The White House published documents refuting claims by the president.
In his July 16, 2026, primetime address to the nation, President Donald Trump attempted to sow doubt about the very election system that made him president and gave control of Congress to Republicans. He announced documents that were published on the White House website, but those documents refute his main claims. Watch the video above to learn more.
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More Good Reads
Texas Monthly: “This Texas Nominee Keeps Peddling Fascist Conspiracy Theories. State GOP Leaders Are Silent.”
Citing fears of “gay race communism,” an impending “massacre of heritage Americans,” and the nation ending up like modern South Africa, French has called for the United States to “be Rhodesia,” the African pseudostate in the sixties and seventies in which Black people were violently oppressed by a ruling white minority. Rhodesia has inspired numerous racist killers—most infamously Dylann Roof, the self-described “Last Rhodesian” who massacred nine Black congregants at a South Carolina church in 2015.
“We are all Rhodesians now,” French wrote in January.
Columbia Political Review: “There is No “Rise” in Political Violence”
Clearly, we have seen political violence before. What makes our era so different?
The first difference is that political violence has become significantly more visible. “Most mainstream politicians in [the late 19th to mid 20th century], outside of the Jim Crow south, avoided violent rhetoric,” Boyle states. “That’s no longer the case.”
Compared to the 1960s, both pundits and politicians today seem much more willing to embrace violent language, particularly along partisan lines. Lilliana Mason of Johns Hopkins University observes that the main shift is that the violence of today is more explicitly partisan. Thus, as figures like Trump point fingers at “the radical left,” increasingly violent rhetoric coupled with intense polarization seems to suggest an exaggerated rise in political violence.
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Amid widespread fear spanning the political spectrum, the polarization that contributes to the partisan framing of these incidents, perpetuated by prominent political figures and media outlets, amplifies the perception of political violence. This creates a vicious cycle: as the belief in a “rise” in partisan violence grows, it becomes easier to demonize those across the political aisle. This, in turn, can intensify violent rhetoric and heighten the risk of further political violence.
RNS: “Half of Gen Z says Trump support keeps them out of church”
Is this connection between Christians and the Trump administration having a deleterious impact on the attendance of Gen Z Christians, though?
The answer from this data is: Not really. Or at least there’s no evidence that young Christians who don’t go to church that often are staying away because of the association with Republican politics. The data indicates that 38% of young Christians who go to church every week say Christians’ support for Trump has been a barrier to them attending more often. For those Christians who never attend, it’s 40%.
So, it’s not fair to use this data to make the claim that young Christians would be flocking back into the church if the church would drop politics. However, the other way to interpret this data is that about 40% of young adult Christians see the church’s association with Trump as an impediment to them becoming more involved with their faith community. According to this result, more daylight between the church and the GOP may lead to an uptick in attendance among young Christians at every level of the attendance continuum.
The Flat Hat: “Meditations on patriotism”
As we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country’s founding, I would like to make a call for the return of something which is possibly on the verge of becoming old-fashioned: patriotism.
Polls show that the number of Americans who express pride in their nationality is on the decline, a trend driven in large part by members of Generation Z. I believe we all know the reasons this has occurred: The current structure of the economy locks our generation out of the prosperity our ancestors once enjoyed, our institutions are decaying and our society in general seems headed in the wrong direction. These reasons for the current atmosphere of cynicism toward America are all valid, and I share them. I feel pessimistic about the state of our country and the world, and I think that’s exactly the right outlook to have.
Despite that, I still believe the decay in national pride to be a shame. I think healthy societies need some degree of pride in their accomplishments to function properly, and that the abandonment of such pride will have only negative consequences for our country.
