Love It or Leavitt

Good afternoon. This is the Final NOTUS newsletter for Aug. 12, 2026. You can get it in your inbox every day by signing up here — it’s free!

THE LATEST

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is leaving the White House at the end of the month to spend more time with family, Donald Trump announced on Truth Social this afternoon.

Attorney General Todd Blanche once again insisted the $1.8 billion fund that roiled his nomination is dead, telling reporters today that while Trump says he “likes it,” the president agrees it’s kaput.

• Blanche said he and Trump do believe there are people victimized by a weaponized DOJ: “He feels very strongly that he would want to make them whole, as do I, but it will not be through the ‘anti-weaponization’ fund — which, again, was never set up.”
• He had no meaningful updates on Anthony Fauci’s contempt of Congress case nor the David Hearn Reflecting Pool case.

THE ADMINISTRATION

The Trump administration plans to spend at least $900 million on White House grounds construction, The Washington Post reports — and taxpayers would primarily foot the bill.

Multiple sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln have tried to jump overboard, The Military Times reports. The aircraft carrier’s Middle East deployment began in November and has been extended several months with no publicly announced return date.

THE STATES

Election denier Mike Lindell lost his bid for Minnesota governor. He’s now refusing to concede: “Why would I listen to the AP?”

Workers aren’t reaping the rewards of higher wages, Bureau of Labor Statistics data released today shows.

Joshua Kushner — Jared Kushner’s younger brother — couldn’t buy FIFA World Cup commercialization stakes. But he and media executive Bob Iger are buying the Los Angeles Lakers in a sudden $12.5 billion deal, ESPN reports.

• Current owner Mark Walter — who had just purchased his controlling interest last year — faces a federal investigation into $16 billion in private-credit deals involving his insurance companies. Walter’s firm has been in talks with investors to raise money to pay down some of the loans in question, Bloomberg reported today.

THE HILL

NRSC Chair Tim Scott is publicly backing South Carolina Sen. Darline Graham ahead of her runoff against Rep. Ralph Norman.

THE COURTS

Trump’s ploy to sell advance notifications of his Truth Social posts prompted a civil suit filed today in Manhattan. Also named: deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and executive assistant Natalie Harp, who both have access to the president’s account.

‘A LOT OF GLAZED HERE’

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