he would do to protect insurance benefits for people with disabilities, Flood insisted he had “protected Medicaid in a bipartisan, commonsense way” while the crowd jeered. In reality, Trump’s budget bill cuts nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid over the next 10 years, and more than 300 rural hospitals are now at risk of closing. Flood himself once admitted rural hospitals should prepare to adopt an “emergency room model” and lose essential services.
Mamdani more popular than Netanyahu among U.S. Jews. A new AP-NORC poll found that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is more popular among American Jews than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mamdani sits at 44% favorable, Netanyahu is at 32%. Mamdani won 26% of the Jewish vote last year, has repeatedly defended Palestinian rights, and has pledged to arrest Netanyahu on sight if he ever sets foot in the city. Pro-Israel PACs spent millions warning Jewish voters that Mamdani was an existential threat. Twelve points later, it looks like Jewish Americans made up their own minds.
Wisconsin Judge Who Shielded an Immigrant From ICE Is Spared Prison. Former Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan, 67, was fined $5,000 and given no prison time Wednesday after being convicted of felony obstruction for ushering a Mexican defendant out a private jury door as ICE agents waited to arrest him. Dugan resigned her seat in January amid impeachment threats from Republicans, including Rep. Tom Tiffany, who had urged authorities to “lock her up.” Her attorneys say they will still appeal the conviction. She told the court she has been cast as both a scofflaw and a hero, and she is neither.
U.S. Government Approves Emergency Rescue of 30 Marineland Belugas. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has formally authorized an emergency rescue of most of the beluga whales still living at Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario, a theme park closed to the public since 2024. Under the current plan, 28 belugas will go to accredited American aquariums in Atlanta, Chicago, San Diego, and San Antonio, with two bound for Spain pending permits. Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans endorsed the plan, though each whale still needs a health check from a Canadian veterinarian before travel.
