Earlier this year, President Donald Trump nominated Kara Westercamp, a lawyer in the White House Counsel’s office, for a life-tenured judgeship on the U.S. Court of International Trade. On Truth Social, Trump called Westercamp a “very experienced Trade Lawyer” who “knows the Wisdom and Courage to protect the American People,” and “will always put America First.”

Westercamp would indeed appear to bring some practical experience to the job: Prior to joining the White House Counsel’s office, she spent a decade at the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Department of Justice, where she regularly tried cases before the Court of International Trade, according to her LinkedIn profile. The fact that Trump now hopes to place Westercamp, currently serving as one of his in-house attorneys, on a body that is deeply involved in adjudicating the legal challenges to his tariffs agenda is, I am sure, a coincidence.

For my money, the bullet points on Westercamp’s résumé are less interesting than her Twitter/X account, which is now protected. To be fair, “protect my old tweets” is also what I would do if I were chasing a job that required me to swear an oath to faithfully and impartially enforce the law, and archived versions of my timeline suggested that I am the sort of aggressively online Trump loyalist who takes breathless #tcot selfies with Fox News talking heads, and enjoys Jim Halpert memes about how Critical Race Theory is racist.

The Missouri Supreme Court handed down three rulings Tuesday that could shape the 2026 election, saying lawmakers had the authority to pass a new congressional map last year, leaving intact the state’s photo-ID requirement for voters and striking down limits on voter-registration and absentee-ballot outreach.

The decisions gave Missouri Republicans a major win in the fight over congressional redistricting and preserved one of the state’s most contested voting laws, even as the court drew a constitutional line around how far Missouri can go in restricting civic groups trying to get people registered and to the polls.

On redistricting, in a 4-3 ruling, the court rejected arguments that the Missouri Constitution allows lawmakers to redraw congressional lines only once a decade, after a new census. Instead, the majority said the constitution requires the legislature to act after each census but does not expressly bar it from returning later to pass another map.

Missouri Republicans pushed through the new congressional plan last year after pressure from President Donald Trump and allies eager to make Missouri’s Kansas City-area district more winnable for the GOP.

But the political fight over the map is not over. The campaign behind a referendum seeking to overturn it, People Not Politicians, said Monday that updated data showed it has enough valid signatures in the required congressional districts to qualify for the November ballot.

Backers of a proposed referendum on Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional plan believe they have met the minimum number of signatures needed to make the November’s ballot.

Updated data, posted Monday morning by People Not Politicians, the political action committee that organized a referendum petition drive, shows that the petition has at least 129% of the required signatures in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th districts. The last district needed to qualify for the ballot was southwest Missouri’s 7th District and 102% of the signatures needed are valid, with more than 6,000 signatures left to be checked.

“This is what we have known to be true all along,” said Richard von Glahn, director of People Not Politicians. “We clearly have enough signatures.”

The updated data, obtained from Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ office via a Sunshine Law request, arrived Monday morning, von Glahn said, just days after a Cole County judge ordered revisions last week to the ballot summary for the referendum.

In the decision delivered Friday, Circuit Judge Brian Stumpe wrote that he agreed with Hoskins that two phrases should be removed from the summary, originally prepared by Hoskins, as prejudicial and unfair.

Stumpe also identified a third phrase that he deleted for the same reason.

The Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion request to Congress to fund the war in Iran, according to a senior administration official, in an enormous new ask that is almost certain to run into resistance from lawmakers opposed to the conflict.

That number would far surpass the costs of the administration’s massive airstrike campaign to date and instead seek to urgently increase production of critical weaponry expended as U.S. and Israeli forces have struck thousands of targets over the past three weeks, according to three other people familiar with the matter, who confirmed that the Defense Department is seeking packages of that size.

Like some others for this article, the people spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the administration’s sensitive planning.

It remains unclear how much the White House will ultimately ask congressional lawmakers to approve. Some White House officials do not think the Pentagon’s request has a realistic shot of being approved in Congress, the senior administration official said. The Pentagon has floated several different proposed funding requests over the past two weeks, according to the official and three other people familiar with the matter.

The funding request is likely to stage a major political battle in Congress, as public support for the effort remains tepid and Democrats have been sharply critical. Republicans have signaled support for the forthcoming supplemental request but haven’t committed to a legislative strategy, or found a clear path to surpass the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.

Gabriel Malor
‪@gabrielmalor.bsky.social‬

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

US oil companies stand to receive a windfall of more than $60bn this year if crude prices maintain the levels they have hit since the start of the Iran war.

Modelling by investment bank Jefferies estimates American producers will generate an extra $5bn cash flow this month alone following a roughly 47 per cent rise in oil prices since the conflict began on February 28.

If US oil prices remain elevated and average $100 a barrel this year, the companies will receive a $63.4bn boost from oil production, according to energy research company Rystad.

As Brent crude prices surged past $100 on Thursday, President Donald Trump boasted in a social media post: “The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.”

West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, settled at $98.71 a barrel on Friday.

The extra cash flow should benefit US shale companies, which have limited operations in the Middle East. But the picture is more complicated for the largest international oil companies.

Boca Raton City Council member Andy Thomson has been declared the winner of the city’s razor-thin mayoral race after a recount confirmed he defeated political newcomer Mike Liebelson by just five votes.

The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections (SOE) confirmed the outcome of Tuesday’s election after a machine recount and a subsequent manual review of ballots. Thomson finished with 7,572 votes to Liebelson’s 7,567.

Ahead of the recount’s conclusion, Liebelson signaled the possibility of legal action, raising concerns in a letter to the SOE about vote-by-mail ballots added after polls closed and warning that a formal challenge could follow if the final results confirm his loss.

Florida Politics contacted Thomson, who succeeds outgoing Mayor Scott Singer, and Liebelson for comment and will update this report.

The ultra-close race drew attention throughout the week as successive vote counts narrowed the margin between the candidates.

JUST IN: Judge Shah in Illinois has blocked the Trump admin from yanking $600m in public health funds from four blue states, saying it appeared to be a “contrived” and illegal effort to punish them for sanctuary immigration policies https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ilnd.494863/gov.uscourts.ilnd.494863.63.0.pdf